With the sweet potatoes and potatoes harvested, this year's crops have been completely brought home.
"I was planning to plant some cotton in the wasteland next year, but when I was chatting with my neighbor today, I found out that a family's cotton crop at the west end of town was stolen before the August harvest. It was all gone overnight, and all their hard work for the season was for nothing."
Anyone who has grown cotton knows how difficult it is. You have to fertilize and water it, and when insects get on the cotton plants, you have to pick them off one by one.
All that effort, only to have it benefit someone else in the end—it's infuriating!
Indeed, everyone was shocked when they heard about this early in the morning, but such things are still quite common in this day and age.
Not to mention cotton, many crops such as corn, sesame, wheat, and pumpkin were stolen overnight.
So when the crops are ready, they get up early and work late to guard the fields, afraid that their hard work for a year will benefit someone else.
"Grandma, no, we'll plant all the cotton in the old house next year, in both the front and back yards, and harvest as much as we can."
My sister's words reminded Grandma, "Hey, that's feasible. The old house isn't small either. If we plant in March or April, we can harvest in about a hundred days. We can also plant radishes and cabbages (we can intercrop them). In winter, we can also plant some leafy greens like spinach, cilantro, and bok choy. I think this is a good idea."
In order to make good use of the small plot of land at home, Grandma started planning what to plant next year.
I need to go back and harvest the winter melons and pumpkins at the old house when I have time, and also check on how the coriander, spinach, rapeseed, bok choy, and garlic sprouts are growing.
As November arrived, the weather grew colder day by day, and the wind was particularly strong. The north wind was so strong that the doors and windows were shaking violently, and it felt like the wind was blowing in from all directions.
To keep the house warmer, my father and brothers would nail felt around the doors and windows to protect them from the wind and cold whenever they had free time on weekends.
Winters here can get as cold as minus seven, eight, or ten degrees Celsius. That's the coldest time of year. There's no heated brick bed in the house, not even in my grandparents' room. They survive the winter by sheer willpower. They cover themselves with extra blankets and boil water in a thermos before bed. These have become their main ways of keeping warm.
The old house does have a kang (heated brick bed) in winter, but they don't have time to chop firewood. The kang is warm, but unlike the forested areas of Northeast China, there aren't many trees here. They use the firewood for cooking first, and there's simply no extra firewood to heat the kang.
Buying coal is something most families can't afford, so in the end they all rely on their own immune system to get through the winter. As a result, many elderly people don't make it through the winter, and this has become the norm.
On this cold, sunny, windless day, Xiao Jiu would lazily bask in the sun to warm herself. Sometimes she would fall asleep while basking, and her older sister wouldn't take her inside, since it was much colder inside than outside. Instead, she would cover her with a blanket and let her sleep.
Now, Grandpa's recliner has become Xiaojiu's main warm bed during the day, swaying gently and comfortably.
Her daily task now is to feed poultry, sheep and rabbits. At the beginning of this month, her father sold about twenty rabbits, and now there are only seven or eight left.
The main reason is that there isn't much hay in winter, so I don't want to feed them that many. I'll save the rest to kill a few during the Lunar New Year, and after the New Year, they'll be in their crazy growth phase again.
Now, after deducting the eggs from the chickens, ducks, and geese that we raise, we take them to the county town as food. It's fortunate that we have a large enough family to provide enough feed; otherwise, most families really couldn't afford to raise them, as it consumes too much feed.
Now, my parents' snack shop has a net income of five million yuan a month, which is the net profit after deducting all expenses.
The four of them worked hard and earned five million a month. It sounds like an astronomical figure, but it was actually earned through hard work from dawn till dusk.
Working in a snack shop is no easier than toiling in the fields. The key is to be able to keep track of time. Only those who have experienced it can understand how difficult it is to run a shop.
They used to close around 7 or 8 pm, but since Sister Zhaodi left, they've been operating until 10 pm. They even rented two rooms in a private house to live in. They're sacrificing their youth and time every day; they really work hard to earn this money.
This also indirectly proves how important it is to find a good job before the university closes down.
When the Gregorian calendar year of 1954 arrived, good news also came from Taoyuan Village: the scumbag father had indeed remarried.
He married the pregnant widow.
As for Cao Amei, she was beaten several times and became afraid to return to Taoyuan Village. It is said that the Cao family is looking for a new husband for her. In any case, they will not let her stay at her parents' house and eat and drink for free.
Although Cao Amei did not register her marriage with Tang Youtian, her household registration was in Taoyuan Village. If she remarried, her household registration would have to be transferred out.
The eldest and second eldest sisters returned to the courtyard on New Year's Day. Ah Jiu overheard the three sisters discussing that after Tang Youtian's son was born, they would return to Taoyuan Village to establish a household.
The eldest sister has decided never to remarry in this life, so she will be the future support for her sisters and will live independently. I believe that as long as you have money, you can make this happen. Tang Youtian has a son and has a successor, so why would he need these daughters to go back and share the spoils?
Of course, Tang Cuihua wouldn't give him that chance.
