Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 98: Rushing to Work
At dawn in the morning, Qin Dahe got up, ate something, and went to feed the fish. It was basically his mother who fed the fish for him now. He only did it once when he remembered to do it. It was natural for him to be a lone wolf.

After feeding the fish, he honked the tricycle and started to go to the car. It was only one trip today, so there was still time.

Seeing someone selling glutinous rice cakes at the entrance of Liming Supermarket, he hurried to buy one. He didn't eat it yet, but put it in his pocket to keep it warm.

It’s very gloomy today. I don’t know what the flower-making factory will say. If it rains, there will be no work to do.

"Sixth Uncle, are you going fishing?"

Qin Dahe saw his sixth uncle coming towards the road with a long pole and a bucket, and it was obvious that he was going fishing.

"Yes, the fishing spot at your house is well built. Xiao Erzi and Dabao have caught bream recently. I came early today to reserve the spot." Uncle Liu chuckled.

"It's so cold! I can't stay here." He shrank his neck and went out in such a strong wind.

It is okay to fish in cold weather, but there must be no wind. If the wind blows, you will feel cold after staying there for a while.

If you want to pick up passengers now, you can't stay in the car because the wind is howling outside.

Damn it, I have to get a van to drive in the future (di), it’s so cold in the winter.

Cars started to pick up passengers one after another, and there were actually quite a lot of people today.

Soon most of the people were on the tricycle, which was a pleasant surprise. We quickly started the tricycle and set off.

The glutinous rice cake is delicious and has the fragrance of osmanthus. It’s really cheap at only 50 cents each.

They drove all the way to the vegetable market, and he followed me to buy three pounds of soft pork belly, which is the pork belly in the pig's stomach. It is braised with a perfect balance of fat and lean meat, and it is soft and tender when eaten. It is simply the best delicacy in the world.

The whole family is busy today, so my mother specifically asked him to buy it as an extra meal in the evening.

When he went back, he parked the car in front of his sister's house and hung the sign again.

It's just a trip anyway, so it's best to bring enough people back.

"Sister, where is my brother-in-law?" The fat boy must be sleeping at this time, so he didn't ask.

"Ayong went to collect the car. Didn't you say you wanted a broken motorcycle? Someone informed him last night that there was one, so he went to the person's house early in the morning."

The eldest sister knew that he was cold while driving, so she went next door to buy some hot soy milk for him.

"Why don't you let dad come for a run in such a cold day?" While helping him tidy up his clothes, he complained that his parents were unreliable.

"He and his mother are going to collect the goods this morning, so I came to take a look since I have nothing to do in the morning."

Qin Dahe happily enjoyed the hot soy milk. His sister was still the same sister. She beat him when he was a child, and cared about him again when he grew up. Hey!
"I heard you work in a flower-making factory?"

"Well, we've been assigned a job. Call us when there's work." We were all casual workers, and the factory was considered generous if we were given ten days of work a month.

"That's good. Don't work too hard. You'll only get a fixed salary anyway."

"I know, but I'm the team leader, so I get an extra 20 a day."

As the brother and sister chatted, fewer passengers came back. It wasn't even seven o'clock yet. People had gone out for a walk with great difficulty, so how could they go back so early?

It was not until half past seven that there were only six people waiting in the car. Qin Dahe saw that there was no time to waste, so he immediately said goodbye to his sister.

"Go slowly on the road."

"know."

Sitting in the car, it’s finally getting a little warmer. This morning it was probably only around 10 degrees Celsius. Will there be no autumn this year?

He held a cigarette in his mouth and smoked more now, because he couldn't smoke after going to the flower-making factory.

After a while, the car started to fog up and I had to open the window again.

"Damn it, it's so cold." He cursed all the way. When he arrived at the entrance of the village, he counted and found that he had earned more than twenty yuan today.

They first went home to get the scales and other things, and then the couple began to prepare for today's delivery.

"Dad, can you buy me a digital scale someday? It's not expensive."

"Just do it first, why are you in such a hurry? Think about it after you make money." Qin's father saw that his son was starting to make trouble again and immediately started preaching.

"I'm telling you, when running a small business, you can't rush to invest money. You can buy more equipment after you've gotten familiar with the business."

Qin Dahe nodded in agreement, saying that he still had to consider the price of something worth several hundred dollars.

"Son, you have to listen to your father on this matter. He has been doing business for a long time." My mother was drying clothes and said something when she heard this.

Business? Does a business with no capital count? He thought to himself.

At eight o'clock, Hanwaer and his friends arrived. It was so nice to have a special car to pick them up.

Everyone else went there by bike or on foot. Who would pay for a ride to go to work? It's just a matter of getting up early.

