Chapter 10
Lin Hongna didn’t care about Shi An’s troubles.
She was thinking about something else.
No one would have thought that this vigorous people’s commune movement would drag the country, which was in ruins, into another bottomless abyss.
Now it has been only ten years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. No matter whether it is city dwellers or country dwellers, they are all tightening their belts to make a living. City dwellers are not so bad. Every household has one or two people who eat commercial grain. The state supplies grain and oil coupons. In the countryside, the old farmers in the countryside can only go to the fields to earn work points. They get up early and work late every day. They are as tired as donkeys pulling millstones in the production team all year round. In the end, they are considered good if they can earn enough food for their family.
In fact, if life goes on like this, the people won't have a hard time. If life is not hard, won't it be better when the children grow up?
But the government set up a commune canteen, and asked every household to smash the iron pots to make steel, and all eat from the big pot.
At the beginning, the commune canteen was still prosperous. The government had food, three dishes and a soup, and white flour steamed buns were enough. The members ate until their mouths were full of oil. If they couldn't finish the steamed buns, they would put them in their pockets and take them home to eat. The leftover rice and lettuce were directly poured into the swill bucket and transported to the pig farm to feed the pigs!
Within a few months of this, the country ran out of food in 1959. In 1960, there was a severe drought in the north and floods in the south. In 1961, the country encountered a once-in-a-century flood. The Yellow River and Songhua River were flooded, and millions of hectares of farmland along the way were harvestless. In addition, the Soviet Union's extortion led to three years of famine, and starving people were everywhere.
In her previous life, Lin Hongna was driven out of the Gu family. Her parents complained that she was corrupt and brought shame to the Lin family, and they didn't even let her in.
Lin Hongna clutched the 100 yuan that Gu Manshi had stuffed into her warehouse and followed a useless temporary worker in a power plant. After three years of living from one meal to the next, she had relief rations distributed by the government at the beginning, but later when the relief rations were all gone, she had to chew up anything edible, such as bean cakes for livestock, hard vegetable nests, elm bark, sweet potato vines, wild grass and fruits, tree bark and grass roots, no matter how difficult it was to swallow. If she had nothing to eat, she would tie a rope around her stomach to endure it.
She still shudders when she thinks about how hard those three years were.
And Lin Yao, because she married into Sun Jialiang's family, never went hungry during the three years of disaster!
It was because Sun Jialiang's brother-in-law was the director of the county grain station.
No matter what era it is, no matter how hungry people are, people working in the grain station will never go hungry.
Thinking of this, Lin Hongna's eyes turned cold.
However, thinking of her cousin who married into the big compound instead of herself in this life.
Lin Hongna smiled again.
Yes, she has already snatched Lin Yao's good luck, hasn't she?
Lin Yao married Gu Shian, and she talked about dating with Sun Jialiang.
Men are all cats who steal fish. Lin Hongna gave a little sweetness, and Sun Jialiang had already agreed to find an opportunity to make Lin Hongwu a regular employee in the future.
Lin Hongna didn't do it for any hypocritical words like deep brotherly love, she did it for money!
Lin Hongwu agreed that as long as he could be converted to a regular employee, he would give half of his monthly salary to himself.
Compared to those empty things, nothing is more practical than money.
Lin Hongna thought, she had money in her hands, and when she found an opportunity, she would dress up and go to the black market a few times, buy a few kilograms of coarse grains and rice noodles at a time, and store as much as she could. She also hid the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sorghum rice at home in batches in the abandoned caves in the back mountain. It is better to rely on oneself than on others. In this day and age, no one can take care of anyone else. She should fill her stomach first.
As for her parents and eldest brother at home, whether they live or die depends on God's will.
*
In August, the jasmine is fragrant, and Yunshui County is still hot and dry.
In this era without air conditioning and electric fans, it is common to be woken up by the heat in the middle of the night when sleeping in a large courtyard that is as stuffy as a steamer.
Anyway, when Lin Yao closed his eyes at night, he would definitely wake up from the heat. He couldn't fall asleep because of the heat, so he could only get up, pour half a pot of hot water into the basin, add a ladle of cold water, wipe his face, wipe the sweat off his body, and then gulp down a pot of boiled water. Then he waved his palm-leaf fan and waited for his eyelids to fight. After fighting for a while, the god of sleep came.
Fortunately, the commune's canteen was finally opened.
The canteen's master chef was none other than Zheng Lei, the apprentice and nephew of Zheng Dacheng from the big courtyard, who was called Little Master Zheng.
Speaking of it, although Zheng Dacheng had a bit of a contemptuous temper, his cooking skills were really impeccable, and he was also very good to his own nephew.
He is a master chef in the steel rolling mill, and there are many people eyeing him covetously. There are more than a thousand employees in the steel rolling mill, and it is really difficult to control them without some skills.
Master Zheng was born with a baby face, and he smiles when he sees people. He is much more likable than his uncle.
On the first day of the opening of the commune canteen, Master Zheng used his big move.
At first, Director Ge was still worried. He thought that Master Zheng was such a young guy, who had just been an apprentice for a month, and still used a big iron pot. Is it really possible? Don't ruin the reputation of our Second Commune Canteen!
When Master Zheng arrived in the kitchen, Director Ge secretly observed in the corner.
Well, you don't know until you see it, and you will be shocked when you see it.
Master Zheng's movements were skillful. He cooked oil over high heat, thickened the soup, and even flipped the wok with pure fire.
