Chapter 36 Chapter 36 You two dare to have a child, give birth to...
The city's policy also encourages the promotion of this grain-increasing method. Although the secretary disagreed, he couldn't object. He told Director Lin and Su Yan to study it carefully. "When we get back, we'll give it a try and see if it works."
A week later, Lu Yingzi's sister-in-law came by. She didn't make a scene, but simply said she wanted to borrow money. Su Yan said nothing, but simply showed her the family's "Urban Commercial Grain Supply Certificate" and said, "I spent all the money at the beginning of the month. I used it to buy grain, and I had five yuan left to buy Yanzi a pair of leather shoes."
Lu Yingzi's sister-in-law sighed and pushed it back. Seeing that the two children were white and chubby, she knew that Su Yan was not lying. All the money in the family was used to buy food. After nagging for a while, Su Yan refused to agree and left weakly.
Swallow felt sorry for her mother and cried for a while: "Auntie, please give me some food!"
Xiaogang shook his head. "Once you give it to me, you'll have to give it to me twice. If you give it to me once, I'll never have peace again. She didn't care about us before, and now we don't have any extra food."
After hearing this, Su Yan touched his head and felt uncomfortable.
On Friday morning, Director Lin informed Su Yan, "After lunch in the cafeteria, we'll go to Jiubei Village. I heard their grain production method is very successful there, so let's try to learn from their advanced experience."
After leaving, he called again: "Yingzi, the journey back may be a bit far, so we need to stay overnight at a fellow villager's house. You have two small children at home, so we need to make some arrangements."
Su Yan put down the phone: "Got it."
Director Lin is in charge of the office and the canteen. The entire factory has been suffering from food shortages for a year. Without enough food, the workers' enthusiasm is low and the production tasks cannot be completed. This time, seeing this method of increasing grain production is like seeing hope.
Su Yan went to the tube building and entrusted Yan Zi and Xiao Gang to Aunt Xu's house for one night. She also brought two kilograms of food and said, "Thank you for your help, Aunt Xu."
At noon, Su Yan and Director Lin were waiting for a car at the door. She asked, "Doesn't our company send a car?"
Director Lin said, "We now have a clear rule that only cars can be sent when there are more than three people on a business trip." He waved to a military green car and said, "Here, here."
Leading Su Yan forward, he said, "It just so happens that the car from the military academy next door is going to Jiubei Village. Let's take a ride."
It was a four-seater military vehicle. As soon as Su Yan got in, she saw Qin Zhanwu sitting in the passenger seat. The sight of him suddenly reminded her that her period hadn't come in a full month and five days, and she immediately became irritated. She sat in the car, feeling uneasy, almost wanting to go back to her space to check if there was a pregnancy test or something like that in the women's health gift pack.
As the car started moving, Director Lin started chatting with the others. After a while, noticing that Su Yan hadn't said a word, he asked, "Yingzi, are you feeling unwell?"
Su Yan shook her head, but everyone saw that she looked unhappy, so she had to find an excuse and said, "It's okay, I'm just a little carsick."
Qin Zhanwu heard this and said, "Xiao Li, drive slower." He then handed over his military canteen and said, "Drink some water."
The tone sounded as if the two of them were very familiar with each other. Su Yan looked at the kettle handed to her, not knowing whether to take it or not. The atmosphere in the car became a little awkward.
Director Lin was different from the others. He was young, only in his thirties. He was not the kind of person who meddled in other people's business and did not like to gossip about other people's affairs. Therefore, he did not know that Su Yan and Qin Zhanwu had met at a union dance and were on a blind date.
He took the kettle, handed it to Su Yan, and said politely: "Deputy Captain Qin is really good at taking care of people!" He already suspected that these two people must have known each other from the beginning.
After about three hours of driving, we finally arrived at Jiubei Village at almost four o'clock. After dropping off Director Lin and Su Yan, the driver said, "Comrade Lin, we'll pick you up here tomorrow morning."
Director Lin agreed twice and then took Su Yan to the village. "I heard that a comrade from their regiment died, and they went to their hometown to express their condolences."
Su Yan asked, "Did he die in battle?"
Director Lin nodded. "Don't think we're living peacefully here. At most, we don't have enough to eat and are hungry. But I heard from my classmates in Fujian that enemy planes often fly over their villages, dropping leaflets and artillery shells. They can't even grow crops. Life there is much harder than ours."
When they arrived at the village, they found that the advanced study session on the grain increment method was in full swing. People from various places and units were there. A women's secretary from the village took Su Yan and the other two around to see the meeting, and finally took them to the commune canteen. Director Lin was very enthusiastic about it. Not only did she listen carefully, she also took out a pen to take detailed notes.
When the commune canteen opened for dinner in the evening, the large area where the millet was dried was packed. The commune secretary spoke a few words and then brought out baskets of golden cornmeal steamed buns, giving each person two.
