1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 340: A washing machine as a gift after one year of marriage
Liang Ziqiang couldn't explain clearly to his wife the reason for the formation of warm wintering grounds in the deep sea, so he just told her in general terms that he knew that there would be a lot of fish in certain places in the deep sea in winter.

So winter is the off-season for shallow seas, but it is the opposite for deep seas, it is the season of explosive fish catches.

After hearing what he said, his wife didn't dare to continue calculating.

According to my husband, the upcoming income is simply impossible to calculate.

After resting at home for two days, Liang Ziqiang went out to sea again.

During this five-day sea voyage, we did not encounter any bluefin tuna, so our income was naturally a little lower. However, after paying 3% tax, we still earned more than 1,900 yuan. Excluding diesel, wages, and food expenses, we still earned about 1,200 yuan in net income.

On the next day of rest, Liang Ziqiang drove the lotus-patterned boat to the city and went straight to the department store.

After buying some fruits like apples, he began to inquire about washing machines.

The department store sells washing machines, which he noticed last time. This time he went in to take a look. After all, it is the largest department store in the coastal city, and there are quite a lot of varieties.

I asked them one by one.

"Bai Lan" brand single-cylinder washing machine is 199 yuan; "Bai Lan" VI washing machine is 385 yuan;
Little Swan XIB2-C automatic plastic barrel washing machine 390 yuan;
(The picture shows the historical data of Little Swan, the first domestically produced fully automatic washing machine produced in 1978. In addition, the prices of the specific models of White Blue and Wei Li in the book are the actual prices set by the Price Bureau in 1984 or 1985.)
Weili XPQ-2 double-cylinder one-piece aluminum shell washing machine is 428 yuan.

After chatting for a while, it was no surprise that, just like the last time I bought a watch, I needed a ticket.

Liang Ziqiang had the experience of buying a watch last time, so he immediately asked if there was a way to buy one without a ticket.

Yes, there is. Yanghai City produces a washing machine, which is not very famous. Currently, it only focuses on the local market and has not opened up markets outside of other places, so it is relatively not in short supply.

Liang Ziqiang asked, what brand is it? When the salesperson pushed the goods in front of him, Liang Ziqiang almost choked on his own saliva.

It was another "huge wave". Was there no way to avoid it?
Looking at the graphics, this "Julang" trademark is obviously different from the last "Julang" watch trademark. It is obvious that they are not from the same manufacturer, they just have the same name.

Manufacturers are not so strict about brand names these days, and it is not surprising that manufacturers who do not know each other have the same brand name. Not only do different types of products have the same name, but even the same type of products have the same name.

I asked about the price, and it wasn't cheap. A plastic drum washing machine, excluding ticket price, cost 405 yuan.

There is no other choice except the Julang model, Liang Ziqiang has to buy it even if he doesn't want to.

Last time he didn’t buy the Julang watch, but chose the effeminate “Huahua” watch instead, because the watch has to be worn when going out to sea to fish, and huge waves are taboo.

Now it's just a washing machine, so it doesn't matter if the waves are huge, as long as the clothes are washed clean...

There is no such thing as price these days. Just count the money, carry the machine and leave.

It wasn’t far to carry it to Sham Shui Po, so we got on the lotus boat and sailed straight home.

When I got home, my daughter-in-law was squatting by a pond not far from the house, holding a mallet and hitting the clothes spread on the stones one by one.

Liang Ziqiang doubted that the village women's skills in beating their children were honed through hard work, one blow after another.

"Aqiang, what are you carrying on your back? It's so big?"

The daughter-in-law was beating her clothes. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, stood up, looked surprised, and asked questions.

Before buying this thing, Liang Ziqiang deliberately did not inform his wife, as he wanted to give her a surprise, so his wife could not guess what he brought back from a distance.

As we were talking, my wife finished washing the last two pieces of clothes. She came back quickly with a large bucket of washed clothes. She glanced at the square paper box and finally saw the red words printed on it:

Julang automatic plastic drum washing machine.

"Washing machine? This thing can wash its own clothes?"

No one in the village has ever used this thing, and people rarely even talk about it in daily conversations, so Chen Xiangbei has no idea what a washing machine is.

Liang Ziqiang was quite skillful and had quickly opened the outer cardboard to reveal the washing machine with a green plastic shell inside.

