Chapter 96 We also have cows...
"Li Haoran, you are from our production team. You said that this cow was handed over to our production team, so the captains of other production teams cannot come and snatch it. How many work points do you say it is? You can take care of your family more when you go to work in the future, or you can let your daughter-in-law go to raise silkworms. Do you agree or not?" Wang Jianjun raised his voice and asked a member of the production team.
"I agree! I agree! Li Haoran, just follow the captain's instructions. You are a member of our production team." The members also shouted loudly.
Wang Guoqing and Li Haoran exchanged glances and nodded imperceptibly. So Li Haoran said loudly: "Captain, this cow will be handed over to the production team. Captain, there are two calves. I only hand over one and raise the other one myself, okay?"
"Sure, sure, no problem at all. Let's go and take the cow to the cowshed. Stone and pillars, you two go and fix the cowshed with Li Haoran this afternoon. Qiuju, take the girl to cut grass for the cows, pick the tender grass." Wang Jianjun took the cow's nose rope from Ziyi's hand and left. He had to go, as he was afraid that the team leader would disagree. The big bull swung its tail unhappily and took two steps back. Wang Jianjun almost stumbled, so he had to hand the rope to Ziyi again and scolded with a smile: "It's really a stubborn bull that won't move even if you lead it. Come on, Ziyi, you do it. Hahahaha!" Wang Jianjun became more and more satisfied. The production team finally had cows, and they no longer needed people to pull the plow to plow the fields. We could feel proud when we went out to attend meetings - we were a production team with cows, and we were not the poorest team in the commune.
In the 1960s, the wealth of a production team was first determined by whether it had cows or tractors for plowing the fields. Most production teams could not afford tractors, so the number of cows they had could indicate how wealthy the production team was.
Ziyi led the cow and followed the captain to the team's cowshed. Yike finally saw the cowshed of that era. In fact, this cowshed is just a mud and thatched house. Most of the high walls are made of mud bricks, but the wall near the roof is hollow, with a long stone trough filled with dust.
Wang Jianjun did not let Ziyi lead the cow into the cowshed, but led it into a hole next to it, which turned out to be an air-raid shelter. The door of the air-raid shelter was locked. Wang Jianjun unlocked it and walked in. Yike also followed Ziyi in.
The cave was clean and filled with piles of sweet potatoes. Ziyi carefully led the cow to the open space on the other side, where there was a thick stone pillar inserted into the ground with a round hole in the center of the stone pillar. Wang Hongjun instructed Ziyi to tie the cow rope through the round hole, and then instructed the members who followed him to move the sweet potatoes to another corner to prevent the cow from eating them.
Ziyi tied the cow rope and pulled Yike out of the air-raid shelter. Wang Jianjun locked the door again and told the custodian to move the sweet potatoes to the warehouse tomorrow, as cow grass would be piled here in the future.
Li Haoran stayed to repair the cowshed, while Ziyi and Yike returned to the new house at the foot of the mountain.
Back at the new house, Yi Ke asked Zi Yi curiously, "Why didn't anyone say you didn't participate in the labor if you didn't go?"
"First, because I just came back, and second, because we just handed in a big bull. No one will watch us whether we go to work or not in the future, after all, we have a bull to help us earn all the work points. You don't have to do the silkworm raising job either. Although silkworm raising does not require sun exposure and earns high work points, we don't lack those work points. I can support you, and you just need to be happy."
"Won't someone gossip about me? Saying I'm a capitalist and hedonist?"
"Humph! Whoever dares to gossip, they can just let their own daughter-in-law stay at home idle if they have the guts, and no one will stop them. If you hear someone gossiping, just fight back. If you can't win, come to me and I'll help you deal with those gossipers."
"How are you going to deal with it? Give her a scolding or a beating? Can you deal with a woman?"
"I don't care about men or women. My wife is just not good enough. So what if she beats or scolds me? Call their men and I will deal with them the same way." Ziyi said it so domineeringly. Yike felt warm in his heart and felt particularly comforted after hearing it.
"Are you going to play or rest? I'm going to dig a cellar."
“Are we going to dig there?”
"No, we'll dig it in the front wing. We need to dig a cave in the open. We'll need a cellar to store sweet potatoes, cabbages, etc., and the grain distributed by the production team will also be stored in the cave, so we need a cave that everyone knows about."
"Then I'll help you carry the mud."
"It's very heavy."
"Am I weak?"
"Wait until your clothes get dirty."
"You despise me."
"No, absolutely not! All right, let's dig together."
…
"Ziyi, then I'm going to call you Li Ziyi now, haha, Li Zi Li Zi - hard (Yi).
"In the evening, Yike heard Ziyi say that he was now settled as Li Haoran's biological son, and he should be careful when speaking to others in the future. Although he didn't know whether the people who hunted his family back then were still paying attention to their family, if he said he was an adopted son, it would be easy for those people to make associations. After all, Li Haoran was once his father's closest friend and partner, so it was better to be careful for safety.
