Chapter 558: This time, people were really screwed

In the Fourth Team, almost every household had reed bundles lying in their courtyard.

Ordinary people would harvest a large bundle of reeds, tie them directly with reeds, leave them outside, and then haul them back after harvesting for a morning or afternoon.

It was 1983, and most families had donkey carts, a few had horse carts, and there were only two tractors, both belonging to the Li family.

Tao Daqiang was also pulling reeds in his own courtyard, his mind filled with the face of his child.

At this time, pregnant women didn't have as much nutrition as in later generations, and the child was wrinkled when born. He only saw it once at the health center before the nurse wrapped it up and placed it beside Yang Pingping.

Later, when Yang Pingping came back to observe the postpartum month, she went to her maiden home. After all, Tao Daqiang's mother was gone, and his eldest brother had also separated the family, so there was no one at home to take care of the postpartum month.

Yang Pingping would come back after the month was over; there were only a few days left.

Tao Daqiang basically went to his father-in-law's house every day, even if he couldn't see Yang Pingping and the child, it was good to listen to the child's voice from outside.

He picked up the fishing net again and caught fish every day. Crucian carp stew was good for lactation, but after catching it a few times, his father-in-law wouldn't let him catch it anymore. First, they couldn't finish it, and it wasn't frozen yet, so it couldn't be stored. Second, Yang Pingping didn't lack milk.

Actually, his father-in-law and mother-in-law were people who came from the Loess Plateau, and they were still a bit patriarchal. They were also worried that Tao Daqiang would blame Yang Pingping because she gave birth to a girl.

But looking at the current situation, Tao Daqiang didn't have this thought at all.

They felt relieved and took good care of their daughter.

Tao Daqiang didn't do much reed harvesting; these reeds were harvested by Tao Jian She. This old man had been in high spirits since his transformation.

Right now, life at home was getting better and better. Tao Daqiang had earned a lot of money catching fish, earned some money weaving carrying poles, and also earned some money tying large brooms.

And he planned to earn some more money by tying reed bundles next, and before spring arrived, he would discuss with Tao Daqiang about buying a tractor directly.

The Tao family's life had always been at the bottom of the village. His wife passed away early, and after his eldest son Tao Dayong separated the family, he lived with Daqiang. Life wasn't exactly starving, but at least before last year, they had never eaten a solid, good meal.

His younger son had good vision and good luck, following Li Long, and their life was getting better and better.

People's spirits also needed support. The Tao family was among the first in the whole village to have a donkey cart. He only regretted that at the beginning of the year, when Tao Daqiang wanted to follow Li Long to plant watermelon, he didn't follow.

If he had followed, the Li family would have given them a few kilograms of seeds anyway.

At that time, let alone planting a lot, even if they planted five mu of land, that would have been earning more than two thousand yuan!

Regret was regret, but Tao Jian She also knew that seizing the present was what mattered.

So after the work in the fields was finished and people in the team started harvesting reeds, he also rode the donkey cart to harvest them.

Although he wouldn't harvest more than others, he wouldn't harvest much less either.

After Tao Daqiang returned from the health center, he would also follow to harvest reeds during the day, and only go to his father-in-law's house after hauling the reeds back.

Tao Daqiang just felt that the people in the team were too crazy.

Usually, it would basically be December by the time the people in the team finished harvesting the reeds in the two reed lakes. And those who were diligent would go to harvest the reeds in the Small Haizi at least after the Small Haizi froze, which was almost January.

But this year, it only started in November, and the reeds in the two reed lakes were basically gone. The Small Haizi wasn't completely frozen yet, but some people dared to wear thin clothes and harvest reeds on the edge of the waist-deep Small Haizi.

They didn't want their lives for the sake of money.

If they couldn't harvest reeds, they could only pull reeds. Some people pulled and tied reed bundles at the same time, according to last year's standards. Like Tao Daqiang, they kept in line with the Li Jianguo family, pulling all the reeds out first.

Tying reed bundles wasn't urgent; they would wait until there was movement on Li Long's side.

Otherwise, if they were tied into reed bundles, it would be difficult to restore them.

The air above the three residential points was filled with reed fluff. When eating, everyone had reed fluff stuck to their bodies; it was reed catkins. Even when Li Juan took Li Qiang to school, they had it on them.

When Li Qiang was young and mischievous, he liked to use matches to light this, but now he didn't dare to light it. It was everywhere in the courtyard at home; if lit, it would cause a fire, and he knew the severity of that.

