Chapter 343 – Returning to the Village

Factory Director Hu asked, “Yimin, do you think we’ll be able to get the goods tomorrow?”

The New Year was just a few days away, so he wanted to get the items early and avoid any unexpected issues.

“Factory Director Hu, I’m going back to the village tomorrow. If you want, you can come with me now to pick them up,” Zhou Yimin replied.

He didn’t want to waste another day. They only had so many days off for the holiday. If it hadn’t been for this dinner gathering, he would’ve already returned to the village that night.

Factory Director Hu had no objections. “Alright, let’s go with you now!”

Zhou Yimin hopped on his bicycle and led the way. The car followed slowly behind. Fortunately, the steel plant wasn’t far from the siheyuan where Zhou Yimin lived, so after about ten minutes of cycling, they arrived.

The sound of the car drew out a few people from the courtyard, but when they saw it was Zhou Yimin bringing someone over, they didn’t find it strange and went back inside. It was too cold—staying under the covers was much more comfortable.

Zhou Yimin went into the house and soon came back out carrying a burlap sack. Inside were five jin of tomatoes, five jin of cucumbers, and five jin of baby bok choy. He handed it directly to Factory Director Hu. These vegetables and fruits were enough for one person, so he didn’t bring extra.

Factory Director Hu took the sack and looked it over—the produce was indeed fresh, as if it had just been picked from the ground.

He then handed Zhou Yimin some money and ration coupons. He didn’t want to owe him a personal favor; after all, money debts are easy to repay, but personal debts are not.

Zhou Yimin accepted them straightforwardly. If he had refused, Factory Director Hu would have thought he had ulterior motives—why else wouldn’t he even accept payment?

Sure enough, when Factory Director Hu saw that Zhou Yimin accepted it without hesitation, he was even more pleased.

The next morning, Zhou Yimin opened the store and saw in the “one yuan flash sale” section: 100 jin of sugar tangerines, 100 white-cut chickens, 100 ginseng roots, and 100 jin of cured meat. Without hesitation, he bought them all, then began packing up. He also brought the TV—it was originally bought to entertain his grandparents anyway. Since there weren’t any decent programs on lately, he loaded everything up and set off toward Zhoujiazhuang on his bicycle.

Given that it was winter, he had already bought gloves from the store. Otherwise, cycling in this cold was pure torture. At best, your hands turned bright red from the cold; at worst, you risked frostbite.

Medical conditions these days weren’t like in the future. Some illnesses might be minor in later times, but now they could be life-threatening.

The trip normally wouldn’t have taken long, but with the strong wind, biting cold, and thick clothing making movement stiff and awkward, he rode much slower than usual.

When he arrived back in the village, he happened to run into a village-wide meeting. In the past, such gatherings were usually held at night, but with the cold weather, daytime was preferable. Nights were even colder, so meetings had been moved to daylight hours.

Though it hadn’t snowed yet, the river had already frozen. With the cold, there was no farming to be done. The only thing that needed attention was the chickens being raised in the village—they absolutely couldn’t afford any problems. Aside from that, there was nothing else to do.

The old Party Secretary sat at the front, facing the villagers, summarizing what had been accomplished this year. This was always the happiest time of year for villagers, because it was when work points were tallied.

In previous years, a household could earn about 3,000 work points annually, equivalent to a little over 200 RMB. It might sound like a lot, but after deducting food expenses and village communal costs, each family only took home thirty to forty yuan.

That’s why so many rural people wanted to go work in the city. At first, the money they earned seemed comparable to earning work points in the village. But working in the city meant individual income, while in the village, earnings were counted as a household. So one person working outside could equal an entire household’s income from farming.

The old secretary spoke energetically. “The village income this year was excellent—especially with Yimin’s help. He sold our low-priced vegetables at a high price and brought in extra from hunting. I believe everyone will have a great New Year.”

The villagers lit up with joy upon hearing this.

“Sounds like we’ll be getting a nice payout this year,” Zhou Xucai said with a grin.

Despite the cold, no one could hide their excitement at the idea of getting money.

Zhou An chimed in, “Yeah! I’m curious how much we’ll actually get.”

“I don’t think it’ll be much,” Zhou Xuqing poured cold water on the mood. “Sure, we earned money, but the village spent a lot too—just think how much was spent on buying grain alone.”

The old secretary ignored the murmurs below and continued, “This year, the village earned a total of 10,352 yuan.”

The moment he finished speaking, the crowd erupted in shock. No one expected the earnings to be this high.

“If all that money were mine, I’d be a ten-thousand-yuan household!” Zhou Xucai said dreamily.

Zhou Xupeng couldn’t help but mock him. “Keep dreaming. Or better yet, go to bed early tonight. In your dreams, you can be a ten-thousand, hundred-thousand, or even million-yuan household.”

“Exactly, exactly! Still daytime and already dreaming,” another person chimed in.

Someone else was practically jumping. “If we made over ten thousand, and there are about a hundred households in the village, doesn’t that mean we could each get a hundred yuan?”

“No way. Think about how much was spent on grain, the generator, and electrical wiring. A lot of the village expenses were covered by Yimin out of pocket. Now that we’ve earned some money, don’t we have to pay him back?” Zhou Xuqing pointed out.

Everyone paused and realized he was right.

The old secretary raised his hand to signal for quiet, and the villagers quickly calmed down.

“Though we’ve earned a good amount, we need to set aside some for the village’s cash flow and pay Yimin back part of what he covered. The rest is for this round of dividends.”

Everyone’s excitement cooled considerably. Based on that breakdown, it sounded like they might get less than last year. After so many deductions, how much would really be left?

“This time, each household will get 63 yuan.” The old secretary didn’t drag it out—he gave them the number straight.

This allocation had been carefully considered. Distributing 63 yuan per household meant 5,200 yuan was used for the bonus payout. The remaining 4,000 yuan was divided—1,500 to repay Zhou Yimin, and 2,500 kept by the village for emergencies.

That way, if anything happened, they wouldn’t need to collect money from everyone again. If dividends hadn’t been handed out yet, that would be fine—but once distributed, trying to get money from some of the more stingy villagers would be next to impossible.

The villagers were thrilled to receive the “massive” sum of 63 yuan. Most had expected only thirty or forty like the previous year—so this nearly doubled return was an unexpected joy.

The old secretary looked around at the smiling faces of the villagers and felt deeply satisfied.

After all, wasn’t all this hard work throughout the year just for this moment?

(End of Chapter)