Five years of marriage, always separated [1970s]

The captain of the Shanxi brigade thought Ye Fan was joking and ignored her words "bring her to justice". He waited for the fresh pork to arrive, bought a few pounds of ribs and went home.

It was the coldest time of the year and the Spring Festival was approaching. The captains of the ten production teams on the island gathered together to go to the food factory to sell seafood.

The team leaders were embarrassed to rush to deliver the goods before the members, so they consciously lined up at the end. The factory yard was full, and the Lotus Team estimated that they would have to wait for a long time, so they took out their homemade cigarettes and went to the roadside to smoke with several team leaders.

Chatting about nothing, talking about whatever comes to mind.

The captain of the Five Star Brigade said that the oranges planted by their brigade under the guidance of experts had borne fruit this year, and they were big, sweet and easy to peel. The captain of the production team to the north of the Five Star Brigade said that the several pomelo trees planted on trial also bore fruit, and they did not expect that pomelo could be grown on the island.

The leader of the Shanxi brigade said that two students from their production team who were studying in Hangzhou were on vacation. One was only in the first year and the other was in the first semester, but they were able to guide the members in growing rice.

Speaking of "rice", the leader of the Lotus Brigade has something to say, "What do you think of the government's policy of contracting land to households?"

The Shanxi team leader laughed, "There are no outsiders here, so why beat around the bush? Isn't the meaning of contracting land to households to divide the land, and isn't the meaning of each person taking care of himself? This method is definitely a good one."

Captain Lotus smiled and nodded, "Yes. For example, the roadsides and fields are now covered with chicken manure and cow manure. The harvested grain belongs to each individual, and the fields need manure. I dare say that there are people carrying manure baskets to pick up manure every day. There may also be fights over who empties the septic tanks and public toilets of the troops."

The captain of the Five-Star Brigade took a puff of his cigarette and exhaled a long puff of smoke. "But the old secretary disagreed. He also said that the first bird to stick its head out gets shot!"

The leader of the Lotus Production Team glanced at the long queue of people in the food factory compound and said, "What have we done in the past few years that has not been ahead of others? When Accountant Ye wanted to start this factory, he did not support it. He also opposed his own son's preparation for the exam. Now all of us rely on this, in Duofu's words, a makeshift team to pay off the foreign debt. After graduating from Yuanhang, he will be able to stay in the provincial unit."

The Shanxi team leader said: "But there is only one Accountant Ye and one Su Yuanhang on the entire island."

Captain Wuxing nodded, "That's right. Then we won't compete with them. They are too talented. Let's compete with the production team that sells things near the dock on the other side. Their production team learned from Accountant Ye to set up a food factory. Even if they don't go to the city to sell goods but only sell them at the dock, they can still make a lot more money. But they didn't do it until this year."

Leader Lianhua: "It's not too late this year. Many citizens who are too busy to go to the island but want to save money and eat something good go there every few days to buy things. I remember that at the beginning there was only one production team leader and a few members selling things. Now there are bamboo sheds on both sides. It will become a trading town in a few years."

The captain of the Five Star Brigade couldn't help but say, "It's impossible that the higher-ups don't know about this blatant sale."

Captain Lianhua: "The higher-ups turned a blind eye to that matter, which means we can give it a try."

Shanxi Captain: "What if we fail?"

The five-star team leader thought about it seriously: "Everyone should sign and put their fingerprints on it. The consequences will be borne by themselves. Don't blame the production team or the government."

Everyone looked at each other and thought this method was feasible.

As far as they knew, the lazy guy in the team had complained that the land was not his, so why bother working so hard. Regardless of whether he would be lazy when the land was given to him, it seemed that he also hoped that the land was his.

If even lazy people support it, there will definitely be no one who objects to it.

The Shanxi brigade leader asked, "Execute first and report later?"

Lotus Brigade: "You go first, I'll cover the rear."

Su Yuanhang's family is a member of the Lotus Production Team. If the Lotus Team is the first to call a meeting with its members, Su Yuanhang's father will know about it first, and he will stop the other teams before they start.

