Chapter 24: The Power of Time

Time flew by, the grass grew, and the swallows returned. In the blink of an eye, it was spring 1963.

This year, Lin Yue’s production team was still assigned to the west mountain.

Looking around from the edge of the field, everyone was pale and thin, their spirits worse than in previous years.

There had been a drought for a whole year. The reservoir in the west end of the village had dried up.

Not only were the plants dying, but people were also running out of water.

Over the past few years, Lin Yue had secretly bought some sorghum and wheat seeds and planted them in the space. She repeated her trick several times, releasing some grain when everyone was about to give up.

Because of this, the land on the west mountain became precious. Everyone was eager to work here.

A while ago, Lin Yue planted five acres of sorghum on the other side of the ravine. This time, she didn’t even bother to hide it. The five acres were completely covered with dense sorghum, not a single weed in sight.

Everyone had been hungry for a long time, and people were checking the area every day. As soon as this field of sorghum appeared, it was quickly discovered.

Everyone was so excited that they shed tears. Several elderly people even knelt down on the spot, shouting “Thank you, Snake Goddess, for your protection.”

In this era, sorghum was known as the “life-saving grain.” Its yield was relatively high.

Because of the space’s enhancement, the yield of these five acres of sorghum was much higher than ordinary sorghum. It was densely packed without any gaps, and everyone finally harvested 30,000 jin of grain, enough to last them for three months.

In recent years, there had been frequent reports of people starving to death in other villages. After hearing about this, even more people in Xiaotuan Village secretly worshipped the “Snake Goddess” at home.

This also led to the village being able to weather the later great movements relatively smoothly. After all, almost every household in the village participated in feudal superstition activities, and their unity was particularly strong.

Lin Yue’s space didn’t lack water, but it couldn’t solve the problem of everyone’s lack of water.

She had tried to pour water into the well, but the water quickly seeped down, scaring her into stopping.

Later, the head of the brigade reported the situation to the commune, and they dug several deep wells, which finally solved the problem of drinking water.

Seeing that the weather this year was relatively good, and the policies had changed, people became very enthusiastic about growing grain. Almost no one slacked off.

Xiao Wanli and Lingling were almost two and a half years old. Lin Yue couldn’t carry them on her back while working, so she could only let them follow behind her, playing with them while working.

Lin Yue also built a triangular wooden hut on the edge of the field using wooden boards. The children loved it and fought to get inside.

Although she usually didn’t want to play with the little ones, with this wooden hut as an enticement, quite a few children were willing to come and play with them for a while.

Children like to play with older children, which is understandable. After all, Xiao Wanli and Lingling were too young compared to these children, so it was normal that they couldn’t play together.

With the wooden hut, the two little ones were less lonely. Lin Yue thought this was good and didn’t interfere too much.

Life had been difficult these past few years. No one in the village had gotten married, and no new babies had been born. Everyone loved these two little ones. In addition, Lin Yue was kind to everyone, and people were willing to help look after them when they had free time. They even gave them a nickname, “Little Workers.”

It had just rained a few days ago, and it was time to plant sorghum.

The two little ones were growing fast. They were already as tall as Lin Yue’s legs, with white and chubby skin like hers. They were also neat and clean, just like the dolls in the New Year pictures.

They were trotting behind her, and when Lin Yue scattered the seeds, they imitated the adults, kicking their little feet to cover the seeds with soil.

Unfortunately, their legs were short and their feet were small, so they could only kick up dust, making the people around them laugh.

Their team leader was Zhang Shouchang. He was driving the oxen ahead to plow the land. When he heard the laughter, he looked back and shouted from afar, “Wang Baodong, what are you doing standing around watching instead of working!”

Lin Yue looked over and saw a short young man leaning on a hoe, legs crossed, watching her. When he heard Zhang Shouchang’s shout, he jumped, his arm wobbled, and he almost dropped the hoe.

Lin Yue’s body had recovered over the past few years. She had gained some weight and no longer looked as skinny as when she first arrived. Although she dressed plainly and her face was still yellowed, her good foundation couldn’t be concealed. She had a good figure.

Moreover, she was a single woman with no husband at home. Some of the less respectable men in the village always liked to look at her and take advantage of her.

Wang Baodong was one of them. His father, Wang Tiejun, had fled to the village with his brothers years ago. He married a wife and settled down.

Wang Baodong’s mother was called Liu Aihua. She was a well-known shrew and troublemaker in the village. Most people would avoid her from afar, afraid of being entangled with her.

Moreover, Liu Aihua and Sun Hongmei were like two peas in a pod. They were very close. Lin Yue would avoid her whenever possible.

The Wang family and Lin Yue’s adoptive parents’ families had a long-standing…

The Wang family’s situation was somewhat similar. Between the two brothers, they only had one son, Wang Baodong, and no daughters. So, the whole family spoiled him rotten.

