Cooking is not easy at all.

On the first day of work, Feng Qingxue thought of these words.

All the strong laborers from seven or eight production brigades came out to work, and the place was crowded with people. Although they only had to cook for their own production brigades, and there were two women working with them, the workload was still not small.

The people who came from Caohu Brigade were Feng Qingxue, Feng Ershen and Feng Shuanzhu’s wife.

In addition, Feng Qingxue brought her younger sister with her.

She originally wanted to send Feng Qingyun to school, but she was too young and the school wouldn't accept her. Moreover, the primary school in Caohu Brigade was disbanded, so if she wanted to go to school she had to walk to Wanglou Brigade where the living conditions were better.

While the strong laborers were working, they had to dig wild vegetables and pick leaf sprouts, wash and prepare them, and then come back to make soup for them to eat with their meals.

While Feng Qingxue was digging wild vegetables, he noticed the labor scene on the riverbed. Some people had their legs and feet immersed in the water, and the dug soil was put into large wicker baskets. Then some people transported the wicker baskets full of soil to the dam to build the dam.

Carts cannot be used here, so everything has to be done by manpower, either carried on shoulders, carried on a shoulder pole, or by two people lifting together.

When she was a child, she heard from her grandparents that a soil basket could hold six or seven hundred kilograms of soil, and a larger basket could hold over a thousand kilograms. Sometimes they had to carry it all on their shoulders. Moreover, the time for digging rivers and canals was basically in winter, the only time of the year when there was no busy farming season. Many people worked in icy water and exhausted themselves, suffering from long-term illness in their later years.

However, many young and middle-aged laborers are willing to come and work.

The first is to record the full work points, which is ten points a day. The second is to save food rations for the family. Because it is hard work, the superiors are not too strict about food. Each person is given two rolls of three-grain flour for one meal.

Sweet potato flour, sorghum flour and black flour are mixed together and the steamed rolls are black. They taste much better than the coarse grains we usually eat at home. The women who cook eat half of it and hide one and a half. There are also many strong laborers who eat one and keep one, putting it in their arms and saying they are taking it home, either for the elderly or for their wives and children.

People from Wanglou Brigade also came to work. Seeing Wang Zhengguo, Feng Qingxue hurried to him and said, "Uncle, you are back? The last few times I went to Wanglou, you and my aunt were not at home. I asked my aunt, and she said you went to visit relatives."

She didn't mention Wang Jiao running away from home, nor did she ask whether Wang Jiao had been found.

Wang Zhengguo and Miao Fengqin's family kept the fact that Wang Jiao ran away from home a secret, so of course she wouldn't get into trouble.

"Xue? You're here too? Not bad, not bad. We can't just sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. We have to work and earn work points." Wang Zhengguo seemed particularly happy to see his niece. "I took your cousin to visit relatives. The road is quite far, so the round trip took some time."

When Feng Qingxue heard that Wang Jiao had returned, she felt relieved and a smile appeared on her face.

"Are my aunt and cousin all right? Going on a long journey to visit relatives must be tiring."

"Your aunt is fine, but your cousin was careless when she walked. She fell and forgot everything that happened in the past six months. So, your aunt stayed at home to take care of her."

Having said this, Wang Zhengguo breathed a sigh of relief.

In the past six months, his daughter had made him have a headache, he had been injured and forgotten some things, and he lost the things he had taken from home. But he was not as weird as before. Although he was still as willful as when he was a child and would lose his temper when he was unhappy, he had forgotten that he wanted to marry Lu Jiang. When he passed by the cowshed, he despised the Lu family for their bad background and said that he should not help the Lu family secretly.