Chapter 58 Eating a Big Pot

Liu Zhizhi is eight years old this year. Logically, a child of this age should be sent to school.

Unfortunately, the village is so poor that there is not even a classroom, let alone a school.

If children in the village want to go to school, they have to go to the primary school in the commune.

But the commune is quite far from here. It takes more than an hour for adults to walk there, not to mention children. Therefore, there are few children in the whole village who go to school.

Not to mention girls. It costs one yuan to go to primary school for one semester, and no one in the village would send girls to school.

It is conceivable that Liu Yinyin's ability to graduate from primary school is definitely a rare story in the surrounding villages. Liu Laifu and his wife are really good to their daughter.

However, the original owner actually only studied for two or three years. At that time, the management was not so strict. With some benefits from the Liu family, he successfully obtained his diploma.

In fact, it is of no use. The original owner started school very late, and as he got older he was not focused on studying. His grades were not very good, so he did not continue his studies.

Speaking of the commune school, we have to mention the changes that have taken place in the village in the past two months.

Several big things have happened in the village recently. The first thing is that Liujia Village used to belong to the township, but now the township has become a commune.

Of course, such political matters have nothing to do with ordinary people like her.

However, the following two major events were more closely related to her.

The second thing was that the villagers’ only private plots were gone and all returned to the collective.

The land will still be used to grow food, but it will no longer belong to the villagers.

Liu Yinyin's family originally had two plots of land, but their private plots were confiscated, leaving only the plot of land in the yard.

The land is not big, only enough for growing vegetables, so Liu Yinyin's family has no land to grow sweet potatoes this year.

The last big event was that after the Lantern Festival, the village announced that it would start running a large canteen.

All the villagers’ food had to be handed over and managed by the canteen. From then on, the villagers had to go to the canteen to get their meals three times a day, and everyone ate from a big pot together.

Regarding this, at the beginning, most villagers were reluctant to do so, as they felt they would feel safer if the food was kept in their own homes.

But this was the order from above, and the villagers were unwilling but helpless.

Later, we heard that other villages had canteens with big pot meals, where people could eat as much as they wanted every day, and they would also have white flour and white rice every now and then.

When the Liujia Village canteen was first opened, it provided everyone with full meals for a few days, and the villagers' complaints gradually decreased.

I think eating in the cafeteria is not bad. It is convenient because you don’t have to cook for yourself, and you even have to chop less firewood.

Liu Yinyin was embarrassed. Even though she had a thousand words in her heart, she couldn't say anything.

"Aunt." Liu Zhizhi interrupted her thoughts, "I can read these pinyins now."

Liu Zhizhi helped her take care of the children, and in return, Liu Yinyin decided to teach her to read and write, and to learn some basic Chinese and mathematics.

It was boring to be idle, so after Liu Yinyin finished teaching Liu Zhizhi, she let her teach Gu Yanyan.

Of course, Gu Yanyan certainly couldn’t understand at the moment, but it didn’t matter. He would be happy as long as someone was talking to him, no matter what they were saying.

Anyway, one of them is willing to teach and the other is willing to listen, so it's the best of both worlds.

Liu Yinyin was busy planting vegetables in the yard at the moment. Gu Yanyan was at the door, lying on the small bed that Gu Cheng had just made for him, with Liu Zhizhi beside him, talking to him.

Today, Liu Yinyin taught Liu Zhizhi some pinyin.

She found that this girl really liked learning. Ever since Liu Yinyin decided to teach her to read, she came here every day and was obviously very interested in studying.

Seeing that she had indeed learned the few pinyin taught today, Liu Yinyin gave her a pencil and a notebook and asked her to write them down by herself.

I wrote and read to Gu Yanyan at the same time.

Tsk!

Liu Yinyin suddenly felt that she was not a very kind mother, but there was nothing she could do; she couldn't talk to him all the time.

Liu Yinyin continued to plant vegetables. There were about two mu of land in the yard, and she planted more than ten or twenty kinds of vegetables.

In addition to radish, cabbage, cucumber, eggplant, beans, loofah, potato, leek, and water spinach, these are the vegetables commonly grown by villagers.

I also grow tomatoes, cauliflower, okra and Dutch beans.

There are also a lot of cantaloupe and watermelon.

Although we know that this year is not a good year, we still have to live our lives as usual.

At noon, Liu Zhizhi went home for lunch, and Liu Yinyin went to cook.

The grain that was handed in was distributed after the autumn harvest, excluding the food consumed during this period.

When it comes to food, the villagers cannot be so honest, and there is no definite number for how much they have consumed during this period.

Anyway, every household must have some food stored away.

Liu Yinyin's family only handed in the grain distributed by the village last year, so of course they would not give away the grain they bought themselves.

With a worker at home who eats commercial food, Liu Yinyin must cook at home.

Moreover, the rations she handed in were not much, and the meals she got from the cafeteria every day were not enough.

Liu Yinyin steamed a few steamed buns and fried an egg. When Liu Zhizhi came back, she brought Liu Yinyin the food she had received from the cafeteria.

She asked Jiang Cuihua to help her prepare her meal.

A piece of wild vegetable nest, a sweet potato, and a portion of stir-fried cabbage.

This month is the time when there is a shortage of food, and every meal in the cafeteria is either radish or cabbage.

Liu Yinyin put the food on the table and invited Liu Zhizhi to eat together.

The cafeteria has only been open for a few days and people have been able to eat their fill.

Liu Changquan was not a fool. If he really let the villagers eat to their heart's content every day, the food rations they handed over would not be enough to sustain them for long.

Therefore, the food in the cafeteria during this period was not very good.

It is not yet the busy farming season, so it is enough for the villagers to eat until they are about 50% full.

Liu Zhizhi was in the period of growth, and the feeling of being hungry was really uncomfortable. When Liu Yinyin asked her to eat, she couldn't resist the temptation.

In the afternoon, when Gu Cheng returned home, he brought back two saplings, which he had asked someone to buy from the neighboring county.

One is a date tree and the other is a peach tree.

As soon as he came back, Gu Cheng took a hoe and started digging holes, and planted two fruit trees in the yard.

The man was a good hand at farm work. He rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and when he turned the soil, the muscles in his arms bulged and he dug a big hole in just a few strokes.

Liu Yinyin watched Gu Cheng planting trees and watering the trees. Suddenly she thought of something and asked him with a smile, "When are we going to dig a well?"

We had planned to dig a well last year, but we never found a good opportunity. When winter came, the ground froze and we couldn't dig a well.

So it has been delayed until now.

Liu Yinyin thought that if nothing unexpected happened there would be a drought this year, and the digging of the well could not be delayed any longer.

There is a well at home, so it will be more convenient to fetch water when the time comes.

Gu Cheng turned his head and looked at her: "During the rest week, maybe."

If you want to dig a well, do it early, otherwise you won’t be able to hire anyone to help when the busy farming season starts in the village.