Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 211

Zhao Tieyue was puzzled and confused.

Zhao Tingxu was also called Seventh Uncle, but he wasn't home, so I didn't have much of an impression of the old man Zhao Tingxu. I also didn't have much of an impression of Wang Guixiang.

However, he now has a very good impression of Zhao Da'e. You see, even though he has lived in the city for a long time and knows that wages are higher there, a woolen overcoat is still a luxury.

He brought his "girlfriend" back home this time. It was freezing cold back home. Even with a stove burning inside, it was still incredibly cold outside.

When they returned, although they brought some slightly warmer clothes, it was clear that Zhao Tieyue's "girlfriend" had underestimated the winter in Northeast China.

There was no way to even stretch out one's hand.

Zhao Tieyue originally wanted to take her out to play, to see the snow and ice, but they were so cold at the door that they had to go back inside.

It's true that even five minutes outside the door can make your soul tremble.

If Zhao Tieyue had this wool coat, his girlfriend probably wouldn't be so cold and could go out for a stroll.

In rural areas, saving face is everything.

In remote and traditionally backward villages like Dongtaizi Village, the most common gossip revolves around who got married, who had a partner, and who was capable.

The most discussed topic was getting married.

A man who has a wife is considered capable. No matter how his life turns out, at least he has a wife, right? That makes him superior. If he can have a son, he can hold his head high, be proud of himself, and be worthy of his ancestors, having fulfilled his duty of carrying on the family line.

If someone like Zhao Tieyue is twenty-seven or twenty-eight, even if you're studying, but you don't even have a partner, then you're a good-for-nothing.

The villagers don't care what you say, they're not in a hurry, they'll take their time, they're studying, and all that nonsense.

Men without partners are trash.

Zhao Tieyue grew up in the area, so he naturally knew this. Therefore, he brought back a "female classmate" for two reasons: first, the two were indeed dating, and the girl wanted to visit his hometown during the winter break; second, he also wanted to show her around the streets so others could see that he, Zhao Tieyue, also had a "girlfriend," preventing people from gossiping behind his back and calling him trash.

Therefore, the value of this wool coat increased rapidly.

Zhao Tingming refused several times, but Zhao Dage insisted on giving it to him, so Zhao Tingming had Zhao Tieyue take it inside.

After Zhao Tingming saw Zhao Tieyue leave, he sighed, "Big Goose, look at you, always wasting money. Buying such expensive things, I'm embarrassed at my age."

"Excuse me, could you grant me a hundred or two hundred acres of orchards?"

Zhao Tingming: "Um... Big Goose, you're always so opportunistic. But this won't do. It's government property, we can't give it to individuals."

Dongtaizi Village is located on a platform to the south, with a large apple orchard covering an area of ​​two to three thousand mu. These apple trees were planted a very long time ago.

This history can be traced back to Zhao Tingming's childhood.

That was planted decades ago.

Dongtaizi Village used to be a flat plain.

Of course, this was told by the ancestors of the Zhao family. The Zhao family migrated to Northeast China during the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty. Perhaps back then, this place was truly flat with no mountains.

Later, as the population grew, they started cutting down trees, building houses, and making firewood. They did all sorts of things.

More than a hundred years later, soil erosion became particularly severe, resulting in the formation of mountains and gullies.

By the time Zhao Tingming was a child, the area around Dongtaizi had become a hilly region. This area received a lot of rain back then, and the topsoil on the mountains had been largely washed away, leaving only bluestone underneath.

After that, the village organized everyone to plant trees.

At the very top of the mountain, pine trees were planted, all small larch trees. Below that, wild apricot trees were planted first, and then apple trees were planted in the better soil.

However, there is still some yield from the apple trees, since the soil quality is acceptable.

Further down, some land was left uncultivated, used for grazing cattle.

Since these orchards are collective property of the village, it is obviously unlikely that they would be distributed to individuals.

This is different from the last time Zhao Tingming sold Zhao Da'e's backyard to Zhao Da'e. After all, Zhao Tiesheng himself could be allocated a plot of land to build a house, which makes sense from any perspective.

But it's absolutely unacceptable to give this orchard to Zhao Da'e; the village would be in an uproar.

"Oh dear... all those apples are gone. Did the village receive them? Weren't they all stolen?" Zhao Da'e said, pouting.

Zhao Da'e is absolutely right. Although Dongtaizi Village has thousands of acres of orchards, in the end, they can barely harvest a few baskets of apples.

