As expected, Xia Juhua came home late that day. She was not the only one who came home late. The men, whether they were repairing the canal or transporting fertilizer, noticed that all the women who went to work in the fields came home late.
After asking around, it turned out that the team leader had come up with a new trick today, and the women all wanted to learn the new trick as quickly as possible, so no one paid attention to the whistle for the end of work. It was not until Wang Caifeng saw that her mother-in-law had not returned home and took Liu Baoguo to the yard to look for her that the women remembered that they had not cooked yet.
Many people envied Xia Juhua for being able to have hot meals when she returned home, and Wang Caifeng felt a little embarrassed for praising her. She secretly resolved to do better in the future - the feeling of being praised was so good that people couldn't help but want more.
Xia Juhua had not expected that she would be able to weave the new mat so smoothly. Thinking of the few words she knew, which were taught to her by Liu Baoguo after he went to school, she could not help teasing Liu Baoguo and talking along the way.
Wang Caifeng was delighted to see her mother-in-law smiling for once, "Mom, Zhiquan brought some noodles to my parents' home and he said my mom asked him to tell you to stop thinking about them and eat when you need to."
Xia Juhua asked, "Did Zhiquan tell your mother how much we have at home?" Don't tell everyone how much we have at home.
Wang Caifeng was amused: "Although Zhiquan's words are not clear in his mind, he still has the necessary numbers in his mind. He told my mother that there are still some at home, but from what he said, he didn't say how much we have."
In between the lines, he did not forget to get back the money for Liu Zhiquan. Xia Juhua was so happy when she heard it: "Okay, I get it."
Mother said she knew, so she was no longer angry with the man? Wang Caifeng asked tentatively: "Then mother, are you no longer angry with Zhiquan? Since you ignored him yesterday, he felt that he couldn't sleep well and couldn't eat. I think if you two talked about what was wrong, wouldn't everything be fine?"
Haha, a person who drinks two bowls of porridge for one meal and says he can't eat anymore, is it okay to lie with such open eyes? Xia Juhua looked at Wang Caifeng from the side, and she was looking at her sincerely.
Liu Baoguo thought Xia Juhua was looking at him, so he stepped on the few pieces of snow on the side of the road and shouted, "Grandma, come on, step on it."
Xia Juhua walked over and took his hand, holding it as she walked, asking, "Don't step on it. Your shoes will get wet soon. Are you cold? What did your mother cook for today?"
Wang Caifeng didn't get an answer from her mother-in-law just now, so she finally found a place to interrupt. She looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to her and her mother-in-law, so she whispered to Xia Juhua, "Mom, before you left, didn't you say that everyone would eat noodles tonight? I've made the soup and am waiting for everyone to go back and cook the noodles."
Those are white noodles. When Liu Baoguo was just weaned, his mother-in-law gave him a few meals of them. Now the whole family has to eat them together. It's exciting just to think about it.
The eating scene is even more lively!
Because Wang Caifeng was eating white noodles (even if they were a little broken, she couldn't deny that they were made of white noodles. She rounded them up and they were white noodles. Wang Caifeng wouldn't accept any arguments), she added a spoonful of oil when she was cooking the food. She sautéed the green onions and garlic until fragrant before putting in the finely chopped cabbage hearts. The smell alone was enough to make one salivate.
When the noodles come out of the pot, apart from the fact that it is difficult to grab some, it is Chinese New Year for the Liu family - just a spoonful of white noodles is served with stewed radish with crushed peanuts, and when you put it in your mouth, you can taste the aroma of oil, noodles, and the crispy aroma of crushed peanuts. Who would believe that it is not Chinese New Year?
Liu Zhiquan and his brother each held a large bowl, their heads almost buried in it, and the sound of them slurping noodles could be heard from miles away. Compared with them, Xia Juhua's action of carefully picking up a few noodles, blowing on them twice and slowly putting them into her mouth seemed out of place.
Wang Caifeng started eating like the two brothers, but after a while she felt something was wrong. Why did her mother-in-law eat so...civilized? She ate like the people in the movies. She couldn't help but imitate them, and found that blowing on the food to cool it down before putting it in her mouth didn't slow down her eating speed.
