Dashan Orchard 1988

Chapter 5 Giving gifts can lead to bankruptcy

Li Mudi was a mason and a big worker.

The so-called big craftsman is a craftsman who can hold a masonry knife and knock bricks, which is different from a small craftsman who can only hold bricks and throw tiles.

At any time, the wages of large workers are basically about two or three times that of small workers.

In this era, wages were generally quite low. A senior worker could earn about five yuan a day, while a small worker could earn more than one yuan and less than two yuan.

If multiplied by 30 days, it sounds pretty good.

But in fact, the work of masons does not happen every day. They often work for a few days and then stop for a few days. It is not possible to do it when it is windy or rainy, or during busy farming seasons.

After finishing the work, I won’t be able to get my wages back for a while, but it’s just an extra money-making skill compared to farming.

Li Muyang came to Li Mudi's house, and Li Mudi was pooping.

It seems that Chi County has "Chi" in its name, which means it has no shortage of water, but in fact, as long as it is located on the Loess Plateau, there is no place without water shortage.

Therefore, the common people's toilets in Chi County are dry toilets.

The disadvantage is that during the hot season, the toilet smells so strong that no one can enter.

The advantage is that it can be fertile.

In this era, everyone does not have much money to buy fertilizer. Farming and fertilizing mainly rely on artificial manure. Manure is a very important farming material.

If a family has a small population, it will produce less fertilizer, and the fields will have little harvest due to insufficient fertilizer.

Walking on the road, you will find that every toilet is outside the gate and close to the roadside. Why? Of course, I am not so kind as to solve the problem for passers-by. I hope that if pedestrians have some water, there is no need to take it home and just take it home. Just stay here.

A lot of them passed by my door, leaving behind the smell of road fertilizer.

The second brother Li Mudi is a short man, no more than 1.6 meters and a half tall at most, and he is very thin and looks dry.

In his previous life, his second brother died early. Every time Li Muyang recalled his appearance, he would easily think of ants.

The second brother's appearance and body look like an ant.

Black and thin, black and thin.

Not everyone in the Li family is short. For example, the eldest brother Li Mutian is over 1.8 meters tall, and the two younger brothers are also 1.7 meters tall.

Li Muyang is not tall. He is only 1.7 meters [-] without his shoes. He is the shorter one among the brothers.

He and his second brother were both shorter because when they were growing up, they encountered the most difficult years. They were always hungry and their bodies were not developed.

I'm lucky to be alive.

Although Li Mudi is short in stature, he is quite powerful.

A rack of car dung weighs at least three to four hundred kilograms. He can pull it alone, as if he has unlimited power in his body.

He had just pulled the manure to the edge of the property and dumped it when he saw Li Muyang coming. He was a little surprised and suddenly became nervous again.

"Lao Wu, what are you doing here? Did something happen to my mother again?"

Li Muyang smiled and said, "Mother is fine. Second brother, where is my second sister-in-law?"

"I went to my parents' house, saying that my cousin was getting engaged or something. I was away from home every day, so I just sent money to my parents' house. Sooner or later, this family will be completely ruined by her!"

What Li Mudi meant was that his wife was going to give gifts to others again.

People here call the courtesy exchanges for weddings and funerals "xingqing". Quoqing not only has to carry steamed buns, but also some money and so on. Although it is not much, it can't stand up to many relatives.

These days, no one has a lot of relatives.

There are seven aunts and eight aunts. After two or three generations, there will be countless relatives.Take the Li family as an example. They have nine brothers and sisters. Nine means nine families. Then any child of the next generation of their nine families will have nine relatives from the previous generation and dozens of relatives from the same generation when they are born.

This is just for the father or mother. If the other family also has so many brothers and sisters, the number of relatives will double, maybe more than 100.

If peers get married and have children, this number will increase horribly.

So in this era, people in the village eat on flowing water mats during weddings and funerals, which is really like running water.

Otherwise, people simply can’t arrange it.

If every family has something to do with red envelopes, such as when a child is one month old or one year old, if you don't refuse them selectively, giving gifts can really make people poor.

Don't listen to Li Mu's loud screams. In fact, it is Li Muyang who suffers the most from the Li family.

He is not married, and naturally has no children. He will not be able to get back the money he spent for a while, so it is purely a one-sided payment.

Now, hearing that his second sister-in-law was not here, Li Muyang was slightly worried.

He wanted to go out and dig cordyceps, but with his mother in such a state, it was definitely not possible to leave her alone at home.

For a moment, a cloud of sadness covered his face.

Seeing him like this, Li Mudi asked in confusion: "Why are you drooping your face? What do you want to do with your sister-in-law?"

"I originally wanted to ask my second sister-in-law to help me look at my house. I heard that there are cordyceps in the Xishan Mountains, and I wanted to try my luck to see if I could dig some up."

Li Muyang said it very tactfully. He was actually not completely sure that what happened in his previous life would happen again in this life.

But he didn't want to hide it from his brother about Cordyceps.

The second brother is a bit stingy, but in fact he is not a bad person. The children of the Li family, including the wife and son-in-law, are basically not particularly bad people. There are at most a few who like to take advantage of each other and are selfish.

Li Muyang has experienced everything in his previous life and knows everyone's true character. He does not want to hold them to the standards of a saint.

After all, everyone is poor.

Later, when life got better, the relationship between everyone's families was very good. Originally, he was a selfish person, but because supplies were no longer in short supply, everyone became better.

Li Muyang hopes that everything will be prosperous for his family.

Everyone lives a richer life and everyone is happy.

Intrigue and other intrigues are meaningless and will only aggravate the internal strife in the family. In the end, everyone will be defeated and there will be no winner.

Knowing the news about Cordyceps, he would not hide it and would tell these brothers directly. As for whether they believe it or not, or whether they are willing or not, that is a matter of their choice.

"What is Cordyceps?"

Li Mudi sat down on the carriage shaft, took out a stack of paper cut into thin strips from his coat pocket, and took out a small tobacco bag containing shredded tobacco from his coat pocket. He folded the strips into a trench and poured some tobacco leaves into it.

He carefully and slowly rolled up the tobacco, then spit into the palm of his hand, slowly rolled the paper into a cigarette, pinched off the paper rope on the tail, held the cigarette in his mouth, and used three matches in a row before lighting it. .

"Whoo~"

After taking a deep breath, he slowly exhaled the smoke from his mouth, looking very satisfied.

This cigarette rolling craft is a basic skill for people in Qingyang. Buying finished cigarettes is too expensive and they are reluctant to part with it.

Even the cheapest "Jade Rabbit" and Peony are only a few cents, and with that money you can cut more than a pound of tofu. If you buy finished cigarettes, light them up and burn them, you'll risk them all.

What can be left behind?

(End of this chapter)