Chapter 23: “Divine Grain from Heaven”

The area around Xiaotuan Village was mostly mountainous, with poor soil unsuitable for planting.

Furthermore, the mountains were covered with rocks and trees, not all of which could be cleared for farmland. Only some fertile areas were cultivated for food.

As a result, the farmland was scattered, appearing in patches here and there, unlike the vast stretches of grain fields on the plains.

Watering the mountain land was also inconvenient. People had to carry buckets on shoulder poles to the water holes in the mountain hollows.

The mountains weren’t like scenic areas in later times. Many places had no roads to speak of. People could only go down the relatively flat areas. The surroundings were full of weeds, making it impossible to see the path below. If they stepped into a pit, they would twist their ankles.

This wasn’t like farming in the space. In the space, due to the bonuses, Lin Yue barely felt any fatigue.

But now it was different. The village only had a few cows, so plowing the land still relied on manpower.

By the end of the day, even adult men would be exhausted. While Lin Yue’s strength had increased significantly, it wasn’t easy.

She had been here for a long time, and she used to occasionally feel like this world wasn’t real. After working in the fields for so long, she was now more awake than ever.

She deeply understood why people were sent to farms for their mistakes. Physical labor truly tempered one’s will.

When Lin Yue went to work, she brought a wooden board and a few sticks. When she reached the field, she used them to build a simple wooden table, with railings around it, like a small bed.

When it was inconvenient to carry the children, she would put them on the table, so she wouldn’t have to worry about them being bitten by insects in the grass.

It was fortunate that she was now strong enough to carry these things back and forth such a long distance every day without feeling too tired.

However, she had also heard the village elders say that a young woman once put her child to sleep in the field while working. A snake crawled into the child’s mouth. The snake wriggled around in the child’s stomach, unable to find its way out, and the child was slowly killed by the snake.

Lin Yue felt a chill run down her spine after hearing this. So, except when she had no choice, she never let the two children out of her sight.

Today, because she had to carry water, Lin Yue placed the two little ones on the small wooden bed and asked Liu Shiliang, the youngest son of Jin Aji, to watch over them. She then carried two buckets and went to the nearby mountain hollow to fetch water.

Following the mountain hollow westward, there was a narrow ravine. The cliffs on both sides of the ravine were covered with rocks, and the ground and the cliffs were covered with a kind of vine called “Prickly Bull’s Egg”.

Just by hearing the name, you knew this plant was not to be trifled with.

If someone was accidentally pricked by it, they would instantly have a bloody gash.

Moreover, a kind of snake called “Wind-Tip Snake” lived in this ravine. They were incredibly fast, like they could fly on the grass. It was said they were poisonous.

Therefore, even though this was still the outer edge of the mountain, the villagers all avoided this area. Occasionally, children would be scolded by their parents if they caught fish or shrimp in the creek here during the summer.

Lin Yue took advantage of the fact that no one was around and quietly walked towards the ravine.

She had always been afraid of snakes, in both her lives.

She was only able to come here because it wasn’t warm enough yet, and the snakes hadn’t come out of their holes. She had also done some mental preparation for several days.

Lin Yue stopped about ten feet from the ravine. She looked around, making sure no one was coming, and then extended a hand towards the ravine.

In an instant, the four or five acres of land in front of her was covered with crops. It was full of potatoes, peanuts, and corn, all of which were almost ripe.

She quickly glanced at this field of crops she had created and turned to leave hastily.

Lin Yue wasn’t worried that others wouldn’t notice the anomaly here. It was just getting warmer now, and there weren’t too many dense plants in the ravine yet. Suddenly, there were so many crops, including corn that was over six feet tall. This strange “wild crop field” would definitely be discovered.

However, she didn’t want to be noticed, so she left the “crime scene” quickly.

Sure enough, not long after, the workers started to stir.

Four or five children, including Liu Shiliang, were too young to help in the fields. They were running around everywhere, and the adults couldn’t stop them even if they shouted themselves hoarse.

As it turned out, these mischievous children ran back just now, yelling that they had seen a lot of corn and sorghum.

At first, none of the adults took them seriously. This was the way it was in this era. Children were left to fend for themselves, and no one paid attention to what they said.

Finally, some of the parents were so annoyed by their children that they picked up a stick from the ground and chased after them, shouting to beat them. They were led by the children to the mountain hollow and discovered the “wild crop field”.

The children felt very proud and spread the news everywhere.

They were like little heroes who had won a battle, their chests puffed out, proudly boasting of their achievements.

Several adults had originally planned to keep it a secret, but now it was impossible.

The news quickly spread throughout the entire production brigade. When the head of the brigade and the village secretary heard about it, they immediately dropped their work and rushed over with their people.

Zhang Zhiqiang brought several young men and carefully inspected the “strange” crop field. They found that apart from the extra weeds, there was nothing wrong.

Moreover, the crops in this field were about to be harvested, which made him overjoyed. He immediately announced that the grain would be harvested tomorrow and arranged for a ten-person team to guard the area that night.

However, the guard duty turned out to be very popular. The number of people had to be increased to 25.

The next day, before dawn, the team leaders hadn’t even beaten the gong, and everyone in the village had already arrived at the mouth of the mountain hollow on the west mountain, carrying their farming tools.

In this field, he crops were growing wild and disorderly, without any pattern. They were so densely packed that it was particularly troublesome to harvest them.

