Chapter 30: Work

Gu Cheng left the house carrying the gifts, while Liu Yinyin looked at the kitchen filled with supplies and couldn’t help but smile. Finally, she could openly improve their meals.

Busy days passed, and soon it was the end of September. Most of the village’s grain had already been harvested, leaving only the sweet potatoes in the fields, which didn’t need to be collected urgently.

Since everyone had been exhausted from the harvest, the village chief announced a two-day break for rest.

Though the village’s sweet potatoes could wait, Liu Yinyin’s family needed to harvest theirs as soon as possible.

Gu Cheng’s job was already confirmed, and in three days, he would start working in the county town.

Once he started working, he would only have one day off per week. Worried that he wouldn’t have time to dig up the sweet potatoes later, he decided to harvest them before leaving for work.

That afternoon, the villagers finished their labor earlier than usual.

When Gu Cheng returned home, he grabbed a hoe and prepared to clear the sweet potato field in the yard.

Liu Mingyuan, knowing that his younger sister’s household was harvesting sweet potatoes these days, also came over to help.

With two grown men working, they could finish the yard’s sweet potato harvest before dark.

Liu Yinyin sat under the eaves, crunching on a red apple.

Jiang Cuihua came over to visit her daughter, bringing a basket of fresh vegetables.

Seeing Liu Yinyin sitting there like a landlord’s wife, leisurely eating an apple, she couldn’t help but click her tongue. “You’re really living the good life now.”

Who in the village wasn’t envious of her daughter? Her husband not only had a job with a salary but also took care of plenty of household chores.

All Liu Yinyin had to do was stay home and take care of her pregnancy, making the other women in the village jealous.

Liu Yinyin handed her mother an apple and said with a smile, “Mom, this is all thanks to you. You have great judgment for picking such a good son-in-law.”

Gu Cheng was truly an ideal husband—practically a model of devotion.

“Of course! So many suitors came to propose, but I set my eyes on him immediately.” Talking about this, Jiang Cuihua looked smug.

Although there had been some complications along the way, those were in the past. Now, her daughter wouldn’t have to worry about the future.

“But,” Jiang Cuihua warned, “inside your own home, you can live however you like, but when you step outside, don’t flaunt it too much.”

Times were hard for everyone. If they saw her eating well all the time while they struggled, jealousy could easily turn into resentment.

Over time, it could create unnecessary trouble.

Liu Yinyin nodded. “Got it. I’m not the type to show off.”

“Just be careful,” Jiang Cuihua advised, then changed the subject. “By the way, I forgot to ask—when is Gu Cheng planning to visit his parents?”

Her son-in-law had been working in the village recently and hadn’t gone home even once.

She knew that the young couple planned to live in the village, and while she felt a bit conflicted, she also understood that her daughter’s decision wasn’t exactly the most considerate one.

But since Gu Cheng was willing to compromise for her, as parents, they couldn’t interfere too much.

Liu Yinyin hesitated. “He said he’d go after the autumn harvest. So… probably after we finish digging up the sweet potatoes?”

“Then make sure he brings plenty of things when he goes,” Jiang Cuihua reminded her earnestly. “You two living separately already gives people something to talk about—you can’t also be accused of neglecting his parents.”

Even if his parents had their faults, they were still his birth parents. For Gu Cheng’s sake, certain duties had to be fulfilled.

Otherwise, it could affect their reputation.

Especially Gu Cheng—he was going to be a leader in the future. He couldn’t afford to be labeled as unfilial.

Speaking of Gu Cheng’s job, Jiang Cuihua was even more satisfied. He had been assigned as the deputy director of the county’s steel factory.

Oh my, the steel factory was the biggest factory in the county! Being its deputy director was definitely a high-ranking position.

Liu Yinyin nodded quickly. “I’ve already talked to him about it. Whether he gives them money or supplies, I have no objections.”

“You shouldn’t interfere—it’s their family matter. Blood is thicker than water, after all.” Jiang Cuihua felt reassured and got up to leave. “As long as you understand, that’s good. I’ll be heading back now.”

Liu Yinyin tried to persuade her mother, “Mom, stay for dinner.”

Jiang Cuihua declined, “If there’s nothing urgent, why would I eat here? I still have things to do at home.”

She was used to managing the household, and she wouldn’t feel at ease if she wasn’t there.

Liu Yinyin then said, “I’ll have Third Brother stay here for dinner later.”

This time, Jiang Cuihua didn’t refuse.

After sitting for a while, Liu Yinyin went to the kitchen to prepare the meal.

The next day, the two men worked hard all morning and finally finished digging up all the sweet potatoes from both fields.

The harvest was decent. While the yield wasn’t as high as in later years, it was still quite good. The sweet potatoes were now spread out in the yard to dry off the mud.

Liu Mingyuan teased, “Little Sister, there must be at least eight or nine hundred pounds of sweet potatoes here, if not a thousand. It’s just you and Brother-in-law—how are you going to eat all of this?”

They couldn’t possibly eat sweet potatoes every day, right?

Besides, sweet potatoes didn’t store well.

Liu Yinyin gritted her teeth. “And you call yourself a countryman? Don’t you know the saying, ‘When you have grain in hand, you won’t panic’? If sweet potatoes don’t keep well, I’ll dry them into sweet potato chips or make sweet potato starch noodles.”

Either way, seeing so many sweet potatoes made her happy.

During famine years, countless people wished they had sweet potatoes but couldn’t even get a bite.

“You just love making things complicated,” Liu Mingyuan muttered. He had eaten enough sweet potatoes to last a lifetime. Every year after the autumn harvest, their family would enter a period of eating nothing but sweet potatoes at every meal.

After finishing the harvest, Gu Cheng brought up the matter of visiting his parents.

“I’ll go tomorrow morning.” He only had two days left before starting work—if he didn’t visit now, he’d have even less time in the future.

Gu Cheng also planned to bring four items with him, the same as what they had given the Liu family: five pounds of rice and five pounds of refined flour. However, there would be no pastries or canned food this time.

Gu Cheng said, “Tomorrow morning, I’ll stop by the county to buy two more things—some pastries and fruit.”

Liu Yinyin suggested, “Why not buy two more pounds of pork?”

Buying pork would be much more practical than pastries and fruit.

Gu Cheng shook his head and said, “You’ve been in the village, so you don’t know the situation in the county.”

“What’s wrong?” Liu Yinyin asked.

Gu Cheng furrowed his brows and explained, “Recently, there was an outbreak of swine fever in various places, wiping out more than half of the pigs. Right now, pork supply in the county is extremely tight.”

“If people in the city want to buy pork, they have to line up before dawn. If they go too late, there won’t be any left.”

If even city dwellers struggled to get meat, it was even more impossible for those in the countryside.

Liu Yinyin had heard about the swine fever outbreak, but she hadn’t realized how scarce pork had become in the county. “Does that mean we won’t be able to eat pork at all in the future?”

Ever since Gu Cheng arrived, she hadn’t had a single meal with pork—at most, she had secretly eaten a meat bun to satisfy her cravings.

If things were already this bad this year, then next year… eating meat would probably be even harder.

Thinking about it, when people barely had enough food to eat, who would still bother raising pigs?

Gu Cheng comforted her, “Not necessarily. Once I start working, I’ll see if there’s any way to buy some pork.”

Speaking of pork, Liu Yinyin suddenly thought of the villagers who raised pigs.