Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 838 837 Rumors
Tang Zhitong called out "Mom," but it was Xiao Wang who went out first.

A day apart feels like three autumns. Under the dim light of the bulb in the yard, Xiao Wang looked her husband up and down, as if afraid that something was missing from his body.

"Come on, let's go inside and talk." Tang Zhitong was carrying things in both hands, so he could only nod towards the door. Zhang Guifang was afraid of disturbing the young couple, so she pulled Fengzhi back inside.

"Brother! Brother! You're back! What are you holding? Is it an ice pop?" Fengzhi's small frame was clearly no match for Zhang Guifang, but her mouth didn't stop, as if she was afraid her brother hadn't heard her, and her voice was quite loud.

Hearing her sister-in-law's commotion, Xiao Wang suddenly woke up from her reverie, a blush rising to her cheeks, and her eyes as she looked at her husband seemed to be filled with a clear spring.

Xiao Wang's hair wasn't messy, but she habitually tucked her left hand back, trying to appear calm, and reached out her right hand to take the packet of cicada nymphs wrapped in newspaper from Tang Zhitong: "Come on, let's go inside."

"Here, go eat." Tang Zhitong entered the house and gave his younger sister an ice pop, stuffing her mouth shut.

"How's it in the countryside? Are you getting enough to eat?" Although the light was dim, Zhang Guifang could still see that her son had gotten tanned, but none of that mattered to her; the most important thing was food.

"Mom, don't worry, there's no rationing over there. We can eat as much as we want, and there are vegetables with every meal. I'm eating very well." Tang Zhitong said with a smile as she handed out popsicles to her mother and classmate Xiao Wang, then took the Five-Six-Half popsicles off her shoulder and stood them upright next to the table.

"That's good, that's good." Zhang Guifang was relieved to hear her son say that. She was not only worried about her son, but also about whether her daughter would have enough to eat in the countryside. However, no one knew which commune her daughter had gone to, so asking would be pointless.

"Don't worry, the company is taking good care of us. The boss was worried we'd get too hot, so he had me go buy some popsicles wholesale, two for each person a day. There were a few left, so I brought them back with me. Try them and see if they're sweet." Tang Zhitong urged her mother when she saw her holding a popsicle but not eating it.

"It's too cold, my teeth can't take it, I'll save it for you guys." Tang Zhitong brought back four popsicles, one for each person. However, Zhang Guifang didn't intend to eat them. Instead, she turned around, grabbed a bowl, and put the popsicles in it.

"Hey, you're making Fengzhi a lucky winner." Tang Zhitong took an ice pop from Xiao Wang and started crunching it in his mouth. Although it had been in the box all afternoon, it hadn't melted too much because there was an insulated blanket in the box.

The thermal blanket was rented along with the box. Tang Zhitong didn't know if it was filled with cotton because there was a waterproof plastic sheet on the outside of the thermal blanket, so she couldn't take it apart to check it closely.

"Why did you bring back cicada nymphs? Did you buy them?" Little Wang asked, licking his popsicle and pointing to the lump wrapped in newspaper on the table.

"I dug them myself. I have a level two chef's skill certificate, and my company asked me to cook for everyone. I have a lot of free time, so I carried a hoe and dug some up to add to the dishes." Tang Zhitong smiled innocently. There might really be cicada nymphs at the farm, but she hadn't had time to dig them up. These were all from her old stock.

“When are you leaving tomorrow? Meat is getting harder and harder to buy these days. If you have time, take some cicada nymphs to Jingmin.” Zhang Guifang sighed from the side.

"I have to go to work early this morning, so I'll have Wenwen take it with her," Tang Zhitong said, looking at Xiao Wang.

Xiao Wang nodded obediently. Her husband had brought back quite a few cicada nymphs, enough for both families to share and make an extra dish.

“Now meat coupons can be used to buy canned food. I heard that those canned foods are made from long-tailed rabbit meat. If we really can’t buy meat, we can’t let the meat coupons go to waste. What do you think, should we buy some or not?” Zhang Guifang asked her son, recalling a rumor she had heard in the past two days.

"Don't listen to that, it's obviously a rumor. Canned food is mass-produced; once the machines are running, they can produce tens of thousands of bottles a day. And rats aren't domesticated, they're not that easy to catch!" Tang Zhitong was both amused and exasperated. He hadn't expected such an outrageous rumor, but then he thought about the general level of literacy among people these days and it made sense.

Nowadays, let alone the rumor of "long-tailed rabbits," there were even more outrageous rumors back in the early days after liberation.

In mid-1950, a rumor about "cutting off testicles" spread rapidly and widely in North China. The main content was that the Russians sent people to cut off the testicles of Chinese men, the vaginas and uteruses of women, and the intestines of children as raw materials for making atomic bombs.

