Zhao Youcai exchanged a few more pleasantries with the brigade leader before strolling around to other people's houses with his hands behind his back.
And believe it or not! He actually saw a few dishes.
The Chinese cabbage and potatoes I stocked up last autumn, and the dried green bean strips.
Hungry after shopping, Zhao Youcai returned home, closed the door, and eagerly opened the transparent panel, clicking on "Happy Breakfast Shop" to enjoy another round of red bean buns. But unexpectedly—
[Friendly reminder: Happiness Breakfast Shop is closed now. Please come again tomorrow morning between 5:00 and 8:00.]
Zhao Youcai: "..."
I should have made a few more batches of red bean buns this morning and left them out!
With no other option, he could only open the door and walk out dejectedly, heading straight to the kitchen to fetch the rice porridge so thin you could see your reflection in it, which he then drank in one gulp.
Zhao Youcai was puzzled. His sons and daughters-in-law, who worked in the fields and did manual labor, ate these things all day long so that they had the strength to swing farm tools.
Almost as soon as the question popped into his head, the brigade leader's wife came to the door with a bowl of rice. "Is anyone home?"
Zhao Youcai hurried out of the kitchen, his eyes lighting up at the sight of the overflowing bowls of rice. "Sister-in-law, what brings you here? What's up?"
The team leader's wife shoved a bowl of rice into Zhao Youcai's hands. "We've been busy with spring plowing lately, and everyone in the village who's working here is eating at the team's canteen. Your older brother figured that everyone in the village is in a similar situation, and he figured your family probably doesn't have much food left, so he asked me to bring you a bowl."
Seeing Zhao Youcai holding the bowl in a daze, the brigade leader's wife said again:
"Remember to go to the canteen for lunch tomorrow morning and noon, don't be shy. You're too old and not in good health to do farm work, but that doesn't mean you don't deserve to eat your fill. I'm leaving now, remember to take this bowl back with you when you go to the canteen tomorrow."
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