In this era, running a business was strictly forbidden, making it incredibly difficult for regular folks to earn cash.
Generally, people would hoard the eggs laid by their hens at home, never bearing to eat them themselves, and take them to the supply and marketing cooperative to exchange for money.
A couple of years back, when the harvests were poor, a single egg could fetch a high price of fifteen cents. In the last two years, the price had dropped significantly, down to three eggs for ten cents, and occasionally two eggs for ten cents.
The production team’s carriage driver, an old man named Old Mr. Yang, had once joked, “I’ve almost forgotten whether an egg is round or square.”
A prime laborer working a full day earned less than an old hen; hence, hens were literally dubbed the “chicken-butt banks.”
In the countryside, if someone’s chicken was stolen, the owner could stand out on the main street and curse continuously for an entire week.
Every imaginable curse—wishing a thousand cuts upon them, calling them short-lived ghosts, cursing their future sons to be born without anuses, wishing their family line cut off, and dragging their ancestors down through eighteen generations—would be hurled from morning till night, practically turning cursing into an art form.
Even if someone merely startled a family’s hen and caused it to stop laying eggs, compensation would have to be paid.
An old hen was the absolute backbone of a household’s income.
Unfortunately, once the weather turned cold, the hens would stop laying eggs altogether. Out of the twelve months in a year in the Northeast, seven of them were freezing cold.
Villagers would also skimp on the soybean oil they pressed themselves, saving it up to sell secretly to acquaintances in the commune. Usually, these acquaintances were relatives or friends, as most people didn’t dare venture near the black market.
Every time they cooked at home, they would only use an amount of oil the size of a soybean, or they would take a small piece of gauze, dip it in oil, and lightly wipe the bottom of the pot; that counted as having used oil. In fact, many families simply boiled their food in water.
Aside from this, regular folks would also sell off the tiny amount of fine grain distributed by the production team to exchange for a bit of money.
The other major source of income was selling pork.
In this day and age, there was no proper grain or commercial feed, so pigs didn’t grow very large. After a year of raising, they would only reach around one hundred and seventy to one hundred and eighty catties. Most households chose to raise a single pig for two years, only slaughtering it when it reached over two hundred catties.
Even so, half of it had to be handed over to the supply and marketing cooperative. Of course, the cooperative would pay for it; for instance, if the market price was sixty cents a catty, they might pay a little over fifty cents.
After feeding the neighbors, relatives, and friends who came to help with the slaughter, not much of the remaining half would be left.
Some families would keep the remaining meat for themselves to stir-fry a dish or wrap dumplings for the New Year, or preserve it with salt so it could last until early spring.
Think about it: with so little money in the hands of regular folks, how could they even think about eating popsicles?
They were daydreaming!
True, the mountains had pheasants and wild rabbits, and catching them could bring in money, or at the very least, provide meat for the family. But how could pheasants be that easy to catch?
If they were that easy to catch, everyone would be out catching them.
The reason the old Liu family lived a relatively better life was because Old Mr. Liu knew carpentry and had saved up some money from working outside in his youth.
Additionally, the eldest son of the Liu family, Liu Manxue, had been a soldier away from home for about twenty years. He was a filial man; not only did he send money to support his parents in their old age, but he also frequently mailed various coupons to them.
Liu Mancang and his wife, Li Sufen, were also highly capable and hardworking. They never slacked off during work hours and always earned full work points. During the slack farming season, they would head into the mountains or down to the river, never stopping for a single moment.
Only because of this did the old Liu family manage to make their lifestyle one of the best in the Erhe Brigade, living even better than the brigade leader’s family.
Over the past two years, because Liu Tiantian had been secretly subsidizing them, their life had become even better.
Liu Tiantian frequently sneaked extra food to the pigs and chickens, feeding them water from her space’s river and giving them corn kernels to eat.
Last year’s pig had grown to over three hundred catties!
It was a big fat pig in the truest sense, and many villagers had come to watch when it was slaughtered!
Everyone was incredibly envious.
One after another, they praised the old Liu family for being capable, and many even came to ask how the pig had been raised to such a massive size.
This year, the Liu family was raising two pigs and ten hens!
Nowadays, many places strictly regulated the number of chickens one could keep based on the number of people in the household, and there was even a saying that “raising six chickens is capitalism; you cannot exceed five.”
Their brigade wasn’t quite that strict. The Erhe Brigade belonged to a forest region and had very little arable land to begin with, and no one ever came to inspect them.
Cough, she heard that there used to be inspections in the past, but the villagers were quite united in this regard. Shovels and hoes in hand, they had banded together and driven the inspectors out.
With bloodshot eyes, the team members roared, “Our brigade has little land and little grain! If you won’t even let us raise chickens, are you trying to starve us to death?”
Once those words were spoken, they carried immense weight.
Who would dare shoulder the reputation of starving the team members to death?
Coupled with the matter of grain requisitioning, no one ever came to inspect them again after that. Poor hills and treacherous rivers produce unruly people; in the eyes of some, the people of their brigade were exactly those “unruly people.”
Therefore, they could raise as many as they wanted, as long as they didn’t make too big a fuss about it.
Even though things were relaxed, most families still only raised three or four chickens because there was nothing to feed them; chickens needed to eat rice bran too.
Thus, the lives of regular folks in this era were truly very bitter.
A lifestyle like the old Liu family’s, which was considered top-tier in the eyes of others, was still as bitter as could be in Liu Tiantian’s eyes.
Grandmother Liu first handed a popsicle to Liu Tiantian. “Tiantian, taste the popsicle and see if it’s delicious. If it’s too cold, we’ll just eat half, alright?”
“Alright,” Liu Tiantian nodded obediently and took a tiny bite. She was full of curiosity toward the popsicles of this era.
Mmh… it didn’t taste good!
Aside from the sweet flavor of saccharin mixed with the freezing coldness, there was no other taste to it.
“Grandma, it’s too cold. I don’t want to eat it anymore; I don’t like it.” Liu Tiantian handed the popsicle back to Grandmother Liu.
She preferred ice cream flavored with yogurt, mung bean, durian, or coffee.
She had plenty of those stored in her space!
“Tiantian, you really aren’t eating anymore?” Grandmother Liu hadn’t expected her granddaughter to dislike such a delicious popsicle. Seeing her granddaughter nod her little head in refusal, she reached out and took the popsicle back.
“Second son, open the canned fruit for Tiantian.” After giving the order, she handed another biscuit to Liu Tiantian.
“Eat the biscuit first, and you can eat the canned fruit after you finish.”
“Thank you, Grandma.”
The four boys of the Liu family: …