Time passed quickly. Before people even realized it, the difficult three-year period had arrived, and in the blink of an eye, it was already 1961!
Over those three years, the monthly grain rations kept getting smaller and smaller. Although the steel factory was the provincial capital’s largest state-owned factory, life there had also become extremely difficult.
In order to keep the workers fed, Director Wen had already begun organizing people from the factory to clear wasteland, grow crops, and raise pigs at the beginning of 1960. It was precisely because of these efforts that the factory cafeteria was barely able to keep operating, and it could even occasionally provide the workers with an extra meal.
However, even though Director Wen had managed to increase their food supply, it was still only a drop in the bucket compared with the overall situation. Forty to fifty percent of the factory workers had already developed edema from prolonged hunger.
Even so, the steel factory was still doing much better than many other state-owned factories. At least it had not stopped production, and the workers could still eat until they were about half full. In comparison, many small factories had already begun shutting down production. There was simply no way around it. If workers couldn’t eat enough, they had no strength to work. At that point, not fainting from hunger while on the job was already considered fortunate.
Qiao Qiusheng’s monthly grain ration had originally been forty-five jin, but by now it had been reduced to thirty-two jin. Even so, he was still considered to have a good allowance. His resident grain ration combined with the grain allocation given to workers in his trade added up to thirty-two jin, which was considerably more than the twenty-five-jin monthly ration of an ordinary resident.
Moreover, because he also worked as an installation worker and trained apprentices for the factory, Director Wen had previously given him an additional thirty jin of grain every month as a subsidy. Even during these difficult years, that extra allowance had not been reduced at all.
As a result, Qiao Qiusheng now received a total of sixty-two jin of grain each month.
Qiao Heping, like his father, also received a monthly ration of thirty jin, combining his resident grain ration with his worker’s trade allocation.
But compared with the father and son, Qiao Zhufang and He Yingying, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, received much less. Each of them had only twenty-five jin a month.
One was a neighborhood office clerk, while the other worked in logistics and procurement at the steel factory. Both were considered “office workers,” so they did not receive the additional grain allocation given to frontline workers.
As for six-year-old Qiao Jia Jia, she received only eleven jin of grain per month.
Adding everything up, excluding Jia Jia, the four adults in the family received only 142 jin of grain a month.
That number might sound like quite a lot, but when divided up, it meant each person had only about 1.2 jin of grain a day—twelve liang.
And what did twelve liang a day actually mean?
It was only six hundred grams of grain.
With three meals a day, each meal amounted to just two hundred grams. And those two hundred grams included coarse grains such as sweet potatoes, corn, and sorghum. Eating a bowl of white rice was practically a luxury!
That amount wasn’t even enough to fill a young woman’s stomach, let alone workers who had to perform physical labor every day.
Yet the Qiao family’s allowance of two hundred grams per person per meal was only possible because of the extra thirty-jin monthly subsidy that Qiao Qiusheng received. Without it, each person would have had only about 150 grams per meal.
And if the family had not had the additional grain allocations given to frontline workers, the amount available for each meal would have been even smaller.
Eating so little while doing heavy physical labor—no wonder so many workers had developed hunger-related edema.
The Qiao family’s situation was considerably better.
From the very beginning, they had stockpiled a large amount of grain. Later, they gradually managed to acquire several hundred more jin. Now, each month, the family could use an additional eighty-some jin of grain on top of their original 142-jin ration.
That was more than enough to keep the whole family well-fed.
Precisely because of this, compared with the people around them, whose faces were swollen from hunger, the members of the Qiao family had unusually healthy, rosy complexions. Anyone could tell at a glance that they were eating well.
There was no way to hide it, either. The difference between eating well and going hungry was simply too obvious.
And the Qiao family had never intended to hide it.
What were they supposed to do—deliberately starve themselves despite having food?
Their explanation was that they had relatives in the countryside. The disaster there had not been as severe, and those relatives still had enough resources to provide some support to their urban family members.
It just so happened that most of the grain the Qiao family had stockpiled was stored at their old home in the countryside. Whenever He Chengwen and He Chengliang returned to the village, they would bring part of it back to the Qiao family.
