Chapter 261: Seventies Treasure Appraisal System (Chapter End)

The Xie Family started from small, casual street stalls, step by step expanding their scale, developing their former small pickle workshop into a major taxpayer with over a thousand employees, with direct-sale stores blossoming everywhere.

With the strong support of the County Committee leadership, they participated in the Spring Canton Fair for three consecutive years, securing dozens of foreign exchange orders.

Although the profit margins were thin, the high volume of sales meant the total foreign exchange earned was not inferior to those silk and handicraft enterprises.

The Xie Family's old house had been torn down and rebuilt eight years ago, constructing a two-story small Western-style building that was popular at the time, and they had also reserved two permanent guest rooms for Xie Yang's family.

Now that the children were all grown up and Xie Jun had even become a grandfather, the two-story small Western-style building was no longer enough to house everyone if they all returned for the New Year.

But the old homestead was only so big; no matter how they built, they couldn't expand much further.

If they built upward, they had almost quarreled with the neighbor diagonally behind them when building the two-story house, claiming it blocked their light; if they built three or four stories, wouldn't it cause an uproar?

Therefore, at the end of last year, at Xie Yang's suggestion, Xie Jun found the brigade to expand their mountain land contract, planning to set up a green Greenhouse Planting base, so that even in winter, they could harvest a steady stream of vegetables and fruits.

The approximately ten mu of homestead land at the foot of the mountain was also taken by him, and after half a year of planning and construction, a fashionable large villa with five stories, a front garden, and a back lawn was built.

Now, even if the children grew up, married, and had kids, there would still be enough room to live.

Xie Jun reserved the entire third floor of the villa for his youngest sister, Xie Yang; without her, there would be no current glory for the Xie Family.

With the youngest sister bringing her nephew and niece back for summer vacation, Xie Jun and his wife were more attentive than the two elders.

They prepared the mats and Thin Quilt for the third-floor guest rooms in advance, placed an electric fan in every room, and the double-door Electric Refrigerator—still a rare item—was stocked full of the popsicles and ice cream the children liked, with different flavors of soda chilling in the refrigerator compartment.

Returning to her maiden home, Xie Yang felt no different than being in her own home; as soon as she arrived, she let the children go play on their own, while she returned to her room to take a shower, washing away the sticky sweat, put on a light and breathable silk dress, went downstairs to the shade of the trees in the garden, and chatted with Mother Xie while shelling garlic.

"Is Xiao Qin free to come over on Sunday? Your brother caught a soft-shelled turtle weighing over five jin in the reservoir the day before yesterday, along with several large Rice Field Eel; they are being kept in the water tank to spit out mud, and we'll kill them to eat when Xiao Qin comes. We used to catch wild soft-shelled turtles often when the contracting first opened up years ago, but it's been rare to encounter them in recent years."

Xie Yang brushed back her hair, which wasn't fully dry yet, and said with a smile, "He'll definitely come if he isn't working overtime."

In fact, there was no need to wait for Sunday; that same evening, Qin Zheng drove the sedan assigned to him by his unit, bringing a basket of lake crabs that Qin Yue had just delivered that afternoon, to mooch dinner at his mother-in-law's house.

Riding the spring breeze of reform, Qin Feng contracted the village's lake ponds to raise Fish, Shrimp, and Crab, and following Xie Yang's advice, he planted a circle of mulberry trees around the ponds, creating a Mulberry-Base Fish Pond, and built several fishing platforms and pavilions along the ponds for tourists from the city to fish and pick produce.

The farm-stay model, which included a one-stop service for eating, drinking, and playing, was still very novel in this era, and through word of mouth, more and more tourists went to the Liming Commune Qin Family Fish Manor to play.

The current fame of the Qin Family Fish Manor was such that even government units in the city had heard of it, and they specifically named it for their team-building activities.

The Mechanical Factory's performance had been getting worse over the years, and after being laid off last year, Qin Yue returned to the countryside to help his parents with farming.

The young man was willing to explore, and the lake seafood business was booming; regardless of whether it was a holiday, as long as there was fresh lake seafood available, he would send a large basket to his uncle's house for them to taste.

A thunderstorm had passed in the evening, and the courtyard was quite cool, so Xie Jun moved the large round table out, and the whole family sat around the table, enjoying the breeze while eating and drinking.

