"I don't know, I just mentioned it casually, I haven't really thought about it yet. I was just thinking of asking you two."
"This method is indeed feasible, but why only two work points worth of pig feed per day?" Chen Enpeng asked.
"I'd like to do more, but do you think the people in the brigade won't have any objections if I do too much? Besides, two work points are just right, they don't stand out."
After thinking about it carefully, Chen Enpeng said, "That's true. If you can earn two work points a day, the two of us can probably only earn one."
"Even one work point is good; at least it'll save us some money on food next year," Chen Junjie said.
"You're right, but the most important thing Mianmian just mentioned is how to properly store the herbs. That's a problem."
"I originally planned to put them in nylon bags, but it's too hot in the summer and nylon bags aren't breathable, so I was afraid the herbs wouldn't be usable."
"What about the cloth bags we usually use? Those are more breathable."
"That's certainly possible, but we'll need to use a large bamboo basket."
"A big basket is fine, we can just carry it on a shoulder pole. We can also put the firewood on the basket and carry it together, which will free up space to carry a basket. What do you guys think?" Chen Junjie asked.
Chen Enpeng and I thought for a moment and said, "You're really smart."
“That is,” he said proudly.
"This way, we can earn work points by cutting pig feed, earn wages by digging medicinal herbs, and also prepare firewood for our families. We won't have to rush to prepare firewood for winter after the autumn harvest. We can also find plenty of food on the mountain, so we're no worse off than other families in the brigade," Chen Junjie said.
"That's true," Chen Enpeng said.
"Mianmian, aren't you planning to do more work during the week?"
"Why do so much? I'm not even 14 years old yet. It's the time when I'm growing. I can do more during the busy farming season, but I don't want to grow into a short person."
"All right"
"In this way, the two of us will have about 2010 work points next year. Based on this year's grain distribution, not counting other things, just the sweet potatoes we received, plus the rations for each person, minus the food for winter, ground into sweet potato flour, would amount to about 328 jin. Adding other grains and the food we find in the mountains, it seems that we really don't need to spend money to buy grain anymore."
"That's true," Chen Junjie said after a while.
"This is on the premise that you are not married and have established a career."
"Isn't it a bit premature to say that?" Chen Enpeng said.
"That's true," I said.
"Oh right, we've been calculating for ages, but we haven't even counted the private plots yet!" Chen Junjie suddenly remembered and asked.
Hearing him say it so clearly, I exclaimed, "That's really true!"
"My private plot is only one mu (approximately 0.1 hectares). Half of it is planted with vegetables, and the other half is planted with sweet potatoes. I roughly estimate that it weighs about 200 jin (approximately 100 catties)."
“That’s still quite a lot,” Chen Junjie said.
So, unlike the other educated youth in the brigade, the three of us didn't have to buy grain on credit. But when we went to collect our grain today, the brigade didn't deduct the amount from our first month's ration; it seems they'll deduct it during the New Year. They're planning to settle it then! By then, the brigade will be full of wheat, corn, and some other grains. But let's not even talk about wheat; just look at the corn—it has to be threshed before it can be handed over. It looks like in a couple of days we'll be working in the snow every day. Sigh, it's really worrying; it's so cold outside.
Anyway, since we haven't started work yet these past two days, I need to hurry into the city. One reason is to go to the post office to send some things to Uncle Shen, Senior Brother Zhang, and my older brother, and to deliver the New Year's gifts in advance, so that we won't be unable to go out after the heavy snow closes off the mountains.
Another thing is to collect the subsidy. As for whether to go to the grain store, we'll see when the coupons arrive. Also, I need to visit Uncle Zhou and Uncle Ma to deliver some mountain produce as an early New Year's gift. I also need to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to use up any expired coupons, otherwise they'll just go to waste.
Since we've come up with this idea, let's start preparing. But what should we prepare? We have walnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, mushrooms, and wood ear fungus at home, and in our storage space we have dates, dried peaches, dried apples, and dried persimmons, as well as the wild boar meat that my third and fourth brothers hunted last time. What should we send them?
Furthermore, even if each item is packaged at one jin (500g), each household would still have 10 jin (5kg). Giving this to just one person wouldn't be impressive, but sending it according to a list would be too conspicuous and attract attention. Not to mention others, just considering the military region and military hospitals alone, that's sixty or seventy portions. If each household receives ten jin, that's sixty or seventy jin. No, that absolutely won't do.
The last two packages I sent to the military region and the military hospital contained dried black fungus, mushrooms, and dried peaches; I'll take those out first. As for dried apples, it's apple season now, and besides, it's snowing where I am, so there's no way to dry them. Since dried apples won't work, then dried persimmons won't do either. Not only does making dried persimmons take time, but I've already been harvesting for 50 days straight, plus going up the mountain to gather firewood and find food; those won't work either, so I won't pack those.
That reduces the weight by half. If each family packs five jin (2.5 kg), it'll only weigh a little over 300 jin (150 kg) in total! Since we're not sending them to the same place, it should be fine, right? Let's pack them then!
After packing everything up, I first copied down the details of the military region and the military hospital, and then began writing letters to each place. The general content of the letters was the same: first, I greeted the elders, then inquired about their recent health, and then explained why I was sending New Year's greetings in advance. Then I described in detail what had happened there, such as going up the mountain to collect herbs and handing them over to the village to be delivered to the commune's purchasing station, describing the autumn harvest, the brigade members collectively going up the mountain to prepare firewood for the winter, and most importantly, describing the distribution of grain. I also mentioned how many work points I had earned since arriving at the brigade, how much grain I had received, and how much grain I had bought. This was to show that I had prepared enough to eat until next year's grain distribution, so the elders didn't need to worry.
I also included my plans for next year in the letter, telling them that I'm a child with plans and won't neglect myself. Actually, there was also a hidden meaning: they don't need to keep sending me things.
After everything was ready, we started packing the parcels. We found there were quite a lot, about four large sacks. But no problem, we'll just carry them on a shoulder pole tomorrow. We only make a big fuss once or twice a year.
After finishing everything, I thought about selling the medicinal herbs in my space and a batch of eggs tomorrow while I went to the city. As for the dried persimmons and other things in my space, I'll save them for later and sell them after spring arrives and I can go to the city, or I can just leave them in my space like the eggs and sell them later.
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