Chapter 56
Xia Juhua also heard the last rumor, and could only smile. She had no answer to this question - the pig that Sun had raised was sent to the pig pen of the production team too late. Even if Chen Lusheng gave the pig a small stove every day, it would not grow a few pounds of meat in a short period of time.
Now it seems that the pig does not meet the standards of a task pig at all, so it can only remain in the production team and be slaughtered to distribute the meat to the members.
The members who were expecting more meat would surely be disappointed, but Xia Juhua could not turn into a fat pig for them.
Xia Juhua is more open-minded this life than in the last. She doesn't dwell on trivial matters and lets go of them if possible. So she thought about the pig incident and let it go. Before the time came to hand in the task of Zhu He Xi, she went to Chen Qiusheng and told him that she wanted to take a day off.
The production team was about to kill pigs, so it was time for the noodle factory to distribute benefits. Xia Juhua wanted to build a good relationship with the noodle factory, and of course, if she could deliver the goods earlier, she would do so. She had to quickly fry the peanuts from the noodle factory.
Because they had to fry peanuts, and Wang Caifeng was going to give birth after the Chinese New Year, and there was also work to do at the production team stall, Xia Juhua's family did not buy reed stalks. This action was praised by the women again, and everyone felt that she did not want to take away everyone's way to make money, otherwise no one in the production team could weave mats better than her.
Being praised is better than being stabbed in the back.
Do you know that you are the production team leader of Ping An Village and only others can ask you for leave?
Xia Juhua said with certainty: "It's true that I am the team leader, but it's also true that I can't go to work tomorrow. If I don't ask for leave, don't you have to give me work points?" Xia Juhua never thought of taking advantage of the ten work points.
Chen Qiusheng was also convinced: "You said you can't go to work, but others came to your house to learn how to leak powder, and the production team didn't give you and Zhiquan two work points, so how do you calculate it?"
Yes, even though Xia Juhua was busy frying peanuts, she did not forget her big bowl of precious sweet potato paste. She even dried the sweet potato powder on the kang and instructed the two brothers Liu Zhiquan to make the sweet potato powder.
In the northern plains, where sweet potatoes and potatoes are abundant, some people have used rice flour to make rice noodle skins. However, these are all skills passed down from family to family, and only the family members are taught. Outsiders cannot find a way to learn.
Xia Juhua was different. After she herself exposed her powder, she told the people in Ping'an Village the good news and said that any man who wanted to learn could come to her house and learn from the two Liu Zhiquan brothers.
Who hasn't been given a few hundred kilograms of sweet potatoes in the fall? So after repairing the canal and transporting the fertilizer, the men in Ping'an Village followed the Liu Zhiquan brothers to learn how to make flour.
Why do men learn it?
Haven't you seen that the captain's family is full of men leaking powder! This shows that this powder must be leaked by men!
Not to mention, compared to women, men are stronger and can persist longer than women in shredding sweet potatoes, pouring sweet potato pulp, drying sweet potato flour, or straining the flour in a pot.
Anyway, when everyone in Ping An Village tasted their first pot of noodles, they all felt that noodles were meant to be made by men, otherwise it would not taste good.
As for the custom that men cannot enter the kitchen? Has Ping An Village ever had such a custom? Even the captain's family doesn't have this saying. Are you more capable than the captain? Then why don't you call yourself Xia Xiaohuo!
It can be said that once the powder leakage technology came out, Xia Juhua's status in the hearts of the men in Ping'an Village became the same as her status in the hearts of the women. Even if Chen Qiu Sheng had ten times the courage, he never thought that there would be a day when he would not give her work points.
"Captain, please don't make things difficult for me. If people find out that I deducted your work points, they won't dare to throw shit at our doorstep in the middle of the night." Chen Qiu Sheng almost bowed to Xia Juhua, hoping that she would not ask for leave again.
Xia Juhua was never one to take advantage of others. She thought about it and said, "Why don't you go and ask the seven families who owe you money whether they want to keep the sweet potatoes and eat them as before, or to mince some of the sweet potatoes. If they want to mince some of the sweet potatoes, I'll let Zhiquan and Zhishuang go and help them, and use it as my work points."
