Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 103 Preparing to Build a House

During dinner, Qin Dahe also talked about the cotton harvest. When they learned that the price of cotton had increased by another ten cents, both the couple looked gloomy.

The price per pound is three cents different. Who can afford to lose thousands of dollars?

"Damn it, I shouldn't have sold it. It won't be a problem if I keep it at home. It's all your fault." Qin's mother slapped the old man.

At the beginning, he said that the cotton pile was a nuisance at home, so he sold it all at once.

The old man remained silent. It was only one thousand yuan. It would be painful for anyone to give it to him. There would probably be a lot of quarrels in the village this year.

"It's just that we earn a little less. It's okay. It depends on whether the factory director allows us to harvest cotton." Qin Dahe livened up the atmosphere.

"I don't have the time. We can start building the house tomorrow when the weather is fine. The work in the fields will be delayed this year." Qin's mother said depressedly.

"Just go collect them when you have time. Judging from what the factory says, we'll have to work hard for at least half a month."

The atmosphere at dinner time was very bad. After dinner, the father and son went to put out the shrimp cage.

The Yuxi River does this every once in a while, and any subsidy is appreciated. After putting out the shrimp cages, Qin Dahe went to put out the ground traps at the door of his home, catching whatever he could to feed the workers with their meals and snacks.

It was already past eight o'clock when I finished all these things. I didn't have time to play with Yanyan today. Alas!
Just when I was about to smoke a cigarette, I looked at the red plum in my hand and felt a little disgusted.

I went straight to the room and took out the remaining five packs of cigarettes, and added two packs of Double Happiness to give to my dad. He wanted to change his cigarettes.

"Dad, you smoke."

"Why did you suddenly remember to honor me?" The old man looked at his son suspiciously. He wondered if he had gotten into trouble. Even Qin's mother was staring at him.

"The young man smokes this trumpet every day. I'm going to buy a Sheng Tang." After saying that, he slipped away.

"Little Pig, just smoke the good ones yourself and let your dad smoke the Red Plum." He put the cigarette away with a curse. No matter how angry he was, he couldn't waste the cigarette. It cost several dollars.

"My son should have changed his cigarettes long ago. What's the point of a young man smoking cigarettes that cost only a few cents every day?"

"He's used to it."

After leaving the house, he went to Limin Supermarket to buy a Sheng Tang snack, and happened to meet Erhu who was coming back from walking his dog.

"Your dog is so energetic, he has girls every day."

"Don't let it go out when it's cold. Give me a pack while you can enjoy it." Erhu looked at the Sheng Tang cigarettes he bought, damn it, he changed the cigarettes.

Qin Dahe didn't care. He took a pack of cigarettes and gave it to him. He took out a Double Happiness cigarette from his bag, lit one, and started smoking it proudly.

"Ce, what a spendthrift." Now all the friends envy Qin Dahe for getting the money in their own hands.

"Tsk, I earned it by my own ability, why would I ruin my family?" He sneered.

Qin Dahe touched Brother Niu and felt very envious. He envied Brother Niu's health and also envied Erhu for being able to raise a dog that could pull a fishing rod. This was a fisherman's dream dog.

"My dad told me that your family is building a new house tomorrow?"

"They should be digging the foundation, and then bringing in bricks and cement." Dad is probably busy with this all day.

The rapeseed in the field has not been planted yet, so after he finishes this work, he will have to go to the field to help.

"If you don't go to work, let's go and help."

"That's nonsense! No one can escape unless they go to work."

"I'll have to buy cigarettes every day, otherwise I won't have the energy to work."

"Get lost, get lost. I told you to do some work, so much nonsense. Will you still be so arrogant when you go to work at your mother-in-law's house?"

The custom here is that the son-in-law has to do housework when he comes to his father-in-law's house, especially one or two months before the wedding. At this time, it doesn't matter if he doesn't do his own housework, but he must show his ability to the father-in-law.

Qin Dahe was comfortable. The old carpenter didn't get any land at the beginning, only a small vegetable garden. Apart from the carpentry work, he didn't need any help from anyone.

As for asking him to help with carpentry, he was more than happy to do that. No man could refuse to do these things.

The next morning, he didn't have time to collect the ground traps and shrimp cages, so he went straight to each house to pick up people.

Everyone hasn't eaten yet, they are just waiting to go to the factory to eat meat buns and fried dough sticks.

A group of people rushed to the flower-making factory again, but this time they were not the first to arrive. Two groups of people were faster than them.

"Eat, then work."

None of the twenty people were willing to give up this hard-earned opportunity to make money. After finishing their meal and smoking a cigarette, they immediately jumped into work.

The factory said work would start at 7:30, but they came early just to show off and get more work.

By the time other groups started working, their group had already picked up half a pile of cotton.

