"Mom, let me do it." Sun Hongmei stepped forward and wanted to take the spoon from Xia Juhua's hand.
Xia Juhua did not let Sun Hongmei succeed and said in a neutral tone, "Go wash yourself." How could she eat the porridge if she was covered in dirt and it splashed into the porridge bowl when she scooped it out?
"Mom, where did we get so many peanuts?" Sun Hongmei came to help again after washing them. This time Xia Juhua did not refuse and let her ask - there were so many peanuts, enough to change the oil for three or four years, so why did they all get fried?
Xia Juhua felt that there was nothing to hide, so she told her that Wang Caixia had sent her peanuts on behalf of the supply and marketing cooperative, and that she would stay at home to fry peanuts for a while. She said it calmly, but Sun Hongmei was thinking about it in a turmoil.
Like Wang Caifeng, Sun Hongmei also thought that learning to fry peanuts was a good skill. The subsidy of 1.5 cents per pound was too easy to make, and she couldn't help but say, "Mom, I'll fry peanuts with you at home this afternoon."
Haha. Xia Juhua really wanted to know why Sun Hongmei only cared about food and not about beatings: "If you fry peanuts with me at home, you won't earn work points from the production team. What will you use for your food next year?"
"That's not..." Sun Hongmei wanted to say that she could earn more from frying peanuts than from working in the fields, but she stopped talking before she finished.
It was not easy to earn work points in the production team, but as long as you went to the fields, you could always record a few. Fried peanuts were different. You could only fry as many as the supply and marketing cooperative sent you. Now that we already had Xia Juhua and Wang Caifeng at home, if we left one more, could we let my mother-in-law fry them on two stoves at the same time?
It was impossible to think about it. The temperature of frying peanuts was very critical. Trying to do two things at once would result in neither pan being fried properly. Besides, the person who sent raw peanuts from the supply and marketing cooperative was Wang Caifeng's cousin. Sun Hongmei couldn't bring herself to ask Wang Caifeng to go to work while she stayed to help her mother-in-law. Wang Caifeng couldn't say this even when she wasn't pregnant, let alone now that she was pregnant and carrying Liu Baoguo.
Sun Hongmei couldn't continue. When Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang heard the news, they were happy for Xia Juhua. After dinner, they stayed in the main room and talked to Xia Juhua. Liu Zhiquan listened as usual, while Liu Zhishuang kept sighing at Xia Juhua's good luck.
"Mom, if we can fry three or four hundred kilograms of peanuts every day, our family will be rich."
Xia Juhua almost sneered in her heart, and there was a hint of ridicule on her face: "What do you mean our family got rich? I got rich by myself."
Liu Zhishuang said with a shameless smile: "If mom becomes rich, then we will be rich too. Then mom will have to buy me two pounds of meat to stew." He almost drooled like Liu Baoguo when he said that.
Seeing his useless appearance, Xia Juhua couldn't help but recall that her youngest son had also been so shameless in her previous life, but he was not married at that time. After he got married, he became more and more distant from her.
Everything in front of her was so unreal. Xia Juhua was eager to grasp something real, so she asked, "Can I buy the base you mentioned the other day now?"
Liu Zhishuang nodded and said, "This warehouse will be moved tomorrow, so we should be able to buy it. However, the bottom of the warehouse is pure sand, should we really buy it?"
"Buy. Our rations are not big enough to eat. When spring comes, everyone will have to eat dry food to survive in the fields, and there will not be enough food." Xia Juhua's face turned ugly when she thought about the famine that would come next year.
Liu Zhishuang couldn't help but glance at Sun Hongmei, who shrank her neck and dared not say a word. Wang Caifeng didn't understand why her mother-in-law had to buy grain from the treasury, so she asked a practical question: "Does the grain from the treasury need grain coupons? How much is one pound? How much can our family buy?"
