1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 161 Booking
A faint fragrance wafted from the back door. Chen Jiazhi opened his eyes, sat up, and stretched, feeling that this second nap had been really comfortable.

Looking behind him, he saw that Li Xiu had also woken up.

"Lie down a little longer, I'll bring you breakfast." Chen Jiazhi looked at the baby in the crib again, "Xiao Dou Dou is sleeping soundly, no need to feed her for now."

Li Xiu gave a soft "hmm". Although the child was not fussy, he had gotten up two or three times in the early morning.

Chen Jiazhi went to wash up before going to the kitchen. Breakfast was again noodles with meat sauce, and he also prepared well-cooked noodles for Li Xiu to aid digestion.

After having breakfast, Chen Jiazhi chatted with Li Xiu for a while and then let her take some more sleep before leaving the house.

The two dogs aren't allowed in now; they're lying under the eaves, waiting for him to come out before trotting off to the vegetable garden.

The sky was just beginning to lighten, and the roadside weeds were still covered in dew.

Chen Jiazhi gazed at his vegetable garden from afar. If one ignored the withered loofah vines, the entire vegetable garden looked exceptionally clean and tidy.

The pesticides have been applied, the fertilizer has been applied, and the land has been completely prepared.

A little while later, he and the three group leaders stood outside the loofah field again.

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "I don't think there's a rush for the work in the fields. We'll start harvesting vegetables again tomorrow night. Today, we can arrange for everyone to rest, go out for a stroll, buy some things, cook something delicious, or just stay home and sleep in."

However, each household needs to send one person to water the plants tonight, and the person who waters them can rest a bit more during the day tomorrow.

After a pause, looking at the three somewhat confused people, he added, "Working days will still be counted, or it will be considered full attendance."

Immediately, smiles appeared on the faces of Ao Dehai, Qi Yongfeng, and Ao Deliang, who had been quite exhausted recently.

Chen Jiazhi added, "If you're short on cash, you can have your subordinates come to me for an advance on part of their wages."

It's only two days until payday, but Pan Dacheng, Huang Shan, and Zhang Weidong haven't received their salaries yet.

"Okay, boss, I'll notify them right away." Qi Yongfeng grinned and then shouted loudly into the vegetable field.

"Work's done, time to go home~"

"Time to wrap up!"

His voice was loud and clear, and soon all the vegetable workers and farmers around heard it. They all looked up and saw Qi Yongfeng shouting that it was time to call it a day.

They've just started work and they're already stopping work. What's going on?
If it were just Qi Yongfeng calling out, that would be one thing, but then Ao Dehai and Ao Deliang also started calling out to the people in the group.

"That's it for the day, that's it. Boss Chen is giving us a day off. We can go to the city for a stroll."

"Those who don't have any money can ask Boss Chen for an advance on their wages, hurry up!"

"Stop dawdling, today's work will be paid as usual. Boss Chen isn't short of money."

The vegetable farmers, realizing what was happening, responded and put down their work, filling the vegetable field with laughter and joy.

As Zhao Yu walked, he called out, "Hurry up, we need to go back and change our clothes. The town market is open today, it's very lively. Hurry up!"

Huang Juan, standing two fields away, also called out, "Why go to town? Let's just go to the city for a trip. We still have plenty of time."

Both families received good wages in the first two months, and with even better sales this month, it's unlikely that Mr. Chen will lose money on them.

Therefore, they feel very confident. When they have money in their pockets, they want to go out and have fun.

Only the families of Pan Dacheng, Huang Shan, and Zhang Weidong, who had just joined, hesitated slightly, and the three of them came to Chen Jiazhi one after another to ask for an advance of 50 yuan in wages.

The group walked home.

Chen Jiazhi thought for a moment and then said, "It's a rare opportunity, so go to the city and have a look. I'll give each of the three groups 100 yuan for expenses. Use it as you see fit, buy some things, or have a meal together."

Upon hearing this, Pan Dacheng and the other two stopped hesitating and clamored to go to the city. With this 300 yuan, they didn't even want to ask for their wages in advance.

300 yuan is equivalent to a month's salary for an average vegetable cook.

The atmosphere became even more lively, and the topic changed from whether to go to the city to where to go.

Chen Jiazhi told them a few locations and how to get there.

Once they arrived at the dam, everyone tacitly lowered their voices, and Chen Jiazhi went back to his house to get the money.

The room was quiet, but Li Xiu woke up when Chen Jiazhi took the money.

“I gave the workers a temporary day off, let them rest for a day, and gave them 300 yuan to go out and have some fun.”

"Hmm~"

"You can continue to sleep."

Li Xiu nodded.

After receiving the money, they sat at the door for a while, and the vegetable workers changed into their best clothes and went out to catch their ride with great joy.

Chen Jiazhi smoked a cigarette in the dam area before taking two vegetable baskets to the loofah field.

The melon vines have all withered.

Hidden among the withered vines are also yellowed loofahs.

Most of them are covered in sores and scars, but even a gentle shake can release seeds.

Chen Jiazhi only cut out the good parts.

For a while, the land wasn't properly tended, and weeds grew rampant, quickly soaking the hems of the trousers with dew.

After walking a while further in, Chen Jiazhi finally saw two loofahs marked with special symbols. They no longer had the vigor of their youth, but they were not like old people either. They were just two ordinary old loofahs.

He also cut it off with scissors and still tied a rope to mark it.

As the sun rises,

Chen Jiazhi also harvested two baskets of old loofahs. After returning to the yard, he began to cut them open for planting.