To the neighbors, this grain was simply food sent by the Qiao family’s generous rural relatives.
As a result, everyone was extremely envious that the Qiaos had such helpful relatives in the countryside.
In those days, anyone who had grain was treated with greater respect and friendliness. Grain had become a hard currency.
On the black market, rice had already risen to three yuan per jin!
Yes, three yuan—not thirty fen.
Compared with a few years earlier, the price had increased thirtyfold!
Since the Qiao family ate so well every day, it wasn’t as if nobody came to their door asking to borrow grain.
But Qiao Qiusheng refused every single request.
Once they started lending grain, they could never stop.
There was an old saying: give someone a little rice and they’ll be grateful, but give them a whole bucket and they’ll resent you when you stop.
Especially in a difficult period like this, if they lent grain to one household, what about all the others? Who would they lend to, and who would they refuse?
It was better to make their position clear from the very beginning and refuse everyone.
Because of this, the Qiao family’s relationship with their neighbors in the apartment building had become much more distant over the past two years.
After all, when you were starving and growing thin and sallow from hunger while your neighbor was living comfortably and eating well, it was difficult not to feel bitter.
Their relationships naturally grew colder over time.
But the Qiao family didn’t care.
As long as their own family could eat their fill, that was enough.
During these difficult years, anyone who tried to survive purely through kindness would end up going hungry themselves. Filling their own stomachs was the most important thing.
The animal traps were now placed outside every night as well.
What if someone really became desperate enough to take the risk again?
They had to be prepared.
“Auntie, Uncle, we’re here!”
He Chengwen lifted the large sack of grain that had been tied across the crossbar of the bicycle. After parking the bicycle, he went up and knocked on the door.
“Come in quickly!”
Qiao Heping opened the door within seconds of hearing them. He took the sack of grain from his nephew, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and carried it into the kitchen.
He Yingying hurried over to pour water for her two nephews.
Bringing all that grain from the countryside was no easy task. There were two large sacks—one portion for the Qiao family and another portion for the two brothers themselves.
Qiao Qiusheng carried the grain into the kitchen and put it away before coming back out.
“Why is there so much more grain this time?”
The grain the Qiao family had stored at their old home in the countryside had been arranged with the He family in advance. Every month, they were supposed to weigh out exactly eighty-five jin and send it over.
Too little wouldn’t be enough for the family to eat, while too much would mean they would run out ahead of schedule. So the He family had always carefully measured out exactly the agreed amount.
But this time, there was clearly much more.
Qiao Heping had already felt the difference the moment he lifted the sack.
There was no way the He family would have taken extra grain from the old house without permission.
The only possibility was that the additional grain had been contributed by the He family themselves.
In the past, Qiao Heping wouldn’t have minded when the He family sent grain, vegetables, and fruit to them. They were his parents-in-law’s gifts, after all, so accepting them was only natural.
But these past two years had been difficult for both the city and the countryside.
The He family had many children, and they were already struggling to feed themselves.
How could Qiao Heping have the heart to accept even more grain from them?
As the eldest brother, He Chengwen stepped forward to explain.
“Grandpa and Grandma said this year’s harvest was finally a little better than last year and the year before. On top of that, the brigade leader has started organizing hunting teams to go deep into the mountains. Several brigades around the reservoir also discussed the matter and have begun taking turns fishing.
“Things at home have gotten a little easier, so we have a little grain left over.
“When we were stockpiling grain, Auntie and Uncle, you lent our family more than 150 yuan! Otherwise, how could our family ever have had enough money to stockpile nearly a thousand jin of grain? We might have starved to death long ago!
“Before this, our family never had anything left over, so we never had a chance to thank you and Uncle. Now that the harvest has improved a little, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma insisted that Chengliang and I bring this grain to you.
“Oh, and there’s also a grass carp hanging from the handlebars!”
Previously, although the brigade leader had warned everyone in advance to stockpile grain, very few people had much money in their hands.
For most families, having a hundred yuan in savings was already considered quite good. With that money, they could stockpile several hundred jin of grain.
