Chapter 121 Year of Famine

Xia Qianqian originally thought that after Xia Wenwen went back, the Xia family would definitely continue to cause trouble, but to her surprise, they lived peacefully for three months.

Although he was still clumsy and slow at work, at least he stopped giving people the cold shoulder and saying strange things.

What's even more surprising is Mr. Xia. Every night when the production team leader calls a meeting of the villagers, he always rushes to speak first, his mouth full of sweet words, constantly talking about "accepting reform" and "learning from the poor and lower-middle peasants".

The villagers, young and old, felt relieved and their attitudes towards them gradually softened. Sometimes, when they saw that their mud-brick houses were leaking, they would even take the initiative to help fix the roofs.

Xia Qianqian touched her protruding belly. She was now more than five months pregnant, and her body felt a little heavy when she walked. She sincerely hoped that the Xia family could continue to behave themselves and hold on until she gave birth to the child safely. She really didn't have the energy to deal with those troubling things.

Fortunately, Lu Zheng and his mother doted on her and took care of all the housework.

Every day, she only needed to help out at the barefoot doctor's pharmacy, identify herbs, and memorize prescriptions. The rest of the time she would bask in the sun, eat and drink, and live a life as if she were immersed in honey.

As the ice and snow begin to melt, icicles drip from the eaves, turning into trickles of water, and a touch of warmth finally fills the air.

That afternoon, a familiar voice suddenly came from outside the courtyard gate: "Qianqian! Look what good things I brought you!"

Xia Qianqian lifted the curtain and saw Li Aiqin standing at the bottom of the steps with a bamboo basket on her shoulder. Her red cotton-padded jacket was still covered in mud, and her forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat. "The river just thawed this morning, and the village organized a fish-catching event. I grabbed the biggest one! You should try it. This thawed fish is the most tender!"

The carp in the basket were still lively and jumping, their silver scales shimmering in the sunlight. Xia Qianqian quickly pulled her into the house, then suddenly paused, realizing that Li Aiqin had lost a lot of weight.

Now the two are as close as sisters. When the young girl was struggling financially, Xia Qianqian would often find excuses to have her come to her house for "special treatment." Over time, the girl's face became rosy and healthy.

But today, after two months apart, Li Aiqin's cheeks have sunken, her chin is as sharp as a cone, and her once round face has become as thin as a palm, making her eyes look bigger than before.

"What happened to you? How did you get so thin?" she said, calling out to Lu Zheng to bring over the sweet potatoes.

Li Aiqin stared at the sweet potato Lu Zheng had brought over and asked incredulously, "You're really going to give me this precious stuff?"

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Xia Qianqian was taken aback by the question. "We have a lot stocked up at home! If you like to eat them, I'll pack you a bag before you leave!"

These words were like an order, and Li Aiqin immediately became impolite, grabbing a hot sweet potato and stuffing it into her mouth.

This was a sweet and glutinous chestnut sweet potato. She was so hungry that she didn't even notice how hot it was and started to gasp for breath. She choked on it in just a few bites, her neck stretching and her face turning bright red.

"Eat slowly! No one's going to take it from you!" Xia Qianqian quickly brought over some warm water, patting her back tenderly while trying to soothe her. "There's plenty more in the pot, you'll have enough!"

Li Aiqin swallowed two large sweet potatoes before she could recover. She wiped her mouth haphazardly with her padded sleeve, her eyes red, and punched the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed): "You have no idea what kind of hellish life the youth settlement is living these days!"

Li Aiqin looked at Xia Qianqian's round belly and rosy cheeks and sighed, "Lu Zheng and the others really protected you well... They kept this from you."

Lu Zheng was pouring water when he heard this and paused. He explained, "It's nothing serious. Last winter, we had three hailstorms in a row, and then it didn't rain at all in the spring. The wheat seedlings in the fields all wilted, and the team's granary has been empty for a long time."

"It's good that we've seen the bottom!" Li Aiqin's eyes blazed with anger. "Your team leader is kind and generous, he even shares the rations; but that heartless guy at our youth team diverted all the rations meant for the educated youth to curry favor with the commune cadres!"

She counted on her fingers: "Last month's coarse grains were mixed with sand, and this month it's even worse—they brought over three bags of moldy bran! Look at us, we're all as thin as monkeys, how can we have the strength to work in the fields? Yesterday, while digging the irrigation ditch, some people even fainted from hunger in the ditch!"

Xia Qianqian's heart sank. Could the "famine year" mentioned in the comments really be coming?

"Aiqin, you wait!" Xia Qianqian turned around, lifted the lid of the grain bin in the corner, found a coarse cloth bag, scooped three ladles into it, and stuffed all the remaining sweet potatoes on the kang into the basket.

"Take all of these with you! I can't bear to see you go hungry!"

Li Aiqin's eyes were red like a rabbit's, and tears fell onto the back of her hand, but she still shook her head vigorously: "No! Absolutely not!"

She gripped Xia Qianqian's arm tightly: "You're pregnant! Food is as precious as life itself these days, save it to nourish yourself! We can manage!"

"Stretch?" Xia Qianqian shoved the cloth bag into her arms. "How can you possibly stretch?"

Li Aiqin bit her lip and muttered, "Last night, a few of us educated youth secretly plotted that if the bran and chaff got moldy again, we would...we would smash open the team leader's granary and steal some food!"

"Foolish!" Xia Qianqian was both angry and heartbroken. She reached out and tapped her forehead. "Is it worth making a mistake because of a stutter?"

She turned around and scooped out two more ladles of cornmeal. "Take this! Consider it a loan. You can pay me back after the autumn harvest!"

She lowered her voice and said, "Before the New Year, Lu Zheng went to the black market and exchanged a lot of grain, enough for my daughter and me to eat."

Li Aiqin then let go, clutching the heavy bag, her mood improving: "Qianqian, I'll remember your kindness for the rest of my life! I plan to repay you with my body!"

Xia Qianqian laughed at her words and then reminded her, "It gets dark early now, so you should go back early too. I'll have Lu Zheng take you home."

"Let's go!" Li Aiqin wiped her mouth and, together with Lu Zheng, packed the sweet potatoes into a bamboo basket, covering them with a layer of old cotton wadding, wrapping them up tightly in layers.

"Be careful on the road, don't let anyone see you." Xia Qianqian straightened her scarf.

Lu Zheng was notorious in the village. With him protecting Li Aiqin, no one dared to reach into the bamboo basket, no matter how curious the villagers were about what was inside.

It wasn't until Lu Zheng returned carrying an empty basket that Xia Qianqian dared to voice her concerns: "Our team... is also running out of food?"

"It hasn't come to that yet." Lu Zheng squatted down to massage her sore calves, his voice deepening, "But I reckon the granary is really empty."

Looking out at the cracked earth, he said, "In this lean season, if we could get a good rain, the wild vegetables would grow like crazy, and we might be able to get through it by digging for wild vegetables."

But for the next month, not a single cloud drifted across the sky. They say spring rain is as precious as oil, but this "oil" was nowhere to be seen.

The ground was so dry that it cracked open. Not only did wild vegetables not sprout, but even the seedlings grown by the team withered one after another and eventually died in the ground.

Xia Qianqian stood in the yard, looking at the wilted vegetable patch, feeling as if a stone was pressing on her heart.