Firstly, these apple trees were planted many, many years ago. They are old and haven't been pruned or cared for for a long time, resulting in them growing freely without any pruning or maintenance. This free growth leads to a greater quantity of fruit – a natural instinct for reproduction. However, the fruit becomes ridiculously small. Small, unripe, and astringent fruit with a poor taste, so few people eat them.

Of course, some fruit trees did produce good fruit, but they were discarded very early... Anyway, since they were public fruit trees, if you didn't take them, I would. Since nobody cared, all the good-quality fruit from the trees was thrown away, and nobody wanted the bad or unpalatable fruit.

Secondly, the variety is too outdated. These aren't even regular apples; they're very old varieties. The market can't accept them; at best, they're only good for local people to eat. The advantage is high yield, but the disadvantage is that they taste terrible. Moreover, it's not just one village nearby; other villages also have this type of apple tree. Some villages have better-managed trees and can sell their produce for some money, but the apples from the trees in Dongtaizi Village are completely unwanted and nobody wants them.

Thirdly, there's the climate. Spring frosts are common here, often occurring around the Qingming Festival (early April). However, this coincides with the apple tree's flowering period. There's essentially no solution to this problem unless the apple trees are forced to delay flowering. Otherwise, the flowers are easily killed or spoiled by the cold, and the fruit yield is inconsistent.

Everything is up to fate.

When you're lucky, the late spring cold snap might come a little earlier or later, allowing you to successfully survive the flowering period or even fail to bloom at all.

Therefore, for various reasons, this apple orchard is basically a useless choice.

The village was already poor, so poor that no one wanted to be a group leader anymore. The village couldn't even pay wages, so naturally they wouldn't bother with fruit trees that didn't generate any profit.

However, although this thing isn't worth much, it belongs to the village, so it's not worth much. But if Zhao Tingming distributes it to individuals, that won't work.

Someone will definitely step forward.

Actually, by this time, the South had already divided up the land, but the North was still figuring it out.

As for more remote villages like Dongtaizi Village, the land is contracted out, but that's still very limited. Most of it is concentrated land within the village.

The land that Zhao Da'e's family cultivates is wasteland.

The land was reclaimed by Zhao Dage's parents themselves and does not belong to the village collective.

This is under the condition that no one is in charge; otherwise, it would be unreasonable to reclaim wasteland.

Zhao Tingming didn't care about that: "Big Goose, what you're talking about can't be done, it won't work. At most, you can contract it for one to three years, or you can be in charge of managing that forest. Anyway, it's not worth much, so it's okay if you manage it. But I advise you not to think too much about it, let's talk about it later. Your mother isn't home, and you're making your father get a shredder, your family won't be able to handle it."

Zhao Da'e naturally knew she couldn't handle it all. She wasn't doing any work herself, and she had to go to school next year, so she would have even less time.

Zhao Da'e didn't really want to go to school, but now that she's of school age, if she doesn't go, people will say she's not ambitious.

However, she was still quite envious of such a large mountain range. But as much as she envied it, she decided to take it one step at a time.

"Then I'll sign up first. When the land is allocated later, I want to contract it all."

Zhao Tingming laughed and said, "Alright, alright, you can go first."

Zhao Tingming was naturally unaware that a new way of life would emerge in the next year or two, where not only would production be contracted to individual households, but the land would also be divided equally for thirty years without change.

But Zhao Da'e knew.

The land is worthless right now, and nobody wants it because many things are unstable and have undergone too many changes, so this needs a process.

Of course, the most important thing is that at this time, both grains and fruits are extremely cheap.

The low price will result in low enthusiasm from the general public.

In reality, it doesn't always have a significant impact on the household responsibility system. It's more about economic benefits.

If corn consistently sells for only two cents a pound, the yield per acre will naturally be low. The harvest from one acre of grain wouldn't even cover ten or eight days' worth of migrant work, so everyone would go out to work. A bricklayer like Zhou Yuren, who earns twenty-odd yuan a day, could earn the equivalent of one acre's worth of income in three days. Therefore, no matter how you cultivate the land, the yield will never increase.

In the following years, grain prices began to rise sharply, from two or three cents to four or five cents, and then to seven or eight cents, increasing three or four times. Coupled with the vigorous promotion of chemical fertilizers and better varieties, the yield increased.

Therefore, for ordinary people, no amount of rhetoric matters. What matters is that the produce is valuable, and then they will naturally know how to grow it themselves.

This is the truth.

Of course, dividing production among households will indeed increase enthusiasm.

Zhao Da'e decided to think about it later.

"We'll talk about it later. I'm going back now. Burn some more firewood in this cold weather, so that person doesn't get cold."

