1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 217 The Glorious Aodelian
How much does it cost to stay in a luxury hotel for two nights?
Last time I went out, I stayed in a hotel that cost more than 300 yuan a night. This time, even if it's a more upscale hotel, it shouldn't cost more than 1,000 yuan, right?

Chinese kale costs four yuan per pound!
There are still 27,000 jin left in the field!
Li Xiu's breathing gradually became rapid. This should be over 10 yuan, right?
Feeling the slight trembling of the person beside him, Chen Jiazhi's lips curled up in a smug smile, waiting for Li Xiu to praise him.

After waiting for a while, Li Xiu finally recovered, but her eyes darted away from him, and she mumbled something unintelligible.

"An? Speak louder!"

"Hmm~ a nicer~ hotel~"

After some intermittent listening, Chen Jiazhi finally managed to make out the word "hotel," and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Wow, Li Xiu, you're actually thinking about this kind of thing too!"

"Ignore you~"

Li Xiu turned around and headed home again. Chen Jiazhi followed behind and found that Li Xiu's legs were really long, and he could only barely keep up.

After walking a few dozen meters, at the door of her house, Chen Jiazhi stopped Li Xiu and gave her some instructions on vehicle coordination and quality inspection before letting her go back to her house to sleep.

Today marks the 13th consecutive day of selling vegetables, and I've been running back and forth between the two locations for 13 days in a row. I'm still a bit tired.

On the way to the market, Yi Long decisively and easily fell asleep again, even though he had been singing for the first few days.

Now only Chen Jiazhi remains, humming a song as he walks forward.

Another busy night passed, and he managed to raise the price of bok choy by 5 yuan per piece, bringing his daily income close to the record set on the last day of the previous crop.

16500 yuan!
We're only 600 yuan away from the record we set with the last batch of vegetables!
But if we include the kale harvested this afternoon, then this record is broken without any doubt.

...

In the early morning, a thin mist enveloped the vegetable fields.

After getting up as usual, Li Xiu stretched at the edge of the dam. The vegetables in the field were dwindling, but she was actually looking forward to finishing the harvest as soon as possible.

That way, we won't have to live apart, at least not for the time being.

Smoke rose from the chimneys as farmers got up to cook, making the Dongxiang vegetable market more lively than usual. Two dogs, one black and one white, ran off to the vegetable fields early in the morning.

Let loose and have fun.

Li Xiu watched as the two dogs tore and rolled around on the empty field. Even though Ao Dehai was patrolling the fields not far away, the two dogs showed no intention of following him.

Dogs recognize their owners too.

After lunch, the roar of mini-tillers filled the vegetable fields, along with the laughter and chatter of farmers as they raked the land.
Li Xiu comforted her son, then handed him over to her parents-in-law before getting back to her busy work.

The harvested kale is intended for supply to Hong Kong, so we need to purchase quite a few things.

Bamboo baskets, ice packs, supplies~
As each task was prepared, another morning passed, and hundreds of bamboo baskets occupied a small area of ​​the dam.

"Deliang, Jiangxin Market is such a big market, why are they still using bamboo baskets to pack vegetables?"

Under the eaves, Pan Dacheng, Huang Shan, Qi Yongcheng, and several other men sat on the steps, examining the vegetable baskets, and asked Ao Deliang a question.

The bamboo basket was bought by Ao Deliang this morning. He learned to ride a bike at Jiangxin Vegetable Market, served as a group leader for more than a month, and purchased many items. The bamboo basket shop owner, Mr. Chen, also told him where to buy it. He and Ao Dehai went to look for it this morning and bought it together.

"The Jiangxin vegetable market uses bamboo baskets."

"It seems that Jiangxin Market is not working either. Boss Chen has used plastic baskets for everything."

Everyone at Jiangxin Market and Dongxiang Market was unfamiliar with them; they had only heard Chen Jiazhi describe it a few times.

After Yi Dinggan, Qi Yongfeng, Li Mingkun, Guo Mancang, and Ao Deliang left, only Yi Dinggan came back to see his father-in-law and his wife once, but he didn't stay long before leaving again.

Now that Ao Deliang had some free time, a few more people gathered around, including two or three women who were listening nearby.

“Jiangxin Market used to be no good, but after Boss Chen became the market manager and a few of us became group leaders, Jiangxin Market was completely transformed!”

Ao Deliang's behavior at this moment was somewhat unlike that of Ao Deliang. He handed out cigarettes to everyone smoking in the room before he began to speak fluently.

A woman asked, "Deliang, how much salary do they pay you over there?"

"Yes, tell me quickly!"

Is it as tall as it was when you were in Dongxiang?

Income is always a constant topic, and Dongxiang Vegetable Market makes almost no attempt to hide it; everyone knows exactly how much money each person earns each month.

On the contrary, Ao Deliang was caught in a dilemma.

Is it high?

The base salary wasn't high, but the commission for just over a month was equivalent to more than three months' salary when I was in Dongxiang!

He didn't know how much his cousin would earn this month, and he was also afraid of causing other trouble.

After thinking for a while, Ao Delian finally spoke: "More or less."

"How much is it roughly? You should be more specific about it."

"That's right, which side is higher!"

On this topic, Ao Deliang remained silent, reverting to his former self and refusing to utter a single unnecessary number.

This, in turn, piqued everyone's curiosity.

Huang Juan, in particular, and Qi Yongfeng received the highest wages at the Dongxiang vegetable market in August, earning a total of 2450 yuan. Qi Yongfeng alone received more than 1500 yuan, a fact that is still talked about today.

