Got it?
Tien Ching leaned happily against her husband, "Zheng Ge, the symptoms are different this time, it's definitely a little girl who loves to eat."
Li Chengkuo put his arm around his wife's shoulder, "Okay, whatever it is, this is the last one."
Whatever it is?
Everyone in the room was stunned by this sentence.
Mother Li happily paid the consultation fee and saw off Doctor Yang and his apprentice.
Back in the room, she nagged, "Tien Tien, watermelon is cold, let's eat less."
Tien Ching nodded, "Mmm, we should eat less. I didn't know before, I just always wanted to eat things with a lot of water."
"Eat cucumbers and tomatoes, there are plenty in the shed, I'll go pick them for you."
"That's good, pick more tomatoes."
Seeing her mother leave, Li Min sat on the other side of her sister-in-law and asked quietly, "Sister-in-law, why are you having children so frequently?"
"Family planning is already being promoted, don't you know? You should hurry too, otherwise, you won't be allowed to have more children later, and you'll have to get pregnant and give birth in secret, and still be fined."
"Ah? There are restrictions on having children too?"
"Yes, hurry up."
...
With this urgency, she became pregnant the next month.
Tien Ching didn't believe it, "You were already pregnant and didn't know?"
Li Min shook her head, "No, it was just those few days, it was your so-called ovulation period, we stopped using contraception, and I got pregnant right away. My period is quite regular, and when it didn't come, I knew."
Mother Li glared at her daughter, "Stop joining in the fun."
"Mom, sister-in-law said if we don't hurry up and have children, family planning will come, and we'll be fined if we have more."
"Tien Tien, is this true?"
Tien Ching nodded, "Haven't you heard the propaganda? It will be enforced soon."
Mother Li immediately dropped what she was doing and ran off.
Li Min snickered, "If older sister-in-law also gets pregnant, will my mom be able to handle it?"
"Big Mai is very capable, and Little Mai can also do a lot of housework. Older sister-in-law is actually the most fortunate."
"Now that you mention it, I think having a daughter first is the best."
"Do you get to have the child you want? I've been thinking about it for the third time."
Li Min quickly comforted her sister-in-law, "This time it's definitely it."
Tien Ching beamed, "I think so too."
...
In the melon field, under the melon vines, the little melon buds, wearing yellow flower hats, grew with all their might. The commune members looked at them with joy, but they were reluctant to remove the extra melon buds. Why would having more fruit be bad?
The Niu family and the Wang family insisted on listening to Tien Ching and Li Chengkuo.
Brother Wang even specifically called Li Chengkuo to help him remove some melon buds from two vines to show him.
Li Chengkuo, who was constantly busy, immediately went to the Wang family's house.
Brother Niu also came to see, and Captain Ou's two sons also came to see.
The Yang family's three sons were even more impolite and crowded in. They were too embarrassed to ask Li Chengkuo, and they didn't trust their own melon fields.
Li Chengkuo removed the melon buds from more than ten vines, and then they understood. They all ran away in a rush, returning to their own melon fields to operate.
On the way back to the hill, Li Chengkuo was stopped by Li Wei Kang, "You're very busy, aren't you recruiting workers anymore?"
Li Chengkuo was stunned for a moment before he understood what he meant, "Ten yuan a month, only during the busy farming season, will you do it?"
"Yes."
"What about your family's land?"
"I don't know how to farm, so I let my uncle farm it, and he gives me half the grain."
"Then it's fine, come with me to work now, I'm indeed very busy."
"I'll go tell Wei Wei and be right there."
"Okay."
...
Li Li Guo was also too busy to handle it. He wanted to recruit workers. Li Chengkuo said he would help him tomorrow, but he refused.
Last year, he made eight thousand yuan with Cheng Guo's help. This year, he was already experienced and could lead people himself.
Li Chengkuo told him to go to Captain Ou.
Captain Ou happily sent his eldest son out. He could manage at home with his wife and two grandsons in their teens.
