This time, the canteen incident made life very difficult for many rural families.

This also reflects the benefits of workers in disguise.

In the village, those whose family members work as workers in the city generally have a much better life than other families.

Even with the lowest apprenticeship salary, after excluding the cost of eating in the factory, the remaining money is enough to buy some food to support the family.

For example, the uncle’s family has not only not been affected this year, but has actually been better off than in previous years.

In the past, the uncle wanted to be strong and refused to accept the support from the second uncle and Zhang Yan.

This year is different. The elder, who had been forced to do nothing, finally spoke to his two younger brothers. Naturally, the two families would not disappoint the elder.

A lot of rice, flour, grain, oil, eggs, and pork were given.

Auntie, naturally she is more enthusiastic about Zhang Yan and the second uncle’s family.

This can be regarded as eating people with a short mouth!

Zhang Yan's family and the second uncle's family respectfully kowtowed to their grandfather and paid New Year greetings before starting to eat.

After the family had a lively lunch and chatted for a while, Zhang Yan went out and took his brothers to pay New Year greetings.

The group worship in the village has already passed, and most of the people gathered together to eat, drink and play cards.

There are not many people on the street.

Zhang Yan greeted everyone along the way and wished the villagers New Year greetings.

Arrive at Master Wu’s house.

"Fifth Master, happy New Year! I'm here to wish you a happy New Year!" Zhang Yan cupped his fists and bowed.

"Young man Yan is back! I heard that your hospital is very busy recently." Master Wu asked Zhang Yan to go up to the kang to talk.

This salary is not low. There are so many people in the room, but not many can get on the kang.

"I'm a little busy. I went to the hospital this morning and then rushed back to wish you a happy New Year!" Zhang Yan said with a smile.

"Work is important! If you are busy, don't be in a hurry to come back!" Mr. Wu said, patting Zhang Yan's hand.

"During the Chinese New Year, you always have to take some time to come back and say New Year greetings." Zhang Yan said with a smile.

After chatting for a while about common things, the topic turned to what happened this year. There was a lot of dissatisfaction in Mr. Wu's words.

There is dissatisfaction with superior policies and dissatisfaction with villagers.

The villagers did not listen to the instructions and wasted so much food, resulting in insufficient food reserves at the end of the year. This made Fifth Master very angry.

Unable to get angry, Fifth Master finally asked Uncle Yi to go to the city to find connections and buy a batch of grain.

This allows everyone to spend this new year, and the village's public funds have been almost spent.

However, the new year has passed, and there is still a spring famine to go through in the new year.

The new year is easy to pass, but the spring famine is difficult to endure.

"Fifth Master, Uncle Yi, after spring starts, arrange for people to reclaim all the wasteland on the hillside in the village!"

"How can there be so many laborers in the village now to cultivate wasteland on the hillside!

Those wastelands can't be reclaimed to produce much food!" Zhang Fuyi shook his head.

I am very dissatisfied with Zhang Yan's suggestion.

"The reclaimed hillside wasteland is not meant for growing food! The village can plant pumpkins on the hillside wasteland!

Next year our hospital will need 100,000 kilograms of pumpkin seeds. I am going to plant a batch in our village and let my uncle grow a batch in their village."

"One hundred thousand catties of pumpkin seeds? So much?" Zhang Fuyi exclaimed.

"Pumpkin seeds are a very good medicinal material that can treat tapeworms, roundworms, postpartum edema of the hands and feet, whooping cough, and hemorrhoids. Next year our hospital will carry out research on several special diseases.

By then, it will definitely attract a large number of patients from all over the country to the hospital for treatment, as it does now.

Of course, you need to prepare the medicinal materials needed for treating the disease in advance!" Zhang Yan said with a smile.

"These 100,000 jins of pumpkin seeds are a bit large. Even if our two villages grow them together, it will be difficult to collect 100,000 jins." Zhang Fuyi said after thinking.

"What's the difficulty? When you fight, don't you fight if it's difficult?" Mr. Wu was very dissatisfied and knocked the wooden slats on the edge of the kang with his cigarette pot.

"no!"

"What's not that? Pumpkins are easy to live with and tolerant to drought. You don't have to take care of them like crops.

Set fire to the wasteland on the hillside.

Then just plant pumpkins!

How much labor can be used?" Master Wu scolded.

"However, there are only about two taels in a pumpkin. How many pumpkins are needed for these 100,000 kilograms of pumpkin seeds?

Even millions of pounds of pumpkins are enough!

When the time comes, what will we do with so many pumpkins?" Zhang Fuyi said with a wry smile.

"This is easy to do! The villagers can keep part of the pumpkins grown in our village to eat, and they can also be used to raise pigs and chickens!

Our factory and our hospital can purchase a batch.

I can also help you contact other units for purchasing.

There are millions of kilograms of pumpkins, and there are a lot of them in the village. But if you take them to the city and disperse them, they won’t be much." Zhang Yan smiled and gave a solution.

I thought to myself, I feel like it’s too much now, but by next year, it probably won’t be too much.

By then, it won’t matter what kind of pumpkin seeds you are, pumpkin will be the life-saving food.

This is a method that Zhang Yan came up with after thinking about it for a long time and combining it with a piece of news that later generations had seen.

As for the one hundred thousand kilograms of pumpkin seeds, this is really not a problem. Pumpkin seeds are a good thing. They are not only medicinal materials, but also a delicious snack.

Especially when fried with salt, it becomes fragrant.

When the time comes, Zhang Yan will arrange for one hundred thousand kilograms of pumpkin seeds to be fried in the canteen and distributed to the hospital employees as welfare, and some will be sent to the factory.

Can the factory still get it for free?

"If that's the case, then there's no problem!

Wouldn’t it be too wasteful to raise pumpkins to raise pigs or chickens?”

"What is there to waste? How much does a pound of pumpkin cost? Pumpkins are rich in nutrients and will gain weight quickly if you raise pigs. Pork only costs 50 cents per pound!"

The fifty cents per catty that Zhang Yan mentioned refers to the price of raw pigs.

"Young man Yan is right, raising pigs with pumpkins is not a loss!" Mr. Wu also nodded in agreement.

After chatting for a while, Zhang Yan said goodbye and left.

"Second brother, are you going back to my father-in-law's house tomorrow?" Zhang Yan asked Zhang Ping and Zhang An after leaving the fifth master's house.

"Yes! This is the first year after marriage, I must go back!"

"Well! Let your sister-in-law prepare something for you tomorrow! When the new son-in-law comes, you can't lose face!" Zhang Yan explained with a smile.

"Thank you, brother!" Zhang Ping and Zhang An quickly thanked them.

They are not short of money now. Ever since they got married, Zhang Yan has given every penny of their wages to their wives.

In this regard, Zhang Yan truly acted like an elder brother like a father. It should be said that Zhang Yan did everything that Zhang Fusheng, the father, could not do.

"The day after tomorrow, you take our mother back to my uncle's house and tell him about the purchase of pumpkin seeds!" Zhang Yan told the two brothers Zhang Ping and Zhang An.

"I know, brother!"

They had to return to the city in the afternoon, because with two pregnant women, it was not suitable to leave too late.
Chapter completed!