Jiang Daqiu quickly stepped forward, put the fish into his pocket, put it on the cart and prepared to go home.
I'm about to get off work, and it would be bad if someone saw me.
When we got home, Jiang's mother was already killing the fish.
The second and third sisters-in-law spread out the firewood they had brought back in the morning in the yard to dry.
Although most of them are dead wood, some of them still have moisture on them and smoke when burned.
So after drying them, they can be stacked up and kept for burning when the weather gets cold.
"You're back, come and eat. The rice is in the pot."
Mrs. Jiang has gone to work and hasn't come back yet.
Jiang's mother and others planned to eat together later.
After eating the New Year's Eve dinner, the men had to go up the mountain to chop firewood.
"You guys are such idiots! Why didn't you just ask the third brother to come back and bring the food? Why did you come back? You're not tired after walking such a long way."
The place where they chopped wood today is a little far away.
With so many families in the brigade needing firewood, it is absolutely impossible to chop it from just one place.
What would happen if a whole mountain was cut down?
The team also stipulated that only dead trees could be cut down, and living trees could not be moved without the team's permission.
The trees on the mountain can only be exchanged for work points.
When a family is building a house, they need to prepare the beams; when a son or daughter is getting married, they need to make furniture.
When the Jiang family prepared the wood, it was not yet publicly owned, so they didn't spend any money.
I invited the people who helped cut down the trees to have dinner with me for a few days.
Father Jiang looked at the full fish tank at home, then turned back to look at his wife and daughter, but in the end he didn't dare to say anything.
He is the team leader after all. How could he watch his own family members take advantage of the team?
As soon as Jiang's mother saw the look in her old man's eyes, she knew what he was thinking.
He turned around and said, "Let's keep some of these fish in the tank and leave a few for the eldest, second, and third sons.
Working in the factory means dealing with leaders, and I also have to give gifts to Director Xu. Thanks to his letter of introduction, our family got several jobs.
Erhe is getting married tomorrow, so we have to prepare several tables for dinner. How can we do without fish?
Send some to my second and third brothers’ homes, and give some to the second girl when she goes back. Oh, I don’t know if it’s enough?
Look, the fish ended up in the mouths of our own team, so don't overthink it."
Jiang Mengxue naturally knew how many fish she had caught.
Moreover, each one is quite heavy. The Jiang family has so many, so eating two or three in one meal would be a lot.
"There's so much we can't finish it all, and we can't keep it going. Mom, pick a few for your sisters-in-law to take back home."
If she didn't say this, no one would be embarrassed to say it, after all, it was her who caught the fish.
They were also worried that she would be unhappy if they said this.
But Jiang Mengxue wouldn't think there was anything wrong.
Before she came back, several of her sisters-in-law went back to her parents' home to help her exchange a lot of meat, and her parents' home were not stingy either.
It was almost the Chinese New Year at that time, and I guess those were New Year's goods that every household had saved up. I gave them to her without saying a word, and she remembers all these things.
Jiang's mother is not a stingy person. She does not stop her daughter-in-law from bringing things back to her parents' home as long as it does not affect herself.
Since her daughter said so, she also picked out a few big fish from the tank.
You can't be stingy when giving gifts to your in-laws.
"Then it's a good opportunity for your eldest brother to drop off two big fish for you. Your second mother and her family can cook them at home. The fish won't be fresh when you return in a few days."
It is generally difficult to keep fish alive once they are brought ashore. It may be okay for a day or two, but if you keep them for a long time they will lose weight and it will not be cost-effective.
Jiang's mother quickly prepared the fish, urged her sons to eat quickly, then sent the fish over and returned to work.
It just so happened that Jiang's father had to go back to the fields to work in the afternoon and had no time to go up the mountain.
The lunch was simple, just steamed bread with mixed grains and vegetables, and the vegetables were those grown in the yard.
Even vegetable farmers are reluctant to eat it freely.
Everything that can be dried and stored is dried and saved for eating in the winter when there is no vegetable.
Don’t underestimate these vegetables, they can play a big role when you are out of food at home.
Many families in the team have changed from three meals a day to two meals a day since it is no longer the busy farming season.
There's nothing we can do about it.
By this time, no one has much food left at home.
If the Jiang family had not had several brothers who changed their household registration to urban this year, they would not have had a fixed amount of food rations.
The Jiang family also has to eat sparingly.
But because there were fewer mouths to feed, there was still a lot of food left at home.
Jiang's mother was also worried that if the harvest was poor one year, she would feel more at ease if there was some surplus food at home.
Jiang's mother urged the Li brothers to finish their meal and they rode their bikes out.
Jiang Sansao's parents' home was relatively close, so Jiang Daqiu found a bag, put the fish in it and carried it directly there to avoid being seen by others.
My eldest sister-in-law also found out about this when she came back.
A little embarrassed: "Second sister, you don't have to send it to my mother's house, take it with you when you go back. You are still breastfeeding, so drinking some fish soup will be good for your milk production.
Besides, your second and third sisters-in-law are about to give birth, so save some for them to eat during their confinement period."
She gave birth to three children that year. Her mother-in-law was nice to her, but she only took care of her for a few days and then took the children to the fields to continue working.
Fish soup was also very hard to come by. Jiang Dachun fished in the river for several hours before he caught a small crucian carp weighing half a pound.
At that time, she felt that her marriage to this man was not in vain and he was willing to treat her well.
There are so many men in the village who don’t care about anything.
Not to mention his wife giving birth, even if knives rained from the sky, they wouldn't care as long as they didn't hit him.
Jiang's second and third sisters-in-law were also very touched that their sister-in-law and mother-in-law were willing to think about them.
Which girl doesn’t want to bring something presentable back to her parents’ home to make them proud?
But every family was poor, and they could live well if they could bring two kilograms of cornmeal.
Many families can hardly afford even cornmeal.
I don’t even want to make steamed bread, so I just add more water to make it into paste, which is more filling.
But my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were actually willing to offer to send fish to their parents' home, which was simply unimaginable.
"No, I can eat some crucian carp soup, but forget about the rest.
Besides, fish cannot be kept for too long, and they cannot be eaten if they are pickled with salt and fed to milk.
When my two sisters-in-law were in confinement after giving birth, they asked my brother and his friends to go fishing. They used my secret bait, which was sure to work.
By the way, aren’t the due dates of my second and third sisters-in-law approaching soon? They won’t be in the busy autumn harvest season, right?
Jiang Mengxue frowned. This was not a good time.
During the busy farming season, all you have to do is rush the time, let alone get pregnant and give birth.
Unless they are lying in bed and unable to move, they have to get up and help.
The most feared thing about autumn harvest is that you won’t be able to make it in time. If it rains or something, all the work for the year will be in vain.
So everyone, regardless of gender, age or status, went to the fields to harvest in autumn.
"Then why don't you come back and help your two sisters-in-law deliver their babies? The midwives here are not reliable."
Since her mother-in-law stopped delivering babies, Mrs. Qian has handed over this job to her.
But less than half of the babies delivered in half a year survived.
Many families came to the Jiang family to ask if Jiang Mengxue could come to the Taoyuan Brigade to help with the delivery, and they would pay her whatever amount she was paid.
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