Chapter 9: Eating Enough and Staying Warm Became a Major Life Goal

After breakfast, Su Taotao decided to visit the cow shed and meet this Teacher Cao to see his attitude.

Zhou Linglan suggested waiting until everyone had gone to work, when there were fewer people, as Teacher Cao used to treat the cows of the production team and now managed them. He should be herding the cows in the back mountains.

Su Taotao nodded, “Then I’ll take Chen Chen today, and I’ll make both lunch and dinner.”

Zhou Linglan almost asked, “Can you cook?” but held back. She was very pleased with Su Taotao’s change. Anyway, there wasn’t much food at home, so there was no harm in letting her try; it wouldn’t be wasted.

When Chen Chen heard that, he quickly ran with his short legs to hug his little uncle’s leg.

Su Taotao: “…”

Chen Chen wasn’t silly. Although this mother had become easier to get along with and seemed to like him a little, he still felt safer staying with his little uncle.

Fu Yuanhang rarely smiled so brightly. Finally, the effort he’d put into this little guy wasn’t in vain. He bent down to pick him up and rubbed his little head, “Chen Chen, let’s go to school together.”

Although Su Taotao wanted to take him herself, she just pinched his little face, telling him to remember to miss his mom, before saying goodbye to him.

Chen Chen still looked helpless but didn’t shy away from her hand.

In rural areas back then, the adults had to work in the fields to earn work points. Either the oldest child would carry the youngest to school or, in some cases, children simply didn’t attend school but helped at home. Especially for girls, few really focused on school.

Actually, Fu Yuanhang was still just a big kid, only eleven years old, attending fourth grade at the commune’s elementary school. Chen Chen had been following him to school since he was one.

Su Taotao, having read many historical novels, knew this, but the early years of a child’s education were critical. She planned to let Chen Chen adjust for a while before teaching him herself.

With the adults at work and the children at school, the only free person, Su Taotao, started taking stock of the household goods.

Zhou Linglan had worked hard and planted many things in their own plot—sweet potatoes, taro, potatoes, cassava—but there wasn’t much fine grain, only a small corner of rice. There was barely a hundred pounds of rice, and in the south, rice was the staple food. There was only a small bag of flour and some beans, along with a little glutinous rice. She even found a small jar of peanut oil.

Su Taotao was really worried. It was only early spring, and they didn’t even have fifty pounds of white rice once the rice was milled. With just this little bit of fine grain, it had to last for half a year for the whole family. No wonder Zhou Linglan and Fu Yuanhang were reluctant to eat.

However, there were plenty of dried mushrooms, wood ears, dried bamboo shoots, and other dried wild foods. These organic ingredients, so valuable in the twenty-first century, were considered “landlord food” in the seventies, not to be eaten alone because they required a lot of oil and meat to taste good. For poor peasants like them, who had neither meat nor enough oil, they were unaffordable.

Their production team was relatively well-off with fertile mountain land, so they grew a lot of peanuts every year, and families often had some oil in their kitchens.

Some families, without much mountain land or peanut crops, especially those with many children, couldn’t afford to put much oil in their cooking. They would use a piece of cloth to dab a little oil and spread it over the pot.

Su Taotao recalled how she used to wash the oil off her vegetables while dieting in her past life. Thinking about it now, she felt guilty.

Half an hour later, after taking stock of everything, Su Taotao realized that the only protein left in the house was eggs. After she mentioned it earlier, Zhou Linglan had taken out the eggs hidden under the bed.

Zhou Linglan had swapped for some at the supply and marketing cooperative, and now there were about ten eggs. Even though the two chickens at home laid two eggs each day, with four people in the family, these ten eggs wouldn’t last long.

It was really troubling. In those days, having enough food to eat and clothes to wear had truly become a major life goal.

By now, it was almost time to go. Su Taotao tied her hair into a thick braid, put on her worn-out clothes, and even rubbed some ash on her face from the kitchen stove. This way, no one would notice her natural beauty—she’d just look like a plain village girl, a little fairer and more spirited, but not too conspicuous.

She took the IOU and the photo with her as she left, being careful to leave through the back door.

Coincidentally, when she reached the cow shed, she saw someone leading a cow out.

“Excuse me, are you Comrade Cao Guohua?” Su Taotao asked.

The elderly man, though his hair was graying, looked energetic and upright. He raised his head and calmly looked at her. “I am. Who are you?”

Su Taotao secretly observed him and couldn’t help but admire him. Despite his current situation, he still carried the spirit of a soldier.

“This place isn’t convenient for talking. May I speak with you somewhere else?”

Cao Guohua looked at her clear eyes, nodded, and pointed towards the back mountains. “Let’s go over there to talk.”