The Fourth Team had large stacks of wheat straw on the threshing floor every summer, and every family had large stacks of reeds in winter, but there had basically been no fires for so many years. The most important point was that every family kept their children very well-behaved.

Even when setting off firecrackers during the New Year, the children knew to stay far away from the grass stacks. If there really was a grass fire somewhere, the children would really go to put it out.

Tao Daqiang had also learned to think about problems by following Li Long over the past two years. He heard his old man say that at least one-third of the families in the team had nothing to do and had already started tying reed bundles while pulling reeds.

Tao Daqiang felt that this was not appropriate, but he couldn't persuade others.

He could talk to those who had a good relationship with Li Long, but for those with an average relationship, if you went to talk, they would instead suspect you had some ulterior motive.

Anyway, things were done by people, and everyone was an adult and had to be responsible for their own actions.

His family only pulled reeds, and the pulled reed leaves were piled together to be used for starting fires in winter.

Every family's reed leaves were used this way, of course, if the hairy reeds weren't sold, they were also used this way.

After all, you couldn't just use charcoal to set up a stove in winter; usually, hairy reeds were at the bottom layer, corn cobs in the middle, and coal was at the very top.

Tao Daqiang actually wanted to go to the county to ask Li Long how the reed bundles were specifically handled, but thinking that since Li Long hadn't returned, he probably hadn't received the job.

Actually, adding his father Tao Jian She's money, Tao Daqiang had barely saved enough money for a tractor now. But after buying the tractor, there wouldn't be much money left at home.

He could still break ice holes to catch fish in winter, but he thought that if the job of selling reed bundles could be done once, saving more money, life at home would be more affluent.

So he was actually hoping that Li Long could receive this job.

At least if Li Long received this job, the money distributed to the people in the team would be more.

If it were someone else, it might not necessarily allow the people in the team to get that much money.

Everyone actually knew about this matter, and occasionally someone would make a fuss, just because they couldn't stand Li Long getting more money.

And they didn't have the ability to get work from the supply and marketing cooperative.

If Li Long were replaced by a stranger from the township or county, they wouldn't dare to say a word.

Instead, precisely because Li Long grew up in this village and they knew what he was like when he was a teenager, they were jealous.

How could they not be jealous that such an ordinary teenager now had wind and rain?

Tao Daqiang also slowly realized this truth.

He wasn't jealous of Li Long; he felt that Li Long should have that ability. Watching Li Jianguo in this team since he was a child, back when it was still a large collective cooperative and a big pot of rice, that group of theirs ate better than other groups.

That was ability.

Wasn't it normal for Li Long to have ability?

Li Qing Xia was over sixty years old and still so good at catching fish.

Which old man in the team could do that?

Li Anguo went to Kuitun and became a formal worker in less than three months.

It felt like there wasn't a single mediocre person in the Li family.

Thinking too much was useless; just do your own thing well. He felt that the distance between him and Li Long was getting further and further, but he was already doing pretty well right now. Buying a tractor next year and making money from watermelons would make him one of the best people in the village.

In two years, going from having almost the worst family background in the team to being among the best right now, what else could he ask for?

Tao Daqiang was actually a person who was content with what he had.

Xu Jianjun was tying reed bundles in the courtyard.

His wife was helping on the side, and he kept saying:

"We must raise the standard this year. Last year, there were still Hu Lao Er and Hu Lao San following to collect those of average quality. This year, there's definitely no one competing with Li Long. If we set a low standard and he doesn't collect them, then we'll be in trouble."

Like Wang Cai Mi, he initially suspected that the Li family was cheating the villagers by getting watermelon seeds, but he didn't expect it to be published in the newspaper in the end. By the time he went to buy them, it was already too late.

He, Wang Cai Mi, and some others in the village who wanted to buy but didn't buy watermelon seeds laughed at Tao Dayong for buying shriveled seeds. Tao Dayong didn't explain. Who could have thought that after those women talked a lot, Tao Dayong's wife, Ma Aihong, revealed the truth:

"Those shriveled seeds can all germinate!"

Now no one laughed.

Since those seeds could germinate, it meant that there would be no problem planting them next year. At most, the seedlings might not grow well, and they might need more fertilizer then.

A bag of chemical fertilizer cost less than ten yuan; compared to the income of four or five hundred per mu of land, what was that?