Generally speaking, a mature, healthy loofah may contain dozens to hundreds of loofah seeds.

After dissecting the seeds, Chen Jiazhi harvested three portions.

Two of the marked portions each contained 40 seeds, with the largest portion possibly containing over 2,000 seeds, or about one pound of seeds.

Previously, Li Xiu had only collected a little over a pound of bitter gourd seeds.

Only two kilograms of seeds were harvested from 0.5 mu of land, a truly dismal yield. This method of seed saving is really not cost-effective. Chen Jiazhi concluded that he would have to change the method next time, saving seeds while simultaneously producing seeds.

After preparing the seeds, and since it was still early, I looked into the vegetable field and saw that my second sister and brother Yi were still busy thinning the seedlings.

During this time, Li Xiu gave birth, and her second sister also had a hard time, running around helping with everything.

After thinking for a while, Chen Jiazhi decided to cook early and went to his second sister's house. Yi Long was also sleeping soundly. He took the bucket of water for raising eels and crucian carp, but there was no reaction at all.

Kill the fish, prepare the ingredients~
A little while later, Li Xiu also got up. Chen Jiazhi didn't let her help him. After chatting for a few minutes, he told her to go and rest.

Li Xiu refused and just watched him cook.

Actually, she wasn't that fragile. After resting for more than four days, she recovered quite well. Among the people she knew, she had never heard of anyone giving birth in a major hospital.

Chen Jiazhi didn't try to persuade him any further. He remembered that when he was raising his youngest son in his previous life, he was much stronger than Xiaodoudou was now. After a natural birth during the day, he could walk around at night.

Upon hearing the child cry, Li Xiucai hurriedly returned to the house.

After preparing the ingredients and the rice was cooked, I added the eel and the dried scallops I had bought, and continued to simmer over low heat.

I went back inside and checked again. Little Bean was squinting and nursing.

Most of the time he keeps his eyes closed, only occasionally opening them to observe his surroundings.

She didn't sleep after drinking milk; instead, her eyes opened wider, round and bright.

After interacting for a while, he suddenly fell asleep again as if the power had gone out.

Chen Jiazhi smiled, chatted with Li Xiu for a while, and then went to cook some more dishes.

Not long after the aroma of the food wafted out, Yi Long got up and stood at the back door, still a little groggy.

"Get up, go and call your parents back for dinner."

"Okay," Yi Long replied, then asked, "When are you going to fry crayfish tails again?"

"You have to catch them. You've only caught so few in the last two days. After peeling them, there wasn't even a bowl of meat left. It's been a long time coming."

"Okay."

Recently, Yi Long and others have been frequently going to jungle, but their luck has been inconsistent, and they haven't been reaping as much rewards as before.

After a while, Second Sister and Brother Yi also returned. As soon as they entered, they saw a table full of dishes.

There's a flavorful braised eel, as well as a light eel porridge with greens, all of which look very appetizing.

"Brother, it's a holiday today! You've given the workers a day off and made so much delicious food."

"It's rare to have a free day. If we can't go out to play, it's only right that we cook a nice meal for everyone."

When Li Xiu came in after closing the door, her second sister asked, "Li Xiu, how did you sleep last night?"

Li Xiu smiled and said, "It's alright. Apart from needing to breastfeed, the baby doesn't fuss much."

Chen Jiafang helped set out the bowls and chopsticks, and then said, "This child is really well-behaved. Jiazhi, have you sent the good news back home yet?"

"I called the teahouse, and the old man will tell him when he goes to play cards."

"Hehe, those two are probably going to be excited for a while now. The message you asked Li Bin to deliver should have arrived by now, right?"

"Hmm~ I haven't received a reply yet."

It was a very enjoyable meal.

After the meal, Chen Jiazhi did some accounting, mainly on wages, to make a simple summary for easier calculation later.

At the same time, we are also considering how much bonus to give out, as the gross income in July is much higher than that in June.

...

early morning.

Yi Long was somewhat depressed. When he went fishing for eels that night, a pound eel escaped because Yi Dinggan accidentally let it go, and the father and son almost broke up because of it.

"Uncle, why aren't you going?"

"I need to stay home with your aunt and cousin."

"I'll ask my mom to help me see it."

"Isn't your mom tired? She's more tired than your dad all day long."

"That's true."

"..."

Before we knew it, we arrived at stall number 56 again, but there seemed to be quite a lot of people there. Chen Ze, Xu He, Curly Hair, Lao Wu, Fatty Liu, and others had all come.

"Are you all having cowpeas today too?"

Some shook their heads, some nodded. After Chen Jiazhi stopped the car, Chen Ze said, "Let's check if there are any bok choy available tomorrow. How's the shipment?"

"Yes, they are all premium bok choy."

"Then I'll pre-order three bok choy, and give me 15 jin of cowpeas today."

"it is good."

The other people came for the same reason: to check if the goods were in stock and then place an order.

Some people even made a special trip for this purpose, and some also bought cowpeas along the way.

As a result, while the cowpeas were being shipped out quickly, orders for tomorrow's bok choy were also piling up one by one. The bok choy was still in the field and hadn't been harvested yet, but most of it had already been sold.

After placing the order, Xu He said, "Chen Cai Nong, are you free to go to Jiangxin Market after dawn? Mr. Xu from Yunshan invites you to go with me tomorrow."

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment: "It's a bit unfortunate, I have to take a driving test during the day."

Xu He paused, looked him over, and didn't seem to be lying. "You've finished your exam. Go later this afternoon, and we'll pick you up, okay?"

(End of this chapter)