That person, of course, refers to the "classmate" that Zhao Tieyue brought back.

Zhao Tingming nodded, then asked, "Big Goose, are you done with that shredder yet?"

"No, it'll be installed in half a day. By the way, Grandpa, could I go to your brick factory and get some bricks on credit to pave the floor?"

Zhao Tingming was completely stunned: "..."

This Zhao Da'e really doesn't want to spend a single penny; he relies entirely on scamming people.

There's a brick factory in Dongtaizi Village, but it's doing very poorly and loses money every day. They close up shop early in the winter, shutting down the kilns and ceasing operations.

Let's talk about it next spring.

"Grandpa, you can make the decision. It's our village's brick factory, can you give me some bricks?" Zhao Da'e pleaded. "I'll give you an IOU."

"Forget it. You still haven't paid back the IOU you owe the hospital... If you keep doing this, and you're hauling bricks... you'll owe the village way too much money." Zhao Tingming frowned.

Generally speaking, it's the village that owes others, but in Zhao Da'e's case, it's become her owing the village.

Zhao Dage did indeed owe the village money because of Cheng Jinxiang's matter, and the village's tricycle was still being held at the hospital.

Zhao Tingming didn't bring it up, and neither did Zhao Dage.

Zhao Tingming brought it up, but Zhao Da'e pretended not to know.

Anyway, she owed the money through her own abilities, so why should she pay it back? She's not the only one who owes money to the village.

"Grandpa, please put in a good word for us. It's our village's brick factory anyway, so why can't we use a few bricks? I'll even have my dad write you an IOU."

Zhao Tingming then agreed: "Alright. I can have your dad write an IOU. But don't take too much; just take what you need."

"Then I want 40,000 bricks."

Zhao Tingming was immediately stunned: "Hiss..."

“Hey goose! Forty thousand bricks? What are you going to do with them? That's enough to build a main house. I thought you meant the house you're building with the crusher, and five or eight thousand bricks would be enough. Bricks aren't cheap these days, twelve cents a piece. Forty thousand bricks would cost you five thousand yuan. You…”

“It’s not like I’m not going to pay it back!” Zhao Da’e said.

"You just don't want to pay me back!" Can't Zhao Tingming see through Zhao Da'e's intentions?

"If you don't return the money to the village, I'll have to take the blame..."

"Oh dear, Grandpa, you're over sixty years old. You'll have to step down in a few years! What does it matter to you if you step down?"

“No,” Zhao Tingming explained, “The debt you owe the village is manageable. The problem is the debt you owe the brick factory; the brick factory will be asking me for money…”

"Yeah, you don't have any. Besides, what if I make money and then pay it back?" Zhao Da'e pouted. "Anyway, you have to figure out a way to get them to let me buy some bricks on credit."

Zhao Tingming sighed helplessly: Sure enough, this wool coat wasn't bought for nothing.

The note had to be given to Zhao Da'e, but he still reminded her, "Da'e, this needs your dad's signature and fingerprint. You have to return it later!"

"Okay," Zhao Da'e agreed.

So Zhao Tingming went to the village office, got the slip of paper, got a certificate, and then gave it to Zhao Da'e.

When Zhao Da'e got home, he asked Zhao Tiesheng to sign the document. Zhao Tiesheng wanted to take a look, but Zhao Da'e immediately said, "No need to look. I'll give you some bricks on credit. No interest, but it'll be 200 yuan more expensive. A total of 40,000 bricks, 5,000 yuan. Sign it."

Zhao Tiesheng: ...

Zhao Da'e ignored Zhao Tiesheng's hesitation and made him sign directly.

Then Zhao Da'e said, "Keep more than 30,000 of these bricks to build a house later. Use the remaining 7,000 or 8,000 to build the house for this crusher. I've got the bricks for you. We'll cut down the trees in the backyard to make the purlins. As for the foundation, you'll have to go to the mountaintop to quarry stones. If we don't build a house, you two brothers will both be bachelors."

Zhao Da'e is right. If they don't put effort into building a house, the entire Zhao family will just be empty words. Zhao Tingxu is broke, and even if the old man genuinely cares about what will happen after he passes away, he's too old to do anything about it. As for the other two brothers, they're both useless. They have absolutely no intention of building a house.

Zhao Tiesheng always boasts about his abilities, but when Zhao Da'e's mother went back to her parents' home, he wouldn't even let the dog eat the food he cooked; he was already lucky not to starve. As for Zhao Tiegang, let's not even mention him.

Zhao Da'e can only work hard to earn some money and find a way to build a house in order to leave this troublesome place.