Chapter 122: Chapter 122: Flocks of people
Dong Ming, Ming Zhi, and Xinhua had just arrived home and put their things down. The fire had not yet been lit when the neighbours started arriving, one after the other. After a few polite exchanges, they looked at each other with burning eyes and asked directly, 'How much money have you made these past few months?'
Well, the villagers have always been very direct and open when asking such personal questions about your income. They used to ask the same question to the young people who had gone to the city to work.
Now it was their turn, and they felt a little uncomfortable. But of course they all just roughly said, 'Just a thousand or so yuan!'
Immediately, an old man smoking a pipe did some quick calculations, 'That means after food and drink, and the fare back and forth, you can still earn more than 300 yuan a month.
The people around him looked even more enthusiastic. Without asking a single question about the size of the provincial capital or the height of the buildings, they eagerly focused on the topic of business, ready to show off.
Feng Zhenchang had just put down his things for a short while when Feng Zhicheng, who ran the workshop, dragged him off to dinner. As soon as he left, people kept coming to ask him to dinner. Some families simply wanted the three of them to go out to dinner together. Mei Qiuping repeatedly declined, but in the end, she agreed to go out with a few families. She waited a couple of days until her family had tidied up before going.
Feng Yuxuan was unable to adapt to this enthusiasm at first, and told her mother, 'It's really different from before.' ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
It really was different. During the Spring Festival before she went out to work, there were also endless people coming to the house at this time, but they were all there to collect debts. Her parents prepared table after table of the family's best dishes and said kind words one after the other.
Uncle Feng's three brothers had each sent a special delivery of pork, totalling 50 to 60 catties. Mei Qiuping looked a little worried. There were only a few days left before the New Year, and they couldn't eat all that pork. It seemed that most of it would have to be made into preserved pork.
'Don't worry, I'm here, and I like pork. I'll take any that we can't eat back to the village,' Feng Yiping said with a smile.
'Come and eat with me at home. I knew that Dongming and you would be back today, so I've already prepared the meal and am waiting,' said Uncle Feng.
We're all family, so there's no need to decline. It's actually quite tiring to receive people when they come back.
Feng Zhenchang came back particularly late, at around 11 o'clock, reeking of alcohol and stumbling a little as he walked. 'You came back so late and drank so much. Haven't you ever drunk before?'
Feng Zhenchang was very happy. 'Have Yiping and the others gone to bed? I didn't stay at Zhicheng's for long before I was called to go to other people's houses. I went to a total of three in the evening.'
Mei Qiuping was drawing water for him to wash his face, and when she heard this, she asked, 'You didn't make any rash promises while drunk, did you? The provincial capital is big, but it's not that big. We're not the only county that produces chestnuts. There are many people going to other places too. If everyone goes there at the same time, who will make any money? Then you'll have to see how you can face people when you come back.'
'You don't need to tell me that,' Feng Zhenchang said, holding a hot towel to his face. 'Before we left, we all agreed that we would look after our own families first. Next year, at most, one family will go out with two other families. Anyone else who wants to do this can go to the county or city. If you go to the province on your own and don't make any money, don't blame us.'
'I'm just afraid that after a few drinks, if someone says a few kind words, you'll agree to go. Yiping also said, drink less, if you can drink half a jin, it's best to drink only three taels, but you can only drink three taels, so you drank half a jin that time, didn't you?' Mei Qiuping habitually nagged as she looked at Feng Zhenchang, who was red in the face and smelled of alcohol.
In the following few days, Feng Zhenchang was fine in the morning, but for lunch and dinner, he never ate at home. Mei Qiuping had to go to several appointments. As for Feng Yiping, he didn't go to any of them and just ate at home in peace.
In the few days since he returned, there hasn't been a single day with sunshine. He spent the whole time slumped over the brazier, leafing through 'Monetary Finance'. He heard his sister, who had gone to the front pond to wash her clothes, talking to someone. 'Yu Xuan, you're something now. I heard you've also opened a shop in the provincial capital?'
'No, it's still being decorated. I don't think it'll open until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.'
'It must have cost a lot to open a shop in the provincial capital, right?'
'Not really, just 30 or 40 thousand yuan.'
'30,000 to 40,000 yuan, that's a lot. I bet you make even more than that?'
'Not really. After paying rent, utilities, and salaries, I can't make more than a few thousand yuan a month on average.'
As she listened to their conversation, Feng Yiping heard her mother, who was busy in the main room, stop what she was doing. When Feng Yuxuan entered the door with a bucket of clean clothes, Mei Qiuping went up and grabbed her ear. 'Mom, mom, what are you doing?'
Feng Yuxuan tilted her head while screaming, but Mei Qiuping ignored her and dragged her into the innermost room to scold her, 'How many times have I told you not to brag when you come back? Why don't you listen? What 30,000 to 40,000? What can't you earn a few thousand a month?'
Feng Yuxuan cried out in protest, 'Isn't it 30,000 to 40,000? Can't you earn a few thousand a month? Where did I say anything big?'
'You still have a reason, you still have something to say, right? What are you doing talking about this in front of people? You've made a little money and you're getting cocky, you think you're Shen Wansan!'
It seemed as if Mei Qiuping was hitting her with something again, and Feng Yuxuan hid all over the room.
'Good lesson!' Feng Yiping thought to himself.
In a sense, the people in the village could be divided into two types: those who like to show off and those who don't.
Those who like to show off will tell everyone about the smallest thing. Even if they are just ordinary workers in a factory, they will brag about how indispensable they are, as if the factory would close down without them. If you go to a small restaurant and have a meal with them, you would think, from what they say, that they have had a feast fit for a king.
If you ask him about his income, he will casually say, 'It's not much, but I'm always a big spender. Even if I'm given thousands of dollars a month, I won't be able to save much.'
This is actually a very ambiguous statement, but when others hear it, they will be preconceived that he really makes a lot of money.
Those who don't like to brag will do the opposite. They will only tell close people about it. Even if they make money, they will at least cut it in half, and then cut it in half again before telling others, for fear of stimulating others.
In Feng Yiping's family, if you judge by this, he and his mother are not show-offs. Feng Zhenchang is in between the two, wavering between the two sides. Feng Yuxuan, although she doesn't brag, can at least be classified as a show-off.
Of course, there is no right or wrong in this, it is just that people have different ways of getting along with others.
Next, among the people who came to the door, many came to borrow money, not just people from the village, but also many from the village. Most of them were for their children's tuition fees after the New Year, and some had encountered family problems, such as someone in the family getting sick, incurring a lot of debt, and having a hard time making ends meet.
This is also a nerve-wracking matter, and for Feng Zhenchang and the others, it is a bittersweet experience.
Many families are in a similar situation to theirs a year or two ago, and they all empathise with them when they hear about it. The debts incurred in the past, even for families whose children have gone out to work, cannot be paid off in just a year or two, and the hole left behind cannot be filled.
If they agree to everything, it would be like selling them short; if they refuse everything, then in the future, who knows how many people will stab them in the back.
Fortunately, they had a reference standard. They took out the book of previous debts and the account of the gifts received when building the house as a reference. Those who had helped them before were now knocking at their doors, so of course they could not refuse. Those casual acquaintances, some of whom were politely declined, were preparing to open a new store after the New Year, and they really did not have much spare money at the moment.
Of course, not all were rejected. For those who were really in trouble, some help was given as appropriate. Although it could not solve major problems, it was at least a token of goodwill.
Even so, nearly a thousand yuan was given away.