Chapter 57
After a massive crackdown in Yunshui County, the political landscape became clear.
The refugees who had been seen everywhere in the county fled at the first sign of trouble.
Lin Yao felt relieved without the harassment of the refugees on her way to work. It was not that she did not sympathize with the refugees. Most of them were ordinary people who could not return home, but there were also some people from all walks of life who mixed in to make up the numbers. Some of these cowards had no hometowns where disasters had occurred, but they ran out and followed the refugees everywhere, doing a lot of sneaky and dirty things.
Unexpectedly, they ran into a tough guy in Yunshui County and were sent to the Public Security Bureau. Some were given peanuts, some were sent to prison, and some were sent to the farm. They were all finished.
Yunshui County has regained its former tranquility. In a blink of an eye, the Laba Festival is coming, and it is the annual day to eat Laba porridge.
Laba Festival is so cold that the jackdaws are frozen to death. This year's Laba Festival was extremely cold. A layer of white frost fell on the roof. The workers walking on the street almost froze their chins in the cold wind.
The textile factory gave a day off on Laba Festival, and gave each office employee three taels of red dates to cook Laba porridge.
Such good treatment made Gu Chunmei very jealous.
No wonder the old people in the county often say that
they would not trade the steel mill and the textile mill for a nest of gold. Even the supply and marketing cooperative did not give out three taels of red dates!
The benefits of the steel mill are good, but there are too many workers in the steel mill, with a salary of two to three thousand. How can there be so many good things to share? The textile mill has only three to four hundred employees, so the benefits during the New Year and other festivals are naturally generous.
Early in the morning, Gu Shidong came back from running exercises with his elder brother. He did not hide in the house to sleep, but squatted in the kitchen waiting for his sister-in-law to cook Laba porridge.
Eating Laba porridge in Yunshui County is an old tradition passed down from the Qing Dynasty. Rice, red beans, dates, peanuts, black rice, walnut kernels, lotus seeds, and longans are used to cook a pot of hot porridge, which means Laba porridge.
Even now, with the shortage of supplies outside, ordinary people are grateful to drink porridge every day, let alone Laba porridge.
The old Gu family has wild walnuts, mountain dates, peanuts, red beans and the like sent by uncles in the countryside, plus red dates from textile factories, so they can also eat "Laliu porridge" - the family can't exchange longans and lotus seeds, so the naughty boy Dongzi changed the name to Canliu porridge.
The wax six porridge was considered a sumptuous meal in that era. The wealthy aunt next door only cooked a small pot of white rice porridge with some sugar and red dates, which made the wealthy uncle unable to sleep all night.
There was no movement at Zheng Dacheng's house in the front yard, and Zheng Xue and Zheng Hao, the siblings, were also looking forward to eating hot porridge.
Liu Ercui was sleeping under the quilt, and the kitchen was cold.
Zheng Xue and her brother were embarrassed and wanted to make trouble.
Zheng Dacheng was in a bad mood these two days. It would be strange if he could be at peace if he was not comfortable.
It was a big festival, and it was his cousin's daughter and son, so it was not wrong for the child to want to eat porridge.
Zheng Dacheng put on a cotton jacket, wiped his leather shoes clean, and stepped on his feet. He left Liu Ercui behind and took Zheng Xue and her brother to the state-owned hotel for a hot pot.
The beehive stove in the east room of the backyard was burning brightly. A small copper pot was placed on the stove, and the flames licked the bottom of the pot. The room was warm and cozy. Lin Yao was wrapped in a peony quilt on the bed and slept very sweetly.
Before winter, the Gu family installed beehive stoves in every room and bought chimneys to install. The chimneys were all big heads with small heads, nailed to the wall, and fixed with fine wire. When the beehive stoves were lit, white smoke began to come out from outside.
Gu Shian was used to getting up early. Generally, as long as he was at home, he would take care of all the work such as fetching water, sweeping the yard, and burning coal balls. The well in the big compound would freeze in winter.
Gu Shian skillfully carried a bucket to break the ice under the well, and brought up buckets one by one to fill the water tank. Then he turned around and dragged out a rectangular bamboo basket from under the eaves, filled a basket with coal balls, and put it back in the house.
The quality of coal briquettes burned in Yunshui County in winter varies. There are better quality clean coal, which are round and burn fast and last longer. The inferior quality ones are all coal lumps, which are of different sizes. These coal lumps are cheap, and the big ones can be broken into pieces and put together in the stove. However, they also have disadvantages. They are not durable and burn with coal ash flying everywhere.
The Gu family has a delicate daughter-in-law, Lin Yao, and they buy good coal briquettes.
Gu Shi'an lit the stove, squeezed toothpaste, rolled out a hot towel and put it on the washbasin rack, and walked to the bed to call Lin Yao to get up.
"Yaoyao, it's seven o'clock, it's time to get up."
Last night, the little girl repeatedly asked Deputy Director Gu to wake her up at seven o'clock, because it was Laba Festival and they had to cook Laba porridge.
Gu Shian came over as he said, but Lin Yao refused to get up.
It was freezing outside, and the bed in the room was covered with thick straw mattresses, which were soft and fluffy with a straw fragrance. Lin Yao struggled in the comfortable quilt for several minutes, groaning and unwilling to get up.
Gu Shian reached out and pinched her cheeks, "It will be too late if you don't get up."
Lin Yao groaned twice, turned over and wanted to continue sleeping.
In the end, Gu Shian used his big move, and with a big hand, he also got on the bed.
Lin Yao turned around and was kissed, "What are you doing? Um..."
