Chapter 1354
Li Qiang's First Social Practice Lesson
Because Li Qiang treated everyone equally, neither Mingming, Haohao, nor Hongqin made a fuss in the end.
After receiving the deposit, Li Qiang went to the house in the front yard to find his sister.
When Li Jianguo built the house, he didn't think about all that. At the time, he designed it so that the two children would share a room.
Now that the two children are older, and with Mingming, Haohao, and Hongqin all moving in, the backyard is definitely not big enough for them. So Li Long said early on that the children could stay in the front yard.
Anyway, Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia don't come back often, so tidying up some of the houses in the front yard will be just enough for the children to stay in.
Li Juan was busy with her own things inside the house when Li Qiang called her from the yard. She responded and came out.
After Li Qiang recounted the story, Li Juan became quite interested. After asking about the details and her uncle Li Long's reaction, Li Juan said, "Okay, let's consider this our social practice."
Li Qiang asked, somewhat puzzled, "What is social practice?"
Li Juan understood what she meant, but she hadn't done this before, so she thought for a moment and said, "You see, after we get into university, we're assigned jobs. Being assigned a job is like being in society; you're no longer a student at school."
What we're doing now isn't something students should be doing; it's like us entering society early and doing things that working adults do—that's called social practice.
Li Qiang nodded as if he understood, but since his sister had agreed, he said, "Then I'll go prepare the things for catching crabs, and we'll go over together tonight."
Li Juan and Li Qiang had both gone crabbing with Li Long before, so they both knew what stab-proof gloves, iron buckets, and headlamps were needed.
Because Xiaohaizi's place is relatively far from the Li family's residence, the two are still discussing whether to go by bicycle or on foot.
Li Qiang couldn't very well have his family drive him to the job he took on.
Both of them are adults and have their own pride, so they thought it would be better to take a more cautious approach when the time comes.
When Liang Yuemei returned for lunch, Li Qiang told her about it. Liang Yuemei was a little surprised, but after hearing that Li Qiang would be going with her sister, she gave him a few instructions and agreed.
It's a good thing that children know how to take advantage of opportunities and earn money through their own abilities. They are self-reliant, and reasonable parents will generally support them.
Liang Yuemei also said, "Those crab seedlings were planted by your uncle, so you should give him a share of the profits."
Li Qiang said his uncle didn't want it, but Li Juan chimed in, "When you make money, you can buy Mingming and Haohao some toys and stationery. Your uncle and aunt will definitely be happy."
The family all thought this was a good idea, and even Du Chunfang grinned and said that the child was really sensible.
Only Hao Hao dared to make a suggestion, saying that he didn't want any gifts, but wanted to keep a little crab as a pet.
Li Qiang told him that baby crabs are not easy to raise, and they might even pinch him. Hao Hao thought for a long time and said that he should put them in a jar so that they couldn't climb out and wouldn't pinch him.
This was a good idea, and Li Qiang agreed.
When Li Jianguo came home that evening, he learned that Li Juan and Li Qiang were going to catch crabs, so he asked them how they were going to get there. The two said they would walk, and Li Junfeng, who was standing nearby, asked if they wanted him to drive them there, since it wasn't far.
Li Juan said no need, just treat it as a social practice, and the two of them should complete it on their own, preferably without the help of others.
The term "social practice" sounds quite prestigious, and given Li Juan's academic background, no one said much more. Then Li Qiang began to understand what this "social practice" really meant.
Around 11 p.m., the two of them set off with buckets, walking along the path toward Xiaohaizi.
Before going, we both sprayed on floral water and applied medicated oil. The main reason was that there were a lot of mosquitoes in the small lake, and they were quite venomous; getting bitten a lot was very uncomfortable.
On the way, the two chatted about school. Li Juan talked about her studies before the college entrance examination and some of her experiences during the exam, while Li Qiang asked Li Juan about her life after entering university, including the college in Yanjing and the tourist attractions there.
