Chapter 9: Making Ends Meet

Chapter 9: Making Ends Meet

After breakfast, Su Taotao decided to visit the cowshed to meet Teacher Cao and gauge his reaction.

Zhou Linglan suggested going when everyone else was at work and there were fewer people around. "He had previously treated the production team’s cows, and now he was responsible for them. He should be herding the cows on the back hill."

Su Taotao nodded. "Then I’ll take care of Chenchen today and make lunch and dinner."

Zhou Linglan almost asked, "Can you even cook? Why aren’t you going to the county today?" but managed to hold back. She was very pleased with Su Taotao’s transformation. Anyway, there were only so many grains at home, and she couldn’t waste much. Might as well let her do as she pleased.

Upon hearing this, Chenchen ran with his short legs to hug his uncle’s leg.

Su Taotao: "..."

Chenchen wasn’t stupid. Although this mother had become a bit easier to get along with and seemed to like him, he still felt safer with his uncle.

Fu Yuanhang, rarely so cheerful, was glad that he hadn’t spoiled the little guy for nothing. He bent down to pick him up, rubbing his little head. "I’ll still take Chenchen to school."

Although Su Taotao really wanted to take him herself, she just pinched the little guy’s cheek and told him to remember to miss his mom before saying goodbye.

Chenchen, still looking helpless, didn’t dodge her hand in the end.

In the countryside during those years, adults in the family had to go to the fields to earn work points. Either the oldest child in the family would take the youngest to school, or they simply wouldn’t go to school and stay home to take care of their younger siblings and help with some household chores. Especially for girls, very few took their education seriously.

In fact, Fu Yuanhang was still a half-grown child himself, only eleven years old this year, and in the fourth grade at the commune elementary school. Since turning one, Chenchen had been accompanying Fu Yuanhang to school.

Having read many stories set in this era, Su Taotao knew that a child’s early education was very important. She planned to let Chenchen adjust for a while and then teach him herself in the future.

With the children going to school and the adults going to work, the only idle person, Su Taotao, began to take stock of the household supplies.

Zhou Linglan was hardworking, and the family’s private plot had many things planted. They had plenty of root vegetables like sweet potatoes, taro, and cassava, but fine grains like rice and flour were scarce. The rice was stored in a small pile, and it was uncertain if they even had 100 pounds. In the south, where rice was the main staple, they had only a small bag of flour. Additionally, there were various beans and a little bit of glutinous rice. She also discovered a small jar of peanut oil, a rare luxury.

Su Taotao was really worried. It had only just turned spring, and even if they husked the rice grains, there might not be fifty pounds of white rice. With such a small amount of fine grain, the whole family would have to make it last for more than half a year. No wonder Zhou Linglan and Fu Yuanhang were so reluctant to eat it.

There were plenty of dried goods like mushrooms, dried wood ear, dried bamboo shoots, and dried bracken, which were organic ingredients that would be considered priceless in the 21st century. But in the 1970s, these were considered "luxury foods" that only wealthier families could afford. They weren’t as good as wild vegetables and fruits when eaten alone and required a lot of meat and oil to taste good. For poor peasants like them, these dishes were unaffordable without meat or enough oil.

Their production team was considered well-off because there were many fertile mountainous fields, and every year they planted a lot of peanuts. Most households could see some oil in their dishes.

In some production teams without many mountainous fields and where good farmland was not used to plant peanuts, families with many children were especially reluctant to put oil in their dishes. They would take a piece of gauze, dip it in a little oil, and smear it all over the pan as if that counted as putting oil in the dish.

Su Taotao recalled how, in her past life, she would rinse the oil off her dishes with boiling water to eat healthier. The more she thought about it, the more she felt it was a sin.

After taking stock of the household supplies, half an hour had passed. Su Taotao realized that the only thing that could be considered a meat dish at home was eggs. After she mentioned it in the morning, Zhou Linglan brought out the eggs that had been hidden under the bed.

Zhou Linglan had exchanged some at the supply and marketing cooperative not long ago and had only collected about ten. Even with the two old hens laying two eggs every day, four people in the family could each have one egg a day, but these ten eggs wouldn’t last long.

It was worrying. In those days, having enough to eat and wear really had become a major concern in life.

When it was time to leave, Su Taotao braided her hair, changed into dusty old clothes, and even rubbed some ash from the kitchen stove on her face. This way, no one would notice her natural beauty.

Su Taotao took the promissory note and photos and left, being cautious by going out the back door.

As it happened, just as Su Taotao reached the cowshed door, she saw someone leading a cow out.

"Excuse me, are you Comrade Guohua Cao?" Su Taotao asked.

Though his temples were gray, the old man was still spirited and stood tall. He looked up at Su Taotao with a calm expression. "I am. And you are?"

Su Taotao secretly sized him up and couldn’t help but admire him. No wonder he had been a soldier. Even though he had fallen to such a state, the spirit of a soldier still hadn’t left his body.

"It’s not convenient to talk here. Can we speak somewhere else?"

Noticing the sincerity in her eyes, Guohua Cao nodded and gestured toward the back hill. "Let’s talk there."