Chapter 44: Dizzy Head
Zhang Changjiang puffed on his cigarette and chuckled. "I only remembered this matter this morning, so I went to check out the warehouse to see what we could use as a return gift. That's when I saw that pile of supplies – anyway, the educated youth don't want them anymore, and since they've all left, it wouldn't matter to give them away.
"Besides, all this stuff is brand new. We got them less than a year ago, and we keep the newer ones while setting aside the slightly older ones. If we give away all these things plus a few sets of new clothes and some bolts of cloth, no one could possibly complain."
Zhang Guangwen suddenly shook his head. "What were those educated youth thinking? If they'd been given money or coupons to buy things themselves at the supply and marketing cooperative, it might make sense if they skipped buying to save money. But the commune already converted the funds into supplies ahead of time – they just needed to bring their coupons to claim them. How could they just leave such good things behind? What a waste."
Xiao Liewen let out a cold snort. "What else could they be thinking? They've just got it too easy and started being wasteful. What we consider good things are worthless to some people – even if you give them away, they'd look down their noses at them. Good riddance if they don't want them; we can keep them for the team's important uses. This time alone, it'll save us quite a bit of money."
Taking another drag from his cigarette, he continued, "Old Cao wanted to transfer me to work as a cadre in the county, but I flat-out refused. I just can't stand those people in the county."
Ye Shubao laughed it off. "Right, right! We should uphold high moral standards and not sink to their level."
Then he changed the subject. "Let's get down to business. The production brigade will contribute one set of the educated youth supplies, plus a few outfits and two pairs of shoes. How should each production team arrange their contributions?"
Zhang Changjiang thought for a moment while smoking. "The teams don't have it easy either. Since the brigade is covering the bulk, the teams just need to do what's appropriate – as long as the gesture is there, it'll be fine."
Zhang Guangwen grinned. "What do you mean by 'appropriate'? We can't just grab two handfuls of rice for them, can we?"
Zhang Changjiang shot him a glare. "Are you trying to give alms to a beggar?"
Zhang Guangwen quickly explained, "What I mean is we can't give too little. We might not be able to afford industrial goods, but we should make the agricultural products as substantial as possible."
Xiao Liewen waved his hand. "We still need to do what we can afford."
Zhang Guangwen smacked his lips and said to him, "Look – Old Yang from Team 6 saved his life, and it's only right that he received Old Yang's teachings. No one would say a word even if he gave nothing in return.
"But Old Yang is so generous – giving quilts and clothes and all. If he's doing that, how can we not use that as a reference?"
Xiao Liewen glanced around and did some mental calculations. "In my opinion, let's set a standard of 10 yuan. Put together 3 yuan worth of meat, 5 yuan worth of rice, and 2 yuan worth of cotton. Cotton can be used to make padded jackets and batting – it's useful whether you're in the city or the countryside."
Pausing for a moment, he added, "That's just a suggestion – we don't have to stick to exactly those items. Other things like rapeseed oil, sauce, soy sauce, or vinegar work too. Anyway, they're all things produced by the production teams themselves, so they don't cost much, and we won't have to worry about people gossiping."
Looking at Zhang Guangwen, he said, "You can't compare yourself to Yang Chuanfu. They're giving personal items, and then the team makes up for it with work points. Besides, they already gave clothes, and the team is also giving clothes – how long would that kid be able to wear all those clothes anyway? We should just keep it reasonable."
When Captain Yang came over last time, he only mentioned that he, Accountant Liu, and Storekeeper Huang were giving things, but didn't go into details. They'd assumed all those items were return gifts for Chen Fan and unconsciously used that as their benchmark.
In fact, Captain Yang and the others had mostly used homemade homespun cloth and repurposed old cloth, plus cotton. Even though there seemed to be a lot of items, their actual value wasn't high – probably around 10 yuan or so.
Otherwise, just buying the cloth for two sets of single-layer clothes would cost over a dozen yuan, and even the most generous people wouldn't casually give away such things.
With the brigade giving so many supplies, a 10-yuan standard from each team should be more than enough.
Zhang Guangwen nodded first. "I have no objection to the 10-yuan standard."
Then he looked at the three of them. "The question is – do we go by the procurement price or the selling price? The difference between the two is quite significant."
The three men immediately understood what he meant.
Take cotton for example: the procurement price for seed cotton is 50 cents a jin, while the market price is 63 cents. Ginned cotton has a procurement price of 70 cents a jin, but sells for 90 cents at the supply and marketing cooperative – and you still need cotton coupons. If this cotton is sent to the prefectural capital or provincial capital, the price goes up to 1 yuan to 1.2 yuan per jin. That's nearly double the price difference.
With the price difference being nearly double, the quantity would have to double too. At market price, 2 jin of cotton would be enough, but at procurement price, we'd need to give 3 jin.
And then there's rice, pork...
With all these different prices swirling around in his head, Xiao Liewen felt dizzy and quickly held his forehead. "Ugh, you guys decide on this one – my head's spinning."
Ye Shubao quickly chimed in, "Captain, you make the call – I have no objections."
Zhang Changjiang narrowed his eyes and thought it over. "Alright, let's just set a unified standard: each team will give 20 jin of rice, two cured pork bellies, two cured carp about a chi long, 3 jin of cotton, and 1 jin of rapeseed oil. Then we can throw in some other inexpensive odds and ends just to make it look abundant – that should be plenty."
Each cured pork belly weighs about 2 jin, and pork is 80 cents a jin this year – that's 3.2 yuan right there. A chi-long carp, even salted, costs 1 yuan – so that's over 5 yuan already. Twenty jin of rice is 2.8 yuan, plus the 3 jin of ginned cotton and 1 jin of rapeseed oil – that's more than 10 yuan.
Not to mention the coupons required for all of it!
Zhang Guangwen slapped his thigh. "That's clear and straightforward!"
Ye Shubao chuckled. "Then I'll have Sanhu send the militia to notify each team right away."
He was just about to stand up to find someone when –
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
Xiao Liewen looked at a group of people walking over not far away. "Look – is that Sanhu walking at the front? Who's the person next to him?"
A thought suddenly crossed his mind. "Could it be Chen Fan?"
Ye Shubao looked over and nodded in agreement. "Possibly – the timing matches up."
Zhang Changjiang squinted to look and couldn't help but furrow his brow, muttering to himself, "Old Yang said he was a kid – but this kid is way too big, isn't he?"
Sanhu is the militia company commander and is considered tall in Lujiawan, but Chen Fan is nearly half a head taller than him – must be over six feet tall, right?
...
Chen Fan followed Zhang Wenliang toward Team 5. First they passed through that stand of poplar trees, and then a cluster of houses came into view.
These houses were different from those in Team 6.
Not in terms of the house styles themselves, but their layout.
The houses in Team 6 were spaced apart from each other, with quite a distance between households. Even those along the road were staggered to ensure good ventilation all around.
But the houses in Team 5 were arranged like rural houses in later years – a row of connected buildings, with houses and families right next to each other.
Along a dirt road, one side was a slope covered in shrubs, while the other side was lined with earthen wall houses.
But Chen Fan clearly saw a pond at the end of the earthen wall houses, and on the other side of the pond stood a large compound of grey brick buildings.
Was that the Lu family's old residence?
No – that should be the headquarters of the Lujiawan Production Brigade!
(End of Chapter)
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