50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 128 Sewing before Leaving

What is the situation in the countryside? I won’t say much about the coldness in the Northeast. The sanitary conditions in the countryside are not optimistic either. There must be a lot of lice and fleas. Taking a bath once a month is an optimistic estimate.

Then there is food. Having enough to eat should be no problem. There will be government subsidies in the early stages, and the farm will also distribute food in the later stages. Finally, she will have a salary to improve her life.

But it is probably not possible to eat well.

The farm has a mission. The fine grains grown must be supplied to the city. Basically, not much will be left. At most, they will be eaten during the harvest to taste the freshness. The rest of the time, they will eat coarse grains.

How coarse the coarse grain is depends on the local production conditions.

For example, in Chenjia Village, the team leader's family lives a good life, but the best meal they can have is steamed buns made with two-grain flour. If they want to eat white flour, there is no such thing. It's true, not that they don't give it to them.

All the fine grains were handed over, and even if there was any left, it was only provided to young children and the elderly, or simply exchanged for coarse grains at the ghost market.

The food at ordinary villagers' homes is even worse. When there is a shortage of food, they can only eat substitute grains. It is impossible for them to be full with wild vegetables, let alone meat.

When he arrived, he noticed the old elm tree at the entrance of the village. There was no bark left, probably because it had been pulled out and eaten last winter.

The leaves on the trees are still quite dense, but without the bark in the winter, they are not growing very well this year.

Before these leaves fall in winter, they will definitely be plucked and fed into the villagers' stomachs.

This does not necessarily have to be done when there is no food left. Many families have the habit of hiding their food. They usually eat more substitute food, and always keep some food in the house in case of an emergency.

You may see a family eating tree bark, but still have a few pounds of white flour stored in the box. This is the wisdom of the working people.

An old village like Chenjiazhuang, which has been around for hundreds of years, has been able to survive to this day, so it must have experience in dealing with disasters.

Who knows which old wall is made of grain bricks. Only the old people in the village know this, and it is not time to use them yet.

Only when people in the village are about to starve to death and every household has run out of food will the old man point out where the wall can be taken down to eat, and he will only point out one place at a time.

Captain Chen sent him to the village entrance before he rode his bike back to the city to work.

After walking for a while, he stopped the car and looked back at the village. Now classmate Sun Ailai was about to experience what it meant to truly endure hardship. He hoped that when he came back in a month, he would see a brand new classmate Sun Ailai.

During the month that Sun Ailai was away from home, many classmates came to see him. Sun Zhiwei received these classmates and helped Sun Ailai make up his mind to leave.

Now that the decision has been made, it’s not easy to go back on your word.

During this period, he and Tong Jiajia were not idle either. Tong Jiajia began to help Sun Ailai pack his luggage.

The climate in Northeast China is pretty good now. The most difficult time there is winter. However, there are kangs in winter, so you don’t have to work. You can just stay in bed during the winter, which can actually help you stay healthy.

This time, Sun Ailai didn't have much luggage to carry because it was summer. Winter clothes and thick quilts would be mailed separately before winter came.

However, Tong Jiajia also prepared everything she could, such as the thickest cotton-padded clothes and quilts, and gloves and waterproof cotton shoes were also essential.

It is also best if shoes and gloves are made of waterproof leather. Otherwise, when the ground thaws, it will be full of mud and water. Your cotton shoes will get soaked after walking for a day, and your gloves will get wet as soon as you work. That would be terrible.

When it comes to anti-freeze clothing, the best things are naturally in the army. Tong Jiajia, who was still pregnant, specially went back to the Navy compound and bought a military coat at the service department.

Tong Jiajia prepared clothes and other things, while Sun Zhiwei went to Tong Ren Tang to buy medicines, mainly emergency medicines.

For example, there is marching powder for preventing diarrhea, indomethacin for reducing inflammation, Baiyao for treating external injuries, camphor balls for repelling insects, mosquito repellent potion, etc.

This is for summer use only. Winter will require other medications, such as frostbite cream and clam oil for daily use. But those can be mailed later; carrying them now is a burden if you don't need them.

Just in case, he planned to give the girl the bottle of penicillin in the medicine box at home.

This is not the bottle that Sun Ailai used back then. He has to go to the hospital every year to replace it with the latest medicine. Anyway, the hospital uses up medicines quickly, so the shelf life doesn't matter.

He also had to prepare books for the girl. Her junior high school education was too low, so he first went to Xinhua Bookstore to buy a complete set of high school textbooks for Sun Ailai.

In addition, there is also a complete set of "Selected Works", which has been published in full, but has not yet been published in a bound volume, so it can only be purchased separately. There are a total of four volumes and sixteen books, which is a thick stack.

Time passed quickly, and in late August, Sun Zhiwei rode his bike to Chenjiazhuang to pick up Sun Ailai.

He still went to the brigade headquarters first, and sure enough, he saw Captain Chen waiting for him.

After a few brief greetings, Sun Zhiwei took the initiative to offer to pay for the ammunition that Sun Ailai had used up this month.

Bullets were not expensive at that time, costing 6 cents each, and were distributed free of charge. The militia was also required to use up their ammunition regularly, otherwise they would be given less next time.

Militia teams in various places have to worry about how to use up their ammunition every year. If they are close to forests, they have to regularly organize militias to go into the mountains to clear out large wild animals.

In his previous life, he had heard of a true story. A company on the Third Front discovered a tiger eating people, so they mobilized all the mortars in the company and flattened a hill.

He was surprised at that time and felt that the soldiers from the local army were different.

Now that I think about it, they probably just wanted to consume the enemy. Otherwise, it's just a tiger, there's really no need for such a big fuss.

If you are near the water, it is common to use grenades or artillery shells to fry fish.

The girl fired 540 bullets this month, which helped the militia of the brigade use up their excess ammunition.

But he had to pay the money. After hearing the number of ammunition, he immediately paid the full amount of 32.4 yuan. He could not give more or less, otherwise Captain Chen would not be able to explain himself and would have to take responsibility.

Captain Chen called the brigade accountant over to collect the money, deposit it into the official account, and give him a receipt.

After finishing his official business, he was about to take care of his personal matters. Captain Chen took him back home. Sun Ailai had already packed his luggage and was waiting for his arrival.

"Brother, you are here."

Hearing the voice, Sun Zhiwei looked up and saw a girl standing at the gate of the Chen family. Her skin was a little cracked, her originally childish eyes had become much more resolute, and her figure was a little thin.

"I'm coming."

"Well, a little thinner, but more energetic."

He didn't say much, but turned around to thank Mr. Guo next to him.

"Old man, how is this girl doing in her studies?"

"The baby is very smart and can endure hardships. He is a good person. He has learned everything he should learn. Even if he is alone outside in the future, he will not suffer any loss."

"That's good, you've worked hard, old man."

(End of this chapter)