1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 260 Viewing a House
"Wind~ Ee-yah~ Rain... Clouds..."

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Chen Jiazhi, who had watched the entire Spring Festival Gala, was lying in bed when Li Xiu's humming in the room made him open his eyes.

"What are you humming so early in the morning?"

Li Xiu's humming stopped abruptly. "You're awake? You can't stay in bed on the first day of the lunar new year. Get up early and eat some glutinous rice balls. We'll see who can find the coin later. I'm going downstairs to help. I've also prepared your new clothes; they're on the bedside table."

He didn't answer Chen Jiazhi's question after he finished speaking.

When Chen Jiazhi came downstairs, the whole family was eating glutinous rice balls with bowls in their hands.

Chen Zhengxu's eyes seemed to be shining: "Wow, Uncle, you look really handsome in that leather jacket, you have the same vibe as Andy Lau."

"It's really handsome." Li Cai looked him up and down. "I'm going to buy a leather jacket today too."

Chen Zhengxu cautioned, "It's a bit expensive, at least over 1000 yuan."

"Money is meant to be spent," Li Cai patted his chest. "It's just a month's salary!"

Chen Zhengxu gritted his teeth: "Then I want to buy some too. Let's buy them together later, maybe we can get a better price."

Leather jackets are a symbol these days. Whether it's fashion-conscious young people or middle-aged people who want to project a mature image, they all like to wear leather jackets because they are both prestigious and stylish.

However, Chen Jiazhi felt it was nothing special; he just wore whatever Li Xiu bought.

"Who got the coin?"

"No."

"No one has eaten it yet, Brother Chen, you still have a chance."

"I only put in one coin," Peng Guozhen said in the kitchen. "Whoever finds the coin will have great luck this year. If Li Cai and Zhengxu find it, they're guaranteed to find beautiful wives this year!"

Chen Zhengxu laughed and said, "Grandma, then I'll have to have another bowl."

Li Cai also said, "I want to add some more."

"Yes, we've cooked plenty of glutinous rice balls, just remember to scoop out an even number," Peng Guozhen reminded with a smile, then handed a steaming bowl of glutinous rice balls to Chen Jiazhi.

The glutinous rice balls were white and sticky, and looked quite appetizing. Chen Jiazhi picked one up and put it in his mouth, and instantly felt his teeth bite into something hard.

No way, you're so lucky?
A moment later, Chen Jiazhi took a coin out of his mouth and said to Chen Zhengxu and Li Cai, who were about to scoop up the glutinous rice balls:
"I found the coin."

"install?"

"Such good luck?!"

For a moment, Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu were both dumbfounded. "Brother Chen, are you going to make a fortune this year?!"

Li Xiu, Peng Guozhen, and Chen Shaochang were also very surprised, but also very happy, with smiles on their faces.

Eating tangyuan (sweet rice balls) on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year symbolizes reunion and happiness. If you find a coin in your tangyuan, it brings even more good luck.

Chen Jiazhi was also quite surprised, as he had never eaten a coin on the first day of the Lunar New Year in his previous life.

"Why haven't Yongfeng and his wife arrived yet?"

"We agreed last night that we'd come over early this morning to eat tangyuan (sweet rice balls), and then go to the city together. It's almost eight o'clock now."

While enjoying their glutinous rice balls, Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu, who wanted to go out and play, waited at the door.

"What's the rush?" Chen Jiazhi said. "We still need to go to the market to get the Isuzu later; the van is too cramped."

"Then Brother Chen, hurry up and eat. You've already eaten the last coin. You can eat the rest of the glutinous rice balls one bite at a time."

"..."

After quickly finishing his glutinous rice balls, Chen Jiazhi went to the market to get his car. When he arrived at the intersection, he saw Qi Yongfeng and Huang Juan in the small greenhouse.

"Yongfeng, what are you doing?"

Hearing the shout, Qi Yongfeng looked up and replied, "Brother Zhi, the bell peppers have sprouted!"