For ordinary people, over the past few decades, Yanjing has always been a place they yearn for.
About ten minutes later, they arrived at the west bank of Xiaohaizi. Li Qiang slapped his ear, looked up, and vaguely saw that he had killed a mosquito. He said with satisfaction:
"Now that there are fewer mosquitoes, let's take this opportunity to go into the water and see how many we can catch."
Li Juan had already put on her headlamp and started scanning underwater. Two or three meters from the shore, in the shallow water that didn't even reach her ankles, there were hoofprints left by cattle and sheep. Further in, the water became murky, and she couldn't see anything clearly.
The area, with its two or three-meter width of water, is the best spot for catching crabs.
"Hey, I saw one!" With the help of Li Juan's headlamp, Li Qiang, with his sharp eyes, spotted a crab lying in a cow hoof print at a glance.
“This one is quite big.” Li Juan nodded, without moving, her headlamp shining on the crab. Only after Li Qiang picked it up and threw it into the bucket did she continue driving in another direction.
The two walked side by side, with Li Qiang on the side closer to the deep water and Li Juan on the side closer to the shore.
Having experienced a lot at school, Li Juan thought to herself that her younger brother had grown up and knew how to protect his older sister.
Both of them were wearing waist-length waders and walking slowly forward. They had the same thought: to catch all the crabs lying on the shore in one go, so as not to fail to catch enough and be embarrassed if they couldn't complete the task.
Fortunately, it's currently the peak season for crab activity, and you can see crabs lying under the water plants or in shallow pits with every step you take.
Some crabs stood there motionless, easily caught by hand. Others sensed the ground shaking, became alert, and quickly darted underwater to a safer spot, where they too were caught.
Before they had finished wading through this shallow section, Li Qiang straightened up and asked Li Juan, "Sister, how many did you catch?"
Li Juan thought for a moment and said, "There are more than 20? The two of us together should be enough, right?"
"That's enough, that's enough. I think I have more than 30 here. I estimate that this will fill more than half a bucket by the end. I can't catch any more, or the crabs will crawl out of the bucket."
Li Juan smiled and said, "That's great! I really didn't expect there to be so many crabs. We can cook a meal tomorrow; I haven't eaten crabs much back in Yanjing."
Li Qiang joked, "Isn't home still the best?"
Li Juan nodded solemnly: "Yes, it's definitely better at home!"
Seeing his sister's serious answer, Li Qiang didn't know what to say. He was determined to go and see the world.
It doesn't necessarily have to be Beijing; other cities are fine too.
Of course, he also understood that he would definitely have to go back to work in Beijing after graduating from university, so he was thinking of taking a trip outside after four years of university.
Now, when his sister, who has been away for a year, says that her hometown is still the best, he doesn't know how to respond.
Suddenly, there were a few thuds from the reeds beside her. Li Juan was startled and turned her head. With her headlamp shining on her, she could only see the reeds swaying and had no idea what was inside.
“Don’t be afraid,” Li Qiang looked around and said, “It’s either water rats catching fish or wild ducks swimming with their ducklings. There are a lot of fish and water birds lately. You can even see cranes, herons, and water chickens during the day.”
Hearing this, Li Juan felt relieved. When she looked down to continue looking at the crabs, she found that there were quite a few small fish in the water. Groups of fish the size of a finger were swimming around, and there were even smaller ones, only one or two centimeters in size, that swam faster and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Li Juan looked closely and even spotted a translucent shrimp, but when she reached out to grab it, the shrimp disappeared in a flash.
"Hey, this crab is pretty soft!" Li Juan suddenly said. "It feels like it has rickets!"
Upon hearing this, Li Qiang said, "My uncle said that this should be a crab that has just molted, right? Let's see if there are any molted shells nearby."
Li Juan threw the crab into the bucket, looked around, and actually found a complete crab shell.
"It's quite interesting. There are no other crabs around here, just this one. If you hadn't told me, I would have thought that the crab shell was also a crab."