But no one complained about the trouble at this time. Everyone was eager to get started, their spirits high.

After spring, very few families could avoid going hungry. Now, seeing so much grain all of a sudden, many people couldn’t help but lick their lips, their eyes filled with longing for food.

However, no one dared to have any crooked thoughts at this time. Not a single person tried to hide any grain.

The reason was that only about twenty people were assigned to harvest the grain. The rest of the villagers were standing on the edge of the field and on the hillside, watching! With so many people watching, not only did they dare not have any ulterior motives, but they also had to try their best to appear honest and upright, afraid that they might accidentally anger the crowd and be torn apart by them.

This field of crops was truly miraculous. It was just starting to warm up, and the fields had just started to be planted. Except for wheat, no one had ever heard of crops growing in winter and being ready for harvest in April.

Rather than calling it “wild crops,” people thought it was more like some god had seen how pitiful Xiaotuan Village was, enduring hunger and starvation, and had bestowed upon them “divine grain” to save their lives.

Moreover, because it was rumored that this ravine was the lair of the Wind-Tip Snake, some people even secretly set up an altar for the Snake Goddess at home.

Lin Yue was horrified when she heard about it.

Why worship anything, she was terrified of snakes!

Zhang Zhiqiang was always cautious and had already issued a gag order, forbidding anyone from talking about this matter.

He explicitly stated that if anyone spread the word, they would not only lose their share of the grain next time, but their entire family would be excluded.

In this era, what the production team leader said sometimes carried more weight than the emperor. Moreover, everyone was afraid that other villages would hear the news and come to borrow grain. Even wives who usually favored their families dared not say a word.

The crops produced in Lin Yue’s space had a high yield, but even with that, it was only four or five acres of grain. There were nearly five hundred people in the village, so the actual amount each person received was not much. Even if they saved it, it would only last about a month.

However, with this grain, they could survive until the vegetables in their private plots were ready, and then they could wait for the new grain harvest in June. At least they wouldn’t starve to death.

As for the future, Lin Yue remembered that the situation seemed to improve in 1962, and people’s lives started to get better slowly.

Later, she realized she had assumed too much. There hadn’t been any major natural disasters in this area in the previous few years. The famine in these years was mainly due to policy mistakes, a problem that existed throughout the country.

Later, when the policies were adjusted, the lives of the people across the country improved, but the people living in this area faced even greater challenges.

However, that was a matter for the future.

Xiaotuan Village was bustling at this time. They had just finished distributing the grain, but some people were still dissatisfied. They urged everyone to go deeper into the mountains to see if there was any more “divine grain”. They were stopped by the village elders and the head of the brigade.

Da Cang Mountain was a continuous mountain range. The several villages living nearby all knew that there were wolf packs in the deep mountains.

There had been cases of wolves coming down from the mountains to harass the villages before. They had been repelled by the villagers working together a few times, and they were scared off and never dared to come down again. They lived in peace with the villagers at the foot of the mountain.

Moreover, during previous famines, some people had been unable to bear the hunger and had gone into the deep mountains to find food, but few had returned safely.

After these painful lessons, it became a common understanding that no one should go into the deep mountains. Naturally, those who brought it up now were reprimanded.

After things settled down in the village, Lin Yue went back to Donglinjia Village to deliver some food to Xu Fu.

Xu Fu had saved her life before, and everyone in Donglinjia Village knew about it.

She didn’t avoid anyone when she went to see Xu Fu. She went openly, carrying a basket of wild vegetables.

Lin Yue now had a small stone mill and could grind corn into flour. Everyone thought she was giving Xu Fu wild vegetables, but she was actually giving him corn flour and potatoes.

Wild vegetables were also good. This was a time when there was a shortage of food. People had already searched all over the mountain for wild vegetables, and they were getting harder and harder to find. In the eyes of others, she was considered a grateful person for being able to give wild vegetables to her benefactor at this time.

However, Xu Fu lived alone, and Lin Yue was afraid of gossip, so she didn’t stay long. She left after dropping off the food.

As for Lin Ershu’s family, she didn’t even go to their door.

After all, she was already married, so she wasn’t afraid of people saying anything.

Well, she was a hypocrite.

After going back to Donglinjia Village, she learned that life in other villages was even more difficult than in Xiaotuan Village. On the road, she even saw people peeling bark from trees to eat, and there were many people in the village who had edema.

Lin Yue felt helpless.

She did have some food in her space. It wasn’t much, but she could save more people if she wanted to.

But if she chose to blindly save people, the consequences might be more than she could bear.

If she was discovered, or if it attracted the attention of the authorities, she didn’t know if others would be able to survive until the wheat harvest, but she probably wouldn’t live to see that day.

Therefore, Lin Yue specifically talked to Xu Fu about this. She took out some food and asked Xu Fu to occasionally help the children in the village.

Xu Fu knew that Lin Yue had received Zhang Yuandong’s allowance and mistakenly thought she had been to the black market, but he didn’t say anything reproachful.

He was a well-known red capitalist in Lu Province and had donated almost all of his wealth during the war.

Those who had come through that era were all people with a heart for the world. He was pleased with his daughter’s actions at this time and gave Lin Yue almost all the money and tickets he had on him.

Lin Yue couldn’t bear to refuse his kindness. She left him enough money and tickets to live on, and she kept the rest. She just worked harder in the space to grow grain and secretly sent it over in the future.