Daily life of female supporting actresses in the 1970s

No matter what, Gu Qingshi has to take care of the Tian sisters, but as Lin Shaoyang said, there is nothing to take care of.

They ate in the front yard, and someone else did the heavy work like chopping wood and making fire, so they couldn't help much.

The only difference is that Gu Qingshi no longer has a gloomy face when facing the two of them.

Tian Mi would act coquettishly towards Gu Qingshi from time to time, and would give Gu Qingshi a portion of delicious food.

After reading Gu Qingshi's letter home, Gu Qingqing also endured it.

It took more than a week to finally collect all the wheat for the public grain tax, and it was their brigade's turn to pay the public grain tax.

Paying public grain is a big deal. Everyone has to take action, except the elderly, the young, the sick, the disabled and pregnant women.

The strong laborers took the lead and set out at two o'clock in the morning, carrying their belongings wrapped in oil paper, to grab a spot in the queue.

This grain station collects the public grain of two brigades a day. If you fall behind and cannot collect all the grain by evening, you have to wait until the next day to hand it over.

It’s troublesome to pull it back, and it’s also impossible to collect the dew if you don’t pull it back because it will get damp again. You can only rush to the front and queue up.

After the able-bodied laborers set off, it was the turn of ox carts and horse carts, and then human labor.

Anyway, ox carts, horse carts, donkey carts, wheelbarrows, and handcarts were all put to use.

The people at the back were carrying things on their backs or on shoulders, and the long line never broke.

All the male educated youth except Song Jianshe went in the lead, and they played a very important role in paying the public grain tax.

Not only do you have to help with weighing and counting in the front, but you also have to keep an eye on the weighing and counting to avoid being cheated by others.

The two remaining educated youth were assigned a wheelbarrow, each carrying two bags of wheat, each weighing 200 kilograms, which was quite heavy.

Qiao Lei and Song Jianshe are partners, Zhao Lanlan and Gu Qingqing are partners, Jiang Yanqiu and Xu Yan are partners, and the Tian sisters are partners.

Lin Xiaomei went out on her own, and she was originally going to partner up with people from the village.

However, the Tian sisters couldn't push the cart, so the person in charge asked Lin Xiaomei to work with them, gave them an extra bag, and replaced the cart with a flatbed cart.

If Zhao Lanlan and Gu Qingqing are together, it must be Zhao Lanlan who does the hard work, otherwise Gu Qingqing will choose to partner with Xu Yan.

The two of them have been working together for a while and are from the same place. Xu Yan's ideas are much bolder than those of girls nowadays, and the two of them get along quite well.

Sometimes when the two of them were talking together, Zhao Lanlan couldn't get a word in.

Although Xu Yan looks delicate at ordinary times, she is actually very strong and never slacked off along the way.

Qiao Lei and the others were led by Song Jianshe. No matter how thin Song Jianshe was, it was undeniable that he was stronger than the girls.

Lin Xiaomei and the others mainly relied on her and Tian Mi to do the hard work, while Tian Cheng was almost a hands-off person, just following them and carrying water bottles for the two of them, handing them water from time to time.

Along the way, there were horse-drawn carriages, ox-drawn carts, and people-pulled carts, and the noise of people made the scene very lively.

At the beginning, we could still move forward, but when we were about ten miles away from the commune, we started to slow down. The people behind us were like snails, taking half a day to move a step.

When we were five or six miles away from the commune, we just stopped moving, sat up and waited.

If this is the case when delivering wheat, I don’t know what it’s like when delivering corn. The amount of corn is much more than that of wheat.

According to the report from the front, a large team did not complete the delivery yesterday.

I didn't go home last night and lined up to wait. It was only after they handed in their work that it was the turn of today's two teams.

The weighers, quality inspectors, and accountants all act like big bosses, and the team has to look at their faces when they come to deliver food.

No matter how much public grain has not been paid that day, they will just close the shop and go home when the time comes.

In those days, being able to get such a job at a grain station was something that people envied.

If a rural person can work in a grain station, everyone will definitely say that his ancestors have done good deeds!

Especially the quality inspectors, they are really awesome!

Although he does not hold any official position, he has considerable power.

He said if the quality is up to standard, then it’s up to standard. If he asked you to weigh it first, then you should weigh it first. That’s his word.

The secretaries and production team leaders of each brigade had to curry favor with him, but his family members dared not offend him.

Whether the grain is qualified or not and what grade it is rated as are all decided by others.

