Chapter 151: No Taking Leave or Skipping Work

Recently, Madame Fang’s ideological realm had improved significantly compared to the past. Under the influence of her daughter-in-law, she had come to realize that a woman could only lead a better life if she stood firmly on her own feet. Although her eldest daughter currently had a job, it was only temporary, and in her heart, Madame Fang privately hoped that she could still save up some money. However, as soon as she brought the idea up, it was immediately vetoed by her second son:

"Mother, don't forget, Eldest Sister is a cadre now. Can you talk to her about this kind of thing?"

Li Kai didn't deliberately want to keep things from his eldest sister; he simply wanted to spare her from being caught in a dilemma once she knew. Wouldn't it be better to just keep her out of the loop?

Upon hearing this, Madame Fang felt it made sense. Anyway, she could quietly save up some private money on the side and help her eldest daughter out more in the future.

Thus, after the three of them put their heads together for a discussion, they unanimously decided to handle the matter entirely on their own—which, of course, included Tang Xin. As Li Kai pointed out, he didn't quite understand many of the intricacies involved and would need to consult his sister-in-law.

That was true. His daughter-in-law was extremely capable; hadn't the second son been learning from her and now appeared much more sensible than before?

In front of their sons, the elderly couple would put on stern faces to maintain their dignity and authority as parents. But back in their bedroom, both of them were overjoyed.

Especially Li Zhirong, who broke into a rare, wide grin. After listening to their second son, a wave of excitement washed over him. Who didn't want to make money? If not for that, he wouldn't have deliberately led a crew to open up a mine back in the day—not to mention the exhausting labor, it had carried huge risks. Sure enough, an accident happened, and from then on, Li Zhirong grew silent, barely speaking a word at home aside from doing chores. He basically reached a point where everyone in the production team knew such a person existed, but very few interacted with him.

In truth, deep down inside, he also yearned to earn more money and make his family's life better and better.

Since they were going to do it, they had to put their hearts into it. Li Zhirong was extremely enthusiastic, and early the next morning, he headed into the mountains to search for suitable bamboo. After returning, he split the bamboo into thin strips and began weaving bamboo baskets alongside Madame Fang.

Tang Xin had originally intended to help, but alas, she possessed zero talent for handicraft.

The bamboo baskets she wove couldn't possibly pass as gift boxes; even the mother-in-law, who always doted on her and favored her, couldn't bear to look at them.

Still, Madame Fang diplomatically said, "Oh, Tang Xin, you don't need to do these chores, lest you hurt your fingers."

Everyone had their own strengths. Tang Xin had preached this to the brothers Li Sheng and Li Kai before, and actually, these words suited her best of all. While she couldn't handle manual labor, she knew how to wield a pen. So, she sketched out some exquisite designs for the bamboo baskets.

Following her drawings, the elderly couple wove the baskets accordingly, and indeed, the ones made this way turned out much better-looking.

After working hard for a few days, the two old folks had woven about thirty baskets, and then Tang Xin began designing the fruit arrangements.

Human potential was truly boundless. Initially, Madame Fang thought she could only weave two or three baskets a day, and the old man couldn't manage many more either. After all, Li Zhirong still had to go to the fields to work during the day, finding free time only after finishing the farm work, and even then, he had to hide in their room so the younger children wouldn't notice.

Yet, driven by the thought that these were all hard cash, the two of them were filled with boundless motivation. In the past, they would chat and relax for a while after dinner and head to bed around eight or nine o'clock. Recently, however, they would stay busy in their room for quite a while longer. Fortunately, when the production team installed power lines earlier, the eldest son had prudently had electric lights installed for the Li family home.

And those electric lights were undeniably much brighter than the old oil lamps. Otherwise, given that the couple was no longer young and their eyesight wasn't the greatest, they wouldn't have been able to get much work done at night by an oil lamp.

就这样,两个人每天晚上几乎都是过了十二点才睡觉的，几天功夫居然就做出了三十个。

They spent their days mainly weaving the fruit baskets, while Tang Xin was responsible for placing the apples inside. She generally put six apples in each basket, accented with a few dried fruits to make it look prettier, and estimated the base price to be three yuan.

At first, Li Kai took a sample fruit basket to find Chen Liguo. Fortunately, they now had a bicycle, so as a grown man, he wasn't afraid of walking the night roads. Since Li Zhirong wouldn't allow him to take leave or miss work, he had no choice but to finish his farm duties early in the afternoon, hurriedly ride his bike to the county town, and return the same night.

Luckily, with the help of Third Brother Gu, Li Kai usually finished his tasks around two or three in the afternoon. Even if he wasn't physically present at the edge of the fields, the captain of the eighth production team wouldn't say a word.

This wasn't unique to the eighth production team; the entire Harvest Production Brigade operated this way, which was a testament to the brigade leader's wise leadership. One had to admit that the brigade leader was quite skilled in personnel management. Basically, as long as members completed their assigned daily tasks, their work points were recorded.

As for what people did with the rest of their time, the captains completely ignored it. In the brigade leader's own words: if someone was capable enough to finish a day's work ahead of time, did they deserve to be stuck doing extra work for others?

Under the current policies and regulations, doing extra labor brought no personal benefits anyway, so finding ways to hustle and earn some grain coupons instead was a pretty good idea. Precisely because of the brigade leader's effective governance, among the various production brigades under the Five-Star Commune, the lives of the members in the Harvest Production Brigade were relatively comfortable.

Moreover, riding a bicycle was actually faster than walking and taking a bus. Consequently, Li Kai smoothly arrived at the county cinema by four o'clock in the afternoon.

He then took out the fruit basket packaged by his sister-in-law to show Chen Liguo and stated the asking price.

At that moment, Chen Liguo's eyes lit up, his gaze fixing on the fruit basket as if it had hooks attached to it. Currently, such apples were quite rare on the market; even going to the department store didn't guarantee you could grab one. Combined with the small, exquisitely crafted bamboo basket that Tang Xin had thoughtfully decorated, Chen Liguo felt that offering four yuan for a single basket was so reasonable he didn't even want to bargain.

After all, Chen Liguo worked in the county town and had seen more of the world, so he understood the score. When giving gifts to superiors, it wasn't just about handing over cash or piling on material goods; it had to look decent and presentable.

This fruit basket was a fantastic option. Aside from superiors, people could also gift them to relatives and friends. Chen Liguo believed that if he took a few back, his father would surely be delighted and would readily pay for them. Furthermore, they could even be taken to the department store to be sold, where five yuan was an absolute certainty.

Business was business. He was cooperating with the Li family, but making a profit on top of that was only natural, wasn't it?

Therefore, Chen Liguo readily agreed to Li Kai's asking price of four yuan without the slightest intention of haggling.

This actually made Li Kai feel a bit embarrassed, since the base price his sister-in-law had given him was three yuan, though three-and-a-half yuan would have been the ideal closing price. He hadn't expected Brother Chen to be so generous and directly offer four yuan.