Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 700 Children of 699 Countries

Both of them knew what happened to the applesauce. Tang Zhitong must have contributed to it, but because of Ma Kejian, neither of them mentioned it.

"Wow, that's pretty fast. But will the supply of apples be stable in this season?" Tang Zhitong picked it up and looked at it carefully. The bottle mouth used a threaded design, and it was ready to eat after screwing the cap. It already had the taste of decades later.

"The apples in the fruit company's inventory can last for a few months." Ye Zhijuan stopped there and didn't say more.

Apples from the fruit company? Well, now the people of the city can’t eat apples either. Will they blame me?
Tang Zhitong had a lot of thoughts in his mind, but he didn't say anything, just nodded.

Ye Zhijuan thought her son-in-law had an opinion, so she explained, "At the end of last year, Sister Zhu went to Hu County for an inspection and found that the number of abandoned babies there had increased a lot, and the conditions in the welfare home were very poor. After returning, she took great pains to raise a batch of milk powder and sent it over, but it was still a drop in the bucket.

Because of your inventions, the Women's Federation has some foreign exchange in hand, so it allocated some funds and asked comrades from relevant departments to buy some milk powder from outside.

There are many things like this.

It’s a difficult time right now, so it’s time to work together, so the jam business is going smoothly, and it’s also to get more foreign exchange back.”

"Well, I understand. This is the same as my original intention." Hu County, abandoned baby, a word flashed in Tang Zhitong's mind: children of the country.

Thanks to the development of information decades later, Tang Zhitong knew about this, but it was the first time he heard such accurate inside information.

"It seems to me that even if we exchange foreign currency in the future, we will use it in difficult areas instead of distributing it to individuals. You should be mentally prepared." At this point, Ye Zhijuan felt a little embarrassed.

Others may not know how much foreign exchange Tang Zhitong's ideas have earned for the country, but Ye Zhijuan knows it well. This is money that ordinary people cannot earn in their entire lifetime.

Logically speaking, one should be rewarded for his merits, but in the end, he only got a foreign exchange coupon, which he gave to his son-in-law, but he refused to take it.

Moreover, Ye Zhijuan had just promised her son-in-law before the Spring Festival that overseas remittance vouchers would be issued in batches in the future. Unexpectedly, such an incident happened, and her future hopes are slim.

"It's okay, Mom, I understand. I agree with this, and I'm happy that the money can be used for people in need." Tang Zhitong was not unhappy at all after hearing this. Instead, he felt that it was the right thing to do, and this was the image of a leader in his mind!

No wonder they would rather use the apples stored by the fruit company to produce applesauce. It turns out there is this reason behind it.

The people of Beijing should just eat fewer apples. Even if someone knows that this is caused by them and points fingers at them and scolds them, they will accept it!

"I feel relieved that you think this way." Ye Zhijuan was relieved to see that her son-in-law was not surprised or disappointed.

On the way home from the Women's Federation, Tang Zhitong couldn't help but think a little more. Could it be that he was received only because there were no subsequent overseas remittance vouchers?

Thinking back, it shouldn't be the case. I don't have the nerve to ask Him to compensate me! It must be because I am excellent, that must be it!
Along the way, Tang Zhitong was humming a little tune. The reason was that he was happy because what he did could really help some people.

"Did you pick up money on the road?" Seeing her husband happy, Xiao Wang started to tease him.

"I lost money, hehe." How could I possibly pick up money? Ordinary people now wish they could break a penny into two petals. Besides, there are a bunch of primary school students who sing "One Cent" and stroll around the streets and alleys. Even if someone else drops money, it is not their turn to pick it up.

"Are you so happy about losing money? Who are you trying to fool?" Xiao Wang obviously didn't believe it.

"Hahaha, come here, take this, open it and try it later. I'll wash my hands and mix some wild vegetables." Tang Zhitong took out the applesauce given by Ye Zhijuan from his bag and handed it to Xiao Wang, then rolled up his sleeves and prepared to wash his hands and stir the soup.

"Brother, what is this? Why are there foreign words on it?" Fengzhi saw the glass bottle and thought it was a can. She stopped doing her homework and pulled it over to take a look.

"Things sold to foreigners must have foreign words on them?" Tang Zhitong washed his hands and dried them, then began to mix the wild vegetables.

"Where did this come from?" Student Wang looked at it carefully and asked.

"It's the thing I discussed when I went to see Brother Ma San before the Spring Festival. It's now in mass production. The manufacturer gave some to the Women's Federation and asked them to give their opinions. My mother gave me a bottle." While Tang Zhitong was busy blanching wild vegetables, he mentioned it to classmate Xiao Wang. The whole story was told to her at the time, so she should remember what happened.