As for whether the commune members removed melon buds or not, it had nothing to do with him. Secretary Yang could let go, so what couldn't he let go of? One learns from mistakes.
As expected, half a month later, the families who were reluctant to remove melon buds regretted it, because other people's melons were growing a bit bigger every day, and they were already five or six catties heavy, while their melons were only two or three catties.
They anxiously looked for Li Chengkuo.
Li Chengkuo was busy pinching off tips, pruning branches, and burying vines. Wasn't this causing him trouble? He wouldn't go.
"Look at what I'm doing now, listen to why I'm doing it, and then go back and figure it out yourself. I can't help you. Even doctors can't help during difficult labor."
This time, when they heard about restricting vine growth and channeling all the nutrients into this single young melon, they finally understood the reason for removing melon buds, but it was too late.
After returning, they cut off the extra young melons, leaving only one, cut off the support branches, and then fertilized them. Although they couldn't catch up with other people's, they could see them expanding rapidly.
In August, the watermelons ripened, and Ouyang Mei Hua shouted, "Harvest watermelons at six to eight fen!"
The commune members were stunned. Wasn't it one mao?
They didn't dare to ask Ouyang Mei Hua, and all went to Captain Ou.
Captain Ou waved his hand, "This is called market saturation. If you don't sell, others will. Ripe watermelons will rot in the ground if not picked, and you won't get a cent."
"Once a truck is full, Ouyang Mei Hua will need time to take it out to sell. The price for the next trip and how many catties will be collected is up to her."
Those who understood quickly went to the end of the village to find Ouyang Mei Hua to sell watermelons.
Those who didn't understand were still stubborn, why should their prices be suppressed? They would sell them in the county town themselves.
Ouyang Mei Hua and Li Li Guo were so busy they wished they could fly.
Every other day, she took a truckload of watermelons out. Watermelons took up space, so she raised the guardrail, and could take more than ten thousand catties at a time. That's only more than a thousand watermelons, and they sold very quickly.
As for the melons from her family and her sister-in-law's family, Tien Da Xia told her to take them to the provincial capital and sell them directly in the market.
Couldn't sell? Impossible, cut the watermelon into small pieces and offer free samples.
Let alone sampling, just cutting it open attracted people.
As they were selling, someone bought all of them. They agreed to two mao without negotiation. The person who bought the melons readily agreed. She suspected she had set the price too low.
When she returned to Kushan to ask Tien Da Xia's sister-in-law, her sister-in-law told her, "Only sell at two mao, don't raise the price."
"Why?"
"It's to disrupt market prices, and you'll be fined. As long as you don't sell at a high price, it doesn't matter if others sell at a high price or not."
Alright, she was obedient.
After selling two truckloads of other people's watermelons, she made another trip to the provincial capital. Before entering the city, she was stopped, and they bought everything on the spot, giving her the money.
As soon as the three thousand yuan was in hand, Ouyang Mei Hua raised her hand and split a stone by the roadside into several pieces, "What a broken stone, blocking my way."
This little bit of money, whether she looked down on it or not, was earned by her husband and brother-in-law after months of hard work.
Moreover, there were still many watermelons at home, and she was very busy and didn't have time to compete with others using force.
The person who bought the watermelons glanced at the stone, which had been broken into several pieces, and thought, no wonder this woman, with a simple-minded man, dared to go to the provincial capital. She was actually a master.
"Sister, when will the next trip come? How about this, one mao eight fen per catty, and we'll drive over to pick it up."
Ouyang Mei Hua rubbed her chin, "Drive over to pick it up? That won't do. In the village, the price of melons from each family is different. Only my family's melons are sent to the provincial capital. You are not suitable to go, it will cause big conflicts."
"How about this, wait for us at the national highway intersection of Ling City and Ling County. I'll deliver a truckload to you every afternoon. There are about fifteen to sixteen more truckloads of these high-quality melons, but they will be one mao nine fen per catty."
The person who bought the watermelons immediately agreed, "Okay, it's settled then."
"It's settled."