“Let’s go home once we’ve registered our household. The Tao family has been good to us, but after much consideration, I still think we should go back to our own village. From now on, we can visit each other as relatives. Once we’re back in the village, we’ll hurry up and find my sister and save up food. As long as we survive the famine, hope awaits us.”
Since learning business from Zhao Lingli, Tang Cuihua has become more insightful and eloquent. She has even learned many skills, such as using an abacus and being literate. She is also a reliable cook. Now, the kitchen of the snack shop is handled by Tang Cuihua, Zhao Lingli sells food in the front, and Zhao Di is responsible for cleaning, picking and washing vegetables. The three women have a clear division of labor and manage the small shop in an orderly manner.
This year's Spring Festival is in early February. Tao's Snack Shop will close on the 25th of the twelfth lunar month because they still need to prepare for the New Year together. After a year of hard work, they just want to take a good rest during the New Year. Even if they can make money in the remaining days, they will not work.
Tao Zui, who was in the first year of junior high school, had her winter vacation starting before the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month (the Little New Year). When she got home, she went with Tao Changyi to harvest vegetables and also bought a lot of meat.
The weather is already very cold in December. After buying these meats, we marinate them with salt and then freeze them outside so they won't spoil easily.
This year, we plan to slaughter two of our pet rabbits, chickens, ducks, and geese, so we didn't buy those three. We also need fish for the year, including large carp and grass carp, as well as persimmon cakes for desserts, radishes for savory dishes, and various beans, sweet potatoes, and sugar for making sticky rice cakes.
In the Central Plains region, the bean buns are made by boiling beans into a sticky paste, mixing it with sweet potatoes, persimmons, red dates, and sugar, then wrapping it in dough like a bun and steaming it. Unlike the ones in Northeast China, which are made with glutinous rice, these are wheat-based foods that are easy to digest.
Grandma plans to make a whole block of tofu this year, enough to satisfy her appetite. We have a mill and soybeans at home, and all she has is some brine from the tofu shop. It's not difficult at all.
Grandma Tao has been in charge of the household for decades. She was educated in her younger years and her family was well-off. She even helped Grandpa Tao manage the business. What hasn't she seen?
Moreover, she was hardworking and honest, and she never hesitated to learn anything she could. Because of this, she didn't suffer too much when she was persecuted back then. Mainly, she was too capable. Her hands were clearly those of a working-class person, unlike those housewives who couldn't do anything. Not only could she do everything, but she did it very well. You couldn't find any reason to criticize her.
Grandma made tofu every year, so the Tao family was used to it, but Xiao Jiu found it very novel.
Last year she was too young to see clearly, but this year she followed her grandmother the whole way, from selecting soybeans, soaking them, grinding them, filtering, boiling them, using brine to make tofu, and pressing them in molds. She memorized every step, hoping that one day she could make tofu for her grandmother herself.
One pound of dried soybeans can yield about three to four pounds of tofu, depending on whether you want the tofu to be soft or firm. Soft tofu will yield four pounds, while firm tofu will yield three pounds. If it is pressed into dried tofu or tofu skin, it will yield even less. After all, concentration is the essence!
The land suitable for growing beans is mostly remote, riverbank areas that anyone can cultivate. As a result, the beans grown in these areas are generally of poor quality, and the yield depends entirely on the weather. The beans are also small, often misshapen, cracked, or rotten. These beans can't even sprout.
Looking at the soybeans in her space, they were all round and plump, with a beautiful color. Compared to the soybeans she grew herself, she would rather eat these oddly shaped ones.
After all, my country relies entirely on imports for its soybeans, and various genetically modified soybeans may look nice, but can you repeatedly grow such soybeans?
No, it's not possible!
Not only soybeans, but many vegetables and fruits cannot be grown without buying seeds. The United States has made a fortune just from seeds, not to mention other things.
The things in her online space, advertised as green and pollution-free, are actually all high-tech and ruthless.
From seafood, vegetables, fruits, and grains, nothing is produced without feed and pesticides. After all, China has over a billion people, and to ensure high production and keep up with human consumption, unscrupulous merchants always have to do something.
The ocean in those days was not yet polluted, and there were still many marine creatures. But look at the ocean in later generations, where is it still blue?
All the edible animals have been eaten, leaving only those that are out of reach; the rest are all raised artificially.
At first, she was worried that her body, which had never been exposed to gutter oil, wouldn't be able to get used to the food in the space and might get diarrhea, but she didn't expect it to adapt so well.
"Have you heard? Zhou Xing from the front yard left after the New Year with the batch of recruited soldiers in the spring."
Upon hearing Grandma's words, Tao Changyi and Zhao Lingli were both surprised: "Isn't he only fourteen years old after the New Year? He's not old enough!"
Grandma shook her head. "There's no way to persuade him. This kid is quite capable. He went to the recruitment office himself to volunteer. With his physique, do you think they would refuse him? He's already passed the political review."
Zhao Lingli was surprised again: "They passed the political vetting? It seems their family, no, their maternal grandparents' connections, didn't have much of an impact!"
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