Of course, the more the better. Xia Juhua thought that this matter should be handed over to Liu Zhishuang, and told him: "I think we should not need food coupons. People know that we are farmers. Food coupons must be exchanged for good food at the grain station. Why buy food from the warehouse when we have good food? Ask clearly. If you want food coupons, don't buy them. If you don't want them, you can buy as much as you want."
According to Liu Zhishuang, the grain in the warehouse is sold because it is the bottom layer of the warehouse and there is inevitably sand or mold inside. This kind of food should not require food coupons and is sold at a lower price than when the production team handed it over to the grain station.
Because it was not a good food, it was not easy to sell every time - moldy food, even if the mold on the surface was washed clean, still had a bitter taste in the mouth. People who were not really waiting for the food to be cooked would not buy it. In the past, if the grain station could not sell it, it would be distributed to the employees to take home to feed the chickens.
"Mom, are we really going to buy it?" Liu Zhiquan didn't agree with buying the base at first, so he asked again. Xia Juhua's attitude was very firm, that is, we must buy it, and buy as much as we can.
Xia Juhua still has the final say at home, and no one objects when she is firm in her attitude. In front of everyone, Xia Juhua directly took out twenty yuan and gave it to Liu Zhishuang: "Be more discerning when buying, and don't let people put everything into the bag." This matter has to be handed over to Liu Zhishuang, who is smarter than Liu Zhiquan.
Liu Zhishuang agreed and put the money in his pocket, and Xia Juhua asked Liu Zhiquan and his wife to go back first. Sun Hongmei wanted to wait for Liu Zhishuang to go back to the house together, but she didn't dare to ask him to stay after being looked at by her mother-in-law. She looked at Liu Zhishuang with a guilty conscience, and saw that Liu Zhishuang only lowered his head to think about something and didn't look at her, so she had to leave by herself.
Liu Zhishuang was already feeling uneasy about being left alone, and Sun Hongmei's look made him even more nervous - maybe his wife had caused trouble again, otherwise why didn't his mother keep his elder brother but him.
Xia Juhua didn't want to play dumb with him, so she asked directly, "Do you want to live with Sun Hongmei?"
Liu Zhishuang's face turned red: "Mom, she is wrong. I will watch her. But with the situation of the old Sun family, who can she marry if she is really sent back to her parents' home? Her life will be over."
So the younger son is also a soft-hearted person. Xia Juhua was sure that this set of words was the result of Sun Hongmei brainwashing Liu Zhishuang, and waved her hand to stop him from continuing: "It's the same sentence again. You will spend your life with her. It's up to you to keep her or not. I won't interfere. But you have to tell Sun Hongmei not to interfere in my affairs."
"Mom, what did she do again?" Liu Zhishuang asked nervously when he heard it, looking at Xia Juhua intently, afraid that his mother would say something bad about Sun Hongmei again, which would make him look both pitiful and ridiculous.
Xia Juhua slapped her arm and said, "She saw your sister-in-law making fire for me today, and she wanted to skip work in the afternoon. I didn't mention it in front of your brother and sister-in-law to save your face. Don't tell me that they are all my daughters-in-law and I have to treat them equally. I believe in treating people with kindness, but others always give me trouble, so how can I be nice to them?"
Liu Zhishuang felt ashamed and whispered to Xia Juhua, "Mom, she said she would change. I also think that if she stops associating with Sun Guizhi and goes back to her parents' home less often, she should be able to change. I will tell her when I get back to work and not to expect to be wasted."
Perhaps Liu Zhishuang really frightened Sun Hongmei after he returned home. In the next two days, Sun Hongmei worked honestly and never asked to help Xia Juhua. Wang Caifeng was happy and felt that her mother-in-law valued her more. She was very attentive to Xia Juhua, except that she asked too many questions when frying peanuts.
Xia Juhua herself was not a talkative person, and she was very focused when working, and could not answer a single sentence out of ten. Even so, Wang Caifeng did not feel that she was being ignored, and did not let Xia Juhua do anything when cooking. She even said that frying peanuts was too tiring for Xia Juhua's arms, so she wanted to help her wash clothes.