"Yes, what's the point of calling it a washing machine if it can't wash clothes?" He replied to his wife while dismantling the machine.

The wife's reaction was a little funny. She quickly pulled up the opened paper shell and tried to wrap it back up:

"Return it! Why did you buy this thing for no reason? Do you think the money is too much? Return it to where you bought it!"

"What?"

"Why else? You've even bought this thing, why do you need a wife?" "..."

It's just a plastic thing, why does it make her feel a sense of crisis?
Not all plastic products in the world can replace the function of a wife!

"Are you dissatisfied that I didn't wash your and your baby's clothes cleanly? Can this machine wash them cleaner than mine?" Chen Xiangbei muttered again.

This is really jealous of the machine...

"Think about it, what day is tomorrow?" Liang Ziqiang asked inspiringly.

"What day is it? Let me check." The wife looked at the calendar in the living room. "Today is September 9th. Isn't tomorrow September 13th?"

"What did we do on September 9th last year?" he asked tirelessly.

This time, she remembered it immediately with a twinkle in her eyes: "Getting married? September 9th, isn't that the day I got married?"

September 9th last year was the eighth day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar, the day they got married.

"Isn't it? I was thinking about giving you something after one year of marriage. After thinking about it, I think it's best to be practical. My son has to change clothes several times a day, and there are also our clothes. Sometimes you also take Litchi and my parents' clothes to wash together. It's tiring just to wash clothes every day. Bringing this thing back will make you feel more relaxed!"

Soon, they had been married for a year. In fact, Liang Ziqiang had thought about buying her three golds. He had thought about it long before marrying her. But the price of gold was not cheap these days. If he bought that thing when he had only saved up a few thousand yuan, Chen Xiangbei might be really angry and blame him for squandering money.

After thinking about it, he felt that the most acceptable thing was a washing machine. After all, Chen Xiangbei’s hard work in washing clothes every day was there.

Hearing him say this, Chen Xiangbei's eyes flashed with something strange, as if she didn't expect that her man would still remember their wedding day and care about her being too tired from doing laundry.

However, after taking a look at the man, she still curled her lips:

"Which of these wives in the village doesn't do their own laundry? They can all do it, but I can't? You'd better return it!"

"The paper shell has been torn, so it can't be returned!" he said affirmatively.

Of course, the reality is that even if the paper shell is not torn off, it cannot be returned. This is not the era when you can return goods without any reason.

"Who told you to be so quick? I couldn't stop you. You tore the cardboard in one go!" She started to blame him for his quick hands again.

"It's best if I can't return it. I'll use this to wash clothes starting tomorrow. Except for underwear and diapers, which I have to wash in the pond, all other clothes can be washed in this drum. It's not expensive anyway, only four hundred."

"Four hundred is a lot. You're a big boss, and this is not expensive!"

Chen Xiangbei complained to him again. After a while, his mother came back from the vegetable field and decisively joined Chen Xiangbei to scold him...

On that day, Liang Ziqiang connected the wires himself and connected the black socket to the electrical wires in his home.

The black socket was also bought when I bought the washing machine, and I even tried to find a matching one at that time.

I found two pieces of clothes that were missed and stuffed them into the drum, then turned on the power.

Following his demonstration, after washing the clothes, I turned off the machine and took them out. There was no water dripping down and they were automatically dried.

"You're done already? You don't even have to twist it yourself?" Mother's eyes widened immediately.

"Except for not being able to hang the clothes on the wire for you, I've done all the other work!" Liang Ziqiang said with a grin, "Do you want to try it?"

Before he could finish his words, Lizhi dug out some clothes from some corner and handed them over enthusiastically.

"Listen to me, Litchi. You are not allowed to use this thing. It spins so fast it's scary. And you are not allowed to touch the electric panel either!"

Liang Ziqiang greeted Lizhi seriously, because he found that among the women in the family, Lizhi seemed to be the most interested in the washing machine...

"I know that light bulbs can also cause shock, so I never touch them!" Lizhi promised.

Liang Ziqiang was relieved and began to let his mother and daughter-in-law try to use the washing machine. During the process, he took the opportunity to explain which links needed attention.

The next day, he saw his mother and Chen Xiangbei fighting over the use of the washing machine.

It was as if the incident of scolding him for being a loser had never happened...

(End of this chapter)