Li Qiang added, "My uncle said that crabs will avoid other crabs when they are molting. This is because they are at their weakest when molting, and other crabs will eat them."
Li Juan hurriedly looked at the crab that had been thrown into the bucket, and sure enough, other crabs were already attacking it with their pincers.
Li Juan hurriedly reached out and scooped up the soft-shelled crab, holding it in her hand and saying, "We can't let the other crabs eat it, that would be a waste."
Seeing that the crab wasn't very big, Li Qiang said, "Then let Hao Hao keep this crab. It'll be a good opportunity to see how the shell hardens."
When the two reached the end of the shallows, their crab-catching work for the day was basically finished.
Li Juan was still somewhat unsatisfied, but when she turned her head to look at the place they had waded through, the water was completely murky, and she couldn't see anything underwater at all, so she knew that it was impossible to catch anything anymore.
Li Qiang was quite excited and said, "That's enough, that's enough. This one bucket alone is enough to deliver the goods. We can have a good meal with the rest tomorrow."
Although the two were a little tired, they were still very excited about the harvest. As they walked back, they realized they had been bitten by mosquitoes on their heads and faces when they were almost home.
When I got back to the yard, I found that the lights were on on both sides and my family was waiting.
Li Juan went to the backyard and put the crabs in the kitchen, weighing down the bucket to prevent them from escaping. She then placed the soft-shelled crab in a small basin, covered it, and planned to give it to Hao Hao the next morning.
The two then washed their hands and went to change their clothes.
Hearing the commotion, Liang Yuemei and Li Jianguo came out one after the other to inquire about the crab-catching situation.
"We caught two large buckets, at least fifty or sixty of them," Li Qiang said excitedly. "That's definitely enough, enough for one meal tomorrow."
After washing her hands, Li Juan came out and asked, "Are Mingming, Haohao, and Hongqin asleep yet?"
“They’ve fallen asleep,” Liang Yuemei said. “We were all waiting for you to come back, but after waiting for a while, the three kids got sleepy and fell asleep.”
With the two children safely returned, Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei were relieved. They gave the children some mung bean soup to cool them down, then they washed up and went to bed.
The next morning, as soon as Mingming and Haohao got up, they couldn't wait to run to the backyard. Haohao was carrying a food jar, which they had found the day before, specifically to raise crabs.
When the two arrived at the backyard, Liang Yuemei was making breakfast. When she saw them coming, she knew they were there to see the crabs, so she told them, "The crabs are in the bucket under the kitchen counter."
Be careful when you lift the lid, don't get pinched by the crabs. Hao Hao, the small yellow bowl with the lid on the side of the cutting board contains the crabs I saved for you to raise. Pour them into the canning jar, or ask your brother Qiangqiang to do it for you.
Hao Hao responded and quickly followed his brother into the kitchen.
The crabs were making a rustling sound in the two buckets, which could be heard from quite a distance. It wasn't the first time Mingming and Haohao had seen crabs, so they weren't very scared.
They lifted the lid of a bucket and looked inside at the crabs with their claws outstretched. Although they had seen them before, they still looked quite strange now.
At this moment, Hongqin also came over. It was the first time Hongqin had ever seen such crabs. Watching the crab at the top trying to climb up while the crabs below pulled it back, she found it very interesting.
Hao Hao saw the yellow basin on the cutting board, but didn't hear any movement, so he became a little worried. Was the crab dead?
He lifted the lid of the yellow basin, and the crabs inside immediately sprang up upon seeing the sunlight. They moved so fast that they crawled out of the basin and fell onto the cutting board.
Hongqin screamed in surprise, but Mingming was quite brave. She grabbed the jar from Haohao's hand and pinned it down to the crab that was trying to escape.
Li Qiang was washing up when he heard Hongqin's scream. He grabbed his toothbrush cup and ran over. When he got to the kitchen, he saw Mingming struggling with how to put the crabs into the jars. He smiled and said, "Mingming, leave it to me."
