Chapter 278

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

After they finished eating, Su Wan cleared the bowls and chopsticks.

Only then did Chai Mi explain to Song Qiushui that making those small pickled vegetables was just a trial run; later, once she made something tastier, she would consider selling them outside as side dishes.

This time Chai Mi brought enough ingredients to make about sixty portions of dumplings, loaded onto a small cart full to the brim. Later she wanted to bring more flour in case they ran out and she could make more, but Song Qiushui stopped her.

"About that much is fine. That place is still our first time going there, not like going to a market. Markets have lots of people; if you go to the industrial zone, you're unfamiliar with the place, and the foot traffic there definitely won't be as many as at the market."

"Alright." Chai Mi then helped Song Qiushui onto the inverted donkey and said to Su Wan, "Mom, we don't know when we'll be back at noon, so don't wait for us then. It's hot out, so don't do any physical labor. Your health isn't good; just have my dad do any work."

Chai Mi then told Chai Xiu, "Xiu'er, stay home honestly and don't keep running out. Reading books is fine, but don't keep reading those chaotic books. I saw you reading Dream of the Red Chamber recently, right? You can't read that book; it's all that chaotic stuff about men and women. You should read uplifting books, like why an apple falls on Newton's head, and then Newton discovered universal gravitation..."

Chai Xiu blinked: "If Newton peed for decades, he never peed on his own face, so why didn't he discover universal gravitation? Instead, he discovered it when an apple fell? So this must be a story made up to fool children."

Chai Mi: "..."

Song Qiushui:!!!

Su Wan looked completely baffled: "Which village is Newton from? Is he a model worker or what? What's the point of studying Newton?"

Chai Mi rubbed her forehead: Alright, neither the uneducated nor the overly educated can be handled.

"I'm leaving."

Chai Mi rode the inverted donkey and left.

Chai Xiu had long been hoping Chai Mi would go out, so she could be free and unrestrained.

Chai Xiu then went into the house to read.

She was willing to read, thought reading was quite fun, and when tired she'd go play with a few little friends; her life was very happy.

But Su Wan was busy to no end. Taking advantage of the third child still sleeping, she helped sort out the extra vegetables Chai Mi had bought, then put some meat into the freezer, busy as could be.

Speaking of selling dumplings, it's the most tiring of all food sales. Normally making dumplings at home is already a huge hassle, let alone selling dumplings for business?

Among them, the most tiring was stewing the dumpling filling.

Su Wan felt some heartache for Chai Mi, but she was busy watching the child and had few ways to help Chai Mi, so she could only sort some vegetables while the child slept.

On the other side, Chai Mi and Song Qiushui left the village and headed straight for Ke County's industrial zone.

Actually it wasn't far; from Chai Mi's home it was only three or five li.

But the industrial zone itself was huge; it looked close, but from one factory to another was quite far, so it wasn't particularly close.

Chai Mi had gone to scout the site the previous noon.

"Yesterday afternoon I went to look at the industrial zone. A few factory gates had vendors, but not many, and only a few people bought. Only the newly opened Zisha Factory had lots of people; I heard it has over a thousand workers, and it's very lively. And right next to it are our Chen Vinegar Factory and Tacheng's Liquor Factory; several factories together, so there are at least three or five thousand workers."

Chai Mi sometimes had to sigh: the productivity of this era was indeed terribly backward.

Take Chen Vinegar Factory: in this era, vinegar is brewed by manual labor. So the workload is especially large, requiring a lot of grain, which means many people are needed.

And the workers have no machinery; everything relies on people carrying things by hand, especially hard work.

If this were later times, maybe just a dozen workers with a bunch of modern machines could get the job done.

But this era is just like this.

High cost and low production efficiency are common problems.

The benefit is that it solved the food problem for many people.

More importantly, it solved the customer source problem for Chai Mi selling things.

Several thousand workers, although the factories don't allow workers to go out to eat.

Chai Mi knew this when she went.

Several factories have their own canteens. Although not explicitly stated that eating outside isn't allowed, bringing food into the factory and getting caught means a fine, which counts as indirectly not allowing eating out.

But people are alive, rules are dead.

There will always be many people running out to eat. Although outside food is a bit more expensive, anyone who's eaten the canteen food knows.

That's truly indescribable.

Chai Mi was telling Song Qiushui, but as it turned out...

The inverted donkey ran out of gas...

