Reborn in '77, I have a job panel!

He turned around and looked at Qian Cheng.

"You're a smart kid, you've got guts, you're motivated, and you've got ambition. Study hard, get into university, and make us country folk proud."

Qian Cheng stood up and nodded: "Boss Cui, I've got it."

Cui Minggui walked over and patted him on the shoulder.

"Go ahead and do a good job. If you encounter any difficulties in the future, come to me."

As Qian Cheng left Qingping Hotel, he felt a warmth in his heart.

He hadn't expected Boss Cui to care about him so much.

He quickened his pace and headed towards the station.

It was still early when we got back to the village.

Qian Cheng first went to the Zhang family.

Zhang Mingxi was listening to the radio in the room. When he saw him come in, he quickly turned the volume down.

"You're back?"

Qian Cheng nodded and sat down next to her.

"Boss Cui talked to me today."

Zhang Mingxi asked, "What are we talking about?"

Qian Cheng repeated what Cui Minggui had said.

After listening, Zhang Mingxi asked, "So you want to go to a teacher's college?"

Qian Cheng shook his head: "I want to go to university."

Zhang Mingxi looked at him, her eyes sparkling.

"Me too."

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Zhang Mingxi suddenly remembered something, took out a small notebook from the drawer, and handed it to Qian Cheng.

"Here you go, I copied a few more words today."

Qian Cheng took it and saw that it contained English words and example sentences.

"Where did you copy this from?"

Zhang Mingxi said, "I heard it on the radio, wrote it down, and then looked it up in the dictionary."

Qian Cheng looked at her, and his heart warmed.

This girl is more hardworking than him.

He carefully put the notebook away and said, "From now on, we'll study together. Every night, after listening to the radio, we'll quiz each other on vocabulary."

Zhang Mingxi nodded: "Mm."

As Qian Cheng left the Zhang family's house, his heart was filled with emotion.

I have someone I like, something I'm good at, and a life with something to look forward to.

very nice.

The next few days passed smoothly.

Every morning, they get up early to harvest vegetables, load them onto the truck, and Qianlu delivers them to the mine while Qiancheng delivers them to the county. They return in the afternoon to continue harvesting vegetables. In the evenings, they read, listen to the radio, and memorize vocabulary.

Wild vegetables are becoming increasingly scarce, dropping from 150 jin to 100 jin, and then from 100 jin to 80 jin.

Qian Cheng calculated that the wild vegetable season could last for another ten days or so.

Once the wild vegetables are harvested, it'll be time to think about other things.

That evening, Qian Cheng did the accounting again.

"Mom, guess how much we earned this month?"

Hou Yufen leaned closer: "How much?"

Qian Cheng flipped through the ledger: "For wild vegetables, we harvested over 3,000 jin a month, sold over 2,000 jin, and earned over 230 yuan. For bean sprouts, we earned over 60 yuan. In total, it's over 290 yuan."

Hou Yufen gasped.

More than 290 yuan.

She had never seen so much money in her life.

Qian Cheng carefully put the money away and said, "Mom, let's save this money for now. When we've saved enough, we'll renovate the house, buy you a new cotton-padded coat, buy some tonics for my sister-in-law, and save some tuition fees for the kids."

Hou Yufen looked at him, and her eyes welled up with tears again.

This child has his whole family on his mind.

She reached out and patted his head.

"Chengzi, Mom is so lucky to have you."

Qian Cheng smiled and said, "Mom, I'm so lucky."

Outside the window, the moon was round and bright.

The room was warm and cozy.

With the wild vegetable season coming to an end, Qian Cheng began to think about new business opportunities.

That day, he went to the county to deliver vegetables and deliberately wandered around the streets a bit more.

There was a queue outside the supply and marketing cooperative, all people buying eggs. He went over and asked: 35 cents a pound of eggs, and you needed coupons. No coupons? Forget about it.

He went to the free market again and took a look around. Someone was secretly selling eggs for 40 cents a pound, no coupons required. But there were few sellers and many buyers, and they were all sold out in no time.