He put down the toothbrush cup, wiped the toothpaste foam from his mouth, and slowly moved the canned food jar to the edge of the cutting board, with the crabs inside having to move along with it.
When he got to the cutting board, Li Qiang suddenly flipped the can over and threw the crab into it.
"Hey, Qiangqiang, are you doing acrobatics?" Hongqin asked in surprise.
Li Qiang quoted a line he had modified from classical Chinese: "Nothing special, just quick hands."
Mingming said in a serious tone, "So you're saying you're fast, right?"
That's exactly what I mean.
Seeing that her younger brother had a crab, Mingming was a little envious and wanted to raise one too.
Li Qiang simply found two more food jars, put two crabs in them, and gave one to Mingming and one to Hongqin. Then, as Li Juan had instructed, he fed them chopped fish or other things.
After breakfast, Li Jianguo led Li Junfeng and the others to continue plowing the fields, while Li Juan and Li Qiang took out two buckets of crabs and poured them into a large washbasin.
The crabs were thrilled to have more room to move around, climbing on top of each other, hoping to get out as soon as possible and gain their freedom.
Mingming, Haohao, and Hongqin stopped looking at the crabs. They valued the crabs they raised more and even got small fish to feed them.
They saw the crab using its two pincers like hands to grab fish meat and put it in its mouth, even though they clearly found it very delicious.
Around 11 o'clock, Tian Junjie arrived at the Li family's house on his bicycle.
When Tian Junjie arrived at the gate and saw that someone was home, he felt relieved.
He was afraid the other party was trying to trick him. This morning, as soon as his boss arrived at work, he was told to come over quickly to pick up the crabs, saying he needed to deliver them to his boss's house before noon.
Tian Junjie naturally dared not be negligent, as the success or failure of some matters hinged on this one move. This time, Xiao Hei only barked twice, and seeing that its owners did not show any hostility towards the newcomers, it shrank back to its kennel, watching warily.
Tian Junjie smiled and pushed the cart into the yard, greeting everyone. Li Qiang pointed to a large basin and said, "The crabs are here. How many do you want?"
Upon hearing this, Tian Junjie immediately felt reassured.
He tied up the cart, picked up the net bag, and went to the edge of the big basin. When he looked inside, wow, there was so much!
Now he was in a bit of a predicament. He had only prepared 100 yuan. If he picked all the big ones, 30 would cost 150 yuan, which was not enough for him!
But after seeing those big crabs, I really didn't want the small ones.
The big ones look so beautiful!
At this point, it was too late to report to the leader. There was no other way but to follow the 30-piece quota, so I could only choose 20 small ones and 10 large ones, and I had to add some money to the quota myself.
After explaining the situation, Li Qiang had no objections, put on gloves, and started catching crabs for him.
"No dead, no maimed!" Tian Junjie hurriedly relayed his superior's instructions. "I need to keep an eye on them."
"Don't worry!" Li Qiang said as he scooped crabs into his net. "Look, they're all alive. I'll pick them out for you one by one. They all have claws and pincers."
A small argument broke out in the middle. Tian Junjie wanted to pick out all the extra-large ones, while Li Qiang's idea was, "You only want 10 large ones, so I'll just pick out the ones that are more evenly sized for you."
Fortunately, Li Juan came over and said, "Let's just pick the bigger one. It's our first transaction, so we can give you a discount."
Tian Junjie found this quite agreeable and then said, "After I've picked out these 30, give me six smaller ones to pick out separately, and I'll pay for them separately."
He wanted to take six home and cook them himself.
After selecting the crabs, Tian Junjie paid for them and then asked Li Qiang to issue a receipt.
Li Juan said, "We're not in business, why would we need a receipt? Here's a receipt for you."
Tian Junjie thought that this would work, at least he could give his report to his superiors.
