Chapter 174 – 30 Acres of Land

Ji Jianyun was told the correct information about the contract for 70 years when he was brought to the county town by the village director.

“It’s only for 30 years, how can it be 70 years? It’s not a mountain,” said the county town director.

The village director was also surprised. “It can’t be 70 years?”

“No.” The reply was firm.

Therefore, Ji Jianyun would have to contract for 30 years. It was not the village director’s fault. No one in the village had contracted for many years. The most a household had contracted was 10 years.

When he got the documents, he just skimmed through it and had a general idea of what it said. He thought it was good enough, and that it was fine.

The village director apologized to Ji Jianyun when they went out. Ji Jianyun said, “30 years is still good.”

However, he wanted a lot of land, which also cost a lot of contract fees.

After returning to the village, the village director took Ji Jianyun and Father Ji to take a look at the land.

“This land is just ordinary,” Father Ji said unhappily as he smoked a big cigarette.

“Brother, how can I scam Jianyun? This is the best place in our village now. If Jianyun doesn’t want it, then I’m not sure if someone else would exchange their land for his,” the village director said.

The village director was the same generation as Father Ji, but his wife, Sister Xu, was in the same generation as Ji Jianyun. After the reform and opening up, feudalism from before had been overthrown. No one cared about this difference, as long as they liked each other it was fine. They were not the same family tree anyway.

Father Ji said, “I know, but this land is really not good.”

“If Jianyun came to see me earlier, it would be better. Even though this place is ordinary, if Jianyun starts to manage it, it would most likely have a good harvest,” the village director said with a smile.

As for the two orchards that Ji Jianyun now managed, the first one was contracted by Father Ji and passed on to him. Father Ji had worked on it for several years, but did not make any progress.

But after that, everyone saw what had happened. Everyone was jealous of the income that the orchards generated. He estimated that it might be about one or two thousand yuan?

It was also because everyone could see it that several other mountains were contracted out. So when the county seat was evaluated, he was acknowledged out of all the villages nearby.

However, without exception, the other contracted mountains had the same results as Father Ji and Mother Ji. It was not successful. ·̩̩̥͙

At that time, Uncle Ji couldn’t handle it, so he turned over the mountain to Ji Jianyun. New saplings were planted. There were also several saplings planted in Uncle Ji’s backyard that were given to him by Ji Jianyun.

After the saplings were replaced with a new batch, he hired Wang Dagang, Xu Jianguo and Yang Aisen to work for him. The village director just went to see them yesterday, and the orchard was obviously going to be successful.

Everyone in the village talked about how Jianyun’s wife was lucky. He did not take it seriously at first, but after seeing the orchard in Ji Jianyun’s hands, he also started to believe in it.

There must be a reason to hire other people to work in the orchard. Uncle Ji and Aunt Li worked hard on the orchard. They were even suspicious about the water in Jianyun’s backyard. In the past, they took water from there for half a month to water the fruit trees, but nothing happened.

Once Ji Jianyun started to manage it, success was achieved.

What were people supposed to think of this? It could only be said that Jianyun was wealthy. As for where his wealth came from, it was his wife who made him prosperous. If a person went to see Ji Jianyun’s wife, they would see how noble she was. Even if they looked from a distance, they could see that she was born lucky to never lose money.

Thus, the village director was also very confident in Ji Jianyun. He brought their father and son to see the land, and then he went back.

Father Ji took a deep puff and asked, “What are you going to plant, Jianyun?”

Ji Jianyun had contracted a total of 30 acres of land this time. It was quite a lot, especially in Father Ji’s view. He used to be a carpenter and had land at home, but he was not an expert at farming. It was usually Mother Ji who did that.

“Rice, sesame, peanut and beans. Sweet potatoes should also be planted,” Ji Jianyun said.

He wanted to plant those things to increase the diversity of products available in the college town. As for the sweet potatoes, it was purely for his own family. His wife liked to eat sweet potatoes, and even if they couldn’t eat it all, there were the pigs on the mountain. Those pigs could eat anything.

“It’s getting late now. Hire someone to clean up the land first, and then plant everything next year,” Father Ji recommended.

It was almost October. It was not a good time to plant things.

“The work on the mountain has freed up, so let’s have the workers come down and turn the ground over,” Ji Jianyun said.

Father Ji nodded. The peak season for the orchard had passed, and there were only persimmon trees left to bear fruit on the mountain. It would only take a few days to pick the fruit and make dried persimmon. As for the cleaning and management of the chicken farm on the mountain, it could be left to one person. It would be harder work though.

”
”
The news was undoubtedly encouraging.

Mother Ji quietly pulled Ji Jianyun aside and questioned, “Jianyun, why do you want to raise the salary? It’s already 30 yuan a month! That’s not low!”

Ji Jianyun said, “Mother, I have a plan. Don’t worry. Recently, Yan’er wants to read more picture books. You should go and ask my brother to bring some back to her.”

“She hasn’t finished the ones bought last time,” Mother Ji said.

“She is tired of those.” Ji Jianyun smiled. He also treated this niece as his own daughter, and was used to spoiling her.

As for the salary increase, it was not without reason. The development in recent years has been really fast, especially in the college town. Everyone was talking about it. Some people already received 40 yuan a month, and some factory managers received 50 yuan or more.

Because of the rising prices, Ji Jianyun made more money this year than in previous years. Therefore, it was important for him to raise the salary. The most important thing was to have the workers continue to work for him.

Those who were recruited by him were not lazy.

Wang Dagang and Uncle Ji were left to take care of the chicken coop and pig pen on the neighboring mountain. Xu Jianguo and Yang Aisen also went down to the land.

That orchard had also been fenced, but the three dogs adopted for it were relatively small. In order to prevent any bad incidents, Uncle Ji lived on the mountain. Wang Dagang, Xu Jianguo and Yang Aisen also took turns sleeping on the mountain. Meanwhile on the other mountain, Father Ji and Mother Ji live with Yan’er, and there were three big dogs there.