For the next few days, she was the main cook, with Aunt Wu and her sister-in-law Chen Yu assisting her.
Chen Yu genuinely wanted to learn a few skills, since they had to ask for help themselves in the Northwest, and Fang Yuan was naturally generous in teaching her.
Over the course of a few days, the two became much closer.
As for Wang Fang, I don't know where she got her thick skin and sense of superiority from, this woman simply refuses to go into the kitchen.
She pretended not to see that Zhao's mother was unhappy, but she was more enthusiastic than others when it came to meals.
Fortunately, she didn't dare to pick and choose the dishes, because Zhao Qingyue would definitely scold her if she did. Even so, she was the one who ate the most dishes.
However, Fang Yuan didn't take her seriously, since the food wasn't just for her alone.
Moreover, Zhao's mother often hinted at wanting to compensate her, so she reluctantly accepted the loss.
The children looked forward to Fang Yuan's cooking every day and barely ate any snacks.
In less than half a month, they all seemed to have gained a lot of weight.
This made Zhao's parents and other fathers feel both gratified and amused.
Fang Yuan's return this time was marked by her generous nature and superb culinary skills, which earned her the approval of her husband's entire family.
Even her jealous second sister-in-law was speechless.
After the Lantern Festival, the family returned to the island and received a generous gift from Zhao's mother.
The box was full of fine jewelry, including jade bracelets, pearl necklaces, and gold hairpins and bracelets, all of which were Zhao's mother's dowry.
With so many treasures, Fang Yuanman happily took the children back to the island.
She didn't know what Chen Yu and Wang Fang's families had obtained, but she knew it certainly couldn't compare to what she had.
Fang Yuan was unaware that Chen Yu and Wang Fang had both taken some food with them, with Chen Yu receiving more.
As for anything else, Zhao's mother didn't give her a single thing.
When I returned to the island, it was already late January, and it was 1959.
Even after Zhao Zhuo was promoted, he still frequently went on missions, so she continued to farm in the space.
With three children to care for, she couldn't go out and have fun without help taking care of them.
As for hiring someone to help take care of her, she considered it, but then she thought about her own space and the food she would bring out herself.
In the end, I gritted my teeth and gave up. Anyway, the three kids are very well-behaved and easy to take care of.
When farming, I put the three kids in the little wooden house in the space to play.
After they stopped farming, they went to the sea to catch seafood.
By August, the children had turned one year old and were already able to take small steps. Her storage room was already overflowing with supplies.
She put many of the items that could be kept for a longer time in the outer room or in the yard in front of the wooden house.
There's no other way; the storage room is only so big, and there's nowhere else to put it if we don't put it outside.
The natural disasters were already beginning to show, and coupled with the fact that the previous communal meals had wasted a lot of food, by May every household was already facing a food shortage.
She called both families once a month to confirm the situation, and started sending things to both families in May.
The gifts for Zhao's father and mother, as well as those for Zhao's eldest and second eldest brothers, were sent together by the Fang family.
Every time, she would go to the county town to send four large bags of things.
The main ingredients are dried seafood, plus a small bag of rice and several jars of canned fruit.
Although it may not seem like much, these items are quite rare these days, and they are the safest thing she could send out without giving herself away.
"I don't know what God is doing. He can't stand to see us ordinary people having a good year. I heard that many places in the interior are experiencing drought, including my hometown. This year is really tough."
Liu Lan sat in Fang Yuan's small courtyard and chatted with her.
I also helped carry a little one who wanted to wander around the yard.
She has received several letters from her hometown asking them to send some food back home.
"Last year was already bad, but I didn't expect this year to be even worse. It's really tough!" Fang Yuan could only sigh as well.
With the communal dining system in place, there was a severe food shortage everywhere, and many places were already experiencing hunger before the autumn harvest.
She has a lot of food in her storage space, but it can only support her relatives on both sides.
She wanted to die peacefully of old age, but she didn't want to be dissected.
"Your family is so lucky, a whole family of city dwellers with a fixed allowance," Liu Lan said enviously, looking at Fang Yuan.
People in the city were allocated grain rations, while people in the countryside were allocated grain based on the number of people and their labor capacity.
Her family had a bad harvest this year and was almost starving. They even managed to steal all the tree bark and grass roots from the mountains.
“The grain rations in the city have been reduced, and even if you have money, you can’t buy anything. Everyone is having a hard time,” Fang Yuan replied helplessly.
I received a letter from home a few days ago. Her third sister-in-law, Liu Zhaodi, had originally come back after the Spring Festival.
Perhaps it's because divorces are less common these days, and because she managed to come back safely after the last big fight, that she's become bolder.
When this natural disaster struck, her family came to visit her twice, and her old illness relapsed.
They intercepted the food she sent home and secretly sent it all to her parents' house.
Fang's mother and her family were furious, and in the end, her third brother still divorced her.
Thinking of this, Fang Yuan calculated the time and realized it was time to send a package back. She would go out and send it in a few days.
She was destined to live out her life as a good daughter-in-law and daughter to the original owner of the body, and die peacefully in her old age.
“That’s true. We’re on a ration in the army, and we can find some things on the beach, otherwise we’d go hungry,” Liu Lan said, shaking her head.
Why has life suddenly become so difficult? Can't God have pity on people like us?
The two chatted for a while. After Liu Lan went back, Fang Yuan closed the door and put the children into the space.
He went to thresh the rice by hand.
A large stone dam was placed on the clean dam. She picked up the harvested rice and beat it hard on the dam to make the grains fall off.
There was nothing she could do; the things in her space couldn't be exposed to the light, so she had to clean them up herself.
Fortunately, she has a lot of strength now, otherwise she would have really worked herself to death.
Sanzaizai sat on the floor of the living room in the log cabin, watching Fang Yuan vigorously threshing rice in the threshing ground in front of the cabin.
The sound of straw hitting the stone slab was quite rhythmic.
The three little ones were very happy watching, clapping their hands with smiles, thinking that their mother was putting on a show for them.
"Without suitable tools, farming is really hard work..."
Fang Yuan wiped his sweat, glanced at the three carefree kids, and went inside to get a drink of water.
While Fang Yuan was lamenting, Liu Zhaodi, covered in injuries, came to the Fang family's door, begging to reconcile with Fang He.
"Fang He, Third Brother, please let me come back for our daughter's sake. I'm about to be beaten to death."
The new man beat her too badly, and she wanted Fang He to save her for the sake of their daughter.
Liu Zhaodi never expected that just a few days after she returned home from her divorce, her family would sell her to a widower butcher.
After all, there was no extra grain at home, and selling it would give them some money to buy more grain.
Although she didn't have a good reputation in the village, people further away didn't know about her.
Her parents picked out a butcher in his thirties for her from a group of people.
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