If you accidentally offend the quality inspector, he will say that the product is unqualified.

Then all the grain in your brigade will have to be taken back to be dried and screened again.

If they casually demote you to a lower level, even if you don't pay more grain tax, the subsidy for your brigade will be much less.

While waiting, Jiang Yanqiu and the others were not allowed to run around and had to sit next to the food they were responsible for.

First, there is no one to push you forward.

Secondly, if you are not there and the food you are responsible for is missing in weight, you will also be responsible for it.

Although people of this era are simple and honest, there are also many opportunists.

These passers-by can be in a panic. When you are not paying attention, they can stand next to your grain bag and poke it with a special iron rod, and your grain will go into their pockets.

Everyone sat obediently beside the food they were responsible for.

At noon, the villagers arranged for people to deliver sauerkraut buns to everyone.

Jiang Yanqiu and his group were the last group to set off, and they arrived at the grain station after four o'clock in the afternoon.

The team leader and accountant Li, who usually had stern faces, were now standing beside them, fawning and attentive, handing them cigarettes and sodas.

How could the two of them not be happy? This year the wheat was harvested a week earlier, and the glossiness was not as good as in previous years, but they were still able to be rated as second-class grain, and their advanced brigade was secured.

The main reason is that we didn’t finish handing over the grain to the brigade yesterday, so we were rated as third-class grain.

There were twelve production brigades in the commune, and their village was far away and was the last to pay the public grain.

All the grain was piled up in the yard here, with second-grade grain on one side and third-grade grain on the other.

Wheat is generally rated as second-grade grain, but this year the number of third-grade grains is significantly greater than the second-grade grains.

Each quality inspector has a hollow iron rod and a small round aluminum sieve with fine holes in his hand. Everyone calls them "heart-piercing rod" and "Yanwang sieve", and the quality inspector's teeth are called "tiger teeth".

Each bag of grain must be pierced with an iron rod, allowing the grain to flow along the iron rod into the small round sieve; the grain is sieved with the sieve to determine the proportion of impurities; the quality inspector will also chew the grain with his teeth to determine the amount of moisture.

Their village had already arranged strong laborers to wait there. As soon as they passed the inspection, strong laborers would be weighed and put into storage.

It is not easy to store grain in the warehouse. The grain piles are getting higher and higher. Sometimes you have to climb several steps to carry a sack of grain.

Walking on the springboard with bare hands is wobbly, let alone two people carrying a sack of wheat up there.

After paying his public grain tax, Jiang wanted to go to the supply and marketing cooperative in the evening.

Jiang Yanqiu had long wanted to visit the commune, but every time Zhao Lanlan told her to wait until the market day to go.

Jiang Yanqiu was alone and had no one to accompany her, and she didn't have any urgent need to buy anything.

The village didn't have ox carts going to the commune from time to time like in the books.

If you don't see the ox cart, there is really no need to walk back and forth for four hours. You can only wait for the market.

The commune's market was not held often, only four times a year: once before the autumn harvest, once after the autumn harvest, once before the Spring Festival, and once before spring plowing.

The specific time was determined by the commune, and the location was the square where the commune usually criticized people.

Everyone can exchange their handicrafts and surplus grain for other things, and factories and supply and marketing cooperatives will also exchange them for other things.

Generally speaking, it is a bartering system, which is to make it convenient for people in rural areas who do not have tickets to exchange for things that require tickets.

Linjiang Commune is quite large, with a coal yard, a coking plant, a food factory, and a textile factory.

The key point is that there is also a river wharf, where people who release rafts transfer.

There are also two companies of the Corps nearby, and the flow of people is no less than that of the county town.

No wonder there are so many hidden talents in the black market in the book.

A group of people went to the supply and marketing cooperative, but it was so crowded that they couldn't squeeze in.

Several restaurants were also crowded with people, and they only charged for food but not money.

Everyone had to go back, since there would be a market in the commune tomorrow anyway.

After returning to the village, we were informed that we would all rest for three days before the real autumn harvest began. We would probably be so busy until November that we wouldn't even have time to rest.

Zhao Weidong and the other three who were close by said hello and went back overnight.

Arriving at the educated youth camp, Zhao Lanlan told Jiang Yanqiu, "We're going to the commune tomorrow. Remember to go to bed early. We'll set off at dawn. We'll have to walk there, and you'll have to queue up for everything."

Jiang Yanqiu: "Okay."