After a while of rubbing her ears, Lin Yao finally broke out, grabbed Gu Shi'an and gave him a good beating, then got up from the bed in high spirits, washed her face, brushed her teeth, and applied some fragrant vanishing cream. Seeing that someone's eyes were not right again,
Lin Yao quickly ran to the kitchen to cook Laba porridge.
The beans for the porridge were soaked last night, which made it much easier to cook. Wash the soaked rice, put it in a pot and boil it over high heat, then turn to low heat and simmer it slowly. When the pot starts to bubble, stir it gently with a spoon. Then put two pieces of old rock sugar and a spoon of brown sugar in it, stir it evenly, cover the pot and simmer it over low heat. After ten minutes, a pot of sweet and delicious Laba porridge is ready.
Lin Yao heated a scoop of cornmeal dough in the pot, added a pot of hot Laba porridge, and a plump boiled egg for each person in the family.
Zhang Cuilan didn't say anything. It was a festival, so it was okay to eat better. Besides, Yaoyao brought home a basket of eggs yesterday. They were said to be local eggs from the countryside. They were not big and tasted delicious.
The old Gu family ate with big mouthfuls. The porridge in his family was especially delicious. The smell was tempting. The old woman Wang from Wang Shengcai's house in the front yard kept muttering while holding her bowl.
"What did the old Gu family eat? It smells so bad."
Wang Shengcai slurped the porridge in his mouth and said vaguely, "What else can it be? Glutinous rice porridge."
The eldest son of the Wang family sniffed and said, "It still smells like eggs."
Li Gouya knocked on the edge of the bowl with chopsticks, "What nonsense are you talking about? It doesn't smell like eggs. Eat your meal!"
It is an old tradition for textile factories to ferment glutinous rice on the eighth day of the eighth month.
The eldest daughter-in-law of the Gu family works in the logistics department of the textile factory, and everyone in the compound knows about it.
When Mrs. Wang thought of this, the rice porridge in her mouth became unpalatable. They all lived in the same compound, and she had to look at what others ate and what she ate. Although the daughter-in-law of the Gu family was coquettish, she was also capable. She was an educated person who went to high school. She took the job exam and got a job in one of the best textile factories in the county, and she even worked in an office.
It's really frustrating to compare yourself with others.
The daughter-in-law who also came from the countryside, look at this useless daughter-in-law of hers. She finally got a temporary job before, but she was fired by the leader after working for a few days. She eats and drinks at home every day, eats and lives in her husband's house. The only good thing about her is that she gave birth to two grandchildren for the husband's family.
This is better than the daughter-in-law of the Gu family.
A woman who can't give birth is like a hen that doesn't lay eggs. No matter how capable, smart and promising she is, it's useless!
In the next few days, Lin Yao occasionally ran into the old lady of the Wang family while going to work. The old lady was still wearing the earth-blue coarse cotton jacket, and as usual, she was holding a small stool to bask in the sun at the entrance of the alley. The old lady looked at him with her triangular eyes, and the complacency in her eyes made Lin Yao puzzled.
The old lady must have something wrong with her brain.
After the Laba Festival, it was the New Year. It should have been the festive month of preparation for the New Year, but Yunshui County was filled with sadness.
The reason was simple: the commune canteen in the county could no longer support itself.
It is said that there is very little food in the county grain station warehouse. People are not in the joyous mood of celebrating the New Year as in previous years. Every day, they push carts and hold food bags to block the door of the grain station to buy food.
The grain station only provides 10 kilograms of rice and flour for the county residents in a month. This amount of food is not enough to eat. For a while, the people of Yunshui County were panicked.
Several members of the commune went to the leader to complain, and the leader was also embarrassed. The county really had no food now. Yunshui County had a good harvest this autumn, but the disaster in the north was too serious. The higher-ups couldn't just watch the people in the north starve to death while the food from the south was shipped over. Now
, Yunshui County has also been hit by a disaster. The county leaders have managed to raise a sum of coarse grain, sorghum rice, so that the people in the county can support themselves until the wheat harvest next year.
The members of the big compound also went to see Director Ge. Director Ge's office was surrounded, and a hot-tempered man dragged Director Ge and wanted to fight.
"Mr. Ge, you swore that we could eat braised pork and steamed buns every day in the commune canteen. What happened now? The commune canteen was closed down, and we can't even buy food. The pots at home were donated to the steel smelting plant. What do we eat and drink?"
"That's right. You said the ceiling was falling, and the grain production exceeded 1,000 kilograms per mu. Where is the grain? Where did the grain go? Take it out, all of it!"
"Director Ge, please say something!"
"You must give us an explanation today!"
"Yes, we won't leave until we get an explanation!"
The people were furious, and several street officials shouted at the top of their lungs, "Don't do anything, don't get excited, no one wants to see this situation, the government is trying to find a solution, Director Ge is also trying to find a solution, you see the blisters on Director Ge's mouth, he has been so anxious that he hasn't eaten or drunk for a day and a night, everyone is anxious, Director Ge is more anxious than you..."
When the officials heard this, everyone finally calmed down, Director Ge's eyes were indeed full of red bloodshot, his mouth was dry and flaky, and blisters came one after another, it looked like he hadn't rested for a long time.
The major production teams were in a constant commotion, and several factories in the county could not start work normally. Finally, the factories in the county gave early New Year holidays.
This is the situation in Yunshui County. The county government called on the people to return to their hometowns for the Spring Festival.
The old Gu family closed the door and discussed seriously, and unanimously decided to return to their hometowns for the Spring Festival this year.
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