Qin Dahe never thought of driving his coworkers to work. If he didn't charge them, he would lose all his diesel money for the whole winter. If he charged them, the people at the flower-making factory would think he was a black intermediary.

"Baby, did you get the rabbit?"

The silly kid grinned and made an OK gesture, indicating that there were three rabbits.

"That's good. The kid can now set up his own household. I'll ask someone to buy him rabbits later." The mother praised him.

The silly kid started farming to earn money when he was fifteen or sixteen years old. In the eyes of Qin's mother and others, he was a very good child and they gave him as much help as possible.

"Thank you, Auntie."

Grandma is not in good health now, he is not good at talking and can't sell, it would be best if his aunt could help.

"Why are you being polite to me?"

Erhu and Tiedan were discussing the old carpenter's craftsmanship at this time. The way he carved mortise and tenon joints on bamboo sticks really amazed them.

"Mom, you said the old carpenter has such good skills, why doesn't he go to a big city?" Qin Dahe was a little puzzled.

With that skill, there are plenty of opportunities to make money.

"It's true that their skills are good, but do you think it's easy to make money outside?"

"It's quite easy. His craftsmanship, apart from anything else, will definitely be in demand in Jiuzi."

My mother scoffed, "How many more years can he keep doing this? It's not easy to keep a family business, especially since he doesn't have a son."

"That's right." Come to think of it, what's the point of going out to work without a son? Just find a son-in-law in the village and take care of him in his old age.

Grandpa was timid back then. If he had been braver and given birth to a son, would he have really been driven away from the village?
When we got there, it was only 8:15, and there was still a quarter of an hour before work started.

But there were quite a few people coming here, and he was only two short of the twenty.

"Smoke, you can't smoke when you go in later." Brother Qin gave cigarettes to three brothers, and left the others alone.

Vegetables cost one dollar per person, and if you give out cigarettes, it’ll be six cents less. Save as much as you can.

"Daha, you are also a leader." Erhu teased.

"The boss only makes a few cents, and getting an extra twenty yuan is a good thing, but I can't do much work in a month. If the weather is warm, I might as well go fishing."

The people nearby nodded immediately when they heard this. The boy from the Qin family was very good at catching fish, and he always caught hundreds of kilograms of fish.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger, and the cotton tarpaulin began to rustle, which was annoying.

When the last two people came over, Qin Dahe put out his cigarette.

"I'll go see what to say today. You guys go in and wait after you finish smoking. It's freezing." With that, he went to the factory director's office.

"Grandpa, what are your plans for today?"

"Take the men to the cotton pile in the northeast corner. Work faster. We'll have to cover it with a tarpaulin if it rains."

"I understand. Please sign and I'll take the people to work." After handing over the notebook, the factory director signed it before going out to ask people to work.

Since they have done it once today, they did not send a special team leader over, and the production line will be responsible for unified management.

"Today all the stacks are covered with tarpaulins. These tarpaulins must be worth tens of thousands, right?"

"Hey, if we don't cover it with a tarpaulin and there's a heavy rainstorm, the damage will be at least tens of thousands of dollars."

This is no joke. Once cotton gets damp, it will not be easy to dry it again, and its quality will also deteriorate.

There are at least hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cotton waiting to be put into the production line in the square.

The team arrived at the northeast corner, found a random pile of cotton and took down the tarpaulin. Someone from the production line came to take charge of delivering the cotton here.

There were not many people today, only three groups were forking cotton. Standing on the cotton pile, I took a deep breath of cold air, rolled up my sleeves and started working.

As the deputy team leader, he also had to get paid 60 yuan, so he couldn't be lazy and started taking turns with Hanwa and the other boy to pick the cotton.

As they were working, everyone started taking off their clothes.

It was cold when I first came here, and now I’m hot and I feel uncomfortable if I don’t take off two pieces of clothing. The silly kid just wears a white vest, and it’s his muscles that hold up the vest.

"This baby's body is a killer for young women."

"Indeed, I'm envious just looking at it."

A few people were joking while working, and when the production line started to urge the cotton to be produced, everyone started to speed up again.

Twenty strong laborers finished a large cotton pile in a short time and then went to work on another one. Everyone looked at the weather and knew that it might rain today, so they worked harder.

Every time it rains, the flower-making factory loses some wages because their temporary workers are paid on a daily basis, and half a day's work is counted as a full day's pay.

"Eat, eat."

"Let's go. The food here is OK, but it's all oily."

A group of people walked towards the place where the food was being brought, laughing and giggling. They were surprised to see meatballs.

While everyone was eating, the factory director came over.

"After dinner, let's have a cigarette break. Then we need to speed up. The weather forecast says it will rain in the afternoon, so it would be best if we can work more. If it doesn't rain, I'll give you a ten-dollar raise."

"so good?"

