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Chapter 18 Public cafeterias closed down

With the end of spring planting, the production team has temporarily entered the off-farm period. The public canteen, which previously served one meal a day in order to be busy with production, has finally used up the remaining grain and can no longer operate.

A bowl of multigrain porridge turned directly into soup with visible grains, and even the turnips and greens were replaced with elm greens from the village. Anyway, there are many elm trees in the village, and the whole village is full of elm money.

Sure enough, in the early spring of March 1961, the commune abolished the supply system, restored members' private plots, and officially announced the closure of the public canteen.

Some people are happy and some are worried. They are happy that they can grow their own vegetables and fruits to cook their own meals. But they are worried that they can no longer eat public food and have to worry about food, firewood, rice, oil and salt. This is especially true for families with four generations living under one roof, with more than ten people living under the same roof.

Opening your mouth to eat is even more troublesome.

The production team leaders held a small meeting and immediately decided to encourage everyone to go to the mountains to find food.

People in rural areas rely on mountains to eat and water to drink. Now that everything is growing in spring, there are a lot of things to eat in the mountains. When you go to the mountains to find something to eat, you have to rely on your own ability. What you find does not need to be handed over to the public.

Upon hearing this, the members stopped talking.

Families with extra money in the village directly asked people to buy some seeds in the town and plant them in their own plots. Other members of the commune took advantage of their break from work to go to the mountains with hoes to dig wild vegetables.

The bracken and dandelions are growing vigorously.

As soon as she took back her private land, Zhao Xueer took advantage of her free time to renovate the land with her younger siblings and prepare to plant some potatoes and peanuts.

These are all foods that can be used to satisfy hunger. It's not like she hasn't thought about growing some rice. After all, who doesn't want to eat white rice?

However, she knew in her heart that even if the private plot was so large, the subsequent drought would also lead to no rice harvest.

This is an irresistible natural disaster, and this year is still a year of famine.

She went to the production team to exchange her work points for some seeds. After planting the potatoes, Zhao Xueer stood in front of her field and sighed in her heart. Now she had to earn her work points again.

Yun Xiaotang leaned against her sister's side, feeling helpless. So why is it so difficult for people in rural areas to leave the land? Without a source of income, it is simply difficult to move forward.

Fortunately, the hard-earned work points are converted into seeds for planting the land, and the hard work of planting the land is to get the work points. In the end, it is all about the land.

Their family's private land is near the back mountain. At this moment, many people came down from the mountain. The bamboo baskets were full and covered with leaves, but no one could see clearly what was inside.

When someone asked him what good things he had found on the mountain, the man quickly sighed and said, "There are no good things. I will be late, and the good things have been dug up long ago. I just picked up the leftovers and dug some wild vegetables..."

"

After saying that, the man hurried away carrying the bamboo basket.

The person who asked the question touched his chin and thought about it, said "Hey, you", went home, picked up his tools, called for the labor force at home, and hurried into the mountains.

After Zhao Xueer finished working on her own plot, she was also thinking about going to the mountains, but she planned to go early in the morning to avoid the crowds.

The next day, Zhao Xueer got up in the dark. When she went out, the sky was slightly bright and she could see the road clearly. She walked into the mountains in the faint morning light.

In the mountain forest, there are the crisp calls of early birds. The wild vegetables in the land in the back mountain have basically been dug up by the villagers, and there are still broken bracken rhizomes on the ground.

Zhao Xueer did not stop at the back mountain, but headed towards another deep mountain. The last time she came here was more than half a month ago, and the fish she caught last time are still being raised in the large water tank in the yard.

Caught a lot of small fish.

This time, she did not continue to the stream, but walked deeper into the mountain forest. The dense pine forest was deep and quiet, making the sound of footsteps particularly clear. Zhao Xueer did not know how long she had walked before she finally passed through.

The woods suddenly opened up before my eyes.

She has now climbed to the other side of the mountain, and there is a hill on the opposite side of the mountain, and the hillside of the hill is bright red.

"It's thorn~" Zhao Xueer said in surprise, and quickly climbed down the mountain to the halfway point of the hill.

I saw that the branches were red and full of fresh and tender wild fruits, which were somewhat like the strawberries she had eaten in her previous life. They were sour and sweet. She picked a few and put them in her mouth. They were full of juice, sour and sweet.

Zhao Xueer controlled her greed and wanted to eat a few more, and took the time to pick the thorns.

Picking thorn bulbs is not as easy as imagined. There are many barbed thorns on the branches of the fruit-bearing shrubs. At this time, Zhao Xueer's hands have been scratched a lot, but this does not stop her enthusiasm for picking thorn bulbs.

After a while, the bamboo basket was filled with red thorn bulbs.

Seeing that there were still so many red thorns on the mountain that had not yet been picked, she couldn't help but feel regretful.

However, these things are picked and eaten immediately, and they cannot be preserved, so it is a pity that it is useless.

On the way home, she passed by a meadow with dandelions. She took out the hoe tied to her waist and dug some, intending to take them home, wash them, dry them and soak them in water for drinking.

At this time, it was already bright, and Zhao Xueer, who had already walked back to the back mountain, met many villagers who had gone to the mountains early in the morning to look for food.

"Hey, girl Zhao, did you go to the mountains so early?"

A high-pitched female voice came from beside her.

Zhao Xueer stopped and saw Aunt Ma, the wife of the barefoot doctor in the village, looking at her.

She curved her lips and smiled, "Good morning, auntie. You didn't go to the mountains early in the morning to dig some wild vegetables to satisfy your hunger."

As if thinking of something, Zhao Xueer pulled Aunt Ma over and said, "Aunt, I'm grateful to Dr. Liu for saving my sister. I picked these wild fruits in the mountains. They can't satisfy my hunger, but they can be used as snacks for children to satisfy their cravings."

With that said, she put down the bamboo basket, grabbed a handful of thorns from the bamboo basket, soaked them, and handed them to Aunt Ma.

Aunt Ma's eyes lit up, "Hey, look at this fruit Nenle, where did you find this good thing? My little grandson will definitely love it."

"It's in the mountain behind. You can see it after climbing over the mountain." When Zhao Xueer said this, she did not deliberately lower her voice to cover up. After all, there are so many thorns on the mountain. If you don't pick them, it will be wasted.

, this is just for fun.

Holding the thorn bubbles in both hands, Aunt Ma put one into her mouth. Her mouth watered, stimulated by the sweet and sour juice. It was really a good thing to satisfy her cravings.

Satisfied, Aunt Ma's smile became much more sincere, "That's what our old Liu should do. Those herbs can be picked from the mountains. Oh, don't talk anymore. Auntie, I have to go to the mountains quickly. I'll have more in a while.

Go to work."

After bidding farewell to Aunt Ma, Zhao Xueer headed home.

In the yard, Yun Xiaotang and Zhao Tian'er had already gotten up. They were leaning head to head on top of the water tank and looking at the motionless fish in the water.

"Sister, why is this fish not moving? Is it dead?"

"Well, I guess they are still sleeping. People need to rest, and fish also need to rest. The fish haven't woken up yet."

The more Yun Xiaotang talked about it, the more she felt that she was right. This was really a blind spot in her knowledge. She only ate fish but never raised fish in her previous life.
Chapter completed!
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