To prove he had money, Xiao Jiu pulled out a wad of ten-yuan notes, leaving the old couple speechless. Tao An even rushed over.

"My goodness, a hundred yuan? Jiu'er, where did you get that?"

"I participated in a math training course during the National Day holiday. I was lucky enough to win first prize, which was a reward from the school."

After saying that, he looked triumphantly at his grandparents, slapping five bills into each of their hands.

“Here, take it and spend it. Don’t underestimate your granddaughter just because she’s young. She can do a lot of work. She earns a lot of money just by tutoring my classmates at school. She hardly spends any money at all. Besides, my fifth and sixth sisters send me money, and my brother Zhou Yue even sends me food. Grandpa, Grandma, just spend as much as you want. We can’t possibly spend it all.”

Then he started reasoning with them, counting on his fingers.

"Let's not even talk about Brother Zhou Yue who's far away. As for my eldest and second eldest brothers, they went to military academies. Their food and lodging were all covered, and they even received stipends. Although it was only six yuan a month, it was enough for them to buy books and other things, right?"

“My fifth and sixth older sisters and my third older brother all went to good universities, and they all receive a monthly stipend. They also work part-time jobs. University students can easily earn a few dollars a month by tutoring other kids. They're not short of money, are they?”

"And then there's my third sister, my parents. They're all permanent employees with city residency and receive a monthly grain ration. My father's job is classified as heavy manual labor, so he gets 42 jin (21 catties) of grain per month. My mother and my sister are light manual laborers, and they get 30 jin (15 catties) of grain per month. And that doesn't even include their wages. Now, all the grain we've stored up is just enough for the four of us, my grandfather and grandsons."

"So Grandpa and Grandma, why don't we eat well? We are perfectly capable of eating well! If my mother hadn't been worried about the trouble that would arise if we transferred our household registration to the city, my brother and I might have been able to get rationed food. But the problem now is that we are all capable of earning money, food, and ration coupons, and we are in a special period, so why are we being so hard on ourselves?"

...

Xiao Jiu tried to persuade him earnestly, while Grandpa sat beside her smoking his pipe. Only after she finished speaking did he tap off the ash from his pipe.

Xiao Jiu then realized, "I already said I wouldn't smoke anymore, but it seems you haven't quit!"

Grandpa chuckled twice, put away his pipe, and then sighed as he looked at Xiaojiu.

"Wine, do you know what kind of life we ​​ordinary people are living these days? In the past few years, how many people in the village have starved to death or died of disease?"

Xiao Jiu certainly knows, but who can be blamed for this?

The Great Leap Forward drew away countless people to engage in steel production, ultimately leaving the remaining elderly, weak, sick, disabled, and pregnant women unable to harvest enough grain, resulting in the waste of countless crops.

Because production teams were established at this time, with designated personnel to take over the people's grain. If they couldn't collect it, they would rob it, turning over every household's grain.

They confiscated so much metal equipment before, and now they're even taking away our food rations. When they first started setting up these big canteens, they were really going all out, but when they ran out of food, they couldn't borrow any from anywhere, so the higher-ups told them to find a solution.

What's even more infuriating is that some cadres boasted about yields of thousands or even tens of thousands of catties per mu. Good heavens, when it came time to collect the grain, they handed over the public grain according to the standards they had boasted about. Some production teams didn't even keep the seeds; they handed over everything and it still wasn't enough.

Then came locust plagues and droughts, leaving people starving for two or three years. They ate tree bark and grass roots, and even took down the newspapers pasted on the walls to boil, because the newspapers were pasted with flour. When people are starving, they don't care about anything else!

City dwellers receive food rations, and special groups receive special care, but those who farm the land...

There was no guarantee whatsoever.

At this moment, Grandpa's expression seemed to be conveying something to Xiaojiu.

“Jiu’er, your eldest brother was the only one in our family who survived the famine of 1942 with us. He was only two years old at the time. Your second brother was still in your mother’s womb. Your mother was so hungry that she had no milk. If it weren’t for the grain sacks sewn onto her body that she boiled some rice oil for your second brother, he probably wouldn’t have survived.”

Our family was relatively well-off, so instead of running around with the disaster victims, we found an abandoned village and hid. Luckily we hid! Along the way, there was artillery fire, bandits, and refugees. If we had actually run with them, I don't know if your mother and your second brother would have survived!

Not to mention the numerous famines before 1942, there was also the war, which separated many families, and some didn't even have time to collect the remains of the dead...