The Five Star Brigade was very supportive of this, but they were actually unsure: "How should we divide it? Our village has more mountains than rice fields." Pointing to the faintly visible river in the west, "Even if we take into account the paddies that we have built in recent years by dredging silt, each person will get less than one acre."

The Shanxi brigade leader was shocked: "Your production team has so much land? We count the land that can be used to plant fruit trees, and each person has one and a half mu of land, three mu of land and one mu of mountain."

The leader of the Lotus Production Team winked at the courtyard. Everyone was confused and wanted to ask what was going on. Then they heard Ye Fan's voice: "Everyone in your production team weighs three to five kilograms, but you weigh more than twenty kilograms. Your family doesn't have a fishing boat, so where did you get it?"

The Shanxi captain smiled and said, "It was sent by a relative. If it was one or two kilograms more, maybe Accountant Ye would turn a blind eye and let it pass. Twenty kilograms? Why not bring all the things from the relative's house and rent a carriage just for his family?"

The captain of the Five-Star Brigade stood on tiptoe to take a look, and said to the Lotus Brigade: "It looks like your production team's."

The leader of the Lotus Team hurried over and saw that it was indeed his team. "Is it possible that others will sell their products to you if they are all selling your products?"

In fact, his relatives gave him five kilograms, but it was not the first time. In the past two years, before the food factory received the goods, his relatives sent him a few kilograms and asked him to sell them. However, in addition to his own things, his family also had things from his brother-in-law and his sisters. Unfortunately, the food factory was a collective, so he could not collect them all by himself, and each household could only collect ten kilograms, so he could only take down his own things.

The good-natured member was too embarrassed to refuse his relative and had no other choice, so he used this trick - a few days later when the relative asked about it, he said that the food factory needed a small amount of goods and only wanted one carriage, and he had too much stuff, so he was discovered by the factory director and the accountant.

The captain had no idea what was going on, so he said, "Take it down!"

The member left his brother-in-law, sister and his own things, which were three catties, three catties and four catties respectively. He was so clear because he expected Su Duofu and Ye Fan would not let him get away with it, so he weighed and divided them first. When his brother-in-law and sister asked how much they sold it for, he said "Your two families are the same" to avoid conflicts.

At the same time, the nine production team leaders on the roadside suddenly understood what Captain Lianhua had meant.

When it was their turn, almost all the members had left. The nine of them handed the things to Su Duofu and asked Ye Fan to go to the office.

Ye Fan laughed: "Just tell me what you want me to do."

The nine people and Captain Lotus beside Ye Fan were shocked. How did she know that they had something to do with her?

Su Duofu rolled his eyes at them and said, "You are staring at Accountant Ye and hesitating to speak. Even a blind man can tell that you are in trouble."

The ten people giggled awkwardly for a while, and then the Lotus Brigade said, "It's still about contracting land to each household."

The leader of the Shanxi Brigade said: "Don't laugh at me. I didn't want to try it before because I thought the current situation was good enough. But after talking with them for a while, I felt that the policy above was better. We all decided to follow the Party!"

Ye Fan chuckled: "You don't want to tell me? Then I'll go home and cook."

The Five Star Team said hurriedly: "Tell me! We don't know how to divide it. Because there is too little land to cultivate."

Ye Fan: "Count all the land and divide it into first, second and third grades, or use A, B, C and D. If the A grade land is 10 mu, divide 10 by the total population of the production team, and then multiply it by the number of people in each family. Do you know how much land each family gets? If there are 50 households in the production team, draw lots from first to 50 on the A grade land. Whoever draws number 1 will get the land closest to their home. When dividing the B grade land equally, number 50 is at the front and number 1 is at the end. As a result, the person who draws number 1 may get the mountain land farthest from the production team."

Su Duofu nodded: "This method is fair. When the A-grade land was divided, someone drew one, and when the B-grade land was drawn, he drew fifty. This shows that he is lucky. The other members cannot blame the production team for being dissatisfied."

The ten production team leaders thought about it for a moment and realized that this method really worked.

They went back home and discussed the idea with their team leaders again, and confirmed that it was feasible. Except for the leader of the Lotus Brigade, the leaders of other production teams called a meeting of the members that night.