Carrying the crabs and holding the receipt, Tian Junjie happily returned to the county. After arriving at his workplace, he handed the 30 crabs and the receipt to his supervisor, who asked, "Is this all the crabs the seller sold?"
"No, there are about twenty or thirty more," Tian Junjie said honestly. "It's just that we don't have enough money, so we can only buy this many."
Looking at the lively crabs spitting out bubbles, the leader said, "They are quite expensive, but they do look very beautiful. Here's what we'll do, Xiao Tian, go to the finance department now and get another 100 yuan. Then go back this afternoon and buy the rest."
Although Tian Junjie was a little resentful, he had no choice but to do it since his superiors had assigned it to him.
However, when he arrived at the Li family's house in the afternoon, he only smelled the aroma of crabs.
It turned out that after he left, Li Juan and Li Qiang decided to cook all the remaining crabs.
As for the 118 yuan earned, each person received 50 yuan, and the remaining 18 yuan was used to buy some snacks for the whole family to eat together.
Originally, Li Juan and Li Qiang wanted to contribute more money to the distribution, but Liang Yuemei refused. Liang Yuemei said, "If you cook the crabs you caught like this at noon, everyone can have some. Then we can buy some more food, and that will be enough."
You can't work hard all night and only get a small share of the money; that wouldn't be a business.
Not long after Tian Junjie left, Li Long drove over with Gu Xiaoxia. They came to check if they had caught any crabs and if they had sold them.
Li Long was overjoyed to find that he had just arrived in time to cook crabs for lunch.
When Li Qiang saw his uncle coming over, he and Li Juan carefully explained the whole process to Li Long.
Knowing that his nephew and niece had treated the crab-selling experience as a form of social practice, and that Mingming, Haohao, and Hongqin had also received crabs so everyone could have lunch, and that the two "social practitioners" had even made some money, Li Long smiled and said:
"Look, isn't this great! Everyone's happy! This kind of social practice is definitely worthy of being written into a report."
Of course, since you're treating this as a social practice, you should summarize the lessons learned and see if there are any improvements to be made later.
Li Qiang and Li Juan thought about it and summarized a few minor issues. For example, after catching the crabs, they should sort them. They could have selected the 30 crabs in the morning, or they could have asked the buyer about their needs in advance and separated the crabs by size according to those needs, and so on.
Li Long just laughed, but didn't correct anything.
Today at noon, since we were relatively close to our accommodation, Li Jianguo and the others came back for lunch. The spicy crab was quite good, and each person got two or three crabs on average. Everyone tried some.
Li Jianguo also asked Li Junfeng to take some back, but Li Junfeng refused, saying that his father would take whatever he wanted at home, and they shouldn't spoil him like that.
After dinner, Li Juan and Li Qiang helped clear the table, piling all the crab shells together and throwing them into the trash bag.
Just as they finished tidying up here, Tian Junjie rushed over on his bike in a hurry.
When Li Qiang saw Tian Junjie, he thought to himself, "This is probably bad news."
Sure enough, when Tian Junjie said he wanted to buy the remaining crabs, Li Qiang could only tell the truth with a wry smile.
Tian Junjie smiled wryly, secretly blaming himself for not asking them to keep the crabs.
The main problem was poor communication between the two parties, so he asked Li Qiang, "Can we still catch crabs today?"
Li Qiang said that if he was sure he wanted it, he could certainly catch it, but Tian Junjie was not sure if he could definitely catch it.
After all, the leader said they needed it in the afternoon, and if they didn't have it by then, it was uncertain whether they would need it tomorrow.
Li Qiang said, "Your workplace should have a phone number, right? Ask around and call our home later. If you want it, we'll go and catch it again; if not, then forget it."
Tian Junjie was surprised that this farming family even had a telephone, but it was a good idea, and he immediately agreed.
