"How many days will it take to mine the mountains this time?" asked Zhang Wenmin.
"At least five days, and possibly as many as seven or ten days." Zhou Guihua replied.
"Okay! I'll participate." Zhang Wenmin pondered for a while and nodded in agreement.
Although he did not work in the brigade to earn work points, his family worked in the brigade. The brigade invited him to work in the mountains, so he could not completely stay out of it.
"Third brother, you and Yangyang have been together for almost two years, and you are not a child anymore. When can I attend your wedding banquet?" At this time, Zhang Qiujin suddenly interrupted, looking at Zhang Wenmin with a bit of teasing and expectation in her eyes.
"If good things are about to happen, we won't send the pigs we raise this year to the commune for pricing. We'll ask the production team to write a note and keep them for our own slaughter and consumption, and for use in banquets." Zhang Qiuyu also interjected.
She is also very concerned about Zhang Wenmin's marriage.
In those days, under the planned economy, all agricultural and sideline products, including various planting and breeding products, had to be purchased and sold by the commune; private sales were prohibited.
Regardless of whether the pigs are raised by the growth team or by individual households, they cannot be slaughtered at home. They need to be taken to the food station to have the price set. They must be sold to the commune's food station and slaughtered by the food station.
If a family in the brigade has a happy event and needs to hold a banquet, and wants to slaughter their own pigs, they need a note from the brigade explaining the whole situation before they can slaughter the pigs.
Otherwise, if you kill your own pigs without the brigade's approval, that would be capitalism, and you would be severely criticized, and you might even face more serious consequences.
"Mom, let's keep the pig we raised for now and not send it to the food station for pricing." Zhang Wenmin glanced at his younger sister. Seeing his younger sister smiling and nodding at him imperceptibly, Zhang Wenmin finally bit the bullet and said to his mother.
"Third brother, when are you and Yangyang going to get married? At the end of this year or early next year?
Mom, my third brother works in a factory in the county and earns quite a bit of salary every month. Shouldn’t we renovate the houses in our house? It would be best if we could build them into houses with blue bricks and large tiles in one go?
When the time comes, if Yangyang marries us, our family will have both face and substance." Zhang Qiujin, as the eldest sister, was overjoyed to hear that her third brother was about to get married, and even her tone of voice lightened.
"Yes, yes, elder sister is right. Third brother, you are the pride of our family. It is a great honor for our family to marry a beautiful girl from the city.
We really need to think carefully about the house. We can't let Yangyang and you suffer any injustice. "Mom, what do you think?" Zhang Qiuyu also said with a smile.
"There's no rush to build the house. Let's first settle the marriage of the third brother and Yangyang." Zhou Guihua said with a forced smile on her face.
Only Zhang Wenfu was smart. When he saw his mother talking about the third son's marriage, he didn't seem as happy as he had imagined. Instead, her smile seemed a little forced.
Zhang Wenfu lowered his head and thought for a few times. After thinking for a while, he didn't know what he thought of, but his face changed.
On the other hand, Zhang Qiurui was sitting in the main room, looking at their family. When she saw her second brother lowering his head and his forehead twitching twice, Zhang Qiurui's mind turned slightly.
Among the Zhang family members, the eldest brother is honest and frugal. He is stingy and thrifty with himself and his wife, but he is willing to spend money on his parents, brothers, sisters and children.
As for the second brother, he is smart, clever and capable. Today, when her mother talked about the third brother's marriage, there was a forced smile on her face. Her second brother must have noticed something was wrong.
The third brother is warm and generous, without any twists and turns.
The eldest and second sisters are both calm and family-oriented models. They are hardworking and good at work.
"Grandpa, grandma! The commune is distributing the fixed rations and it's almost our turn. Hurry up and pick up the baskets to get the food." At this time, Zhang Mingren had not yet returned home, but the voice was the first to reach his home.
After running to the main room, he supported his knees with his hands and gasped for breath.
"Uncle, aunt, second uncle, second aunt..., youngest aunt." After his breathing stabilized, Zhang Mingren saw that the elders in the family were all in the main room, and he called people happily again.
"Let's go, grab our tools and carry some food." Zhang Ercheng waved his hand, and Zhang Wenguo, Zhang Wenfu, Zhang Wenmin, eldest brother-in-law He Yilei, second brother-in-law Zhou Zhou, Zhang Qiujin, Zhang Qiuyu, and Gao Erping, each holding the prepared baskets and shoulder poles, walked towards the grain depot of the production brigade.
The group of people came together in a huge and imposing manner.
Her second sister-in-law has always been in poor health and cannot do heavy work, so she stays at home.
Her mother is old, and there are many people at home today, so she didn't go to pick up food.
"Okay, you all hid in the kitchen to eat delicious food. I wasn't here. Did you leave any food for me?" Zhang Mingren went home to inform the adults to go to the brigade's grain depot to pick out rations. After looking around, he didn't see his cousins. When he found them in the kitchen and saw them eating, Zhang Mingren suddenly felt a little aggrieved.
"I'm saving them for you. Here, these are all yours. But they were all brought back by your aunt." Zhang Mingqi handed the fruit candies and egg cakes to Mingren. When she saw her grandma coming out of the corner of her eye, she added, "What you are eating are what your aunt brought back."
Also tell her grandma that it’s none of my business, and you should go and scold your aunt.
"Did you also buy candy and egg cakes?" Zhou Guihua and her little daughter came to the kitchen. After hearing what the kid in the kitchen said, Zhou Guihua frowned slightly and didn't say much!
"Grandma, my aunt not only brought back fruit candies and egg cakes, but also two big pieces of meat." Nephew Zhou Zhang looked at the two pieces of pork belly in the backpack, and he felt a little greedy for meat.
"There are also eggs, red bean paste mooncakes and sugar. Where did you get the meat coupons? It costs several dollars to buy these. Where did you get the money?" When Zhou Guihua heard her nephew say that her daughter had brought back two big pieces of meat, she could not sit still any longer. She hurried forward to look through the backpack. After seeing that there were some bad things in it, Zhou Guihua looked at her little daughter with a stern face and asked.
Zhou Guihua knew exactly how much her youngest son earned and how much he had left for living expenses every month. He definitely didn't have that much money left over to buy these things.
"Mom, this is a red bean paste mooncake with sugar. My third sister-in-law asked me to bring it home for you and Dad.
The only things I bought and brought back were meat, eggs, fruit candies and egg cakes.
As for the meat, my classmate's father worked at a food station and didn't need meat coupons, so I asked him to get me two pieces of meat.
This meat was much cheaper than buying it at the commune, and since it was a holiday, I'd be a fool not to take advantage of the bargain, so I bought it all and just used up my food budget for this month." Zhang Qiurui saw her mother's gloomy face and knew she was reluctant to spend money, so she quickly explained.
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