By the end of October, the villagers of the Fourth Team had finally finished more than half a year's work and begun celebrating their harvest.
Almost every household had planted drip-irrigated cotton that year. Cotton prices were good, too: top-grade first-picking cotton fetched 3.8 to four yuan, and even ordinary first-picking cotton could sell for three yuan fifty.
The cotton harvest was good, and overall costs were still relatively low, so every household had made a tidy profit-some even regretted planting more grain and less cotton, which had reduced their earnings.
Whatever the case, their income had genuinely increased after the farmland improvements.
So, after taking the slips issued by the Cotton and Hemp Company to the Credit Cooperative to settle their accounts, the families went into the county seat one after another and bought things they had been eyeing for ages but never purchased.
Quite a few bought major household items. Some replaced their televisions with color sets, some bought motorcycles, and others took out their savings and pooled them to buy tractors.
Li Zhiqiang's courtyard was packed every day, bustling with activity.
Xu Chengjun had to announce over the loudspeaker every few days that gambling was forbidden, or offenders would be taken to the detention center and fined.
There was no helping it. The Fourth Team's farmland improvements had become too well known, and with so many people selling cotton that year, word spread until everyone knew the villagers had made money. Those looking to set traps naturally turned their attention their way.
Li Zhiqiang's barbecue business boomed, which also kept Uncle Lao Luo and the others at Old Ma's Place busy. Everyone had money now. Those who disliked doing the work themselves ate at Zhiqiang's courtyard, while others preferred boiling big pots of mutton in their own