Chen Jiazhi then went to take a look as well.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, after ten days, the sweet pepper seedlings sprouted from the soil.

Although Qi Yongfeng complained that the seedlings were growing too slowly and wished he could help them grow faster, he was also quite excited at this moment.

"The germination rate is estimated to be over 90%, which is 10% higher than expected!"

The newly sprouted seedlings needed to be looked at carefully to be seen clearly, and Chen Jiazhi guessed that Qi Yongfeng had been there for a while.

"Let's go, stop looking. Everyone's waiting for you to eat tangyuan (sweet rice balls). Once you've eaten, we can head out to play."

"Great! Have a blast today!"

Qi Yongfeng followed Chen Jiazhi out of the vegetable field. "Brother Zhi, when did you buy this leather jacket?"

"Li Xiu bought it for me," Chen Jiazhi said with a smile. "If you want some, ask Huang Juan to buy it for you."

Qi Yongfeng turned to look at Huang Juan, who stepped forward and took his arm. "I'll buy it for you later!"

"Ugh~ So greasy."

"You're like a well-fed man who doesn't know the hunger of a starving man!"

"These past two days, you've been playing at night and playing during the day. Can your body handle it?"

"You underestimate me. I'm still as fierce as ever... Ouch! That hurts!"

"Hahaha~"

The journey from Lingshan northwards to the city center is a distance of forty to fifty kilometers.

After chatting about yesterday's Spring Festival Gala for a while, everyone gradually dozed off. Later, they were full of energy again, heading to the mall to shop, eat, drink, and have fun, indulging in their spending spree!
In the afternoon, Chen Jiazhi went to the Huacheng Bookstore, which had only been open for a few months. It was packed with people, and the selection of books was vast. He picked out some books that interested him and spent the day there before returning home. However, the next day, Chen Jiazhi drove Li Xiu out again, taking her along Tianhe Road several times.

He wants to buy a house first.

But the familiar Zhujiang New Town was once farmland, with vegetable fields and pigsties everywhere. Who would have thought that it would become a place where every inch of land is precious?

However, the area around Tianhe Sports Center has developed rapidly, with convenient transportation to the city center, complete supporting facilities, and a good environment, but the prices are not cheap, with many properties priced between 4000 and 5500 yuan per square meter.

The price per square meter in the outskirts of the city is less than 4000 yuan.

Some are only 2000 yuan, but they are far from the city center, the surrounding environment is poor, the population is complex, and safety is difficult to guarantee, so the sales are not very good.

After looking at houses for two days, Chen Jiazhi noticed a phenomenon: the proportion of luxury homes in Huacheng seemed to be far greater than that of ordinary residences.

However, ordinary citizens have limited financial resources, resulting in a slight imbalance between housing supply and market demand.

There are few new residential developments, and some luxury homes and villas appear to be experiencing sluggish sales.

Chen Jiazhi thought he had enough confidence, so he went to see the so-called luxury residences, which were actually just high-rise residential buildings with elevators and some villas.

But after looking at all the houses, I realized that my savings of over a million yuan were not all that great.

A typical house costs around 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, but a better one can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Chen Jiazhi's favorite property is a residential complex next to Tianhe Sports Center; it looks different from the outside.

However, after making inquiries, it turned out that not only could they not afford it, they didn't even qualify to buy it.

The development is called Ming Ya Yuan and is mainly sold in Hong Kong. It can only be purchased with Hong Kong dollars. Luxury villa-style houses cost HK$13,000 per square meter, totaling HK$2.6 million per unit. Even the cheapest unit costs HK$6,000 to HK$7,000 per square meter.

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, after viewing the house again and returning to his car, Chen Jiazhi sighed, "I still need to keep working hard to earn money; these houses are just too expensive!"

