Chapter 51
"Captain, don't pay attention to them. They are used to waiting for us to serve them every day. As the old people say, women hold up half the sky, and they have to hold up their own half."
Xia Juhua had an idea in her mind, but it was not appropriate to say it in front of so many people, so she just smiled at everyone and let them go to work slowly. Chen Qiusheng saw Xia Juhua was still there, and asked with a smile: "Captain, don't you want to go up the canal with me today?"
"I do want to go, but I still have to go to the brigade." After Xia Juhua and the others had left, she smiled bitterly, "The Red Squad took the people away in the middle of the night. It's better if the brigade doesn't know about this."
Chen Qiusheng now felt even more sympathetic towards Xia Juhua: "The team leader doesn't really approve of you being the production team leader. If you go and tell him about this, what will you do if he criticizes you?"
Li Changshun, the captain of Ping'anzhuang, usually had a stern face and loved to criticize people. But this time, after listening to Xia Juhua's report, he did not criticize her. He just nodded to show that he understood, and waved his hand to let Xia Juhua go back to the production team to continue production.
To be honest, when Xia Juhua returned home, she felt a little unreal: that was Li Changshun, the team leader who would get angry when he heard something happened in the production team, but today he let her off so easily. Could it be that the sun rose from the west?
The sun was still rising from the east, but it had not yet reached the top of the head. Wang Caifeng saw Xia Juhua coming back at this time, put down the chicken feeder and walked over to ask: "Mom, did you not have enough breakfast? Did you come back to have a bite?" In the past, her mother-in-law never came back at this time. She would always come home long after she heard the whistle for the end of work.
Xia Juhua really felt a little hungry: "Well, is there anything else to eat? I just need a snack."
"Mom, let me make you some noodle dough. Just stir-fry it in a pot and it will be ready in no time. It's chewy and warm." When Wang Caifeng heard that her mother-in-law finally wanted to eat, she wished she would eat more - now all the women in the village put their mother-in-law in the front, and she, as a daughter-in-law, could not fall behind.
Xia Juhua wanted to say no, but when she noticed Liu Baoguo was looking at her, she nodded as if possessed: "Okay, give more and give some to Baoguo as well. Didn't he drink some porridge this morning? Didn't I tell you that children can't eat much? Don't save his portion."
Listen, this is my real grandmother. Wang Caifeng sighed in her heart, and cursed Sun in her heart: That old lady is also Liu Zhiquan's real grandmother, but Liu Zhiquan has never heard that he has eaten a single bite of dry food from her.
Xia Juhua didn't know that the fragrant noodles she ate were Wang Caifeng's complaints about Sun's family. She just felt that they tasted better than cornmeal porridge. After eating, people were full and energetic, and their minds were more active.
"How many sweet potatoes do we have left in our cellar?" Xia Juhua washed the dishes herself and came out. Seeing Wang Caifeng still watching Liu Baoguo eating noodles, she suddenly asked.
Wang Caifeng looked at her mother-in-law in confusion, thinking that she was unhappy because she didn't add sweet potatoes to the porridge and steamed dry grains she cooked these days, so she said carefully, "It must be at least 300 to 400 kilograms."
Such a huge pile, just thinking about it makes me worried. The steamed sweet potatoes smell good and are good to eat, but they not only make you feel hungry, but eating too much will make your stomach sour. Wang Caifeng was injured when she was at her mother's house, so she always subconsciously doesn't want to mix sweet potatoes into the porridge when she cooks.
Three or four hundred kilograms, Xia Juhua felt that she had enough to test herself, so she went down to the cellar and pulled out a basket of sweet potatoes. Wang Caifeng wanted to step forward to help, but was stopped by Xia Juhua: "Don't show off, don't you see how big your belly is." In the last life, your daughter-in-law was much more valuable than you when she was pregnant.
Wang Caifeng said somewhat embarrassedly: "It's not that valuable. The last time I was protecting the country..."
"There was nothing we could do at that time. We had to pay back the debt you owed when you got married." In order to prevent Wang Caifeng from having any grudges, Xia Juhua made it clear: "Now that there is no hunger at home, you don't have to work so hard. Just do some light work."