Helping to pay off the accounts is like helping the production team, so that should be enough.
Chen Qiusheng also thought it was a solution. As long as he was not allowed to deduct Xia Juhua's work points, he would do anything. After he asked around, he found that among the seven families, only Zhao Tiedan's family was willing to give up the powder.
The other six families disagreed for the same reason - compared to sweet potato noodles, steamed sweet potatoes are more filling and save food. But Zhao Tiedan's family agreed because sweet potato noodles tasted better than sweet potatoes.
As for wasting food, is that in the dictionary of Zhao Tiedanye and the other three? You said that making sweet potatoes into flour will lead to insufficient food at home and that people will go hungry in the future? That doesn't exist. Aren't there still production teams, brigades and communes? If you dare to let the members starve to death, then it is still a collective?
Xia Juhua was speechless when she heard this. She finally understood why Zhao Tiedan's family, which had three strong laborers, still lived in debt. But their lives were theirs, and Xia Juhua couldn't force them to do otherwise.
Forced? Xia Juhua asked Chen Qiusheng: "Isn't it time for the eldest son of Zhao Tiedan's family to get married?" She remembered that Zhao Dagou was almost 25 years old this year.
Chen Qiu Sheng didn't want to mention the three masters of the Zhao family: "Who would dare to marry a daughter to a family like that?" Even if one doesn't expect the married daughter to support her parents' family, one can't let the daughter go hungry half of the year.
"But their family is living like this, it's too unplanned. If there is a woman in charge, maybe it will be better?" Xia Juhua asked again: "Do they want to get married?"
"Which man doesn't want to get married?" Chen Qiu Sheng felt that the captain was too busy these past two days and actually asked such a question.
If you want to get married, that's easy. Xia Juhua whispered a few words to Chen Qiu Sheng, and Chen Qiu Sheng's eyes gradually became round: "Is it possible?"
Who knows if it will work? Xia Juhua thinks she has to give it a try. If she knew that she would run into big trouble, she would never put the idea into practice.
Xia Juhua has lived a lifetime, and now the environment around her has changed a lot compared to her previous life, which has gradually changed her cautious mentality. In her previous life, she was cautious all her life, but she got less and less. There are many things in this life that she would never touch in her previous life, but she has done them all. So Xia Juhua thinks that you have to try everything before you know whether it can succeed.
So Zhao Tiedan's eldest son Zhao Dagou (just by listening to this name, you can tell how perfunctory Zhao Tiedan was to his son) suddenly followed Liu Zhiquan and his brother and started to show off powder to the people of Ping'an Village. The people of Ping'an Village were a little surprised at first, but when they heard that Zhao Dagou helped others and the production team gave him three work points a day, no one said anything.
Now, except for the ignorant children and the immobile elderly, everyone in Ping'an Village is busy - relatives heard that they have learned the skill of leaking noodles, and they all want them to help leak some, so that they can have an additional dish during the New Year.
Xia Juhua taught people how to leak the flour in order to store as much sweet potatoes as possible. She welcomed people from other production teams to ask Ping An Zhuang to leak the flour from the beginning to the end - she couldn't interfere in other production teams' affairs, but if relatives helped each other, other production team leaders couldn't stop it.
Therefore, the skill of Pinganzhuang people in leaking rice flour is not like the new tricks of weaving mats, and cannot be taught to others. However, the members of other production teams are not as hardworking as the members of Pinganzhuang. They finish the canal repair and winter farm work early, but they still need to work every day, otherwise they will not get work points.
Therefore, not many people came to learn the craft, and many people asked relatives to help them carry sweet potatoes. Zhao Dagou was young and strong, and he was very enthusiastic in helping any family, which was very different from his previous sly behavior. Even if the production team gave him three days of work, the members could still accept it.
