Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 3: Poverty and ignorance

The next morning, Feng Yiping said that he would do as his uncle and Dongming did, and cut the thatch and small shrubs into pieces to dry in the sun. His parents were obviously a little relieved.

When they reached the hill, his uncle taught him how to do it. When they reached a patch of land, they cut a long branch and beat it on the ground first to prevent snakes and insects from hiding inside.

When cutting, don't rush, take your time and be careful not to cut yourself; remember to keep the blade angled downward, this saves effort and makes the blade less likely to blunt; also be careful not to hit any stones on the ground with the hatchet... In short, there is a lot to learn.

When chopping, there are other problems, but there are two things that are difficult: one is the heat, the rising steam from below and the sun beating down from above; the other is the waist, because you have to bend over all the time, which is really uncomfortable.

However, regardless of the progress, if he got tired, Feng Yiping would just stand in the same place and rest, just chopping and resting. When it got to ten o'clock, the sun was very strong, and his uncle and the others had also stopped, so he stopped too and sat in the shade.

He was sweating a lot and felt very thirsty. He remembered that cows also need to drink water, so he led the cow to the pond halfway up the mountain. Above the pond was a clear spring with cold, sweet water. He ran to a nearby tung tree, plucked a large tung leaf, folded it in the middle, collected some water, swirled it a few times, and then scooped it up to drink.

It still tasted the same as he remembered, and it felt much better than those mineral waters!

After drinking the water, Feng Yiping led the cow to the mountain pass, where it could graze for a while longer. There were many shady spots there, so he tied it up there while he went home for lunch.

Feng Yiping sat in the shade, but his mind wouldn't stop. Rebirth was wonderful, but there was also a big problem: money!

This year, 1992, was an era worth recording in history.

It was a time of great change. At the end of the previous year, the Soviet Union, once a world power, had disintegrated in tragedy.

A little over a month later, at the beginning of the year, our chief architect went on a southern tour and delivered a series of speeches, which later became known as the 'Southern Tour Speeches'. In a timely manner, they once again pointed the way forward for the development of the country, ushering in a new era of reform and opening up for our country and providing a strong theoretical basis for the development of a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics.

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It was also from this year that we embraced the dawn of a new era, and our country began its peaceful rise.

Although all this that happened would profoundly influence the direction of the entire world, and ultimately directly affect Feng Yiping personally, for now, it was still quite far away from Feng Yiping.

All he could think about at the moment was, 'Money, money, money!'

At least in Feng Yiping's generation, the problem of food and clothing had already been solved. From childhood to adulthood, there were few times when they ate well, but they definitely ate enough.

However, money was in short supply. Apart from the two who worked in the town and county, there was also a private teacher, a carpenter, a lacquerer, a bamboo craftsman, and a family that ran a processing workshop, totalling six or seven families. The others did not worry about food, but only that they did not worry about food!

The situation of Feng Yiping's family was a bit more difficult. Up to now, his family still owes more than 3,000 yuan in external debt.

At this time in the countryside, the only way to make some money was to raise pigs and silkworms and to sell timber from the economic forest, but there were also many expenses.

Adults and children, pigs and cows, there is always someone sick; fertilizers and pesticides in spring and autumn; children's tuition fees; and at the end of the year, there is always the need to buy some vegetables, weigh some fruit, buy some bottled wine for guests, and buy a new coat for the child; in addition, there are the interpersonal relationships.

In the past, when there was a wedding or funeral, you could just give something, but now you have to give money, at least 3 or 5 yuan.

Most of the village is surnamed Feng, and everyone is related in one way or another. Every family has a few relatives, and when there is an event, the whole village will contribute. Moreover, Feng Zhenchang and the others are of high rank and old in age, and when there is an event, those families will make a special trip to invite them. No matter how difficult it is, you can't let them down.

So, at the end of the year, it really costs quite a lot, and it is really not enough to rely on those few crops.

The key is that Feng Yiping's family was already very poor.

Soon after their daughter was born, Mei Qiuping contracted tuberculosis. Tuberculosis in the 1980s was still a serious illness. In order to treat it, they spent all their savings and incurred a lot of debt. Before they could pay off the medical bills, they built a new house and took out more debt. The main expenses were the wages of the hired workers and the craftsmen, such as Feng Chuntang. They still owed more than 70 yuan for the wages of building the house.

There was also the loan of several hundred yuan from the credit union for medical treatment, the money for the village workshops, the oil mill, the tailor, the barefoot doctor, the veterinarian... and the money borrowed from here and there for emergencies, which added up to more than 3,000 yuan.

How desperate was the shortage of money? When Feng Yiping was at school, there was no tuition fee for the first and second years. For the third year, it was 3 yuan, which was fortunately not owed. Starting from the fourth grade, the tuition fees rose to more than ten yuan, which was unaffordable, and every year he owed money. At the beginning of the school year, those students who had paid their tuition fees in full received their new books on the same day, while those like him who had not paid received their books two days later. Every month, at the end of the month, during the weekend or during the holidays, the homeroom teacher would keep them behind after class for a meeting and ask when the tuition fees would be paid in full. As far as he could remember, this situation continued until the end of his schooling.

As for pocket money, well, for Feng Yiping, that was always something from the realm of legend! He had never seen any.

Back then, the new house had been built for more than a year, but because there was no money for electric wires, lights, switches, or even a power pole, the house was never connected to the power grid and they continued to use kerosene lamps.

Most families would buy new clothes for their family members during the Chinese New Year, either buying ready-made clothes or going to the town's department store to buy some fabric and having a tailor in the village make the clothes. But Feng Yiping remembers that he did not have any new clothes for the past three Chinese New Years. Even now, some of the clothes he wears have been altered from his sister's smaller clothes.

