"Actually, we can decide which one to eat first based on their shelf life, so as to avoid them spoiling and going to waste."

“You’re right. By the way, Mianmian, how much grain do you plan to buy? We’ve discussed it. Even though we’re not as strong as you, our appetites have been increasing over the past few months, especially during the autumn harvest. We’re planning to buy more.”

"Do you have a place to store them? The weather here gets extremely cold in winter, and many things are susceptible to freezing. Also, even if we buy more grain, we can only sell coarse grains. From what I've observed so far, the most grain we buy from the brigade is sweet potatoes."

"We both know this, so we're planning to secretly dig a cellar. Do you want to dig one too?"

"I've already dug it, but I have to tell you, if you're digging a cellar, you can't dig inside the house, understand? Otherwise, you might end up collapsing the house because you didn't dig it properly."

"We really didn't expect that, hehe," Chen Junjie said, scratching his head sheepishly.

"You can dig it in the yard or the woodshed, either way is fine."

Chen Junjie thought for a moment and said, "You know what, it actually works."

"By the way, how much grain are you planning to buy?"

"We plan to see how much grain we'll receive later, and then buy some more based on that amount. We arrived at the end of May or the beginning of June this year, which means more than five months of the year have already passed. Plus, the winters here are long, so it'll be another year before we get our grain distribution. In addition, we work more than two months less than others and earn fewer work points. So we'd better buy more."

"That's fine, but we should buy more. Even if we don't buy anything else, let's buy an extra one or two hundred pounds of sweet potatoes, just in case we don't have enough."

"You're right. So, Mianmian, how many do you plan to buy?"

“I’ll buy the same amount of grain as when it was distributed. I’ll also ask for an extra 200 jin of sweet potatoes. The grain I receive as a monthly subsidy isn’t enough to eat.”

"That's true," Chen Junjie knew his own appetite. During the autumn harvest, they ate lunch outside, and the combined food intake of the two of them wasn't as much as Mianmian's. The two of them needed four cornbread buns, a large bowl of vegetables, and a large bowl of porridge to be enough. Mianmian, on the other hand, carried a jar of porridge, a jar of vegetables, and ten cornbread buns in her basket. Each portion was more than the two of them combined—almost enough for one more person. Thinking about it, the meager allowance definitely wasn't enough. Otherwise, why wouldn't she slack off during work and go into the mountains to find food after work?

While we were chatting, we heard a commotion ahead saying that people were lining up to get their meat. The first to get their meat were the families who had gone hunting in the mountains; each person would receive 10 jin (5 kg) of meat and could choose what they wanted. The rest would be weighed to calculate the total weight and then divided equally by drawing lots.

However, no matter what, everyone can get 5 jin of meat. Nowadays, every household is a large family, with more than ten or twenty people. So some families can get 100 or 20 jin. When others saw that the three of us only got a total of 15 jin, they were a little happy. After all, we are now living alone. This shows the advantage of having a large family. We can eat more meat than others.

But we don't mind. Besides, we didn't go up the mountain or contribute any effort, so it's already good enough that we got a share.

On the way back, Chen Enpeng asked, "Do you two want to trade with the villagers?"

Upon hearing this, I asked in surprise, "What's going on?"

"When I was helping out there, Uncle Gu's third brother told me that his family has the largest population in our brigade. In addition, there are three brothers in his family who went up the mountain together, and they have a total of 135 jin of meat. He secretly asked me if I wanted it. If I did, he wouldn't go to the city to find someone to exchange it with. Also, going to the city is too risky."

"Since they have so many people in their family, why don't they keep the food for themselves?"

"They raised four pigs this year. They said they'd hand over one to the quota, sell two to the supply and marketing cooperative, and keep the last one for themselves."

"I see. Did they say how much could be exchanged, and how the exchange would be done?"

"I said we can exchange 60 jin (30 catties) for money. 30 jin is the meat the three of them got when they went up the mountain, and the other 30 jin can be exchanged for tickets or other things. Their children are all grown up. They got married before the New Year and separated from their family afterward, so they lack everything."

"Okay, let's change it then. How many do you want?"

"How about we split it equally among the three of us?"

"Can"

"So, we don't have many tickets, so?"

"Then I'll exchange them for tickets or something else."

"good"

Did they say when they would be going?

After dark

"That's good. It's getting late, let's hurry up and cook and eat."

"Third brother, are you sure those three educated youths are coming back?" asked the old lady from Gu Laoqi's family.

"Mother, I... I'm not quite sure either."

"Uncertain? What did you say? You got all excited for nothing."

"Alright, old woman, we'll know whether they're coming or not by dark. Besides, the weather's not hot anymore, this meat will keep. If they don't come, we can just have the third son and a few others go to the county town tomorrow," said Gu Laoqi.

"Alright, but going to the county town is too risky," Grandma Qi said.

"Is there really no other way?"

Not long after dark, Gu Laoqi's family heard someone knocking on the door.

"Third brother, go open the door quickly!"

"It's Dad!" she said, running out the door, asking "Who is it?" as she reached the entrance.

"It's me, Third Brother, Chen Enpeng."

"It's Chen Zhiqing! Come in quickly!" she said, opening the door.

"Third Brother, we've come..."

"Go inside and say something, then specifically check if anyone is outside the door."

"Father, Mother, Chen, the educated youth, and the others have arrived."

"Come in quickly," said Grandma Qi.

"Hello, Seventh Grandma! Hello, Seventh Grandpa!"

"Okay, okay, okay."

Seeing the three people in front of him, Gu Laoqi asked, "How much are you planning to exchange?"

"My third brother said we could get 60 jin (30 catties) of it, and we plan to exchange it all. We'll usually use money to exchange for half of it, and use other things to exchange for the other half."

"They've all been changed?" Grandma Qi asked in surprise.

"Grandma, I'm not kidding you and Grandpa, but the three of us have only been in our brigade for less than five months. After the grain is distributed, we won't be able to eat it until next year. So we plan to exchange as much as we can for food."

After listening, Grandma Qi thought for a moment and said, "That makes sense."

After hearing this, Gu Laoqi said, "If you have this plan, your future won't be too bad. Plus, if you're willing to work hard, you won't have any problem making a living in this area."

"We still need Grandpa and Grandma to give us more guidance, otherwise it will be difficult for the three of us on our own."

"What's so difficult about it? Even if it were difficult, there wouldn't be any Japanese devils here."