Lin Hongying couldn’t wait to bring her grandmother over. Her grandmother was currently in Guangxi Province, where the winters were warm, and the famine had been less severe.  

Heilongjiang, on the other hand, had been bitterly cold these past few months. Traveling in such weather would be too exhausting for an elderly person, so there was no rush to fetch her just yet.  

But Lin Hongying still needed to send her grandmother some supplies. No matter where you were, food was the most scarce resource this time of year. Sometimes, even with ration coupons and money, you couldn’t necessarily buy grain. The safest bet was to just send food directly.  

Lin Hongying opened the System. After several days of accumulation, her account had amassed [ ] points of grudge. Without hesitation, she exchanged them for thirty catties of rice and thirty catties of high-grade flour.  

Basic products in the system were relatively cheap, but ready-made clothing was expensive. Faced with the choice of spending twenty or thirty yuan on a single piece of clothing, Lin Hongying decisively opted for ten feet of thick cotton fabric and ten catties of cotton—enough for her grandmother to make three sets of padded winter clothes.  

No wonder every household in this era dreamed of owning a sewing machine. Who could afford ready-made clothes?  

Resentment points were hard to accumulate but frighteningly easy to spend.  

After purchasing these supplies, her account balance was nearly wiped out, leaving Lin Hongying utterly broke.  

She carefully packed the grain and headed to the post office to mail the parcel. Meticulously, she filled out a money order—she only had sixteen yuan left to her name, and she sent ten yuan to her grandmother, keeping just six for herself. If not for the recent windfall from the black market, she wouldn’t have even had this much.  

Did she frequent the black market because she enjoyed it?  

No—it was because she was poor!  

While at the post office, Lin Hongying also received a parcel from Beijing.  

With the New Year approaching, Grandpa Shao had sent her twenty catties of grain coupons, ten high-end pastry vouchers, ten three-foot cloth coupons, three milk powder coupons, and three malted milk coupons. He had also wired her a hundred yuan.  

When the postal worker counted out ten crisp new bills—the famed “Big Black Ten”—and handed them to her, Lin Hongying was so moved she nearly teared up!  

This was what a real grandfather looked like!  

Grandpa Shao’s generosity was like cool, sweet spring water offered to a parched traveler in the desert, relieving Lin Hongying’s most urgent needs.  

The “Big Black Ten” was a banknote printed in 1957 with assistance from the Soviet Union. The texture of the bill was unexpectedly soft and smooth, giving her a sense of security just holding it.  

At the center of the bill was an illustration of a male worker and a female farmer, symbolizing the unbreakable worker-peasant alliance and signifying that with the war over, China was now focused on building peace. Due to its limited circulation, the “Big Black Ten” would later become a legendary rarity in the collector’s world—a black swan of banknotes, with a single bill fetching 150,000 yuan in the future.  

After receiving the money and coupons, Lin Hongying immediately took out twenty yuan, twenty catties of grain coupons, and ten egg coupons and mailed them to her cheapskate grandfather.  

Using the special supply coupons Grandpa Shao had sent, she went to the high-end counter at the department store and bought a catty of imported milk powder and a can of malted milk.  

Her body was too weak—Lin Hongying needed to nourish herself, gain some weight, and build up her health.  

When she got home, she told Shao Qingfeng about it. “Grandpa sent me a lot of coupons and even wired a hundred yuan.” 

Shao Qingfeng responded indifferently, “If he gave it to you, then keep it.”  

He watched as Lin Hongying pulled items one by one from her heavy basket-a slab of pork belly, a bag of high-grade flour, two catties of rice, a can of milk powder, and a can of malted milk.

Lin Hongying no longer pinched pennies like before. Instead, she had become much more willing to spend, indulging in good food whenever she could.

The results were obvious. In less than half a month, her once-gaunt face had filled out, her complexion no longer sickly pale but rosy and healthy.  

…

Heilongjiang Agricultural Reclamation Harbin Management Bureau

Several cadres held stacks of test papers in their hands. “Director Nong, these are the exam papers from the Red Star, Peace, Long River, and Red Sun farms—a total of 1,806 papers. Do you want to review them yourself, or should we screen the better ones first?”

Deputy Director Nong Yanping waved his hand. “Give them all to me. I’ll look through them myself.”

This year’s production quotas were heavy, and the entire nation was counting on the Northeast to provide more grain. The continuous expansion of new farms had led to a talent shortage.

Unfortunately, misfortune never comes alone—several farms were struggling with poor production and management, plagued by endless problems.

This was where talent became crucial. This year’s written exam was unusual—Nong Yanping had inserted two additional questions, both addressing the very issues that had been giving them headaches. There were no standard answers, so he needed to personally evaluate the responses.

After reviewing five hundred papers in one morning, he grew increasingly frustrated.

