Chapter 9: Eating well and wearing warm clothes become the most important things in life

After breakfast, Su Taotao decided to go to the cowshed to meet Teacher Cao and see what his attitude was.

Zhou Linglan said that they should wait until everyone went to work and there were fewer people around before going. He had treated the cows of the production team before, and now all the cows of the production team were under his care, so he should graze the cows in the back mountain.

Su Taotao nodded: "Then I will take care of Chen Chen today, and I will also cook lunch and dinner."

Zhou Linglan almost asked, "Can you cook? Why don't you go to the county today?" Fortunately, she held back. She was very pleased with Su Taotao's transformation. Anyway, there was only so much food at home, and she couldn't waste it, so she let her do as she pleased.

When Chenchen heard this, he ran to hug his uncle's thighs with his short legs.

Su Taotao: “…”

Chenchen is not stupid. Although his mother has become more approachable and seems to like him a little, he still feels safer staying with his uncle.

Fu Yuanhang smiled happily for a rare moment. His love for this little fellow was not in vain. He bent down, picked him up, and rubbed his little head: "Chenchen, I'll take him to school."

Although Su Taotao really wanted to take care of the child herself, she just pinched the boy's face and reminded him to miss his mother before saying goodbye to him.

Chen Chen still looked helpless, but he didn't avoid her hand.

In rural areas these days, all adults in the family have to go to the fields to earn work points. Either the eldest child in the family carries the younger ones to school, or they simply don't go to school and take care of their younger siblings at home and help with housework. Girls, in particular, are rare.

In fact, Fu Yuanhang is still a teenager, only eleven years old this year, and is in the fourth grade of the commune primary school. Chenchen has been going to school with him since he turned one year old.

Su Taotao, who has read many period novels, knows this, but the enlightenment stage of a child is very important. She plans to let Chen Chen adapt for a period of time, and then teach him herself in the future.

Those who were free went to school, those who were free went to work, and the only free person, Su Taotao, began to take inventory of the supplies at home.

Zhou Linglan was hardworking. She planted a lot of things in her family's private land. She stored a lot of coarse grains such as sweet potatoes, taro, potatoes, and cassava, but not much fine grains such as rice and flour. There was only a small pile of rice in a corner, and it was unknown whether there was more than 100 kilograms. Rice was the main food in the south, so there was only a small bag of flour, as well as various beans and a little glutinous rice. She also found a small jar of peanut oil.

Su Taotao was really worried. It was just the beginning of spring, and she didn't know if there would be 50 kilograms of rice after removing the husks from the pile of rice. The whole family would have to eat this little bit of grain for half a year. No wonder Zhou Linglan and Fu Yuanhang were reluctant to eat it.

However, they had a lot of dried goods in stock, such as dried mushrooms, dried black fungus, dried bamboo shoots, dried ferns, etc. These wild organic ingredients were definitely good things that could not be bought even if you had money in the 21st century. But in the 1970s, these were all "landlord dishes" and were not as good as wild vegetables and fruits when eaten alone, because they needed to be stewed with a lot of oil and meat to be delicious. Poor middle peasants like them simply could not "afford to eat" them, because not only did they have no meat, but each household was only allocated a small amount of oil.

Their production team is considered to be lucky, because they have a lot of fertile mountains and grow a lot of peanuts every year, and you can see some peanuts on the tables of every household.

Some production teams that don't have any mountainous land and are reluctant to use their fertile farmland to grow peanuts, especially those with many children, are reluctant to use oil when cooking. They just take a piece of gauze, dip it in a little bit and spread it all over the pot as if it were oil.

Su Taotao recalled that in her previous life, in order to lose weight, she often used boiling water to rinse off the oil on the vegetables before eating. The more she thought about it, the more she felt guilty.

Half an hour had passed since they finished taking inventory of the household supplies. Su Taotao thought that the only thing that could be considered a vegetable at home was eggs. After she said that in the morning, Zhou Linglan took out all the eggs hidden under the bed.

Zhou Linglan went to the supply and marketing cooperative to exchange eggs not long ago, and now she only has about ten cages. Even if the two hardworking old hens at home lay two eggs every day, and the four members of the family lay one egg each day, these ten eggs will not last for a few days.

It's so worrying. These days, having enough food and warm clothing has really become a major issue in life.

When it was almost time to go out, Su Taotao combed her hair into a big braid, changed into old gray clothes, and got some dust from the bottom of the kitchen stove and smeared it on her face. This way, no one could tell that she was naturally beautiful. At most, she looked a little whiter and more energetic than an ordinary country girl, so she wouldn't be too eye-catching.

Su Taotao took the loan note and photos with her and went out, being careful to leave through the back door.

Coincidentally, when Su Taotao walked to the door of the cowshed, she saw a man leading a cow out.

"Excuse me, are you Comrade Cao Guohua?" Su Taotao asked.

Although his temples were gray, he was still energetic and vigorous. The tall old man raised his head and looked at Su Taotao calmly: "I am, who are you?"

Su Taotao secretly looked at him and couldn't help but admire him. He was indeed a former soldier. Even though he had fallen into such a state, the soldier's spirit was still there.

"It's not convenient to talk here, can you please lend me your time to talk?"

Cao Guohua looked into her clear eyes, nodded, and pointed to the back mountain: "Let's talk there."

…