Chapter 1646 - 1074: Heroine of the Republic 48 (5000+)_3

Chapter 1646: Chapter 1074: Heroine of the Republic 48 (5000+)_3

If it weren’t for An Yi’s supplement all the time, this family definitely wouldn’t be living so comfortably. After all, although two thousand jin of grain sounds like a lot, there are six people in the family. On average, that’s only nine taels per person per day, and after peeling, it barely amounts to seven taels?

These seven taels are not refined grain or coarse grains, but a mix of coarse grains and substitute foods. The refined grains are so few and all given to the children.

So on average, they have to struggle to stay half full.

And their family doesn’t have any robust laborers, if they had to work, they might starve to death. It’s because there’s not much physical labor that they can barely maintain a warm, full life.

An Yi’s daily supplements are not calculated, but not calculating doesn’t mean not knowing the value of it. The eggs they eat every day are indeed laid by their own chickens, but the chickens also need to be fed, don’t they? Where does the chicken feed come from? Isn’t it saved from their own mouths? And the white flour, fragrant rice, and meat they eat from time to time, where do they come from?

Isn’t it all subsidized by An Yi’s own wages?

If not, they might be just like others—starving, with yellow and thin faces, swollen bellies, and pitifully weak.

This account is hard to calculate, but both sisters, including An Hu, silently buried this gratitude in their hearts, waiting until they have the ability in the future, to repay it.

An Yi used the opportunity when they were all out to falsely claim that she was looking for a car to transport the grain to a cellar in the county, but actually, she used space to transfer it casually.

Everything distributed by the production team was placed in the cellar. In addition to that, she also bought about one hundred jin of cabbage and fifty or sixty jin of radish. It doesn’t sound like much, but that’s because every household needs to reserve them, and she couldn’t buy more. She had it in her space but didn’t need to take it out now.

Even these were bought with the help of the team leader. This year, the production team just gave her 225 yuan for selling fertilizer, plus the wages of about 45 per month. After deducting the person who helped her take courses for her, now that she could manage living on both sides without troubling others, she could still keep 40 yuan. Her savings now have reached 6630 yuan.

This does not count the collection of coins in her space, adding all up, it might exceed ten thousand. These are the results of her decade-long efforts.

At the end of November, An Yi and Angel went to school, having been informed in advance of being admitted together by County No. 1 High School. Upon receiving this good news, An Yi planned to cook a nice meal that night, to both congratulate Angel and her sister and to bid farewell to the small guy. Because An Hu, who biked back to the village yesterday, knew he had to set off to Linghe the next day.

Since the start of the snowfall this year, everyone began to clear the roads lightly, so the paths to and from the village were not covered by heavy snow. Besides the muddiness while walking, it didn’t affect normal travel.

Here, the nearest to Linghe is nearly twenty kilometers. Although the speed of ox carts is slow, it saves money, and this time they mobilized a total of six ox carts, all that the entire Baijiawan Commune could muster.

They haven’t taken turns for tractors yet; several communes use them in rotation, and it hasn’t been their commune’s turn, so they can only use ox carts.

Any extra people can borrow bicycles to ride or sit in cars if they can’t borrow a bicycle. After all, only one person can be left on an ox cart.

They can’t let the oxen pull too many people, to spare them from fatigue, and people need to get there before the ox cart to work. Even when the oxen arrive, they need a day to rest.

An Yi firmly let An Hu take the car: "A round trip fare adds up to only 80 cents. If you were to bike, it would be free, but in this icy and snowy weather, what would happen if you, as a child, fell? We have cars, so don’t bike. Since you know where to gather, just take a car for safety. When you get there, assess the situation and see how others live. If there’s collective sleeping on kangs, that’s fine. If not, check if there’s anyone selling fish over there and buy some directly. It may be a bit expensive, but it’s better than the hard work of chiseling ice for fish."

Knowing that he had to live with others, the clothes couldn’t be taken off. The inner clothing should be good and warm. For the outerwear, it should be similar to others, provided the child doesn’t freeze. In the end, she found a way, sewing a lot of down and duck feathers into his big coat’s cotton padding, which didn’t add much weight to the coat but made it much warmer.

With leather gloves, a leather hat, a leather vest, and wartime thick military boots, the kind that are waterproof and warm, she armed the little guy fully before sending him off to take the car.

An Hu was still in the county, without hurrying to take the first bus, but instead found people from his village and went with them.

This time, An Yi sewed twenty yuan into his clothes and separately prepared three yuan in change for his hand.

"A poor family has a rich way. It’s best to have nothing happen, but if there’s a time when you need money, don’t be stingy. Your safety is most important, remember?"

The words "Your safety is most important" moved An Hu, who cried as he boarded the car. An Yi, like a real mother, chased the car and ran for a while, repeatedly urging him to pay attention to safety on the road.

An old lady saw this, smiled, and patted An Hu on the shoulder: "First time leaving home, eh? See how nervous your mom is. Don’t worry, young man, auntie will watch over you along the way. Quickly put your bundle on the rack; when more people get on, there won’t be space."

An Hu nervously held his bundle: "No, it’s okay, I’ll just hold it myself."

The bundle contained the food, supplies, and clothes his mother prepared for him; he couldn’t lose it.

"What are you afraid of on the bus? It won’t be lost. Quickly put it up; otherwise, carrying such a big bag will affect your movement a lot, won’t it?"

But An Hu didn’t feel the bundle was big at all; he even hugged it tighter: "No problem, I like holding it; keeps me warm."

Buses of this era traveled very slowly. The cars bumped along, with drafty windows and doors and crowded people. Fortunately, he hadn’t eaten much in the morning, and An Ma had the experience, fearing he might get carsick, made him eat an egg. If hungry, she told him to nibble on a dry steamed bun rather than eat thin gruel, as the ride was awful bumpy to avoid making a mess inside the bus.

Twenty kilometers might take just half an hour in later years by car, but in this era, the roads were not good and they had to frequently pick up people waving along the roadside. Boarded the bus around ten in the morning, and it wasn’t until the afternoon at two or three that they reached Cai County, which was closest to Linghe. After getting off, they rented an ox cart heading towards Linghe, bouncing all the way until dusk to get there, by which time An Hu was already extremely thirsty.

There was a fishery near Linghe, which had dormitories. Their production team rented a large kang dormitory, enough to accommodate thirty to forty people, heated kongs, very warm. After putting down the luggage and drinking water, they rested briefly, took out the cornmeal cakes An Yi made for him, toasted them on the stove, and with hot water ate what could be considered a proper meal.

Before coming, the team leader had said they would be working for the fishery for a month, helping them fish. The fishery, in return, would pay wages, which would finally be converted into fish for them to take back, meaning their trip included food and drinks provided by the employers in addition to the travel expenses.

Due to the cold weather, the extremely harsh working conditions, and low wages, even such a job was something their Baijiawan production team strived hard for. If you don’t fight for it, don’t work, naturally there won’t be work opportunities, and without work, where would the fish come from?

If done well, in one month one could earn about one hundred jin of fish as a reward. Of course, this also means being extremely hard-working for a month; there might even be the danger of falling into ice holes. Every year, accidents happen in this river area, not just one or two. Since An Hu is a child, hes unlikely to get so much fish, but at least he’d be protected by adults and could do work he’s capable of.