"Eldest Sister, you went out without checking how much gas the inverted donkey has? No gas, what do we do?" Song Qiushui also looked dazed.

Chai Mi felt a bit embarrassed: "Last time when Da Zhi rode it over, he kept riding it. After that I forgot to ask him where he refuels."

There are no gas stations near Chai Mi's home.

After all, motorcycles aren't widespread in this era; who would be so lacking in common sense as to open a gas station?

They'd lose so much money their pants would fly off.

Chai Mi sighed; without gas, they could only push it.

The problem was they'd already gone out and couldn't go back. Otherwise the dumpling filling would have to be thrown away tomorrow, a pure loss of a lot of money.

Chai Mi couldn't help feeling helpless; if this era had mobile phones or something, she could call someone to buy gas and deliver it.

Of course, if there were a gas station, that would be even better.

"Oh right, I remember now. There's a gas place right beside the industrial zone. I passed by it yesterday."

"Far?"

"Three or four li..."

"Heh heh..." Song Qiushui was speechless: "What do we do?"

Chai Mi rolled up her sleeves: "I'll push it, what else can we do? Should I let you push? You can't push it either."

Song Qiushui looked at the pots and pans on the inverted donkey, at least two or three hundred catties; she herself felt it was a bit scorching.

Although it had wheels, pushing it shouldn't be especially heavy, but with her small frame……

"Who are you looking down on?" Although the always strong-willed Song Qiushui felt fear in her heart, her mouth was hard as iron: "Who said I can't push it? Today, I'll let you witness this Village Belle's strength. My grandma says I'm a rice bucket all day at home; this proves I'm damn able to eat, and if I can eat, theoretically I should have strength."

Song Qiushui laughed: "Although I eat without getting fat, let others be envious, jealous, and hateful. But I indeed usually eat much more than you. Let me do it?"

Song Qiushui was actually just hard-mouthed.

Even if she couldn't push it, she had to push it.

Other things could be let go, but face had to be kept a little. Of course, the spiritual little sister's attitude toward life was——when there are difficulties, go up; when there are no difficulties, create difficulties and still go up.

Usually Song Qiushui still had to fuss over some work; today, having something to do at last, for the first time in her life pushing an inverted donkey, she had to try.

Only by trying would she know if it would work.

If it didn't work, she would just pretend she hadn't said anything.

Chai Mi stretched out her hand, signaling Song Qiushui could start: "Then you try."

Song Qiushui said okay, then exerted her breastfeeding strength and began pushing hard on this inverted donkey.

The inverted donkey itself wasn't too heavy; plus the miscellaneous stuff, it was only a few hundred catties. When Liu Zhijing delivered it to Chai Mi, he had inflated the tires early on; the tire pressure was very full, and the bearings had also been freshly oiled with engine oil, so pushing it wasn't especially strenuous.

Song Qiushui pushed a few steps and felt she could do it: "Haha. I said this thing is a piece of cake for me, not a problem at all."

"If you get tired, give it to me; don't show off and then regret it."

Song Qiushui pouted: "No way. When I was at home, my mom told me: 'Oh daughter, you eat and drink at Chai Mi's all day; when something comes up, you have to step up……'"

Chai Mi heard this and laughed heartily: "Fine, just listen to your mom; when there's work, fight to do it."

"Exactly." Song Qiushui muttered quietly to herself: "Who told me I have no prospects; eating someone's food makes you short-mouthed, taking someone's hand makes you short-handed. If I don't do some work, how can I have the nerve to eat and drink for free every day?"

Chai Mi didn't mind; the two had a good relationship anyway, so eating and drinking a bit was nothing. Besides, it wasn't the first few years anymore; although the family wasn't well-off, making ends meet wasn't a problem.

However, Meng Shi had spoken, so Chai Mi also had to persuade Song Qiushui: "Don't take your mom's words as imperial edicts. Who are we to each other? If I call you to work, I should naturally provide the meal. If I went out myself, it wouldn't be the same."

Although public security is good now, Chai Mi is a young lady out and about; she's bound to run into some hoodlums. Alone, it would absolutely be bad; with Song Qiushui there, it would be much better.

At least there would be someone to shout slogans and cheer her on.

"Qiu Shui, you've been getting sleepier lately; have you been unwell these past two days?"