The members could accept it, but it didn't mean that the production team had to keep giving work points to Zhao Dagou. Everyone soon discovered that Chen Qiusheng seemed to know how much flour each family needed to sift. After Ping Anzhuang had sifted all the sweet potatoes it had allocated, they would ask Zhao Dagou for help, and the production team would stop giving them work points.
How can this be? People didn't dare to confront Xia Juhua, but they dared to confront Chen Qiusheng, saying that he was unfair as an accountant and favored some over others. Why did the production team give work points to Zhao Dagou when he helped other families, but not when it was their turn?
Chen Qiusheng, who was partial to one and not the other, was angry. Bullying, wasn't it? This idea wasn't his, so why did he go after him and not the captain? He shouted at the person he was looking for:
"Don't you know how many sweet potatoes your family got? It's unprecedented that Zhao Dagou can help his own production team. The production team gave him work points to promote his enthusiasm, but you are doing a favor for your relatives and you still want the production team to give you work points?"
The members were stunned by Chen Qiu Sheng's shouting, and they went home in a dusty state one by one - they had to leave, as Chen Qiu Sheng was in a very important position now. The team leader was busy making mats with the women and following the people at the grain station to mobilize the members to hand in surplus grain. He had no time to take care of the work points, as they were all in Chen Qiu Sheng's hands.
Zhao Tiedan refused to leave: "Brother Chen, the production team really won't give me work points anymore, so what should I do?"
Chen Qiusheng thought to himself, "Why should I care what you do?" But he had to complete the task that Xia Juhua had given him: "Have you finished leaking your own powder?"
Zhao Tiedan shook his head: "I'm done leaking. Brother Chen, didn't you say that if I leak powder to everyone well, I can get married? Now the production team doesn't give me work points, and people don't ask me to leak powder anymore. My wife..."
Chen Qiusheng looked around and saw that there were no people walking on the street. He called Zhao Tiedan over and whispered to him, "You are stupid. How many hours do the production team give you per day?"
"Three." Zhao Tiedan couldn't understand why Chen Qiu Sheng asked this when he was just recording the work points.
Chen Qiusheng pinched his nose and made his point clear: "Do you know how much three work points are worth? Ask those people who just left quietly if anyone is overwhelmed and needs your help. If they need your help, you don't need to ask for three work points, just give them 20 cents and you'll do it. If you don't have cash, 20 cents worth of food will do. Think about it?"
Zhao Tiedan was a little confused: "Didn't the commune forbid exploitation?" In the past, only farmhands worked for landlords. The propaganda team said that was exploitation.
Chen Qiusheng was almost driving Zhao Tiedan crazy, not caring if anyone could hear him or not, and he yelled, "Exchange of work, exchange of work, do you understand? You don't work in the fields, so how can you be exploited by exchanging work with people who can?!"
When Chen Qiu Sheng yelled at him, Zhao Tiedan lowered his head. When Chen Qiu Sheng walked away, he raised his head and muttered, "It sounds nice, but it still makes me carry the work for others."
Having said that, he still walked towards the family that had just asked Chen Qiu Sheng about something - his father had never worked in the fields before, nor had he urged him and his two brothers to do so, so they had never experienced the feeling of earning work points, and Zhao Tiedan himself felt that there was nothing wrong with just getting relief every day.
But after helping others leak fans, he knew every day that his work points had increased. Thinking about how many work points he needed to get married, Zhao Tiedan became addicted to asking Chen Qiu Sheng every day how many work points he had earned.
It was just like his daughter-in-law was standing in front of him waiting for him, greeting him with her white and tender little hands.
Xia Juhua didn't care whether Zhao Tiedan could get any results. She was listening seriously to the comrades from the grain station criticizing Ping'an Village for lagging behind: "Captain Xia, the entire Ping'an Village only collected more than 300 kilograms of surplus grain. Not to mention the Red Star Commune, it's the last in the Ping'an Village Brigade."
"Do you have any objections to the grain station collecting surplus grain and not mobilizing the members properly?" The person at the grain station slammed the table, scaring Xia Juhua who was thinking about which pig to hand over.
