Spring was so beautiful.
The ice in the new river melted. The clear river slowly flowed southward. The wheat seedlings in the fields turned green, the grass in the river bend turned green, the dandelions on the roadside swayed proudly in the spring breeze, and the purple swallows flew in the air, so light and free.
People liked spring because it brought hope to them. However, at that time, there was a saying," A good year is a bad spring." When spring came, there was a shortage of firewood and food, making life difficult. The new dynasty had just been established, and each family was farming. The land in Xia Manor was thin to begin with, and there was not much manure. The country did not have fertilizer, and even if there was fertilizer, there was no money to buy it. Floods, droughts, insects, wind, and natural disasters continued year after year, and grain production was very low. In addition to paying the public grain, most families would not have enough food to eat in spring.
His parents were worried about the lack of food at home every day. However, the village still had to sell surplus grain during the meeting.
The mobilization meeting to sell surplus grain was held in Old Zheng's house. Xia Fu, the village chief, sat on a stool near the cabinet. He looked at the people inside and outside the house and said loudly,""We're almost there. Let's start the meeting. Today's meeting was mainly to mobilize everyone to sell their surplus grain. Whoever sold for how much was free. We must complete the task given to us by the village. Whoever sells it, report it yourself." Then, he turned to Xia Junqin and said,"Write it down."”Junqin took out an account book and prepared to count.
"What do you mean by selling surplus grain? We have to sell as much as we have surplus grain.”
"Don't you know if our village has surplus grain? In the spring of that year, every family did not lack food and had surplus food.”
"I'm still short 500 catties this year."
"Five hundred yuan is not enough for our family."
Everyone started discussing, and the room became lively.
"I told you to sell your surplus grain, not to report a shortage of grain.”
" Let's be frank," Xia Fu continued." I thought that since the country is in trouble and there are many disasters, floods in the south and droughts in the north, the citizens of the city and the national army have to eat. We're farmers. If you don't give it to us, who else will you give it to? In any case, everyone had to gather enough for the amount given by the village.”
"That's more like it. If the country is in trouble, who else can bear it if we don't?”Zhang Qingguo said.
"Sounds good, you go first."
"I'll report that I'm selling 100 catties of broomcorn.”Zhang Qingguo was the first to report.
Junqin immediately wrote it down, and Xia Fu praised him,""Alright, Zhang Qingguo will take the lead."
"I'll sell it for 50 catties." Zhang Fengyou said as he sat on the windowsill.
"Anyone else?"
There was a long silence.
"Zhang Qingtong, how much?" someone said from the outer room. There was laughter inside and outside the house. Zhang Qingtong was a well-known poor family in the village. Asking him to sell surplus grain was purely a joke. Zhang Qingtong blushed and did not make a sound.
"Zhang Feng Palace" Xia Fu called out.
"Even if I clean up my house, I still don't have 500 catties of grain. There are still five months before the wheat harvest. I calculated that if I eat sparingly, I still need 500 catties of grain.”
"I still have two bags of sorghums. I'll be short of food after the new year.”Zhang Xi said.
Zhang Qingfeng sat on the brick bed against the wall. He had been silent the whole time. Sell it, there really wasn't any surplus food at home. There were six people eating and one livestock. If I don't sell it and say that I don't have it, I'll let everyone know that I don't have any food at home. It's not good to give the bottom to others. Who will think highly of me? He was this kind of person. He liked to be praised, approved, and given a thumbs up. He was most afraid of being looked down upon. Therefore, in front of so many people, he couldn't say that his family was short of food and that he didn't have any surplus food to sell. His face was flushed red. Thinking that he still had four to five hundred catties of food at home, he said loudly,"I'm selling 300 catties of broomcorn."
Xia Fu told Junqin to quickly write it down.
Everyone was stunned. People estimated that he had a lot of family members. Two big boys could eat, and there was also a mule. It was already good enough that he did not lack food. This time, he quoted 300, the highest number, which meant that the other party was still very powerful! His father was glad that everyone knew each other like this. Therefore, after signing up, he felt very excited and proud. It was as if he was really stronger than anyone else. The mentality of a person whose mother had begged for food.
However, after the meeting, his father's pride was gone the moment he returned home. He fell headfirst onto the brick bed and sighed, as if the sky was falling. His mother knew his father's temper and was sure that he had gone overboard at the meeting and regretted it when he came back. "How much did you report?" asked his mother.
"300 catties. I'm not staying at home anymore. I'm going to the outskirts of the pass this time.”His father looked extremely distressed.
