1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 296 A Big Step Towards Specialization
"Dong Dong Dong~"

"Who?"

"Jiazhi, that's me."

Hearing that it was Li Xiu's voice, Chen Jiazhi opened the door and let her in. She had changed into a pink short-sleeved pajama set, revealing her fair arms and legs.

Seeing that the small desk was already filled with stacks of banknotes arranged in categories, Li Xiu exclaimed in surprise.

"Jiazhi, you've counted them all."

"You seem relieved," Chen Jiazhi smiled. "You must be tired from counting money all this time, right?"

"Not tired."

"Your whole body is limp."

"What do you mean?"

"You're the most stubborn one," Chen Jiazhi joked. "You're tired of counting tens of thousands of yuan every day, aren't you?"

"No, how can counting money get boring?" Li Xiu said angrily, "Go take a shower and come back to rest early. I'll do the accounting and divide the money."

"Ha!" Chen Jiazhi said coldly, "Wait until I take a shower and come back to see if your mouth is tough or soft."

"Pah~ Don't be serious in broad daylight."

"We don't have a chance at night either, how about we try it in the car sometime?"

"Go take a shower, don't get in the way!"

Chen Jiazhi hummed a song as he quickly took a shower and then eagerly went into his room, while Li Xiu was still working on calculations at her desk.

Settlement is also required between the stall owner and Jiangxin Vegetable Market.

Last night, the green peppers sold at Jiangxin Market totaled 57250 yuan. After deducting the 4500 yuan handling fee paid to the stall owners, the remaining 5.2 yuan will go into the Jiangxin Market's account.

The Dongxiang vegetable market earned over 1.2 yuan, and with a handling fee of 4500 yuan, 1.65 yuan went directly into the individual's pocket.

Chen Jiazhi checked Li Xiu's calculations, while Li Xiu pulled out two large tin boxes from a hidden compartment under the bed. Inside were stacks of cash.

28 that can be directly disposed of.

There are also about 300,000 yuan in funds for Jiangxin vegetable market that haven't been settled yet.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash were laid bare in front of Chen Jiazhi, but he was already mentally prepared and had seen it several times before, so he was completely unmoved.

Although he didn't count the money, it passed through his hands every day, and with his daily bookkeeping, he actually had a good idea of ​​how much money he had.

After helping her put today's money in and putting it back in, Li Xiu asked, "Should we deposit the money from the market into the bank or keep it in cash? I feel uneasy having too much money at home."

Chen Jiazhi thought for a moment, "Let's take the cash first. It'll be perfect for Kaopu Fresh to use, since they'll be getting paid at the end of the month anyway."

Although bank transfers are becoming more and more common, there are still few branches and the procedures are cumbersome, so cash is still more convenient sometimes.

Cash is often required at Jiangxin Market.

"Hmm~"

Li Xiu nodded, got into bed, and lay down on the bamboo mat. The room was air-conditioned, so it wasn't hot at all. She even had to cover her stomach and legs while sleeping.

Chen Jiazhi followed him to bed, and as soon as he lay down, his hands began to wander restlessly.

"What are you doing? Mom and Dad are still at home!"

"I just checked. It's cool this morning, so they took Zhengyun to the market."

Aren't you tired?

"What's there to be tired about? I'm just hot-tempered."

……

Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiucai slept until after four o'clock in the afternoon. When they got up and opened the door, they saw that the sun was shining brightly.

I stretched on the balcony and noticed several potted plants on the ground, including succulents, roses, and some unknown plants. The countryside was full of life at the turn of May and June.

"Jiazhi, Lixiu, get up and come down for breakfast. I reckon you'll be up soon, the food is just ready."

"Okay, Mom."

Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu washed their faces and then went downstairs.

Peng Guozhen had already put the food on the table. "It's hot, so I didn't make anything fancy. I just fried some river fish, cooked some porridge, stir-fried some greens, and oh, right, I also pickled some radishes. I'll go get some for you."

"Okay, thank you, Mom." Li Xiu smiled and asked, "Do you still have any pickled cowpeas?"

Peng Guozhen smiled and said, "Let me check. If there's none left, I'll buy some more to soak tomorrow morning. I also want to dry some mustard greens."

The elderly are afraid of being idle, and besides, Peng Guozhen and Chen Shaochang are not old, one is 62 and the other is 63, which is still the age for striving in later generations.

Now we find them some light work to do, and they're happy to do it.

Peng Guozhen couldn't stay idle either; her rabbits had already given birth to several litters, and when the vegetable workers had free time, they would ask her to buy them in pairs.

But there are still dozens of rabbits and quite a few chickens at home. Anyway, Chen Jiazhi can eat rabbit meat every few days, and he eats rabbit noodles in the morning quite often.

Before long, Peng Guozhen brought over some kimchi, which Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu ate with great relish.

On a hot summer day, a bowl of cooled porridge, some fried small fish and shrimp, and some green vegetables and pickled vegetables are a particularly comforting meal, even without any big meat dishes.

After finishing his meal, Chen Jiazhi took his son from his father, Chen Shaochang, and gently repeated simple words to encourage the baby to imitate the pronunciation.

"Dad~"

"Grandpa~"

"Take it~"

“Let’s go~” Chen Zhengyun also responded with some incoherent sounds.

After Li Xiu finished her work, Chen Jiazhi handed his son back to her and then took his accounting notebook to the market.

Li Xiu carried Chen Zhengyun into the yard and taught him how to wave goodbye, muttering to himself, "Son, did you feel your dad's formulaic love?"

Chen Jiazhi scratched his head awkwardly. Were those few sentences he just taught really that formulaic?

