After pacifying Ruiduo and Fei'an, Gu Zhenqi went to the kitchen and picked up the coarse cloth apron that had been used for making pudding and was hanging on the wall.
I walked around the kitchen and checked the remaining food in the house: half a bag of cornmeal, about 20 pounds of small sweet potatoes, a handful of white flour, and less than a bowl of rice.
There are two jars of pickled mustard in the corner of the kitchen, one of which contains less than ten lumps of pickled mustard, and the other one has four or five lumps of pickled mustard.
After checking these things, Gu Zhenqi couldn't help but frown. It was now June, and there were still three months before the autumn harvest. Life was difficult.
The Chen family is almost unable to make ends meet. On the surface, the Chen family has two male laborers, the eldest son Chen Guo and the second son Chen Qiang, plus three women, Wang Guiying, Ge Yun, and Fan Chun, who are never short of work. The work points they earn and the public grain they are allocated in a year are barely enough to get by. They don't ask for enough to eat, but at least they have something to eat three times a day.
Unexpectedly, things did not go as planned. Last year, the eldest brother Chen Guo injured his leg while digging a canal during the slack season. Although the brigade gave him some food compensation at the time, he had no money to treat the injury, and it was common for farmers in rural areas of that era to get injured while working in the fields.
The unified approach and fixed thinking mode is that one does not take it seriously at all and just thinks about taking care of it!
Chen Guo's leg treatment was delayed due to this wrong understanding. When he discovered the problem, he went to the county hospital for a check-up and found that the injured ligament had already healed from its dislocation.
The medical facilities in the county hospital are limited. If you want treatment, you can only go to a large hospital in the provincial capital or Kyoto.
He was hungry every day and barely survived. He had no extra money and could only prescribe some painkillers for Chen Guo.
After returning home to recuperate for a while, spring ploughing began and everyone in the team was busy with farming. Chen Guo's legs hurt badly when he was tired. At first, he relied on one or two painkillers and gritted his teeth to get through it.
It rains a lot in the later stage of spring plowing, and the team has to rush to plant before the rain. The work suddenly becomes more difficult, and Chen Guo has to take painkillers three times a day, at least three pills each time.
After more than a year, Chen Guo's leg injury became more and more serious. He now looks a little lame when he walks. He used to earn full work points a day, but now he can only earn a maximum of seven work points a day.
Chen Qiang was the only one in the Chen family who earned full work points. Ge Yun and Fan Chun earned six work points every day, and Wang Guiying earned four work points.
All year round, I work so hard, but the food I eat is not as much as the energy I put in to work.
After just a few hoeings in the fields, their stomachs start to feel empty, and many people faint from hunger in the fields.
The Chen family had one more military water bottle than other families. The third son, Chen Kuo, who had been in the army for many years and was promoted to company commander three years ago, brought two water bottles with him when he returned home to visit his family. He gave one to the Chen family and left one to Gu Zhenqi.
This kettle really comes in handy. Before going to work every day, Wang Guiying puts some chopped ginger, a pinch of sugar, and warm water into the kettle, then shakes it well, and then she carries it on her back.
When they arrived at the field, Chen Guo, Chen Qiang, Ge Yun, and Fan Chun, if anyone of them felt dizzy and hungry, they would come to her to get a drink of water.
So people from every household in the village fainted on the ground, but the Chen family relied on their little tricks and never fainted once.
Every year he was publicly praised at the team meeting at the end of the year, and received an extra five kilograms of mixed grain noodles as a reward from the team.
When the brigade distributed the meat, they gave an extra two taels of pork belly, which made many women in the village envious.
"well……"
Gu Zhenqi stood in front of the stove and let out a long sigh!
People said that the Chen family was poor, but she didn't care at all. Chen Kuo was now promoted to battalion commander, and his monthly salary plus allowances was more than 80 yuan. Occasionally, the army would distribute some canned food, luncheon meat, compressed dry food and other few supplies, but she would tighten her belt and save money to mail them back home to her.
Naturally, all of these fell into Gu Zhenqi's hands. Her mother, father, and brothers were also worried that she was not having enough to eat and wear warmly, so they would send her things to help her from time to time.
It can be said that no matter how difficult life was in the 1970s and how many others were starving, Gu Zhenqi never went hungry for a single day and had never experienced what it was like to be hungry.
"It's really stupid of you to not appreciate what you have!" Gu Zhenqi couldn't help but complain about himself in his past life.
She was pampered and treated well by many people, but she did not treat those who loved her well in return. In this life, in addition to her children, she seemed to owe something to other people who had shown her kindness.
Gu Zhenqi didn't think about it anymore. Instead of regretting it later, it would be better to cherish the present and start treating them well.
Thinking of this, Gu Zhenqi took out enough flour for making dumplings at noon and two pounds of the best pork belly from the space, and used the meat grinder in the space to grind them into meat filling.
Then take out two sauerkrauts and a pickled cabbage lump, wash and drain them, find the only enamel basin in the kitchen, pour in flour, add appropriate amount of yeast, and a large bowl of warm water, and start kneading the flour into a smooth and soft dough little by little. Cover it with a grate made of sorghum stalks and set it aside to ferment.
Then he walked to where the chopping board was placed, cut the sauerkraut and pickled cabbage into small cubes, squeezed out the water from the sauerkraut with his hands, and took out a porcelain basin from the space.
Pour in minced meat, sauerkraut, diced white potatoes, and various seasonings, stir evenly and set aside for later use.
Wash another large iron pot, add millet, red dates, peanuts, dried longan, eight eggs washed with clean water, add appropriate amount of water, and cover the pot.
She lit two fires at the same time. After a while, the dough had doubled in size. When she lifted up a small piece, it looked like a honeycomb.
Gu Zhenqi placed a steamer in the big pot, covered it with a layer of white gauze, and placed the fermented dough and the prepared fillings on the stove.
I started making buns, putting one into the pot after I finished making one. After about ten minutes, nearly thirty big buns were in the pot.
Gu Zhenqi washed her hands, covered the pot and started steaming. She walked to the kitchen door and looked at the sun. It was almost noon and the people working in the fields were about to get off work.
Gu Zhenqi looked back at the two steaming pots. They were already occupied and it was too late to cook any more. She went back to the kitchen and took out three large stir-fried dishes and a tomato and egg soup from the space.
They are neatly placed on the stove, close to the pot, to ensure that the food does not get cold quickly.
Just as I finished all this, I heard a voice coming from the yard: "Mom, I was wondering why there was smoke coming out of our chimney. It turns out that the young lady is cooking for herself while we are not at home."
As they spoke, Wang Guiying and Ge Yun, whose turn it was to cook lunch today, walked into the kitchen.
Gu Zhenqi didn't even glance at Ge Yun, she looked at Wang Guiying, who didn't show any dissatisfaction with her, and said with a smile: "Mother, you are back, are you tired from working in the fields today?
Wash your face quickly. My brother sent me some flour and meat. I made some buns specially for you, uncle, second uncle, and second sister-in-law to satisfy your cravings. I will prepare a special meal for our family at noon. Mom, you won’t be angry with me, right? "
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