Listen, can my mother say such words to me? Wang Caifeng made up her mind that when she returns to her parents' home during the Chinese New Year, she will tell her mother what her mother-in-law just said.
But before that, she had to know what her mother-in-law wanted to do and whether she really didn't need any help: "Mom, what are you doing? I don't carry heavy things, I can still do some washing and cleaning."
There was no way she couldn't do it. Three people in the family were working and all the housework was done by Wang Caifeng alone. It was only after Xia Juhua spoke that Liu Zhiquan and his brother swept the yard for two days.
Xia Juhua did not hide the truth from her: "Didn't the driver give us some vermicelli that day? I want to try to make vermicelli myself."
"Do it yourself?" Wang Caifeng felt that she could learn something new.
Xia Juhua nodded affirmatively: "Yes. Before going to work today, the men said that I only thought about finding ways for women to make money, and they could no longer control their wives. I wanted to try it at home. If I can make it, every family will have sweet potatoes, and the men can make some flour and hand it over to the supply and marketing cooperatives or purchasing stations, and they can also make some money."
In fact, Xia Juhua's plan was that vermicelli tasted much better than steamed sweet potatoes, and was easier to store than raw sweet potatoes. Families could make sweet potatoes into vermicelli during the winter, which was better than not storing them properly and letting them rot. But now was not the time to say this. She had to wait until she made the vermicelli before she could let people know.
After both of Xia Juhua's sons moved away in her previous life, she worked for a rice noodle maker during her free time. Although it was just some manual labor, rice noodle maker itself did not require any technical skills, and after watching it many times, she had a general idea of how to do it.
First, you have to wash the sweet potatoes, peel off the rotten parts and insect eyes, and pick them out clean. This kind of work is not difficult for Xia Juhua, and she finished a basket of sweet potatoes in a short while.
Then she had to drain the water and shred the sweet potatoes. Xia Juhua used to do this kind of work herself, but this time, seeing that it was getting late, she put down the sweet potatoes and waited for her two sons to come back, letting them finish the work during their lunch break.
As for their mother's will, what else can Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang do except to obey her orders and do their best to show that they are particularly willing to do it?
The mother finally ordered them to do it, and they thought it was much better than ignoring them. The two people who were competing for performance not only grated the sweet potatoes in the afternoon, but also, under Xia Juhua's instruction, used a large filter for soy milk to filter the grated sweet potatoes twice.
Seeing the clean white pulp quickly filling up the large basin, Xia Juhua smiled and said, "Okay, you two should go back to the house and rest for a while. You still have to work in the afternoon."
Mom, you know you have to go to work in the afternoon, but you don't even know what time it is now. Liu Zhishuang, who is used to being lazy, just wanted to ask his mother this question when he heard the whistle for going to work. He couldn't help but hum: "Uncle Chen doesn't even know to blow the whistle a little later."
Only then did Xia Juhua remember that when she came back from the brigade, she was thinking about making sweet potato flour as soon as possible. She even forgot to go back to the production team to tell Chen Qiusheng, and hurriedly patted Liu Zhishuang: "You are the only one who talks a lot, if not With your Uncle Chen's help, your mother will no longer be the production team leader."
Liu Zhishuang didn't dare to say anything more. He carried the hoe and followed his mother to open the gate. He ran into Chen Qiusheng who was blowing a whistle and trying to knock on their door. When Chen Qiusheng saw Xia Juhua, he took the whistle out of his mouth and asked:
"Captain, I noticed that you didn't go to the production team this morning. Did the team leader criticize you? You don't know who the team leader is. He's afraid that if something happens in the team, you won't be able to hold your head up in front of the commune. Don't take his words to heart."
Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang both stopped to look at Xia Juhua, who waved her hand and told them to go back to work on the canal. After sending the two away, she said to Chen Qiusheng, "No, the captain didn't say a word to me today. I came up with the idea of making sweet potato flour myself, so I went home and tried it. It's a little trouble, but it's better than letting the sweet potatoes rot in the cellar."