Why are you chewing so loudly? It's like he's eating something. Wang Caifeng looked at the man with some disdain and said to Liu Baoguo, "Baoguo, eat slowly. No one is competing with you for food. Look, grandma is not in a hurry. Chew it for a while so that it can be digested better."
Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang raised their heads from their bowls and looked at Wang Caifeng. They felt that she was hinting at something, but they had no evidence. Xia Juhua was happy to see Wang Caifeng speak out loud instead of making secret plans. She smiled and scolded her:
"You're the only one who talks too much. Eat quickly, or they'll serve more and you'll only be able to drink the soup."
Wang Caifeng could not help but hear the smile in her mother-in-law's words, and she also smiled: "Even if it's just soup, there's still a lot of white flour in it, so you can still eat as much as you want." Which daughter-in-law in the village can eat as much white flour as she wants? If there is white flour, the husband and children must eat it first!
She, Wang Caifeng, is probably the first one!
The two brothers Liu Zhiquan felt embarrassed and finally slowed down their conversation. Liu Zhishuang asked, "Mom, do you think I can go and exchange food tomorrow?"
"Where are you going to exchange for food?" While talking to her son, Xia Juhua's face gradually became stern again. The hearts of Liu Zhiquan and his brother sank, and they looked at Wang Caifeng at the same time: When did she bribe their mother? Why is their mother talking and laughing with her?
But I still had to answer my mother's question: "I was thinking of going to the county to exchange it. I heard that there is ..."
Before he even said the word "black market", Xia Juhua's face had turned even uglier, and Liu Zhishuang wisely shut up. Then he heard his mother say, "No. Sun Guizhi and her husband insist that I'm a profiteer. Maybe the Red Squad is secretly watching our family, waiting to catch us."
After thinking for a while, Xia Juhua said, "Don't go to exchange food until the dry canal is repaired. Wait until the team kills the New Year pigs, then you can go." After ten or twenty days, the Red Team probably won't have the patience to keep watching their home.
Liu Zhishuang nodded and became attentive again: "Okay, I'll listen to you. Is there anything you want? I'll go to the county and buy it for you." After he said that, he remembered that he had no money and wanted to slap himself in the face.
Xia Juhua glanced at him with a half-smile: "I don't know how much money you have, so keep it well. If you fall in love with a girl someday, you should save the money for her betrothal gift."
Liu Zhishuang always felt that there was something not quite right with the way his mother looked at him, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong, so he had to continue eating the noodles in the bowl.
Soon the meal was over.
With food in hand, she was not at all worried. Lying on the kang, Xia Juhua calculated that the various grains in her hands weighed nearly two thousand kilograms. She slept very soundly, and was very energetic when she counted the new mats with Wang Caixia the next day.
Wang Caixia was still a little worried about her, so she found a chance to ask, "Did you have a quarrel with your son when you came back yesterday?"
Xia Juhua shook her head gratefully: "Why are you arguing with him? That's his own money. If he can't afford the bride price when he finds a wife in the future, it's his own problem."
Wang Caixia didn't know what to say. After a while, she said, "You are really generous."
If she wasn't too careless, she wouldn't have locked him out before taking the medicine. Xia Juhua replied in her heart, but she said, "I made you a new mat for you to use during the Chinese New Year. Don't worry, it doesn't have the Chinese character for happiness, it's a new pattern I thought of."
"What are you doing?" Wang Caixia declined repeatedly, but finally realized that if Xia Juhua wanted to give her something, she could never refuse. Who made Xia Juhua say: "Yesterday, I took advantage of Chen Xiaoman, and I wanted to thank her. But if I just give it to her, I'm afraid she won't accept it. Besides, this thing takes up too much space, and it won't look good if I take it to the supply and marketing cooperative. I'll send it to your house quietly, just as if Caifeng is hanging out with you two sisters."
"You have to help me with this." Xia Juhua looked at Wang Caixia with pleading eyes. People who didn't know would think that she was asking Wang Caixia for something instead of giving something to her.