Li Qiang returned to the house and told his family about it. Then Li Juan said, "My uncle just told us to learn from our experience. It seems we need to add one more thing: we can't cook all the crabs we caught. We need to have some in stock to deal with any unexpected buyers."
This point may not be considered extremely important, but it is still quite relevant today.
Taking the opportunity, Li Long said, "Juan, Qiangqiang, the crabs in Xiaohaizi are now entirely in your care. If anyone wants to buy them, they can come to you. It should be before the end of August. After that, the water will get colder, and the crabs won't be able to come out as easily, so you won't be able to eat them even if you want to."
The two children agreed in unison. It was quite a test for them, but it was definitely a good thing.
In the afternoon, Li Qiang received a call from Tian Junjie, who said that he would come to pick up crabs the next morning. He would take as many as 100 or less, but the price would have to be reduced: 4 yuan for the big ones and 2.5 yuan for the small ones.
Li Qiang and Li Juan discussed it and felt it was acceptable, so the matter was settled.
On the way back, Gu Xiaoxia couldn't help but laugh, saying that the two kids were taking business very seriously, being very methodical and meticulous.
“It’s a good thing,” Li Long said as he drove. “Juan is already in college, and she’s already halfway into society. She can experience the advantages and disadvantages of wealth in society.”
Qiangqiang is different. Although he lives on campus in high school and it costs money, he's relatively far removed from society. This kind of exposure is beneficial; it helps him adapt a little earlier than entering the workforce completely clueless later.
“It’s not that exaggerated.” Gu Xiaoxia disagreed with Li Long’s statement. “After we graduated, we went straight back to the village, and then went to the middle school and the county. It wasn’t as troublesome as you said. We adapted naturally.”
Li Long patiently explained to her, "Things are different now than before. Back then, it wasn't a market economy; it was a planned economy, and money didn't play such a big role. Now it's different. You don't need coupons for anything anymore; you only need money. Stepping out of your home, out of school, and into society brings a sudden and huge change, so it's best to get used to it beforehand."
Although Li Long said he had handed over the crabs from Xiaohaizi to Li Juan and Li Qiang, Li Qiang still called Li Long to report the sale of the crabs the next day. However, since there were no follow-up orders, they would temporarily stop.
Li Long told Li Qiang not to worry. Although Ma County is not a big county, the news about crabs will spread to some extent, and they will definitely have more business in the future.
Li Long also suggested that Li Qiang go find Yang Laoliu, since if someone went to Xiaohaizi to buy crabs, they could only do so through Yang Laoliu.
Li Qiang and Li Juan went to Lao Ma's shop together that evening, bringing two watermelons with them. This made the old men at Lao Ma's shop very happy. Yang Laoliu even patted his chest and promised that if anyone wanted to buy crabs, he would definitely recommend the Li family.
The old men were overjoyed that the village's first college student had arrived. They immediately cut up a watermelon and reminisced about the past. They said that when Li Juan and Li Qiang were in school, they often came here to watch the wild boars and deer.
This place was once a happy place for Li Juan and Li Qiang, but those days have gradually faded away.
The two children chatted there for quite a while before going home together after Li Jianguo came to pick them up.
As Li Long predicted, Li Juan and Li Qiang received seven more orders throughout August, with varying quantities of crabs. In total, the two of them earned more than 1000 yuan, which was a considerable sum.
The most important thing next is how to plan how to spend this money.
Li Qiang meant that he wouldn't need to get his living expenses from home for the rest of the semester, since he would have his own money.
Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei felt both gratified and heartbroken upon hearing this. They were gratified that their son was already earning money and paying for their living expenses at a young age.
The sad thing is that the child is a bit precocious and doesn't want to rely on the family, or rather, wants to lighten the family's burden.
In reality, the Li family's life had undergone a dramatic transformation by this time, making it very easy to support a high school student. Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei couldn't understand why Li Qiang would do this; usually, only children from poor families would try to help their families solve their difficulties at such a young age.
