1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 368 The Thoughts of a New Vegetable Worker

Besides Chen Jiazhi and Yi Dinggan, who were patrolling the fields and chatting and laughing, the vegetable farmers scattered throughout the market were also full of energy.

I pinched, I pinched, I pinched again! I pinched hard!
Jin Feng, a vegetable harvester from Guizhou, bent down and pinched the kale at a fixed frequency, the crisp sound of which was quite pleasant to hear.

One hand after another, after finishing one basket of vegetables, they would put a nameplate representing their identity into the basket and then quickly start on the next, not wanting to stop for a moment.

Zhou Ping, who had just arrived at the market, happened to be helping this group of vegetable collectors move vegetables.

Since it wasn't officially time to graft seedlings yet, she volunteered to do the grafting work in addition to learning how to graft, earning slightly more than weeding.

The vegetables are loaded onto tricycles from the edge of the field, and then transported back by others for weighing, pre-cooling in the warehouse, and packaging.

Aside from requiring effort, it's not difficult.

And she happened to have some strength.

For the first few days after she arrived, she seemed pretty good, and she wasn't inferior to the men.

But I feel a bit tired today. I've been carrying basket after basket, and there are still countless baskets in the vegetable garden. When will this ever end?

After Zhou Ping finished unloading the vegetables for Jin Feng, she put her hands on her hips and took a breather, then exclaimed, "Sister Jin, you're unloading vegetables way too fast!"

"Hmm~" Jin Feng didn't even lift her head, just kept pinching and pinching!
Zhou Ping frowned slightly, "You're pushing yourself too hard. Aren't you tired at all?"

After finishing collecting the vegetables, Jin Feng replied while putting them away, "This is nothing. It's tiring now, but it'll be sweet when we get paid."

Zhou Ping stepped forward and asked curiously, "How much money can you earn if you collect vegetables like this for a month?"

Jin Feng shook her head, "There aren't that many dishes."

She also wanted to harvest vegetables freely every day, but unfortunately the farm manager wasn't very helpful, and the harvest ended after only a few days.

Zhou Ping pressed on, "You know exactly how many vegetables you harvest each day, so you should be able to calculate how much money you can earn in a day, right?"

Jin Feng frowned. "What's the point of calculating this? Whether you earn more or less depends on how much work you do."

Zhou Ping retorted, "Why are you so stingy? What's wrong with talking about this? You earned this money through your own hard work. Who can gossip about it?"

Jin Feng said with dissatisfaction, "Go ahead and do your work, don't interfere with my harvesting of vegetables. If I harvest less vegetables, I'll earn a few cents less."

"The truck that was supposed to load the vegetables just went back and hasn't come back yet, what's the rush?" Zhou Ping simply sat down on the ground to rest. "If you don't tell me, I'll bother you here. Every time you come to unload vegetables, I'll bother you. If you don't tell me today, I'll come again tomorrow and see who's more impatient!"

Even though the other party was a relative of the boss, Jin Feng couldn't help but curse, "You're a real scoundrel!"

She straightened up and stretched for a while, thinking to herself, "At this rate, I should be able to make 60 yuan."

"How much? Sixty yuan!" Zhou Ping exclaimed, "My goodness, how can it be so much!"

They're making a fuss over nothing, acting like they've never seen the world before.

Jin Feng buried her head and started pinching again.

It's really rare! I haven't been able to harvest vegetables freely for almost half a year!

She comes from a township in Ziyun County, Guizhou Province. Locals call the area around hers "Mashan area," and Mashan is also a synonym for poverty.

The village has no electricity or roads, and for most villagers, the biggest and busiest place they've ever been is the township government.

Most people lived in thatched houses, many families didn't even have beds, and some went for more than half a year without salt.

So they came to the coast a couple of years ago. Getting into a factory wasn't easy; you needed connections, and there were requirements regarding education or Mandarin. Even if you did get in, it was a exploitative, black-market factory.

Fortunately, they followed their fellow villagers and ventured into the vegetable growing industry.

