The rice was already steamed, and the rich aroma of sweet potato rice filled the entire kitchen. Sunlight shone through the gaps, forming a pillar of light that fell straight into the iron pot.

In rural areas, it was common to prepare the day’s meals in the morning. Wen Jiajia followed local customs and planned to do the same, but there were no natural gas stoves or induction cookers in the 1970s.

She stir-fried the vegetables first. There was no meat at home, and Wen Jiajia couldn’t make it appear, so she could only stir-fry the cabbage. At this time, the cabbage was sweet and crisp, not at all like the cabbage grown in greenhouses decades later. Wen Jiajia felt she had to eat and cherish it, and after eating this batch of vegetables, she feared she wouldn’t be able to eat as she wanted.

Because she didn’t know how to grow vegetables.

Or more accurately, she probably wouldn’t grow vegetables in this era, because growing vegetables in this era required using farm manure, and she was not willing to accept that.

The most significant concession she had made was entering the pit.

After stir-frying, she cooked another bowl of soup. The highlight of the cabbage and egg soup was using rice soup as the base. The rice soup was thick, the cabbage was crisp and tender, and the eggs were boiled into flocculent pieces. She added a little salt and some rural rice wine, and the fragrant cabbage egg soup was ready.

The two girls had been waiting for a long time. They were braver than yesterday, helping to distribute the dishes and chopsticks, and they also obediently washed their hands first.

 Wen Jiajia said, “Let’s start eating!”

As for brushing their teeth… the two girls didn’t have toothbrushes, so Wen Jiajia instructed them to rub their teeth with salt instead. Consequently, the two girls’ faces wrinkled up from the saltiness.

Wen Jiajia moved her chopsticks first, and when the girls saw her start eating, Wen Chun and Wen Xuan picked up their spoons. Wen Chun carefully scooped a spoonful of soup, blowing on it twice before taking a slow, shallow sip. Her eyes lit up, feeling that the soup made by her aunt was more delicious than that made by her grandmother.

The soup was white and thick, with each spoonful containing slippery eggs and crunchy chopped cabbage. Seeing that the sisters liked the soup, Wen Jiajia poured some into their bowls, stirred it, and served it with dried radishes made by their grandmother. The sisters ate happily.

Normally, you would go to work after eating. But here was the problem: Wen Jiajia’s household registration had not yet moved to the Fuyang Brigade; it was still registered in the city. As for Wen Chun and Wen Xuan, none of the team jobs were suitable for them. In other words, their family of three was “unemployed” for the time being.

So, what should they do today? Wen Jiajia was thinking about it when a voice came from outside the house: “Is Jiajia at home?”

“Yes, yes!” She hurriedly put the bowl in the basin and rushed to the hall.

“Why didn’t you open your door at this time?” The speaker was Fang Liuyu, the women’s director of the team. After thinking about it, she added, “But there are only you and two children at home, so it’s better to keep the door closed.”

Wen Jiajia opened the heavy door and asked, “Is there something you need, Auntie?”

Fang Liuyu said, “I want to ask when you will move back your household registration. Autumn harvest is coming soon, and once your household registration is moved back, you will be able to record work and receive food.”

As soon as the word “food” was mentioned, Wen Jiajia felt a sense of familiarity. She remembered hearing about this system from elderly villagers during a video shoot in her previous life.

At this time, rural areas implemented a division of labor system, and the food quota was to ensure that no one in the team starved.

Six people working four times was the grain distribution policy. After selling the patriotic grain, the remaining grain was distributed to every team member, including Wen Chun and Wen Xuan, who couldn’t do much work.

But there were no people like Wen Jiajia who were about to harvest in the autumn and move back to the team. The team decided to help her family because they were pitiful.

The premise was that she had to be registered in the village. Don’t underestimate this food quota; although it wasn’t enough to fully feed people in a good year, it could definitely prevent starvation.

Wen Jiajia had been considering keeping her city household registration for easier job opportunities. But learning about the food quota, she decided to move her registration back, as food was the most critical need now.