When Chen Qiu Sheng heard that she knew how to make sweet potato noodles, his eyes lit up: "What method?" After asking, he realized that he was being rash. What if this was her own recipe, why would she tell you?
As if she didn't notice Chen Qiusheng's uneasiness, Xia Juhua led him to the kitchen at home and showed him a large bowl of sweet potato paste. The sweet potato paste was still very turbid after being left for a while. Chen Qiusheng asked in disbelief, "Sister-in-law, isn't this the stuff used to make rice noodle?"
Xia Juhua nodded: "Well, basically the same, but I don't plan to make rice noodle skin, I want to try making rice noodle." Making rice noodle is not actually a new skill, just like weaving mats, some families can do it and some can't. Xia Juhua wants every family in Ping'an Village to learn this skill.
"Leaking powder is a strenuous job." Chen Qiu Sheng suddenly remembered why Xia Juhua showed him this thing: "Sister-in-law, you don't want to teach everyone how to do it, do you?" This person is so narrow-minded.
Xia Juhua nodded affirmatively: "As long as they are willing to learn, I intend to teach them. It's not a difficult task anyway. Otherwise, if someone's vegetable cellar is not properly covered, the sweet potatoes will be frozen overnight." Frozen sweet potatoes are not delicious. I remember that there was a saying in my life that eating too many frozen sweet potatoes can easily cause cancer. Xia Juhua didn't know whether it was true or not, so she chose to believe it.
Chen Qiusheng opened his mouth, looked at the clean kitchen, sighed, and said, "Sister-in-law, if there are still people in Pingan Village who dare to say that you are not qualified as the captain, or if the team wants to remove you, then I will not be the accountant anymore."
Xia Juhua was a little surprised to hear Chen Qiu Sheng's words that were almost like a confession of loyalty. She had dealt with Chen Qiu Sheng a lot in her previous life, because until the household contract responsibility system was implemented, Chen Qiu Sheng had been the accountant of the production team, and Liu Erzhuang had always been the production team leader of Ping'an Village.
At that time, the two of them seemed to be working together quite well. Did Anthony Chan also express his determination to Andy Lau?
Just as he was thinking about it, Chen Qiu Sheng said again: "I used to work with Er Zhuang, and I knew he was capable and willing to work, and he had no selfish motives. It was just that the old lady at home was too worrying, so he had to share the light work with Si Zhuang and his wife. But now, being a production team leader not only means being selfless, but also being able to lead everyone forward."
Everyone, including myself, doesn't want to live a good life for their family? Now there is no way to make money, and the dividends from the production team are the guarantee of a good life. Before and after Xia Juhua took office, she had been thinking about how to increase the income of the production team. No one saw it more clearly than Chen Qiusheng, and he was now convinced by Xia Juhua.
If his wife dared to say something bad about Xia Juhua, he would dare to fight back. But thinking about it, it was impossible. Now his wife couldn't stand people saying bad things about Xia Juhua. Thinking of this, Chen Qiusheng laughed: "Anyway, whether you believe it or not, our whole family will listen to you from now on."
Do you trust me so much? Xia Juhua asked tentatively, "What if I told you to save some food now?"
Chen Qiusheng laughed even more brilliantly: "After you talked about the drought that day, you went home and told my wife about it, and she stopped giving me cakes to eat."
There is no need to show so much pride.
Xia Juhua smiled and said, "You don't have to drink porridge all day long. You can eat some glutinous rice cakes occasionally. After all, the New Year is coming soon."
"Oh," Chen Qiu Sheng sighed, "My wife only listens to you now, and won't listen to anyone else. She has already said that she will tell her parents about it when she returns to their home. She has even told my mother, my second uncle's family, and several other families that she has a good relationship with."
Seeing that Xia Juhua looked a little upset, Chen Qiusheng quickly reassured her: "She didn't dare tell anyone that you think there is too little rain this year. She only said that she heard it from someone who knows how to see."
In the northern plains, fortune tellers are called "good fortune tellers". In order to make people believe her, Chen Qiusheng's family even brought out feudal superstition. Xia Juhua was so scared that she quickly said to Chen Qiusheng: "Don't let her tell anyone else. If the Red Team hears it, it will be a big deal."