The next morning, the leaders of each brigade took the members to measure the land. Among them, large tracts of bamboo forests and mountainous land without fruit trees still belonged to the production team. The brigade leader also decided that the ponds of the Lotus Brigade would still belong to the collective. If some members really did not harvest any crops, they would still be able to share the money from selling lotus seeds and lotus roots next year.

The ditches and rivers in the Shanxi production team were not measured, and the money from the river was sold and divided equally. When the team leader finished talking about this, a member asked whether the money earned by the food factory would be returned to the production team in the future.

The team leader discussed this issue with other production team leaders and answered the members truthfully that in order to mobilize everyone's enthusiasm, the money earned by the food factory would no longer be divided equally among the production teams.

Many hardworking members were very satisfied with this answer, because they would not be happy if they thought that their neighbors could share the money earned by the food factory without doing anything. Although hardworking members could also share a little, it was better not to have that little money compared to their hard work in fishing.

The leader of the Lotus Brigade called the members to a meeting only after the land of other production teams had been divided. Su Yuanhang's school was on holiday, so the leader called Su Yuanhang to a meeting.

The next day, the captain was thinking about how to deal with Su Yuanhang's father, but he didn't expect Su Yuanhang to send his father away first - Su Yuanhang's son said he needed study materials and asked his grandfather to help him with advice. Su Yuanhang's father thought his grandson was more sensible than his son, so after breakfast he took his grandson to the vegetable market and took a passenger ship from the pier behind the vegetable market.

Su Yuanhang told his son that there were many delicious foods in the state-owned restaurant and gave him two yuan. His son knew what to do, so he bought a book and said he was thirsty and drank some fermented rice wine. Then he said he was hungry and wanted to eat eight-treasure rice and wontons. Before his grandfather could refuse, he said he would give him the New Year's money and took out two yuan to treat his grandfather to a meal.

Father Su was annoyed when he saw his son, but his grandson was so sensible that Father Su became more and more satisfied and said that his grandfather would treat him to a meal.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the grandfather and grandson boarded the boat. When they got off the boat and went from the vegetable market to the Lotus Brigade, the land division was settled. Su Yuanhang's father was so angry that he didn't eat dinner and didn't sleep all night. In the morning, he couldn't hold on and fell asleep. When he woke up in the afternoon, he had forgotten all about it.

But he had temporary amnesia.

After dinner, they went out for a walk and found that everyone was full of praise for the "contracting land to households" system. Father Su did not dare to stand against the masses, so he comforted himself that they were only temporarily deceived by the team leader, and they would wake up after the New Year.

As the festive atmosphere of the New Year grew stronger, the island became prosperous. Instead of returning to the right path, all the islanders were even more excited than when the "revolution was over" was announced.

Hangzhou Normal University was on holiday, Liao Miaomiao came back, usually she either went to Niu Xiaoshan's house or Ye Fan's house, she rarely went out, but she could feel that the islanders had changed. The people hadn't changed, but the feeling she had had had changed.

On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, Liao Miaomiao was not at home either. After breakfast, she went to Ye Fan's house and asked, "Aunt Ye, I noticed that the members of the Shanxi Brigade seemed very happy. Did they make money?"

Ye Fan: "We made a lot this year. Conservatively speaking, the poorest member can save a hundred yuan."

Liao Miaomiao has been in Hangzhou for half a year. She heard from her classmates that ordinary workers earn more than 20 yuan a month. People in the city have to pay for food, clothing, housing and transportation. It is difficult for a dual-income family to save 200 yuan a year, unless there are no children, or there is only one child who is taken care of by grandparents.

So Liao Miaomiao couldn't help but ask: "So many?"

Ye Fan: "The price of duck feathers and goose feathers has increased this year. Duck feathers and goose feathers are worth fifteen yuan, and the price of selling delicacies from land and sea and fruits is forty, so the total is fifty-five."

"But oil and salt also cost money."