"The factory is really generous. We can earn 70 yuan a day by picking cotton."

The factory manager nodded seriously and said, "That's the offer. The price of cotton spindles has suddenly gone up in the past two weeks. Everyone, please work harder and help out."

"Of course. The factory doesn't do poor work, and we can't lose face."

Qin Dahe also promised that he would speed up in the afternoon.

Looking at the bottom layer of the cotton pile, it was just covered with a layer of red, white and blue waterproof cloth. Once it rains, the bottom layer will definitely get damp.

But there is no other way around it. Building a large rain shelter is too expensive, and with so much cotton, it would be better to lose some money.

After finishing his cigarette, Qin Dahe yelled, "Come on!"

The team members immediately followed suit, and the factory manager even spoke well of them, saying that they had to do it. If they performed poorly today, they would have no work in the future.

When they got to the top, everyone sped up, and the people transporting cotton below were running back and forth non-stop.

Moreover, I didn’t see anyone harvesting cotton today. I guess it’s because of the rain. The factory is not convenient for spreading the cotton and grading it, so they stopped harvesting.

After finishing one stack, they moved on to another. At three o'clock in the afternoon, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky.

"Cover with the tricolor cloth, quickly!"

The people in the office rushed out, and Qin Dahe immediately asked the people below to pass the rope and pull the cloth up.

"Pull it down harder." Qin Dahe roared. He would not deduct money even if the cotton was soaked by the rain, but one must also be honest. A pile of cotton weighed tens of thousands of pounds, and the loss would be huge if it got soaked.

The silly kid was impatient. Seeing that a corner was blown away by the wind and could not be covered, he grabbed the rope and slid down, using his weight to cover the tarpaulin.

"Ce, it's finally done. I'll go call and ask where my dad is." Seeing that the factory director and others were still busy directing the production line, he was no longer in a hurry to ask for money.

As he said that, he went to the office next door to borrow a phone.

"Dad, where are you?"

"I harvested 1200 kilograms of corn today. The price is quite low. I'm going to save it at home first and sell it later when I get more."

"Okay, it's raining here, come and pick it up."

"Coming right up." The old man looked at the gloomy weather outside and knew that the rain was coming soon.

Pick up your clothes and go out.

"Where are you going now?" Qin's mother asked when she saw him.

"It's raining in Cangtou. Dahe asked me to pick him up. It's freezing cold out there."

"Go later. If you go too early, will you pick up the workers? If you pick them up, do you need to bring their bicycles with you? The tricycle is only this big." The old woman looked up and said.

"Really? Going too early will only cause trouble." Father Qin patted his head and looked at his wife: "Your brain works quickly."

"I'm smart, okay? It's just that I've become stupid from following you and doing farm work every day." Mother Qin rolled her eyes.

Before I entered the Qin family, I was the eldest sister, so I had to take care of my younger brothers and sisters. It would be unacceptable if I wasn't smart.

On the other side, Qin Dahe went to the factory director's office to collect his salary, and the temporary workers all went to the production line to avoid the rain.

The rain wasn't heavy, but the wind was blowing very coldly, and it would be troublesome if my clothes got wet.

Today, because it rained an hour before get off work ended, wages had to be paid as usual, but they still worked on six bales of cotton, so neither side suffered a loss.

"The money is counted well, but you won't recognize it once you leave the house."

"I counted it. Thank you, Grandpa." Qin Dahe nodded with a smile. He worked for six hours today and earned 80 yuan. He could still take a rest when he got home.

When they arrived at the production line and received their wages, some people were eager to go back.

It's getting dark now, past five o'clock. If you don't leave quickly while there is still light, you will suffer at night when it rains and there are no lights.

"It's raining again, Ce. The temperature has been dropping every day since National Day. It's freezing cold."

"That's right, I can't even go fishing for silver carp and bighead carp." Qin Dahe was also a little disappointed.

The big tiled house he thought of cost at least thirty or forty thousand yuan. How could he not make some extra money? He would have to spend money on marrying a wife later.

There is no such thing as planning for pregnancy in rural areas. Once you get married, you will have a baby soon, and then the expenses will increase.

Qin Dahe was stunned as he thought about it. This is just like a city. Fuck.

Then let’s have the baby later and enjoy life for a year or two first, hey.

"Dahe, what are you thinking about? Why are you smiling so cunningly?" The other three looked at this fool speechlessly.

"I'm thinking about having kids later. I need to be comfortable for a while after getting married."

"Cet, you're thinking too far ahead."

"If Grandpa knew, he would definitely beat you up, and Auntie would probably break your legs. She also wants to delay having children."

"Yes."

Qin Dahe felt his heart sank when he heard what they said. This was something his parents would do. They might even stab him when he was out.

(End of this chapter)