Everyone in the Red Team was scared, and they came to Ping An Village several times in a row. Chen Qiu Sheng was also scared, and he nodded and promised to tell his wife not to talk nonsense when he got back. Xia Juhua asked who his wife had told, and heard that Chen Qiu Sheng's wife had told almost everything about the Chen family, and she was touched and amused:
There are more than 90 households in Pingan Village, Liu and Chen are the major surnames, and the remaining 20 or so households are mixed surnames. If the Chen family has mentioned it, it means that more than half of the households in the village have already started to save food.
We will be more confident in dealing with natural disasters next year.
"Captain, Qiu Sheng, why are you still at home? The captain is looking for you." Chen Dongsheng ran into the yard in a hurry and said to Xia Juhua and Chen Qiu Sheng, which scared them both.
"The captain didn't say what it was about?" Xia Juhua asked.
Chen Dongsheng shook his head and said, "I was just cleaning the pig pen when the captain came over, looked at the pigs and asked me to look for you two."
After hearing this, Xia Juhua and the other person did not dare to delay and went to the pigpen together. They saw Li Changshun standing in front of the pig that was raised alone, in a daze, and he didn't even hear the two people approaching.
Chen Qiu was afraid that Xia Juhua was still worried about going to the brigade that morning, so he stepped forward and shouted, "Captain, do you want to talk to me and the captain about something?"
Li Changshun turned around after hearing the voice, pointed at the pig in the pen and asked, "Is this the pig raised by that bad woman?"
Xia Juhua nodded helplessly, and Li Changshun's face became even uglier: "Why is Erzhuang such a bastard?" After saying that, he looked at Xia Juhua, swallowed the second half of the sentence, and talked about business:
"Just now the commune notified us that the grain station will go to each village to buy surplus grain. The main grain will be given three cents more per pound than the public grain, and the miscellaneous grain will be given two cents more."
Xia Juhua was shocked when she heard this. In her previous life, the grain station would collect surplus grain from the villages after the New Year, but this time it was earlier than usual. Although she didn't know why it was earlier than usual, Xia Juhua was prepared: "Captain, is there a quota for the grain station to collect grain?"
Li Changshun shook his head: "There is no target, but the commune called for surplus grain and said that we should hand in as much as we can."
It would be easier if there were no quotas. Xia Juhua said with difficulty: "Captain, you know the situation of our production team. There are still seven households that are in arrears. Every family is counting on relatives for help. Other families are also very short of food. Half of the food distributed by the production team is miscellaneous grains. I'm afraid sweet potatoes are not counted as part of the surplus food that can be paid."
"That's right. Each person gets more than 90 kilograms of sweet potatoes. That's all gone by the beginning of spring." Chen Qiusheng kept talking and checking Li Changshun's face from time to time. Seeing that there was no change, he continued, "Each person gets only 5 kilograms of wheat per year. Those who don't work are not given any. Some families can't even eat dumplings during the New Year."
Li Changshun's face turned dark. "The commune said so. What can I do?"
Well, Chen Qiusheng couldn't continue. Xia Juhua looked at the pigs in the pen, which had not changed much, and said to herself, "Why did the grain station suddenly collect the surplus grain? I haven't heard that any brigade didn't hand in the public grain."
Li Changshun looked at Xia Juhua deeply and suddenly asked, "I heard that your production team went to the noodle factory to buy wheat bran?"
Xia Juhua pointed to the pig trough and said, "I bought a thousand kilograms of pigs. I thought that the pigs would be delivered soon, so I fed them a little more. At least they can grow a little bigger."
Li Changshun did not answer, and he was lost in thought again as he looked at the empty pig trough. He was lost in thought, and Xia Juhua and Chen Qiusheng did not dare to leave, so they could only accompany him. After a while, Li Changshun asked, "If other production teams go to buy wheat bran, can the noodle factory sell it?"
No one dared to break this promise. Xia Juhua whispered, "I went to the noodle factory to buy wheat bran because of a favor from the supply and marketing cooperative."
Favors can only be used once or twice, but if you use them too much, they will no longer work.