Xia Juhua naturally wouldn't use her, so she just let her take care of her own room. The two of them each had their own way of doing things, and they actually worked together to fry the peanuts.
In fact, Xia Juhua took advantage of Wang Caifeng's visit to Liu Baoguo to take about 20 kilograms of raw peanuts and put them in her own cabinet. In addition to the subsidies from the supply and marketing cooperative, these were also earned by her skills. However, Xia Juhua in this life is no longer like the previous life, showing all her family assets to her son and daughter-in-law.
She needs to make more plans for her future retirement.
Although it is a little early for Xia Juhua to think about retirement at her current age, she still has a feeling of unease in her heart and always wants to hold on to something to feel at ease.
After frying the remaining peanuts, they weighed a full 325 kilograms, so Xia Juhua had to deliver them to the supply and marketing cooperative herself. After tasting them, the director still praised Xia Juhua's cooking skills. After finding out that Xia Juhua came here on the production team's ox cart, he let her take the next 200 kilograms of raw peanuts back home.
The director said, "We don't need to fry so much this time, but it would be best if we deliver it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We also have to hand in our work to the county."
Xia Juhua smiled and said, "Okay, I'll work hard and try to deliver it tomorrow afternoon."
Hearing her happy agreement, the director was also happy: "I am willing to deal with such a straightforward person like you. By the way, our supply and marketing cooperative has some processed cloth, not too much, it would be inappropriate to give it to anyone or not, see if you mind it, if not, buy it back, it will be enough to make a set of clothes."
Otherwise, why would Xia Juhua be willing to deal with the people in the supply and marketing cooperative? In the past, even if the farmers knew that the supply and marketing cooperative had things to deal with, they could only envy them, but now the things are delivered to their doorstep.
This was not the time to be polite, Xia Juhua nodded and said, "Thank you very much, Director. We rural people only have one foot of cloth coupon per person per year, and the whole family can't even make a set of clothes together. Director, you allow me to buy and process cloth, I can't thank you enough, how can I complain."
There was not much processed cloth, less than ten feet, because the two sides were not woven well, and there were small dots on the cloth that was more than an inch wide, so it was processed. If you buy cloth normally, no one would want such cloth. But Xia Juhua still felt that she had got a great bargain. After all, this cloth not only did not require a cloth coupon, but it was only 20 cents per foot, which was 12 cents cheaper than good cloth.
Now Xia Juhua has few ways to make money, and she wants to make every penny count. She will not miss any way to save money. Isn't this how rural people live? Saving a penny is equivalent to earning a penny.
Not only Xia Juhua thought so, Wang Caifeng and Sun Hongmei also thought so. When they saw Xia Juhua go to the supply and marketing cooperative and not only bring back new peanuts but also a large piece of fabric, the four of them kept glancing at the paper bag that wrapped the fabric.
Xia Juhua pretended not to notice the two people's gazes, took out another paper package and handed it to Wang Caifeng: "Last time, I wanted to make a mattress for Baoguo, and I happened to find cotton in the supply and marketing cooperative, so I went to find the director to buy it."
The cotton was good, but the mattress made from it could not be used to lay under her body, nor could it be displayed on the street. After Wang Caifeng received it, she was happy but also a little regretful.
Because of this regret, Wang Caifeng tentatively asked: "Mom, you bought the cloth for the New Year so early, what kind of jacket are you going to make?" Such a large piece of cloth certainly cannot be used for one jacket, so who will the mother-in-law give the remaining cloth to?
No one wants to give summer chrysanthemums to!
She bought the cloth, and she earned the money herself. She made a piece of clothing for herself, and used processed cloth at that. She is already doing herself a disservice, okay?
Wang Caifeng didn't get a reply from Xia Juhua for a long time, and disappointment slowly appeared on her face, which made Sun Hongmei secretly relieved - although she also hoped that her mother-in-law would give her the remaining cloth because she was a new daughter-in-law, she saw that her mother-in-law had no such intention, and of course she didn't want her mother-in-law to give the cloth to Wang Caifeng.