Without relying on Wen Chun and Wen Xuan’s food quota, her family would starve within two months. Although the Wen family had some food left for this year, Wen Jiajia was someone who felt anxious if her mobile phone battery was below 50%. She knew how wasteful she was in farm work and how difficult it was to find a job during these times. So, before saving enough food for her and her nieces to eat for two years, Wen Jiajia resolutely prioritized food collection.

Wen Jiajia hurriedly said, “I will go to the county to move my household registration the day after tomorrow. This can be done in one day.”

Fang Liuyu said, “Won’t your parents be buried the day after tomorrow? The captain asked his mother-in-law to help choose a location, which is at the Peach Blossom Pass. It will take more than half an hour to get there from your house.”

Wen Jiajia patted her head, almost forgetting about that: “Okay, then I’ll go to the county the day after tomorrow.”

Fang Liuyu said, “You can familiarize yourself with our team today. If you have any difficulties, just say so. Your parents were good people and got along well with everyone on the team.”

This was true; the Wen family couple were indeed good people. Wen Jiajia nodded, “I know.”

Fang Liuyu didn’t stay long after conveying the matter and left after seeing Wen Chun and Wen Xuan.

Wen Jiajia had planned to walk around the team today, so she put the old clothes she had taken off last night in a bucket, closed the door, and took the mallet and the two children to the center of the village.

The Wen family was indeed remote enough; after going out, they walked about 200 meters before seeing another house. Between the two houses was an open field, probably the vacant homestead of the team.

The number of people on the team was increasing year over year, and homesteads were very tight. Such a piece of land should be divided among four families.

The family’s surname was Chen, and like the Wen family, they were also outsiders who had fled the famine many years ago. The Wen family and his wife were not locals; they fled here when they first got married. Wen Dad was the only son in the family, and his parents died on the way to escape the famine. But Wen’s mother was different; her hometown was in River Province, far away.

In these years, with no mobile phones and inconvenient transportation, the two families had not been in contact for a long time.

Although the Chen family was like the Wen family in being outsiders, the difference was that the Chen family was prosperous and flourishing, with several sons and daughters who built a large network of relationships through marriage, making their lives much better than those of the Wen family.

The Chen family’s aunt, Zhang Xiuli, was still strong in her 50s and was drying clothes in the courtyard at that moment. Seeing the Wen family’s aunt and nieces outside the door, she shouted through the courtyard gate, “Your name is Jiajia, right? Where are you going?”

Zhang Xiuli didn’t invite them to sit because the Wen family had just finished the funeral less than seven days ago, and generally, no one would be willing to let them into their house.

Wen Jiajia said, “Hello Auntie, I’ll go wash clothes. Also, I’m not familiar with our village, so I’m taking this time to walk around.”

Zhang Xiuli smiled, “Okay, then you go ahead.”

As she spoke, she stared at Wen Jiajia several times, making Wen Jiajia feel uneasy. She almost couldn’t help but look back as she walked.

Watching Wen Jiajia’s departure, Zhang Xiuli observed her for a few seconds before entering the courtyard to continue drying clothes.

What’s on her mind? I heard that the third child of the family grew up in the city and looks similar to the educated youth who just went to the countryside in the educated youth courtyard, whose palm-sized little face is so white that she can dazzle in the sun.

Her youngest son is proud of such a girl. He used to always run behind the buttocks of female intellectuals, helping them with work and delivering eggs to them. When this educated youth is dark, he will focus on the young man who has just arrived and is still white and tender. That is, there was a recent incident in the next county where an educated youth jumped into the river, which caused the Youth Office and the commune to be angry, and he finally stopped for a while.

It is said that no one understands a child better than their mother, and Zhang Xiuli thinks that her youngest son most likely also likes the third child of the Wen family.

If the Wen family were still here… then this family business would also be good. After all, the Wen family is honest and can still do it. Men can get 10 centimeters, and even women can get 8 centimeters.

We have been neighbors for so many years, and I know them well, and it would be convenient to come and go when the time comes.

But now it’s not good, and now Wen Lao San is under a lot of pressure. The two children have to be raised by her aunt, and whoever marries her will have to take over the hot potato, and they will have to take care of two children.