Now it was Xu Jianjun and Wang Cai Mi's turn to be jealous of Tao Dayong.

But he had no way. He went to find Brother Dang, Xu Chengjun, wanting to get some watermelon seeds from him, but was driven out by his sister-in-law, Ma Hongmei.

They looked down on others when they hadn't fully risen, and couldn't curry favor when they had risen. To put it bluntly, they couldn't even catch up to the hot stuff if they ate shit. Ma Hongmei naturally had opinions about this cousin-in-law who still wanted to pry into their family's fortune-making plan.

Xu Chengjun acquiesced to his wife's behavior.

Among his cousins, Xu Haijun was not bad, Xu Dejun was also okay, Xu Fei Hu had some small cleverness, but at least he wasn't stupid. But this Xu Jianjun, with such an atmospheric name, only did things without an asshole. He couldn't help even if he wanted to.

Xu Jianjun had no way to find a way to plant watermelons. He had inquired about all the seed companies nearby, and also went to the roasted goods factory. People had long since roasted those watermelon seeds—

The large pot in the roasted goods factory couldn't be compared to the large pot in an ordinary family. One pot could roast dozens of kilograms. More than a ton of watermelon seeds were roasted in less than two days.

He had no choice but to exert effort on these reed bundles. He thought that after tying these reeds harvested at home, he would lead the donkey cart to see where there were reeds further away to harvest some more.

This was the last sum of money he could earn this year.

Once earned, he would also buy a bicycle!

By mid-November, Tao Daqiang's wife, Yang Pingping, finally finished observing the postpartum month, and Tao Daqiang drove the donkey cart to pull her and the child back to his home.

The child, who was originally wrinkled, saw its head and face become smooth. Although it hadn't fully grown, it wasn't as ugly as when it was just born.

Families with good relationships sent things over.

Li Long finally returned driving the tractor, sent brown sugar, milk powder, malted milk, and other things to Tao Daqiang's family, and also gave the child a red envelope.

!.

People he met were all asking Li Long about the reed bundles. Li Long still hadn't received the job, but knowing that some families were already tying reed bundles, he suggested not tying them yet.

Because he didn't know if there was this job this year.

Li Long returned to his eldest brother's house and told his parents, eldest brother, and sister-in-law a piece of good news:

"Xiaoxia is pregnant, one month!"

"What?" Unexpectedly, the first to react was Du Chunfang. "She's pregnant? Really?"

"Really." Li Long himself was also very excited. He only came back to report the news to his family after he was sure.

"That's really great!" Liang Yuemei was also very excited. She had watched Gu Xiaoxia grow up and had taken care of her a lot during her growth. Now that they were closer, she was naturally happy.

"Hehe." Li Qing Xia just smiled; this was a great thing.

Li Long had been married for several months and hadn't seen any movement from his daughter-in-law. He and Du Chunfang hadn't been without suspicion privately.

But after all, one was a son and the other was a national cadre, so it wasn't easy to say.

Now that she was pregnant, everyone was happy.

Li Jianguo only asked one sentence:

"Did you tell Old Gu?"

"I told him. Uncle Gu told me to hurry over and report the good news to you."

"Then should I go to the county to take care of Xiaoxia?" Liang Yuemei suddenly asked.

"No, no, sister-in-law, no need," Li Long hurriedly waved his hand. "Xiaoxia said there's no reaction at all right now. Besides, we have someone specifically cooking over there. If you go, what will happen to this big family here?"

Liang Yuemei was actually a bit worried.

It was said that Gu Xiaoxia was pregnant, so the husband's family should definitely show something, but she really couldn't leave here.

"Then I..."

"Sister-in-law, you can just make some tiger-head shoes for the child when you have time," Li Long said with a smile.

"Alright!"

"Then I'll make a small cotton-padded jacket," Du Chunfang was also in high spirits. "I don't know if it will be a son or a daughter then."

Although she was a bit patriarchal, she knew Li Long wasn't. Alright, as long as it was the youngest son's child, either gender was fine.

Moreover, looking at it here right now, Li Juan and Li Qiang were both good, and Xue Ping and Xue Qin were also good. Having lived in the Fourth Team for so long, she also felt that, well, this child, as long as it was their own family's, it was fine.

Of course, she still had to be biased towards Li Long.

After Li Long reported the news to his family, the family calculated that Li Long had everything there. Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei still forcibly loaded two bags of this year's new rice into Li Long's tractor.

