Eating melons

Chapter 126 Differences between North and South

Wei Wei was really stunned when she saw all these things and so much money.

Although she had never farmed, she had heard from the elders in her family that at that time, if you worked hard for a whole year, you might not only not earn any work points, but you would also owe the team a lot of work points.

So what's going on with them now? It doesn't seem real.

"Life in our brigade is so good! I actually earned over a hundred yuan. I couldn't believe it in my dreams. And there are so many things. Compared with the city, it's not much different!"

No, it should be that they live better than some city dwellers. This is really unreal.

Liu Aiying, who was watching the fun with a group of people nearby, laughed when she heard it.

“Our team is indeed doing well, but it hasn’t always been this good. However, you are lucky.

This year there was no plague, so we were able to raise nearly all the chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs and sell them for a good price. That’s why the work points were high. If it weren’t for the poultry, we wouldn’t have that much money.”

"Yes! But not every year is such a lucky year. If there is an epidemic, not only will you not make any money, but you will also waste your time and energy and even lose money."

"And not every year is as lucky as this year. Not only has there been no plague, there haven't even been many disasters or diseases."

Someone nearby also echoed.

"Yes! Besides, not all of you educated youth have as many work points as Wei and Jiang. Some older educated youth who are not good at work still don't earn as much as you two after working for a year!"

Wei Wei and Jiang Qi became famous for rubbing corn kernels during that half month. Everyone in the team knew about it, so it was not surprising that they had such high work points.

"Yeah! The educated youth Wu who came with you only has a little over 90 yuan! But that's not too low. It's considered high among the newly arrived educated youth."

"That's right, that's right, that educated young man Liu only has a little over 40 yuan!"

"That's too little. If the harvest is average the year you female educated youth arrive, those who work hard can usually earn 67 yuan. But you have to catch up with the autumn harvest."

"That's a lot. If you're unlucky and the poultry don't make it, then Liu Zhiqing will only have about 20 yuan, and he might not even have that much. You guys will only have about 60 or 70 yuan."

Wei Wei and the others didn't expect that there were so many twists and turns. When the four of them were not working, they were just making money, and they had never paid special attention to these aspects.

Only Xiao Xuemu knew a little bit, but not in great detail.

Wei Wei smiled and said, "Sixty or seventy yuan is not a small amount."

After all, it's the countryside. If one person lives frugally, it can last almost a year. This is only four or five months. If you work for a year, you can still save a lot.

"That's because you're willing to work. If you can't, how are you going to survive on just 20 or 30 yuan for over four months? You'll starve to death."

Jiang Qi didn't think it was that exaggerated. "Twenty or thirty yuan for more than four months is enough for so much food. That's sixty or seventy yuan a year. If we save a little, it should be enough!"

"How can you calculate it like that! We hibernate for four or five months here, and we can't work for at least four of those months. How can we possibly earn that much money? We can't work during the hibernation, but we still have to eat. Where can we get all that food?"

Jiang Qi:...Sorry, I forgot about this.

"I heard that you can grow two crops a year in the south. Is that true?"

Wei Wei: "That's true. Many places grow rice twice a year."

"That's great. Although I'm a little tired, at least I can eat well and have a full meal."

Wei Wei: "That's not the case. The land over there isn't as fertile as here, and the yield isn't as high. It can't compare to here."

"I heard that it's spring all year round where you are, and even winter isn't cold at all. Is that true?"

"Does that mean we don't need cotton-padded jackets anymore?"

"It must be true. Didn't you hear Wei Zhiqing say that we can grow two crops? How can we grow crops if we have to wear cotton-padded jackets?"

Wei Wei: ...

Jiang Qi: ...

Who said that? Haven’t you heard that winter in the north is a physical attack and winter in the south is a magical attack?

Wei Wei: "No, the winter over there is even more difficult than here in some ways.

It's cold outside, but as long as you wear something thicker and don't stay outside for a long time, it's fine. It's warm inside the house, so you don't need to stay outside for a long time.

The cold and wind where we are are unstoppable, no matter how much you wear, it's useless.

The air is damp and cold. In winter, when you go outside and take a breath, your nose hurts because of the cold. The cold spreads from your nose to your respiratory tract and then to your lungs.

There is work in the fields all year round. Even in winter when your hands are so cold that you can't even open them, you still have to go to the fields.

Sometimes the house is colder than outside, and the bed is also ice-cold. I often can't sleep warmly all night.

In winter, the quilt is only warm when it is exposed to the sun. If it rains, the quilt will become damp in a few days and it will be difficult to sleep warmly.

Although she didn't know much about life in the countryside at that time, she had heard about it from her grandparents.

"It's so cold! How do you keep warm?"

"The quilt is damp, can't you just put it on the kang?"

Wei Wei: "We don't have a kang (kang) over there. We just have a small brazier in the living room, and we usually use that to keep warm."

"How warm can a small brazier really be? What will we do if we leave it?"

Wei Wei smiled and said, "I have to shiver to keep warm after leaving the brazier. That's how I want it to be."

After Wei Wei finished speaking, she made a gesture as if she was shivering from the cold.

"Hahahahaha."

"Hahahahahaha."

"Wei Zhiqing, please don't fool me."

"That's right, that's right, there's no way to keep warm like this."

"Yeah! That would freeze to death."

Even Li Zhibin and Xiao Xuemu laughed, thinking that Wei Wei was exaggerating too much.

Seeing them like this, Wei Wei waved her hand. There was nothing she could do. No one would believe the truth these days.

"What Wei Zhiqing said is true. This is how it is over here."

At this time, the educated youth from the south who had returned after delivering the food and was watching the show on the side also said this.

Wei Wei looked over. She had some impression of the man. He was Xu Jianguo from Sichuan Province.

"It's the same over there. Few people don't shiver in the winter, but it does seem to keep you warmer. Isn't this what Wei Zhiqing meant by shivering to stay warm?"

The person speaking at this time was Wu Jianshe from Chongqing Province.

Xu Jianguo also nodded. "That's true. Wei Zhiqing's description is quite appropriate. He relies on shivering to keep warm."

These words were like a drop of water splashing into a frying pan, and the whole thing suddenly became lively.

No one expected that winter in the south would be like this. If Wei Wei was the only one saying this, they would think she was joking.

But now that educated youth from the south in three different regions have said so, it must be true.

Not only were the people in the group surprised, but even Li Zhibin and Xiao Xuemu were very surprised. They didn't expect that this was how people kept warm in the south.