The rumors also claimed that the mission was carried out by government personnel disguised as monks, Taoist priests, merchants, farmers, etc., who were able to operate at night and even scale walls.

To make the rumor more believable, some bad actors painted pig intestines and tofu red, threw them in the wild, and claimed they were cut-off eggs to frighten the public.

Panic gripped the community, with many people too afraid to sleep all night. Some climbed onto their roofs to guard their homes, while others spread corn stalks across their doorways in case someone walked by and heard the noise.

Some people were even mistaken for "testicle-cutting" villains because of this rumor and were almost beaten to death by the people.

This may be the earliest and most influential rumor in the People's Republic of China. The state swiftly suppressed the rumor and also destroyed the Yiguandao sect.

"They were cracking down on the four pests a while ago, and they made it sound so convincing. Some even said that the canned food wasn't all long-tailed rabbit, but just bits and pieces mixed in. Even Guiying's mother regretted it, saying that she caught more than ten rats and had so much meat, and wished she had kept them for herself." Zhang Guifang said, half believing and half doubting.

"Mom, don't believe this stuff. If they put rats in canned food, the rat's head, tail, and fur are so obvious, how could you not see it when you eat it? Would anyone stand up and say they found it in their food?" Tang Zhitong thought there might be some leftover scraps or scraps in the canned food, but it wasn't enough to warrant stuffing rats in it, so she could only continue to persuade her.

“I also think it’s impossible for there to be rat meat in the canned food,” said Xiao Wang, licking her popsicle, agreeing with her husband’s opinion.

"Great minds think alike." Tang Zhitong smiled at his classmate Xiao Wang.

This rumor is similar to the "long-tailed rabbit" rumor from a while ago; it's an upgraded version. It could be spread by a vendor to resell their own meat, or it could just be someone playing a prank that was overheard and then spread.

With underdeveloped communication and limited tracking methods, who could possibly know the specifics of the situation?
"Mom, eat and drink as you please, I feel fine anyway. If you're really worried, just give me the meat ration coupons, and I'll ask someone to buy them from the slaughterhouse. Is that alright now?" Tang Zhitong saw that Zhang Guifang was still doubtful, so he didn't bother to explain further. Canned food was not only more expensive, but even the soup was counted by weight, which was indeed a little inappropriate.

"We'll talk about it later. It's getting late, hurry up and eat, wash off the smell of sweat, and go to sleep." It was late at night, and Zhang Guifang didn't want to keep her son and daughter-in-law waiting, so she urged them.

"Okay, sure." Tang Zhitong nodded, took a bite, and told Zhang Guifang about the letter from Anton as she chewed.

"Has your sister-in-law not gone yet?" Zhang Guifang asked, noticing the missing information she most wanted to know.

"My brother didn't mention it, so I guess it hasn't happened yet? Judging by the timeline, it should be around this time. Please be patient and wait. You might receive a letter in a few days." Tang Zhitong took a bite of his popsicle and replied casually.

The term "cat under the arm" is used to refer to a woman giving birth or about to give birth. There are euphemisms for this behavior in different regions, and they are not uniform.

"Brother, give it to me! Give it to me!" Tang Zhitong bit off the last bit of ice from the small bamboo stick. Just as he was about to throw the stick away, Fengzhi called out to him. Fengzhi stretched out her little hand, afraid that her older brother would throw it away.

"Oh, you want to play with a pick-up stick?" Tang Zhitong was immediately reminded of the purpose of the bamboo stick when the little girl called out to him.

Picking sticks is a common children's game nowadays. A handful of small bamboo sticks are thrown hard to the ground, and the player must pick one stick from a tangled pile without disturbing the others. This counts as one successful pick. The game continues until all the sticks are picked. If any of the sticks are even slightly disturbed, the player loses.

"Hmm!" Fengzhi took the small bamboo stick, looking as if she had found a treasure.

"Wash and dry them tomorrow before you play with them. When I come back next time, I'll bring you some more bamboo sticks; there are plenty at the farm." Seeing her little sister's appearance, Tang Zhitong felt a little guilty. So many bamboo sticks had been left on the field today, but she hadn't thought to bring some back for her sister.

While stick-picking is a common game, it's rare to see sticks as neatly arranged as the small bamboo sticks used in popsicles.

Many children even focused their attention on their own door curtains in order to play this game, and quite a few of them got beaten up for it.

"Really?! Pinky promise!" Fengzhi was overjoyed and stretched out her little hand to her brother.

"Pinky promise, a hundred years from now!" With his big hand on his little hand, Tang Zhitong happily made a pact with his little sister.