It was hard work, but he really paid me, and he paid a lot!

This year, she and Pan Dacheng returned to their hometown, and it was quite a grand occasion.

But when the two of them saw their relatives' newlywed bedroom, which contained only a quilt and straw, apart from a red blanket symbolizing happiness, they were mostly speechless.

After the New Year, they brought the newlywed couple out with them.

When she looked up to see how well the couple was learning, she was suddenly startled by a large face and backed away, falling flat on her backside.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed by getting so close?!"

Zhou Ping muttered, "Who told you to be so focused? I've been close for a while now."

She grinned as she looked at the neatly arranged kale in Jin Feng's arms. "Sister Jin, could you teach me how to harvest vegetables too?"

Jin Feng cursed, "This is so annoying, I'm not teaching!"

Zhou Ping said disdainfully, "You're just afraid that I'll learn how to harvest vegetables and steal your job, aren't you?"

Jin Feng: "Yes, yes, please move away and don't get in my way. If you come any further, I'll go find Sister Fang!"

"Pshaw, what a show of arrogance!"

Zhou Ping left cursing. She dared to argue with any of the male or female workers at the market, but she was afraid of Chen Jiafang. She couldn't compete with her in terms of literary talent, nor could she match her in terms of physical strength.

Anyway, I've already asked, so I'm off.

Why do vegetable harvesters earn so much? Why bother learning grafting? Learning to harvest vegetables would be so much better!
...

"You want to learn how to harvest vegetables?"

"That's right, Second Aunt, harvesting vegetables is a good way to make money! Jin Feng can earn 60 yuan a day, I can do it too!"

"Do you think 60 yuan is so easy to earn? How many people in the whole market can compare to Jin Feng!"

"I can do it!" Zhou Ping shouted, her eyes wide. "Give me six months to learn, and I'll definitely surpass Jin Feng!"

Chen Jiafang shouted even louder, "You stupid woman, what are you yelling at me for!"

Zhou Ping's eyes narrowed. "I don't care, I want to learn how to harvest vegetables. You're the leader of the vegetable harvesting team, who else can I turn to if not you!"

Looking at Zhou Ping, who was still shouting, Chen Jiafang felt her forehead throbbing.

This year, the vegetable market has seen many newcomers, some learning how to harvest vegetables, others learning how to graft.
But after that moment, she felt that all the newbies wanted to learn how to harvest crops.

Do you all think harvesting crops is easy?
They often work under the scorching sun, constantly bending over and hunching over. Even if they work 12 hours a day, they have to maintain the standard. The hours cannot be too long or too short, and they also have to distinguish between large, medium, and small hours.

The locals who flocked here last year to make money have lost out, and the number of people has rapidly decreased.

Chen Jiafang sized up Zhou Ping, who was sticking her neck out. Well, this girl might be reckless, but she was also someone who could endure hardship. However, she also knew that the grafting team was severely short-handed.

We can't open this door, otherwise countless eyes watching this place will want to come and learn how to harvest vegetables.

How could Jiazhi agree to let this plague god come?

It’s difficult!
But even if it's difficult, we have to do it.

Chen Jiafang also stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes fierce, which made Zhou Ping feel a little uneasy, but she did not back down at all. If it came to it, she would just have to fight today.

After a while,
"Do you think harvesting vegetables is easy? With your clumsy hands, it would take you at least half a month to learn how to harvest vegetables to the standard."

Chen Jiafang didn't shout, but her voice was still quite loud so that more onlookers could hear her.

"You can wait half a month, but do you think Jin Feng and the others will leave you any vegetables to harvest?"

"With all the effort they've been putting in for the past six months, they can harvest and store this batch of vegetables in less than half a month!"

"By the time you learn it, the daylily will be too cold!"

"Make money? What a joke!"

Zhou Ping was taken aback, and was about to say that they could wait until next time, but before she could speak, Chen Jiafang said again:

"The vegetables in the seedling shed can be grafted in a few days. You can learn to harvest the vegetables if you want, but you won't earn that money."