"Don't talk nonsense. Even if you go outside the pass, our family can't go hungry. Three hundred it is. Anyway, we don't have enough food. If we ask for 300, we'll think of a way to get 300. What's the use of worrying after you're done! Don't be like this. Get up and do what you need to do. You're short of 300 catties of food. You won't starve to death.”
When his father heard his mother's words, he thought to himself,'I was the one who said those big words. I caused trouble, but she didn't complain. She even helped me think of a way to get food. Why don't I lie down first?' He slowly got up from the brick bed and said,"Then sell it tomorrow."
"It's fine if you don't keep your word. We'll still sell what we have to sell. We'll slowly think of a way to solve our difficulties. Actually, you only said 100 catties more. Otherwise, if you reported it, our family would have to report 200 catties. It was not difficult for him to lack a hundred catties of grain.”
His father secretly admired his mother's ability to remain calm.
After selling the surplus grain, the family's life was not greatly affected. His father and brother often brought back some rice when they went to Tang Shan. The food in spring could be considered enough.
However, it was fine to eat at home. Ah Hui had to bring lunch to school, which made her worry. The students were eating in the classroom. Some brought steamed buns, some brought steamed buns, and some brought dried porridge. Ah Hui couldn't afford to bring food with her at home. How could she take out the broken porridge? She couldn't sit down and eat with him. Later on, when he took the barnyard grass cake, he couldn't eat it with everyone. He walked out to the northern sand hill and secretly ate it. Sometimes, there was no barnyard grass cake, just broken rice porridge.
"I'm not getting food." Ah Hui said to her mother.
His mother knew that the food was not good, so she said awkwardly,"There's nothing else to take. If you don't take it, what are you going to eat?”
"I'm not eating."
"That won't do. We'll be gone for a day. How can we not eat lunch?”
"It's okay, I won't take it." Ah Hui walked out of the courtyard empty-handed.
During lunch, the students were all eating in the classroom. If Ah Hui didn't bring her food, she couldn't stay in the room either. When others asked why she didn't bring her food, she couldn't say anything. Ah Hui quietly slipped out of the classroom and went to sit on the sand dune north of the school. This was the tallest place in Caigezhuang, excluding the old tomb. Looking north from the high ground, one could see a very, very far place. Fields, trees, villages, and the distant mountains of Yan Mountain.
However, he couldn't just not bring food. Later, Ah Hui thought of a way. He discussed it with his mother. He would eat later at home in the morning, and he would go to school later after eating. At night, he would eat earlier at home, or leave lunch for him to eat after school. His mother agreed to give it a try.
However, there was no clock at home, so it was difficult to control the time of school based on the rise and fall of the sun. Sometimes, when Ah Hui arrived during class, she would have to bow to the teacher and be criticized. Sometimes, after the first class, she would sneak into the classroom while the school was in chaos. However, this timing was not easy to grasp.
One time, Ah Hui was a little late and went to the Zhou family's tomb in the south of Cai Ge Village. She saw the students doing exercises on the field. She thought that it was too late. The second class was the inter-class exercise. She couldn't walk forward. If she walked forward, the teacher would see her and she would be scolded at school. Coincidentally, there was a small bush beside them. Ah Hui lay there to hide and looked at the field from afar. Ah Hui only ran to school after she was done with her field exercise. She ran to the classroom. It was very quiet. An exam was taking place. Ah Hui looked at the blackboard and saw a bunch of math questions written on it. Teacher Ai Wenjin walked over from the podium and said softly,""Why are you so late? Hurry up and answer the test.”He looked at his watch. It had been exactly 20 minutes. He said,"If you don't take the exam, you can make it up next time."”
Ah Hui sat in her seat and looked at the blackboard while taking a piece of paper. The five questions were not difficult, so he took out a piece of paper to do them. From the first question to the fifth question, he finished them in a short while. Then, he checked the paper from beginning to end. He even checked some of the questions. When he was sure that they were correct, he walked to the podium and handed in the paper. Teacher Ai was a little stunned at first. She thought that he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to finish the paper if he came late, so he simply didn't answer. He took a look and saw that he had answered all five questions correctly. He looked at his watch and saw that it only took him 20 minutes.
Ah Hui walked out of the classroom. Teacher Ai put Ah Hui's paper aside and prepared to go back to the teaching and research room to study it with the teacher. How could a student solve questions quickly and accurately? Ah Hui did five questions in 20 minutes and got them all right. It could be said that she was fast and accurate. Teacher Ai Wenjin thought happily.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。