What else could Wang Caixia say? She couldn't say that she didn't want to help Xia Juhua, but she still pretended to be serious and said to her: "If you are so polite next time, I will really not recognize you."
Xia Juhua smiled, and not only she smiled. Seeing the mats being neatly laid out on the carriage, everyone in Ping'an Village smiled, including the men who were angry with their wives yesterday and complained that they were late for cooking.
How could they not laugh? They heard that the money from the mats had been collected, and the production team's income had increased significantly, which meant that the income of all members had also increased. They heard that the supply and marketing cooperative had ordered new mats, and the men felt that if things continued like this, not only would their meals be a little late, but even if they had to cook one or two meals a day, it would not be unacceptable.
Finally, Xia Juhua asked Liu Daxixi to deliver the mats, mainly because Liu Daxixi had met with Section Chief Chen yesterday and asked him to secretly slip some fried peanuts into the cart when returning it so that Section Chief Chen would not be afraid to accept it.
When Liu Daxi came back and told Xia Juhua that Section Chief Chen had asked if their production team needed to buy some wheat bran to feed the pigs, Xia Juhua couldn't believe her ears: "Did Section Chief Chen really say that?"
"Well, three cents a pound. If you want to buy it, you have to go in the afternoon." Liu Daxi came back jogging. Although he didn't understand what Xia Juhua and Wu Ye said yesterday, he still understood that the two wanted to buy wheat bran.
This was just like a golden opportunity. Xia Juhua put down the mat and wanted to leave, but Li Changwang grabbed her and said, "Captain, you can't leave. We haven't learned it yet."
Now Xia Juhua is weaving two more Chinese characters for "Fu". She hopes that the four characters will all point toward the center of the mat. Therefore, the place where she attaches new reed skin is different each time. She does not know how to weave the next two characters just by learning the first two.
Xia Juhua knew that everyone was anxious to learn how to make mats and sell them, but it was not something that could be done in one day, so it could wait. But Section Chief Chen could not wait, and who knew if he would change his mind. It was better to buy the bran as soon as possible.
So Xia Juhua was unmoved: "Have the newcomers learned how to start a hairstyle? Have you checked the hairstyle they start to see if it is tight or not? Will it become untidy after a few curls? If I find that someone who has been trained has such problems, don't follow me to learn new tricks."
Li Changwang wanted to say that it was unfair, because some people were skillful and some were clumsy, and their learning progress was different. It was more likely for beginners to have problems such as loose edges and exposed weeds when they started. But when the words came to her lips, she swallowed them.
Xia Juhua is not as easy to talk to now as before. In the past, she would just look at you and not say anything in reply. Now, no matter what someone says, Xia Juhua can agree or disagree with reason and evidence. If anyone wants to refute, she can still use her cooking skills to overpower them.
Li Changwang's family, who had figured it out, could only shout at the women surrounding Xia Juhua: "What are you all doing surrounding the captain? Those who need to teach others to start should teach others to start, those who need to pick up reeds should pick up reeds, and those who have their skins broken should continue to break their skins!"
Ha, everyone in Li Changwang's family has been trained out. Liu Daxi silently gave Xia Juhua a thumbs up and felt that what his grandfather said was right. He could really learn a lot by following Xia Juhua to run errands and do chores.
When Liu Daxi saw Xia Juhua asking Chen Qiusheng to drive out the production team's ox cart, he realized that Xia Juhua could not only teach people how to get things done, but also how to have a broad mind. The production team had seven pigs, but there were still twenty days before the task pigs were handed over and the New Year pigs were slaughtered. How much bran could they eat? Wouldn't it be enough to push two carts? Why was there a need to drive out the ox cart?
Big-eyed Xia Juhua returned to Ping'an Village on an oxcart loaded with bran. Wu Ye was standing at the entrance of the village waiting for her. She quickly got off the cart and said, "Wu Ye, why are you standing here in such a cold weather? What if you get frozen?"
