CHAPTER 662: CHAPTER 637 RAISING LONG-HAIRED RABBITS

Jiang Lei filled Bai Jiefang’s glass with wine.

"Second Uncle, we are all family, so I’ll be straightforward. You know how good the policies are these days. They’ve been encouraging people to work hard to become prosperous and open up for reform. How is it that your family can still live like this?"

This was what puzzled Jiang Lei.

If it were before the household production responsibility system, he might have understood living poorly as inevitable.

After all, every household wasn’t doing particularly well.

But now the household responsibility system has been implemented, and looking at Bai Jiefang and his wife, they aren’t exactly lazy people.

Given that they are hardworking and capable, with good policies, it’s strange that their family can still live like this, unable to even build a brick house.

Bai Jiefang sighed, "You have no idea, we work hard no matter how diligent we are, but it’s useless! In this village, as you might have noticed when you arrived, our lands are limited while the population is large.

Among the hundreds of households, the actual arable land is just a few hundred mu at most, and divided among each household, it’s only one or two mu.

"Why is there less land and more people? The area around here is a flat plain, and theoretically, this land should be fertile. Growing crops on these lands should be better than mountain lands."

Jiang Lei was puzzled too.

"It looks like a flat plain and should be fertile land. But, the land by the riverbank here is all saline-alkali soil, where no crops can grow, whatever we plant dies.

This saline-alkali land occupies at least a thousand mu, leaving only a little arable land. So with more people and less land, each family has one or two mu, what can they do with that? After handing in public grain, there’s only enough left to fill our own stomachs, where’s the extra money?"

Bai Jiefang took a sip of wine, feeling distressed too.

"If that’s the case, you might as well go out to work. During the off-farm season, a few people go together to the city to find work, and you can always find some work to do. At least you can earn some money to support the family."

"Those wealthy families in the village, they all work in the city. I know working in the city can earn extra money, but neither of us knows a single word. Last year we went to the city to work, but we were scammed.

For people like us who know nothing, we don’t dare to venture out recklessly. We still have three kids at home, and working all year without bringing back money, how can the kids go to school?"

Bai Jiefang was also in a bitter situation. For illiterate people like them, if they’re scammed, they don’t even know where to argue for their rights.

Understanding dawned on Jiang Lei.

Even the sibling with the lowest education in his family, the second sister, probably graduated junior high. Although he didn’t attend high school, he also graduated junior high.

For them, going out to find some work might be easy, but for Bai Jiefang and Cui Fen, who can’t read a word, it’s different.

Indeed, they can easily get scammed.

If they meet a dishonest boss, working all year without receiving payment, who would still want to go out and work?

"Hey, how about this, why don’t you start some sideline business in the village, like raising chickens or rabbits? I have a friend who runs a rabbit farm, raising Angora rabbits. When the rabbits grow, you can sell their fur and skin, and even the meat is valuable as the whole rabbit is precious."

Jiang Lei had an idea.

After all, this was Bai Yiyi’s uncle. If he could help them work hard and get rich and improve their lives, he should definitely help.

If he couldn’t help in other ways, at least he could offer a suggestion.

Bai Jiefang shook his head, "No one in our village has ever raised Angora rabbits. Who knows if they can survive? Some households raised chickens, but someone who tried to start a chicken farm last year lost all their chickens and almost had to sell their house because of the debts they incurred.

We probably don’t even have money for rabbit breeds, let alone raising rabbits."

"Second Uncle, don’t sigh, if you really want to raise Angora rabbits, I can help you connect with someone. My friend has done an excellent job with them, and his rabbit farm is quite large, with over five hundred pairs of Angora rabbits.

Every year, he makes a significant income, tens of thousands. If you really want to raise rabbits, I can take you over to see how he does it, learn some techniques. As for the rabbit breeds, I’ll ask him to sell them to you on credit. Once you’ve raised and sold the rabbits, you can pay him back for the breeds."

Jiang Lei sincerely wanted to help.

Cui Fen was tempted; they were afraid to raise chickens, pigs, or rabbits because they didn’t have the technique.

Raising a few is fine, but with farm animals, if one gets sick, they can die easily in large numbers.

If there’s someone they can learn from, they would certainly feel confident in raising them.

Who doesn’t want to earn money? They both dream of getting rich but lack the skill.

If Jiang Lei is willing to help and can connect them to learn techniques,

that’s a golden opportunity, one that’s hard to find.

"Husband, why not go take a look."

Bai Jiefang was also tempted, "I hope this won’t trouble you too much, if your friend is unwilling, just forget it. I’m afraid he might not want to share his techniques."

He had a point; in their village, there was one pig-raising family.

Old Wang became rich by raising pigs, building a large tiled house with six rooms and a courtyard with each of his three sons having their own brick-walled house, and each son got a new bride. They were enviable.

It was because Old Wang knew techniques for pig-raising with secret recipes that ensured no swine fever, raising plump pigs.

Even people close to the Wang family wanted to learn, but Old Wang kept his secrets tight.

He wouldn’t pass on his pig-raising skills to anyone, except his sons. Even his daughters couldn’t learn it; Old Wang explicitly said it was a skill passed to sons, not daughters.

Thanks to this craft, his three sons wouldn’t starve.

Jiang Lei smiled, "If you really want to learn, I guarantee my friend will teach you with commitment. As long as you learn well, I assure you’ll become a major rabbit farmer. My friend is in a village 500 li away, raising rabbits there, so there’s no competition issue.

And if you raise rabbits successfully, buying rabbits regularly from him would bring him business too. Rest assured, my friend is a decent person. He’s a high school graduate, specialized in animal husbandry before returning to the village to start raising Angora rabbits. In just two years, his family wealth has grown to hundreds of thousands."

Bai Jiefang decided to go with Jiang Lei to check it out.