The workers were very happy to make money, but unfortunately, the deputy factory managers didn't think so and were arguing in the meeting room.

"Such a high salary, it must be 10,000 or 20,000 a day."

"If I don't pay you this way, who will work hard for you? The other team can only fork eight stacks a day, and there are also those people who carry cotton spindles." The factory director argued. What he wanted to do was to make the factory the only one in the market share, instead of worrying about these trivial matters.

Flower-making factories are opening up one after another in the surrounding area. How can we not hurry up and start working if we don’t take delivery of the goods?

"We can cancel the transportation fee and breakfast. This expense alone is more than a thousand yuan a day." The temporary workers are all farmers, and each of them has an astonishing appetite. Someone like Hanwaer feels comfortable only after eating two bowls of porridge and eight big buns in the morning. Others have similar appetites.

"You're stupid! You have to go to work at 7:30 every day, and you have to get up at 5:00 to cook. It takes you half an hour to ride a bike here." And many people don't even have bicycles.

"What's so great about you? You're just a factory manager, and your family's shares are even less than mine." A big man in his thirties felt a little embarrassed by being scolded and immediately retorted.

"Fuck you, come and do it, Ce. How many things do I have to take care of in a day? Every day I come to the factory before dawn and go back at eight or nine in the evening." The factory director said angrily.

Others hurried forward to dissuade him, but each of them also had some opinions about the expenses of the past few days.

They only do rough processing and do not have that much profit to support it. It can be said that the profit is saved from the workers.

As for lowering wages, they had never thought about it. The laborers here already earn fifty yuan a day. The wages in the flower-making factory are so tiring and unstable that they cannot recruit workers stably unless they pay sixty yuan a day.

"Let me tell you, the new mill over at Fenghuang Bridge is going to be completed soon. Many people around here have shares. If you don't seize the opportunity to grab some cotton now, you'll have to pay a higher price later."

He had said at the meeting last night that they wanted to hire more people to harvest cotton, but these deputy factory managers were all concerned about their own daily income of several hundred yuan from harvesting cotton, and refused to release the order no matter what.

With only a dozen or so tricycles, collecting 40,000 to 50,000 kilograms of cotton a day is already the limit. Such a large factory is working at full capacity to produce hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cotton a day, and it all depends on the inventory.

Now it's a race against time and money. Everyone goes to the toilet and their brains go out. We have to save every bit.

When the factory was first built, everyone was talking to each other nicely, but now that their own interests are involved, they immediately change their faces. He is a little tired of dealing with this bunch of idiots.

At noon, everyone ate as usual, but it was a bit strange that the factory director and others did not show up.

But none of this is his business, he just needs to do his job well.

After dinner, no one gave out cigarettes, so Qin Dahe took out a pack of Hongmei cigarettes and gave one out.

Twenty people each had a cigarette, so they all gathered together to smoke and chat. "The flower-making factory is really profitable. Our daily expenses, including food, drinks, and travel expenses, are almost a hundred yuan."

"Yes, there are at least 150 people working today, and including those on the production line, there are more than 200 people in total."

"Those who carry the bags probably make 100 a day, about to a day."

Everyone can calculate the factory's expenses. There is no rent here, and the only expenses are electricity and labor. Everyone is very envious.

When the factory was first built, some people came to the entrance of the village to solicit investment, offering 30,000 yuan per share. Many people who had money were reluctant to invest, and now they can only envy them.

Judging from the time when Weimin Supermarket bought the excavator, it would take two years to recoup the investment. He originally invested 240,000 yuan.

After bragging, everyone continued to work. They tried to do the same thing today as yesterday. Only if they did a good job could they continue to get paid.

On the cotton pile, there was another round of shouting, and people were busy forking and loading cotton. No matter how tired the people were, they gritted their teeth and worked hard, earning 90 yuan a day.

Qin Dahe looked at the long line of cotton-harvesting trucks in the factory and felt secretly envious. He thought it must be so much fun to harvest cotton.

When we reached the seventh stack, everyone tacitly slowed down because it was still early.

If I do more today than yesterday, it means I didn’t work hard enough yesterday. I should just maintain this result.

When he was the boss, Qin Dahe would definitely think that what the workers did was not right, but his head was determined by his butt, so he deliberately asked the child to slow down a bit.

The same goes for the other cotton piles. Everyone has finished their share from yesterday.

I continued to settle the bill in the evening and received several hundred yuan. I was very happy and also asked about the cotton harvesting.

"Daha, your team really works hard." The factory manager said with a smile.

He immediately realized that he would not be given the chance to pick cotton.

The factory manager then said that there would be no work tomorrow and that he would be called again when there was work to do.

Qin Dahe was a little puzzled. This was not only a great success but also a disappointment. He thought it was going to be a big event, with cigarettes being distributed, breakfast being prepared, and car pick-ups being provided, but it only took two days.