Ye Fan nodded: "The production team often delivers goods to the purchasing station, and the troops also buy eggs and meat from the production team. These two items are enough to support the family expenses. This year is different from previous years. This year, we can sell all the seafood, meat and eggs in the vegetable market every weekend. In the second half of this year, the Shanxi Brigade sold eight pigs weighing more than 200 kilograms. Even if there were 100 kilograms of pork, including bones and offal, a pig could be sold for 100 yuan. 800/900 yuan is divided among more than 100 households, 8 yuan per family, and it is more than enough for the children's tuition."

Liao Miaomiao calculated carefully: "Also, duck and goose meat can be sold. People in Yongcheng love to eat goose."

"When you mentioned geese, it just occurred to me that I sold all the hundreds of live chickens, ducks, and geese that I bought from members of the cooperative at the market a few days ago."

Liao Miaomiao sighed: "No wonder they are so happy. I feel like my backs are straightened."

Ye Fan nodded, took out the washed kelp and put it on the rope.

Liao Miaomiao asked casually: "How do you eat kelp?"

Ye Fan: "Buy a few pounds of pork ribs and stew them. Dabao and Erbao may have been too greedy for meat in the past. I would go to the market every time a pig was slaughtered and buy some. After two meals, they still weren't full. They said they would rather gnaw on the bones and drink the clear soup than drink the fish soup."

Dabao jumped out and said, "Mom, are you saying bad things about me again?"

Ye Fan: "What do you have to say? Where's your sister? Is she still in bed?"

Dabao nodded: "She said her feet and legs were frozen. Mom, what are we having for lunch?"

Ye Fan was speechless but wanted to laugh: "We have dinner at eight o'clock, and it's not nine yet. Go back to your room and read!"

Dabao didn't go, and ran to the water well, where he saw a big fish in the basin: "Mom, Dad is in the army for the New Year, and the three of us can't eat so much." "Your dad will go to the army on the 28th. He will be back tonight." Ye Fan glanced at the fish, "Eat half at noon and half at night. I'll chop meat in the afternoon and steam meat buns in the evening."

Dabao immediately stopped caring about the strong fishy smell and pressed half a basin of water. Seeing this, Ye Fan wanted to hit him: "I haven't scaled it yet, why are you pressing so much water? Don't make me angry here."

"I'm not angry with my mother. I love her the most." Dabao ran into the house with a smile.

Liao Miaomiao was stunned. Is it so easy to say "love"? Even if her parents were not Ye Fan and Geng Zhiye, but Xiaoshan's parents, she would not find the word "love" disgusting.

Ye Fan didn't understand: "Miao Miao, what's wrong?"

Liao Miaomiao came back to her senses and said with a smile: "Dabao is quite funny sometimes."

Ye Fan: "He's only nine years old, he doesn't know much."

Dabao came running out again.

Ye Fan asked: "What?"

"Mom, tomorrow is my birthday."

Ye Fan nodded: "Yes. Mom didn't forget."

"Can I make a wish? Tomorrow I want to eat braised pork, pig's trotters, sweet and sour pork, I want to eat--"

Ye Fan interrupted: "Dabao, there is a difference between making a wish and daydreaming."

Dabao put down his hand and asked: "How many can be achieved?"

Seeing him like this, Liao Miaomiao was immediately envious. He could even negotiate after making a wish: "I should be able to realize one or two of them."

"Only one or two?" Dabao asked again.

Ye Fan: "Do you want me to make you a birthday cake?"

Dabao can always eat cakes and the like every time he goes back to the capital. Either his aunt goes to the Friendship Store or his uncle buys them for him. Dabao is not surprised: "Cakes are too troublesome. I'll just eat steamed buns."

Liao Miaomiao had never eaten cake before, and had only tasted bread, which Geng Zhiqin gave her: "Is the cake delicious?"

Dabao shook his head: "Not very delicious. Foreigners' bread is just our unleavened flatbread, hard and choking, and not as delicious as flatbread. Cake is just steamed buns made with leavened dough. The methods are different. My uncle said so."

"How come? Isn't bread soft?"

Dabao: "We made it ourselves. Westerners' bread is hard. I only take a bite of it and my teeth fall out."

