Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 837 836 Sister Chen is extremely worried

The food factory agreed to process the ice cream sales permit for Tang Zhitong not simply because of personal favors, but also because of the company's interests.

Although the temperature has risen a bit in the last two days, it is far from the sweltering heat of midsummer, and popsicles are not yet at their peak sales season. The food factory's production capacity is limited, so if they want to make more money, they can only try their best to sell more.

Therefore, the food factory was happy to help after receiving a call from the municipal post office, since helping the municipal post office meant helping them sell their own goods.

Tang Zhitong took the completed documents and went to arrange the rental of the popsicle box.

The popsicle boxes here come in various sizes, with the largest one holding over three hundred popsicles. Considering the number of people in the temporary dormitory, Tang Zhitong asked for two large boxes, preferring to have more than enough.

After paying the deposit and payment for the goods, Tang Zhitong packed the popsicles with the receipt and carried them to his bicycle, box by box.

Using a shelf borrowed from the security guard, I carefully maintained my balance and tied the two popsicle boxes to both sides of the back of the bicycle.

Because of the two large boxes behind him, Tang Zhitong no longer had to slide the bike along first and then lift his leg to get on. Instead, he struggled to lift his right leg from the front and directly pedaled to start the bicycle.

Although he was very tall, Tang Zhitong was not very flexible and was at least three blocks away from Xiao Wang.

This way of getting on the bus is actually quite common. Many male parents let their children sit on the front crossbar when they are driving, because this frees up the back seat and makes it easier for the right leg to swing onto the bus from behind.

Of course, there are also cases where fathers forget that they have a child in the back of the car, and as a result, they kick the child off the car. Truly, fatherly love is as solid as a mountain.

Tang Zhitong felt that when she had children in the future, she could entrust the task of taking the children out to Xiao Wang.

Once outside the food factory, Tang Zhitong immediately pulled the popsicles into his spatial dimension. This way, the popsicles wouldn't melt, and the bicycle would be lighter and easier to ride.

Wearing a straw hat and humming a little tune, Tang Zhitong drove towards the farm.

The journey takes us through Hongxing Commune. The wheat fields near the irrigation canal in Hongxing Commune were just beginning to turn yellow, but the further south we went, the more obvious the yellowing became.

In the fields where the wheat is turning yellow, some commune members are busy harvesting wheat, but the harvesting equipment here is clearly more advanced than that at the Post and Telecommunications Farm.

The wheat field at the post and telecommunications farm looks like this:
Such:
The wheat field of the Hongxing Farm production team looked like this:
Besides using forks to stack the straw, the members of Hongxing Commune have basically said goodbye to the process of threshing by rolling with a stone roller and have directly adopted mechanical threshing.

The children here are clearly happier than those at the post and telecommunications farm. Most of the children at the post and telecommunications farm have to participate in labor. Even if they are too young to participate in labor, their parents will leave them in the shade of the wheat field to wait for them. Meanwhile, the children here are catching grasshoppers in groups of three or five.

At this stage, the grasshoppers are still a bit small and tender, but precisely because of this, most of them can only hop and cannot fly, making them easier to catch.

The children strung the grasshoppers they caught together with foxtail grass, thinking they would be able to eat meat that evening.

Tang Zhitong felt that this was what a normal child's childhood should be like, but as the song goes, "Your childhood and my childhood seem different..."

Some people are born in Rome, while others...

Seeing the boy showing off the grasshoppers he had caught to his friends, Tang Zhitong suddenly remembered something: in the past three years, it had all been said to be a natural disaster, and there had been very few reports of reduced production caused by locust plagues.

Locust plagues have always been a huge shadow hanging over the Chinese nation, with locusts causing trouble in almost every famine.

The passage of locusts is terrifying. They not only destroy crops, but they also devour tree bark. From the Warring States period to before liberation, locust plagues broke out roughly every three years, each time leaving the land barren and the dead starving everywhere!

Who could have imagined that grasshoppers would gradually evolve into a species in China that needs to be farmed to satisfy the gluttonous appetite?
All of this is thanks to one person—Ma Shijun.

In 1951, Ma Shijun interrupted his studies and returned to China from the University of Minnesota. He conducted in-depth investigations in Weishan Lake and Hongze Lake, and in 1954, he proposed a locust control plan of "water conservancy first, agricultural transformation, and ecological regulation".

Against the backdrop of concentrating resources on major tasks, this plan has been remarkably effective. As of this year, the area affected by locust plagues nationwide has decreased by 58%!

If it weren't for him, the famine of the past few years would probably have been even more severe.

Tang Zhitong, lost in his own thoughts, rode his bicycle directly to the edge of the wheat field.

The word "ice cream" was clearly written on the ice cream box. Upon seeing the two ice cream boxes, the middle school student stopped eating, wiped a black stain on his sweaty forehead with his arm, and looked at Tang Zhitong expectantly.

