Xiaoxiao attends classes in the morning and sleeps in the afternoon.

After waking up, I started preparing for the next day's lessons.

Actually, I've only just started learning, so there's really nothing to prepare for the course.

But Xiaoxiao was very serious.

She needs to develop the habit of preparing lessons so she doesn't make mistakes and embarrass herself.

The village chief comes to take a walk around every day.

Seeing the children studying so diligently gives me a great sense of accomplishment.

Their village now has a school.

He arrived during recess that day and chatted with Xiaoxiao about how to dry the harvested grain.

Xiao Xiao gave him another good suggestion.

There is a wasteland next to their school.

We can level that area to dry the grain.

You can also collect some gravel to lay down a layer, and then smooth it out with lime and clay.

This way it's easy to maintain and you don't have to worry about mud and pebbles.

If it rains, you can bring the grain inside first.

The village chief was truly impressed by the little brain; it was so clever.

He also thought of leveling a piece of land to dry the grain, but he didn't expect to have to use pebbles and lime to smooth it out.

Xiao Xiao was actually thinking of the rural areas in the new century, where every household has a small courtyard specifically for drying grain.

Even if there's no grain to dry, drying other things will do.

So when the village chief asked, she already knew the answer.

The village chief is a man of action; he acts on his ideas immediately.

The second day was a rest day, and the children did not have classes.

A large number of people were standing densely packed on the wasteland next to the school.

They all came here to level the land.

There were also women and children collecting small stones from all over the place.

Some also went to the riverbank to collect pebbles.

It can be said that the entire village was mobilized.

In the past, when Yuan Shitou's family was building their house, they collected a lot of things from the river.

With many people, there is great strength. In just three days, a dam area of ​​more than two acres was completed.

Two spacious open rooms were also built next to the old house.

If it rains and there's no time to move the grain, just push it inside.

The older generation were all chatting and laughing there.

Everyone says this place is great; we can come here to chat sometime in the future.

The village chief also had several strong young men carry over a dozen large pebbles, which were then placed in a row to the side.

When the first batch of corn cobs was brought back and dumped in the dam area.

The elderly people who weren't working came to dry their corn.

Some even took corncobs and started rubbing them.

Later, more and more people gathered, and while chatting, they would rub corn kernels in their hands.

The village chief was delighted to see this and announced that anyone who came here to husk corn kernels would receive five work points a day.

After these words were spoken, even more people came to the place.

From then on, this large dam in the production team became a place people often came to.

Every day, people come here for a visit.

Since the school was newly established and only held classes for half a day, there was no summer vacation.

After the corn and rice were dried, the village chief announced: Anyone who wants to buy grain can come and buy it.

This year's grain tax will still be paid in cash.

The main problem is that even if we want to deliver grain, we can't get it out.

There are still many people coming to buy grain, most of whom are from families with large populations.

Some people who didn't have money to buy grain could only wait until they sold enough to pay the grain tax to the state, and then they would receive some of the remaining grain.

There certainly wasn't much grain left, and even less would be distributed to each household.

Some people started to complain about those lazy people who did a poor job of growing crops.

Some of them still have a sense of shame, so of course they won't say anything.

After all, they weren't wrong; their crops were indeed very poor.

Some tough guys just won't eat anymore.

He even got into an argument with someone.

The entire threshing ground was bustling with activity, and many children were running around excitedly.

Xiao Xiao is both a teacher at the school and the accountant for the entire village.

She also witnessed this historic scene firsthand.

My heart was filled with mixed feelings.

Laolin Village is really too poor.

Well, it's not that we're too poor, it's that we have too little land.

The population and land are completely disproportionate.

Fortunately, the mountains provide shelter; otherwise, countless people would have starved to death.

As a result, after selling the grain that had to be handed over to the state, each family only received a few dozen kilograms.

These dozens of kilograms of grain will last until next year's wheat harvest.

Wheat yields were even lower, sometimes not even enough to meet the grain quota.

We still have to make up for the public funds.

Everyone is pinning their hopes on sweet potatoes and potatoes.

In the absence of other food supplies, sweet potatoes and potatoes are still a good option for surviving.

With the harvest from the mountains, people won't starve to death.

Fan Tiesheng bought 1,000 jin of corn and 500 jin of rice.

Some envious people started making sarcastic remarks.

"Tiesheng, your family is really rich. You bought so much grain without even blinking an eye."

Fan Tiesheng was a shrewd and cunning man.

A sun-darkened face scrunched up: "Hey, where's the money coming from?"

This drained all of the family's savings.

"What will happen next?"

Of course, some people didn't believe this: "Tiesheng, stop playing the victim."

We're not borrowing from you."

Fan Tiesheng wasn't angry: "Even if I wanted to lend it to you, I couldn't."

As everyone knows, I have two boys.

These rice grains are for them to make porridge.

We'll have to eat corn all we can.

There's no one else in the family to help out, so I'm the only one supporting the family.

I had to spend all my money to buy it.

Hearing him say that, those who had been making sarcastic remarks stopped talking.

Next, it made them envious again.

The remaining grain was collected by the little family.

There are still two thousand catties of corn and two thousand catties of rice here.

This small family has a lot of resources.

They actually bought them all.

Now, not only are some people making sarcastic remarks, but others are also jealous.

Yuan's mother's words cured their conjunctivitis.

"Don't be fooled by all this food; we might not even have enough to last until next year."

My son, Shitou, is a big eater; he can eat the equivalent of three people's worth of food in one meal.

My little one is pregnant now, so she needs to take good care of herself.

These rice grains were left for her and her children to eat.

And then there's my Ping An. Don't let his small size fool you, he's quite a big eater.

Even so, we still need to go up the mountain to pick some wild vegetables to eat.

Everyone nodded again.

Yuan Shitou has a big appetite and eats a lot; everyone in the village knows that.

There's also Yuan Ping'an. As the saying goes, "A half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home."

That's what I'm referring to—kids like them. They run wild all over the mountains and fields whenever they have free time, and if they eat something, it's all gone in no time.

And Xiaoxiao, she is indeed pregnant. She should eat something good.

What if the food is too poor, and the brain isn't sharp enough to teach the children?

They don't want to see their children running around anymore.

The next morning, someone came to collect the grain.

They acted as if they knew they had already collected the grain tax money yesterday.

There were five men who came, each with a gun tucked into his arms.

They're probably afraid someone will steal it.

After all, the annual grain tax is not a small amount.

If they get robbed, who will they turn to?