(Tips: The first part of the story is written from the perspective of Liu Xuemei's parents, so the names of the parents are directly listed. The rest of the story is mostly written from the perspective of the heroine Liu Xuemei. Wang Li is changed to Liu's mother, Liu Guangda is changed to Liu's father, and Liu Guisheng's father is changed to Liu Grandpa, and Zhang's mother is changed to Wang Grandma)
This year marks the eleventh anniversary of Liu Xuemei's parents' marriage. Wang's mother is 30, and Liu's father is 37. The family now has four members: their eldest daughter, Liu Xuemei, 11; their second daughter, Liu Xueqing, 7; and their third and fourth sons, twins Liu Mingrui and Liu Mingfei, 5. (Ages are as of 1961.)
Liu's mother approached the bedside and felt her forehead, finding her temperature normal. She was relieved. Xuemei's fever had terrified the family. It had started the afternoon before yesterday, and medicine hadn't helped. Liu's father carried her to the hospital in the middle of the night. She received injections and medication, and stayed overnight. The next morning, as soon as Wang's mother arrived at the hospital, Liu's father hurried back to the village to arrange and participate in the autumn harvest.
When the village chief was replaced at the end of 1960, Liu's father was elected as the village chief of Liujia Village and officially took office in early March this year.
The previous village chief, also from Liujia Village, was eager for credit and, despite villagers' dissuasion, falsely reported grain production. Furthermore, due to insufficient rainfall in recent years, grain production had already declined, and villagers were forced to hand over large amounts of grain. This combination of natural and man-made disasters led to numerous deaths from starvation in Liujia Village over the past two years. Ultimately, following a joint report by villagers, the previous village chief was sentenced to death.
Liu Xuemei's family has not had a good time in the past two years. The children in the family are young and weak, so Liu's father can only risk going to the county black market or the county staff family compound late at night to exchange money for food. Later, when the family ran out of money, Liu's father could only risk going to the mountains to set traps and hunt, and use the roe deer and wild boars he caught to exchange for food.
Once, Liu's father was chased by a wild boar and fell off a cliff. Fortunately, the cliff was only three or four meters above the ground, and the area below was covered with thatch, so Liu's father suffered only minor injuries. He also owes his sons much of their survival to their mother's family, who provided occasional support. His brother-in-law, a soldier in Heilongjiang Province, sent him several packets of malted milk.
It was not until the spring rain this year that wild vegetables and other food became more abundant in the mountains, and everyone had something to eat, that the people of Liujia Village gradually recovered.
Yesterday afternoon, Xuemei's fever subsided. After several hours of observation at the hospital, she was no longer feverish. Liu's mother, following the doctor's orders, took the prescribed medication and carried Xuemei home. Last night, she had a slight fever again, and after taking the medication, it didn't subside until midnight.
During the autumn harvest season, leave and unexcused absences are generally not permitted. Students are also on holiday to join their parents in the harvest. Today, Liu's mother woke up before dawn to prepare breakfast and lunch. Since her eldest daughter, Xuemei, wasn't feeling well, there was no one to cook lunch at home, so she had to prepare and bring it along. She left two boiled eggs and a few sweet potatoes for her on the main room table. At dawn, she, Liu's father, and their second daughter and two sons took their food and headed to work.
When the afternoon bell rang, Liu's mother went to the village warehouse to hand in her tools and headed home. She'd spent the entire day in the fields, worried about Xuemei's health. Although her second daughter, Qingya, had come home at noon and said her eldest sister was fine, she still worried without having seen her in person.
Seeing that her eldest daughter was still sleeping, Liu's mother quietly walked out of the room and closed the door.
As soon as I walked out of the main room (now referring to the living room), I saw three little men, one taller and two shorter, walking from the side of the road. The big one was holding a basket filled with rice ears and rice grains.
It's still autumn harvest season. Just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, we started harvesting late rice (autumn rice). Wencheng County, located in the southwest of Nanhu Province, used to be able to grow two rice crops a year. But now, to increase food production, people are planting two crops annually. Early rice is usually planted in early March and harvested in June. After that, late rice is planted in mid- or late September. After the late rice harvest, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, and taro are harvested, and the entire harvest is completed by the end of October.
Next, except for growing vegetables for winter in their own private plots, all other fields and mountains will be left to rest and will not be cultivated again until the spring of next year.
Mother Liu walked towards the children. As soon as the little ones saw Mother Wang, they rushed over. Mother Wang quickly shouted, "Slow down, don't fall down!"
Liu Xueqing was the first to run to the Queen Mother. "Mom, I brought my brothers to pick up a lot of rice today. My basket is full."
"Our Qingya is really amazing."
"Mom, mom, I'm here, I'm here." The two brothers Liu Mingrui and Liu Mingfei shouted anxiously.
"You are all good children of your mother. Qingya, pour the rice in the basket onto the winnowing basket. I will come back to pick it up later. You and your brothers go wash your hands and faces. I will go cook first. By the way, you three should not bother your eldest sister. She is still sleeping."
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