She sighed, thinking that she had to hurry up and finalize the marriage of her youngest son. In the eyes of the villagers, it has nothing to do with running behind the buttocks of the educated youth, but if he provokes the girls in the village, they will gossip about him.

Laundry kiosk.

At half past nine o’clock at this time, there was no one in the laundry booth, so Wen Jiajia was very lucky to enjoy the laundry kiosk alone.

It’s easy to do laundry here because the banks of the river are plastered with cement on both sides, and it’s very smooth. However, when washing clothes, she had to bend over and squat, and after washing for ten minutes, Wen Jiajia had back pain and numb legs.

She really wasn’t fit for housework.

Wen Jiajia smashed her clothes with a mallet, venting her frustration from the past two days on her clothes.

Not to mention, the effect was quite good.

The bad mood was vented, and the dirty clothes were cleaned.

Families without soap and brushes have to rely on a pair of hands and a mallet to wash their clothes.

While she was doing the laundry, the two girls obediently stayed nearby and caught small fish.

At this time, the river water was clear and clean, and there were many trash fish and crabs in the river, and even loaches.

Speaking of which, now is the time to eat loaches and yellow eels, which she used to capture when she took the video, so Wen Jiajia had the idea of catching loaches and yellow eels.

Thinking about it, the clothes were washed.

“Go home!” she said to the two children.

Wen Jiajia got up with the wooden pillar, thinking that she was still a lazy village person, and she wanted to go home and lie down.

When she got home, she dried her clothes in the backyard.

The sunshine in the front yard and backyard of the house was very bright, and Wen Jiajia didn’t want to climb the stairs, so she quietly stole a lazy look.

As a result, in the middle of the afternoon, several chickens pecked each other, raising bursts of dust. Wen Jiajia looked at the clothes that stuck to the dust, and in an instant, half of her heart died.

Rubbing her sore arms, she thought: Laziness is really a curse.

There was no way, Wen Jiajia could only take the clothes to the sink in the vegetable field, wash them again, and then hang them on the terrace.

The dried vegetables on the terrace could also be collected, and she put them all away in the attic room, and then found that there was still a small half-bag of kuay chips in the attic.

What are kuay slices? Foods similar to potato chips. It’s just that potato chips are made from potatoes, while kuay chips are made from rice.

The rice is made into rice kueh, and then cut into kueh slices, which can be stored for a long time after drying. When you want to eat them, you can fry them in sand or salt, and you can eat them after they are fried.

However, this is a luxury that can only be eaten during the Chinese New Year, and Wen Jiajia had no intention of finishing them now.

She also found several pieces of iron in the corner. The iron was blocked by the barrel, and it was impossible to find it without removing the barrel.

Wen Jiajia took a closer look and found that there was a lock, a knife with several gaps missing, a few nails, an iron planer, and a sickle that was rusty to the point of breaking.

This was left over from the time when the Wen family was making steel, and the original owner had not been adopted at that time, and there was this incident in her memory.

Father Wen was making steel in the commune at that time, and seeing that the commune had not made a name for itself for several months, he secretly brought back what he had handed in.

But he didn’t dare to show these things in front of people, so he could only hide them secretly in the attic, for fear of being searched.

Later, the commune’s steelmaking team suddenly made a big inspection. The reason was that the commune’s iron was suddenly missing hundreds of catties.

It’s just that Daddy Wen was timid, and he never dared to take these things out again, until he was discovered by Wen Jiajia at this moment.

Wen Jiajia muttered secretly: “These things, if you take them to the scrap collection station, you may be able to exchange them for a few cents.”

As she spoke, she picked up the notched knife and looked at it, thinking that this might be able to stay and cut vegetables in the vegetable garden.

She also put these iron tools out one by one, ready to find an opportunity to pull them to the scrap yard to sell.

[Ding, is it synthetic?]

Just as Wen Jiajia picked up the last few iron nails, an electronic sound suddenly sounded in her head.

She burst into tears and said that she couldn’t be so unlucky all the time. No, no, a cheat is coming.

The belated cheat can be regarded as online.

***

If you’d like to show your appreciation, consider buying me a coffee—it really helps me keep going! 𖹭