Chapter 720: The Career Begins Step by Step

Li Jianguo finally decided to place the reed bundle collection point in the front courtyard, which was Li Long's yard.

That courtyard was spacious and contained nothing bulky, making it easy to pile up the reed bundles once they were brought over, and also convenient for loading them onto trucks when the time came.

His own courtyard was cluttered with sundries, including a tractor, plus family members coming and going, which made it inconvenient.

He planned to stay in the front courtyard for the next few days to watch over the reed bundles; although no theft had occurred in recent years in the Fourth Production Team, especially in the new residential area, it was still better to be cautious.

Originally, Li Jianguo's family, like everyone else's, had honestly earned craft money by tying reed bundles, making large brooms, and weaving carrying poles, but now they had suddenly become the contracting party, and both Li Jianguo, who handled operations personally, and Liang Yuemei, who managed logistics, needed a period of adjustment.

Although Li Jianguo lacked experience, he knew he must adhere to one principle: quality had to be absolutely solid.

When younger people with less seniority came to deliver reed bundles, Li Jianguo would not say much; he would simply inspect the quality, rejecting any bundle containing broken or thin reeds, or those insufficient in length or quantity.

As a founding elder of the village, Li Jianguo commanded enough authority; if he declared something substandard, the other party would not argue, accepting his word as law, though Li Jianguo would never make false claims.

As for the older folks, usually no one would seek trouble; when delivering reed bundles, they would chat amiably with Li Jianguo for a few moments, and if their goods were rejected, they accepted it, since after all, everyone was relying on this work to earn money.

Of course, some believed that when Li Long used to collect reed bundles, he had been too strict, and now that Li Jianguo had taken over, the standards would surely relax a bit—it was just a matter of saying so.

But of course, the standards would not truly relax.

Sure enough, Li Jianguo examined the reed bundle again and again, then frowned and said:

"Brother Jianlin, this reed bundle won't do; out of twenty reeds, seven or eight are too thin. If bundles like this are submitted, they'll be rejected." Saying this, he set the bundle aside, making his meaning very clear: substandard, return it.

Chang Jianlin, standing nearby, found his smile stiffening; it wasn't about the thirty-five cents, but rather that he was extremely face-conscious. If it had been just him and Li Jianguo, he would have accepted the rejection without a second word.

But on his way over with the reed bundles, he had run into Ning Yourong from the same residential area. When Ning asked how the quality of his bundles was, Chang, who loved to boast, habitually claimed there was no problem and that every single one would pass inspection; he hadn't expected the very second one checked to fail immediately.

"Jianguo, look at this reed bundle; it's not that bad, is it?" Chang Jianlin cleared his throat lightly, bent down to pick up the bundle, and said, "These reeds... hey, they are indeed a tiny bit thin, but it certainly won't affect their usability. Out of twenty reeds, as long as most are thick enough, isn't that fine? We're old buddies..."

"About that... Brother Jianlin, let me tell you, this is the first time I've taken work from Without Xiao Long. You know about the large broom contract, right? If Without Xiao Long hadn't insisted on quality all along, we wouldn't have secured the subsequent contracts—you must have all heard about this, right?"

Ning Yourong chimed in with a smile:

"Heard it, heard it! Strict quality control is indeed the right approach. We should earn only the money we deserve; those with substandard quality simply shouldn't be accepted."

"Exactly," Li Jianguo continued, "These reed bundles are meant for building houses; if the quality isn't up to scratch and issues arise later... won't I ultimately be the one held responsible?"

Chang Jianlin felt extremely awkward.

"This one is good, this one is also good... See, Brother Jianlin, only when they are all like this does it reflect your true standard." After inspecting two more qualified bundles, Li Jianguo smiled and said:

"Was that unqualified one perhaps due to carelessness because you were busy? I knew it couldn't be intentional..."

"Hey, a child ran over to tell me something at the time; I must have missed it then..." Since Li Jianguo offered a way out, Chang Jianlin immediately took the opportunity to step down, saying, "Rest assured, I'll pay attention from now on. Since we can earn money from this work, how could I possibly ruin it..."

Most people in the team were counting on these two major contracts brought by Li Long to improve their lives.

Usually, they hadn't paid much attention or thought about it, but if they really considered it, if suddenly next year the work of tying large brooms and reed bundles disappeared, while life might not become impossible, the days of eating meat once every ten days or half a month would certainly be gone.

Would their families be willing to accept that?

Would they themselves be willing?