"Comrade, you must have misunderstood. After our production team heard the notice from the brigade, we held a meeting for the members and asked them to hand in surplus grain to the grain station as soon as possible. Didn't our family also hand in 60 kilograms of sorghum?" Xia Juhua was not willing to be accused of being a drag and kept refuting the words of the grain station staff.
Liu Liqun, the militia captain who came with the team, also explained for Xia Juhua: "Captain Xia has just been the production captain for a short time, but he has also played a leading role. The members of Ping'an Village did not hand in the surplus grain, so Captain Xia had no choice."
The people at the grain station knew that they had no reason to blame Xia Juhua, but the work of collecting surplus grain was divided into sections according to the teams. The Ping'anzhuang production team paid less, so the entire Ping'anzhuang team was last in completing the purchasing task. After returning to the grain station, he, the grain collector, felt ashamed.
So even though Liu Liqun came out to mediate, the people at the grain station still made stern threats with gloomy faces: "Captain Xia, our grain station and the production team have always been in a mutually supportive relationship. You just became the production team leader and you don't know. Ask other production team cadres how the public grain funds of our grain station are allocated every year."
Xia Juhua knew what was going on without asking. She gritted her teeth and her face turned pale little by little after hearing this. She seemed to be really scared and could not stand the threat from the grain station staff. Liu Liqun was about to speak when he saw Xia Juhua stand up.
"Comrade Xu, Captain Liu, follow me." Xia Juhua's voice was so soft that it seemed to be blown to the horizon by the wind. Her body was shaking, as if her legs were not strong enough to support her.
Liu Liqun stood up, somewhat confused, and advised her: "Captain Xia, Comrade Xu is also trying to complete the mission, not to make things difficult for you."
Comrade Xu, who was trying to complete the task, looked even uglier, and said sarcastically, "Captain Liu, please don't say that. I am willing to make things difficult for others in order to complete the task."
This sentence frightened Xia Juhua again, she turned around to look at Comrade Xu, and didn't even dare to say a word, and walked out of the door as if she was stepping on cotton. Liu Liqun couldn't persuade her anymore, so he let Comrade Xu go first and he followed at the end.
Seeing Xia Juhua already opening the production team's grain warehouse, Liu Liqun became anxious: "Xia Juhua, that is the production team's reserve grain!" Xia Juhua must have been frightened. Did she want to hand over the reserve grain as surplus grain?
Then it’s not a matter of going to a study class, but going to the Public Security Bureau!
Xia Juhua forced a smile but still said nothing. She simply opened the granary, waved to Comrade Xu, and asked him to go in and take a look.
Comrade Xu actually poked his head in to take a look, and his eyes widened in surprise: "Why is there only some wheat bran in your production team's granary?!"
Liu Liqun was so frightened that he pushed Comrade Xu away and went into the granary himself. He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he saw two grain bins behind the bran pile. He pushed the grain bin with his hands, but couldn't move it, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Xia Juhua and Comrade Xu also entered the granary, still in a low voice: "Comrade Xu, you see, except for the food in the two granaries, there is only this bran left in our production team's granary."
"Our team leader contacted the production teams to buy these brans. This is the granary of the entire Pinganzhuang production team, and the reserve grain is only 5,000 kilograms. But the Pinganzhuang production team has 577 people, including adults and children!"
Xia Juhua glanced at Comrade Xu who was still in shock and said, "For more than 500 to 600 people, how many days can 5,000 kilograms of food last? Comrade Xu also knows this, right? This is reserve grain. After our production team has handed over the public grain, we must set it aside according to the requirements of the state."
"After the public grain station was taken away, some reserve grain was left. Comrade Xu, can you calculate how much grain each person can get, and how much of it is staple food?" Even if the grain station collected miscellaneous grains, they had to be red beans, mung beans, sesame seeds, etc. Sweet potatoes and the like were not collected.
Comrade Xu finally found his voice: "So why did you buy all this bran?"