"Okay, I'm leaving then."

It's a pity that there is no chance to harvest cotton. Although he is busy at home, he will give up his position as team leader as long as he can harvest cotton. Harvesting one cart of cotton is equivalent to several days' work.

When I got home, it was already dark. There were only three months left until the Chinese New Year, and it was getting colder and colder.

When Qin Dahe returned home, he saw a pile of bricks at the door. He looked towards the fish pond and saw that the foundation had been dug. It was a rectangular foundation with three rooms and a kitchen.

"Dad, have all the materials arrived today?"

"There's also cement and steel bars. I'll drive you to work tomorrow and then bring them back."

"No need to send them off." Qin Dahe sighed. "I don't know what happened at the factory. Suddenly, they don't need so many temporary workers anymore. The Li Gezhuang team was also notified that they don't need to go tomorrow."

"Haha, if there's no work, then there's no work. It's just right. I'll go harvest corn tomorrow and stay at home with your mother to keep an eye on the house building." He was still very relieved about his son.

"Dad, have you shipped out the shrimp cages today?"

"Two pounds of river shrimp, and keep the other miscellaneous fish for the workers to cook tomorrow. Ce, I just remembered that I haven't set up your trap yet." The old man slapped his forehead and forgot about the trap.

"I'll go get it now, there are only a few of them." He only has three ground traps at home, and he took two from his kid last time, so all five ground traps were put in the river.

Qin Dahe carried the bucket to the gate and started collecting. When he looked, hey, there was not a single big fish.

"Ce, there are no big fish after a day and a night of release." There are only some crucian carp, minnows, whitebait and other things, but few ground tigers and shrimps.

Crucian carp seeds picked out the hybrids and threw them back into the river, and poured the rest into their own small pond.

The minnows were also thrown away. These crappy fish were not even considered as miscellaneous fish. The whitebait, small ang and other fish were collected and will be roasted together tomorrow.

After collecting the goods, he threw the five traps back into the river. He had nothing to do anyway, so he decided to catch some miscellaneous fish and shrimps.

However, there are indeed few big crucian carps in the outer river. They are all crucian carps with melon seeds. Small crucian carps are not tasty.

I went back and fed my crucian carp pond again. There are more than 2,200 crucian carp fry in this pond now, so I have to feed them well.

In the evening, while having dinner, Qin's mother was disappointed to learn that he would not have work the next day.

The cost of building a house is very high. A red brick costs 1.7 cents per piece, and this means that the money is constantly piling up.

"Tomorrow morning you continue driving your car, and come back to buy five pounds of pork, three ounces of star anise, and fifteen crucian carps weighing about three ounces..." The mother began to assign him tasks.

"Mom, slow down. Let me take a note."

"Hurry up, your dad and I have something else to do tonight."

I used a pen to write down all the vegetables I need to buy tomorrow. There are quite a few miscellaneous things.

Fortunately, I have vegetables, otherwise buying them would be an expense.

"Then after I drive the car, should I let my dad go to harvest the corn? Aren't there still cement and steel bars to transport?" All these things put together gave Qin Dahe a headache.

"The cement is available quickly at Fenghuang Bridge, but we can't delay harvesting the corn. We'll have to spend money on a lot of things later."

However, since they were not building a building, the couple was not under that much pressure.

After dinner, he began to peel potatoes again, then shred them and soak them in water. There will be many workers tomorrow, so meals must be prepared.

The two dogs lay quietly beside him, watching his movements curiously.

"Chao Mian, you have to learn well from your brother Niu and try to drag the fishing rod back. When the weather gets warmer, I will go fishing for big fish." Qin Dahe touched the dog and still found Chao Mian cute.

Yellow native dogs have the best appearance when they are young, but they naturally become ugly when they grow up.

It was already eight o'clock when the couple finished peeling the potatoes and went home.

"Mom, what have you been doing?"

"I went to the Dragon King Temple to get two talismans, and then I'll bury them under your foundation." After saying that, I went to the back with a shovel.

The Dragon King Temple is right at Longwangguai, and it can be considered a temple that is quite old.

Qin Dahe curled his lips, guessing that something would have to be placed on the beam, as all of this would cost money.

But he didn't say anything. Even if you don't fear ghosts and gods, you must fear heaven and earth. He can disbelieve it, but if they do, I have to let them go.

After a while, Qin's mother came back after burying the talisman.

"Mom, will my uncle come back this year?" He has something to do during the first month of the lunar year, and all the relatives have to come. My uncle is far away in Shenzhen, and I don't know if he can come.

"He will definitely come back, don't worry. If he doesn't, I'll beat him to death." The mother said, patting her chest. How could the uncle not be there when his nephew got married?

(End of this chapter)