We are both daughters-in-law. If I don't have it, Wang Caifeng doesn't have it either. That's fair.
But Wang Caifeng still had a paper bag in her hand, which contained new cotton! Sun Hongmei wished she could grow a pair of hands and grab the paper bag in Wang Caifeng's hand. Wang Caifeng felt the heat in her eyes, and then realized that she still had something to gain. The dissatisfaction in her heart disappeared without a trace, and she became happy again.
Now my mother-in-law doesn't like Sun Hongmei. She bought things for Baoguo at the supply and marketing cooperative, but didn't include any for the second wife. It shows that my mother-in-law still values the first wife more. Oh, if the baby in my belly had been born, maybe my mother-in-law wouldn't just buy this little bit of cotton, but also buy a portion for the baby in my belly.
"Is the meal ready? We have to fry these peanuts in the afternoon. The supply and marketing cooperative needs them urgently." Xia Juhua ignored the glares in her two daughters-in-law's eyes and talked about her own arrangements.
Wang Caifeng quickly said, "It's ready, it's ready. Mom, shall we eat now?"
Of course, they had to eat the food after it was ready. Xia Juhua asked her two daughters-in-law to go out and clear the table. She took out the remaining money, counted it, and put it in the small bundle at the bottom of the kang cabinet. After thinking for a while, she opened the small bundle again and took out the money she had earned on these two occasions.
I made eight yuan for the quilt, and spent one yuan on the buns, leaving me with seven yuan. Today I made four and eight yuan, spent one and eight yuan on the cloth, and one yuan on the cotton, leaving me with two yuan. Adding all together, I have nine yuan left, which cannot be mixed with the money at home.
Xia Juhua put the nine yuan away and counted the family's common property, which was sixty-two yuan and fifty cents. Compared with the money she had seen in her previous life, sixty yuan was not much, but for a rural family at that time, having more than sixty yuan in savings was already a lot.
At this time, the biggest expense for rural people is to marry a daughter-in-law and build a house. Xia Juhua married two daughters-in-law, and the yard has been tidied up, so there is no need to rebuild it. If no one in the family is sick, the 62 yuan can be saved forever. When the dividend is distributed at the end of the year, it can be increased.
If Xia Juhua had not been able to make a living, the orphan and widow would not have been able to save 62 yuan over the years, and might have had to owe debts everywhere - there were many people in the village who had to lower their face and ask for loans in order to marry a daughter-in-law or build a house.
This is all my hard-earned money. Xia Juhua touched the banknotes and recalled that she had divided them between her two daughters-in-law in her previous life, which attracted criticism for her bias. She decided to put the money away and stuffed it directly into the kang cabinet.
Just after putting the money back, Sun Hongmei was outside the door calling Xia Juhua to eat. When Xia Juhua went out, she looked at Sun Hongmei who was staring at the crack of the door and laughed. This laugh came suddenly and stopped quickly, just like Sun Hongmei's hastily withdrawn gaze, and Sun Hongmei's face slowly turned red.
Only after she went out again with the hoe did Sun Hongmei secretly clench her fists: her mother-in-law pretended to be very kind to her for a few days after she got married, but now she is treating her like a thief. And Wang Caifeng is also in the same boat with her mother-in-law. They are waiting, and when she finds the opportunity, she will definitely give them a good beating.
Xia Juhua had found a way to make money, and she was not afraid of being bullied by others - the first time she separated from the Liu family was so difficult, but she had gotten through it, so the worst that could happen was that she could separate again.
Thinking this way, since they hadn't divided the money at home yet, they still had to mix with these people. So Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang each came back with a bag of storehouse residue, and Xia Juhua wanted to open it and take a look.
