Chapter 47: Song, the Village Bully, is Just Too Capable
After a day of hustling in the county town, Song Chu and the others returned just as work was ending.
Villagers walking back from the fields saw the tractor approaching from afar.
Someone couldn’t help but exclaim, “A tractor, a tractor, Song Chu really came back with a tractor!”
“Everyone, come see the tractor!” Tang Qing also cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone and shouted loudly several times.
Hearing this, many people who were about to step into their homes stopped and ran towards the village entrance.
More and more people gathered at the village entrance. Those who hadn’t heard the shouts saw others running and followed suit.
Before long, almost all the men, women, and children in the village had arrived.
Seeing Song Chu driving the tractor back, everyone’s eyes widened in disbelief.
It turned out that Song Lao Si and Tang Qing weren’t bragging yesterday; they really did trade for a tractor.
They brought back a tractor without the village spending a single penny, completely pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Song, the Village Bully, is just too capable, isn’t she?
When she reached the village entrance, Song Chu stopped the tractor. The road ahead was blocked by villagers, and she was ready to give a performance to stir up their emotions and enthusiasm.
Looking at the villagers pointing at the tractor, excitedly talking among themselves, Song Chu stood up and climbed onto the back of the tractor.
With high spirits, she smiled and asked loudly, “Folks, I said before that I would take the oil to the county town and trade it for sugar, cloth, furniture, and a tractor. Did I do it?”
“Yes!” many people responded in unison.
“Will you believe what I say in the future?” Song Chu shouted again.
Many villagers laughed and shouted, “We believe you!”
They wouldn’t have believed it before, but now the facts were right before their eyes.
They were excited and thrilled to see the tractor, and their eyes were filled with envy when they saw the sugar, cloth, and furniture in the back.
Previously, no one had paid much attention to that small oil pressing workshop. Another commune in their county that produced a lot of soybeans had also opened a large soybean oil pressing workshop. That one had more than a dozen oil presses and had even become a collectively owned and state-operated enterprise, but so what?
They had never heard of anyone trading oil for anything, so when Song Chu set up the oil pressing workshop, no one took it seriously.
Now they felt like they had been blind. How could those people outside compare to Song Chu? Otherwise, how could she be the village bully?
Song Chu scanned the crowd and noticed that the other eleven people working at the oil pressing workshop had all come.
She smiled and waved to her cousin and the others, “Those who work at the oil pressing workshop, come and get your shares according to your recorded work points. I said that as long as you work hard, you’ll get benefits every month.”
She didn’t bother with anything complicated and just used a work point system to record everyone’s work. Each person had a form for each day, and it was all based on the principle of “more work, more pay,” with goods distributed according to work points.
“Today is the first time we’ve traded for goods, so this month I’ll distribute the benefits to the workers at the oil pressing workshop first.” This was addressed to the villagers.
“Fourth Brother, get on the tractor and help.” She waved to Song Lao Si.
Song Lao Si excitedly climbed onto the back, “Alright!”
His sister was the best, letting him be the center of attention today.
Song Jianjun and Song Lao Er stood not far away, feeling a bit envious.
Especially Song Lao Er, who felt he had completely misjudged his sister. He should have signed up too and gone to the county town with them. He would have been so cool coming back now.
He really let Song Lao Si get a good deal.
The twelve people working at the oil pressing workshop were stunned when they heard Song Chu’s words. It felt like a dream.
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They had only been working at the workshop for less than half a month, and they were already getting oil and benefits. How could it be so good?
Tang Qing knew that following the boss would lead to a bright future. He stepped forward first, “I’m here.”
Seeing this, Tang Youhua and the others quickly walked out of the crowd, “I’m here too.”
The three women were also overjoyed. They just did some work in their spare time, and they were actually getting a share of the goods. Their faces were beaming with smiles as they stepped forward, “And us.”
Song Chu took out a notebook from her bag, which recorded the work points of these people since the oil pressing workshop started.
Smart people could tell that she had come prepared.
“Tang Qing, on the first day, you picked two bags of tea oil fruit, earning one work point. On the second day…”
Song Chu read out Tang Qing’s work record, then took out a bolt of cloth, a bag of white sugar, a bag of brown sugar, and a bag of rock sugar from the tractor, “This is your benefit for this month.”
“Tang Youhua, on the first day…” After distributing Tang Qing’s share, she moved on to the next person.
Tang Youhua had picked more fruit than Tang Qing and was more diligent in pressing oil, so Song Chu had converted his work into more work points.
Song Chu looked at him and asked, “You have six more work points than Tang Qing. You can trade them for another bolt of cloth or three bags of sugar. Choose what you want.”
Tang Youhua hadn’t expected that he could trade for more by working harder. He scratched his head with a smile, a little unsure of what to do.
Many women in the village laughed and chimed in, “Silly, of course, you should take the cloth. You can make clothes for your wife and kids.”
“Trading for sugar is also good. The whole family can have a sweet treat.”
This made it even harder for Tang Youhua to choose. His wife couldn’t help but shout, “Youhua, take the cloth, take the cloth!”
Their family was well-off, and they could have sugar every month. But buying cloth was difficult and required cloth ration coupons. It took a long time to save up enough coupons to buy a bolt of cloth to make clothes. His wife got anxious, fearing that Tang Youhua would make a foolish choice.
Hearing his wife’s shout, Tang Youhua said to Song Chu, “I’ll take the cloth.”
Song Chu looked at Second Cousin’s Wife, smiled, and deliberately took out a bolt of floral cloth and handed it to Tang Youhua.
Sure enough, Second Cousin’s Wife’s smile grew even wider, and she looked at Song Chu more favorably than ever before.
Next, she distributed the shares to the other seven people who had picked fruit and pressed oil. Several of them had the same work points as Tang Youhua and also received an extra bolt of cloth.
Yes, their wives or mothers had emphasized that they should choose cloth.
They handed the things they received to their wives or mothers, who were extremely happy and grateful that they had let their men/sons sign up. Otherwise, how could they have received so many things?
Then it was the three women’s turn. Their work points were fewer than the nine men’s, so Song Chu gave each of them three bags of sugar. As for the cloth, she gave them a whole bolt to divide equally among themselves.
But this still made them incredibly happy, and their families were equally overjoyed. It was like a windfall from heaven.
After distributing the shares to the twelve people working at the oil pressing workshop, Song Chu looked at Tang Min and the others.
“The village cadres have worked hard. The furniture in the office is too old. I specifically traded for furniture for the office and the workshop, so I won’t be distributing furniture to the workers this time. I’ll replace the village’s furniture first, and the rest will be used in the oil pressing workshop.”
Tang Min and the other cadres hadn’t expected Song Chu to think of them and be considerate of their hard work. They were touched and happy.