The second-to-last question asked: “Pests cause significant reductions in grain yield every year, making them the enemy of the people. Please analyze how to combat pests such as stem borers, rice leaf rollers, and rice stem borers.”

Flipping through the papers at random, he came across one that read:

“The working class has strength! As long as we unite as one, we can defeat the enemy!”

Oh really? Based on what? His delusional optimism?

He flipped through another paper at random, where someone had written:

“Bugs fear fire! Our soldiers will raise the torch of victory and burn all the pests to death!”

Nong Yanping felt his vision darken.

Setting fire to pests in a field of nearly ripe rice… This was completely divorced from actual agricultural production—utterly devoid of common sense! 

And then there were even more outrageous answers…

“The power of the masses is boundless! If every citizen catches just one pest, we will eventually eradicate them all!”

What kind of nonsense is this?! The more he read, the more impatient he became.

“Where’s Director Yu?” he snapped.

One of the staff members replied, “Director Yu personally went to Beijing to invite an expert!”

Nong Yanping scoffed. “That old Yu—always so eager to kiss up to outsiders! Doesn’t he realize how much it costs to drag an expert all the way out here? Always wasting money on these extravagant schemes…”

Experts from Beijing were proud, aloof, and full of themselves—most of them had no interest in coming to the harsh, freezing wastelands of the Great Northern Wilderness.

Every time, the old cadres of the agricultural reclamation had to swallow their pride and beg them to come. Once they arrived, they had to be paid travel expenses. If they stayed for more than two months, they couldn’t work for free—they had to be given a salary, and it couldn’t be less than what they were making before. All in all, it amounted to paying double or more their original wages.

And the expenses didn’t stop there.

Accommodations had to be arranged for the experts, and to show enthusiasm, the leadership had to personally accompany them for several meals—each costing at least ten yuan per head.

And if the expert they invited still couldn’t solve the problem? Then they had to grit their teeth and invite more—one expert wasn’t enough, they had to invite a whole team of them…

When everything was tallied up, it was undoubtedly a colossal expense.

But compared to these idiots who turned exam papers into useless toilet paper, Old Yu’s approach was clearly the smarter one.

Just as Nong Yanping was about to lose his temper, a paper with neat, elegant handwriting caught his eye.

His spirits lifted instantly. He read silently:

“How to deal with sudden swine epidemics? I believe we should tackle it from two angles. First, the government must take the lead—

1. Strengthen awareness and treatment of the disease, scientifically organize relief efforts, and provide technical guidance to farmers and farms…

2. Develop emergency response plans, ensure relevant departments stock up on epidemic prevention supplies, and prevent the spread of the outbreak…”

Nong Yanping’s eyes lit up. He slapped his thigh and burst into laughter, exclaiming, “Excellent! When Old Yu gets back, he’d better serve me tea and apologize in person!”

The more he read, the more impressed he became. This answer was even more thorough than the “standard solution” he had envisioned.

After seeing this paper, he felt that the torture of reviewing these exams had not been in vain.

The examinee had even attached an extra sheet of paper, listing detailed herbal prescriptions:

“Common epidemics, such as infectious gastroenteritis, are caused by porcine epidemic viruses from the coronavirus family. Traditional Chinese medicine can be used—’Huoxiang Zhengqi San’—composed of 3g each of perilla leaf, areca peel, angelica root, and poria cocos…”

Nong Yanping eagerly read on, ready to order someone to test the prescriptions right away. But when he turned the page, the author had abruptly stopped writing, replacing the rest with a string of ellipses.

His excitement stalled mid-chest.

He flipped through the exam paper seven or eight times, scrutinizing every word.

“This little fox!” He slammed the table and cursed. “Hire her! I want to question her in person!”

…

After days of anxious waiting, the job Lin Hongying had been yearning for finally arrived.

One week after the written exam, the employment list for Heping Farm was posted.

Lin Hongying’s name was right at the top, appointed as the farm’s technical advisor—though with a small but significant addition in parentheses: (Temporary).

Even so, it was enough to make many people green with envy.

This was a high-paying position—69 yuan a month, classified as Administrative Rank 21. (The lower the number, the higher the rank and salary.)

College graduates were typically assigned jobs at Rank 23, meaning she was ranked higher than a university graduate.

The public notice also listed the ethnicity, gender, and birthdates of the hired candidates.

“Lin Hongying, Female, Han, Born August 29, 1941…”

“Whose child is this? So outstanding! Only nineteen and already outdoing college graduates?”

“A teenager like this should still be an apprentice—did the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau make a mistake?”

Voices of admiration and doubt rose and fell. This job was lucrative, a true “iron rice bowl”—enough to support an entire family on its own.

Lin Hongying wasn’t surprised by the result, but the “(Temporary)” notation did catch her off guard.

Probably due to concerns about her experience and education level.

But now that they’d let her in, she was confident she could shed that “temporary” label soon enough.