The result is a gradual process, and their bodies can withstand it.

Grandpa Huang was used to receiving two big steamed buns from time to time. These past few days, his two grandchildren had been coming home every morning with some candy or other things in their hands. Yesterday, they even brought home a notebook and a pencil each, saying that Mianmian had said she would teach them to read. Seeing his two grandsons so happy, he and his wife were very gratified.

Although my grandson is already eight years old, both of them have been physically weak since childhood and are smaller than other children. People who don't know their age might think they are only six. In fact, according to their actual age, they are just over six years old but not quite seven.

Because of the recent hot weather, Grandpa Huang has been going home later, usually around 4 p.m. When he gets back, the villagers haven't finished work yet.

The weather is hot now, so the work in the fields isn't too busy. The work starts at 3 p.m. and continues until 7:30 p.m., when it's not too dark and it's cool to work. The work starts earlier in the morning, at 5:30 a.m. and continues until 10:30 or 11 a.m. Every household has someone bring their breakfast to the fields.

Work starts at 5:30, so I get up at 4:00. I run a few laps, do a set of boxing, and then boil some water. While the water is boiling, I take out the meal I prepared last night from my storage space, eat my fill, and then go to work. I also pack some snacks, like biscuits or peach shortbread, in my backpack to eat when I get hungry while working in the fields.

It's been hot lately, so I've been making a lot of rock sugar mung bean soup. I always fill my water bottle before going out, just in case I get heatstroke. Heatstroke is no small matter. With such poor medical standards, it can even be fatal. It's better to be careful, otherwise I'll have to go to work so early in the morning and finish so late in the afternoon.

After returning home, he first put the grain from his basket into the water tank in the house, then put the snacks and other items into his spatial storage, and also tidied up the items his aunt had helped him pick out. Next, he took out some grain from his spatial storage to put into the water tank later, to ensure he would have enough for his next city allowance.

Next, I sorted through the things I'd taken from the junkyard to see if they had any value. After looking around, I found they were all worthless, so I put them aside. I put the books on the bookshelf, and used the rest if they were usable, and burned the rest as firewood.

I got back early in the afternoon, and since there was still some time before I finished work, I decided to take the pork out of the empty space and chop it into minced meat. There are still quite a few mushrooms at home, so while there aren't many people outside, I'll quickly cook them into a meat sauce, put it in a jar, and keep it in the space to eat slowly. As for braised pork, I ate it this morning and will save it for a few more days. As for the big meat buns I bought today, I can eat two every morning.

After finishing all this, it's still early, the sun hasn't even set yet. We can't just stay idle at home, can we? We have enough firewood at home, but I've heard that winters in Northeast China can be deadly, so the more the better. Besides, when my third brother and his family came last time, they took away almost all the mountain produce I had collected. It would be better to collect more while we still have time, dry it, and send it to Uncle Shen and the others in the winter.

Don't be fooled by the fact that I sent mountain produce twice in a row. This stuff is not rare here, but in the city, you can't buy it even if you have money and tickets. It's only available in limited quantities during the Lunar New Year.

There are only three educated youths left in the village now, and there are no conflicts among them. When they went out, they saw Chen Junjie and the other two returning, so they asked, "I'm going into the mountains to collect some mountain produce or firewood. Do you want to come?"

“Go ahead, but you have plenty of firewood, you don’t need to work so hard,” Chen Junjie said.

"Yes, Jiezi is right."

"Do you know that winters in Northeast China can be deadly?"

"I know."

"That's settled then. It's better to have too much than not enough."

"You're right, just wait a minute while I go home to get my basket, I'll be right there."

"Okay, no rush, we'll wait for you two."

So the three of us went up the mountain together, but we didn't go deep into the mountains. We just wandered around the outer areas. It wasn't that we were afraid to go, but it was inconvenient to have other people with us. There were many people on the outer areas, but nowadays, most of the people who go into the mountains are their children who are not yet grown up. Children who are fourteen or fifteen years old are already working. Those who are not working either stay at home taking care of their children or bring their children into the mountains to gather firewood or collect mountain products. They can supplement their family income.

Besides, even if the brigade changed the work hours, the school hours didn't change, and not every family and every child went to school when they reached school age.

There was no school in the production brigade. To attend school, one had to walk seven or eight miles to the next brigade, and most people started school late, between the ages of eight, nine, and ten. After school in the afternoons, when they had nothing to do, they would go into the mountains to gather firewood or cut pig feed in baskets. I heard that 30 jin (15 kg) of pig feed earned one work point. Also, in the last two or three years, the government had liberalized livestock farming, so everyone was cutting pig feed for their own families. Therefore, I didn't plan to cut pig feed either.

However, next year might be possible. In 1965, livestock farming will be restored to the level it was in 1958 when the People's Commune was first established. At that time, I can harvest two baskets of crops a day, so that when it's not busy with farming, I can earn at least 8 work points a day.

I calculated it myself in my spare time. When I came to the countryside this year, it was already almost halfway through. I figured I'd get about 540 work points by the time the harvest was complete. Right now, outside of the busy season, I can earn about 6 work points a day. During the autumn harvest, it's very busy, and I can earn about 10 work points a day. I'll be busy for about two months, which is 600 work points. So, let's say I get 1100 work points, and that's how much grain I'll receive.

However, this meant that the distribution was based on a 70/30 work-to-earn ratio. But no matter what, each person received 360 units of grain, which, based on a 70% rice yield, amounted to 252 jin (126 kg), less than 7 liang (350 grams) of grain per person per day. There was also a distribution based on work points. The Gujiawaizi production team of Dayingmin Commune was the best production team in the entire commune, with an average of over 150 jin (75 kg) of wheat, over 300 jin (150 kg) of coarse grains such as corn and millet, and over 500 jin (250 kg) of sweet potatoes per person (excluding grain from their own plots).

It can be said that each adult's average workday was more than 1 yuan. In other words, according to this calculation, the work points earned by oneself should be more than half of what the superiors would give. Adding this up, there should be six or seven hundred catties of grain. After producing raw materials, even one catty of grain a day would be more than enough.