There were more than a hundred people in the Second Commune. Master Zheng couldn't do it alone. Women from the streets took turns to help in the canteen. Some lit the fire, some cut vegetables, and kneaded dough to make steamed buns. The division of labor was clear.
The commune canteen was open to eat. That was what Director Ge said at the meeting.
Two or three baskets of steamed buns were steamed at a time. The kitchen was filled with smoke and fog.
Master Zheng prepared three dishes and a soup neatly.
Potato stewed with meat, scallion tofu, cold mixed black fungus, and winter melon and pork liver soup. They smelled good and tasted even better.
Director Ge smiled so hard that his cheeks were sore.
Master Zheng is awesome!
That day, the members who came to the canteen to eat were like sheep being herded. Everyone ran to the canteen with their lunch boxes. They really ran like thousands of troops trying to cross a single-plank bridge.
Nonsense, today we have such a good meal, with vegetables, meat, and big white steamed buns. If you go late, you won’t even get anything.
Gu Shidong took the lead, holding his lunch box, and rushed to the front.
In these days, you have to queue up to eat in the commune canteen.
With her old son charging ahead, Zhang Cuilan was not in a hurry at all. She even had time to pull some weeds in her own small vegetable garden.
The steel rolling industry is very busy these days, and Gu Mancang has to eat three meals a day mostly in the factory cafeteria.
It was a sunny day in August. Although it was afternoon, the sun was still very hot outside. Lin Yao had fair skin. After sunbathing outside, her bright face became even more radiant.
Gu Chunmei brought two big straw hats from home. The two sisters wore one each to protect themselves from the sun.
Zhang Cuilan also had one.
Dongzi, the bad boy, was unhappy when he saw this. After he had finished cooking, he rushed over with a roar and complained to his sister, "Second sister, why am I the only one without a straw hat? You are biased!"
Gu Chunmei said, "What do you want, bad boy? Go now."
Gu Shidong felt wronged. Why can't the bad boy use a straw hat?
The child whined and wanted to say that he didn't wash his feet at night to smear his sister.
Comrade Zhang Cuilan stretched out her hand and slapped him: "You son of a bitch, what are
you thinking about? You dare not wash your feet at night, wait and see
how I'm going to punish you!" Gu Shidong's eyes widened, "Mom, how do you know what I'm thinking?" Zhang Cuilan snorted, "You bastard crawled out of my belly, I know what you're talking about as soon as you stick your butt out!"
Gu Shidong: "..."
There were more than twenty red-painted tables in the commune canteen, each table seated four people. The fragrant rice and winter melon soup on the table, and the wheat-scented white steamed buns made everyone drool.
Director Ge had to hold a small meeting before the meal, emphasizing that the commune canteen was for us members to eat to our heart's content, but we must not waste food. We could take as much as we could eat, and if anyone dared to waste food, they would be severely punished.
After a day's work, everyone was already hungry. They smelled the tempting aroma of meat on the table and listened absentmindedly to Director Ge's nagging. After Director Ge finished speaking, they just hummed twice and then started to devour the food like hungry wolves.
In the blink of an eye, more than half of the pot of stewed potatoes and meat on the table was eaten, and a lot of steamed buns in the water chestnuts were also eaten. Some old ladies were not afraid of the heat and grabbed some steamed buns and put them in their pockets.
Director Ge turned a blind eye. As long as it was not a waste of food, it was okay to secretly hide some steamed buns. If you were hungry at night, you could have them as a midnight snack.
Who told us to eat in the canteen now? Neighbors don’t cook their own meals.
Gu Shidong ate two big steamed buns. The brat saw Wang Shengcai’s mother stuffing five or six white steamed buns into her blouse in the front yard. Her belly was bulging. The hot steamed buns just out of the pot, didn’t the old lady of the Wang family think they were hot?
Gu Shidong had an idea and also learned to stuff steamed buns into her clothes.
Lin Yao looked over in surprise, "Dongzi, what are you doing?"
"Sister-in-law, I'm stuffing steamed buns and taking them back to eat at night."
Zhang Cuilan frowned and scolded, "Look at your lack of ability, put it back, don't learn those shameless things!"
"Oh."
Gu Shidong became honest.
Lin Yao held the chopsticks and thought about what Director Ge had emphasized at the meeting just now that food should not be wasted. He always felt that something was different.
*
In the evening, the summer heat retreated, and the large compound that had been silent for a day became noisy again.
The wind blew outside, and Uncle Mancang, who had been busy all day, also went home with a greasy body. He had been tinkering with the machine tools in the workshop all day, and his big hands were also full of machine oil.
Gu Shidong ran over and fetched water for washing hands. He also moved the bamboo chair that Gu Mancang usually sat on and put it in the yard so that his father could take a rest.
Gu Mancang was a little overwhelmed. His son was not that diligent.
After he washed his hands, he realized that the soles of his son's sandals were worn out and he wanted a new pair of sandals.
Gu Mancang smiled and agreed.
Gu Shidong jumped for joy.
Zhang Cuilan rolled her eyes at her old son. It was a hot summer night and mosquitoes were buzzing. Lin Yao wanted to take a bath, so Gu Chunmei lit some mugwort and helped her fumigate the inside and outside of the bathing shed.
Even so, Lin Yao still felt that there were mosquitoes.
Seeing her wrinkled little face, Gu Chunmei couldn't help but complain.
"You have so many problems. Just wait. I don't care. I'll come back to smoke mosquitoes for you!"
Lin Yao laughed and thought Gu Chunmei was joking.
Who knew that her words would come true. A few days later, Gu Shian really came back.
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