Compared to previous famines, this one is much better, especially since we withdrew early and made preparations in advance.

Even so, we still can't get over that hurdle in our hearts!

While my family is feasting and eating to our hearts' content, others are starving and struggling to survive on food they beg and plead for. The more I feel sorry for them, the less I can eat.

I know my granddaughter is filial, and your mother often buys us things, especially after your grandmother got sick, your parents have been coming back so frequently.

Why do we rarely go out?

With your older sisters taking turns to take care of us on weekdays, life is good, and if we're not careful with our food, we'll look radiant. When someone comes to our house at this time, they'll see our complexion and understand everything.

It's not that your grandpa is afraid of what others will say, nor that he's afraid of others coveting our little bit of food. After all, the good food we ate did have an effect, otherwise how could your grandma have recovered so quickly and now be able to walk around in the yard?

Go and see if anyone of your age who had a stroke can still stand up.

But we just felt guilty about eating too well. We had been cheated and taken advantage of too many times in the past. Your grandma and I had been enduring it and hadn't offered any help to anyone.

They only threw grain to those almost destitute households during the most difficult times; they never offered any overt help, mainly to prevent them from being targeted by hungry wolves like the other branches of the Zhou family.

We're already very content with this. At least we've never gone hungry at home. Your older sister often brings us snacks, fish, meat, and fine grains. Why would we waste milk powder on this?

The recovery powder and malted milk powder you sent back are enough to supplement our nutrition, so you can still take the wine and milk powder. If all else fails, you can give them to your seventh and eighth sisters to help them recover; they've been sending a lot of delicious food over here.

Especially the fish and shrimp, I don't know where they get them from, they give us a boost every few days.

Although Grandma's speech wasn't as fluent as before, she still managed to express her meaning.

He put the milk powder in her arms, turned his head to indicate that she and the little brother should drink it, and then pointed to the front yard.

Xiao Jiu felt a little embarrassed after her grandfather said that. To be honest, she had no restrictions on what she ate since moving to L City.

Aside from being mindful of what I eat at the school cafeteria, I make sure to improve myself whenever I'm in my online space.

She has experienced hunger quite a bit over the years. Although she makes up for it afterward, the discomfort of hunger still makes her feel nauseous, bloated, and restless.

She listened to her grandfather's earnest advice, and the milk powder was delivered to the young man through a roundabout route.

"You're in your final year of junior high now, you should catch up on your studies."

Tao An quickly pushed the milk powder over, "No, no, that's too eye-catching. Besides, I've been drinking a lot of malted milk powder with my grandparents. You should take the milk powder back. This is precious stuff; it's better for you young girls to drink more of it."

Just kidding, he's the only one in the family who doesn't earn money, how could he possibly drink this expensive stuff? If his brothers found out he was fighting with Xiao Jiu for something, they'd skin him alive.

Xiao Jiu never expected that the good thing would come back to her after going around in circles. Oh well, she'll just pretend she never gave it to her.

Although the milk powder wasn't given away, Xiao Jiu brought back a lot of daily necessities such as salt, matches, canned meat, canned yellow peaches, tea, enamel mugs, flashlights, and batteries, as well as raincoats, rubber boots, and canvas shoes. She didn't bring any cloth, as her grandparents didn't need these things, but she bought socks for them.

"My goodness, you really know how to spend money! How much money did it cost to buy all these things?"

Is that a lot? This is just one portion; she also prepared one portion for the older sisters in front of her.

She pretended not to hear what the man said and handed him his number.

"Here, these are the Liberation Shoes from April 1st. They're a little big, but they should fit you perfectly next spring."

"I originally wanted to buy cotton shoes, but they were sold out. I went at the wrong time and didn't want to make a wasted trip, so I bought Liberation shoes instead."

Tao An was very happy and immediately took off his old Liberation shoes and put on the new Liberation shoes.

"Oh, they're a little big, but they'll definitely fit perfectly next year. Thanks, girl, you're so thoughtful. Look at my pair, they're all ripped."

Xiao Jiu glanced at his old Liberation shoes and complained, "Is your big toe growing a splinter? Not only are your socks worn out, but you can even wear out your shoes. You're really something. With Mom not home, how many socks have you mended by yourself?"

"If I hadn't been so impatient, I wouldn't have been able to develop this skill. What can I do if my toes don't cooperate?"