Pinky promises are a common way for children to make agreements, signifying that they are irrevocable and unchangeable, but it doesn't mean that if you go back on your word, you have to hang yourself.

This word is related to ancient copper coins.

In ancient times, ordinary people were actually very poor, and most of them didn't have much cash on hand.

Since taxes in many dynasties were paid in the form of "copper coins," people had to consciously save money in their daily lives.

Whenever they had saved up more than a thousand copper coins, they would take them to the government office to be strung together into a string of coins, which would then be hung on the roof beam and taken down when it was time to pay taxes.

When the government was stringing the coins together, they would not only count the number of coins, but also make a mark similar to sealing wax at the knot of the rope, just like the lead weight of an electric meter or water meter. Once the knot was broken, the string of coins would be invalid, and the people would have to pay a handling fee to string them together again.

The act of hanging this string of money on the roof beam is called "hanging". If someone comes to borrow money at this time, the host will not want to lend it and will often say: What a pity, my money was just hung up. Why don't you go and see another house?
The translation is: Oh dear, why didn't you say so sooner? I just deposited my money into an investment product, and I can't withdraw it! Why don't you ask someone else?
"You silly child, would your brother lie to you?" Seeing her children acting so childishly, Zhang Guifang first scolded her daughter, then told her son to leave: "Wenwen prepares water for you every day. After you finish eating, hurry up and wash up. You can smell the sour smell from far away."

I definitely need to take a bath, and not only that, I also need to drag my classmate Xiao Wang along.

Although he had only been on the farm for two days, Tang Zhitong had sweated a lot and his body was covered in a layer of mud and smelled of sweat.

Xiao Wang rubbed the dirt off her husband, but refused his offer to rub it off inside and out for her, because she couldn't apply the experience her colleague had shared here.

Back in the room, Tang Zhitong listened attentively to the experience that Xiao Wang had learned from his colleague. The experience was very simple, just one sentence: "Hold on tight for the last bit of your shiver."

"That's it?" Tang Zhitong smiled after hearing this, as he thought this "secret recipe" was a bit unreliable.

“Be serious, it’s not easy for people to say these things,” Xiao Wang replied as he closed the windows and curtains.

"Okay, let's get serious then. But I still don't understand, who is being referred to as trembling in this last shudder?"

"Two people together." Xiao Wang turned off the lights, completing the preliminary preparations for the ceremony.

Tang Zhitong understood; it was just like tuning a radio, finding the right frequency, and then creating resonance.

Tang Zhitong was familiar with tuning the radio; he knew it was done when he could hear a human voice coming through the crackling sound.

Turn the knob a few more times to select more channels and hear different tones.

Thursday, October 5, sunny.

Tang Zhitong stretched after waking up. He had been so focused on tuning the radio yesterday that he had been engrossed in it for a long time, and his back was a little sore.

In fact, Tang Zhitong did not believe the "secret recipe" that Xiao Wang brought yesterday. Twins have a certain degree of heritability, especially fraternal twins, which are mostly possible only if there is a family history of twins.

Despite not believing it, Tang Zhitong still cooperated with Xiao Wang, partly to make her happy, and partly because she enjoyed it herself.

As for how many children she had as her firstborn, or whether they were boys or girls, Tang Zhitong didn't care. She just wanted her son, Xiao Wang, to be safe and sound.

Zhang Guifang felt sorry for her son, so she prepared fried cicada nymphs and noodles for breakfast. The noodles were made in the same oil used to fry the cicada nymphs, and there were still oil droplets floating on the soup.

Although Qu Yi's pasta skills were good, Tang Zhitong still felt that her mother's hand-pulled noodles tasted the best in the world, so she ate them a little faster.

"Eat slowly, there's more if you're not full." Seeing her husband wolfing down his food, Xiao Wang felt sorry for him, thinking that the food at the farm was not good.

"Hey, we've gotten used to eating at the farm these past few days, so everyone's been eating fast to rush the harvest." Tang Zhitong smiled and explained when he saw the worry in Xiao Wang's eyes, but then slowed down his pace.

After finishing his meal, Tang Zhitong picked up his Wu Liu Ban (a type of bicycle) again and prepared to go out.

"Brother, don't forget the little bamboo stick." Fengzhi reminded Tang Zhitong as he left.

"I won't forget, don't worry. I'll bring you a bundle next time I come back!" Tang Zhitong flicked his sister on the forehead.

As Tang Zhitong pushed the stroller out the door, she went on another round of flea and ticking, then threw them all into the swallows' nest. The two swallows hadn't laid any eggs yet, so hopefully they would have some when she came back next time.

For swallows, a nest must have at least twins. I wonder how tightly they clung to each other during their last shiver...

(End of this chapter)