Liu Daxi also complained: "You just got better two days ago. If you get sick again, my father will scold me again."
Wu Ye's eyes never left the bran on the oxcart: "I'm just afraid that my joy will be in vain." He put his hand with age spots on it into the bran, but found that it couldn't go in. He smiled with his mouth that had lost several teeth: "Okay, okay."
Chen Qiusheng followed to pay. This cart of 1,000 kilograms of wheat bran cost thirty yuan, and Chen Qiusheng felt bad. Seeing that Fifth Master was as happy as Xia Juhua, he couldn't help but ask, "Fifth Master also knows about buying wheat bran?"
Wu Ye looked at Xia Juhua in confusion and said, "Qiu Sheng doesn't know?"
Xia Juhua shook her head silently. Wu Ye understood and changed his words: "Well, it was my idea to Da Zhuang's family. The cows in the team can't eat grain all the time. Mixing some bran can save some food. Pigs can also eat it. It should be enough for this winter."
Winter is almost over, my Fifth Master. Chen Qiusheng could tell that the old man was just trying to get him to give a perfunctory answer, so he didn't ask any more questions. He was just an accountant, and the accountant of the production team. If he didn't listen to the production team leader, who else could he listen to? As long as he kept his accounts, it would have nothing to do with him if someone said he shouldn't buy wheat bran in the future.
However, he still raised a question that Xia Juhua had not expected: "Captain, when we were raising pigs at the beginning of the year, your mother-in-law said that there were too many people in her family and too much leftover food, so she insisted on having a quota for a pig. Now that we have wheat bran, can you send her some?"
Why can't I get around that old lady? Xia Juhua looked at Fifth Master helplessly - she and Fifth Master had agreed to say that the bran they bought was used to feed pigs and cows. If Sun knew about it, she would definitely come to ask for it back.
Master Wu puffed on his pipe and said incoherently, "No, if she insists on being unreasonable, then we don't need to reason with her. Let her return the pigs and the remaining feed as well."
Raising pigs in rural areas today is almost like serving your ancestors, because purchasing stations do not accept all pigs. Pigs that are less than 150 kilograms are considered to have failed to complete the task. Not only will they be criticized, but the production data assigned by superiors next year will also be deducted accordingly.
Because of this, every family had a headache when talking about raising pigs, so Liu Erzhuang suggested that the production team should raise pigs collectively, assign a breeder to take care of the pig ancestors, and provide each pig with 100 kilograms of sorghum every year.
The breeder of Ping An Manor was Chen Qiusheng's uncle, Chen Lusheng. He was an honest man who never deducted the feed for the dumb animals. Every year, Ping An Manor delivered the pigs smoothly. As a result, because of his smooth operation, he was targeted by Sun. She believed that anyone could raise pigs as well as Chen Lusheng, and at the beginning of the year, she insisted on raising one for herself.
Liu Erzhuang did not openly disobey Sun's words at that time. He accepted the matter with a pinched nose and handed the pigs and feed to Sun. Now it is almost the end of the year when the pigs are ready to leave the pen, so it is not impossible to take the pigs back.
However, no one present was optimistic about the pigs raised by Sun. The fifth master knocked the tobacco pot on the sole of his shoe twice and said to Liu Daxi, "Call Erzhuang for me."
While Liu Daxi was calling for help, they had already driven the ox cart to the granary. Chen Qiu Sheng and Xia Juhua opened the granary door together and sighed at the same time: there was too little food in the granary.
Normally, the production team was not eligible to use such a small amount of food because the food inside was called reserve food.
"Captain, don't you think that our stored food is too little and want to add some bran to make it look better?" Chen Qiu Sheng said half-jokingly when he heard Xia Juhua's sigh.
Xia Juhua knew that Chen Qiusheng was somewhat unhappy with her for not telling him about the purchase of wheat bran, but she did not intend to hide it from him: "Don't tell me, I really think so. I would rather never use this wheat bran. If the day comes when I need it, it will be better than eating tree bark."
What? Chen Qiusheng looked at Xia Juhua with a strange look in his eyes. In what era did people have to eat even bran? As someone who had experienced it once, he knew it all too well in his heart: "Captain, don't scare me."