Li Juan took the money and prepared a gift for everyone in her family, including Li Long, Gu Xiaoxia, and her grandparents.
Before going to Yenching University, Li Juan bought herself a gift: a unique backpack. She kept the rest of the money as her own savings to cover any unexpected expenses.
The day before Zhao Shijie arrived in the county, the heads of the other two cooperatives in the village came to find Li Long.
They wanted to discuss how to apply for projects in the autonomous region, and Li Long shared his application process with them without reservation.
He also made it clear that his situation was impossible to completely replicate, and if the other party wanted to find similar projects, they should try to find connections.
After all, once a project reaches the county level, it's difficult to directly notify the townships and villages. At the county level, well-informed people know about it and apply for it early on.
These two people also know that this is the current situation: there are few support projects to begin with, and many people are competing for them.
Moreover, they are also aware that even if they apply now and get the certificate, the cost will be high.
However, being in Team 4, with Li Long and his cooperative on the sidelines, if you don't take the initiative and plan ahead, you'll only be able to watch others run faster and faster while you fall further and further behind.
In fact, looking back at their choices decades from now, it's a good thing.
Horizontal competition, competing with outstanding individuals and cooperatives, will lead to greater personal progress, rather than stagnation.
If we can't find this support project for the time being, there's nothing we can do but wait until Li Long's cooperative has finished planting.
This time, Li Long picked up Zhao Shijie from the county town, had lunch at Tuanfenglou, and then took him to the cooperative's dormitory.
On the bus, Zhao Shijie asked Li Long, "Are the workers and materials ready? Do we not need to water the fields anymore?"
"Everything is ready, and everyone's already on site. If we weren't waiting for you, we could have started work right now," Li Long said as he drove. "We've already checked with the team, and they say we don't need water right now. We have plenty of time; we just need to get the irrigation canals done before the winter wheat irrigation season."
Zhao Shijie smiled and said, "I don't have that much time. At most, it will be half a month. I have to rush to other construction sites. There are few supervisors now, so I'm always on the go."
Li Long smiled and said, "We really have to thank you for your contributions. By the way, people like you who work as safety supervisors in the field should receive an extra allowance, right?"
"Yes, but it only costs a few cents a day," Zhao Shijie said. "Whether it's worth it or not depends on yourself."
Li Long remained silent. A few cents a day was indeed a bit low, but the higher up the hierarchy of government, the more difficult it was to implement wage systems, so it was not appropriate for an ordinary citizen like him to have a say.
After taking Zhao Shijie to the cooperative's dormitory and settling his things in, he was going to go check on the construction site.
Li Long drove him to the construction site by the canal. The people Meng Hai had arranged had set up two tents there and were currently making cement slabs.
This canal was paved with cement slabs for a period of time. The cement used in those slabs was of a high grade, but it was relatively thin. After twenty or thirty years, it has long since rotted away.
If we rebuild now, Li Long will pay for it. He has high requirements: the planks need to be thick, the grade needs to be high, they need to withstand the erosion of water, and the banks on both sides must not collapse.
Zhao Shijie watched the workers busily at work, then got off the bus to check the material of the cement slabs.
Li Long stood beside him, watching. Only after Zhao Shijie showed a satisfied expression did he smile and say, "I plan to use this canal for at least 30 years, so I told them early on that the materials must be of good quality and the construction must be done well."
Zhao Shijie laughed and said, "This saves me a lot of trouble. Not bad, not bad. It looks like I can go back earlier."
When Zhao Shijie arrived, it meant that work could begin. The workers immediately started the machines, some clearing the ditches, others transporting the planks, and the construction site suddenly became even busier.
There are two more major projects to be completed: one is leveling the land, and the other is laying the main pipeline and branch pipelines.
One of these tasks will be completed by the end of the year, and the other will not begin until the beginning of next year.
Li Long is already full of anticipation. Once all the drip irrigation facilities are in place next year, a new era for cotton cultivation will begin! (End of Chapter)