Chen Yang was having a blast throwing mud, when the two little guys who were smashing mud with him suddenly stood with their hands behind their backs, hiding their muddy little fists.
Unfortunately, Chen Yang hadn't realized the gravity of the situation yet.
"Play, why aren't you playing anymore?"
"This is fresh mud."
As Chen Yang spoke, he felt a chill down his spine.
"Today, I'll bathe the children, and today, I'll scrub the clothes."
Even without turning around, the old man could predict the storm brewing behind him.
Before Shen Xue could even get angry, she heard Chen Yang's words and, well, the guy actually made her laugh.
With such a comical husband, she really couldn't stay mad.
"Who needs you to scrub clothes? We have women at home."
"Hurry and take the two of them to bathe. No dinner if you're not clean."
Shen Xue put on a stern face. As long as the children were happy, what was a little extra laundry?
She had seen her husband playing in the mud with the two little ones earlier. Seeing how much fun they were having, she waited until it was almost time for dinner to call them in.
After lunch, Chen Yang didn't get to see Shen Laifu, but instead, the production team called a meeting.
There were no loudspeakers back then; meetings were announced by shouting. The old village chief, along with the main cadres of the brigade, went from house to house, beating gongs and drums to announce the meeting.
In another year or two, when the village got electricity, they would install loudspeakers at the village entrance, in the middle of the village, and at the exit.
It would be much more convenient to call people then, no need to go from house to house.
Once the old village chief flipped the switch, he could shout into the microphone, and the loudspeakers would carry his voice clearly for hundreds of meters throughout the village.
These village entrance loudspeakers were still in use in many rural areas across China even decades later.
However, unlike this era, where the brigade chief's shout was enough for everyone to bring their own stools and wait for the meeting at the open space in front of the brigade headquarters.
In later times, except for the Lunar New Year, it was hard to gather many people in the countryside. It was mostly the elderly and children; the middle-aged and young people had all gone to work, and shouting until their throats were sore wouldn't get much attention.
Chen Yang's family also brought their stools to the village entrance for the meeting. Generally, the old village chief wouldn't call a meeting of all the villagers unless it was something important.
Aside from spring plowing, autumn harvest, allocating grain plans, distributing rations, and the New Year, there were rarely large meetings on other days of the year.
Since it wasn't New Year or any other festival, everyone was puzzled.
After waiting for a long time, one to two thousand people from the brigade's several villages, packed together, chattered amongst themselves. The old village chief finally stood on the stone roller in front of the brigade headquarters.
He held a large tin loudspeaker and cleared his throat.
"Are the people from all the villages in our team mostly here? Team leaders of the villagers, count yourselves."
As soon as the old village chief finished speaking, the chattering below quieted down.
The people in charge of the villages stood up and glanced at those sitting beside them. Except for Shenjiaba Village, almost every household was present.
In the other village groups, at least one person from each household was present.
Seeing that most people had arrived, Shen Futang tapped the tin loudspeaker again.
"Since most of the people are here, I have something to say."
"After preliminary experimental research, the rice-flower fish initiative that our brigade has undertaken is currently doing well."
"According to Technician Zhou, our brigade, and even the entire commune, will likely launch large-scale pilot programs next spring."
"If the rice-flower fish are raised well, our brigade's production income next year will definitely be better than this year."
As soon as Shen Futang finished speaking, everyone below erupted in excited applause.
If the brigade's production income increased, then the work points everyone earned would be more valuable!
In simple terms, it meant more money and grain distributed at the end of the year. Who wouldn't be happy about such good news?
"Don't applaud just yet, what the old village chief said is just the ideal situation."
"Fellow villagers, if we want to raise these rice-flower fish well, we must ensure their living environment."
"Right now, we have to pump water almost every few days to maintain the water level in the fields. This greatly increases our production and breeding costs."
"This is only for one hundred mu of experimental fields now. If it were expanded to over a thousand mu of paddy fields in our commune, and tens of thousands of mu of paddy fields across the entire commune, pumping water with diesel pumps every day would be very expensive."
"The cost of burning fuel would probably exceed the money we earn from selling fish, which would definitely not be worthwhile. So, we need to find a way to reduce the cost of maintaining the water level in the fields."
Since the old village chief took on the role of the "red face," Zhou Jingqiu naturally took on the "white face."
Upon hearing her words, the villagers who had been excited and happy were stunned for a moment.
The water pumps were the pride of the production team. During droughts, they relied on these pumps to save the seedlings in the fields. But that was just an emergency. Now, they couldn't pump water frequently just to maintain the water level for the fish.
In this era, both gasoline and diesel were scarce strategic resources for the country and were very expensive.
"Technician Zhou, Old Village Chief, just tell us what to do. We're all simple folks and don't understand technology."
"As long as it can increase the team's production income and allow us to eat our fill, and we can get a few more yuan at the end of the year for a good new year, we'll listen to you."
Several men standing close by spoke one after another. Who didn't want a better life? As long as the rice-flower fish could make money, they were willing to work.
"The method, both I and Technician Zhou, have discussed with Commune Director Liu. Both we and the commune have suggested digging canals."
"Divert these canals into our fields to form an irrigation network. When the fields need water, we open the sluice gates and let water flow in from the Liu River through the canals. If there's too much water in the fields, we can also discharge the water into the Liu River through the canals."
"What do you all think? Should we build this water channel?"
The old village chief looked at the crowd below, a hint of trepidation in his expression.
Building canals wasn't a one or two-day job, and it was also hard physical labor. If they really started building, everyone would have to contribute a lot.
Life was hard for everyone these days. Making everyone work extra hours to build canals would surely lead to some people being unhappy. This was tiring work.
"Old Village Chief, since it's for raising rice-flower fish and for us to earn more money, it's only right that everyone contributes their strength."
"Besides, building canals isn't just for raising fish. With canals, our future paddy fields and wheat fields can also be irrigated, saving us the trouble of using water pumps."
"Once it's built, it will be a project that benefits generations to come."
The villagers didn't have strong objections to this. After all, even if they didn't build canals, they might still have to repair river dikes.
"Since everyone has such high awareness, I have nothing more to say. The team will arrange and calculate work points based on the labor contributed."
Hearing everyone's enthusiasm, the old village chief felt reassured.