Chapter 58 Eating from a Big Pot

Liu Zhizhi was eight years old this year. At this age, children were typically sent to school.

However, the village was simply too poor; not only was there no school, but there wasn’t even a classroom.

If the children in the village wanted to go to school, they had to attend the primary school in the commune.

But the commune was quite far from here. It took an adult more than an hour to walk there, let alone a child, so very few children from the village went to school.

It was even worse for girls; a semester of elementary school cost one yuan, and there was no one in the village who would send a girl to school.

It’s easy to imagine how remarkable it was for Liu Yinyin to graduate from elementary school; it was truly a rare occurrence in the village. Liu Laifu and his wife treated their daughter very well.

In fact, the original owner only attended school for two or three years. Back then, the rules weren’t as strict, and the Liu family gave a few benefits, which allowed the original owner to obtain a graduation certificate.

But it wasn’t really of much use. The original owner was older when she attended school, and her mind wasn’t focused on learning, so her grades weren’t great, which is why she didn’t continue.

Speaking of the commune school, it was impossible not to mention the changes that had occurred in the village over the past two months.

Recently, the village had indeed experienced several big events. The first one was that Liu Jia Village used to be part of the town, but now the town had become a commune.

Of course, such political matters had nothing to do with ordinary folks like her.

However, the next two big events were highly relevant to her.

The second thing was that the villagers’ remaining private land was taken back by the collective.

The land would still be used to grow crops, but it no longer belonged to the villagers.

Liu Yinyin’s family had two plots of land. With the private land confiscated, they were left with only the land in their yard.

The land wasn’t large enough to grow sweet potatoes, so Liu Yinyin’s family wouldn’t be planting sweet potatoes this year.

The final big event was that after the Lantern Festival, the village announced that a large communal kitchen would be set up.

All the villagers’ grain would have to be handed over and managed by the communal kitchen. From then on, the villagers would have to go to the kitchen for every meal, eating large pot meals together.

At first, most villagers were reluctant about this; they felt safer keeping the food in their own homes.

But this was a directive from the authorities, and the villagers had no choice but to comply.

Later, when they heard that other villages had set up communal kitchens where everyone could eat their fill every day, and that there was even white flour and white rice occasionally, the villagers’ complaints began to subside.

When the big kitchen was first set up in Liu Jia Village, they served hearty meals for a few days, and the villagers’ grumbling gradually decreased.

They thought eating in the communal kitchen wasn’t so bad; they didn’t have to cook for themselves, and they didn’t need to chop firewood as much.

Liu Yinyin felt a bit embarrassed. Although she had a thousand words to say, she couldn’t voice them.

“Aunt,” Liu Zhizhi interrupted her thoughts. “I can read these pinyin now.”

Liu Zhizhi helped look after the child, and as a reward, Liu Yinyin decided to teach her how to recognize and write characters, starting with some basic language and math.

Since she was bored anyway, after teaching Liu Zhizhi, she asked her to go and teach Gu Yan Yan.

Of course, Gu Yan Yan couldn’t understand anything right now, but that didn’t matter. As long as someone talked to him, he was happy, no matter what they said.

Anyway, one was willing to teach, and the other was happy to listen, so it was a win-win situation.

At the moment, Liu Yinyin was busy planting vegetables in the yard, while Gu Yan Yan was lying on the small bed Gu Cheng had made for him, at the door, with Liu Zhizhi beside him, talking to him.

Today, Liu Yinyin had taught Liu Zhizhi a few pinyin.

She noticed that this girl was quite interested in learning. Since Liu Yinyin decided to teach her characters, she had been coming over every day, clearly eager to learn.

Seeing that she had really learned the pinyin taught today, Liu Yinyin gave her a pencil and a notebook so she could practice writing them on her own.

As she wrote, she read the characters aloud to Gu Yan Yan.

Tsk!

Liu Yinyin suddenly felt that she wasn’t being a very responsible mother. However, there was nothing she could do—she couldn’t accompany him and talk to him all the time.

She continued busying herself with planting vegetables. The yard covered about two-thirds of an acre, and she planted more than ten to twenty different types of greens.

In addition to radishes, Chinese cabbage, cucumbers, eggplants, string beans, loofahs, potatoes, chives, and water spinach—common crops in the village—she also planted tomatoes, cauliflower, okra, and snow peas.

She even planted a row of muskmelons and watermelons.

Although she knew this year’s harvest wouldn’t be great, life still had to go on as usual.

By noon, Liu Zhizhi had gone home for lunch, so Liu Yinyin went to prepare a meal.

The grain they had to hand over was distributed after the autumn harvest. However, with the household’s consumption over this period, it was impossible to determine exactly how much had been used.

After all, when it came to grain, no villager would be completely honest. Every household had undoubtedly stashed away some food for themselves.

Liu Yinyin’s family only handed over the grain allocated by the village last year—what they had purchased themselves, they naturally wouldn’t submit.

Besides, they had a household member who was an official worker receiving rationed food, so she had to keep cooking at home.

Moreover, the amount of food she handed over wasn’t much, so the meals from the communal kitchen weren’t quite enough for them.

She steamed a few cornbread buns and stir-fried an egg. When Liu Zhizhi returned, she brought back the portion of food she received from the communal kitchen.

Liu Yinyin had asked Jiang Cuihua to help collect her share as well.

The meal from the communal kitchen consisted of a wild vegetable cornbread bun, a sweet potato, and a portion of stir-fried cabbage.

This was the season when food supplies were scarce, so the communal kitchen only had radishes or cabbage for every meal.

Liu Yinyin set the food on the table and invited Liu Zhizhi to eat with her.

The communal kitchen had only provided hearty meals in the first few days.

Liu Changquan wasn’t a fool—if he let the villagers eat to their hearts’ content every day, the submitted grain wouldn’t last long.

So for now, the meals at the kitchen weren’t particularly good.

Since the busy farming season hadn’t started yet, it was enough for the villagers to eat until they were about sixty percent full.

Liu Zhizhi was in a growth phase, and feeling hungry was tough for her. When Liu Yinyin called her to eat, she couldn’t resist the temptation.

In the afternoon, when Gu Cheng returned home, he brought back two small saplings—one red date tree and one peach tree.

He had asked someone to buy them from the neighboring county.

As soon as he got home, he grabbed a hoe and started digging. He planted both fruit trees in the yard.

Gu Cheng was skilled in farm work. With his white shirt sleeves rolled up, his muscular arms flexed as he tilled the soil. In no time, he had dug a deep hole.

Watching Gu Cheng planting the trees and watering them, Liu Yinyin suddenly thought of something and asked with a smile, “When are we going to dig a well at home?”

They had originally planned to dig one last year, but they never found the right time. Then, when winter arrived and the ground froze, it became impossible to dig.

So, the plan had been postponed until now.

Liu Yinyin figured that if nothing unexpected happened, there would be a drought this year. They couldn’t delay digging the well any longer.

Having a well at home would make water access much more convenient.

Gu Cheng turned to look at her and said, “Let’s do it this weekend.”

If they were going to dig a well, it had to be done early. Otherwise, once the farming season started, they wouldn’t be able to find anyone to help.