It was getting dark, and the people working in the fields had finished their work. They called their children all the way home. The quiet countryside suddenly became lively.
On the country road, a blurry silhouette swayed as it ran …
A woman carrying a big basket on her back walked slowly on the road with a bamboo pole. She stopped to catch her breath from time to time. The basket was slightly raised. There was grass inside, and there was a child sleeping on the grass.
The man who caught up from behind saw that she was struggling. He casually put the broken straw hat on his head and reached out to pull the rope of the basket. "Your leg hasn't recovered yet. Let me send you back."
The woman raised her head, revealing a haggard and tired face. She looked at the man for a long time and continued to walk forward. "It's almost healed. I can still carry this." After saying that, she stubbornly straightened her back. Like a tortoise, she walked forward slowly but persistently.
Ma Shuigen looked at her in a daze. He was a little sad. They were fine a few months ago. Why did they suddenly quarrel like this? They were about to get married, but now they became enemies.
When the figure in his field of vision completely disappeared into the night, Ma Shuigen came back to his senses. He sighed and turned around to walk to the hill next to him. He used to be in the same production team as Xue Huahua. A few years ago, after his wife and son didn't survive the famine, he moved to the production team next door.
In the past two years, the conditions were slightly better. The people in the production team were busy introducing him to a partner. He didn't know how they talked about Xue Huahua. Xue Huahua's lover also passed away during the famine. She left behind four children, three sons and a daughter. If he got married, he would be a man with children.
At his age, he was most afraid of loneliness.
So when the team leader's wife talked to him, he immediately agreed. Xue Huahua and the other children objected at first, but after the team leader's wife talked to them a few times, they relented. They didn't expect that they would be ruined by a shrew.
Speaking of shrews, Xue Huahua had to admit that she had to thank her. Otherwise, she would not have had the chance to come back to life.
She got married at the age of sixteen and had a son. Her husband fooled around all day and died in a motorcycle accident when he was drunk. She had never gone to school. Other than earning money, she didn't know how to raise her son. Her son didn't even graduate from primary school before he joined the underworld. A few years later, he was sent to prison. Before the accident, she was withdrawing money from the bank to buy food for her son at the supermarket.
He was in a trance and fainted while crossing the road. He breathed his last before he was sent to the hospital … He was sixty years old … He died before his son came out …
When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to a familiar yet strange environment. The familiar thing was that she had experienced this era, the scarcity of resources and food. The strange thing was that she did not know the people and things around her.
Her name was still Xue Huahua. She had four children and two grandchildren. The youngest grandson was still in her daughter-in-law's belly. Hearing them call her mom, Xue Huahua couldn't tell if it was a dream or a reality.
"Mom, you're back."
When Xue Huahua was about to arrive at a dilapidated adobe house, a man walked out of the yard of her house with a big belly and walked over with swift footsteps.
It was her eldest daughter-in-law, Chao Caizhi. She was already nine months pregnant. Their family was poor and their son was injured. As a result, Chao Caizhi had to work in the fields with a protruding belly. Her belly was so thin that it didn't look like she was about to give birth.
"I've talked to the captain. You don't have to work from tomorrow onwards. We'll talk about it after you give birth." Xue Huahua threw away the bamboo pole in her hand. She slowly squatted down and put down the basket on her back. She carried the child inside and asked Chao Caizhi to hurry back to sleep.
"Mom, I'll take care of Xixi. It's too tiring for you to carry him all the time." A two-year-old child was the hardest to take care of. Chao Caizhi felt bad for her mother-in-law.
"It's nothing. He's almost recovered. Where's the Third Sister? "
"She said she's sleeping in the educated youth's room."
The educated youth went to the countryside to support Jian She. The team built a lot of rooms next to the storage room for them to live in. If they couldn't live in their relatives' house, they would go there. After the second brother got married, there was not enough room, so the fourth brother had been living there. The people in the team knew that her family was in a difficult situation, so they didn't gossip. The Third Sister had a good time with one of the educated youth and often didn't come home at night.