"It's all sorghum." To be honest, Xia Juhua was a little disappointed. The yield of sorghum was not high, and the taste was not very good. The only benefit was that it could satisfy hunger.
Liu Zhishuang wiped the sweat from carrying the food on his back and said helplessly, "I bought whatever was left in the warehouse. I don't know what happened. Even the sorghum was transported away. Now the county grain station only has food from two warehouses. I heard that they have to transport food from another warehouse."
Carrying more food packages means more money, but Liu Zhishuang feels uneasy about moving down like this. Years of searching for food everywhere have made Liu Zhishuang instinctively understand what it means to have food in hand and not be anxious.
The county grain station was about to be emptied. Although it was not their own grain that was moved in, Liu Zhishuang still felt inexplicably uneasy in his heart - if the warehouse to which Xia Juhua, the Liu family's main wife, had the key was the Liu family's confidence, then the warehouse of the county grain station was the confidence of the people of the entire county.
It is said that fish can only appear in small rivers if there is water in big rivers. The county grain station has been emptied. If the harvest is not good next year, where will the relief grain come from?
Xia Juhua and Liu Zhishuang were thinking about the same problem. Liu Zhishuang was only feeling uneasy based on appearances, but Xia Juhua knew from her experience in her previous life that the next year would not be a good year. When the communes asked the county for help, the county grain station really could not provide any food to the hungry farmers.
Fortunately, this disaster did not last as long as the one in the early 1960s, and everyone was able to survive in the end. Otherwise, Xia Juhua could not think of any way to remind the people around her to store some food or eat sparingly from now on.
The most important thing is that Xia Juhua had no reason to remind people. She was just an authentic rural woman. If she told anyone that the harvest next year would be bad and that everyone should eat less from now on, no one would believe her.
"Alas——" Xia Juhua was not the kind of person who cared little about other people's lives as long as she lived a good life herself. However, she was powerless to do anything about this matter and could only sigh uselessly.
Seeing his mother sighing at the grain bag, Liu Zhiquan thought she was not satisfied with the grain she had bought, so he pouted and said, "Mom, let's not buy it next time."
Even though she knew her eldest son spoke in this tone, Xia Juhua still looked up at him before saying, "Why don't you buy any?" How would they get through the first half of the year if they didn't buy more?
Liu Zhiquan felt that his mother had misunderstood him and wanted to explain that he was not questioning her decision. However, his mother had never been to the grain station, so it was normal for her not to know what kind of grain was stored in the grain station's warehouse. "Mom, this grain is not clean, it's still sorghum."
Sorghum cakes are sticky, and if you steam them with rice, they will make your stomach sour once they get cold. Mom should know this.
"If it's not clean, pick it carefully. What's wrong with sorghum? Isn't sorghum a food?" Xia Juhua had already grabbed a handful of sorghum and slowly picked out the sand inside. Liu Zhiquan had no choice but to look at Liu Zhishuang. He knew that he was not good at talking and what he said was not pleasant to hear. In this case, his brothers had to come forward.
Liu Zhishuang took his elder brother's hint and said with a hint of boasting, "Mom, don't look at the fact that the grain is not very clean and there are pieces of grain, but it's cheap. It was originally 20 cents per pound, but there were too many pieces, so I only spent 15 cents to buy it. Others didn't bring grain bags, so we got a bargain, a full 100 pounds."
From the size of the bags, one could tell how much food was in them, so Xia Juhua had already made a rough estimate. Liu Zhishuang also knew that his mother could tell how much food was carried back, so she said this to make the atmosphere less heavy.
These past few days, things have been happening one after another at home. Although there are good things, there seem to be more bad things. The atmosphere has been bad. Xia Juhua is also indifferent to her son and daughter-in-law. Liu Zhishuang really wants the family to return to the way it was before.
Although my mother didn't say much at that time, she didn't seem to be that worried, and everyone in the family had to be careful when speaking. Who should I blame? It was my worrying daughter-in-law.
