Huang Qiaomei's entire life was marked by hunger. She was born before liberation and suffered a rare catastrophe when she was three years old.
At that time, there were livestock that died of the plague everywhere. The villagers were ignorant at first and came in groups to eat these dead livestock. People were also infected and became sick. People who got the disease had no choice but to wait for death.
At such a young age, Huang Qiaomei felt hungry all day long, and her stomach was so hungry that it was knotted and cramped. Her elderly grandmother took her to dig grass roots and peel tree bark to survive.
She was born in a time of famine and eventually died of hunger.
Life is like being soaked in Coptis chinensis.
After Huang Qiaomei died, her body was buried under reeds without even a coffin. Her death officially ushered in a cruel era.
Qin Laoshuan called a meeting of the villagers after returning from the meeting at the commune. Now that the schools were closed, Qin Xiaoyun and Qin Xiaomi also went with him.
Qin Laoshuan said murderously:
"The whole county is currently facing a food shortage. I've received a regulation from the county that from now on, all households' grain will be managed in a unified manner. Our entire village will eat together, and everyone will go home to clean up the food and hand it over to the village. No household is allowed to keep any food privately. Anyone found hoarding food will be severely punished."
Qin Huai glanced around. It was said that a village meeting was being held, but there were obviously fewer people who came. All the able-bodied men and women who remained in the village were gone. Most of the river workers had left, and the rest were said to have been organized by the commune and sent to other villages, a major job change.
Qin Laoshuan's words were more of a reminder than a threat, reminding everyone to hide the grain well.
The big canteen in Qinhuai Village was sometimes open and sometimes not. The villagers did not strictly manage the food in the farmers' homes and simply took away the food from each household's pot.
After the meeting, everyone went home. Qin Xiaoyun said anxiously, "Brother, what should we do?"
Qin Huai said, "It doesn't matter. Just hide the money. We don't have much food. Just give it to whoever comes."
"Brother..." Qin Xiaoyun was obviously reluctant to give the life-saving food to others. Qin Huai whispered, "Hide the money. If we get hungry, we can go to the city to buy more later."
But thinking about the horror that was about to happen, this little money was useless. Qin Huai kept thinking about how to survive the winter safely.
When they got home, Qin Xiaoyun was holding onto the food and was unwilling to let go. Qin Xiaomi said, "Brother, this is all we have..."
Before Qin Huai could say anything, there was a noise behind the house. The three of them hurried over to see what was happening. They saw Old Man Qin putting the large vat into a deep pit. Qin Huai hurriedly asked, "Grandpa, what are you doing?"
"Don't talk, come and help me bury this jar."
Qin Huai didn't understand what he meant, but he had to listen to the old man's request. He and the old man put the jar away. The old man took out some of the grain from his home and put it away.
He put most of the food in bags and sneaked over to the big jar with them. He put all the food in the jar, then covered it and buried it with soil. He seemed to have a lot of experience in hiding things, and he even transplanted a few weeds on it.
The big hole was camouflaged so that it looked like it had always been there.
It turns out that this is the correct way to use this big tank.
"Grandpa, do we have to be so careful? We can just tell him there's nothing."
Grandpa told him, "You are still young and don't know how powerful it is. If those people can't find us, I don't know how cruel they will be. You will have to bite your tongue and say that all our food is here, understand?"
Feeling the seriousness of the problem, even Qin Huai became nervous. At noon, perhaps because they knew that they could not keep the food, every household lit a fire and cooked a meal and had a full meal first.
Not letting Qin Huai and his two siblings come out, Old Man Qin sat cross-legged at the door like an old monkey, listening to the screams coming from afar from time to time. Qin Xiaoyun and her sister held Qin Huai's arms tightly.
Qin Huai said, "Whatever they want to do, don't fight. Even if the food that Grandpa hid is taken away, don't worry. I will take you to the city. Life in the countryside is too scary."
Only now did Qin Huai feel that his rejection of Yu Zhennan's proposal at that time seemed to be a wrong decision. The hardships of rural life were beyond his imagination. In the face of the torrent of the great era, an individual was not worth mentioning at all, even if he was a time traveler.
The key point is that population movement was strictly prohibited in those days. Farmers were busy with farming in other seasons, but they had to do various compulsory labor in winter. You couldn't refuse at all, and if you refused, you would be arrested.
Qin Laoshuan threatened everyone that he would come to their homes to search for food, but he never did. The village did not take action, but the commune began to act. Wailing and screaming were heard everywhere in the village, and the villagers closed their doors and did not let anyone out.
Qin Huaihe felt the intense atmosphere, but only felt deeply powerless.
The food search team finally arrived.
The two young farmers finally arrived at the gate of Qinhuai and shouted at the old man Qin who was sitting at the gate smoking, "Old man, hand over all the grain in your house."
There were many dark red blood spots on the shirts of these two people, which were splashed from somewhere unknown.
Qin Huai said hurriedly: "It's all here, you can take it yourself."
The two men walked into the house and saw everything at a glance. One of them picked up the bags of corn flour and sweet potatoes on the wooden board and found that there were about three pounds of corn flour and more than ten sweet potatoes in them.
This family seems to be poorer than other families. Although they have voluntarily handed over so many things, if the work in the village is not effective, how can they explain to the higher authorities in the future?
The two men searched the house thoroughly, even took apart the bed boards and threw the quilts on the floor.
They turned the house upside down but found nothing.
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