Xue Huahua nodded and carried her grandson into the house. She helped him take off his clothes and socks and covered him with a blanket. Then she went out to clean the basket in the yard.
Before she reached the door, Chao Caizhi's voice came from outside. "Mom, I've put the basket in the kitchen. You must be tired all day. Go to bed early."
Soon, there was a soft sound of the door closing. Then, there was no sound.
Xue Huahua felt a lump in her throat. She went back to the bed and lay down. She was so tired that she couldn't open her eyes, but she seemed to have endless energy in her heart. Work. She wanted to work.
The next day, Xue Huahua was woken up by a sharp voice. She was in a daze. She lifted the blanket and rushed out. Outside the yard, a sarcastic woman stepped on the steps of the yard and stared at Chao Caizhi arrogantly.
"Dewen's family. Someone saw your mother-in-law working in the field yesterday. What does she mean? She didn't say anything when she earned her own work. The team leader still counts the family's work as your family's. What's the matter? Does she want to take both sides' work?"
"Come with me to see your team leader. Let him see how you exploit us poor peasants." She reached out to pull Chao Caizhi as she spoke.
Xue Huahua clenched her fists and ran forward barefooted. She pushed Liu Huaxian away. "Are you crazy?"
Chao Caizhi was about to give birth. How could she withstand her push?
If it wasn't for Liu Huaxian, the family wouldn't be so lifeless. Her three sons were injured and lying on the bed. All the work at home fell on her eldest daughter-in-law and daughter. There were more mouths to eat and fewer people to work. The family's food supply was running low.
Thinking of this, Xue Huahua couldn't suppress the anger in her heart. Two months ago, Liu Huaxian said that the original owner of the body had stolen her man. She brought a group of people and came to control the situation. The team leader heard the news and brought people to control the situation.
But it was too late. The three sons of the original owner of the body were bruised and swollen. Their heads and legs were injured. The commune doctor told them to rest at home. Otherwise, they would become crippled.
The original owner of the body and her children were weak and easily bullied. Xue Huahua wasn't. When she woke up, she cried to the team leader. In this era, if a family in the village was bullied, it meant that the whole team was bullied. People would say that there was something wrong with the team leader. So, even if the team leader Lu Jianguo didn't want to go against Liu Huaxian, he was willing to help her.
He immediately brought people to the fourth production team and asked Liu Huaxian to pay for the medical expenses. Liu Huaxian was unreasonable. She liked Ma Shuigen. When she heard that Ma Shuigen was going to marry Xue Huahua, she wanted to scare Xue Huahua. Unexpectedly, they got into a fight and even injured Xue Huahua and her three sons.
The team leader of the fourth production team came to mediate and persuaded Liu Huaxian to pay for the medical expenses. Lu Jianguo pointed at Xue Huahua and said that it would take a hundred days for Xue Huahua and the others to recover. What about the work points? Without the work points, what about the autumn harvest?
So, in addition to the medical expenses, they also had to pay for the work points.
At least before Xue Huahua and the others recovered, the work points would belong to Liu Huaxian and the others. It didn't matter if they were not from the same production team. They could record the work points separately. When the time comes, Xue Huahua and the others could directly come to the fourth production team to get the food they deserved.
Liu Huaxian refused. She squatted on the ground and started to make a scene. Lu Jianguo didn't buy it. He opened his mouth and labeled Liu Huaxian as an old lady from the old society. The country was liberated and the people were the masters for many years. Liu Huaxian's behavior should be criticized.
Hearing the criticism, Liu Huaxian crawled up. She stopped crying and howling. About the work points, she would listen to whatever the team leader said.
However, Liu Huaxian wasn't stupid. She had to pay for the work points. She couldn't just let Xue Huahua and the others stay at home for three to five years. If she gave them work points for three to five years, her family wouldn't have to live anymore.