"Mm. Not just these two days; recently I haven't been well at all. I just feel tired, tired to death. Don't know what's wrong; terribly sleepy. Oh right, my mom is going to introduce a partner to me in a few days." Song Qiushui said rather helplessly.

"Wasn't it just the day before yesterday she introduced one? Your mom is really idle with nothing to do, introducing partners to you all day."

"Sigh…… this time it seems to be a live-in son-in-law." Song Qiushui said listlessly: "Those two people, always scheming to find me a live-in son-in-law. Saying it's to continue the Old Song Family line, carry on the ancestral lineage……"

Chai Mi froze.

This actually fit Chai Mi's impression of Song Qiushui's family perfectly. Old Song Family's Song Qiuping married Chai Mi's second uncle; at the time they valued that Chai You Fu was silver-tongued, a teacher, and looked passable. The other reason was that Chai You Fu lived nearby.

The Old Song Family had no sons; both families had only daughters.

Following the older generation's tradition, the Old Song Family would become "Che San Wang Er" in the future.

So, they urgently needed a live-in son-in-law.

"Figure it out yourself. Anyway, I don't know any good young men. Our relatives are one poorer than the next, completely unsuitable for you." Chai Mi said frankly: "Anyway, sooner or later you'll have to find a partner; might as well take a look."

"What's there to look at? Can a live-in son-in-law be any good? Can he be not poor? Either old, or poor as a church mouse. I heard my mom say, that relative's family is so poor three people eat with just one pair of chopsticks……" Song Qiushui said indignantly.

"Can't help it." Chai Mi had no solution for this either; after all, in her previous life Song Qiushui married even more tragically; as long as it's not that tragic this life, it's fine.

"Like this, I'll use Xiu'er's words to educate you: with the surrounding poverty like this, you want to find a suitable rich live-in son-in-law? Absolutely impossible. Either you go out and bring one in, or you're rich enough yourself."

Song Qiushui paused: "Forget it; listening to you, I might as well go have Sun Yuguang divine a hexagram for me."

The road wasn't too long; Song Qiushui pushed for a while and was panting heavily.

Chai Mi took over pushing.

Morning, still a bit cool; temperature was moderate, so even though both were sweating from exhaustion, it didn't feel especially hot.

Chai Mi sometimes felt this era's environment was quite good. Although Ke County's environment wasn't bad in the later generations either, the noise of traffic was very loud.

But in this era, mountains good, water good, air good. In the village, besides roosters crowing and dogs barking, there was basically no other noise. Even now on the highway, most are motorcycles. At most a few buses have four wheels; the rest are mostly human-powered inverted donkeys or bicycles.

Wild grasses grew thick on both sides of the highway, a lush green feeling.

Of course, the environment is good, but ahead is an uphill road.

Chai Mi pushed with some difficulty; Song Qiushui also helped push from the side. The two exerted great effort before getting the inverted donkey up the slope.

Chai Mi was exhausted, sweat soaking her back.

Song Qiushui was even more exhausted, plopping down on the ground and refusing to move.

"Aiya, I'm telling you, why did you forget to refuel?" Song Qiushui puffed angrily: "Next time, bring a gas can. Refueling here is troublesome; prepare a bit, fill up before leaving."

"Aiya, heaven has unpredictable storms. It's fine, just out of gas; if it broke down, it'd be worse." Chai Mi comforted herself: "If it broke down, we'd still have to push it back."

"Sigh……" Song Qiushui sighed, helpless to the extreme.

Her arms hurt now.

The truly painful kind of hurt.

Song Qiushui had never done any work in this life; the most labor she'd ever done was probably that time at midnight going to steal watermelons, beating Zhou Fang……

That time Song Qiushui exerted the most strength, struck the heaviest.

For the remaining majority of the time, Song Qiushui lived in pampered comfort.

At home, Song Qiushui had clothes handed to her and meals served; she didn't do work, besides sleeping she just ate, and then dieted……

Fortunately, the remaining distance to the refueling place was very close; Song Qiushui wasn't anxious, just sat and rested a while.

"You know, I suddenly have a feeling, what's it called…… let me think. Mhm mhm, labor is most glorious? No…… self-reliance, not that either. Chai Mi, what's that phrase called?" Song Qiushui looked at Chai Mi asking confusedly.

"Who knows the food on the plate, every grain is hard-earned?"

Song Qiushui shook her head, thought again, as if her dad said: "When exhausted stupid, whatever you eat is damn fragrant."