On the morning of the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, after breakfast, Xuemei went to the threshing ground with Liu's mother and others. The village was distributing grain today, and Xuemei took a day off to help with the family. However, she didn't expect to injure her palm on the way home yesterday.

The Liu family's queue position this year was similar to that of previous years. After waiting for a while, they saw the educated youth arriving. Xuemei nodded and greeted them when Accountant Li began to read out their names.

Accountant Li read out a few names and then arrived at Li Guanghui's house.

"Li Guanghui's family has a total of work points, which is 1,082.6 work points. This year, one work point is 1.3 cents, so the total is 140 yuan, 73 cents and 8 cents..." Accountant Li said.

"Xuemei, your second uncle's family has such high work points. But farming is really hard work. Now I know that a whole family works hard for a year, but some of them don't even earn as much as a city worker earns in half a year." He Wenting pulled He Jing to Xuemei's side without her knowing.

"Wanting, Xiaojing, how did you get here? Of course, life in the countryside is not as good as in the city. My second uncle's family has so many work points because of the large labor force. Only a few families in the village have so many work points." Xuemei explained.

"My sister and I came to talk to you. We haven't seen you for a long time. Anyway, we are not in a hurry. We, the educated youth, are at the back of the line. We don't even know how many work points we have!" He Wenting said worriedly.

"Don't worry, it's okay if you don't have enough work points this year. Your monthly work points next year will be calculated based on the labor force of both men and women. You can get money to make up for it if your work points are not enough, but you have to work hard next year. Besides, you don't have that much money to buy food every year." Xuemei said.

"That's good. At least I won't be hungry next year. I think my appetite has increased and my strength has increased a lot since I came back from moving stones. Next year I should be able to earn six or seven work points every day. Then I should be able to feed myself." He Wenting said with anticipation.

"That's good. It means you are slowly getting used to our life here. Our work points have been increasing in recent years. As long as you work hard, your work points will be even higher next year." Xuemei said comfortingly.

"When you mention this, it reminds me of Wu Lian. Before she got married, she exchanged her work points for food based on last year's work points and took them away. Before she left, she was still very proud in front of us, saying that our work points at the end of the year would definitely not be as high as last year's because we are the ones who are holding them back. If she knew the work points in our village now, she would probably be very angry and would definitely regret it! Hahaha..." He Wenting covered her mouth and laughed.

He Jing didn't laugh. She saw that Xuemei's left hand was wrapped in gauze and shook He Wanting's hand. He Wanting didn't notice and continued to smile. He Jing then asked shyly, "Xuemei, what's wrong with your hand?"

"Oh, it's okay. I fell down yesterday because the road was slippery and I rubbed off some skin." Xuemei raised her hand and said.

"Are you really okay? Xuemei, why is it bandaged? I didn't even pay attention to your hand. Xiaojing is really attentive!" He Wanting also saw Xuemei's injured hand and asked quickly.

"It's really nothing. I wrapped my hands because my mother was afraid that the cold weather would freeze and crack the small wounds on my hands." Xuemei explained.

"When you mention this, I have something to say. I feel it's even colder than our Haishi winter. The three of us male educated youth from the north couldn't stand it and said it felt even colder than in the north. They said that in the north, there are kangs and the house is warm, but here it's cold inside and outside. There's always a cold wind when you go out, and your feet get really cold from sitting there during the day.

Now during the day we all sit around the brazier, and at night when it's too cold I sleep with my sister, covering ourselves with our own quilts." He Wenting said excitedly, and He Jing nodded in agreement.

"Our winters are not this cold in previous years, and it rarely snows. This year is an exception. Soak your feet in hot water before going to bed at night, and fill a salt water bottle with hot water to warm the quilt before going to bed," Xuemei suggested.

"Xiaojing and I plan to go to the commune hospital to buy a few bottles of saline solution after the snow melts. I didn't know it would be so cold here?" He Wenting said, tucking her hands into her sleeves.

"By the way, what did you use to store the food?" Xuemei asked.

"We borrowed a cart from the village, and each of us bought ten burlap bags, each costing seven cents. Now I realize how troublesome it is to live in the countryside without tickets and money," said He Wenting.

Xuemei wanted to comfort He Wenting, but Accountant Li had already read out Liu's father's name. He Wenting also heard it, waved to Xuemei, and went to the back of the line to continue queuing.

"Liu Guangda's family earned a total of 6,927 work points, or 692.7 labor points. At 1.3 yuan per labor point, that's 90 yuan and 5.1 cents. Add the 10 yuan subsidy from the village chief and the total is 100 yuan and 5.1 cents.

Xuemei from your family will receive a salary in the second half of this year, and her food rations will be provided by the state, so the village will only give her six months of food rations this year, and the village will not give her food rations next year.

Your family's total ration is 1,752 kilograms of grain. The price remains the same as before, but the amount of fine grain you need cannot exceed half of the ration, or 876 kilograms. "Now, tell me how much grain you need so I can calculate the price for you," Accountant Li said, holding a notebook.

When Ruirui heard this, he pulled Liu's mother's sleeve and said, "Mom, please give me more wheat."

Mother Liu nodded and said to Accountant Li, "Accountant Li, for fine grains, our family needs 270 kilograms of wheat, 46 kilograms of glutinous rice, and 540 kilograms of rice. For coarse grains, we need 500 kilograms of corn stubble, 200 kilograms of sweet potatoes, 120 kilograms of potatoes, and 56 kilograms of beans. Accountant Li, can you calculate how much this will cost in total?"

"The total is forty-three yuan, thirty-four cents and four cents. I'll give you fifty-six yuan, seventy-seven cents and seven cents. Please check if the account is correct. If it is, sign your name and go to load the grain." Accountant Li handed the account book to Liu's mother.

After checking and finding that the account was correct, Liu's mother went to Liu's father's place to load the food. This time, she specially loaded the food for grandparents separately. After all the food was loaded, Liu's mother took Qingya and Ruirui to push the cart and went to the old house to deliver the food first. Xuemei and Feifei stayed there to watch over the food.

After Liu's mother and the others came back, Xuemei asked Liu's mother to stay here and take a rest. Xuemei and her four siblings pushed the cart full of food back home together. Then Feifei stayed at home to guard the food, while Xuemei, Qingya and Ruirui went to transport the food.

When Xuemei and the other two arrived at the grain drying ground, Liu's mother said to Xuemei, "Xuemei, you three should take a break. Now it's the educated youth's turn. Why don't we just wait until they've divided the grain so we can buy some and then transport it."

Xuemei nodded, parked the cart, and sat on it to keep an eye on the food. Qingya and Ruirui were too busy to do anything, so they followed Liu's mother to join in the fun.

"Sister, that Zhou Zhiqing is really good. He has only been here for more than three months, but he has already earned 730 work points!" Qingya walked over and said.

"Second sister, Han Zhiqing is not bad either. He also has 708 work points, okay?" Feifei said dissatisfiedly.

"Are you two here to quarrel? Mom is already queuing up to buy food, why don't you hurry up and get your bags filled with food." Xuemei saw the two people about to quarrel again and quickly stopped them.