Time Travel: My Comfortable Life After Going to the Countryside

Le Yao: "Liu Xiangyang, you have no idea how we've been getting through these past few days. We've been repairing the house, and he's been acting all sarcastic and mean every day. It's really getting on our nerves."

"Anyway, in a few days we'll move to the new house, and we won't have to listen to their sarcastic remarks or deal with them anymore."

Leqi: "That works too. If we build good relationships with the villagers, we can trade some vegetables with them before our seeds are harvested."

Xue Bingbing: "Then we still need to grind some grain. So many people need to eat, it's not realistic to trade grain with others."

"Then let's take the afternoon off and finish work early, come back and grind some grain, and then go and tell the three big bosses to have their wives come over to help with the cooking tomorrow. We'll gain favor, and they'll get something in return. It's a win-win situation."

Around 4:30 p.m., Liu Xiangyang, along with Xue Bingbing, Le Qi, and Le Yao, asked the three big shots for leave, told them that they wanted their wives to come over the next afternoon to help with cooking, and then went back to grind grain.

The four men brought grain to the stone mill, where there were seven millstones, one large and six small. The large one required livestock to pull, but they couldn't borrow any from the village.

At this time, livestock were more valuable than people; if you actually tried to borrow them, you could expect to be scolded.

Liu Xiangyang discussed it with them and chose two small hand-cranked millstones. They worked in pairs, one pushing the millstone and the other putting in the grain. When they got tired, they would switch.

Liu Xiangyang and Xue Bingbing were in one group, and Le Qi and Le Yao were in another. Liu Xiangyang first lifted both graphites and let them clean them.

Then he grabbed the wooden handle and started pushing the millstone. Xue Bingbing helped pour the grain into the millstone and swept the grain from the edge to the center with a broom.

Leqi pushed for less than 5 minutes before Leyao took over. The two of them couldn't push anymore, and Liu Xiangyang said something when he saw this.

"Stop, you can't move it like this. I'll do it."

Liu Xiangyang gripped the handle with his other hand, pushing the millstone with both hands simultaneously, without slowing down at all.

Le Qi and Le Yao were dumbfounded. Le Yao blurted out, "Liu Xiangyang, you're so strong! Whoever marries you will be so lucky. You have a good family background, you're good-looking, and you're so strong."

Liu Xiangyang chuckled and said, "Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and find a broom so the grain doesn't fall down and go to waste." His hands didn't slow down at all.

Midway through, Liu Xiangyang got sweaty and took off his shirt, revealing his muscular physique. The three men were so impressed that they couldn't keep up with the speed at which he pushed the millstone while sweeping the grain.

Two hours later, the corn kernels the four had brought were finally turned into cornmeal. They were brought back to the educated youth settlement, where the four made a simple meal and went to sleep.

Ding ding ding. Liu Xiangyang heard the work bell ring and sat up reflexively. After washing up, he sat on the kang for a while.

After the educated youths went to work, the four of them arrived at the village entrance. When Old Wang's horse-drawn carriage arrived, they got on and headed to the county town.

After agreeing on a time with Lao Wang, the four of them went to the post office to mail the letter and then split up.

Liu Xiangyang said he would go buy meat, oil, and flour, and asked the three of them to go buy wine and candy.

Liu Xiangyang went to a secluded spot and broke down two pieces of meat in his spatial dimension. One piece was quite fatty, weighing about five or six pounds, while the other was a piece of pork belly weighing over ten pounds. He gave the fatty piece to the villagers and kept the pork belly for himself.

He then took out fifty catties of white flour from his spatial storage, divided it into two portions, one of ten catties and the other of forty catties.

Once the food has been seen by people, no one will find it strange if it's eating meat and flour on its own afterwards.

After glancing around again, I found there was no yeast in the space, so I rushed to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought some yeast.

Seeing the toilet paper on display at the supply and marketing cooperative, I realized I was almost out of paper. I couldn't use sticks or leaves, especially since they were consumables, so I bought 10 reams of toilet paper (100 sheets per ream).

Passing by a state-run restaurant, I noticed they were selling Shandong-style large meat buns and Harbin red sausages, so I bought five large meat buns and started eating one.

He then inquired about the price of Harbin red sausage, which was 1.2 yuan per jin. Liu Xiangyang offered to buy it all, but the staff at the state-run canteen refused, saying, "If you buy it all, what will others eat?" They only sold Liu Xiangyang 10 jin. Liu Xiangyang counted out 12 yuan and gave them the meat coupons, and took the 10 jin of Harbin red sausage with him.

Eating steamed buns and carrying a basket on his back, Liu Xiangyang arrived at the meeting point to find Xue Bingbing and the others.

The three of them also bought a lot of things, making sure they had everything they wanted.

Liu Xiangyang handed them the still-warm steamed buns in his hand. He had just passed by a state-run restaurant and they were still selling steamed buns, so he bought a few. "Eat them quickly."

The three of them took the big steamed buns and started eating. Then they saw so much meat, flour, and paper in Liu Xiangyang's basket and asked him why he bought so much meat and flour.

Liu Xiangyang: "Anyway, I'll be cooking in my own house from now on, so I don't have to worry about others seeing me, and of course I'll eat well."

Leqi: "You bought way too much toilet paper. We didn't buy as much as you."

In those days, sanitary napkins were not produced domestically, nor could precious foreign exchange be used to buy them. Therefore, women used menstrual pads or folded toilet paper during their menstrual periods, which easily led to gynecological diseases.

In 1982, Beijing Paper Mill No. 11 introduced China's first sanitary napkin production line and began producing straight-strip sanitary napkins, which gradually solved a major problem for women.

When Liu Xiangyang and his group returned to their house, it was already 3 p.m. The beams and purlins of both courtyards had been installed, and the villagers were laying the roofs.

The heated walls and kang (heated brick bed) inside the house have been repaired, and the courtyard wall has been erected. The doors and windows will be installed tomorrow, and we can move in then.

Village Chief Zhang's wife, Captain Wang's wife, Accountant Li's wife, along with their daughter and several other women who came to help, had already been busy for a while.

The stove for cooking large pot meals was set up, the large pots were placed on the table, and a complete set of large bowls and steamers was provided. Four or eight tables were also set up. Seeing all this, Liu Xiangyang felt that his meat and flour had not been wasted.

Liu Xiangyang and his group immediately stepped forward to offer cigarettes and candy. After some polite exchanges, the four of them went with a few villagers to their house to get vegetables and soybean paste, which they would need soon.

Others also started getting busy, cutting meat, kneading dough, chopping firewood, their hands never idle, and their mouths talking about all sorts of gossip.

Whoever had a suspected affair with whom, someone from another village couldn't endure the hardship and tried to escape, but was caught and brought back, and has already been sentenced.

Everyone worked together, chopping pork, cucumbers, eggplants, and leafy greens, and putting cornbread and steamed buns into the steamer.

The roofers, looking down at the large bowls of meat, steamed buns, and especially the bottles of wine, quickened their pace.

Flames leaped from the bottom of the pot, filling the yard with the aroma of meat and vegetables, making mouths water.