Braised soft-shelled turtle, soy-braised Rice Field Eel, stir-fried chicken with chestnuts, steamed hairy crabs, and garlic crayfish; they even steamed a small rooster for Qin Yechen, who was about to enter puberty, with five or six meat dishes served alone.

The adults drank beer, the children drank soda, and everyone was clinking glasses, happy and harmonious.

"Mom, whose house is that? How grand!"

Bai Xiuyuan, who had returned to her maiden home after a fight with her husband, couldn't stand her family's cramped, old, and broken house; after hastily shoveling down a few bites of rice, she took her youngest son out to clear her head.

He Ximing was truly useless; knowing he was on the first list of layoffs, instead of buying gifts to go through the back door with the leaders, he stayed home drinking and acting crazy, which made her so angry she had a huge fight with him.

With nowhere to go after the fight, she had to take her fourth and fifth sons back to her maiden home.

The eldest, second, and third sons lived with their paternal grandparents; she had originally wanted the grandparents to raise them, but unfortunately, none of her sisters-in-law were easy to deal with, stating clearly that while they could stay, the food rations for the three growing boys had to be provided. If they wanted the grandparents to help find jobs later, the eldest branch would have to pay for whatever it cost.

Bai Xiuyuan was so angry she had a fight with them, but what was the use? Didn't she still have to let the three sons stay with their paternal grandparents?

If only He Ximing had been able to get into the Combat Readiness Motorcade in his early years, like Qin Zheng, and been assigned a four- or five-room house, she wouldn't have to look at the faces of those people in his family.

It was a pity he was a good-for-nothing; he was about to lose his job, and once he was laid off, the Mechanical Factory's family housing would be taken back by the unit—she didn't know what to do then!

How annoying!

Without realizing it, she arrived at the foot of the mountain, pulled back to reality by her youngest son's envious exclamation.

Looking at the Xie Family's five-story villa, she heard the laughter drifting out from the flower-filled courtyard.

She knew that was the home of Xie Yang's brother and sister-in-law.

Xie Yang's brother and sister-in-law didn't know what kind of good luck they had stumbled upon; since the household contract responsibility system, they had become more prosperous year by year. The road from the village to the town was paved with money donated by the Xie Family, the dust-proof trees on both sides of the road were planted with money donated by the Xie Family, and several mountain peaks of the brigade had been contracted by the Xie Family to engage in some kind of Greenhouse Planting.

In contrast, her own brother and sister-in-law were as useless as ever; relying on the harvest from farming, in what year or month would they ever be able to tear down the adobe house and build a brick one?

Every time she saw her brother and sister-in-law's resigned look, she felt frustrated that they wouldn't live up to her expectations.

Why couldn't they be as capable as Xie Yang's brother and sister-in-law?

Bai Xiuyuan's gaze was dazed; she always felt that her life shouldn't be like this.

That night, Bai Xiuyuan had a dream:

In the dream, she took credit for Xie Yang's life-saving act, helped her husband secure the opportunity to drive for the county leaders, and transferred to the County Committee Compound Official Car Driver, which not only had better benefits than the Mechanical Factory but also often had perks to be gained.

In the dream, Qin Zheng died early, and Xie Yang remarried her brother-in-law; because she couldn't have children and felt guilty toward the He Family, she used her earned wages to subsidize her in-laws, and her five sons were basically raised by Xie Yang.

Without the burden of raising children and with the perks her husband gained, she lived very comfortably in the dream; not only did she move into a five-room apartment, but she also helped her maiden family build a house, becoming a filial daughter praised by everyone in the village...

"Mom! Mom! Dad is here! He said our house is going to be taken back by the unit, and he wants us to go back, pack our things, and move to the shantytown next to Grandpa and Grandma's house. I don't want to live there; it's even more broken than Grandma's house, sob sob..."

Her youngest son's crying pulled her back to reality from the dream.

Bai Xiuyuan raised her hand and slapped her son: "Why did you wake me up! I was living so well in my dream! Why did you have to wake me up!"

"Waa—"

The youngest son burst into loud tears.

The crying startled a group of birds resting nearby, which fluttered away from the bird's nest on the eaves...

{End of this chapter}