"Comrades, the leaders of the ministry are very considerate and have prepared popsicles for everyone. Stop what you're doing for now, eat them, and then continue working." Su Qingxiang announced as he saw Tang Zhitong unloading boxes, cupping his hand around a megaphone.

Upon hearing Su Qingxiang's words, voices of "Thank you, leader!" rang out from the wheat field, and more and more workers stopped their work.

Tang Zhitong also heard this and couldn't help but admire Su Qingxiang's interpersonal skills. By attributing the credit to the superior department, he not only protected the image of the superior department but also avoided being criticized for eating popsicles while visiting the grassroots level, which was against the rules.

Because Tang Zhitong had kept the popsicles in the space along the way, none of them melted.

The eager junior high students were the first to crowd around and get their hands on the popsicles.

Two junior high school students licked their lips before taking a bite, and their first bite of the popsicle got stuck to their lips. It hurt terribly when they pulled on it, and they cried out in frustration.

In the cold winter of Northeast China, telephone poles taste sweet. Tasting them makes your tongue sticky. I never thought that you could see this scene in the summer in the scorching sun of Beijing.

The sight of the two middle school students made everyone burst into laughter, and they solved the problem with just half a ladle of water.

With the two unlucky guys right in front of them, the others who got the popsicles were much more careful when eating them. However, a few still managed to bite into their teeth, gasping and exclaiming, "Wow! This popsicle is really solid, it's awesome!"

"Ouch, my teeth. I've never known popsicles could taste so good." Someone exclaimed, rubbing their cheek.

"The food factory uses high-quality ingredients. It's around minus twenty degrees Celsius, so eat slowly and don't rush," Tang Zhitong said to the employees while handing out popsicles, not even bothering to wipe his sweat.

Since there are no refrigerators at present, ice cream and popsicles are basically kept in ice cream boxes after leaving the factory, sometimes for a whole day. If the temperature is too high when leaving the factory, they will probably melt before they are sold out. Therefore, the set temperature of frozen products in food factories is generally low.

This is different from the unscrupulous vendors who made ice cream that would melt as soon as you took it out, leaving your hands covered in splatter if you ate it slowly. But the popsicles these days are much more resistant to melting. Many people buy a pound of draft beer, put a popsicle in it, and after finishing the beer, there's still one popsicle left.

Although Su Qingxiang did not give any instructions, Tang Zhitong bought all popsicles from the food factory this time, and they were the cheapest grade B popsicles, with a factory price of 4 cents each, emphasizing that everyone was treated equally.

Besides this kind, the food factory also made Grade A popsicles, which were essentially ice cream, with a wholesale price of 8 cents each; they even made ice cream, which was much more expensive, costing 2 yuan per kilogram, and an average worker's daily wage was only enough to buy one kilogram. There was no distinction between good and bad popsicles; one was given to each person who came, and soon more than half a box was gone, and no more hands reached out.

"Director Su, should we put these popsicles here? Or should we put them in the dormitory first?" Tang Zhitong closed the box, wiped his sweat, and asked.

“There’s nowhere to put it here. Take it to the dormitory, find a shady spot, and bring it over to distribute to everyone around five o’clock,” Su Qingxiang replied after thinking for a moment.

"Okay!" Whatever the leader says goes. Tang Zhitong quickly put the box back on the bicycle. If this thing is left here, some people will probably not be able to control themselves and will keep picking up one after another. This will not only affect efficiency, but also make people feel that the distribution is unfair.

"Don't forget about the staff at the threshing ground and the dormitory. Have one for yourself too," Su Qingxiang said, holding an ice pop in one hand and helping Tang Zhitong hold her bicycle with the other.

"Okay, I'll go to the threshing floor first." Tang Zhitong smiled, but didn't immediately get himself a piece.

The wheat fields were divided into plots, with the areas managed by the workers being far from those managed by the commune members, but there was only one threshing ground and only one road leading to it.

On the way to the threshing ground, some children from the production team stared at the ice cream boxes on Tang Zhitong's truck, drooling. Living in the suburbs of Beijing, they might not have eaten ice cream, but they had certainly seen it.

"Hurry up and we'll give you a piece when we get to the threshing floor." Tang Zhitong felt a pang of pity for these children who had no childhood. The children of the Red Star Commune could avoid labor, but these children, who were barely taller than the basket, had to carry the basket to the threshing floor in pairs. Who could they reason with?

Tang Zhitong planned to give popsicles not only to the employees, but also to the members and children in the wheat field. They were all working for the farm, so what was wrong with eating a popsicle?
As for whether Su Qingxiang and the department leaders agreed, Tang Zhitong didn't care. Each one cost four cents, and the extra ones would only amount to a little over a dollar. He could just bear the cost himself.

When Tang Zhitong arrived at the threshing ground, he found that not only Yu Ying was working there, but Sister Chen was also there.

When Sister Chen saw Tang Zhitong coming over to distribute popsicles, she quickly called out to the villagers who were working: "Fellow villagers, stop for a moment and come and have a popsicle to rest."