"Oh. Why did you think of going to the Women's Federation today?" Sure enough, Xiao Wang didn't mention it again. He put the applesauce on the table and let his sister-in-law stare at her and drool.

"Oh, don't mention it. I asked the people from the Science and Technology Commission to block the classroom door today..." While Tang Zhitong was fishing out the wild vegetables and draining the water, he talked about his joining the Science and Technology Association.

"Great inventor, this is because they value you. Don't be ungrateful." Facing her husband's complaints, classmate Xiao Wang advised.

"I know, I know. I won't cause them any trouble." Tang Zhitong nodded perfunctorily and threw the chopped wild vegetables into the basin and started mixing them.

When Xiao Wang saw that the wild vegetables were mixed quickly, he reached out and put the bowl and chopsticks on the table, ready to eat.

"Brother, can I try it?" In order to increase the possibility of tasting the applesauce, Fengzhi helped to serve the steamed bread and placed it on the table before asking.

"Try it, but don't eat too much. Just have it every now and then to satisfy your craving." Tang Zhitong was not a stingy person. He gave his sister a slap on the head and agreed readily.

We may have to eat wild vegetables these days. It is not suitable for Xiao Wang to eat them right now, so eating some applesauce to make it a better choice.

Obviously, if we only give it to Xiao Wang, she will definitely not eat it, but if we bring her sister along, this becomes feasible.

So, Xiao Wang is my true love, and Feng Zhi...

Even though Tang Zhitong tapped the can lid a few times before opening it, it took him some effort to unscrew the lid. After unscrewing it, he first gave the first spoonful of food to Zhang Guifang in the middle of the steamed bun: "Mom, you try it too."

"Just give me a little, I don't like sweet food." Faced with her son's filial piety, Zhang Guifang accepted it, but not much.

"Hey, don't you still like eating meat? Eating this will not make you poor or rich. Eat more. I see you've lost weight." Tang Zhitong was an obedient child, but this time he wasn't very obedient.

"You kid..." Zhang Guifang smiled and shook her head. She didn't refute her son anymore. She turned around and took out two boiled salted eggs from the pot and put them on ice in a basin of cold water. "Come on, have a taste." Tang Zhitong took a small spoon and divided it among them, one for Fengzhen, one for Fengzhi, one for Xiao Wang, and one for himself. He kept half of his own spoon and sipped the remaining half on Xiao Wang's steamed bread.

"Wenwen, have a salted egg." Zhang Guifang took out the salted eggs after splashing them with cold water. She handed one whole egg to her daughter-in-law first, and then used a knife to cut the other one into three pieces, one piece for each of her two daughters and one son.

"Mom..." Faced with such preferential treatment, Xiao Wang felt embarrassed and twisted her husband's waist while he was laughing.

Tang Zhitong knew why Zhang Guifang gave Xiao Wang an egg alone today. It must be because of what he said yesterday. Being caught between the two women closest to him, Tang Zhitong had to try his best to satisfy both sides.

"Mom, you eat this one, Wenwen and I will have one." Xiao Wang didn't feel any pain from the twist, and it could even be said that he just pinched his clothes. Tang Zhitong returned the piece that his mother had handed to him, picked up the salted egg in front of Xiao Wang, knocked it, and began to peel the skin skillfully.

"Eat, eat." Zhang Guifang did not persuade her anymore. Her daughter-in-law had been in the family for more than a year, and she had already understood her personality. Continuing to be humble would only make her feel more embarrassed.

"Fengzhi, is this jam delicious?" Tang Zhitong asked while peeling the fruit.

"Delicious! Sweet!" Fengzhi nodded heavily, breaking off a piece of the steamed bread and dipping it in the soup bit by bit, without even glancing at the salted eggs on the table.

"Where's Fengzhen?" Tang Zhitong stuffed the peeled egg into Xiao Wang's hand and looked at the older sister.

"Hmm, delicious." Feng Zhen smiled. She did not break the steamed bread into pieces to eat. Instead, she placed the steamed bread with jam upright in a bowl, held another steamed bread in her hand, and ate it with chopsticks dipped in jam.

"I heard that this stuff tastes better when spread on bread, but it's a pity it's hard to buy. Wait until mom steams buns and we can spread it on them and eat it." Tang Zhitong promised happily.

The time when bread appeared in Beijing was probably closely related to the invasion of foreigners. The earliest bakery was the "Deli Bakery" in 1903. At that time, ordinary people kept their distance from bread and only called it "foreign steamed buns."