Chang Jianlin unloaded his fifty-six qualified reed bundles; as for the seven or eight unqualified ones, he did not take them back, leaving them directly in the Li family courtyard.

Seeing quite a pile of unqualified bundles already stacked there, Chang Jianlin felt somewhat comforted; it turned out many others had failed inspection too.

These would eventually become firewood for the Li family.

For the fifty-six reed bundles, at thirty-five cents each, Chang Jianlin received nineteen yuan and sixty fen; he counted the money twice before putting it into his pocket, a smile spreading across his face.

Ning Yourong's amount was slightly less, with fewer rejections, and he received sixteen yuan and fifty fen.

The two men drove their horse-drawn and donkey-drawn carts away, one following the other; as they passed the rear courtyard, Chang Jianlin looked at the small four-wheeled tractor in the Li family yard, thinking that if his melon seeds harvested well next year, he would buy one too!

He had bought his seeds from Li Jianguo, and recalling how Li Jianguo had said back then that planting melons next year might not yield much profit and the harvest might even go unsold, Chang Jianlin simply did not believe it.

"Just because your family made money, you don't want others to? Better put away those petty thoughts."

Thinking about working hard all next year so that he too could drive a tractor, zooming all over the fields with a 'put-put-put' sound, Chang Jianlin felt filled with motivation.

This year, tying reed bundles still had to be done well; earning money now meant they could comfortably stay indoors during the winter.

The Li family's path to prosperity stood right there for all to see; some were waiting and watching, while others were copying it.

At present, the villagers already knew that Little Little Haizi had been contracted out to Li Long, yet the Li family had not forbidden others from catching fish in Little Little Haizi.

How had Li Long made his money? Part came from the mountains, and another part came from him and Tao Da smashing holes in the ice during winter, then using sleds and horse-drawn carts to transport the fish to the county town and Shicheng, making trip after trip to sell them.

Then there were the several major contracts that followed, but that was a separate matter.

Just the daily task of smashing ice holes to catch fish was something some could do, but most did not: either they deemed it beneath them, or they disliked the cold and didn't want to do it.

Therefore, this money was not something just anyone could earn. Regardless, the villagers greatly admired Li Long in this regard; at the very least, he could endure such hardship.

How had Li Jianguo earned the money to buy the tractor? Everyone agreed it came from planting melons.

Regarding hunting and fishing, the team members felt they might not compare, but when it came to farming skills, it was hard to say who would yield to whom.

"If you can plant, so can I; we all come from old peasant stock, so who is really worse than whom?"

What they did not know was that ever since Li Jianguo had disposable income, he had followed Li Long's advice; whether planting wheat, corn, melons, or oil sunflowers, he used considerable amounts of chemical fertilizer. By late winter or before spring plowing began, the Li family would always haul fertilizer home by the tractor-load.

Li Long vaguely remembered data he had seen in his previous life indicating that after the Reform and Opening-up, at least half the credit for the increase in grain yields among farmers went to chemical fertilizers.

Therefore, while sending Gu Gu Bo Yuan to open an agricultural supplies store, he had also frequently nagged Li Jianguo to use more chemical fertilizer.

As for which types to use, drawing on experience from his previous life, he recommended urea, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, superphosphate, and so on.

It all boiled down to nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Li Jianguo had never mentioned this to others, nor was there any need to; everyone knew chemical fertilizers were useful since the village's founding, but why did other families use so little? Simply because it cost money.

Li Jianguo had also realized that the return on investment for chemical fertilizers was excellent; spending one hundred yuan on fertilizer spread over the fields felt like yielding extra grain that could sell for at least one hundred seventy, eighty, or even over two hundred yuan.

That made it worthwhile.

But the team members were not entirely clear on this; when money was tight, they were reluctant to make such investments, currently relying more on manure.

Li Jianguo would not take the initiative to explain this to them; life's lesson was that people never truly learn from others' experiences—they had to feel it themselves to understand.

As Chang Jianlin walked back, he saw others pulling reed bundles toward the Li family, some with large loads, some with small, all chatting and laughing.

Alas, when everyone first arrived at this production team, they were all about the same; although not exactly proletarians, basically possessing nothing more than a set of clothes and a quilt.

Over these years, at first it still felt much the same; everyone lived in mud-brick houses, and furniture was acquired piece by piece.

How could things change so drastically in just two years? Others have become bosses, while I'm still working for someone else?

I can't figure it out, I just can't figure it out.

Li Jianguo hadn't expected that after notifying everyone one day and starting collection the next, they would gather nearly a thousand reed bundles on the first day, and over eight hundred more on the second.

