The old man of the Tang family passed away suddenly. Fortunately, the burial was completed on New Year's Eve, not on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Otherwise, the funeral would have to wait until after the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Although they didn't have much affection for this grandfather, the sisters still silently observed the mourning period.
Although the production team's New Year's Eve dinner wasn't very oily, it did have some pork cracklings, which counted as meat. So the sisters decided to cook vegetarian dishes on their own. The vegetarian dishes didn't have much flavor, so no one could smell anything. It was freezing cold, and it was fortunate that the person who set the fire burned down their main room, not the woodshed. That's how they managed to save firewood for the whole winter. Otherwise, they wouldn't know how they would have survived the winter.
Xiao Jiu has Tang family blood flowing in her veins, but she doesn't know that old man at all, so naturally she can't observe mourning for him. After the Tao family members all returned to their places, they all went to the production team for a meal. Zhao Lingli secretly took Xiao Jiu to deliver food to the sisters, whether it was porridge or sweet potatoes, just to get through the winter first.
I wanted to fry some snacks for the New Year like in previous years, but this year the situation doesn't allow it. Firstly, the smell is too strong, and secondly, it's too extravagant and easy to be caught.
After all, we eat from the same pot now, and all the cooking utensils have been handed over. Where are you going to cook?
Are we counting on the earthenware pots left at home?
So even if they were secretly cooking, someone had to keep watch. The Zhou family's courtyard wall wasn't as high as the sisters' original one, so they had to be careful.
After each meal, all the cooking utensils had to be put away in a safe place. This was Cuihong's responsibility, and Cuihua's responsibility was to clean up the mess.
Although it was Chinese New Year, they were very clear about the current situation. Every meal consisted of simple porridge and pickled vegetables or boiled vegetables. They only dared to steam buns once every two or three days. The food was coarse, tough, and throat-irritating sweet potato and sorghum cornbread, and cornmeal pancakes. The food was not good, but at least they could eat three meals a day.
Cui Mei and Cui Xiang at school ate the same things, buying whatever was cheapest. Although they had lived a life of luxury in their previous lives, their stomachs in this life had been hard-working from the start. They had adapted and didn't care much. As long as they didn't starve and their stomachs could handle it, what couldn't they eat? It was better than those who were starving.
Cui Mei also gave Cui Hua 68 yuan in cash: "Sister, keep this money for emergencies. See if you can exchange it for grain. This is all the extra money I earned in the city. You don't need to worry about our grain. We'll figure it out ourselves. The key is you. It's not easy to trade grain in the countryside. Although we have enough to eat, the more the better, right?"
Cuihua did not refuse; with red eyes, she patted Cuimei's hand.
“Good sister, thank you so much. I will keep all this money. Once we get through this famine year, we will build a house. You should study hard and become successful in the future so you can suffer less. We have enough food at home, so you don't need to worry. Xiaojiu has helped us a lot.”
Cuihua couldn't say outright how Xiaojiu had helped, but she learned from Cuihong that their grain reserves were now enough to get them through the difficult three years. Besides, Xiaojiu never came empty-handed; sometimes it was grain, sometimes eggs, and she would just smile when asked.
"Eat up, sis, no need to be stingy, I have enough."
After saying that, she winked playfully. If it weren't for her calm expression, Cuihua wouldn't have dared to accept such a grand gesture.
Cuihua also understood very well that if life hadn't been so hard, Xiaojiu would never have revealed himself to her. This child was just so honest.
Cuihua didn't even eat the eggs, wanting to save them for Lao Qi and Lao Ba. They're easy to carry and can supplement nutrition. Lao Qi and Lao Ba are weak, so eating these will help them grow up healthily.
During the Lunar New Year, they might be able to have a full meal.
However, Cuihua and her group overestimated the reserves of each production team, and they were unaware of how many corrupt officials were created as a result.
It's not even the fifth day of the Lunar New Year yet, and the canteen, which used to guarantee two meals a day, has suddenly reduced it to one meal. How low is the standard of this meal?
It's cornmeal and sweet potato stewed into a mushy consistency, with lots of dried vegetable leaves added; it's basically a pork feast.
This is how we used to feed pigs, but now we're feeding people.
It's called cornmeal, but it's actually made from whole corn kernels, with the skin on, and it's very coarse. The sweet potatoes also have their skin on, and in some places they haven't been washed properly, you can still see the dirt, so the hygiene is worrying.
But people are starving right now, so who cares about hygiene? Being able to eat their fill is the most important thing.
However, they only ate one meal a day, at 11 a.m., and even if they didn't work, they would start to feel hungry by 5 or 6 p.m.
When people are hungry, they start to panic, and panic makes them act up. Things had only been quiet for a few days, and now they're causing trouble again...
So, early in the morning, Xiao Jiu went out for a stroll and saw Cuihua and the others squatting at the edge of the wheat field looking at the wheat, so he quickly ran over.
"Hey ladies, what are you doing here?"
Because of the drought, the wheat seedlings were all wilted and didn't look fresh at all. The weather was also dry and cold. Judging from their growth, they were much shorter than in previous years. Cui Xiang said with a bitter smile when she saw Xiao Jiu.
"The older sister is lamenting that this year's wheat harvest is going to be tough!"
"I heard that some idiots in the commune have inflated the yield of wheat from three or four hundred catties per mu to one thousand five or three thousand catties per mu."
Xiao Jiu had studied history, so he naturally knew that this saying wasn't just limited to their production team or commune; this competitive spirit existed all over the country. How did famine come about? It came about in this way.
It's pitiful that these ordinary people haven't realized the seriousness of the situation, and they don't know who will be the unlucky one behind this battle of the gods!
There were disturbances at the entrance of the production team's canteen every day. Cuihua and the others were worried that Lao Qi and Lao Ba would have a hard time, so they went to their home in town every day to wait for them.
Whether it was telepathy or not, on the afternoon of the third day of the Lunar New Year, Lao Qi actually arrived. At that time, she was so hungry that her eyes were sunken and she felt dizzy.
Cuiju quickly started a fire and cooked a meal, which was easy to digest: egg noodle soup. She drank three large bowls of it before she had time to talk about what she had been going through recently.
She used to eat only one meal a day in the canteen, but she never ate a single bowl. They always left her just enough to keep her from starving, and the rest was eaten by her family. Cuihua was heartbroken to see her getting thinner and weaker and developing poorly. She worried that if things continued like this, she might not even make it through the winter.
But she had no choice but to send the seventh brother away after he had eaten. The next morning, before they even reached the town, they saw the eighth brother huddled at the door of his house. Good heavens, she had been waiting for who knows how long. Her situation was no better than the seventh brother's. She was also starving at home and couldn't hold on any longer, so she came looking for him.
Upon encountering them this time, Tang Cuihua immediately told them to go to Xihe Village to find them and not to come to the town again. She told them to feed the children first and send them off. After that, Cuihua held a family meeting to discuss how to bring her two younger sisters home ahead of schedule.
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