Su Yan's workplace, the Jiangzhou Machinery Factory, was a well-respected company within the city. When food was scarce, the city would frequently send a few hundred kilograms of grain to ensure production progress. Even then, each person only received a small steamed bun for each meal. But now, in Jiubei Village, each person was given two square steamed buns per meal.
Director Lin was also shocked by this heroic spirit and became more determined to promote the grain increment method.
Normally, when on business trips, no matter where you go, you have to bring your own food coupons. You have to give the other party the same amount as you eat. When Su Yan arrived at Jiubei Village and tried to hand in the food coupons, the official waved them away and said, "Comrade Lu, it's just a few steamed buns. We in Jiubei Village can still afford them. You've come all the way here, so why should we ask for your food coupons?"
Su Yan was greatly surprised and felt that Jiubei Village was unusual.
At night, Director Lin and Su Yan stayed at a fellow villager's house. When it was dark and everyone was asleep, Su Yan couldn't help it and decided to go to the space to see if there was a pregnancy test stick.
She was afraid of being discovered, so she walked into the cornfield before entering the space. At this time, the cornfield only had bare brown stalks, but it was too dark at night, and she couldn't see her hand in front of her face, so she couldn't see anyone easily.
She entered the space and followed the labels she had organized last time. Soon she found the women's health gift package. When she took it out, she found two pregnancy test sticks.
Su Yan unfolded the instruction manual and read it in detail. Seeing that it said that morning urine is best in the early stages of pregnancy, she did not dare to test it now for fear of wasting the pregnancy test stick.
She emerged from the space and walked back along the ridge of the field with a flashlight. On the way, she encountered several people stealing peanuts in the field. "What kind of food increase method is this? It makes you feel full when you eat it, but you get hungry when you work. These beautiful girls in the city are all good looks but no use. It's a scam."
One of them continued, "It all went to the people in the commune cafeteria. They ate with their mouths full of grease. I heard from Erya that they still have some to eat from the pigs slaughtered during the Mid-Autumn Festival."
One of them cursed: "These people stole the commune's food. Every one of them is a thoroughly corrupt counter-revolutionary."
The others laughed: "Hey, you're still calling others counter-revolutionaries? It's good enough that they don't call you counter-revolutionaries. You're stealing peanuts from public fields, and you're still calling others..."
Su Yan heard it from a distance, waved the flashlight, and was a little afraid to move forward: "Who is there at this time of night?"
They were probably half-grown children in the village. Seeing the light from the flashlights, they knew that it was a meeting for learning from advanced workers from a city unit. They did not dare to speak up, let alone answer Su Yan, and they scattered like a flock of wild ducks.
Su Yan returned to her lodgings with a flashlight. Her trouser legs were wet with the night dew. She lay on the bed with her clothes on. There was always a musty smell at the tip of her nose. The straw mat under the bed rustled when she moved a little. The quilt was clean, but it was only a thin layer. She woke up from the cold in the middle of the night.
Su Yandong woke up and simply got up to drink some water. Hazily, she heard the family she was staying with arguing, "What era is this? How dare you two have a child? How are you going to raise it? All you do is look for trouble? The adults are starving, and the child will be born without milk or porridge to eat. Won't it starve to death?"
A man's voice rang out: "Mom, why are you going to starve to death? Don't you work in the commune canteen? Other families are starving to death, how can our family starve to death?"
A young woman also spoke up, "Mom, this is our Li family's incense offering after all. I secretly consulted the fortune-teller Wang, and she said it's definitely a son. Besides, didn't the Chairman also say that a large population in China is a good thing? Just five or six years ago, hospitals still didn't allow abortions."
Then the noise became much quieter and Su Yan could no longer hear clearly. They quarreled for more than half an hour, and finally heard a loud bang and someone slammed the door and left.
Su Yan couldn't sleep, so she simply sat up with the quilt in her arms. A thought flashed through her mind: if she was really pregnant, should she give birth to the baby or not?
At dawn, everyone in the commune got up and started working on the farm. It was already the harvest season. Su Yan washed up briefly and went out. She saw carts pushing corn cobs coming and going, and the drying yard was full of golden corn.
Su Yan thought this scene was a good harvest, but Director Lin came over and shook his head, saying, "This food is still not enough. A large commune has tens of thousands of people, and a small one has thousands. Their food and drink for the whole year depends on this little grain. After paying the public grain tax, we're lucky to have half left. Not to mention firewood, rice, oil, and salt. Which of these things doesn't cost money?"
However, Director Lin also admitted, "Jiubei Village is pretty good. No one has died, no matter how hungry they are, and nothing has ever happened. The secretary of this commune deserves a thumbs-up."
After having breakfast in the village, Director Lin was planning to go to the commune canteen to study for a while when he saw a military vehicle driving in from the intersection.
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