Chapter 644: Chapter 644: The Village Raises Money
Therefore, the commune, to prevent this year’s drought and water shortage in that village, had the village chief Lin lead the villagers to dig a canal to that side, to bring water to that village.
They dug half, the neighboring village dug half.
But digging a canal is hard work, the work points given are not more than those for farming, but it’s more tiring than farming, so the villagers were all reluctant and started to protest.
“Village Chief, we’ve just finished farming and haven’t had a break yet, so why do we have to dig a canal now? If the other village lacks water, let them dig it themselves.”
“Exactly, Village Chief, that task should be theirs, having them come over and dig is already very generous of us.”
Village Chief Lin listened to their complaints, sighed with some helplessness, and to tell the truth, he didn’t want to have his own villagers suffer and toil over this canal either, but there was an order from above, and they had to obey.
“All right, all right, stop making a fuss, this is an order from the commune, anyone who objects can go directly to the commune leader with their grievance,” Village Chief Lin rebuked, his face stern.
Seeing the village chief was angry, the villagers all hung their heads low, not daring to say another word.
They didn’t dare openly resist, but they began to engage in passive resistance, their hoes and spades not working with full effort.
After a morning’s work, they had dug less than twenty meters, and Village Chief Lin was anxious on the inside, realizing he needed to find a way to improve everyone’s enthusiasm.
Then he remembered the scene of the villagers eagerly discussing the Spring Festival Gala when planting in the spring, and an idea suddenly came to him.
When the day’s work was done, Village Chief Lin didn’t even go home, but went directly to the Jiang family’s place.
The Jiang family members were tired from a day’s work, just got home and were washing up by the well in the yard.
“Oh, the village chief has come over, what’s up? Is there something you need to tell us?” Zhang Guihua wiped her hands and warmly asked as she approached.
Thinking about the little work the villagers had done that day, Village Chief Lin was very irritated.
He had no mood for pleasantries and got straight to the point, “Uncle Dashan, Aunt Guihua, I have a matter I’d like to discuss with you.”
“What is it? You specially made the trip, come on in, let’s talk inside,” Zhang Guihua warmly invited them.
Once inside the living room, Village Chief Lin sat on a stool and said to the couple, “Uncle Dashan, Aunt Guihua, here’s the thing, you see, your TV is the first one in our village, and ever since our villagers saw the Spring Festival Gala, they’ve been longing to watch it.”
“Of course, I also know that watching TV every day consumes electricity. I was thinking, maybe our village could pay for it, give you a little bit of money for the electricity bill every month, and you let all the villagers come over to watch TV at your place every evening. What do you think?” asked Village Chief Lin.
The village paying for the electricity would be a benefit for the villagers, allowing them to watch TV regularly every day.
Having this form of entertainment could certainly increase the villagers’ sense of happiness and satisfaction.
With a bit of mobilization, they would naturally no longer slack off at work; this was the real intent behind the village chief’s actions.
Zhang Guihua and Jiang Dashan exchanged glances upon hearing this, thinking the village chief’s idea was a good one. Even if the village didn’t subsidize it, their family watched TV and paid for the electricity nearly every day.
Now, letting all the villagers watch together with the village reimbursing the electricity cost could save quite a bit of money—it was too perfect!
“Sure, Village Chief, we agree to this,” Zhang Guihua said promptly, nodding immediately, seeing there was profit to be made.
And Uncle Dashan had no objections to something that would earn the gratitude of the whole village.