The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 252 Overseas Chinese
At the Yi'an County bus station, Jiang Cheng and his friends waited for twenty minutes before they got a bus.

The ticket price to Jinhe Commune Station has also increased. It used to cost two cents, but now it costs three cents. However, children still only cost half the ticket, so seven people can pay ten cents for the ticket.

When we got here, it was the same as usual. We still had to walk for about ten minutes along the path back to the village.

After sitting in the car for an hour or two, it would be nice to take a walk. Jiang Cheng and Zhou Lingying each carried one child, letting the eldest and second child walk home.

As soon as they got home, Jiang Cheng and his friends were naturally warmly entertained. But when they returned to their room, they found that there were clothes of his nephew in the room and a quilt on the bed. The key point was that there was a smell of foot odor in the room.

It was cold outside, and Zhou Lingying, who had originally wanted to take her daughter inside to sit for a while, felt a little overwhelmed.

Although my two nephews are young, they have sweaty feet and they rarely wash their shoes. Even if they wash their feet, they will stink again after wearing the shoes for a while.

In the end, Zhou Lingying simply carried her two little daughters to the kitchen stove, where it was at least warmer.

Jiang Cheng and his friends came back with all kinds of things. Zhao Yuxia asked Li Xianglan to kill a chicken. In the winter, the only thing that could be killed in the countryside was a chicken, and the vegetables were just radishes and cabbages.

But for the two nephews, this was a rich meal.

The women in the house were all helping to prepare meals in the kitchen, so it was quite lively. Jiang Cheng came here this time and just went to the main room to chat with his father for a while.

"Dad, the fields have been distributed in the rural areas of Anhui. I feel it will be soon here too." Jiang Cheng said while sitting at the table drinking hot water.

"Is this true? The land is being distributed to everyone. How do we divide it?" Jiang Changhe said in surprise.

Jiang Changhe had just returned from the fields not long ago, and was digging ditches with the production team at the west end of the village. Everyone was just working to get by, and as long as they didn't slack off too obviously, they could basically get work points.

But if the land is divided among everyone, it is impossible to work freely on the land at home. But in this way, it seems that no one can earn work points. Jiang Yan is a scorekeeper. With her around, she can help the Jiang family work.

It was also because Jiang Yan was the scorekeeper that even if the Jiang family was really lazy while working in the fields, no one would say anything as long as it wasn't too excessive.

When it comes to land distribution, it is naturally divided according to the number of registered residents in the village. The more people in a family, the more land they get.

Jiang Cheng's family is not big, and his household registration is in the city, so he can't get any land. Zhou Lingying will also have her household registration transferred to Nanjing this year because of her family's connections. Then, she will be transferred to Changcheng because of the relationship between husband and wife.

By then, a family of six will be able to eat the rationed food in Changcheng, and there will be at least three or four years of rationed food in Changcheng. Only then will food coupons become dispensable.

So in their hometown, Jiang Changhe and his people couldn't get much land. But the land was divided into good and bad, and it wasn't a fixed area. Those with bad land would get more, and even if you asked for wasteland, they could give you a large piece.

In the past, some hunters were collectively owned by the towns and villages because of the collectivization of the towns and villages. Hunting was also considered collective, and the prey was shared.

After the household contract responsibility system was implemented, some hunters returned to their old occupations. Some of them did not want fields, and some even wanted bamboo forests, because they originally lived at the foot of the mountain or on the mountainside.

"Dad, if we're dividing the land, we won't ask for the farmland. We should try to get a vegetable plot or wasteland towards the town, and I'll build a house there. You want the farmland, but you don't have to farm it alone. We can just raise some chickens and ducks. As for food, we can just buy it from the villagers." Jiang Cheng said.

Jiang Changhe hesitated a little when he heard his son say this. As a rural person, he was actually a little obsessed with the land. If someone else asked Jiang Changhe to choose a vegetable field or wasteland just to get more land, he would definitely not listen.

But as Jiang Cheng said, if they really want to farm, it's either women or children at home. Who else can farm except him, and he is old now.

Especially when Jiang Cheng said he was going to build a building, it goes without saying. Kaiyang Village is relatively close to the town. If you choose a piece of land near the town and build a building, you will be almost the same as the people in the town.

However, at present, there is no sign of things happening. Even if it is as Jiang Cheng said, it will take at least a year.

The father and son chatted for a while, and Jiang Changhe told an interesting story about the commune.

"Chengzi, a person recently returned to our village, a person who came back from Hong Kong." Jiang Changhe said.

