I was married off to a disabled hero in lieu of marriage; my in-laws doted on me and I aspired to gr

Once the wheat is harvested, it must be threshed, dried, and then the grain must be handed over to the state.

In the past, the team leader would lead the able-bodied men to deliver grain to the commune. Now that land has been distributed to individual households, each household delivers its own grain.

Based on the harvest, if the yield is 900 jin of wheat per mu, then 300 jin of grain must be paid as public grain. Qiaoqiao's family has four mu of land, which means 1,200 jin.

This really worried Qiaoqiao's father. There were only old people and women in the house, and no tractor. They only had two handcarts from the production team. The commune was more than ten miles away from their home. How were they going to get the grain to the commune's granary?

Qiaoqiao tried it and could carry 50 jin (25 kg) without any problem. I wonder if she can walk more than 10 li (5 km) without it?

Hu Xiaomei is usually energetic and hardworking, and she is not afraid of hardship or fatigue. Even after Zhou Xiaowei has gone to sleep, she still has to clean up in the middle of the night.

This hardworking and conscientious person carried fifty pounds of weight, swaying precariously.

A family could only harvest a maximum of 400 jin (200 kg) of grain per trip, which was 1200 jin (600 catties) of public grain. It would take three trips to get there and back. By the time they reached the commune, it would be dark, and they would have to stay overnight to deliver the grain the next day.

Qiaoqiao suddenly understood why rural areas favored boys over girls; they wanted boys to do hard labor.

If my older brother were home, he could carry 200 jin (100 kg) by himself.

Qiaoqiao's father couldn't bear to see her suffer, so he went to Zhao Gui to ask for a cart.

The team has two handcarts, which should first be used by families without male laborers or strong laborers. Qiaoqiao's family has a male laborer, but he is not coming back, so he is not in the priority category.

What to do? They could only wait until everyone else had finished and the cart was free before it was Qiaoqiao's turn.

The sun was strong, and the grain was dried again and again. Some people said that the wheat that was not plump or not completely dry had to be transported back to be dried again.

Re-drying is awful; picking and choosing leaves you skinny.

To ensure the grain met the required standards, Qiaoqiao's father selected the best wheat, dried it thoroughly, and packed it into fertilizer bags, each weighing fifty jin (25 kg). He made over twenty bags, and when the cart was free, he hired two people to deliver them to the commune in one go.

We waited day by day, but we couldn't neglect the work in the fields; we had to plant the soybeans.

Qiaoqiao goes to the fields with her parents every day. She used to work in the collective farm, which wasn't so tiring. But now that the land has been distributed to individual households, it's really tiring for families without able-bodied workers.

The happiest person in the family was Zhou Xiaowei. He was not afraid of getting tired and would roll around in the fields with Qiaoqiao, getting his forehead covered in black oil from the sun.

The poor little yellow dog was led by Zhou Xiaowei on a leash as he walked down to the ground.

Qiaoqiao was really worried that the little yellow dog would get heatstroke.

Just when they were anxious about not being able to plant four mu of soybeans and not being able to pay their grain tax, Zhou Zhonghai arrived in his jeep.

He came to check if the potatoes could be dug up, but it turned out that 80% of the households in Dashui Village had not paid their grain tax.

Why bother digging potatoes? We need to pay our grain tax first. Just pull the back seat of the jeep, and it can carry five or six hundred pounds in one trip.

Originally, they needed to pick out a day's worth of grain. After an hour, they arrived at the commune's granary. Then, they had to wait patiently. There were more than a dozen people in front of Qiaoqiao's house who were handing over their grain.

Qiaoqiao guarded the grain while her father took Zhou Zhonghai and Gu Quan to have breakfast. There was a state-run noodle shop ahead, where a bowl of noodles cost five cents.

Qiaoqiao didn't eat, so her mother steamed some buns, and she took one.

The white flour steamed buns at home are so delicious. I can eat one even without pickled vegetables, but they're a bit hard to swallow.

Qiaoqiao brought a canteen of water and sat on the grain sack, waiting leisurely.

After waiting for two hours, Zhou Zhonghai and Qiaoqiao's father sat under the shade of a tree and smoked a pack of cigarettes. The line of people handing over their grain was crawling forward like snails.