The old couple couldn't help but laugh at the siblings' bickering. It was so late, and Xiao Jiu didn't want to bother them, so she said she ate two steamed buns before getting on the bus, and after washing up, she went into her space and cooked herself a bowl of noodles.

If she doesn't eat this meal tonight, she's afraid she won't be able to sleep all night. She's so hungry, and the feeling of being hungry is awful.

So sometimes, the older generation isn't being frugal; it's just a habit. They always want to save the best for their children and grandchildren, while they themselves eat the leftovers or spoiled food. As a result, the food they cook can't finish and becomes new leftovers, and the good fruit they keep eventually spoils.

This is probably what later generations, with their clear understanding of human nature, have described as a pathological desire for control.

Such people often get caught up in self-pity, feeling that they have given a lot but are not understood. When criticizing their children, they bring up their own years of sacrifices in order to achieve the purpose of moral blackmail.

If you think about it carefully, there must be many people like this around you.

Of course, she wasn't saying that her grandparents were wrong. Each generation has its own considerations. After all, she hadn't experienced as much as they had, so how could she be qualified to comment on their decisions?

However, since her grandparents prefer to keep a low profile, she should follow suit in the future.

After all, the brutal decade hasn't arrived yet, and it would be a loss if people brought up the issue of food and drink again.

After eating her fill, Xiao Jiu didn't rush to sleep. Instead, she went down to the cellar and attic to check the family's supplies. She didn't do anything, mainly because she felt it wasn't safe to leave them there. So she handed them all over to her sisters for safekeeping, and her grandparents just had to wait for them to bring them food.

The food stored in the attic was enough for my parents and brother when they came home.

Grandpa also grows vegetables in the yard. The harvested cabbages, radishes, and potatoes are stored in the cellar. The sweet potatoes will be harvested before the frost, so it's not time yet.

Besides these vegetables, she also saw a lot of winter melon and pumpkin, which can be stored for a long time. Every household has them in stock, and they are suitable to be eaten before the New Year. After the New Year, they lose moisture and become unpalatable.

After finishing my meal, I returned to my space and prepared some of the daily necessities I had bought with my soon-to-expire tickets, including canvas shoes, refined grains, eggs, and meat, for my sisters.

Because she needed to deliver the items before everyone woke up, she went to knock on the door around 5 a.m., before dawn.

Just as she expected, it was her eldest sister who opened the door: "I knew you would come so early in the morning, come in quickly."

Xiao Jiu came in carrying a large burlap sack. Tang Cuihua saw her sneaky appearance, closed the door, and then turned around and laughed.

She casually took the person who came next to her into the kitchen, but Xiao Jiu tugged at her arm: "Are they all awake?"

"No, it's just me. I'm cooking. I'll eat here in a bit. Look, I've already kneaded the dough. We'll steam some buns later."

After saying that, he added, "There are two kinds of fillings, one is your favorite chive, shrimp and egg, and the other is diced pumpkin. This one is also delicious. Try it today."

Xiao Jiu blinked, leaned out to peek, and whispered, "Have you finished eating the eggs?"

Tang Cuihua nodded, and the next second, a large plastic basket appeared in front of her, filled with eggs.

Next came a basket of salted duck eggs, a basket of quail eggs, and a basket of goose eggs.

Cuihua was so shocked she almost fainted; her eyes trembled as she spoke.

"This, so much? Quick, take it back! One is enough. How can you do this? What if we get caught..."

"Sister, call my fourth sister over and tell her to put these away first. There's more than this; we don't have much fine grain left, do we?"

After Xiao Jiu finished speaking, he asked Cui Hua for the flour jar and rice jar. She couldn't hand over the packaging bags to her; she had to empty them out.

Cuihua, her heart pounding, turned and went into the house with a sigh. Not long after, Lao Si, looking bewildered, came in, yawning, and closed the kitchen door behind him.

Even though the light had dimmed, it was still easy to see what was placed on the ground. But she didn't seem surprised at all and took it all away right in front of them.

The eldest sister then gestured to the fourth sister to bring out the rice and flour jars. After the fourth sister understood, she waved her hand, and two large jars appeared in front of her. These were specially used to store fine grains and were not usually displayed in the open. The fourth sister would only scoop them out when it was convenient to cook.

With her cooperation, Xiao Jiu generously released two 50-jin bags of flour and one 50-jin bag of rice. With the help of her two older sisters, she poured them all into the vat, and then shook the bags before returning them to her.

Xiao Jiu: "..."