By mid-to-late April, the busy farming season had begun, with leveling, sowing, and watering coming one after another.
The busiest person in the Fourth Team was Wang the Miser. He had made the team's old Dongfanghong 75 crawler tractor entirely his own.
For the past two years, he had handled all the plowing, sowing, leveling, and harrowing on the village's two or three thousand mu of land, charging for every job.
The team had contracted production to individual households over those two years, and everyone also had several chances each year to earn cash working with Li Long, so nobody left his mechanical tillage fees unpaid.
But while he earned a lot, he spent a lot too. A tractor alone cost tens of thousands, and with the plows, seeder, harrows, and everything else, Wang the Miser had sunk nearly everything he had earned over two years into the equipment.
The biggest headache was how easily the tractor broke down. Who knew how old the machine was? It kept breaking down as he used it, and every breakdown meant repairs. It was all right if he could fix it, but otherwise he had to replace parts, and every part cost money.
Everyone on the team knew Wang the Miser made money driving his tractor and said he earned enough each year to qualify as several Ten-Thousand-Yuan Households. But only he knew the hardships behind it. He really did not live as carefree a life as Li Long.
Still, everyone had their own path, and he had nothing to complain about. Right now, he had only one thought: save up enough money as soon as possible to buy a new tractor.
He had had enough of that old Dongfanghong 75, which might well have been older than he was.
Of course, he