The rest of the people just listened from the side, with Zhao Xiaojing occasionally adding some comments.
It was already noon. "You should eat here today."
Tan Shaoting heard this and went down to the field, "I’ll do it."
Su Yuanyuan shook her head, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Let us do it."
Lunch was steamed cornbread and stewed sauerkraut, and Su Yuanyuan also fried a bowl of peppers. Of course, there wasn’t much oil, but it was already very fragrant.
It had been a long time since they had such food. Su Yuanyuan steamed fifty cornbread clumps larger than her fist, and unexpectedly, none were left over. Half a pot of sauerkraut was also eaten up.
Zhao Qingxiang and his group of five felt a bit embarrassed. They had eaten too much.
"Yuanyuan, sorry, we ate so much."
Su Yuanyuan waved her hand with a smile. "I understand. But in the future, you should eat sparingly. We don’t know what will happen later. By the way, the farm should provide you with some grain. I’ll drive the cart and go with you to find Director Feng."
"Everyone gets a hundred pounds, but it’s not all pure grain, so you have to make it last."
The good mood they originally had turned a bit heavy at the thought of the future.
But having a hundred pounds of grain was already good, a cause for some happiness.
After they were full, they continued sitting on the kang bed, with Zhao Yanping continuing to sew shoe soles.
Su Yuanyuan found some of her old clothes, along with a large piece of black corduroy and some white cotton cloth. She wrapped them in a cloth bundle. "Big sister, you take this and continue making it. I’ll give you a shoe pattern, those ladies’ square-mouth slip-on cloth shoes. Make these, I think they could sell."
Zhao Yanping nodded with a smile. "No worries, even if they don’t sell, we still need to wear them anyway. Better to do something than sit idle."
Tan Shaoting prepared food for them, a bag of cornmeal. The skin of the cornmeal hadn’t been winnowed out, but under current circumstances, it’s already considered very good food. Nobody could afford fine cornmeal these days.
Ten winter melons were taken out of the cellar, along with a bag of sweet potatoes and a bag of potatoes.
This really was quite a lot. In these conditions, it’s rare to be able to give so much food.
"Yuanyuan, thank you so much."
Su Yuanyuan patted Zhao Yanli’s hand. "You’ve just arrived. We come from the same village, and our relationship is good. Since I have food now, how could I possibly watch you struggle?"
"Really, when I’m without anymore, then there’s nothing I can do."
The five siblings, hearing Su Yuanyuan’s words, decided in their hearts that they must eat sparingly, for if they couldn’t manage to plant their fields, what would they do?
Tan Shaoting brought over a donkey cart, loaded everything onto it, and gave them a large jar and a small jar. He put the sauerkraut into the small jar, along with over ten pieces of pickled vegetables.
"Yuanyuan, let me drive the cart and take you all to your place."
Su Yuanyuan looked at Tan Shaoting in surprise; why was he calling her that too? He always called her by her full name before.
"I better go along and take a look myself. I also need to find Director Feng. No matter what the grain, it must be given to them."
Tan Shaoting nodded, "Then let’s go together. You drive the cart, and I’ll walk."
They didn’t want to tire the little donkey, so only Su Yuanyuan sat in the donkey cart while the other six walked behind.
They weren’t really close by; it took over an hour to reach their residence.
All the houses were the same, three-room earthen houses without a courtyard, giving an uneasy feeling.
Su Yuanyuan saw that they used twine to tie the door. "Don’t you have locks?"
The five siblings all shook their heads. Su Yuanyuan took a new lock out of her bag and handed it to Zhao Qingxiang.
"I recently bought this, you use it. When you have grain, make sure to keep the door locked."
Zhao Qingxiang accepted it. They hadn’t even thought about it, and only upon going out today did they realize they had no lock.
The three boys quickly moved the grain inside.
"Big sister, you should actually start digging a cellar now, that way it will store things better and for a longer time."
"Yes, we’ve thought of that. Tomorrow, the eldest and second brothers will start digging a cellar."
Once they were done, they headed off to the brigade office.
This time, the four girls sat in the cart, while the remaining three boys followed behind on foot.
"Big sister, how much land are you planning to plant?"
"The eldest and second brothers are thinking of planting a hundred and fifty acres. That way we can get a donkey."
Su Yuanyuan thought about it and agreed. "I have a lot of corn stalks at home. Once you get your donkey cart, you can come over and haul them to feed the donkey."
Even without grain, the donkey won’t starve with corn stalks to eat.
"Yuanyuan, whatever you plant, we’ll plant too. Whenever you start planting, we’ll follow along." Zhao Yanli truly trusted Su Yuanyuan.
Su Yuanyuan nodded, "Alright, though we don’t know yet. Once everything thaws, I’ll definitely let you know."
"And if you need anything else, come to me. I don’t have everything, but we can exchange things. It’s half a day to the nearest township cooperative, so going out even once isn’t easy."
The three sisters felt quite helpless after hearing this, but they had to settle down here since this was the reality.
Their place wasn’t too far from the farm headquarters, taking less than an hour to get there.
Today, Feng Baoshan was preparing to head home early and saw Su Yuanyuan and Tan Shaoting coming over with their group.
"Director Feng." Tan Shaoting greeted him with a smile.
"Xiao Tan, Xiao Su, you’re back? How was it? Was it interesting abroad?"
He had received the notice about the two young people from his farm donating all their money to exchange for grain that they then sent to the border.
Though it was a lot of money to part with, he indeed felt proud and honored.
"It was okay, much like here, but they’ve had quite a few snowfalls there."
Feng Baoshan sighed. This is a natural disaster, not manmade. It’s just something they can’t control. It’s entirely up to nature’s whims whether they can eat or not.
"Director Feng, we’re here to help bring back the farm’s subsidies for Zhao Qingxiang and them."
Feng Baoshan sighed again, "Our warehouse barely has any grain left."
Su Yuanyuan frowned. "Director Feng, given the current situation, we can’t possibly not give them grain, can we? Even if there’s not much, we can’t just watch them starve."
Feng Baoshan sighed once more, "Alright, give them some, but only two formal workers will receive grain quotas."
Su Yuanyuan was resigned; she had expected this outcome on the way, but even so, it was already quite fortunate to receive anything.
"Director Feng, could you possibly spare two hundred pounds of corn for them? You see, there are three girls there. Even though they’re not official workers at our Second Farm yet, they live and work here."
"If we can’t give the three of them any, at least give some substantial grain to the two brothers so that all five of them can survive."