Li Xiu sat in the passenger seat and said, "Actually, there's no need to buy a house in the city now. Even if I did, I wouldn't live there. I'm definitely going to stay with you. I guess my parents aren't used to living in the city and would definitely want to stay with me. If we let them live in the city, they'd probably just go back to their hometown."

"Hmm." Chen Jiazhi started the van and pondered, "But we still need to buy a house. I plan to buy one or two cheap ones first and keep them for future appreciation."

Li Xiu nodded: "That's fine too."

Chen Jiazhi asked in surprise, "Aren't you going to ask me where I want to buy?"

Li Xiu: "Where do you want to buy?"

Chen Jiazhi said, "I plan to buy in the southern part of Tianhe River, probably closer to Vietnam."

"Okay, I'll do as you say." Li Xiu agreed without hesitation.

Chen Jiazhi couldn't help but tilt his head, "Xiu, don't you still not understand which direction Tianhe is in?"

"..."

Li Xiu held the map in her hands and nodded again. "Isn't it enough that you understand it? Anyway, I trust your judgment."

After a while, even though it was still a rural area full of fields, Li Xiu firmly supported Chen Jiazhi's choice and believed that this area would definitely appreciate in value in the future.

Chen Jiazhi was also deeply moved. At present, although Zhujiang New Town has been planned for almost two years, the development and construction have not been as hot as expected. There are only a few construction sites and lush vegetable fields next to them.

In the past two days, while he was inquiring about information, he also met many other people who had the same need to buy a house.

Whenever someone hears that he wants to buy a house in Zhujiang New Town, they can't help but let out a sneer:
"Buying a house in Zhujiang New Town, are you planning to become a suburban farmer?"

In fact, Chen Jiazhi had once built a vegetable base in Zhujiang New Town and then waited for the demolition.

But it's actually not worth it.

After all, they are just leasing the land, and many of their rights are not protected.

He had a similar experience in Chengdu in his previous life. Back then, in order to get more compensation, he fought wits and courage with the village and the developer, and even took the lead in causing trouble and hiring an excavator to block the road. But the developer and the village committee just dragged it out. In the end, after half a year, he only managed to get a little compensation for the crops.

However, if they had continued growing vegetables normally for the past six months, the profits would have far exceeded the compensation.
Renting land to grow vegetables puts them at a natural disadvantage.

Therefore, when choosing a site, he directly and decisively avoided areas that might involve land acquisition.

After agreeing with Li Xiu on buying a house, Chen Jiazhi focused on driving back home.

Although I've decided to buy a house, I'm not in a hurry to do so. I plan to wait until the investment for the new site is finalized before making the purchase.

During this time, he heard Li Xiu humming a song again.

After listening carefully for a while, I realized it was the song "A Cloud Made of Rain in the Wind" from the Spring Festival Gala.

Chen Jiazhi didn't disturb him, and after listening for a while, he was surprised to find that it had a gentle and reserved feel to it.

At 5 p.m., Chen Jiazhi returned to the market, which had resumed operations that day.

A refrigerated truck was parked in the yard, and Xu Yao arrived as well, while Qi Yongfeng led the way in loading snow peas.

His hands-on approach to work makes every boss feel comfortable.

"Yongfeng, how are the bean pods today?"

Qi Yongfeng wiped the sweat from his brow with his arm, jumped out of the car, took the cigarette Chen Jiazhi offered, lit it, and then said:
"Some were a little old, and the beans were almost fully formed, but they were all picked. The quantity is also more than before, probably more than 10,000 jin."

“It’s okay if they’re a little old. Just pick them all off. This season, we mainly eat the tender pods. Leaving them for too long will affect the yield.”

On the first day after the Lunar New Year, Jiangxin Vegetable Market harvested 1.13 jin of snow peas.

Prices are no longer so high, but the price for goods supplied to Hong Kong has stabilized at 3 yuan per kilogram.

Chen Jiazhi suddenly realized that Jiangxin vegetable market supplies to Hong Kong, and the settlement should be in Hong Kong dollars, right?

(End of this chapter)