"Someone who came back from Hong Kong~." Jiang Cheng muttered, and then said: "This person who came back from Hong Kong is nothing special."

"This man made a lot of money in Hong Kong. I heard that he wants to build a road to the town for our village." Jiang Changhe said.

"Earned a lot of money? Did you do business in Hong Kong?" Jiang Cheng became interested when he heard this.

"You don't know if you haven't done business. That's Hong Kong. We can't compare with it in our country. That person said he could make several thousand yuan a month just by moving things in Hong Kong. Chengzi, even though you are a car driver, any random person in Hong Kong can make more money in a month than you do in a year." Jiang Changhe said.

"Then do you know where he lives?" Jiang Cheng asked curiously.

Hearing this question, Jiang Changhe shook his head. Because that person had been away for nearly 20 years, as a person from the countryside, there was no such thing as going to the countryside.

Before the establishment of the commune, people could actually do business. People did not need to get any certificates to leave their hometown. So it was true that the man was from Kaiyang Village, but when he returned, his house and land were gone.

Jiang Changhe didn't know how to solve the housing problem, but the secretary of the commune must know. Now they have to pay for the road construction in the village, and the commune must have arranged housing for them.

Jiang Cheng nodded. He was going to go to the town commune to ask after dinner. There was nothing much to ask. He was just a little curious about these people who came back to China.

But it’s still early for dinner now, because Jiang Cheng and the others have just returned, and the chickens are killed and stewed right away for lunch, so there will be no food before around twelve o’clock.

Jiang Cheng was chatting with his father in the main room, while Zhou Lingying and her child were chatting with her mother and sister-in-law in the kitchen. Because Zhou Lingying had to breastfeed, she even refused to let her nephew Jiang Lin and his family enter the kitchen.

Jiang Zhaodi was not a child anymore, so she took her younger sister Jiang Pandi for a stroll nearby.

"You watch at the door. If someone comes, call me immediately and let me know." Zhang Lin said to Zhang Yang.

"Yeah~." Zhang Yang nodded in response.

Although Zhou Lingying came back and did not stay in Jiang Cheng's room, she still put the cloth bag she sewed in the room, which contained some messy things.

For example, the paper she brought from the city, because the toilet paper in her hometown is all exercise books or old elementary school books. There are a lot of pencil writings on them, and Zhou Lingying feels better using straw paper for herself and her children. In addition, there are handkerchiefs, which are convenient for children to wipe their mouths. In addition, there are a lot of diapers, rubber bands, and even needles and thread. Of course, there is also the vanishing cream that Zhou Lingying likes to use in winter.

Vanishing cream not only protects the skin but also moisturizes it. Applying some on your face when going out in winter can prevent freezing. This morning, Zhou Lingying applied it to everyone personally.

This vanishing cream was a luxury product in those days, costing one yuan a box. Only the rich in the city could afford it, while those from poorer families could only use clam oil which cost one or two cents.

However, the amount of clam oil in the clam shell is not as much as that in a small iron box like vanishing cream. Calculated by weight, vanishing cream is more expensive than clam oil, but not much more expensive.

Jiang Lin searched the bag for a long time and was a little disappointed. He did find what he wanted, but it was all scattered coins and some dimes, which were the change Zhou Lingying gave when she went out to buy things, and she just threw them into the bag.

But even so, Jiang Lin did not let go of the "small change" and put almost all of it in his pocket.

Soon it was time for dinner, and Jiang Cheng told everyone during dinner that he would go to the town commune after dinner. If he didn't come back by the time, he asked Jiang Juan to help carry the third child to the roadside bus station, and he would definitely wait there.

So Jiang Cheng went out as soon as he finished his meal, planning to find the person who had returned from Hong Kong to have a chat.

In fact, many overseas Chinese have returned since last year.

In Bao'an County, Guangzhou, a Sunshine Farm has been built, which has received more than 4,000 overseas Chinese who have returned to China. In addition to the farm, there are many villages around it that have also resettled many people.

It’s just that most of those who returned to China are overseas Chinese from Vietnam. Vietnam is now even poorer than China because it’s almost always at war. So it’s understandable that many people returned.

But Jiang Cheng was a little confused by the fact that people from Hong Kong and even some wealthy places returned to China, even if it was just a compatriot working in Hong Kong.

What Jiang Changhe said this morning was actually correct. If we really compare, the monthly income of an ordinary worker in Hong Kong can be more than the annual income of a driver in China.

