Reborn in 1979, with a female educated youth lying next to me.

The two brothers exchanged a smile before returning to their respective rooms.

Despite being exhausted, Liu Jia lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) unable to fall asleep.

The business has expanded, and my second brother has agreed to help, but we still need to finalize the basket weaving team as soon as possible.

In the past, when the workload was small, everyone could work from their own homes. But once the workload increases, it's more convenient to gather together.

"Costs, labor costs, profits, and all expenses need to be recalculated."

Lifting her shoes, Liu Jia went to the cabinet and took out a pen and notebook to write something down.

By the time Liu Jia had written down all the problems that needed to be solved, it was already 1 a.m., and only then did he force himself to rest.

The next morning, Liu Jia smelled the aroma of food even before he was fully awake.

After hurriedly getting up and washing up, Zhang Guilan was already urging me to eat.

"Dinner is ready, hurry up and wash your hands and eat."

When Zhang Guilan called out at the door of the south room, everyone in the Liu family put down what they were doing and started walking into the south room.

"Mom, what did you make today? It smells so good!"

As soon as Liu Jianye entered the room, he sniffed hard and couldn't help but ask.

Zhang Guilan smiled at everyone, "Didn't Sanzi bring back rice yesterday? I steamed some rice. There were two tomatoes in the vegetable garden that turned red, so I used them to make an egg stir-fry."

Liu Jia's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this.

Rice with scrambled eggs with tomatoes is a perfect match!

Before Zhang Guilan even brought the rice over, Liu Jia was already swallowing hard.

Thinking about it carefully, it really has been a long time since I've eaten rice.

The thought of mixing rice with tomato sauce made Liu Jia's appetite instantly whetted.

This is the season when tomatoes taste best.

The tomatoes in the vegetable garden are big, juicy, and bursting with flavor. One bite and you get a delightful mix of sweet and sour!

One tomato alone can make half a plate of stir-fried vegetables.

Most importantly, the tomatoes at this time of year are not treated with pesticides at all, at most with some farmyard manure, making them absolutely organic vegetables!

A plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes like this would cost at least ten dollars in the future.

While Liu Jia was still in a daze, Zhang Guilan brought over a small iron basin filled with steamed rice.

Liu Jia blinked immediately upon seeing this, "Mom, how come you only earned so little rice? It's not enough to eat!"

Zhang Guilan glanced at the comb, then smiled and said, "Isn't this plate enough for the three of you?"

"What are you eating?"

"There's a steamed bun and half a cornbread, it'll go bad if we don't eat it, I'll eat this first."

As she spoke, Zhang Guilan picked up the cornbread.

Liu Jia immediately frowned, "Mom, how can we all eat rice while you eat cornbread? Give each of us a bowl of rice first, and if there's not enough, we can all eat something else."

Zhang Guilan wanted to refuse, but Liu Jia had already picked up a bowl and started serving rice.

In this way, everyone picked up their bowls filled with white rice.

After the meal, the rice in the small iron basin was completely eaten, and everyone was full.

"Have you eaten enough? I was worried you might not have enough to eat," Zhang Guilan asked, still somewhat concerned.

Liu Jia stood in front of Zhang Guilan and said, "Mom, to be honest, I'm just full, but not stuffed. You have to eat until you're stuffed to really enjoy this tomato and rice."

Zhang Guilan laughed when she heard this, "You're quite greedy. Who eats like this every day? If that were the case, even a mountain of gold and silver would be eaten up."

"Mom, don't worry, our family's life will get better and better from now on. We'll eat scrambled eggs with tomatoes and rice every day!"

"That's a good feeling."

After leaving the south room, Liu Jia saw that it was still early, so he said a few words to Liu Yutian and headed towards Zhou Fengshou's house.

After the two met, Zhou Fengshou did not mention Zhou Caixia's matter, but directly asked Liu Jia how the matter he had requested to go to the city for leave was going.

Liu Jia told Zhou Fengshou the good news, and Zhou Fengshou's face lit up with joy.

"So right now, we need to hire people, right?"

"Yes, we definitely don't have enough manpower, so we'll have to trouble Uncle Zhou again."

Zhou Fengshou waved his hand dismissively.

“What’s so troublesome about this? In the past two days, quite a few people in the village have asked me about basket weaving. Everyone is waiting to find work.”

“Weaving baskets and doing handicrafts can earn money to supplement the family income. This can be considered a source of income. Regardless of how much money it is, it's better to have something than nothing, and it gives everyone something to look forward to.”

Liu Jia listened and nodded.

Zhou Fengshou is right. Nowadays, everyone is struggling to make ends meet, and everyone wants to earn more money, even if it's hard work.

