Chapter 26: Delivering Grain to Town

“Sister Shuning, my mother is going to fertilize the small green vegetables, radishes, and Chinese spinach tonight. If you want to pick some, go now; you can’t eat them for a week after fertilizing.” Goudan’s hands were sticky, covered in pigweed juice.

“Okay, I’ll pull a few radishes.” He Zhuzhu’s vegetable garden had more than just those three vegetables; even if they didn’t eat them for a week, they wouldn’t worry about running out of vegetables.

Radishes stewed with pork ribs would be perfect for this weather, but unfortunately, the chickens in her space didn’t have a one-week growth cycle.

Naturally pressed rapeseed oil was particularly fragrant, especially when cooking meat dishes.

However, rapeseed oil had a strong aroma that would affect the flavor of vegetables, so Wang Shuning usually used soybean oil for stir-frying vegetables.

Several plastic bottles were placed in the corner of the wooden house. The rapeseed oil was dark, yellowish-black, and looked very pure.

The soybean oil was golden yellow, clear to the bottom, without any impurities.

She had sold a total of seventy-five yuan at the black market last time, and with what Song’s mother had given her, Wang Shuning now had less than two hundred yuan left, and her coupons were almost depleted.

People living in town didn’t have many coupons; to get more, she would have to go to the county.

The next day, the village had ten carts, two ox carts in front, and the carts held twice as much grain as the ox carts.

According to team leader He Daniu, the oxen were the village’s collective property, used for plowing, and were quite valuable. Pulling too much would cause too much damage if they were injured. There were many people in the village; it was fine to put the grain on the carts and have the villagers push them.

Wang Shuning remained silent about this. Treating people like oxen wasn’t unusual. If there were tractors or trucks, they could have transported not only ten carts, but double that amount, all at once.

Because the village had limited carts, they would make two trips today and another trip tomorrow morning to finish transporting everything.

Wang Shuning’s cart was the third one in line, with the first production team leader, He Daniu, leading the way.

For this grain delivery, the village chief, accountant, and two production team leaders all came, leaving the scorekeeper and the third production team leader to guard the village.

Wang Shuning rested her hands on the sacks, bending over. It hadn’t rained in a few days, so the ground was dry, and her feet could slip at any moment if she pushed too hard.

Zhang Meili’s cheeks were flushed, and her nostrils flared with each breath.

“This cart has two thousand catties, and only five people are pushing it. They’re going to kill us!” Zhang Meili panted, her voice rough.

He Chunxi looked at the two female educated youths on either side and shook his head helplessly. “I know you educated youths have less strength and are prone to falling behind, so I arranged you in the front; otherwise, the front of the team would reach town, and you’d still be lagging behind.” This had happened before.

Wang Shuning’s forehead was slightly sweaty. Only twenty minutes had passed, and it would take an hour to reach town. At the current pushing speed, the time would definitely be extended.

Fortunately, they had eaten a good breakfast; otherwise, their stomachs would be rumbling halfway there.

Village chief He Haiming looked towards the approaching team at the entrance; that was the grain transport team from Zhongzhou Village next door. They had fallen behind again. He turned and shouted to the team, “Let’s speed up; otherwise, we don’t know how long we’ll have to queue in town.”

Many villages were delivering grain today. The town government had to weigh each sack and check the quality of the rice, which was very time-consuming. If they couldn’t return to transport the next load by noon, tomorrow’s task would become heavier, and if they transported another load tomorrow, they would still have to transport it the day after tomorrow, wasting a whole day.

Wang Shuning’s shoes lacked traction and kept slipping. With He Haiming’s urging, she clearly felt the carts behind closing the distance. If they didn’t speed up, they would be criticized for being slow and holding everyone back.

Seeing Wang Shuning and Zhang Meili sweating profusely, He Chunxi couldn’t let them stay behind. The three behind were the main force, and these two girls couldn’t push.

“You two come here; you two go to the side and help push, and don’t let the sacks fall.” He Chunxi stopped and shouted to both sides.

Two young men who were pushing hard on both sides immediately let go and came to the back to replace Wang Shuning and Zhang Meili.

…

As they were about to enter town, they were blocked.

The village chief took off his hat and went to check the situation. The road from the town entrance to the government grain station was completely blocked; everyone was queuing.

He Haiming’s face was full of frustration. They wouldn’t be able to get to their turn without queuing for two or three hours; if the progress was slow, they might even have to queue until the afternoon.

Dafeng Village’s grain transport team had over one hundred people. If they couldn’t return by noon, they would have to wait on empty stomachs.

When He Haiming returned and told them the situation, everyone’s faces were sullen. Waiting for several hours under the scorching sun, even if it wasn’t hot now, it was a waste of time.

However, the team could move forward at any time, and they couldn’t leave.

Wang Shuning leaned against the cart full of sacks, staring blankly at the ash-covered rice paddies by the roadside. Queuing for a ride at an amusement park took two or three hours; now, they just didn’t have phones to play with. After pushing for so long, she was exhausted.

Zhang Meili was chatting with He Chunxi and the others, occasionally letting out hearty laughter. With her personality, as long as it wasn’t a topic she disliked, she could chat with anyone.

The black hair on her head was the first to get hot, and with no wind today, Wang Shuning closed her eyes, and drowsiness came over her.

She didn’t know how many minutes had passed when He Daniu shouted down the line, “Follow up, move forward.”

It seemed a village had finished delivering their grain, and the queue started moving forward. After about two or three minutes, Dafeng Village’s team moved forward about two hundred meters. They were at the front and finally entered the town.

Quiet shops appeared by the roadside; they hadn’t reached the market center yet.

Zhang Meili saw Wang Shuning yawning and walked to her side. “You just talk too little; chatting is the best way to pass the time. This is much easier than working.” It only required talking, no effort at all.

“I’m a little sleepy; I’ll close my eyes for a while.” Wang Shuning had no interest. Chatting also required brainpower; interacting with people was mentally exhausting, more tiring than physical labor; it was better to close her eyes and sleep.

Seeing this, Zhang Meili didn’t bother her and turned to continue talking to others. One of the two young men in their cart was named He Haiqiang. He, like Zhang Meili, was very talkative.

They could easily chat for thirty or forty sentences on any topic, and with He Chunxi, the older one, the conversation flowed endlessly.

“What are you doing? Don’t you see we’re queuing? How dare you cut in line?” The village chief, his face full of anger, loudly questioned the Guixi Village grain transport team trying to force their ox cart into the line.

Hearing the sound, the second production team leader, He Xianfeng, rushed forward from behind. A gust of wind blew past Wang Shuning. She had just opened her eyes when the conflict at the front escalated.