Affection for Sidaogou during the Famine

The grandparents sorted out the clothes in the closet one by one. Han Zhao's eyes were red as she stroked the clothes that her son and daughter-in-law had worn when they were alive.

Burying her face in her clothes, she seemed to be able to smell the scent of the children. Wiping her eyes with her sleeves, Han Zhao whispered:

"Look at the life your parents live. They don't even know how to save some money. Your mom is from a wealthy family. They really don't know how to live!

You don't know how to save anything, and all you have left are these few tattered clothes. Only your mother's wedding dress and two skirts are better.

The rest of the clothes all have several patches on them. They really are living a frugal and simple life while making a revolution. They don't even consider what era it is now.

After so many years of liberation, the two of them still have high salaries. They just borrow money and never ask for it back. They give away clothes after they are distributed. They also say that other comrades are in a worse situation than their families, and that it is their duty to lend a hand and take care of them.

But what about them? They work so hard, but what do they leave for their children? They are so young, but they don’t have good food to eat, new clothes to wear, and they don’t enjoy any happiness at all…”

The old lady felt more and more upset the more she thought about it. She kept saying "don't cry, don't cry", but her tears couldn't stop rolling down her face.

"Grandma, please don't cry! You've damaged your eyes. How are we going to live in the future?" Han Zhaozhao hugged her grandmother's arm, tears of heartache falling.

She felt sad looking at the shabby belongings of Han Rongsheng and Liu Fenghua. Although she admired the selfless dedication of the soldiers of that era, she really couldn't do that.

As a modern human soul who once lived in the afterlife, the prerequisite for her to help others is that she must first live a good life herself and ensure that her parents and children are well fed and well clothed. Only then will she have the spare energy to lend a hand to help others.

If her family was still struggling to make ends meet, she would never sacrifice herself for others and be as selfless as her parents.

"Zhao Zhao! It's enough for us to have your parents devoting their lives to the people. You must not learn from them.

No matter what time, you must live your own life well and fill your stomach first. You have to promise grandma that you must learn to be a little selfish.

You are the only child left in our family. If something happens to you, grandma will die and our family will be finished!"

The old lady is really clear-headed. Judging from her values, she is undoubtedly my grandmother!

Han Zhaozhao assured his grandmother: "Grandma, don't worry, I will definitely listen to you, we will be fine, and I will take care of you in your old age when I grow up!

Don't be sad, and take care of yourself. If anything happens to you, I won't be around anymore."

The grandparents hugged each other and cried for a while, then continued to tidy up. At the bottom of the wardrobe, there was a layer of wood, painted with tung oil of the same color as the wardrobe. If you didn't look carefully, you couldn't see that there was another layer underneath.

Lifting the wooden board, a mahogany carved box was hidden in the narrow space of the cabinet.

The box is about one foot high, one foot wide, and one foot and six inches long. Three sides of the wooden box are carved with festive patterns of butterflies playing with peonies and magpies climbing plum trees.

"This is your mother's dowry box! Come and see what's left. I'll pass it on to you. When you grow up and get married, it will be your dowry. Don't despise what's left. Just think of it as a thought."

The old lady knew that her daughter-in-law had big gaps between her fingers, so she had already donated the valuable gold bars and some gold and silver jewelry in her dowry to the country.

The wooden box wasn't too heavy, and as soon as she weighed it, she knew there was nothing valuable inside.

After finding the key in the crack of the wardrobe, the grandfather and grandson opened the wooden box and took a look. Sure enough, there were no jewelry inside, only a passbook, a small stack of banknotes, a pair of white jade bracelets and a glittering jade pendant.

The old lady picked up the jade and looked at it, then put it back and pushed it aside. "Look! This pair of bracelets and jade pendants are not worth much, otherwise they would not be kept."

After saying this, she picked up the passbook and took a look at it. Although the old lady had never been to school and did not recognize capital Chinese characters, she miraculously recognized the amount of money handwritten on the passbook.

"Zhao Zhao, take a look, it should be 1,253.73 yuan, right?

One of them earns over 100 yuan, and the other over 50 yuan. After so many years in the army, they have saved up this little! Not bad, I thought they had lent out all their money and had nothing left! It's quite a lot to save up!

There is still a stack of money here, let me count, there are also military notes, this is good stuff! "The old lady suppressed her sadness, and still complained, and she dipped her fingers into her mouth with saliva, and began to count the cash.

After the final count, the total was two hundred and sixty-eight yuan and fifty cents and thirty-two kilograms of military food coupons.

"I don't know if they were hungry when they left, how could they save so many food coupons?" The old lady muttered in a low voice, tears falling again.

Afraid that her granddaughter would be sad too, the old lady shoved her passbook, banknotes and a few jade ornaments into the wooden box, snapped the lid shut and stuffed it into Han Zhaozhao's arms, "Zhaozhao, these are all left to you by your parents, keep them!"

He got off the kang, hurriedly picked up the pile of clothes and went out, "I'll wash your mother's clothes and alter them for you!"

Han Zhaozhao was deeply surprised. Was she so tolerant? The passbook plus cash amounted to more than 1,500 yuan, which was a huge sum in that era. How could she just leave it to a seven-year-old child?

She looked at her grandmother's hurried steps and seemed to understand something! Well, she would keep it for now.

Han Zhaozhao locked the carved wooden box, hid it back under the closet, and sealed the wooden board again.

But I thought to myself that fifteen hundred yuan is not a small amount. Prices are low in this day and age, and purchasing power is great, so it can buy a lot of things.

By the way, now except for buying grain and oil, which requires coupons, other items can be purchased freely without coupons!

We have to find opportunities to let grandma exchange her money for supplies. In the next ten years, having money alone will be useless. Things are rationed. No matter how much money you have in your hands, you will have nothing to eat or wear, and the people will still be left helpless.

Grandma sat in the yard and took apart all the bedding and Han Zhaozhao's cotton jacket and trousers. She wanted to go forward to help, but was rejected.

"Your hands are not strong enough, so it's not convenient to do this job. Go, take out the bamboo paddle hanging on the wall of the east room, and beat the cotton-padded coats on the clothesline.

When you are drying cotton clothes or quilts, you have to pat them. If you don’t pat them, they won’t become soft, and the dust won’t fall off if you don’t pat them.”

Han Zhaozhao patted the cotton cover of her cotton coat with a "bang bang bang" sound while quietly observing the old lady taking off the coat.

After looking for a while, she understood!

The old lady took the pieces off quickly and efficiently. She also took them off in order and at different positions, and the cotton threads she took off were all whole.

She took one off and wrapped it with a foot-long sorghum stalk to save it for a second use. She knew that clothes could be reused, but she didn't know that even cotton thread could be reused.

Grandma's life skill of turning waste into treasure is really admirable. The old lady is really good at living! It seems that if she wants to live well in this era, she still has a lot to learn!

After taking apart the bedding, cotton clothes and trousers, grandma brought out a large wooden basin, threw a handful of soda ash into it, and poured warm water to rinse it.

He went to the backyard and pumped a bucket of water to the front yard, then poured half of it into a large wooden basin and stirred it, soaking the lining and covering of the quilts and cotton-padded clothes.

"Grandma, why don't you use the water from the tap? It's so troublesome to go to the backyard to pump water!"

PS: Friends who have materials about the 1950s and 1960s can post book reviews and offer suggestions. We can work together to complete a storybook about the period that is closer to reality!

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