Rebirth 1979: Marrying a poor girl at the beginning

"You are just trying your best and you don't even worry about damaging your body!"

"Oh, I've been resting up at the Beijing Film Studio for the past month. Besides, I haven't been tired from work during this period, and I've been practicing boxing, so I'm in good health!" said Lin Zhengjun.

"That won't do. You have to exercise moderation!"

"You asked me to exercise moderation, but you asked for thirty balloons at once? Isn't this tempting me to make a mistake?"

"Oh, that's not what I want. It was given to me by Sister Chunfang. I can't just throw it away!"

Tang Xiaofu arched her back in his arms and said coquettishly, "Actually, I missed you a lot during the last few days at the Beijing Film Studio, but Sister Zhu Lin has become addicted to staying here, and I can't chase her away..."

"Haha, who can I blame? You are the one who thought you were smart and let me rest and recuperate."

Lin Zhengjun kissed her delicate lips, held her in his arms again, stroked her smooth and tender back, and reached for the light cord beside the bed.

"Go to sleep!"

……

Lin Zhengjun slept until ten o'clock. He had been busy all night last night. The most important thing was that he rode back in a truck, and his whole body was shaken to pieces. He was very tired.

I slept for more than ten hours and all my fatigue was finally gone. Coupled with the "short separation is better than a new marriage" last night, I felt satisfied and refreshed.

Tang Xiaofu had already gotten up. Wearing a blue cotton jacket and big cotton shoes, she was bending over the desk and writing a novel.

Seeing that Lin Zhengjun had woken up, she hurriedly got up and took out the sweater, trousers and cotton jacket that were warming by the coal stove and gave them to Lin Zhengjun, saying with a smile, "Hurry up and put them on while they're hot!"

"Haha, I've only seen people eating food while it's hot, but this is the first time I've seen people wearing food while it's hot." Lin Zhengjun put on his cotton-padded jacket, which was warmed by the fire and he felt very comfortable.

Tang Xiaofu smiled and said, "Mom told me that the thing you were most afraid of since you were a child was wearing clothes in winter. You said that the clothes were cold and felt like they were made of iron, so I got up a little earlier and heated up your clothes!"

“That’s really thoughtful!”

Lin Zhengjun took her snowy little hand and kissed it. She had applied a riot of colour lotion, which was soft, sweet and warm.

Lin Zhengjun smiled as he put on his clothes: "At that time, the weather was cold and we couldn't even afford a coal stove. Burning firewood would also create smoke. There was nothing we could do!"

"If there's smoke, can't you get a tin pipe to direct the smoke out of the house?"

"You are so smart!"

Lin Zhengjun quickly put on his clothes and got out of bed, saying, "You can think of this, but ordinary people can't think of this? They have little education and are not well-educated, but their wisdom in life is much better than yours!"

"Why is that?"

"Steel is used in industry and agriculture, and iron sheets and other things are not supplied to the people at all. There are no relevant tickets, so you can't buy them at all!"

"Oh, I understand!" Tang Xiaofu picked up the thermos and poured water into the basin.

While washing his face, Lin Zhengjun said, "There's not even any firewood!"

"Why?" Tang Xiaofu was surprised.

"At that time, we wanted to build advanced cooperatives and eat in a big pot. There were three levels of ownership, namely, the brigade and the production team. The production team was the basic unit. Every household was required to hand over all their property, including farm tools and livestock, food and cooking utensils, and sundries, to the production team, and then eat in the canteen of the production team. However, members had to get meal tickets based on their work points to eat."

Lin Zhengjun said: "At that time, I just started to remember things. When we first started to build a big fire, some members' families had many children and few adult laborers. They often did not have enough food because they earned few work points. So they secretly took out the pots they had hidden away and boiled hot tea or wild vegetable soup to fill their stomachs."

"At the time, this was a serious violation. According to the collectivization policy, even if you wanted to drink hot water, you had to go to the canteen, and there was no smoke from cooking at home. At that time, Wei Shanhu's house was the tallest, and Wei Guoliang was the team leader. He would take a hammer from time to time, stand on the high platform and look around. If he saw smoke coming out of someone's house, he would run over and push down the stove without saying a word, and smash the pots and cooking utensils with a hammer!"

"There are also small blast furnaces that are being built using traditional methods to produce steel. All iron products, including iron pots, kitchen knives, and kitchen knives, must be turned in by every household. Firewood is also a collective asset and is not distributed to the people. Members are not even allowed to heat their homes in winter. Using firewood to produce steel is simply crazy, and the result is a pot of waste slag! This is all bullshit!"