The original plan was to finish collecting in twenty days, but seeing how things were going, it would be done in about ten.

Everyone's morale is really high!

But thinking about it, although making reed bundles requires cutting reeds and stripping reed leaves just like making large brooms, tying them together is much easier than making the brooms.

The team members were also giving their all, so naturally, the output was high at the start and slowed down a bit later. On the third day, Li Long brought Song Ming over to haul the reed bundles.

Actually, on the very first day of collecting reed bundles, Li Long had already gone to Shicheng.

When he drove his jeep to Shicheng, he first went to his older sister Li Xia's home.

Hongqin was still at school; Li Xia was sewing something in the courtyard. Seeing Li Long's jeep arrive at the gate, she smiled, stood up, and welcomed him inside.

Li Long saw that what Li Xia was sewing was a small piece of clothing, and since it was too small to be for Hongqin, he smiled and asked:

"Sister, are you sewing these for Mingming and Haohao?"

"Yes. Although Shicheng and Maqie aren't far apart, I haven't had time to visit the two children, so I thought I'd sew some clothes for them to wear." Li Xia went inside and brought out several more small garments, along with tiny cloth shoes and socks.

"Hey, these look really nice!" Li Long took the blue cotton garment; although small, the stitching was very neat, and every part was exquisitely made. He praised her, saying, "Sister, your hands are truly skillful!"

"Where's the skill? I'm just fumbling around blindly," Li Xia said modestly. "What brings you here this trip? Is everything well at home?"

"Everything is fine. Father has returned from our hometown and entered all of us into the family genealogy; your name is there, and Hongqin's too."

!

"Really?" Li Xia asked in joyful surprise, "My name is there too?"

Li Xia's reaction was quite intense; Li Long didn't quite understand it, but he nodded vigorously anyway:

"Yes, I saw it myself. Your name, Brother-in-law's, Eldest Sister-in-law's, Second Sister-in-law's, Hongqin's, Juan's, Li Xue Qin's, and Li Xue Ping's are all there... This was something Father specifically went back to accomplish..."

"Oh my goodness—" Li Xia's lips trembled; she was so excited she didn't know what to say.

Li Long had lived in the Northern Frontier for over a decade and was already accustomed to the living conditions there, so he wasn't particularly concerned about family genealogies.

But Li Xia had always lived in their hometown, where the living environment had taught her how difficult it was for a woman to be entered into the family genealogy!

From ancient times until now, even though the nation had been founded for many years, in the minds of many people, women's status remained low; the preference for sons over daughters was deeply engraved in the bones of most people. For a woman to gain any status, she had to contribute many times more than a man.

As for being entered into the genealogy? That was simply impossible... Yet Father had actually managed it?

Li Long didn't understand, but he respected it. He didn't interrupt Li Xia as she processed the news, instead going to the back seat of the jeep to carry a bag of rice into the kitchen in the courtyard.

Although Chen Chen Xingbang had a salary and food shouldn't be a worry here, Li Long thought that since this rice was produced by the Fourth Small Team, it was quite famous within a hundred-li radius. The rice itself was fragrant, so he wanted his sister's family to taste the new grain.

Once Li Xia recovered her composure, she hurriedly found a cloth wrapper to bundle up the clothes and shoes she had made and placed them in the vehicle.

Li Long told her he still needed to go to the sugar factory to find someone for business, and he asked Li Xia if they had enough sugar residue.

"Enough, we can last another month or two," Li Xia said quickly. "I've dried it all and stored it away; there's no need to bring more right now."

"Then I'll wait another month or so before bringing some more over," Li Long said.

Although she wanted to keep her brother to chat, Li Long had important matters to attend to, so Li Xia saw him out the door.

When Li Long had passed by the market earlier, he noticed there were no signs of storefronts being built yet; that would likely happen next year, so he headed straight for the sugar factory.

Waiting at the back gate for Song Ming, Song Ming found it somewhat strange that Li Long was waiting there at this time.

"There's new work," Li Long said only after Song Ming had unloaded the sugar residue and driven the truck back. "I need to haul reed bundles from the village to the county town. Since you're helping haul the sugar residue anyway and would be returning to Huicheng with an empty truck, counting the freight and the time delayed, I'll give you twenty per load..."

"Hey..." Song Ming quickly waved his hand. "Comrade Li Long, you're being too distant. I do earn money, but I can't earn it like this. You gave me a week's worth of work hauling sugar residue, allowing me to earn an extra eighty or hundred a month; bringing things back for you on the return trip was just incidental. If I take money for that too..."