Xia Juhua smiled bitterly. It had been a long time since she had smiled bitterly. "I'm not trying to scare you. Don't you think there's too little rain this winter?"
If she hadn't said it, Chen Qiusheng really wouldn't have noticed it. But now that she did, it was really serious. Today's snow was so heavy that the ground couldn't be completely covered. It was really different from previous years. But he still held out a glimmer of hope: "We have already repaired the canal, and we don't expect an increase in production after repairing it, but it's fine as long as it doesn't reduce production."
"That's not how the higher-ups calculate it." Xia Juhua broke Chen Qiusheng's fantasy: "The annual canal construction task is set by the higher-ups. They know better than us how many canals have been built and how much irrigated land has been added. When dry land becomes irrigated land, the public grain amount will become the amount that irrigated land should pay. If we don't reduce production, we can't pay that much public grain."
I'm so worried. Chen Qiusheng sighed again and moved the bran faster.
The more worrying news was brought by Liu Erzhuang - the pigs raised by his mother Sun Shi, according to his estimation, did not even reach 140 kilograms. Wu Ye was furious: "I went to the pig pen of the production team and checked. All the pigs weighed more than 160 kilograms. Did your mother eat the pig feed herself?"
It was originally just an angry remark, but when Liu Erzhuang lowered his head, people realized a terrible fact - Sun Shi did not use all the feed on the pigs.
"This won't work, Erzhuang." Xia Juhua really wanted to ask Liu Erzhuang if he knew what his mother's temper was like, why did he let her raise a pig at the beginning of the year. This pig was not Liu Erzhuang's own, but the hope of all the people in the production team to eat meat all year round! How could he make everyone in the production team unhappy just to please his mother?
The fifth master was so angry that he was breathing heavily. "You should go home now and send the pig to the pig pen of the production team. Let it grow for the last few days. It can still grow a few pounds of meat. If it is handed over to your mother, it may not even have 100 pounds left in the end."
Liu Erzhuang felt that he could not complete the task by himself, and was reluctant to go back to face Sun alone. The angry Fifth Master slapped him and said, "You are such a coward! No wonder your mother has been holding you so tightly all these years. It's a good thing that you don't want to be the production team leader, otherwise the whole village will not be able to eat meat."
These words were a bit harsh, and Xia Juhua had to pull Fifth Master's clothes - Liu Erzhuang made the decision to separate from the Sun family, which should have vented all his dissatisfaction with the Sun family. Now he might feel guilty towards the Sun family and be unwilling to have a head-on conflict with them again.
But Sun really couldn't keep the pigs from the production team anymore, so Fifth Master, Xia Juhua, and Chen Qiu Sheng came to Old Liu's house together and explained their purpose to Sun straight away.
As expected, Mrs. Sun disagreed - one hundred kilograms of sorghum was enough for pig feed for the whole year, and there were still more than twenty days left, so she didn't want to return the remaining pig feed.
"Look at the pigs you raise. Will anyone believe you if you say they are good-quality pigs?" Fifth Master pointed at the pigs lying in the pen, and then pointed at Sun's nose: "This is the hope of the whole village. If you hand over a pig to someone else, won't the purchasing station chase you back?"
"At first I said I wouldn't raise it, but the members of the production team forced me to do it. What can I do if it doesn't grow meat?" Sun's ability to confuse right and wrong has improved again. She said this in front of Liu Erzhuang without any burden at all.
Li Daya and An Baoling, who heard the noise, were already standing in front of their respective doors. Seeing that Sun was lying without blinking, they both showed sarcastic expressions. Even Li Daya did not step forward, just looking at what Liu Erzhuang had to say.
Liu Erzhuang was speechless! He opened the door of the pig pen and said to Chen Qiu Sheng, "Qiu Sheng, give me a hand and drive the pigs to the production team's pig pen now."
Sun stood in front of the pig pen door, pointed at Liu Erzhuang's nose and shouted: "Who dares to touch my pigs?"
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