Although many dim sum shops also sell bread after joint ventures in the past few years, the most authentic one is still "Yi Li". Yi Li opened in Hu County in 1906 and did not come to Beijing until 51, but it made a name for itself with its novel styles, outstanding workmanship, generous ingredients and authentic taste.

Right now, all dim sum shops have limited production, the ingredients are no longer as solid, and the authentic taste is gone in a flash.

Nominally, Tang Zhitong shared an egg with Xiao Wang, but Tang Zhitong only ate two bites of the egg white, and the rest went to Xiao Wang.

Not many Chinese people are allergic to eggs. Some people like to eat egg whites, some like to eat egg yolks, and now some people eat egg shells.

Because the nutritional source is so scarce, I eat some eggshells to supplement calcium.

After dinner, Tang Zhitong played with Beibei outside for a while and cooked some special meals for it.

After returning to the room, Tang Zhitong explained to Xiao Wang that there would be no overseas remittance vouchers in the future.

"Oh, if there is no such thing, then there is no such thing. Those children are quite pitiful." After hearing this, Xiao Wang felt a little sad.

"Maybe there really is nothing we can do." Abandoning a baby is definitely wrong, but don't advise others to do good unless you have experienced their suffering.

Tang Zhitong saw with her own eyes the female comrade who wanted to give her child away in Wuhan. No one would do that unless there was a real difficulty. Even if she abandoned her child, she chose a child whose family she thought was well-off to prevent her child from suffering from difficulties in life in the future.

However, Tang Zhitong had no interest in raising someone else's child, so the matter was eventually dropped.

Tang Zhitong had read some information about the abandoned babies in Hu County before. The root cause of this matter was related to famine, but to be fair, all the blame cannot be placed on these three years.

Because there were few water conservancy facilities in the south and floods were frequent, many places in the south had a lot of outflow of population. They all wanted to beg for food, so they naturally chose to beg in Hu County, the most developed county in Ji.

It was very difficult to raise a child by begging for food, so in 1958, welfare institutions in Hu County took in a total of 1770 infants and young children, 98% of whom were abandoned babies.

Gradually, a saying spread around Hu County: If you send your children to Hu County, they will have enough food to eat.

As a result, in 59, the number of abandoned babies taken in by Hu County increased to 3525. In the first quarter of 60, it increased to 5277. The most in one day was 109 people!
The welfare institutions in Hu County were overwhelmed, so the adoption program was launched.

During these years, children whose ancestral homes were in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui were sent to some cities with better food supply, such as Shaanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and northern Jiangsu under unified arrangements.

There is no exact number of how many children have been sent there, but the more than 3000 sent to Mongolia are definitely not all of them.

The children sent to Monte should be better taken care of, because Monte will soon put forward a slogan: pick up one, keep one alive; keep one alive, make one stronger!
In Mongolia, herders do not call these children orphans, because "orphan" is a very unlucky word in Mongolian, so they all call them children of the country.

They really treated the orphans they sent there as their own children. In order to provide their young children with milk, many adoptive families sold their horses and bought a dairy cow to keep at home.

Tang Zhitong admires and respects this kind of great love from the bottom of his heart, because he himself cannot do it.

Xiao Wang probably couldn't do it either. He lay quietly on Tang Zhitong's chest for a while before raising his head and blinking his big eyes and asking, "What do you think? We should send some money to the welfare home every month, is that okay?"

"Okay, how much do you plan to send?" Tang Zhitong asked with a smile as he reached out to smooth Xiao Wang's messy hair behind his head.

"Five dollars a month is enough. Any more will affect our lives." Student Wang timidly counted on her white and tender fingers, fearing that her husband would think the amount she reported was too high.

"Okay, let's do as you say!" Tang Zhitong held Xiao Wang's hand. This girl is not only beautiful, but also kind-hearted. However, not everyone has a kind heart. Once the behavior of doing good deeds is exposed, there may be people who will come to disturb their lives. So Tang Zhitong reminded: "Let's do this quietly, don't make it public, and it's best to use a pseudonym."

"Well, I didn't intend to let anyone know. What pseudonym do you think I should use?" Student Xiao Wang nodded and asked with a sweet smile.

"Student Xiao Wang who hides his real name? Student Xiao Wang who does good deeds without leaving his name? Or Student Xiao Wang who doesn't want to tell others his name?" This topic was a bit heavy, so Tang Zhitong was a bit naughty.

"Go away! How can that be possible? You are just short of telling people your unit and name and asking them to write a letter of praise." Student Xiao Wang was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and disagreed with her husband's opinion.

(End of this chapter)