"One thing is one thing, another is another. Hauling reed bundles means loading two or three thousand per truck; loading and unloading takes time, and you'd have to wait, returning late at night..."

"That's no trouble; which of us drivers hasn't traveled night roads..."

The two pushed and yielded between them, finally settling on Li Long paying an extra ten yuan per load, considering it fuel money.

Doing this work, both felt they had taken advantage of the other.

Both felt a bit embarrassed.

"I'll come to deliver the sugar residue the day after tomorrow; you must be in the village then, at least for this first trip, you have to guide me over," Song Ming set the time.

"That's definitely no problem," Li Long said. "I'll wait for you at Old Ma's compound then."

With Li Long's assurance, Song Ming felt relieved.

Two days later, when Song Ming drove the sugar residue to Old Ma's compound, not only was Li Long there, but Tao Da and several others he had called were also present. These people helped unload the sugar residue, then assisted Old Uncle Luo in stacking it properly, while Li Long drove the jeep ahead to lead the way, guiding Song Ming to his own courtyard.

After Tao Da and the others finished organizing the sugar residue, they didn't stand on ceremony; each took a sack of sugar residue home. Although Tao Da's donkey cart had been given to his older brother, the chickens and pigs his family raised ate this stuff. Other households were the same; if they raised livestock, they wouldn't be picky about this feed.

Seeing the truck arrive, Li Jianguo organized the people he had called to help with loading.

There was still some sugar residue not fully cleaned from the large truck, so he took a large broom, climbed aboard, and swept those scraps off the truck sides—while inwardly grumbling that young people were always so rash and not careful enough.

Song Ming wanted to help load the truck, but Li Long told him to rest. On Li Jianguo's side, there was Lu Yingming, including their family's Tie Tou, Li Long, and several neighbors from the front and back courtyards, all helping to start loading.

If loaded directly, the truck couldn't hold many reed bundles; Li Jianguo had already known this when Li Long previously loaded the carrying poles. He inserted two poles on each side of the truck bed, effectively raising the height of the cargo area, allowing much more to be loaded.

Once the truck was loaded and secured with ropes—not tied too tightly—Li Li Qing Xia returned from the reservoir, carrying fish. He asked Li Long to divide some up, pack them into urea bags, and hand them to Song Ming.

"There isn't enough time to clean them for you; you'll have to clean them yourself when you get back," Li Long said. "These are small crucian carp; stewed into soup, they are especially fresh."

"Hey, getting paid for work and receiving fish too? Comrade Li Long, you are too polite..."

"No need to say such things; we'll be cooperating for a long time to come."

Because time was tight, neither Li Long nor Song Ming ate here; the two drove their vehicles one after the other toward the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

The main gate of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative had long been closed, but fortunately, the gatekeeper had known about Li Long's situation for the past two years; when there was work to be done, let alone while it was still light, even if it were dark, these goods still had to be unloaded into the back courtyard.

Finding help at this time was not easy; Li Long and Song Ming unloaded the truck themselves, working busily for over another hour, finishing unloading the reed bundles only after darkness fell.

Li Long thanked Song Ming for his hard work; since there was nowhere to eat at this hour, and Song Ming was eager to return quickly to handle those crucian carp—these fish were nothing special to Li Long, but for someone like Song Ming whose family lived in the city, they were quite a rarity.

The next day, Li Long came to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative again; when he looked for Xiang Qian, Xiang Qian naturally knew this was to inspect and verify the reed bundles, so he handed the matter over to the warehouse keeper.

Li Long could clearly feel that this time, the Cooperative did not attach much importance to the inspection and verification of the reed bundles.

He guessed that the cooperative's leaders probably knew this reed-bundle work wouldn't last long, and thus didn't take it very seriously.

Regardless, he still had to do his own job well; as for the maneuvering above, that was beyond his control.

The first batch of reed bundles he turned in numbered two thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven; the warehouse keeper gave him face, approving them all, signing, and writing the slip.

Li Long went to the finance department to collect the money, told Xiang Qian, and then returned to the big courtyard.

He truly intended to spend this period properly accompanying his family.

Of course, he also needed to check whether the market's storefronts had been completed.

After all, this was a major matter.

Buying a storefront marked the true beginning of commercialization, regardless of whether he used it himself.

Of course, in Li Long's view, setting up a factory would be the real start; one must proceed step by step and could not rush. (End of Chapter)