Actually, after Sister Yang knew Gu Xiaoxia was pregnant, she insisted on moving to Li Long's big courtyard to take care of Gu Xiaoxia.

Gu Xiaoxia hurriedly refused. Just kidding, what time was it now? She had only been pregnant for a month, how could she be so delicate?

Instead, Li Long gave Sister Yang one hundred yuan, asking her to make the meals more refined from now on. If Gu Xiaoxia needed anything or wanted to eat anything, she should just buy it and make it.

It wasn't that he didn't want to give more money. First, Sister Yang didn't even want this one hundred yuan itself; she said she had money. Second, in the current economic situation, one hundred yuan was already a lot.

Think about Li Jianguo selling a live big fat pig; the acquisition station only gave a live weight price of 0.9 yuan, and a pig of over one hundred kilograms only got ninety-something yuan.

Li Long's meaning was to give Sister Yang some money every once in a while, in short, to make up for Gu Xiaoxia's nutrition.

Of course, as for whether Gu Xiaoxia would get fat, Li Long knew that such a thing wouldn't happen. Gu Xiaoxia wasn't a glutton, and she was a national cadre, so she attached great importance to her own image.

National cadres shouldn't be too fat. There weren't many fat people in this day and age.

When Li Long was driving the tractor to the county, someone stopped him to ask about the reed bundles, and he could only explain patiently.

Actually, he was also a bit puzzled. In previous years, the reed bundle job would have come down long ago; why was it so late this year?

However, the supply and marketing cooperative hadn't assigned the job, so it wasn't easy for him to let the villagers tie them themselves. As for those who didn't listen, he had no way.

Old Luo Shu from the old horse corral said it was winter and there wasn't much feed, so Li Long went to Shicheng again to haul two loads of sugar residue and chatted with Section Chief Hu and Song Ming.

Finally, a heavy snow fell, marking the official arrival of the cold winter.

And Li Long, who ran to the supply and marketing cooperative from time to time, finally got a piece of news from Li Xiangqian.

"Last year's reed bundles were twenty thousand. This year's are still twenty thousand." Li Xiangqian was also dusty and tired. He had just returned from Wucheng and told Li Long directly after receiving this task:

"I've taken it on for you. Can you complete it?"

"No problem, the standard hasn't changed, right?"

"It has changed," Li Xiangqian said. "Last year's reed bundles had ten reeds each. This year, it's required that each has twenty reeds. Of course, the price has also increased. Last year, one reed bundle was 0.2 yuan; this year, it's 0.5 yuan, which counts as a price increase. But the quality still needs to be very high."

As soon as Li Long heard it, he knew it was bad.

Those people in the village who had already tied reed bundles were going to be miserable this time.

"Is it still three thin iron wires?"

"Yeah, the length hasn't changed, the iron wires haven't changed, it's just the number of reeds that has changed. It should be that after practice, they felt that small reed bundles weren't as useful as large reed bundles."

Maybe. It seemed there wasn't such trouble in his previous life? Had it always been small reed bundles?

Could it be that this was something he had fanned into existence again?

Not very likely, right? He wasn't involved in the construction industry?

Li Long knew that this time, someone was going to be unlucky again. Those people in the village who had tied the reed bundles in advance were going to be in trouble this time.

Li Long got the errand from Li Xiangqian and returned to the big courtyard, but didn't return to the team immediately.

He had to tell Gu Xiaoxia first and wait until tomorrow morning to return to the team.

His plan for the future was to haul as many reed bundles back to the big courtyard as he collected every day.

This stuff was relatively dangerous if placed in the team. If someone really set it on fire, that would be a big trouble.

After all, there were only so many reeds. If all the reeds in the entire team were harvested, the reed bundles that could be tied would only be thirty or forty thousand.

If the ones he had inspected were burned, it really wouldn't be certain that they could be replenished later.

He could afford the loss of money, but there weren't so many reeds that could be lost.

So Li Long had to be cautious.

He earned a lot of money, and he thought there must be many people in the team or other places who were jealous.

After talking to Gu Xiaoxia at night, Gu Xiaoxia didn't need him to take care of her and told him to go to the team and manage this well.

"I will come back every night. Anyway, you'll be off work by then," Li Long said. "Don't worry, I will take care of both sides."

Anyway, he was only collecting; the work was handed over to others.

It was just that he didn't know what the reaction of those people in the team who had already tied reed bundles would be when they heard this standard right now? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 559 =====