Chapter 8 Food Expenses
Zhu Feng thought he might not be familiar with the water, so he didn't dare to scoop more. He scooped two and a half buckets and finally lifted it up. However, the added weight of the bucket was not obedient at all and kept shaking back and forth.
When Wen Wan came back, he had just carried a bucket of water to the wheat field in front of the warehouse. He only had half a bucket of water, and as he walked along, the bucket swayed and spilled a lot of water, soaking his feet and trouser legs.
The good thing is that he seems to have mastered some method, at least he can make the bucket shake less violently.
Wen Wan looked at him curiously, then looked at the water he carried. It wasn't much, so why did he look so heavy and sweaty?
She walked to the door with the bag in her hand. She looked at Liu Changqing and Wang Jianmao sitting in the kitchen, feeling a little embarrassed. She handed the bag to them and said, "I just went out for a walk and picked some wild vegetables with the kids on the team. They said these are edible."
After that, he continued, "I don't have any rations yet. Can I give you money and food coupons for the next few days? I will solve the food problem as soon as possible."
Wang Jianmao looked at her and couldn't refuse. After all, they had all been through the same thing. When they were away from home, they should help each other.
He glanced at Liu Changqing and said, "I have no objection. What about you, Lao Liu?"
Liu Changqing said, "No problem." After that, he said with some difficulty, "However, there is one more thing. We take turns cooking here. Before you came, Wang Jianmao and I took turns. Now that you are here, there are four of us. In addition to working, we also have to take turns cooking, right? As for using water, you, a female comrade, can forget about it. The three of us can take turns. No matter what I do, I like to talk about it in a straightforward manner. I say ugly things up front to avoid conflicts later."
Wenwan smiled with her eyebrows curved: "This is the best!"
After saying that, the smile on his face faded slightly, and he tugged at his hands uncomfortably. "That's right, I might not be very good at it. I've never cooked at home, nor have I ever made a fire. But I can learn. I'm a fast learner."
Liu Changqing sighed. He had never made a fire before, and now a terrible person had come!
Wang Jianmao didn't care and said cheerfully, "Really? That's fine. Then Lao Liu will cook today, I'll cook tomorrow, and Zhu Feng will cook the day after tomorrow. The three of us will take turns teaching you. I think you'll be almost there by the day after tomorrow."
"Yeah, yeah!" Wen Wan nodded wildly.
In Xihe, we usually have two meals a day: in the summer, we have lunch from 12:00 to 2:00 PM, and dinner is in the evening when we finish work. In the winter, we cook early in the morning, go back to work after lunch, and then come back to cook when the sun goes down.
What we eat in the morning is the leftover rice from the previous day, which has to be cooked again in the evening.
Liu Changqing and Wang Jianmao had food rations, but most of them were corn, with some sweet potatoes and the like. There was very little rice and wheat, and they had to go to the stone trough on the other side of the wheat field to pound the rice, which was very troublesome.
Dinner was still porridge, which was cooked fresh with the wild onions and shepherd's purse that Wen Wan brought back. It didn't have that mushy smell and tasted quite good.
Wen Wan stood at the door the whole time, watching Liu Changqing make the fire, how much water he added, and how much grain he scooped.
She thought, it’s not that difficult actually!
After dinner, she went into the house and came out quickly, took out the national food coupons and money, and gave the money and coupons to Liu Changqing in front of Wang Jianmao.
"This is a week's food allowance. Do you think it's enough? If not, I'll add more. I'll have the food problem sorted out within this week."
Liu Changqing took a look and pulled out a food coupon: "The money is about the same, but there are too many food coupons. You can see our food is just like this, not too good, so we don't need so many food coupons."
Wen Wan didn't bother to be polite with him. He said if there were too many, he would just keep them. It was difficult to get national food coupons, so it would be best to save them.
The nights are long and the days are short in winter, so it gets dark quickly after dinner.
Without a kerosene lamp, I had to go to bed early.
Wen Wan couldn't sleep, so she took out a flashlight and opened the heaviest bag. She had already taken out the two lunch boxes and placed them on another empty bed, but there were still a lot of things in the pockets.
There was a big bag of cookies and the rest was sugar.
Various fruit candies and milk candies. She had loved eating these things since she was a child, but Xu Ruyin was worried that she would damage her teeth. This time when she left the capital, she didn't forget to buy a large bag of various candies. After all, in remote places, these things were impossible to buy even with money.
I went to bed early at night and got up early the next day. Wang Jianmao cooked the next day.
It was still corn porridge, and Wen Wan was eager to try it, thinking that there would be no problem when it was her turn to cook.
After dinner, she and Zhu Feng followed Liu Changqing to the warehouse to get farm tools.
She was unable to dig the ground, and it was not her turn to rake the grass, so she was given a winnowing basket that could be hung around her neck to pick up stones from the open field.
Just as I got the things in my hands, I heard a lazy voice: "Hey, young educated youth, good morning!"
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