Zhou Zhonghai looked at the long queue and thought, "What's going on? At this slow pace, the people at the back will have to spend the night here."

As a leader, I can't cut in line; I can only wait.

Qiaoqiao had almost finished her pot of water and was really holding it in, so she told her father that she was going to the granary to find a toilet.

After using the restroom, Qiaoqiao walked to the end of the grain depot, wondering why it was moving so slowly.

A middle-aged man was seen holding a long, hollow hoe. He stuck it into a grain sack, pulled it out, and found wheat inside.

The middle-aged man poured out a handful of wheat, chewed it in his mouth, and said, "It's not dry. Take it back and dry it for another day."

Qiaoqiao was shocked. Surely she wouldn't have to take her own pet back to dry it again?

Even though my father-in-law has a car, I'm still very tired.

The old man delivering the grain objected and protested, "Comrade, I've dried it completely. It won't get moldy even if I leave it for a year. Why do I need to dry it again? We carried it all on our shoulders; it wasn't easy for us. Comrade, please accept it."

"Are you going to accept it or am I? I said no, and that's final. Get out of here."

"What should we do? There are still more than ten miles to go..."

The uncle was about to cry.

Qiaoqiao stepped forward, picked a small handful of wheat from the hole, chewed it, and found it to be about as dry as her own wheat. Oh no, oh no, it's so dry, she probably has to take it back to dry again.

Ignoring the old man's struggle with the grain collector, Qiaoqiao hurried to find her father.

"Father, Father, please try some wheat."

Qiaoqiao hurriedly ran to the shade of the tree and handed the wheat to her father.

Qiaoqiao's dad ate a small pinch and said, "It's quite plump and dry. What's wrong?"

"I just saw the uncle arguing with the official who was collecting public grain. The official told him to take it back and dry it again, saying it was too wet."

"No way, you can't even do it this way?"

Qiaoqiao's father was getting anxious. Zhou Zhonghai grabbed a few grains of wheat from Qiaoqiao's father's hand, chewed them, and thought, "Eh, even this won't work?"

Are the comrades at the Liushan Commune's grain depot really that responsible?

Just as he was about to get up to check, an old farmer beside him grabbed Zhou Zhonghai and said, "What do you mean by 'doing' or 'not doing'? You wouldn't understand."

"Brother, is there any particular custom involved?"

"Give me five dollars secretly, and everything will be fine."

The old farmer sighed and said, "I can't even offer a token of appreciation; I'll have to weigh it less."

"A nickname?"

"My family weighed it at home; it was 1,100 jin (500 kg), but we put in 100 jin (50 kg), and it only weighed 1,050 jin (500 kg). Oh well, this year's harvest was good, so we should thank the Party."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, I didn't have any money, so I only gave two yuan. If I had given five yuan, the weight wouldn't have been shortchanged."

Fifty catties of wheat, that's five yuan! These bastards! The people finally have a bumper harvest, and they're just waiting here for it.

Zhou Zhonghai tossed the wheat aside and strode forward. Qiaoqiao told her father to keep an eye on their family's grain and then quickly followed.

At first, the old man was still arguing with the grain collection officials.

Sweat streamed down the old man's dark face, soaking his shirt.

"No means no. Take them away quickly, don't delay the next one."

The grain-collecting officials strode proudly to inspect the grain belonging to the next household.

He took a spoonful in, pulled it out, and was still chewing when the owner of the grain came over with a smile: "Comrade, this is the plumpest wheat we selected. It's been sun-dried for seven days, so there's absolutely no problem with it."

As he spoke, he slipped his hands into the pockets of the official collecting public grain, bowing and scraping as he said, "We didn't have a cart, so we carried it all here ourselves. It wasn't easy."

The official nodded: "Okay, take it in and weigh it."

Then, as they continued towards the next shop, Zhou Zhonghai stopped them: "Comrade, slow down."

Who are you?

"May I borrow your shovel?"

Without saying a word, Zhou Zhonghai took the spade and tried the wheat from the first and second houses. The wheat from both houses was about the same level of dryness and was of excellent quality.