Chapter 1209: Chapter 1209: Dividing the Money and Grain
Li Yungui thought things through quite well. After setting everything in order here, the brothers left.
In the evening, they rang the bell, and everyone gathered. Li Yungui announced to everyone that money would be distributed tomorrow, "If everyone is quick, we can start distributing the grain in the afternoon."
Someone from the crowd jeered, "Village chief, when it comes to distributing money, who wouldn’t be eager? Don’t worry, there’ll be people lining up bright and early."
The crowd burst into laughter. After a year of hard work, everyone was eagerly looking forward to the joy of tomorrow. Who would possibly be late!
Early the next morning, Jiang Xinyu carried a large bag full of money. Wei Kaiyun glanced at it and his eye twitched.
He took it over and accompanied his wife to the brigade headquarters.
Sure enough, everyone was already there, lined up in a long queue.
Li Yungui spoke first, "This year’s work points will be distributed at thirty-two cents each. Of course, there’s still quite a bit of money left over from our public accounts.
I believe everyone understands the concept of money generating more money. This is reserved for future good opportunities, where we can use the money to earn even more for everyone.
I’ve also resubmitted the application for electricity. I believe everyone must be looking forward to days with electric lights.
This year, we’re also preparing to slaughter all the pigs. That equates to an additional three cents per person.
In total, this year every person in the Li Family Village can exchange their work points for sixty-two cents."
This made everyone even more excited. There was money, grain, and also meat.
Then Li Yunqiang stood up and reported the remaining funds in the village, which astonishingly amounted to over 20,000 yuan. Everyone was thrilled. Over 20,000 yuan; if you packed it in gunny sacks, it would probably fill several bags, wouldn’t it?
Jiang Xinyu sat in front, watching the smiles on everyone’s faces. It felt so simple to find happiness.
After that, Li Yunqiang was responsible for tallying the amounts and checking them off after distribution. Jiang Xinyu was in charge of handing out the money, distributing it by household, which saved a lot of change.
The educated youths were quite excited too. Each of the older educated youths received almost a hundred yuan, not to mention the grain.
Everyone felt a sense of relief, and privately they discussed that if they were treated differently, they would go to the educated youth office.
It seemed they were judging a gentleman with a petty mind.
Although everyone was still quite indifferent to them, no conflicts arose, and they weren’t ostracized. It was just that people weren’t willing to engage with them.
At ten in the morning, all the money had been handed out.
"Village chief, when are we slaughtering the pigs?"
"Hold on, in the next few days we’ll first go to the mountains. Chopping wood will probably take a few days, and there’s quite a bit of fruit on the mountain. Once we’re in the lunar month, we’ll deliver the pigs, and any remaining ones will be slaughtered."
Everyone left with smiles on their faces.
They were just waiting to distribute the grain in the afternoon. This was also done by household. It was more convenient that way.
With ample grain now, Li Yungui wasn’t so stingy anymore, so if a bag was over by a few pounds, he wouldn’t take it out.
Li Manjiang and Changhe were in charge of pushing the grain home, directly putting it into their new house. Qu Xiaoli hoped to move into the new house by the solar New Year. This would save a lot of trouble.
They were leaving tomorrow. Li Manjiang felt reluctant. Because he overindulged last night, Wang Menglin wasn’t feeling well and stayed home to read.
Every time Li Manjiang returned with a load, he’d go inside to check on his wife, causing Wang Menglin to glare at him.
"Menglin, would you come see me off tomorrow?"
"See you off to the city?"
"See me off to the county. I can bring along some photos too."
"Alright, you go push the grain, I’ll go help Xue with cooking."
Tonight they’re making dumplings. It’s quite a big task.
Li Manjiang left with a smile, and Wang Menglin got up too, feeling a bit sore all over.
Qu Xiaoli was happy of course. She wasn’t a stickler for tradition, just wanted her son to be happy.
She used to worry a bit, fearing they hadn’t known each other long enough and that her son wouldn’t stay at home for more than a few days.
But seeing how loving the young couple looked, she finally put her mind at ease.
"Mom, I’m going to see Manjiang off tomorrow and bring back the photos from the county."
"Alright, go ahead. There’s not much to do now anyway."
"Sister-in-law, can I go with you too?" Li Xue actually didn’t want to interfere with her brother and sister-in-law, but she wanted to visit home.
"Sister-in-law, let’s spend a couple of days in the city before coming back."
"Sure, but I won’t stay outside. You can stay a few more days at home.
But aren’t you waiting for Guodong? Dad said they’re about to come back soon?"
"But they’re not back yet." Li Xue sounded a bit resentful. Why aren’t they back yet?
Sometimes when you mention people, they appear. Around five in the afternoon, as it was getting dark, Guodong and Red Army returned.
With two full carts of fish bone powder, and they also brought back shrimp skins and kelp.
Guodong even brought back a bag full of dried shrimp, and various types of dried shellfish.
He eats a lot himself, so of course he knows what’s tasty, and he spent a day deliberately gathering these items.
Jiang Xinyu looked at the bags and bags of dried goods, feeling that Guodong had grown up.
"You need to take some to your in-laws, and some to your second uncle’s family."
"Aunt Jiang, I’ve set some aside for them individually. A bag for each family, with everything divided into smaller bags inside."
"Bring more shrimp skins to your in-laws. Kids need these to help with calcium intake."
"Help with what?"
"It helps the bones grow."
Upon hearing the news, Li Xue dropped making dumplings and ran over.
When Guodong saw his wife, he missed her a lot too. Holding her hand, he said, "Xue’er, I’m back."
Li Xue’s face was full of smiles, "I’m just glad you’re back."
The entire Wei Family had grown used to the couple’s affection and didn’t find it strange anymore.
"Guodong, your second aunt asked you to come over to have dumplings."
"Sure, I brought back these dried goods for my second uncle’s family, let’s go over."
After the young couple left, Jing Chu snorted, "Aunt Jiang, they say daughters are money-losing propositions. I think men are! Look, he just followed his wife right away."
Jiang Xinyu laughed heartily, "Jing Chu, you should hurry up and find someone too, so that this guy stays in our family. Then it won’t be a loss, right?"
Jing Chu was helpless, Aunt Jiang would always bring up this issue whenever she had the chance. It’s not that she didn’t want to find someone; she just hadn’t met anyone she liked!
"I’ll try, but if I do, I’ll bring you a son-in-law who’ll make you sick of seeing him."
"Haha, I’d never. Your aspirations are grand, so hurry up. I’m waiting for that kind of son-in-law."
Zhao Xiaoli chuckled on the side. She had long known that Jing Chu and Guodong considered Jiang Xinyu their mother.
Zhao Xiaoqiang ran in. Today, they went to pick carrots from their private plot. The last cart was filled with damaged ones, which didn’t need to be put in the cellar, just left outside to eat.
"Sister Jiang, Doctor Liu said he’d come over later. He wants to buy some carrots from us."