Lin Lan led the Publicity Team to publicise all over and was invited to attend public events twice. She won the title of a Publicity Red Banner Bearer and two certificates of merit. Upon coming back, she posted the rewards on the brigade. Naturally, there were also many benefits— besides food, there were stationery and daily necessities. Anyway, as Lin Lan said, whenever an invitation was made, they would first ask if there was anything they could gain. If there were rewards, they would go; otherwise, they wouldn’t.
After all, it was winter. Besides performing for their own commune, who would offer a free show?
It’s not like they were rich.
After being so busy until the end of the year, Lin Lan finally relaxed a little.
She collected all the industrial tickets and went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to buy a new iron pot while also buying a new bellows(1) kit.
(T/N: For houses with fireplaces, the bellows is the air pump that is used to smelt iron blast furnaces)
This way, there would be two pots in the family and there was no need to burn fires for both kangs as before. Plus, she wouldn’t always have to move the pot and the bellows at home around anymore.
Han Qingping also discussed with the brigade and organised the final exam day to be held on the Xiaonian(2) before entering a period of holidays afterwards. During the results announcement on the 25th, it would officially commence the start of the holidays before classes would commence again on the 15th day of the 1st Lunar month.
(T/N: Translating directly as ‘Little Year’, this refers to a traditional Chinese festival celebrating the arrival of the new year. Think of it as the smaller, less official version of New Year’s Eve as it usually falls on the 23rd or 24th of December)
In fact, since the beginning of the 12th Lunar month, school has become much more relaxed. Every day from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm, in addition to learning Braille, there were singing and story-telling sessions going on in school so it was also quite interesting.
Xiaonian was also considered as the big festival before the coming of the new year. Lin Lan made some preparations in advance as she prepared spare ribs, pork, eggs, etc. In conclusion, a table of sumptuous dishes were prepped to reward the children in the evening.
Sweet and sour pork ribs, stir-fried pork, pickled vegetables and egg soup, scrambled eggs with leeks, tofu with spinach, braised pork with mushrooms in noodles, vermicelli with cabbage and the like… Lin Lan carefully wrote down all the recipes. Though there wasn’t much protein left at home, she could at least give her children the sensation of enjoying a truly luxurious meal by selecting a few of them to make.
Whilst thinking about a good recipe, Lin Lan placed all the stationery she had prepared into a box, which was a collection that she had taken time to accumulate all along. She gave some to Han Qingping for him to give out as rewards to the school’s students and kept the best ones as rewards for her own children.
A good pen, the military schoolbag that Han Qingsong had brought back earlier, a relatively good diary, a dozen notebooks and a small bundle of pencils.
She told the children before that she would also give out gifts for getting good grades in their final exam. She planned to take them out to tempt them beforehand and would distribute them after announcing their results.