Well, that makes things easier for Tang Zhitong.

"I was just wondering how to build rapport and get things going, and here you are, a real lifesaver." After greeting the commune members, Sister Chen immediately stepped forward to help Tang Zhitong unload the boxes.

"Sister Chen, what brings you here today?" Tang Zhitong looked around, and the commune members looked at each other, not daring to come forward for a moment.

"I wanted to find a partner for Xiao Yu, but we couldn't get to know the other villagers in the wheat field. I thought we could get along well with everyone here, but it seems like they're a bit resistant." After saying that, Sister Chen opened the box, took out popsicles from it, and smiled as she handed them out to the children who couldn't resist the temptation.

After hearing what Sister Chen said and seeing the expressions on the faces of the commune members, Tang Zhitong understood.

It is said that Nixon made a joke during his visit to China, the gist of which was that his decrees only worked within the White House, and were nothing outside of it.

The members were wary and unaware of what had happened before.

Tang Zhitong sighed, not knowing what to say, and could only wave to the still dazed club members again.

In the brief moment that the villagers walked by, some children had already had their tongues stuck to their throats.

Many of them were eating popsicles for the first time and didn't know where to start, so they could only imitate others by licking them.

Don't blame the child; blame Tang Zhitong for keeping the popsicles too well-preserved and too cold.

"Come on, lift your head and hold your breath." Seeing this, Tang Zhitong quickly scooped up a ladle of water from the side and slowly poured it into the children's mouths to help them dissolve the water.

The water here is for the villagers to quench their thirst. It's not boiled water, nor cooled boiled water, nor mung bean soup; it's just ordinary well water.

Seeing that the commune members usually drank this, Tang Zhitong felt relieved. If they could drink well water, they wouldn't get diarrhea from eating popsicles.

"Don't rush, the popsicle is too cold, eat it slowly. Wait until it melts and isn't so firm, then you can bite into it." Although it hurt a little, it was a good thing to eat after all, and none of the children cried. Tang Zhitong patted the head of one of the little ones with a loving heart and said with a smile.

With the children setting an example, and with Sister Chen and Tang Zhitong's kind appearance, some members of the commune finally started walking over.

Once someone takes the lead, the rest will fall into place.

Being able to eat refreshingly cold popsicles on a hot day, especially for free, warmed the hearts of the villagers. When they looked at Sister Chen again, their eyes gradually changed.

"Xiao Yu, come and have an ice pop, we'll get back to work later." Sister Chen handed out ice pops to the commune members, not forgetting Yu Ying, the temporary outsourced staff member at the escort office.

Tang Zhitong saw that Sister Chen was holding her own and Yu Ying's popsicles, and then looked back at the way they came. There were still a few children walking this way, so he waved to them: "Come on, come and have some popsicles."

After everyone had one, Tang Zhitong started loading the popsicle boxes onto her bicycle, saying as she did so, "Sister Chen, I'll come back around five o'clock to distribute them again. I'll put the popsicles in the dormitory for now."

With Sister Chen around, Tang Zhitong felt that it wouldn't be difficult for Yu Ying to find a partner, so he decided not to get involved.

Back in the dormitory, another round of distribution was inevitable. To prevent the popsicles from melting too quickly, Tang Zhitong not only placed the box in the shade, but also made a heat insulation layer with straw underneath.

This time, Tang Zhitong didn't use any cheat codes. If the popsicles were still like they were fresh out of the oven after two hours, that would be a bit unreasonable.

Tang Zhitong quickly finished an ice pop and got busy. First, he had to pickle the pickled vegetables for tomorrow morning, and then he had to prepare the stir-fried dishes.

At 5 p.m., after handing out another round of popsicles while carrying boxes, Tang Zhitong wielded a shovel and cooked the two dishes for tonight.

After cooking the dishes, he first prepared a portion for himself, then took three steamed buns to fill his stomach, went to the warehouse to get his own five or six half-portions, said goodbye to Qu Yi, and rode his bicycle home.

Tang Zhitong had already told Fang Yuan when she was handing out popsicles in the second round that she would go home today and come back early tomorrow morning, so that she wouldn't miss cooking lunch and could also buy popsicles along the way.

The box had been in the straw insulation layer for about two hours, and the melting wasn't very noticeable. Tang Zhitong figured he would treat it the same way after buying it, and that it wouldn't be a big problem to let it sit for half a day, especially since he had the cheat code at his disposal.

Tang Zhitong left the farm at about 6:30 p.m., and it was already dark when she got home. Fortunately, the front door was still open.

As they entered, the swallow guarding the gate poked its head out and chirped twice, as if it were announcing something to its family or greeting Tang Zhitong.

Tang Zhitong straightened his clothes, took out a bag of cicada nymphs from his spatial storage, and held the remaining popsicles in his hand before stepping forward: "Mom, I'm back!"

(End of this chapter)