Liu Zhishuang glanced at Sun Hongmei with dissatisfaction. Coincidentally, Sun Hongmei was also looking at him, and she took in his dissatisfaction and was stunned.
After returning to the room yesterday, the two of them still didn't talk at first, but after sleeping on the kang, Sun Hongmei still asked Liu Zhishuang to accept the fact that she would not go back to her parents' home. Even if Liu Zhishuang deliberately stretched out his arms in the morning, Sun Hongmei knew that he had softened his heart.
How come after carrying food bags for a whole day, she is dissatisfied with herself again? Sun Hongmei recalled what she had done that day. She wanted to swear to the sky in front of Liu Zhishuang that she really didn't say a few words and had no contact with her aunt.
Unfortunately, Liu Zhishuang only glanced at her and turned to talk to Xia Juhua. Xia Juhua still had the same expression and spoke in a lukewarm tone, and it was hard to tell what she was feeling. It was this lack of emotion that made people feel that something was wrong with her.
The meal was extremely silent. Except for Liu Baoguo who was pointing and babbling, no one in the family spoke. Xia Juhua was preoccupied with something and only realized after finishing the meal that she had something else to ask: "Second brother, where's the remaining money?"
"Ah?" Liu Zhishuang smiled after he realized what was happening: "I thought my mother gave me the remaining money as errand fee."
"You are so beautiful. Your elder brother helped you carry the food back. Why should he give you the money as a reward for running errands?"
Xia Juhua gave Liu Zhishuang twenty yuan. She spent fifteen yuan on a hundred kilograms of sorghum, and had a full five yuan left. She had not earned that much even after frying peanuts for two days.
Although he had to take the money out of his pocket, Liu Zhishuang was still very happy - his mother was finally not so worried and silent, so he just took out the money. Besides, the money was originally given by his mother, and he never thought of keeping the rest.
Sun Hongmei felt bad. How could her mother-in-law have the nerve to ask for the remaining money from her husband's purchases? Didn't she see her husband carrying food back, sweating down his neck from exhaustion? The food he carried back was not for her husband to eat alone, so shouldn't the mother-in-law compensate her husband with the remaining money?
That was five yuan, she had never handled such a large amount of money since she was a child. No, she handled fifty yuan when the betrothal gift was paid, but the money was only waved in front of her eyes and then taken away by her mother. When she left, she didn't even give her a single yuan as a pocket money.
If the mother-in-law left the money to the man, she should have kept the last five dollars. But now the mother-in-law put the money into her own pocket. How could she feel good about it!
Sun Hongmei knew she shouldn't do that, but she couldn't take her eyes off her mother-in-law's hand holding the money. Xia Juhua pretended she didn't feel that gaze, as she had other plans.
"We need to sift out the sorghum quickly. The broken rice can be ground into flour and mixed with cornmeal to make cakes. Then we can have something dry to eat at noon."
Sun Hongmei could hardly hold back any longer, and finally moved her eyes away from Xia Juhua's pocket where she kept the money, and looked at Wang Caifeng - the family only had porridge at noon, but it was Wang Caifeng who started it.
Wang Caifeng felt a little uncomfortable after hearing this, and immediately replied attentively: "I will start screening tomorrow."
Xia Juhua had to go to the supply and marketing company to sell roasted peanuts tomorrow, and the job of sifting rice was indeed best done by Wang Caifeng, who stayed at home and did not work, so she nodded and said, "Well, be careful when sifting, and pick up the sand that can be picked up first. It's not a problem if you are slow, but it's a problem if you don't pick it cleanly."
Everything was settled, and everyone lowered their heads to pick up sand with Xia Juhua. In one night, they managed to pick up half a bag of sand.
"How come there are castor beans in the sorghum?" Liu Zhiquan looked at the castor beans in his hand, which were obviously more than twice the size of the sorghum, with some anger: "The people at the grain station didn't keep a close eye on them when harvesting grain."