Xia Juhua's face regained some color: "Let the members feel at ease." There was nothing else to say. However, Comrade Xu understood, because the people who went to the grain station to protest for food packages were members of Ping'an Village.
"Well, Captain Xia, I have a quick temper. Look what happened just now..." After a long while, Comrade Xu finally managed to utter these two sentences.
Xia Juhua shook her head gently and said, "Comrade Xu is also doing this for work, just like me buying these bran. When we return to the grain station in the future, we will have to make things difficult for Comrade Xu. Ping An Village is sorry to Comrade Xu."
Comrade Xu was speechless as he looked at the wheat bran that filled up half the granary. Xia Juhua didn't want to hear what he had to say, and they left the granary in silence until Xia Juhua locked the door.
That night, Comrade Xu took the collected grain and sent it back to the grain station via Ping'an Village's ox cart. He was never seen again.
Xia Juhua finally put her worries to rest after she had been worried since he came to Ping'an Village: In the previous life, the people in Ping'an Village heard that the grain station bought surplus grain at a high price, so they sold a lot of it like other production teams, which led to many families having no food to eat when the natural disaster hit the following year.
This time, the entire Pingan village only sold more than 300 kilograms of grain, and the grain in everyone's hands can always last for a while. There are also some vermicelli that have leaked out, which can be used to last for a while with some oil, salt and chili.
The whole village would be able to survive the natural disaster without having to suffer from hunger. This is what Xia Juhua hoped for.
Life cannot be lived by longing, and Xia Juhua, who has lived her life again, deeply understands this truth. Therefore, Xia Juhua dare not relax at all when it comes to matters at home and on the production team.
It was not until the noodle factory came and took away the fried peanuts, leaving 150 yuan for processing fees, that Xia Juhua smiled again: "Caifeng, take this 20 yuan and buy yourself some new clothes for the New Year."
Liu Zhishuang looked at the money in Xia Juhua's hand eagerly, wishing he could grow a hand from his eyes. The look was too explicit, Xia Juhua couldn't ignore it, so she took out two more five-yuan notes from the bank: "Five yuan for each of you two brothers, who told you that you don't make as much as Cai Feng?"
Liu Zhishuang grabbed the money and stuffed it into his pocket before asking, "Mom, we're busy every night. The production team gives work points to Zhao Dagou, so why don't they give points to my brother and us?"
"What, you think it's too little?" Xia Juhua glanced at him, and frightened Liu Zhishuang so much that he quickly covered his pockets. Xia Juhua couldn't bear to see his useless look: "Don't you still have 60 yuan in your hand? You don't have any expenses, so why do you record so many work points?"
Liu Zhishuang's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't understand why his mother mentioned the sixty yuan at this time. You know, he worked so hard these days and tried so hard to show off in front of his mother, just to make her forget that he should have sixty yuan in his hand.
Could it be that someone gossiped in front of my mother? Liu Zhishuang was too guilty to look Xia Juhua in the eye and chose to lower his head and pretend to be dead. Seeing that he still didn't tell her the truth, Xia Juhua sneered in her heart:
This was how he acted when he wanted to marry Sun Hongmei. He was still like this after his money was taken away by someone else. Did he not trust me as his mother, or did he value his face more than money? If he really cared about his face, why would he accept my five yuan? He was just waiting for the production team's dividend next year!
Wang Caifeng saw that Liu Zhishuang remained silent after Xia Juhua asked, so she said sympathetically, "Mom, Zhishuang is thinking about saving more money so that he can meet people better."
Xia Juhua said with a half-smile, "Yes, even if we were to get along, he would have to pay for the betrothal gift. Now he wants to save more. But we have already agreed that the work at home is the same as the work outside. Whoever does more will get more. Don't think that you can say a few nice words to me and get all my money."
Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang, who still don't know how much money their mother has, said: If your money is so easy to fool, why would you only give us five yuan each?
Wang Caifeng, who was very happy with the 20 yuan, could not understand the feelings of the two brothers. She smiled in agreement and said, "Mom is the most fair. She sees who works harder and who doesn't."
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