Lin Zhengjun was really angry. Only those who had experienced that era could understand that kind of oppression.

Tang Xiaofu comforted him softly, "Don't be angry. It's all right now. With the opening of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the warm wind is blowing and spring is back to the whole country!"

After Lin Zhengjun washed his face and brushed his teeth, Tang Xiaofu said, "Our mother came this morning and said that the oil pan would be ready today, so we should go to the old house to eat!"

"Okay, let's go!"

Taking the oil out of the pot is a tradition in the Central Plains. It is usually done on the 26th or 28th of the twelfth lunar month. It is less common on the 29th. If it is the Little New Year, the 29th is considered the New Year's Eve, so taking the oil out of the pot is always done before the 29th.

In fact, it is just frying some ingredients, such as fish pieces, chicken pieces, crispy pork, sugar cakes, tofu puffs, radish balls, Sanzi (locally known as Mahuozi), hemp leaves, and steamed buns and steamed corn bread.

In the past few years, the members of the cooperative did not have enough to eat and could not even afford cooking oil, so they rarely fried food and often only had steamed buns.

Then during the Chinese New Year, it is very simple to cook for guests. Just take these fried foods that have been fried in advance, add some green onions, ginger slices, and chili peppers, heat and cook thoroughly, and you can serve them on the table.

Taking the oil out of the pan is a huge project and preparations must be made the day before.

Soak what needs to be soaked, cut what needs to be cut, chop what needs to be chopped, cook what needs to be cooked, mix the noodles well, blend the starch and starch well, and prepare oil, salt, sauce, sugar, seasonings, firewood, corn and sesame stalks. Make sure to prepare everything that needs to be prepared, so that you won't have to borrow money from here and there, be confused and starve.

On the day when the fried chicken and fish are taken out of the pan, people usually don’t cook any other food. At most, they cook a pot of porridge, because the fried chicken and fish can be eaten, especially when they are just out of the pan, they smell so delicious.

Later, both McDonald's and KFC added the dish of crispy pork. Lin Zhengjun has eaten it twice, but always felt that it was not as delicious as when he was young.

While walking on the road, Lin Zhengjun could sense a strong fragrance wafting through the entire brigade.

A group of half-grown children wearing new clothes were running and playing all over the street, and some were setting off firecrackers.

As Lin Zhengjun walked along, everyone greeted him and Tang Xiaofu enthusiastically.

"General Tang Zhiqing is back!"

"Well, I'm back."

"Has Zhengjun eaten yet?"

"No, my hands freeze when cooking, and I'm afraid of the cold, so I'll go to the old house to eat. Today, the oil pan is ready! Have you prepared all the New Year's goods?"

"It's ready."

"What did you buy? I killed three chickens, cut three pounds of pork, and fried dough sticks and hemp leaves in a frying pan."

"Wow! This year is considered a good year!"

"Oh, Zhengjun, I have to thank you for this. I worked in the collective cooperative and on the primary school construction site and earned forty yuan. My wife also earned more than twenty yuan by helping to kill and smoke fish. This year we are really well off and bought new clothes for the children!"

"That's right, it's all thanks to Zhengjun!"

"That's very good!"

Adults and children alike were filled with joy, and the festive atmosphere was very strong.

It wasn’t like this in previous years!

In previous years, the Hewan Brigade was even a little anxious at the end of the year, and everyone was gloomy.

Because you have to visit relatives and friends, you have to bring gifts. Correspondingly, when relatives come, you also have to prepare meals to entertain them.

In fact, the gifts for visiting relatives are easy to deal with. Basically, they are a box of snacks, a pound of fried dough sticks or hemp leaves or hemp seeds.

Basically, I just go around passing it around among relatives. For example, I accept a gift from the Zhang family and give it to the Li family. There is no problem with this, everyone does this!

Because the snack box is almost always a box, wrapped in horse manure paper, strung with a paper string, and with a piece of red paper inside as decoration.

But preparing meals is troublesome. Not to mention wine and meat, at least there must be white flour buns and dumplings, but many families just can't afford them!

But this year is different.

The agricultural production of Hewan Brigade has not yet been reflected, after all, the land has just been distributed to each household, but the collective sideline businesses are flourishing and every household is making money.

They took out the coupons they had accumulated over the years and used them to buy pork, New Year's goods, and cloth to make clothes for adults and children without any fear. The supply and marketing cooperative on the street was almost emptied out by the villagers of Hewan Brigade.

In addition, the cooperative also sells edible oil, sugar, reservoir fish and other products to its members at the purchase price, which benefits everyone.