1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 234 Targeting Zero
Guangzhou has successfully entered autumn, bringing not only cold air but also a series of autumn rains.

When Chen Jiazhi got up in the early morning, he opened the door and a gust of wind blew in, making him feel the damp cold. He couldn't help but shiver on his way to the toilet.

When he returned to the room, Li Xiu, who had gone to make breakfast, also came back and brought him a brown-red woven pure wool suit, and then took out the matching trousers and held them up against him a few times.

"Jiazhi, why don't you wear this to work today? It's warmer."

Chen Jiazhi touched it and found it very comfortable, but still shook his head. "Forget it, it's hard to wash such nice clothes if they get dirty in the market. I'll just find a jacket to wear."

Li Xiu said, "It's okay, bring it back if it gets dirty, and I'll wash it for you. Besides, you don't have to do any work at the market yourself."

Chen Jiazhi: "These past few days, I've been tying the vines of the snow peas with string, and I have to go and keep an eye on them, but they get dirty easily, so I'll pass."

"Oh." Li Xiu was a little disappointed. Then she looked at Chen Jiazhi and put on a pure black coat. She said, "Jiazhi, our son is 5 months old now. It's about time to try weaning him. I want to go to work at the market."

Chen Jiazhi changed his clothes, tidied himself up, and said, "Let's rest for a while longer. We're not short of money right now, and there's no need for us to work in the fields."

Li Xiu frowned and said with a bitter face, "It's always the same thing you say. Do you think I'm embarrassing you by working in the fields?"

"No?!" Chen Jiazhi was stunned and didn't react for a moment.

Li Xiu said, "Then let me go. My second sister and I can look after each other and talk to each other."

Chen Jiazhi was silent for two seconds, then could only nod in agreement, "So, should we go today, or tomorrow?"

"today!"

"alright."

I heard my mother and second sister calling me to dinner from downstairs. They came down and sat down at the table. There were nine people in total, plus a baby.

There were quite a lot of people.

However, the canteen at Jiangxin Market is now open, and you can eat there for lunch and dinner.

After the meal, the group went out one after another. Yi Long went to school, and the rest went to work. Chen Jiazhi looked back and saw that his parents were guarding the door with the children.

"It's even colder riding a bike here!"

"It's still better than my hometown."

Listening to Yi Dinggan and Chen Zhengxu's conversation, Chen Jiazhi also asked Li Xiu if she was cold. She replied that she wasn't cold and that her tone was somewhat excited, as if she was looking forward to working.

After leaving the Dongxiang vegetable market, Li Xiu suddenly had less to do, and spending her days taking photos with her film camera was quite boring.

At home, her in-laws help take care of the child, but they often compete with her for chores, and the two of them sometimes bicker. Their only joy is watching TV, so Chen Jiazhi bought a new TV and put it in the living room.

But it gets boring after a while.

At the same time, there was an inexplicable emptiness, worry, panic, and guilt within me.
Li Xiu often thought of her mother's words during this time: only those who can endure hardship deserve to enjoy happiness.

Now everyone who sees her praises her for being lucky, for marrying the right person, and for going through thick and thin together.

But what about the future?

She may deserve her current good fortune, but she is still young, her family is still young, and the road ahead is long.

We've only gone through the initial stages of sharing joys and sorrows.
Thinking of this, she sat on the back of the bicycle and hugged it even tighter.

"We've arrived." Chen Jiazhi looked at Li Xiu, who had changed into a dusty set of clothes, and reminded her, "There's dew in the morning, so wear your arm sleeves."

"Don't worry, I brought it."

A moment later, Li Xiu followed Chen Jiafang into the aisle between the rows of snow peas.

Chen Jiazhi also began his day's work journey. The snow peas were already more than 20cm tall, with delicate and tender green stems and leaves. Each row stretched out in a straight line, which was a sight to behold and a source of joy.

After riding for a while, Chen Jiazhi stopped again in a field of rapeseed. The seedlings had already sprouted and were growing evenly. The seedlings looked small, and the leaves could not cover the brown soil.

Even if it grows a little bigger, it may still not be able to cover the soil.

These seeds were sown using a push-type seeder, and the spacing between plants and rows is very uniform.

However, there are also drawbacks. The machines are not precise enough and cannot reach the level of precision required for seedling transplanting. Thinning the seedlings later will be easier, but if not managed properly, ease does not mean high efficiency.

After pausing briefly at the bok choy patch, I continued walking. The market was now completely covered with a soft, shady layer of green.

Suddenly, a ray of setting sun pierced through the heavy clouds and shone into the furrows of the vegetable field.

"It fits perfectly!"

Seeing this, Chen Jiazhi couldn't help but laugh. Apart from the bok choy being delayed a bit, the planting of snow peas had been going very smoothly, with even the direction of the furrows perfectly matching the sunrise and sunset.

Under the sunlight, the clouds became as soft as cotton, pure white and flawless.

A few moments later, almost all the snow peas were exposed to the sunlight, as if they were desperately trying to sprout new shoots.
After circling around for most of the way, Chen Jiazhi arrived at the riverside of Group 1 in the northern section, where he saw lush green lettuce and Shanghai bok choy again.

Although there was no thinning, the seedlings are in pretty good condition.

In another month or two, we'll have crisp and delicious lettuce to eat.

After walking around the circle and returning to the starting point, the sun was fully out, but the summer heat was gone, and the damp chill on the body was dispelled.