Xia Juhua looked into Liu Zhiquan's hand and saw that they were indeed two castor beans. There was no production team in the Red Star Commune that planted castor beans, so they must have grown wild in the fields and were mixed with the sorghum when they were harvested.
She understood Liu Zhiquan's anger: Although castor beans can be used to extract oil, they are somewhat toxic. In the past, there were rumors of children who were poisoned to death after eating castor beans. Now castor beans are mixed into sorghum. If the amount is small, it's fine. If the amount is large, it's easy to poison people if they are eaten by mistake. As a farmer who works hard to grow crops, Liu Zhiquan can't bear to see things growing in the fields, which eventually harm people.
But in Xia Juhua's eyes, castor is still a good thing. She clearly remembers a folk remedy that uses castor roots to boil water to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Xia Long has had rheumatoid arthritis all his life, and he would feel pain all over his body when it was cloudy or rainy. Now that she has castor beans, she can grow some and give it to Xia Long to try.
So Xia Juhua took the two castor beans from Liu Zhiquan's hand and told everyone to give her any more they picked. Liu Zhiquan was puzzled: "Mom, these things can't be eaten. What if Baoguo touches them?"
"It's okay. I'll leave it alone. I'll plant it around my private plot in the spring of next year, and use the moisture from the seeds in the fall to make some hemp ropes." Xia Juhua put the castor seeds away carefully and gave her reasons.
Hemp ropes are often used in rural areas. When Liu Zhishuang heard her say this, he gave her a thumbs up: "Mom, you are really good at planning. You can also take castor beans to the grain station to exchange for oil. But you have to keep an eye on them and don't let the children get naughty and eat them."
Xia Juhua shook her head and said, "It's okay. This thing has a bad taste even when it's tender, and the children will give up after one bite." Eating only one or half a pill will make you feel sick at most, and the medicine won't harm you.
Wang Caifeng felt that what her mother-in-law said made sense. She had long discovered that her mother-in-law had the ability to turn waste into treasure. Whether it was the rotten seeds in the fields after the production team's autumn harvest or the wild vegetables in the spring, her mother-in-law could cook them better than others.
Perhaps it was the skill that the mother-in-law had acquired from taking care of the two brothers during the years of lack of food and drink. Wang Caifeng looked at her mother-in-law, who looked calm, and was filled with admiration. She lowered her head and picked the food more seriously.
In the next few days, Xia Juhua took her son and daughter-in-law to pick up grain at night - Liu Zhiquan and his grain-carrying team had finished their work, and just as Xia Juhua remembered, they brought back the news that there was only one warehouse of grain left in the county grain station.
Xia Juhua looked calm, but she was calculating the remaining food in her family: she lived a careful life, and before the autumn harvest, there were still more than 100 kilograms of corn and 20 kilograms of sorghum left over from the previous year. Liu Baoguo and Sun Hongmei did not get a share of the autumn harvest, and the four adults got less than 1,500 kilograms of food.
It sounds like a lot, but there are nearly 500 kilograms of sweet potatoes in it. This stuff needs to be eaten quickly, otherwise it will rot, which is a pity. The total amount of food that can be stored is less than 1,300 kilograms. It is an impossible task to feed five adults and one child for a year and a half.
Fortunately, Liu Zhiquan and his brother did not eat at home at noon during this period, so they saved some food. I hope that the production team will not have heavy work in the winter, otherwise the people who are working will have to eat cakes at noon.
Because Xia Juhua couldn't tell her sons when she had plenty of food that there would be a disaster next year and they should start eating porridge now, or they would have to drink cold water every day after the spring of the following year. Not to mention whether her sons would believe her or not, Sun Hongmei would report her to the brigade.
Why didn't she stand up to the lazy Liu Zhishuang and allow Sun Hongmei to enter the house? Xia Juhua looked at Liu Zhishuang with some resentment. It was during dinner time when Liu Zhishuang broke the news. He was looking up and waiting for Xia Juhua's response when he was caught by his mother.