Wang Baodong was lazy and good-for-nothing, stealing chickens and dogs, and he always liked to tease shy young wives. He never worked before, but recently he’d been coming more often. However, he always slacked off, making him a target of the record-keeper and the team leader.

He straightened up and quickly explained, “I was watching the two little ones work. It’s quite interesting, haha…”

Wang Sanshenzi laughed, “It is quite interesting. I love watching them too. If you ask me, they should be given work points too. Look how well they’re working!”

Everyone laughed.

Wang Baodong was always smooth-talking, and some women in their forties and fifties loved to banter with him. Wang Sanshenzi often chatted with him.

Liu Jianhua was next to her mother-in-law. Seeing her about to continue talking to Wang Baodong, she secretly tugged on her mother-in-law’s sleeve, signaling her to ignore him.

Zhang Shouchang shouted, “Alright, get to work! Wang Baodong, come over here! Don’t let me catch you slacking off again!”

Wang Baodong scratched his nose, glanced secretly at Lin Yue, and went over with his hoe.

Lin Yue was afraid of tiring the two little ones, so she took them back to the edge of the field.

She took out her water bottle and gave them some water. Then, she caught a few grasshoppers, strung them together with dogtail grass, and used them to entertain them, while also answering their “ten thousand whys.”

The record-keeper knew that Lin Yue never slacked off when working and that it wasn’t easy to take care of her. He turned a blind eye to this, pretending not to see.

However, to avoid gossip, Lin Yue never took full work points.

Taking advantage of no one’s attention, she secretly took out two small strawberries from the space, one for each child, and stuffed them into their mouths. She winked at them and made a “shh” gesture.

The strawberries came from Xu Fu. Last year, his friend sent him a package, which included a strawberry seedling. However, the postal system wasn’t very developed at that time, and the seedling was already dead when Xu Fu received it. Luckily, Lin Yue saw it and asked for it, planting it in the space.

Xu Fu called the strawberries “Goryeo Fruits,” saying that they used to be grown here but were rare now. Only large cities like Shanghai and Beijing had them.

 The children didn’t react immediately. After eating the delicious strawberries, Xiao Lingling didn’t have time to care about her mother’s actions. Her eyes widened, and she shouted loudly, “Eyebrow!”

Xiao Wanli nodded vigorously and followed, “Eyebrow, eat eyebrow!” Then, he remembered that his mother didn’t want them to say it, so he covered his mouth and reached out to cover his sister’s mouth as well.

Lin Yue was too late to stop them. Fortunately, the two little ones didn’t speak very fluently yet, and they always called “strawberries” “eyebrows.” Others didn’t understand what they were saying.

The record-keeper laughed and teased the two children, “Little Workers, you’re always calling for eyebrows. You like eyebrows so much? Come on, show Auntie where your eyebrows are.”

Xiao Wanli shook his head vigorously, while Xiao Lingling pointed at her mouth and wanted to open it to show the record-keeper. Unfortunately, her brother was covering her mouth.

The record-keeper saw that neither of them answered the question correctly and laughed heartily.

Lin Yue could only touch the non-existent sweat on her forehead.

At noon, she prepared vegetable cakes for the two children, no different from those of other families.

Children should actually eat more meat at this age, but unfortunately, their mother didn’t even dare to kill a chicken. She had raised so many chickens, ducks, and rabbits in the space, but she could only look at them and not eat them.

Since they couldn’t eat meat, she could only make eggs and fish for them often.

But now they were outside, and she couldn’t be too conspicuous. Vegetable cakes were already considered a good meal.

After lunch, she coaxed the two little ones to sleep in the small tent.

The tent was made with an old bed sheet on the outside, and the bottom was also covered. There was an opening in the front for the children to enter and exit.

The opening was usually tied up with a rope to prevent insects from crawling in.

Lin Yue also placed many small bags filled with snake repellent powder in the four corners of the tent. She bought them from a pharmacy in town. It was a funny story.

Because of the brainwashing of TV dramas, she always thought that the most effective snake repellent powder was realgar. So, as soon as she entered the pharmacy, she said she wanted to buy realgar powder for repelling snakes. The old Chinese doctor who was seeing patients there gave her a lecture. She realized that snakes were afraid of pungent smells, not realgar. Moreover, realgar powder was actually poisonous and couldn’t be placed near children.

Lin Yue had only one thought at the time: “The Legend of the White Snake misled me!”

Fortunately, the old Chinese doctor prescribed her the correct snake repellent powder. It just had a strong smell.

She sprinkled the snake repellent powder around the tent and also placed several small bags around the inside. The two little ones were safe sleeping inside. Unless there were rats or something that could bite through the fabric, no ordinary snakes or insects could get in.