But Chen Zhengyun smiled broadly and waved goodbye to him.
Li Xiu usually stays at home in the afternoon.

Chen Jiazhi arrived at the market around 5 o'clock, which was the busiest time for the market, with vegetable workers scattered haphazardly in the vegetable fields.

Harvesting, fertilizing, spraying pesticides, pruning, pulling up seedlings, thinning seedlings... Only the busyness in the vegetable market can bring a harvest in the market.

Chen Jiazhi also started by inspecting the fields in the northern part of the area, where green peppers were still being harvested.

The difference is that Ao Deliang is still doing his best to prolong the plants' lifespan, while Qi Yongfeng and Huang Rixin have already started pulling up seedlings in some plots, and the vegetable market has new open spaces again after more than half a month.

The southern area is even more popular.

Looking around, the seedlings are taller and greener. The sowing time is indeed very concentrated, with the sowing period of 300 acres all concentrated in the nine days from May 5.7th to May 5.15th.

Apart from about 20 mu of water spinach, the remaining 280 mu are all Chinese cabbage.

They have all entered the harvest season.

The water spinach was the same large-stemmed green vegetable that Chen Jiazhi had saved from last year, and he went to harvest it for a while to experience it.

The leaves are bright green, the stems and leaves are distinct, and the yield looks quite good.

This proves that his approach to preserving offspring last year was quite effective. With more capital this year, he can conduct a more detailed selection process for preserving offspring.

"Mr. Chen, this water spinach is delicious. Take it back, cut it into sections and leaves, stir-fry it with some Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilies, it'll be very fragrant."

"Really? I also like to eat water spinach. If you want to be handsome, eat water spinach."

Summer is here, so we should eat more water spinach.

"Mr. Chen, you're quite the joker. You're so handsome, isn't it just because you eat water spinach?"

"That might be part of the reason~"

"Hahaha."

Chen Jiazhi exchanged a few jokes with the vegetable workers before leaving.

The idea that eating water spinach will make you handsome is, of course, a joke. Just like the Yunnan saying "eating potatoes will make your sons handsome" and the Guangdong people's unusual insistence on the integrity of vegetables, these are all manifestations of regional culture.

After riding for a while, Chen Jiazhi stopped again in the area where bok choy was being harvested.

Each vegetable worker had several plastic baskets in front of them, with neatly arranged cabbage hearts in each basket.

The grouping of vegetable collectors has also been very effective, with wages and commissions calculated per piece, resulting in a significant improvement in efficiency.

As far as he knows, most vegetable markets currently lack cold storage facilities, still operate on a fixed monthly wage system, small greenhouses are not widely adopted, and the "iron fingernail" technique has not yet spread...

With each layer added up, Jiangxin Market has a clear advantage in all aspects.

The dish is quite pleasing to the eye.

He went to the cold storage again, and the trucks that were delivering goods to the market arrived, and the Isuzu was also parked outside the cold storage.

The inside and outside of the cold storage are two completely different worlds, one of ice and one of fire. It's 20 or 30 degrees Celsius outside and 3 to 5 degrees Celsius inside. Stepping in is instantly refreshing.

Because the refrigeration temperatures for bok choy, water spinach, and green peppers are inconsistent, only bok choy and water spinach are in the cold storage.

The green peppers made way for the bok choy, and were harvested in the afternoon. The trucks supplying Hong Kong also arrived, and after harvesting and weighing, they were weighed and shipped directly.

After harvesting, the bok choy and water spinach are first packed in plastic baskets, then pre-cooled in cold storage and then packed into foam boxes. Ice packs or ice bottles can be added if needed.

Although it increased costs, the entire process emphasized a standardized procedure, which greatly reduced transportation risks, alleviated harvesting pressure, and made sales more convenient, thus improving the efficiency of the entire system.

As for the increased costs, if done well, they can be passed on to downstream customers.

Chen Jiazhi walked to the center of the cold storage, where several female workers wearing coats were transferring cabbage from plastic baskets into styrofoam boxes.

Holding the leaves at the bottom of the bok choy with both hands, she lifted and put them down, neatly changing their positions with practiced and swift movements.

Don't think it's too much trouble; this is how containers of exported bok choy or leafy greens are packed.

And importantly, he recalled an experience from his past life: a female worker was loading an export container, and when she was holding the "tail" of the bok choy, it fell apart. She silently continued loading, but was discovered at customs, ultimately causing the entire container of bok choy to be ruined, resulting in a loss of over 100,000 yuan for the owner.
Vegetable packaging is very important.

In later generations, vegetable packaging also gave rise to specialized jobs.

Some packing teams can have hundreds of people who work in the production area year-round, specializing in sorting and packing vegetables. Their wages are not as high as those of skilled workers such as vegetable harvesters or grafters, but they can still earn a stable monthly income of five or six thousand yuan.

This industry chain supports too many people.

Several packing workers noticed his arrival. "Boss Chen's here to inspect the work!"

"It's cold inside, Mr. Chen, you should wear another layer of clothing."

"Don't worry about leaving things to us. Just don't catch a cold."

"I'm not worried at all," Chen Jiazhi smiled. "I'm just looking around casually. You guys go about your business and don't worry about me."

He saw a female worker write the character "中" (meaning "medium") on a styrofoam box with a watercolor pen and asked, "Were the bok choy harvested today graded?"

"Yes, it's what Director Yi requested. From now on, both bok choy and Chinese kale will be graded. 'Medium' means bok choy of medium thickness."

"Good."

After a few minutes, Chen Jiazhi was shivering from the cold, but his heart was burning with warmth. The management of the market had taken a big step towards professionalization.

(End of this chapter)