The He family, despite earning a little over a hundred yuan a year as a household, spent almost all of their remaining money after daily expenses on sending their six children to school.
They could barely save a few yuan each month.
So even if they wanted to stockpile more grain, they simply couldn’t afford it.
It was Qiao Heping and He Yingying who had lent them 150 yuan so they could stockpile grain.
At the time, there hadn’t even been any news about factory recruitment. He Chengwen and He Chengliang were still students.
At the He family’s rate of saving money, who knew how many years it would have taken them to save 150 yuan on their own?
The young couple knew this very well. In fact, they had never intended to make the He family repay the money in the first place.
Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Zhufang had also agreed with them. After all, it was the He family who had first informed them about the need to stockpile grain.
Although the two brothers had become workers over the past two years and each earned eighteen yuan a month, they had already repaid the entire 150 yuan during their first year.
But the He family had never forgotten the kindness of being given the money to stockpile grain.
At the time they bought the grain, one jin cost only thirty fen.
Now it had risen to three yuan.
The 150 yuan of those days and 150 yuan today were simply incomparable.
It was like comparing a bottle of water in the desert to a bottle of water in a city. Could they possibly have the same value?
The harvests over the previous two years had been truly terrible, and the He family had no grain left over.
Even if they wanted to repay the kindness somehow, they had been unable to.
Now that things had finally improved a little this year, they naturally had to show their gratitude.
They couldn’t forget the kindness they had received.
Even though He father didn’t think the Qiao family would actually be short of this little bit of grain—the Qiaos had stockpiled several thousand jin back then, after all—he felt that the He family should wait until their own situation improved before talking about repaying them.
After all, the He family was in a much more difficult position than the Qiaos.
But He eldest brother and He mother insisted strongly, and He second brother also sided with his mother and elder brother.
Even as the head of the family, He father could only compromise.
After hearing his nephew’s explanation, Qiao Heping frowned.
He planned to make the two brothers take the extra grain back with them when they left later.
His thinking happened to be exactly the same as He father’s.
There was no need to rush to repay a favor. The He family should focus on taking care of their own lives first.
When He Yingying returned from picking up her daughter from kindergarten, she immediately noticed her husband’s frown.
After asking what had happened, she learned about the extra grain.
She told her daughter to go sit in the living room and chat with her two cousins for a while. Then she followed her husband quietly into the kitchen.
“We’ve known these two brothers for three years. Don’t you know what they’re like by now? Do you really think they’ll agree to take the grain back?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to let them stay here for a few extra meals? That way, they can save some of their own food ration. You can consider that repayment for the extra grain they brought.”
“Do you think they’ll agree?” Qiao Heping asked hesitantly.
He Yingying waved it off.
“They’ll have to agree. Just tell them we cooked too much food. It’s summer now, so it can’t be kept for long. If they don’t eat it, we’ll have to throw it away.
“I don’t believe they’ll have the heart to watch perfectly good food go to waste.”
“That’s true!”
Although it was clearly a trap, the two brothers had no choice but to fall into it.
People in those days wouldn’t even let a single grain of rice that fell on the floor go to waste. They would pick it up and eat it.
How could they possibly bear to watch perfectly good food being thrown away?
While He Yingying and Qiao Heping were quietly plotting in the kitchen about how to “set a trap” for the two brothers, the two brothers and Qiao Jia Jia were happily chatting away in the living room.
“The day after tomorrow, we’ll take you to see a movie. Afterward, how about we go eat at a state-run restaurant?”
He Chengliang looked quite excited.
“We’ve officially become regular workers now. We’re Level One workers, and each of us earns thirty-three yuan a month. We have plenty of money!”
In fact, he and his elder brother had already been saving for a month for the money and grain coupons needed to eat at a restaurant.
They only had to save a little from their daily food allowance to afford one meal out.
They also wanted to treat Auntie, Uncle, Grandpa Qiao, and Grandma Qiao.
But they knew the adults would absolutely refuse to let the two of them spend that much money.
After discussing it, the brothers finally decided to invite only their little cousin Jia Jia.
They would treat it as an outing for the three cousins—a chance to go out, have fun, and celebrate together.