Liu Zhishuang's first reaction was to look at Sun Hongmei to see if she had a guilty expression, so as to judge whether Sun Hongmei had made his mother unhappy again when he was not at home during the day.
This kind of life is really not for human beings. Liu Zhishuang sighed in his heart, but he had to force a smile on his face and asked: "Mom, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just calculated that it hasn't rained since the autumn harvest. Normally, it should have snowed at this time of year, but it didn't. Maybe it's too dry today."
Liu Zhiquan nodded: "It is drier than in previous years. I heard from my third uncle that he is going to repair the canal. If the canal is repaired, we will be able to irrigate dozens more acres of land in our village next year, and we will be able to distribute more wheat in the fall."
What's the point of building a canal? The water in the river is gone. Can the repaired embankment pump out water? All Xia Juhua could think of was: "If both of you go to build the embankment, you'll have to bring half a pound of bread a day to eat."
After hearing this, Liu Zhiquan asked in some confusion: "Mom, why are we the two going to repair the dike and you don't go?" Repairing the dike is also hard physical work in the countryside, and the work points are high. In previous years, Mom would always rush to the front for such work.
Looking at her eldest son who was talking without thinking, Xia Juhua didn't even bother to wave her hands or shake her head: "I'm old now and can't work anymore. I won't work with men anymore. The production team doesn't care about a woman of my age. I just need to follow them and do some work."
What? Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang looked at their mother together. This was not something their mother would say. When had their mother ever given in to a bear or given in to a softie? How could they say they were old? In their impression, their mother had always been capable. No matter how hard or heavy the work was, their mother would always finish it with her head down and never complain of being tired.
With the help of the dim oil lamp, the two men discovered that wrinkles had appeared on the mother's face at some point, and the corners of her eyes and mouth were a little droopy. The figure sitting under the lamp was not as straight as they remembered. Her shoulders were leaning forward and her back was hunched, as if she was deliberately hunching up.
Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang knew that their mother was not someone who showed weakness on purpose, that is, she was indeed showing signs of aging. When did it start? Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang could not give an answer, because they did not know when their attention was no longer limited to their mother, and there was someone more they paid attention to.
Liu Zhishuang was shocked and said with a smile: "If you don't want to go, then don't go. Now that I'm married, you shouldn't do such heavy work. Don't worry, I will earn money to support you in the future."
Liu Zhiquan couldn't say such nice words, and he opened his mouth several times before saying, "Mom, after Caifeng finishes her confinement, you should stay at home to take care of the baby, and don't go to work."
Xia Juhua thought to herself that after Wang Caifeng finished her confinement, it would be Sun Hongmei's turn, and one after another, I had to be able to go to work. But she would not really say it out loud, and said with a relieved smile: "Mom knows that you love me. Now I can still work, and we will talk about it when I can't work anymore."
It is not known what Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang said to their respective wives when they returned home. When Xia Juhua got up the next day, she found that both daughters-in-law were already up. Some were sweeping the floor, some were cooking, and they had even fed the chickens in the backyard and gave her water to wash her face.
Xia Juhua once again realized that no matter what she did, she had to tell others about it, otherwise she would die of exhaustion and others would think that she died at the wrong time.
She would not be like she was in her previous life, feeling extremely terrified just because her two daughters-in-law did some work for her - in her previous life, when Xia Juhua served them, both of them felt at ease. As a mother-in-law, Xia Juhua had nothing to feel guilty about being taken care of by her daughters-in-law.
After dinner, Xia Juhua ran into Sun Zhaodi again on her way to work. The two of them walked together to the production team. Sun Zhaodi jokingly said, "You fried peanuts every day a few days ago, and my grandson cried. You didn't fry them these past two days, and he's standing by the wall every day waiting to smell the aroma."
Xia Juhua said a little embarrassedly: "If these were our own peanuts, I would have given a handful to my child. The ones sent by the supply and marketing cooperative are all in limited quantities. They are public goods, and we dare not miss a single one."
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