Qian Cheng understood.

Eggs are a good business.

In rural areas, every household raises chickens, so there are plenty of eggs. The supply and marketing cooperatives buy them cheaply, for just over two cents a pound. Farmers are unwilling to sell them, preferring to eat them themselves or secretly take them to the free market to sell.

If he could collect them and sell them to restaurants and factory canteens in the county, he could earn a few cents per pound. If he collected dozens of pounds a day, that would be several dollars.

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

Back in the village, he went to find Captain Li.

Captain Li was having dinner at home when he saw him come in and greeted him, "Have you eaten? Want to eat something with me?"

Qian Cheng waved his hand: "Uncle, I've already eaten. There's something I want to discuss with you."

Captain Li put down his bowl: "Speak."

Qian Cheng recounted the story about the eggs.

After listening, Captain Li thought for a moment and asked, "Will this work? Eggs are hard to collect. Each household only has a few chickens; how many eggs can they lay in a day?"

Qian Cheng said, "Two or three per family a day, that's twenty or thirty per ten families. With a hundred or so households in our village, collecting a hundred or eighty a day is no problem."

Captain Li did the math: one pound of eggs contains seven or eight eggs, so a hundred or eighty eggs would be about ten pounds. Ten pounds a day, earning a few cents per pound, that's about a dollar or eighty cents a day. Not much, but not little either.

He nodded: "Okay, give it a try. The team supports you."

Qian Cheng said, "Uncle, I'll have to trouble you again to announce it over the loudspeaker for me. Let everyone know that I buy eggs at a higher price than the supply and marketing cooperative."

Captain Li laughed: "You little rascal, all you do is order me around."

Qian Cheng laughed too: "Uncle, you're the captain."

The loudspeaker blared early the next morning.

"Hey, hey, comrades of Laowozi Village, listen up! Comrades of Laowozi Village, listen up! Qian Cheng is buying eggs! Qian Cheng is buying eggs! The price is higher than at the supply and marketing cooperative, 28 cents per jin. If you have eggs, you can bring them to the brigade headquarters, and you'll get paid on the same day."

As soon as the news spread, the village became lively again.

"Is Chengzi collecting eggs again?"

"This kid will take anything."

"Two cents and eighty cents? The supply and marketing cooperative only charges two cents and threey cents, which is five cents more."

"That's great! My chickens can lay three or four eggs a day."

"Hurry up and save them up, then send them over when you've saved enough."

In the afternoon, a queue formed again at the entrance of the brigade's office.

This time, instead of wild vegetables, they're sending eggs.

Aunt Li was the first to arrive, carrying a basket containing about twenty eggs.

"Chengzi, look, this is all I've been saving up for several days."

Qian Cheng took them and examined them one by one. The eggs varied in size, and some even had chicken droppings on them, but they were all fresh.

"Auntie, twenty-three, that's three jin. Three jin, that's 28 cents a jin, 84 cents."

He took out some money from his pocket, counted out 84 cents, and handed it to Aunt Li.

Aunt Li took the money, counted it, and couldn't stop smiling.

"Are you really giving me cash?"

Qian Cheng laughed: "Auntie, I said I'd pay today, would I lie to you?"

Aunt Li left happily.

People behind saw this and gathered around.

"My turn! My turn!"

"I have eggs too!"

"Queue up, queue up!"

Qian Cheng busied himself with tasks, collecting eggs, weighing them, and paying.

Zhang Mingxi came again to help with the bookkeeping.

Hou Yufen also came and helped with the weighing.

The three of them were so busy they barely had time to breathe, but they were happy.

On the first day, we collected more than eighty eggs, weighing about ten kilograms.

The next day, Qian Cheng took the goods to the county and found Qingping Restaurant and several other restaurants, all of which accepted them. At 32 cents a pound, he made a profit of four cents.

I bought about ten kilograms and earned a little over forty cents.