So, she asked the people she had a good relationship with in the village to help keep an eye on the movement here. She didn't want Xue Huahua and the others to be lazy at home and not work.
Yesterday, when she was sowing corn seeds in the field, someone came to tell her that Xue Huahua was working in the field. She guessed right. Xue Huahua was greedy and relied on her. She had started working but didn't say anything. Because of this, their work points yesterday were also recorded in Xue Huahua's account.
Thinking that she was right, Liu Huaxian raised her voice, "Come and see, someone is hitting someone, someone is hitting someone …"
At this time, there were many people in the village who hadn't woken up yet. Why would they come to watch the show? Xue Huahua pulled Chao Caizhi away and looked at Liu Huaxian expressionlessly. "If you come and make trouble again, we won't work this year. Anyway, your team leader has counted your work points in our family. When the time comes, we can just go and collect the food."
"You dare." Liu Huaxian stared at her fiercely.
"You see if I dare …" Xue Huahua narrowed her eyes and looked determined. Liu Huaxian's face was extremely ugly. She wanted to fight with Xue Huahua, but she was afraid that Xue Huahua would do what she said. How would her family live if that happened?
"Humph, I'm going to find Captain Lu." Liu Huaxian gritted her teeth and ran away.
Xue Huahua was not afraid of her. Lu Jianguo was very busy these days. On one hand, he had to deal with the affairs in the village, and on the other hand, he had to pick up the new educated youth from the village. He wanted to split himself into two halves. He had no time to deal with this matter.
Sure enough, when Liu Huaxian went to Lu Jianguo's house to complain, Lu Jianguo ignored her. He washed his face, took the coarse grain bread from his wife and took two or three bites. Then he put on the army green clothes that he wore two or three times a year and left.
He had to go to the commune for a meeting. After picking up the new educated youth, he would start to arrange their work. There were a lot of things to do, so he had no time to argue with Liu Huaxian.
The sky was gloomy, and it seemed that it would rain at any time. The captain was not there, so the men and women worked hard. They worked hard according to the previous assignment. Xue Huahua first went to the storage room to find the accountant and told him about Chao Caizhi's situation. Before the confinement period, Chao Caizhi didn't even go to the ground.
The accountant couldn't help but look at her. After sowing corn, transplanting seedlings and planting sweet potatoes was a good time to earn work points. Xue Huahua actually asked Chao Caizhi to ask for leave. Thinking of Liu Huaxian who went to Lu Jianguo's house to make trouble in the morning, she seemed to understand something. She found Chao Caizhi's name and made a comment.
Xue Huahua asked the accountant if she could see the work points earned by the family last year.
The accountant took out the account book and showed it to her.
Xue Huahua thanked him gratefully, and then carried the basket on her back to the private plot. The corn seeds that were sown a few days ago had sprouted. They had just emerged from the ground, tender and bright green. She looked at them and found that the seedlings in each nest were about the same, evenly distributed and neat. The next rain would make the corn grow better.
She pulled out the weeds in the field, grabbed some earthworms, picked a leaf and wrapped it in it. Then she took it home to feed the chickens.
After that, she looked for fresh wild vegetables to dig. The second son got married, and the family owed a lot of debts. After paying off the debt last year, there was not much left. Chao Caizhi had to eat during the confinement period. If she didn't dig some wild vegetables, she would have to borrow food from everywhere.
Xue Huahua had seen enough of people's faces in her previous life. She didn't want to trouble them all the time. It was a dilemma for relatives and friends whether to borrow or not. If they didn't lend, they would feel unreasonable, but if they borrowed, they were afraid that they couldn't pay back. She understood.
In the drizzling rain, the people working in the field worked harder and harder. The rain became heavier and heavier. The villagers were afraid that they would catch a cold in the rain for a long time, which would affect their work later. They had to pack up their tools and go home.
In this era, work depended on self-awareness. Everyone worked hard and everyone was enthusiastic. The villagers were very enthusiastic!
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