The money she earned as a temporary worker was not enough to buy food for the children all year round. She had to rely on the Zhang family to support her, so her status in the family was exceptionally low.
Now that there is a chance to earn money… Why not give it a try?
Won’t it be better than sitting around at home and being under someone’s watchful eyes?
At the thought of this, Li Gui looked up at Qiao Mei and asked carefully, “Am I able to come back to our village?”
“Why not? Your registered residence and household register is still in Datian Village, so you’re naturally a Datian Village resident,” Qiao Mei said. “The most important thing is whether you want to come back. If you do, we just need my grandfather to tell Uncle Zhao. There’s nothing difficult about it.”
Li Gui felt a little embarrassed though.
Having to ask her former father-in-law for a favor because she wanted to return to the village to earn money was something she never expected to happen.
But at the same time, she really wanted to come back.
“Can you really earn so much in a month by growing bean sprouts?” Li Gui looked at Qiao Mei and asked again.
Isn’t two to three hundred a bit too much money to make in a month?
She could not even earn 300 dollars a year. It was a huge sum of money to her and she found it difficult to even earn that amount in town.
“We can’t be sure yet,” Qiao Mei replied. “We haven’t completed the first month’s sale, so we don’t have an accurate tabulation of the earnings yet.”
The villagers had only been selling bean sprouts for slightly more than half a month and the money from the sale had not been given to them yet, so they were not sure how much they could make.
However, this was actually under Qiao Mei’s control. She was able to regulate the production level of each family, so whichever family she wanted to produce more would be able to produce more. However, in this era, the average annual income was not very high.
Therefore, she could not let everyone earn too much at once.
If other people got envious and reported it, she would get caught in a very dangerous situation, being the initiator of the business.
Qiao Mei’s intention was to let the villagers earn around 50 to 60 dollars a month in the future as that would be safer.
Li Gui was a little worried and she hesitated after hearing what Qiao Mei said.
Seeing her like this, Qiao Mei stood up and said, “Come and take a look with me.”
Li Gui followed Qiao Mei to the storeroom. As soon as she entered, she was shocked by the small mountain of food in the storeroom. There were grapes drying on the shelves and messy piles of potatoes and pumpkins on the ground, as well as bags of dried vegetables.
Heavens!
When would they be able to finish so much food? That would be a lot to eat.
It suddenly occurred to Li Gui that there were benefits to being in the countryside. People had their own vegetable fields and could grow whatever they wanted to eat. The harvest all depended on their planting skills.
These foods would be enough reason for her to come back and live here.
This was because she did not want to have to starve anymore. In the past, she would go hungry often as there was no guarantee of regular meals. She felt hungry so often that she was scared of that feeling.
She looked at Qiao Mei and asked, “Will you be able to earn 20 dollars this month?”
This was because her salary was 20 dollars.
As long as she could earn more money in the countryside than working as a temporary worker, it would be worth it for her to come back. She still had a large piece of land in her courtyard.
“I can definitely make 20 dollars from the sale.” Qiao Mei nodded. Even if the city’s supply and marketing cooperative did not take in their bean sprouts and the village sold the bean sprouts on its own, the villagers would still be able to sell them for this price on average.
Li Gui nodded but there was still hesitation flashing across her eyes.
“Come back. There’s land here as well as the bean sprout business. It’s got to be a better situation than what you’re going through and you can even bring some food to your children. It’s much better than you being a temporary worker,” Qiao Mei said.
“Yes.” Li Gui nodded, but she was still feeling unsure.
Seeing that she was still hesitating, Qiao Mei asked, “What other concerns do you have?”
Li Gui asked directly, “Is there still a place for me to stay in our village?”
She couldn’t possibly stay with Qiao Mei when she came back, right?
Now that she had remarried and Qiao Mei was living with her grandfather, it did not seem right for her to come and live here!
However, if she had nowhere to live, it would be a very difficult situation.