He still remembers that when he was in the fifth grade, he wore his sister's pants that had been worn too small, the kind with side slits, to go to the toilet. After being teased by his classmates, his parents stopped letting him wear his sister's pants that were too small.

Every year, in the days before the Chinese New Year, the family would be visited by people collecting debts. Feng Zhenchang would spend every day trying to persuade them to go easy on the family, and would also prepare the best meals the family had to offer to accompany them during their visits.

Of course, everyone is from the same village, and everyone knows the family's situation inside out. Everyone knows that they are indeed in a difficult situation and are not just sitting on their money. But at the end of the year, the accounts must be reconciled.

For example, Feng Chuntang, who has not paid off his old debts and has racked up new ones. Similar cases include workshops, doctors, and loans. At the rural credit cooperative, if the interest for the year is not paid off, it will be converted into principal the following year, and more will have to be paid. Naturally, the accounts must be reconciled at the end of the year.

It so happened that the two households next to Feng Yiping's were both among the best off in the village. Feng Jiasheng worked in the town government canteen, and Feng Weidong was a temporary worker at the county winery. Although their wages were not high, they could save at least a few hundred yuan a year.

In the countryside, an extra few hundred yuan a year in salary made life much easier. Feng Jiasheng currently had three televisions: one was bought by the household that ran the processing workshop, and the other two were theirs.

Compared to the other two, their family seems to be even more impoverished. However, Feng Yiping has always been sensible and has never asked for anything. The only time he did was when he was in the fourth grade. A photographer brought a red horse to the village, and when his parents refused to let him take a photo, he cried and threw a tantrum.

He still appears to be a twelve-year-old boy on the outside, but inside he has the memories of the past twenty years, and he is determined to change the situation.

So, what is the best way to make money now? And make it quickly! Apart from anything else, school starts in less than a month, and the miscellaneous fees for the first year of junior high school have doubled to 45 yuan! As usual, the family still doesn't have a penny.

Clothes, even less so. The trousers are fine, and can be worn in winter as well, just get a bit warmer. But there are no shirts, long-sleeved or short-sleeved, and the undershirts, not only have they turned yellow from washing, but crucially, they have holes in them.

Money, money, how can I make money? The multimillionaire of more than twenty years later was at a loss at this time.

Feng Yiping had to stop for some reason after just ten days of herding cattle and cutting firewood—he hurt his right foot.

One day while cutting, a snake slithered out of the grass. Of course, the snake was also startled by him and fled in a panic, and didn't do anything to him.

The problem was that this was the thing he was most afraid of. He always felt that even if he faced a tiger, he might still pluck up the courage to pat its bottom, but when it came to snakes, he was scared just thinking about it.

He was startled, and subconsciously took a step backwards, his right foot landing right on the stub of the bush he had just cut down. The back of his old liberation shoes was torn, and the diagonal stub of the bush stabbed straight in, almost to the ankle. A stub as long as his little finger snapped off inside, and he immediately began to bleed profusely.

He endured the pain, pulled out the stubble, tore off the bottom of his undershirt and wrapped it around a few times there, and handed the cow over to Dongming. Dongming saw what happened and was going to carry him home, but he said no, and walked slowly back on tiptoe.

Feng Zhenchang was still in the field, so Mei Qiuping quickly used a clay mortar to help stop the bleeding, which is to apply wood ash from the hearth to the wound. Then she hurriedly ran to the village office to find a barefoot doctor. The doctor was seeing patients in another village, and by the time Mei Qiuping and the doctor arrived home, it was already night. Feng Yiping had already cooked the rice and fed the pigs.

After cleaning it with alcohol, he applied Yunnan Baiyao and wrapped it in gauze.

Of course, the doctor stayed for dinner again.

After staying at home for two more days and changing the medicine twice, Feng Yiping limped up the mountain to herd the cows, but there was no way he could continue cutting firewood.

Finally, with ten days left before the start of the school year, Feng Yiping finally found some direction for his money-making plan.

That night, Feng Hongbing, Feng Weidong's son, invited him to watch TV. Feng Hongbing was three years older than Feng Yiping and would be entering the third year of junior high school in the new school year. They were usually considered to be playing together.

At that time, the pot-shaped antenna had not yet been invented, and the old-fashioned ones with many branches could only receive a limited number of channels. However, in addition to the county and city TV stations, Central 1 could at least be received, and he also wanted to watch the news at this time, so he went.

It was a 14-inch black-and-white TV, and a tall TV cabinet was specially built for it. It was placed next to the table in the middle of the main room, and the picture was still relatively clear. However, after a while, Feng Yiping, who was used to watching high-definition on a large screen, still felt tired. He turned his head and saw a book on the dining table. He picked it up and saw the three words on the colourful cover: 'Story Club'.

This was a very impressive magazine, because it was still being published vigorously until 2014, although of course he rarely read it. He also vaguely felt that when he saw this book, it seemed that there was some kind of idea, but it wasn't very clear.

When it was time to leave, he asked Feng Hongbing to borrow this Story Magazine. It was pretty boring herding cows on the mountain, and having a book to read always helped pass the time.

In the evening, after reading the first few humorous stories, he understood what the indistinct thought was. He could submit stories to Story Club and other magazines!

Humorous stories are just jokes, and he had plenty of those! More than twenty years later, society has made great progress, and the pressure on everyone has also increased tremendously. In order to relieve pressure, all kinds of jokes have emerged in endlessly. In his mailbox, QQ group and circle of friends, someone often shares a funny story. He can't usually remember them all, but he still remembers quite a few of the classic, widely circulated ones. Isn't this a way to make money?

Excited, he rummages for a pen and paper and writes down the correspondence address on the back cover.