Ye Fan wanted to laugh: "Your teeth will fall out if you don't eat anything. Don't scare Miao Miao. How about making braised pork? I don't know how to make sweet and sour pork, ask your dad later if he can."

Geng Zhiye is very skilled, because children without mothers have to grow up early, so he learned to cook when he was as old as Dabao.

The next afternoon, Geng Zhiye came back early. Ye Fan used the rice cooker to cook braised pork, while Geng Zhiye made sweet and sour pork. Dabao and Erbao did not go out to play either, but sat side by side in front of the earthen stove waiting to be fed.

Geng Zhiye served the sweet and sour pork. The brother and sister stood up at the same time. Geng Zhiye was startled: "What are you two doing?"

Ye Fan asked, "Are you hungry? Go wash your hands! I'll serve you some rice."

Dabao had braised pork with rice and sweet and sour pork, but he refused to taste the vinegar-fried cabbage that Yefan made on the stove. Yefan picked up two pieces of cabbage leaves for him and Erbao with his chopsticks. The brother and sister wrinkled their noses together. Seeing this, Yefan wanted to laugh: "That's all."

Dabao immediately put it in his mouth and then stared at his mother. Is it really gone?
Ye Fan touched his little head and said, "My son, it's your birthday today. Mommy didn't prepare any presents for you. Ten dollars?" She took out a brand new big bill and said, "Save it to buy yourself a toy later?"

Dabao took the money and stood up to hug his mother: "Mom, can I make a wish?"

"Didn't you promise it yesterday?" Ye Fan asked.

Dabao shook his head: "I didn't celebrate my birthday yesterday, so it's no use wishing for it. Mom, have I started? I hope my mom is as good as she is today every day. I hope my dad is as good as he is today every day."

Geng Zhiye was happy: "Geng Dabao, these are two wishes."

"Then let's make the first wish first." Dabao turned to his sister, "Make the second wish on your birthday next year."

Erbao nodded: "Dad, eat meat." In order to continue to eat sweet and sour pork and braised pork next year, Erbao picked up a piece of braised pork for his father. After watching Geng Zhiye eat it, he asked, "Dad, are you happy?"

Geng Zhiye: "What do you want?"

Erbao smiled shyly: "Anything is fine?"

Geng Zhiye: "Dad will give you ten yuan too? When it's your birthday, will you also give your brother ten yuan?"

Erbao just wanted to make a small request, but he didn't expect to get a big reward. He nodded hurriedly. When she got the money, she stuffed it into her brother's hand. Geng Zhiye was stunned for a moment and looked at Ye Fan. What was going on?

Ye Fan: "Their money is all with Dabao."

Dabao nodded: "I didn't use my sister's money. I used my lucky money to buy delicious food at grandma's and grandma's house."

Ye Fan asked: "Mom will go to the city to buy you two piggy banks later?"

"Will it be stolen?" Dabao asked.

Ye Fan: "Just don't let others go to your room. Erbao, bring your friends home some other day and let your friends play in the living room?"

Erbao nodded: "Mom, eat meat." He picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork for Ye Fan.

Ye Fan quickly handed the bowl over and Erbao put the food in it.

The brother and sister rarely had the opportunity to enjoy meat in the past, and they were really greedy, so they ate too much tonight. Ye Fan and Geng Zhiye did not scold them.

But they felt sleepy after eating too much, and they woke up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning and couldn't fall asleep. It was uncomfortable for them to lie down, so Ye Fan held his daughter and Geng Zhiye carried his son on his back to go outside to wake them up. When they felt more comfortable, he let them go to play with their older brother and younger sister.

Geng Zhiye and Ye Fan were standing by the road waiting for them.

Smelling a faint fragrance, Geng Zhiye put his arm around Ye Fan's shoulders and lowered his head to sniff: "Isn't it from you?"

Ye Fan pushed his head away: "People are coming and going, stop making trouble."

Geng Zhiye sniffed it carefully and it was not an illusion: "No smell?"