If Yongfeng's income at Jiangxin Market is lower than or roughly the same as at Dongxiang Market, then he'll be at a disadvantage.

Huang Juan stepped back, intending to go to the kitchen to ask Lai Guihui for information.

Lai Guihui was cooking, and she seemed to be in a good mood. She was wielding the spatula with great vigor while stir-frying the vegetables. Although she was sweating, she had a big smile on her face and was humming a sweet tune from time to time.

Huang Juan had a general idea of ​​what was going on. She glanced at the pot of braised chicken with potatoes and said, "Sister Hui, you had a good lunch! This is a special treat for your Deliang!"

Lai Guihui laughed and said, "Hehe, it's rare for you to come back, this shouldn't be happening."

"I wonder when my Yongfeng will be back." Huang Juan asked casually, "By the way, Sister Hui, how much does Deliang earn a month at the Jiangxin vegetable market? Is it more than he did here?"

"Of course it's higher!" "How higher?" Huang Juan asked somewhat eagerly, her voice inevitably rising, so Bai Yan, Chen Jiafang, and the others who were cooking nearby also heard her.

Lai Guihui suddenly became somewhat alert.

"When your men get back, go ask them yourselves. Anyway, Deliang said he won't suffer losses following Boss Chen!"

Their eyes lit up; it seemed there were quite a few.

Huang Juan added, "As for the exact amount, it doesn't matter whether we tell you sooner or later; we'll find out eventually anyway."

The other women also chimed in with their support.

"That's the truth."

"Boss Chen has never hidden anything when he pays wages, so what do you, woman, have to hide?"

“I saw you buy a whole chicken and a fish this morning, and I knew something was wrong.”

"You even bought fish? Looks like Tokuliang got a good salary last month!"

Lai Guihui couldn't help but say, "It's this month. Last month's salary wasn't high."

Huang Juan exclaimed in surprise, "This month's salary has all been paid?!"

Lai Guihui: "The commissions were paid out first."

"How much was sent?"

"Tell me, tell me quickly!"

"We're all from the same place, what's the point of burying it!"

Lai Guihui simply gave up and went all out.
forecourt,

Ao Deliang chatted with everyone about the scandalous affairs of the Hong Kong-China drivers, diverting everyone's attention. He was secretly pleased with himself for keeping his mouth shut.

Boom!
Then, a series of exclamations came from the back door!

"what happened?"

"What happened?"

"Did it explode?"

One by one, they walked towards the back door. Ao Deliang thought of Lai Guihui's barely suppressed smile and suddenly felt a pang in his heart.

as predicted,

Just moments later, Pan Dacheng, Huang Shan, and the others returned.

"Great, Deliang, this is pretty much what you said. You've earned 4860 yuan a month just from commissions!"

"If I hadn't come here to grow vegetables, I wouldn't have earned that much in a year!"

"This salary is shockingly high, it makes me want to go to the Jiangxin vegetable market too!"

The group surrounded Ao Deliang and sat down with him at the center, their envy palpable.

Ao Deliang glanced around and said that Huang Shan wanted to go to Jiangxin Market, while his cousin Ao Dehai remained calm.

"Unless you're a team leader, the income of vegetable workers over there is far worse than that of those at the Dongxiang vegetable market."

"Then Dehai should go!"

Someone patted Ao Dehai on the shoulder, and the others all looked at him.

"I'll follow Boss Chen's arrangements."

Ao Dehai smiled calmly. His salary in August was only 1,400 or 1,500 yuan, but at that time he only had 30 mu of land and was just a group leader. Things are different now. Boss Chen had already talked to him about this, and even his basic salary had increased significantly.

Ao Deliang breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "This time at Jiangxin Market, we also owe a lot to Boss Chen. Without him, we wouldn't have been able to get the vegetables so quickly, let alone get such a high commission."

"Oh my, can you tell me now?"

Ao Deliang nodded.

Pan Dacheng lit a cigarette for Ao Deliang and said, "It would have been better if we had done this earlier. This has wasted so much time."

"Speak quickly, speak quickly."

Ao Deliang asked, "What do you want to know?"

Everyone was taken aback. Oh right, they already knew about the income. What else did they want to ask?

Ao Dehai asked, "What vegetables did you grow? How did you manage them? What was the yield? How did you sell them? And what precautions should you take when harvesting the kale this afternoon?"

A long list of questions had clearly been prepared in his mind long ago.

Ao Deliang suddenly understood why Boss Chen had left Hai Ge in Dongxiang.
After a moment's thought, Ao Deliang began to recount his experiences over the past month.

From the initial digging and land preparation, to the rapid sowing, and then to the recent busy harvest season...

They started talking before lunch and continued until after lunch.

Ao Deliang wasn't particularly eloquent; he simply delivered his narration in a simple and steady manner.

"The daily sales at Jiangxin Market have been over 400,000 yuan these past two days, and yesterday the cumulative sales exceeded 2 million yuan!"

"Before Mr. Chen took us there, Jiangxin Market was still losing money."

40 yuan a day, 200 million yuan in ten days—these simple words, however, stirred the hearts and excited the crowd.

"There's no need to envy the scenery of Jiangxin Market; our Dongxiang Market is just as good."

Ao Dehai stood up, looked up at the sky. It was a cloudy day without rain, and a gentle breeze was blowing, lightly covering the vegetable field.

"Let's go, let's harvest the vegetables quickly and deliver them to Boss Chen as soon as possible!"

(End of this chapter)