Li Changshun nodded solemnly: "There is no other way. Next year, each production team will have to raise pigs. During the lean period, people don't even have enough food, so what will we feed the pigs?"
Yes, there is not enough food for everyone. Xia Juhua looked at Li Changshun in shock, not knowing what he meant by that. Li Changshun saw her shocked expression, and his dark face gradually showed signs of calmness: "Xia Juhua is the only one who can see the drought, but no one else can? And what about the things that were spread among your production team, do you really think that no one else knows?"
Xia Juhua felt nervous after hearing the last part: I was too careless. Why didn't I find out earlier that Chen Qiu Sheng's family was spreading rumors? Oh, why didn't I realize that Chen Qiu Sheng's family was even more talkative than Li Changwang's family? I don't know when she trusted me so much.
"Okay, don't tell anyone to spread this nonsense in the future. Just prepare it quietly." Seeing that Xia Juhua kept her head down and kept silent, Li Changshun didn't say anything else. He still talked about wheat bran: "No matter what, you have to buy 5,000 kilograms of wheat bran for each production team."
Xia Juhua couldn't help but complain. Although the Ping'anzhuang Brigade was also called Ping'anzhuang, it was not just responsible for the Ping'anzhuang production team. There were five production teams in total, which meant 25,000 kilograms of wheat bran! Did the captain have such a big appetite? !
Section Chief Chen is only the section chief of the production workshop. Does he dare to make the decision to sell so much wheat bran?
"Captain, if we buy so much at once, what will we do if the noodle factory asks us why?" Xia Juhua had to have a legitimate reason to go to see Section Chief Chen.
"It's just raising pigs. Workers and farmers have always been one family. We raise pigs to support city residents in eating meat. So, isn't it our duty for the factory to support us with wheat bran to raise good pigs?" Li Changshun actually had a smile on his face. Xia Juhua felt that she almost didn't recognize him anymore.
This was not the black-faced Bao Gong-like captain in her impression. She did not know this man who was as dissolute as Liu Zhishuang.
Since we don't know each other, we all have to carry the pot together: "But the quantity is too large, and I, a small production team leader, am afraid I can't persuade them. Captain, why don't you come with me?"
Li Changshun didn't know what he was thinking, but he actually made an appointment with Xia Juhua to go to the commune together tomorrow. But before leaving, he asked Xia Juhua: "Have you ever given anything to the director of the supply and marketing cooperative?"
Xia Juhua had an idea and decided to do what she had not done before in advance - the weight of a letter of commendation sent by the team leader was different from that of a letter of commendation sent by her, a production team leader. She believed that Director Lin would be more willing to accept the letter of commendation from Li Changshun.
"I only said a few words of thanks to him when the supply and marketing cooperative decided to collect the banquet. But last time Director Lin proposed that our production team make new banquets, so I said I would send him a letter of praise in the name of the production team."
At this point, Xia Juhua felt a little embarrassed: "Captain, you know that I don't know a few words. I really don't know how to write a letter of commendation. I am too embarrassed to see Director Lin again."
Li Changshun was really convinced. Although he didn't know many words, the brigade accountant knew quite a few words. If it really didn't work, there were still educated youth in the brigade. How could they not find someone to write a letter of praise?
"Don't worry about this matter. Come with me tomorrow to deliver the letter of commendation." Li Changshun waved at Xia Juhua like chasing flies, put his hands behind his back, and left.
Xia Juhua watched Li Changshun walk away, and she didn't think there was anything wrong with him abandoning her. She was more worried about how to tell the members about the surplus food. The women had to know about this first, after all, no one knew better than the housewives what the family ate and drank.
Of course, before leaving, Xia Juhua whispered to Chen Qiu Sheng what Li Changshun had said to her, that people in other villages had already known about it, and what his wife had spread in private, and asked him to go home and give his wife a good scolding, and to be more careful with what he said in the future, and then she came to the yard.
She didn't come to the yard in the morning, and if she didn't show up in the afternoon, she was afraid that someone would talk about it. What Xia Juhua hated most was that she became the subject of other people's gossip, so when she entered the reed wall, her face was expressionless, and it looked no different from a stern face.
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