"The plum blossoms in Sister Wan's yard are blooming. She planted them two years ago." Speaking of Wan Siqin, Ye Fan still doesn't understand her. "The year we planted flowers on the roadside, she asked someone for a plum tree. It was very small at first, and I didn't notice it when I passed by her door. This year, I saw it when the branches stretched out a little."

Geng Zhiye: "I never told you?"

Ye Fan shook his head: "Maybe she is born not to like dealing with people. Although you need to be careful when dealing with her, she is good at dealing with people. Unlike Zhuang Qiuyue who is superficial."

Geng Zhiye didn't quite understand: "What do you mean?"

"At first, she really thought Miaomiao went to the hospital because she was tired from studying. Later, she found out that Zhuang Qiuyue changed her major, which made Miaomiao so angry that she didn't want to live anymore. She ignored Zhuang Qiuyue in the past six months. In the past, she didn't come to our house much except to get water pumped and to use a fan when it was too hot in the summer. I guess she didn't come much at other times, did she?"

Geng Zhiye nodded. He had met Liu Guihua and Zhuang Qiuyue in his own house, but he had never seen Wan Siqin. "Then what?"

"The golden osmanthus flowers in Shanxi Brigade had bloomed a few days ago. She heard people say that cooking glutinous rice balls smelled good, so she went to the production team to pick osmanthus flowers. On her way back, she ran into Zhuang Qiuyue coming from the north at the entrance of the alley. Zhuang Qiuyue started chatting with her, but before she could finish three sentences, she said, 'I want osmanthus flowers, too,' and then she came towards our house. I was stunned at the time."

Geng Zhiye wanted to laugh: "Why don't you just say you're going home to cook?"

"It was around three o'clock. It was a few days after the Mid-Autumn Festival. There was nothing to do at the factory, so I was tidying up the vegetable fields in the yard." A few months later, Ye Fan still wanted to laugh when he thought of that day. "She came to the yard and said she was annoyed with Zhuang Qiuyue. Zhuang Qiuyue had never had any conflicts with her, so she must be annoyed with her because of Miaomiao."

Speaking of Miaomiao, Geng Zhiye thought of his sister: "When will Xiaoqin come over?"

"On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. She might come to our house on the sixth day. It's just right that we have a day off on the seventh day. On the eighth day, the weekend, the vegetable market will probably slaughter one or two pigs. I'll buy a few pounds of meat for her to satisfy her craving." Last summer, Geng Zhiqin received the admission letter and was going to live on the island for ten days. It was a pain to ride in the car in the summer, so Ye Fan asked her to come over during the winter vacation.

Geng Zhiye thought that buying meat in the capital still requires tickets: "I should be back by then. I will buy a few more pounds and make two plates of sweet and sour pork. I found that Dabao and Erbao really like to eat sweet and sour pork."

Ye Fan: "It tastes sour and sweet."

"What about you?"

Ye Fan had eaten a lot of good food in his previous life, so he was not greedy. "I like everything you like."

Geng Zhiye couldn't help but hug her and whispered, "Don't move, people will think we are a tree."

Ye Fan was speechless, thinking, is there a tree as strong as you? Ye Fan's mind suddenly moved: "Captain Geng, have you gained weight?"

"Strong! Strong! What do you mean by fat?" Captain Geng was very unhappy. "I have saved a lot of money and now I can have a big meal of meat every two weeks and cook with lard every day. Not only me, but my brothers have also become strong." Speaking of the recent living standards, Captain Geng had something to say, "My guard is 22 years old this year and has grown five centimeters in half a year. He is almost catching up with me. Isn't it amazing?"

Ye Fan: "You didn't have enough nutrition before, did you? My mom always says that you grow fast at the age of 23. That's probably what happened to him. But, does the headquarters have any objection to you eating like this?"

Geng Zhiye: "The headquarters is not clear because we did not apply for military funds from the headquarters."

Ye Fan: "Don't people come to inspect every year? They didn't find it either?"

"I can't find it!" Geng Zhiye shook his head and said with a smile, "The first meal was stewed pork and cabbage, the second meal was boiled radish, and the farewell banquet was a table full of shrimps and crabs."

(End of this chapter)