Liu Jia squatted down, drew a couple of lines with a twig, then looked up again and brought up Zhou Caixia's matter directly.

"Uncle Zhou, how about I handle Caixia's matter?"

"You? What do you want? You know better than I what kind of person Tuesday came to be."

Since the incident, there has been no movement from Tuesday's visit, making Zhou Fengshou even more uncertain.

More accurately, Zhou Fengshou had not yet come up with a solution to the problem.

Now, hearing Liu Jia say that he was going to deal with it, Zhou Fengshou's brows furrowed deeply.

Tuesday is unreasonable; he's a complete scoundrel and a rascal. He always tries to find something to extort money from people, and now that he's finally gotten his chance, he's not going to let it go.

Liu Jia is young and full of vigor. If he says something wrong, the two of them might start fighting.

So before Liu Jia could speak, Zhou Fengshou began to shake his head again.

"You'd better not get involved. I'll find someone to mediate."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the door to the north room was suddenly flung open with a bang!

"What's there to talk about? What's there to say!"

"He was shameless enough to come on Tuesday, so what if I hit him?"

"If he dares to kick and break my basket again, I'll hit him!"

"I'll beat him to death!"

In the short time it took to lift the bamboo curtain, Zhou Caixia had already said a lot.

Zhou Fengshou hurriedly stood up, trying to persuade and scold him at the same time, "Don't you think you've caused a lot of trouble? You even killed someone, you've gone too far!"

"Everyone knows what happened, but I still don't believe it. Is there no place to reason with them?"

"Stop yelling and making a scene. Look at you, thinking you're so great. You hit someone, and you think you're right?"

Zhou Fengshou's words left Zhou Caixia speechless, but she was still full of resentment and pouted.

Seeing this, Liu Jia jokingly teased Zhou Caixia.

"Look at how you pout, you could tie up the donkey in the production team. Let me tell you, don't pout all the time, or no one will dare to marry you."

"It's good that no one will marry me; I'll have too much free time by myself!"

Seeing that Zhou Caixia's words were becoming increasingly incoherent, Zhou Fengshou coughed loudly.

"Are you still not done? Don't you have anything better to do? If you're so bored, go chop some grass for the chickens!"

"No, Uncle Zhou, I have something to discuss with Caixia, it's important!"

Just as the topic of marriage came up, Liu Jia suddenly remembered the matter that Li Zhen had entrusted to her.

Now is the perfect opportunity.

"What's going on?"

Zhou Caixia had just picked up the kitchen knife when she turned around and walked towards Liu Jia, her eyes full of curiosity.

Liu Jia looked at Zhou Fengshou, then at Zhou Caixia, and then spoke solemnly.

“Uncle Zhou, I want to talk to Caixia about a potential husband. Caixia has met him before, and you have met him too. He’s Li Zhenhe, the driver from the Hongxing Supply and Marketing Cooperative.”

“Last time I came here to ask for leave and get a letter of introduction, Brother Li came with me.”

“Brother Li is a permanent employee with a guaranteed job. If Caixia marries him, she definitely won’t suffer any mistreatment.”

As Liu Jia described Li Zhenhe's situation, he observed the expression on Zhou Fengshou's face.

Sure enough, before Liu Jia could finish speaking, a look of joy flashed in Zhou Fengshou's eyes.

"That driver, I've seen him before. He seemed alright, quite honest..."

Zhou Fengshou had only spoken halfway when Caixia's mother quickly came over, "What are you saying? What's wrong?"

Zhou Fengshou is the village head of Xili Village, which is also known as the production team leader. On weekdays, Zhou Fengshou is in charge of almost all the major and minor affairs of the village.

The Zhou family home was also the liveliest place, with people coming to talk to Zhou Fengshou almost every day.

Caixia's mother was an honest woman who rarely pried into other people's business. Whenever she saw someone coming, she would quickly hide to the side and busy herself with something, or she would stay inside the house and not come out.

Caixia's mother had overheard Liu Jia speaking, and now that she saw Liu Yutian's statement, she couldn't help but come over to ask.

This is different from other things; it concerns my daughter's life-long happiness, and as her mother, I have to ask her about it.

"Didn't Sanzi introduce Caixia to someone? I think it's alright."

"I just heard that they're eating government-subsidized grain?"

Caixia asked another question.

Liu Jia nodded, "Yes, I have a city household registration, a government-approved job, and I can receive a pension when I get old."

"That's good, you know this person inside and out, right?"

While asking the question, Caixia's mother leaned closer to Liu Jia.

Before Liu Jia could answer, Zhou Caixia suddenly threw the kitchen knife on the ground!

"Bang!"

The cleaver flew far away!