"Oh, there are fewer grafting workers now, so the requirements are lower for the time being, and the commissions are quite good. The boss also said that in the future, the income of grafting workers will not be less than that of vegetable harvesters."

At that moment, Chen Jiafang noticed that many of the newlyweds had averted their gazes and gone about their own business.

"Think about it."

She continued with her work, and it no longer mattered whether Zhou Ping was learning grafting or harvesting vegetables.

As long as most new couples are willing to undergo grafting, her goal will be achieved.

As soon as Chen Jiafang returned to the main road, she saw Li Xiu walking over with her nephew. "Second sister, amazing!"

Even DouDou gave her a thumbs up, "Second Aunt, awesome!"

Chen Jiafang squatted down and played with Dou Dou for a while, her eyes softening. Then she looked up and asked, "Where are those two? They were patrolling the fields just now, and then they disappeared."

Li Xiu covered her mouth and chuckled, gazing in a certain direction, "Watching the show from the eggplant patch~"

Eggplants were only planted on one plot of land when Chen Jiafang turned and glared at them.

...

"Murderous!"

"It's clearly love."

Chen Jiazhi and Yi Dinggan squatted steadily, cigarettes dangling from their mouths. They turned around naturally and commented on the several long, purplish-red eggplants, "Look at these eggplants, they're so big and long!"
How does it grow?

Hey, with grafted seedlings, fertile soil, and excellent management, they naturally grow well.

"Stop looking, your second sister has gone to work." Yi Dinggan stood up.

"Do you think I'm putting on an act like you?" Chen Jiazhi said disdainfully. "Besides being big and long, what else can you say?"

Yi Dinggan raised an eyebrow. "Damn it, you were the one who told me to squat down!"

Chen Jiazhi: "I told you to watch eggplants, not to watch a show."

Yi Dinggan fell into deep thought. It seemed that he had really said "squat down and look at the eggplant" just now, but he had looked in the wrong direction at first.

"So, what did you see?"

Chen Jiazhi chuckled, “I’ve noticed at least one thing: the eggplant grafted onto the rootstock of water eggplant has a really strong effect!”
The initial yield was low, but look now, it's like piglets being born, eggplants are sprouting up everywhere.

"Phew~ What's so special about that? Do you think I don't know how many kilograms of eggplants the market collects every day?"

Yi Dinggan threw away his cigarette butt and stomped on it twice. "Alright, stop looking at your eggplants. You'll have a headache to deal with after the grafting in a couple of days."

The rootstocks and scions for eggplants, tomatoes, and cucumbers cultivated at the Lianzhou cooperative base are almost ready for grafting.

This year has certainly been a busy one.

Second Sister Chen Jiafang handled the situation very well; at least there will be someone available.

The market has seen a significant increase in workers this year, with one group coming from their hometown and another from Ziyun.

Growing vegetables is indeed hard work, and those who can persevere are a particularly hard-working group.

Among them, Ziyun Vegetable Workers was a well-known and reputable labor brand in the vegetable industry.

After inspecting the fields, we visited the foam box factory, cold storage, and canteen, and it was getting dark.

The market remains bustling.

Basket after basket, truck after truck of vegetables are continuously being delivered to the warehouse, while pre-cooled and packaged vegetables are also being shipped out one after another.

Chen Jiazhi couldn't just stand by and watch.

If others are uncomfortable, he is uncomfortable too.

Let's get to work then, just get it done.

After all the vegetables harvested today were stored in the warehouse, he held a short meeting with the team leader before preparing to leave work.

Where are my cigarettes?

Chen Jiazhi touched the bag and saw it on the tricycle. Just as he was about to take it, Yi Dinggan grabbed it first.

"I'm exhausted, here you go."

He took out a cigarette and offered it to Chen Jiazhi, but kept the cigarette case in his hand.

Chen Jiazhi remained silent and endured it. He then reached for the lighter, but a dark hand snatched it away again, and the person ran off.

"Damn it, they took my lighter again!"

(End of this chapter)