But after hearing Ziyi talk about his family, Yike tried hard to recall for a long time but could not remember whether his father's name was mentioned in the history of his previous life. It turned out that the little historical knowledge I had in my head was almost zero and I couldn't remember it at all. If I had known I would travel through time, I should have studied history. Now seeing Ziyi in such a depressed mood, I feel heartbroken.
So he deliberately called out "Li Ziyi?" and then kissed him on the cheek, smearing Ziyi's mouth with saliva. He even said with disdain, "Sour, so sour!" Ziyi also bit Yike's cheek hard and said, "So sweet! Not sour!"
"No, there must be teeth marks on my face, and I'm going to leave one for you too." Yike pounced on him and was about to bite him, but Ziyi dodged.
Yike immediately chased after him, and Ziyi dodged easily, stretching out his hands and legs from time to time to block him. Yike was not willing to be outdone, and gradually used his own tricks.
The two of them started to fight, one hitting the other with a palm and the other kicking, and the game turned into a martial arts contest. Ziyi would let Yike take a beating from time to time, and let Yike make two or three moves, so that Yike could beat Ziyi enough to calm down.
Ziyi and Yike fought from the side room to the main room, and finally out of the yard. After a thrilling fight, everyone felt happy.
"Ziyi, Yike, what are you two doing instead of sleeping? Do you want to tear down the house?" Li Haoran stood at the door wearing only a single layer of clothing.
Ziyi and Yike's fight in the yard alarmed Li Haoran. Li Haoran roared, scaring the two men so much that they stopped immediately.
"Dad, we haven't practiced for a long time, let's practice, hehe!" Ziyi pulled Yike into the main room and closed the door.
"Dad, Ziyi bullied me. We agreed to just practice, but he hit me hard. Look at my hand." Yike stretched out her hand, and a faint muddy handprint appeared on her arm. It was the handprint left by Ziyi when he pulled her up when she almost fell to the ground. "Let me see. Damn it, why didn't I pay attention to the severity of the situation!" Ziyi grabbed Yike's outstretched hand, touched the handprint with his hand, and then, hehe! Then the handprint disappeared. Li Haoran said: "Ziyi, next time when you practice, be careful with your strength. Take Yike to wash your hands and go to bed."
Yike stuck out her tongue and obediently let Ziyi lead her away.
The next day, Yike and Ziyi got up early and ran around the village together. When they were running back, they met the team leader who was going to a meeting at the commune.
"Captain, good morning!"
"Captain, good morning!"
Ziyi and Yike no longer called Wang Guoqing uncle, but called him like other members.
"Good morning, both of you! Why call me captain? That doesn't sound strange. Just call me Uncle Wang as before." Wang Guoqing scolded.
"Uncle Wang, when there are no outsiders around, we just call you uncle, and when there are people around, we still call you captain." Ziyi also said.
"Okay, your father said he would go back today. Are you leaving?" asked the team leader Wang Guoqing.
"They're gone. They left before dawn. Uncle Wang, take care!" Ziyi said.
"Okay! If you have any problems, you can come to my house to find me. Don't be polite." Wang Guoqing said this and left.
"Oh, this village is so poor! The team leader doesn't even have a bicycle." Yi Ke sighed.
"Well! They are poor. There is little arable land, the grain yields are not high, and there are natural disasters and man-made disasters. How can they not be poor? But people are still simple and honest, which is a good thing!" Ziyi also agreed.
"Let's run!" Yi Ke said and started running first.
They ran back home and Li Haoran had already prepared breakfast. Li Haoran, whom Wang Guoqing just said had left, actually lied in order to avoid working on digging the cave.
After breakfast, the three men entered the tunnel and dug a cellar at the exit. Because the cellar was dug in the mountains, the soil was hard and occasionally there were rocks, so the excavation speed was a bit slow. The excavated mud cannot be dumped near the exit for fear of arousing suspicion. After all, this location is close to the mountain and there are many people coming nearby to collect firewood and cut grass. So they transported the excavated soil back to the courtyard. Coincidentally, a rudimentary cellar had been dug in the courtyard. If someone saw it, they would think it was soil dug from the cellar.
In the village, every household has a cellar, which is mainly used to store sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc. After the cellar is sealed, these sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc. can be stored for half a year without going bad. Only vegetables like radishes and cabbages cannot be kept for too long. But at least two or three months is still possible. In winter, when it is frost and snow outside, it is a very happy thing to have radish soup and vegetables on the table. It’s just that some families in the village have big cellars, while others have small cellars. So we planned to dig a cellar in the mountain, and then dig a big cellar in the courtyard and a small cellar in the wing.
It took Yi and his two companions three days to dig the cellar in the mountains. After the cellar in the mountain was dug, Li Haoran returned to his paradise on earth. The crops in the mountain needed pesticides, the fields needed weeding, and there were so many cows that needed looking after. In short, there was a lot of things to do.
…
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