As for Hong Kong, Jiang Cheng is very clear about the current wages there, which can basically be compared with the data of some small counties in later generations.

In Hong Kong, many people from the north, who are tall and strong, were selected to be police officers. In the 1960s and 1970s, the salaries of Hong Kong police officers were very low. After all, the black and white forces colluded with each other at that time, and only those with no future would become police officers.

Now the salary of Hong Kong police is around 4,000 yuan, ordinary workers 2,000 to 3,000 yuan, skilled workers can get 4,000 to 5,000 yuan, and management can earn over 10,000 yuan.

Therefore, even if they were working in Hong Kong, they would have to earn at least 10,000 yuan to return to China. The key point was that Jiang Cheng did not understand what kind of mentality people like them had when they returned to China.

Now that I have returned to China, there is nothing I can do except donating my wealth and doing good deeds.

Jiang Cheng can now be considered as one of the overseas Chinese because he has Hong Kong's second-generation ID card and an exit certificate.

Now if Jiang Cheng wants to go to Hong Kong, he can use his Hong Kong ID card and other certificates to go through the special channel for foreign guests. He does not need to apply for a certificate to leave the country like Chinese people do.

But as a fake overseas Chinese, Jiang Cheng would not donate money to build bridges, roads, or schools.

It’s not that he has no love, but in later generations many rural primary schools have been abandoned because everyone has gone to the city and there are no students in rural primary schools.

Jiang Cheng would rather recruit more workers in Jinhe Commune in the future to improve everyone's living conditions than engage in some thankless public welfare work.

In Jinhe Commune, Jiang Cheng was a well-known figure. He did not need to find the commune secretary. He just found a clerk and asked the person he wanted to find.

Now I am temporarily arranged to live next to the town’s primary school, which was where the volunteer teachers lived before.

Jiang Cheng quickly went to the address and found the person.

A man in his forties who looks like he is in his fifties. Although there are many people in the countryside who look old in their forties, in Hong Kong, people there are younger than in China. Moreover, many people in their thirties and fourties have begun to pay attention to health preservation.

After Jiang Cheng made an opening statement in Hong Kong dialect, he quickly understood the other party's situation. The other party's name was Chen Ping, and he went to Hong Kong in 1959, which is exactly 20 years ago.

He left because someone reported him for doing business. At that time, he was doing business in the county town with a few other people, and then he was reported.

If he had not left at that time, the punishment would not have been too severe as it was the beginning of the ban on such things in those two years. But Chen Ping was unwilling to be just a farmer, so he ran away.

It was by chance that I went to Guangzhou and then to Hong Kong.

I had accumulated some capital in Hong Kong and started a business there, and I also learned how to trade stocks there. But in 1973, the stock market crash hit, and I not only lost all the money I earned from the business, but also owed a lot of debt.

In order to pay off his debts, he had to work all the time. It wasn't that Chen Ping didn't want to continue starting a business, but the debt collectors simply didn't allow him to have the capital to start a business. They were afraid that he would not pay back the money and would lose money because of starting a business.

Later, the debt was paid off, but the desire to start a business was gone.

In addition, when he left, he still had parents, a wife and children at home. The longer he stayed in Hong Kong, the more he wanted to come back. After hearing that the policy had been relaxed in China, Chen Ping immediately returned to China with his savings.

But after 20 years, he found that his parents were gone when he came back. His wife remarried with the child the year after he left. The key point is that she helped him raise the child for 20 years, and she still didn't have her own child.

Chen Ping understood that the grace of raising a child is greater than the grace of giving birth to a child. So he did not bother the child, but secretly gave some money to his ex-wife.

Chen Ping came back here because he didn't want to bother anymore. He felt the money he brought was enough. When he was still in Kaiyang Village, many villagers helped him with his business. They gave him some things to sell and paid him after he sold them.

Therefore, Chen Ping felt very grateful to the villagers who had helped him in the past. It would not cost much to build a road, not just a cement road, so he decided to pay for it.

As for how much money Chen Ping actually had, although he was working in Hong Kong, he later helped people do sales. In addition to wages, there are also commissions. A capable salesperson in Hong Kong can earn a lot.

Let's put it this way, if he hadn't been cheated by the disgusting exchange rate when he returned to China, if he had exchanged it back to RMB privately, he would have been at least several million yuan.

But it's not bad now, but in Jiang Cheng's opinion, Chen Ping's mentality of taking tens of thousands of yuan to live in China for retirement will make him regret it sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)