Chen Jiazhi saw Li Xiu, wearing a straw hat and drab clothes, working in the snow bean field with Chen Jiafang, chatting and laughing. Her laughter was lively, and this was how she should be.

Chen Jiazhi couldn't help but laugh when he thought about Li Xiu's experience of reading and learning Mandarin during this time.

She probably prefers manual labor to studying.

"Jiazhi, what are you laughing at all by yourself?" Yi Dinggan also rode back on his bicycle, his straw hat blown backward by the wind and hanging around his neck.

"I wasn't laughing at anything, just watching the workers tie up the vines." Chen Jiazhi turned around and asked, "How long do you estimate it will take to finish?"

Yi Dinggan thought for a moment and said, "Ten days, I guess. Tying the vines is delicate work, we can't rush it."

"Hmm~"

In the snow pea field, a bamboo pole about 2 meters high is driven down every two meters. After the bamboo poles are laid, climbing nets are hung between the bamboo poles.

As the plant continues to grow, a vine-tying line needs to be strung at 25-35cm intervals to secure the plant within the two lines. After that, the line should be tied again every 20cm.

This ensures that the snow peas grow straight upwards and remain in a straight line on the ridges, making them easier to manage and harvest, while also maximizing ventilation and sunlight exposure in the field.

Yi Dinggan glanced at the tall bamboo poles in the field again, "It seems that building a small arched shed is still a bit difficult!"

“But you said to use this method.” Chen Jiazhi pursed his lips and said, “After tying the vines, hurry up and set up the shed first.”

Buy bamboo of suitable length, tying the ends together to make the frame higher.

"Well, that's the only way." Yi Dinggan nodded. "Fortunately, we have enough time."

The snow peas at Jiangxin Vegetable Market were sown in early November, which is considered relatively late, and it took about a week for the seedlings to emerge uniformly.

Therefore, the plant is not very tall yet.

The temperature is starting to drop again, slowing down the growth rate. When the cold wave comes, the plants won't grow particularly tall.

For growers who planted snow peas earlier, the plants were already quite tall by then, and if the temperature dropped below zero later, it would be too late to remedy the situation and provide frost protection.

However, Chen Jiazhi had this in mind from the beginning, so he had plenty of time to deal with it.

Another day passed, the warm sun disappeared, and a cold wind blew in again. The vegetable farmers wrapped themselves up and walked out of their vegetable plots.

Chen Jiazhi also waited for Li Xiu. Watching her proudly show off her dirty hands and then exclaim that they were cold while washing them in the water, he couldn't help but laugh. She just liked to suffer without any hardship.

The days passed by in a flurry of activity.

There is very little work to be done in the vegetable fields during autumn and winter. The frequency of topdressing and spraying pesticides is very low. As the trellising, tying of vines, and construction of greenhouses for snow peas are gradually completed, there is even less work to be done in the vegetable fields.

All that's needed is to manage everything step by step and wait for the vegetables to grow.

...

It's even colder in the early morning than during the day, and the car windows fog up more easily, requiring you to wipe them with a towel from time to time.

The streets were even more deserted.

But in the city, the wholesale market was still brightly lit. Chen Jiazhi drove to the Jiangnan Market on Zengcuo Road once again, accompanied by Xue Jun, Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu.

However, after entering the market, the three of them each took a small notebook and split up.

They came to scout out a market and find goods, and Chen Jiazhi planned to make use of the vacant stall number 56 as soon as possible.

"How much are the choy sum and bok choy?"

As Chen Jiazhi passed by a stall, he casually asked the owner, a woman, about the price. She replied loudly, "5 cents for bok choy, 4 cents for baby bok choy. Handsome, how much do you want?"

Chen Jiazhi picked up a small handful of vegetables, looked at them, and shook his head: "Too expensive, too expensive. We can't sell this much. How about we sell the bok choy for 4 mao?"

"Can't be sold."

Chen Jiazhi put the vegetables back in their original place, intending to try another stall, but the woman tending the stall hurriedly spoke up again.

"How many do you want? If you want a lot, I can sell them to you."

Chen Jiazhi shook his head and left; he had only come to ask about the price.

He spent the whole night asking the same questions about prices, but never actually buying anything.

After walking through most of the market, I finally sat down at a noodle stall with Xue Jun, Li Cai, and Chen Zhengxu, and we talked about the prices we had inquired about.

After comparing prices, the lowest I could get was 35 cents for bok choy and 30 cents for cabbage.

Vegetable prices are low, and the quality of vegetables has been good recently, leading to a high willingness among ordinary citizens to consume vegetables.

In summary, the vegetables are cheap, sell quickly, and it's easy to bargain.

But for most vegetable farmers, this price only allows them to earn a meager living despite their hard work.

Xue Jun asked, "Jiazhi, should we pack another truckload of vegetables to try? At the current prices, we probably won't make much money."

"Let's do it!" Chen Jiazhi said confidently. "Don't worry about not making money. As long as we don't lose money, we can go ahead with this business!"
We'll source the goods from Jiangnan first, and I'll also go to the production areas to find supplies. You guys should familiarize yourselves with how to do business as soon as possible. Also, Li Cai and Zheng Xu should get their driver's licenses as soon as possible.

"it is good!"

The three of them had no reason not to agree.

Xue Jun then asked, "So, what vegetables should we sell first?"

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "Li Cai, Zhengxu, what are you thinking? Once you've learned to drive, we'll entrust external procurement to you too."

Without a second thought, Li Cai replied, "Of course, we'll sell whatever makes more money."

(End of this chapter)