253 The Price of Marriage

The village committee held a collective meeting of the entire village and expressed the theme of the meeting. The villagers would have to express their opinions themselves.

There were only a few possible outcomes.

Whether they were willing to rent or not, there were people watching from the sidelines.

Most of the families who were willing to rent left were the elderly who had to take care of children. If they did not rent out the fields, the elderly would continue to plant them, making them helpless and worried.

Therefore, when they heard that the Shi family wanted to rent the land, those young people all called back and said that they were willing to rent the land out. It didn’t matter how much the rent was, as long as everyone’s rent was the same.

There were also some people who had been farming at home previously. Now, they planned to rent out the land and then go out to work. If the family went out to work, it would be easier to save money.

However, the few people who were willing to rent it were in the minority.

Most of them were unwilling to rent it.

That day, someone came to the Shi family.

“Lichun, is your family really going to rent so much land?” Someone asked curiously. “Why are you renting so much land? Are you going to use it to grow watermelons?”

This year, the watermelons of Shi Lichun’s three brothers were sold at an extraordinarily high price. Therefore, many people guessed that the three brothers wanted to expand their plantation, but renting land would attract people’s envy. Therefore, they rented land in the name of their niece.

“That’s right, Lichun. Are you planning to rent land to plant watermelons next year? With so much land, you can grow hundreds of thousands of catties of watermelons. If you sell them for four or five dollars and earn a few million dollars at once, you will really be rich.”

That’s right, that was what many people guessed.

They all thought that the three brothers rented the land to plant watermelons.

The three Shi brothers were speechless.

What was going on?

Even if they planned to plant watermelons, they would not need so much land. At most, they would have about 10 acres more, and not 200 acres of land.

It was not easy to grow harmless green food. It required a lot of effort and time. Otherwise, if it did not meet the standard, the price would not be good.

Shi Lichun said in amusement, “Bangyong, where did you hear this from? It’s indeed my niece who’s renting the land. She’s also the one who needs to rent the land next year. It’s not the three of us.”

Shi Bangyong was puzzled and asked, “Lichun, isn’t your niece going to give birth? Her belly is so big. When is she due? Can she still manage 200 acres of land after giving birth?”

“The child will be born in three months, which is next spring,” Shi Lichun said. “We can manage it, but we don’t have to work in the fields ourselves.”

Shi Bangyong was deep in thought.

To put it bluntly, Shi Lichun’s niece could leave the land she rented to her uncles.

However, if his family had such a rich niece, he would be willing to support her in doing this. Anyway, as long as she paid, there was nothing to worry about.

Shi Lichun said, “My niece is renting a batch of land to plant greenhouse rice and a batch to plant greenhouse vegetables and fruits!”

Shi Bangyong was a little stunned and asked curiously, “How much greenhouse rice are you planting this time?”

The increase in the production of greenhouse rice last time caused many people to have the idea of planting greenhouse rice. However, after thinking about it, the cost of planting greenhouse rice was too high and the price was low. It was not worth it, so they decided to plant their rice using the traditional method.

Shi Liqiu said, “Mingming said to plant 50 acres of land first!”

“Huh? So many?” Another villager, Shi Bangzi, said in surprise, “How much would it cost to build a large shed?”

“That’s definitely tens of thousands of dollars!” Shi Bangyong said. “Last time, you spent 5,600 dollars on five plots of land. Now, 50 acres of land is at least 50,000 to 60,000 dollars, or even more than 100,000 dollars!”

Building a greenhouse was calculated by the area.

“Tsk tsk, as expected of a rich person. She has so much money to spend!” Shi Bangzi clicked his tongue. “If I had so much money, I would definitely deposit it in the bank for interest.”

Rural people thought that if they had money, they would deposit it in the bank to earn interest on top of the security.

100,000 dollars was probably the amount that many villagers would earn in their lifetimes.

It was fine for them to build a house for their sons to marry, but it was definitely impossible for them to spend on something they were not confident in.

“Hehe, you have more than 100,000 dollars in the bank now!” Shi Bangyong said, “A few days ago, I heard from your wife that she would let your second son go on a blind date to marry a wife at the end of the year. Only someone with money would dare to say such things.”

How could a poor person dare to marry his second son after only a few years?

The cost associated with marrying a wife now was at least 100,000 dollars.

Shi Bangzi waved his hand and said, “Even if you don’t have money, you still have to marry. My youngest son is already 24 or 25 years old this year. Over the years, there have been fewer and fewer girls in the village. If you don’t marry, the older you get, the harder it will be to marry. So, as long as any girl likes him, we have to borrow money for him to marry her.”

“Indeed, it’s quite difficult for young people of their age to get married. I heard from those young people that there are 30 to 40 million more men than women. If there are fewer women, then there are more men who are single.”

“That’s right. Every village now has more than ten single men.”

The bachelor in this village was a man in his thirties who had yet to marry.

“There are many singles in our village. There are very few women nowadays. Not to mention virgin girls, even those who have been married twice or thrice, or even widows, have all been snatched away.”

“There are really too few women nowadays. Banghui, if your Xiao Hua has someone he likes, it’s better to settle the matter quickly. Marriage nowadays is like a transaction. The betrothal gifts are each higher than the other. The day before yesterday, a family in Xianghe Village said that the betrothal gift was 160,000 dollars. Other than a few blankets, there’s nothing else in the dowry.”

“That’s right. As parents, we work hard our entire lives and save money frugally. We only need to marry a daughter-in-law and we are set back to square one.”

“Think about it. When we got married, we only got a wife.”

“When I married my wife, I used 108 dollars as a betrothal gift. Then, my in-laws gave me three pieces of dowry.”

Their three major items at the time were sewing machines, watches, and bicycles.

“Now, the betrothal gifts are getting higher and higher and there are no girls around.”

As they talked, the topic became more remote.

While they were talking, Gu Qingming walked in.

Shi Bangyong and the others were speechless.

“Little Gu, you’re back.” Shi Banghui greeted him first and asked with a smile, “It’s so late and the weather is still cold. Did you go out for a walk?”

Just as Shi Bangyong finished asking, Mo Ronghua and his wife followed in.

When Shi Bangyong, Shi Bangzi, and the others saw Mo Ronghua, they felt a sense of fear in their hearts.

After greeting the couple with a smile, they immediately went back.

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