Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 326 - 325: Sister Lan’s Fear of Shopping

Chapter 326: Chapter 325: Sister Lan’s Fear of Shopping

In Li Dahe’s limited vision, pasting a thousand matchboxes for four yuan was already a great job.

But now Lin Nianhe told him that by just packing the matches and delivering them to the Cooperative Society, ten thousand boxes could earn an extra yuan.

One yuan!

That’s equivalent to fifteen or sixteen work points, enough for a child’s annual school fees—it’s a lot.

Li Dahe couldn’t remember how he felt when he hung up the phone; he only remembered that when he relayed the news to Wang Hong and Accountant Zhao, their eyes turned red.

He wiped the corner of his eyes and cleared his throat, trying to maintain the steady aura expected of a brigade leader, and said, "Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s discuss how to distribute this money among the villagers."

The production team’s public account needed funds, like for catching piglets and repairing the village, all dependent on this money.

Unfortunately, their account had only a little over four hundred yuan, not even enough for two decent warehouses.

Wang Hong’s eyes were red as she said, "This is good, from now on, if someone’s daughter-in-law is pregnant and can’t work in the fields, she can still earn by working at home... and no one can say girls shouldn’t go to school anymore; let the children provide for themselves."

Accountant Zhao, looking at his own legs, also said, "Yeah, now even the old, weak, and disabled have a way to work, that’s really good..."

His emotion was the strongest since he couldn’t really do much work before.

During plowing season he couldn’t work, he couldn’t even tend to crops usually, only during corn shucking and processing could he offer some help.

His family’s allotted farmland relied on his wife and fellow villagers.

Li Dahe did not interrupt, letting them express their feelings, while he quietly fiddled with his tobacco pipe to calm himself.

After a while, the three of them felt better; they didn’t feel like crying anymore, only felt like laughing.

It was unclear who laughed first, but soon the brigade office was filled with laughter.

"Great! Great!"

Li Dahe stood up, smoothed his hair back and said, "All thanks to Miss Lin and the rest. She said they’re coming back tomorrow. Later, I’ll send Xiao Hai and Xiao Shan to roam the hills, see if they can catch a couple of rabbits."

Wang Hong responded with a laugh, "I’ve saved up fourteen eggs already, I’ll bring them to you tomorrow. These girls must be exhausted."

"I still have some rice at home, let’s make some rice for them to eat," added Accountant Zhao.

Li Dahe did not object and brought the conversation back around, "So what do you two think, how much of this five yuan should go into the public account?"

After doing some calculations, Accountant Zhao said, "How about two yuan? Next year we’ll raise more pigs, and we’ll also need to repair the warehouse, that all requires a lot of money."

Wang Hong disagreed slightly, shaking her head, "It’s almost New Year, let’s distribute more to everyone, this is our first year with extra income, let everyone have a good year."

They each had their points, Li Dahe paced around the room several times, and finally said, "Let’s follow Hongzi’s suggestion, put one yuan in. Everyone has had a tough year, and with the autumn harvest coinciding with a competitive scramble, let’s have a prosperous New Year to boost everyone’s motivation next year!"

Accountant Zhao thought for a while and nodded, "That’s right, we need to keep the villagers motivated, don’t delay the work at the factory, it’s hard to find work, and even harder to keep it going."

Li Dahe strongly agreed, waving his hand towards them, "Come on, let’s go talk to the villagers about this!"

...

When Lin Nianhe returned to the hostel, Su Yuncheng had already had someone deliver the train tickets for tomorrow, three sleeping berth tickets.

Wen Lan and Wang Shumei had never experienced sleeping berths, they examined the tickets over and over, excited for a while.

But their excitement faded in an instant—

They had bought quite a few things these past two days, not just for the villagers and educated youth, but also for themselves.

Now with money and connections from Zheng Lirong, they bought a lot of miscellaneous items: canned goods, sausages, peach cakes, barrel fruit cakes...

Plus over a hundred yuan worth of books.

How to carry all these became a problem.

Lin Nianhe noticed their displeasure and asked, "What’s wrong?"

Wen Lan clutched her arm, panicking, "Hezi, we bought so many things, how are we going to carry them to the car?"

Wang Shumei also felt regretful and could only suggest, "How about we mail them back at the post office?"

Lin Nianhe looked at them, waved her hand nonchalantly, "It’s fine, tomorrow I’ll borrow a cart from someone I know, and we can pull it directly to the platform."

Wen Lan: "..."

Wang Shumei: "..."

I get it, it’s another instance of her finding a convenient contact to help.

With Lin Nianhe’s reassurance, Wang Shumei and Wen Lan quickly shed their gloom.

Wang Shumei suggested, "We rarely come to the provincial city, let’s go out and explore?"

Lin Nianhe thought about it, there indeed wasn’t much left to do, so she smiled and nodded, "Let’s go, how about the park?"

"Sounds great!"

Both were ready to go out, only Wen Lan still lingered lazily in bed.

Lin Nianhe asked her, "Sister Lan, what’s wrong?"

Wen Lan curled up, her eyes full of reluctance, "I don’t feel like going out with you guys, it’s exhausting, more tiring than the autumn harvest."

In just a few days, Sister Lan had developed a phobia of shopping.

Shopping with one woman is frightening, shopping with two women... is a disaster.

"Come on, Sister Lan, we’re just going to the park, no shopping."

"Since we’re here, we can’t just stay in all the time, right? Imagine going home for New Year’s and when your siblings ask what the provincial city is like, you can’t even describe it."

"Let’s go, I promise, I absolutely won’t let you carry anything!"

"Right, right, right..."

In the end, Wen Lan fell for their words and followed them out the door.

She thought, there probably wouldn’t be anything too heavy to carry around in the park, it should be safe.

They took the bus to the park, and not long after getting off, a wave of cursing reached their ears:

"Hey, it’s deadly! Everyone here is a profiteering crook, their stuff will kill you!"

"What’s the matter? You want to fight? Come on, try hitting me! If I don’t strip your skin, I’ll take your puny calf’s last name..."

Wen Lan found this kind of scene most interesting, her eyes immediately lit up and she started rushing towards it.

However Lin Nianhe sensed something amiss, and her reflexes were quicker than her brain. She sprinted forward and grabbed Wen Lan from behind, blocking her path.

"Hezi?" Wen Lan turned around puzzled.

Lin Nianhe, hiding most of her face behind Wen Lan, carefully peeked toward the source of the noise.

The center of the commotion was at a dark alley entrance, very narrow, one wouldn’t give it another glance unless people crowded around it.

It looked just like a typical scene at a black market.

Listening to what those women were shouting...

Why does it sound so much like something she scripted!

Lin Nianhe, leaning on Wen Lan’s back, shielded her face with her arm and whispered, "Sister Lan, don’t look, let’s quickly leave."

Wang Shumei reacted even quicker; she calmly grabbed Wen Lan’s arm, shielded Lin Nianhe between them, and turned to run across the street.