Reborn in 1994: Starting from the Autumn Harvest

When the two of them arrived, they were talking non-stop, having already finished their conversation.

Now that the dog meat is in my mouth, the rich and savory aroma hits me right in the head, and all that's left in the room is the sound of tongues dancing and noses twitching.

Fengyuan County does not have the custom of eating dog meat, but there are a few special dog meat restaurants where a pound of meat costs nearly ten yuan. These are places that people only go to for festivals and gatherings.

Dog meat is a high-quality tonic, but it is not suitable for people with poor digestion or weak constitution.

In those days, ordinary families lived very frugally, eating meat only a dozen or so times a year. But Chen Mian and her husband spent tens of yuan on a single meal, including food and drinks. If word got out, many people would envy them.

"Come on." Cheng Haichao smoothed his distinctive middle parting with his left hand, raised his small wine glass to Chen Mian with his right, and said, "Guess who I ran into at Grandma's house?"

"Liu Xia".

After Chen Mian finished speaking, she took a sip.

"..."

"Liu Xia is busier than a donkey all day long. Do you think I could run into her 20 miles away? Can we not talk about her? Didn't you see I didn't even speak to her just now?"

Upon hearing the mention of his former girlfriend from the same village, Cheng Haichao immediately lost his appetite for drinking. How had Chen Mian become like this? She was always stabbing people in the heart.

On the other hand, Chen Mian smacked his lips, looked back out the window, and knew that if nothing unexpected happened, the loudspeaker would be blaring soon, and he would have to get down to business.

"You should apologize to Liu Xia and make up with her as soon as possible."

"Make up, and apologize?" Cheng Haichao snorted and downed a mouthful of wine. "I'm not going to suffer like that. Let her bully me to death."

"I think Liu Xia treats you very well, but you're just too demanding. Today you're touching her hand, tomorrow you want to kiss her, and the day after tomorrow you want to consummate the marriage. What kind of wife is like this? If I were Liu Xia, I would kick you too."

"It's only because you two kept your relationship a secret that I'm the only outsider who knew, otherwise you'd be drowned in gossip."

Chen Mian always believed that Cheng Haichao's life was even more miserable than hers in the past. She was a bachelor, while Cheng Haichao married a shrew who caused unrest in the whole family. Later, she was cheated on and the child wasn't even his.

Later, he realized his mistake and reconciled with Liu Xia, who was also divorced, and their lives returned to normal, but they were still unable to have a child of their own.

They were true childhood sweethearts, living in the same alley and growing up together, sitting at the same desk from elementary to junior high school.

However, Liu Xia was a bit of a tomboy, and girls develop earlier than boys. Cheng Haichao was sometimes a bit of a smart aleck and often got beaten by Liu Xia. It was because of this that the two of them went down a wrong path.

In this lifetime, we must put them on the same path.

"Why are you siding with outsiders? Given Liu Xia's family situation, if I were to marry her, wouldn't I be exhausted..."

"Sizzle..."

"Attention, everyone in the village! Attention, everyone in the village!"

Upon hearing the loudspeaker, the two immediately stood up and rushed into the courtyard, looking towards the location of the brigade headquarters.

Unlike Cheng Haichao's doubts, Chen Mian was well aware that the following content concerned land leasing and was related to Liu Xia's family.

"Liu Guozhu from our village has decided to lease out his 45 mu of cotton."

"If anyone is interested, let's go to Guozhu's house together and talk. If it works out, the village can help us get a certificate so that we can sell cotton without any problems."

……

Over the loudspeaker, the Party Secretary repeatedly talked about the land contracting, stirring up the emotions of the entire Anping Village. One by one, people spontaneously left their homes and headed straight for Liu Guozhu's house.

"Er Mian, why is Liu Xia's family suddenly leasing out land?"

Cheng Haichao frowned, completely baffled. He habitually turned to Chen Mian, who had always been smarter and more agile than him.

Chen Mian didn't reply for the time being, calculating the time in her mind. Today was August 29th, and there were still 4 days left until September 2nd.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the official price for the new cotton crop will be announced on September 1st this year.

Due to various factors, the price will be increased from the original NT$330 per 50 kg of roller cotton to NT$405 per 50 kg of roller cotton.

The cotton that farmers pick from the fields is called "seed cotton".

After being sold, this cotton will be allocated to various cotton ginning mills for processing to separate the cottonseed from the lint. The lint will eventually be processed into "roller cotton".

Only cotton of this quality will be transported to the next stage of the industry.

In 1994, the cotton industry implemented the "three no's" policy.

One is not to allow business operations to continue.

Second, we will not open up the market.

Prices will not be liberalized.

As a benchmark for cotton prices, roller-grown cotton's unified purchase price directly affects the price of seed cotton.

The new cotton listing document had unique characteristics, with strict requirements on the time frame for its dissemination to lower levels. It was finally disseminated to the villages on September 2nd.

The timing of the land contracting caused a great stir in the village. Due to special circumstances and pricing factors, the bidding process was very complicated, and the final winner surprised the villagers.

"How would I know?" Chen Mian shook her head.

"The cotton will be harvested soon. What are they contracting out now? How much does one acre of land cost?" Cheng Haichao asked thoughtfully, turning to walk into the house, intending to chat over drinks.

Chen Mian followed behind, his thoughts churning. He was determined to acquire these lands, but he was worried that the highest price might change because of his rebirth.

"Why are you so quiet again? You're acting all mysterious."

Chen Mian glanced at Cheng Haichao and hesitated for a few seconds before pouring him half a glass of wine and taking out a cigarette. Embarrassingly, she searched her entire body but couldn't find any matches.

But it's not a big deal: "Can you do me a favor, brother?"

Cheng Haichao was completely stunned. This was the first time in his life he had heard Chen Mian say such a thing, and he couldn't help but look her up and down for a while.

He blinked his round eyes, sighed, straightened his middle parting, and downed the half-glass of wine in one gulp.

"Tell me, who are you going to hit?"

"..."

"What are you thinking!" Chen Mian took a sip of her drink, annoyed. "How old are you? I've already learned my lesson, and you're still causing trouble without any shame."

"You suddenly pulled this stunt; I thought something had happened to you," Cheng Haichao burped.

After thinking for a moment, she suddenly realized something was wrong. "You just went to the city to sell melons, and you call that learning something good? If that's the case, I'd be building a house for my grandma."

Once the conversation starts, it's easy for it to go off-topic, so Chen Mian simply got straight to the point: "Go find Liu Xia and tell her to compare prices from different vendors and not rush to sign the land lease contract. You can also ask her what's going on at home."

Just as Cheng Haichao was about to refuse, he suddenly remembered what the loudspeaker had said, and looked Chen Mian up and down, "What do you mean? You want to lease the land too?"

"Of course I want to! Liu Xia's family's cotton fields are just left to be sprayed with pesticides and harvested. Can you honestly say you don't have any thoughts about it?"

Cheng Haichao had to admit that Chen Mian was right. Farmers naturally have a deep affection for the land; no one dislikes having too much land, because more land means more money.

When he heard the loudspeaker talking about leasing land, he guessed that many people must want to lease land, but when he thought about how high the land price must be, he lost interest.

We just built our house this year, and my maternal grandparents also contributed some money to build their house, so we don't have any spare money to rent land.

"Why don't you go talk to Liu Xia yourself? You're not strangers."

"I'm not as familiar with the place as you are, and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to go..."