By evening, all the Educated Youth had returned. As expected, Xu Jiajia, Lu Xun, and a few others had brought back quite a few items.
Seizing the opportunity while everyone was present, Liu Jun called a meeting.
"The harvest rush is in a couple of days. Those of us who've been here awhile know how exhausting it can be. During those days, we'll do our best to improve our meals—otherwise, we won't have the strength to keep going. For the new Educated Youth, this will be your first time experiencing it, so mentally prepare yourselves.
"We've gathered everyone today to discuss something. In previous years during the harvest rush, we've pooled money and ration coupons to buy meat and improve our meals. Of course, this is also when even those who usually avoid spending on meat want to eat some, so it becomes very hard to buy. But we can collect the money and coupons today.
"Tomorrow at dawn, Xiao Mei, Sun De, and I will queue up early. Besides meat, if there are eggs available, we'll buy some too. Eggs can count as a meat dish then."
After hearing this, no one had any objections.
Those who had money contributed money, and those with coupons offered coupons. Liu Jun recorded all the amounts, planning to settle any differences once the meat was purchased.
After the meeting, however, Lu Xun pulled Liu Jun aside and mentioned he had a channel to buy pork.
By chance, Lu Xun had gotten to know the current head of the Black Market in the Towards the Sun Commune, making it much easier to purchase meat. Since they had eaten at the State-Run Restaurant that day, they hadn't bought any meat to bring back.
Liu Jun was overjoyed to hear this and entrusted the meat-buying task to Lu Xun, urging him to buy as much as possible.
The next day, Lu Xun indeed returned with five jin of pork glistening with fat—exactly the kind with more fat and less lean that people preferred at the time. He also brought a small basket of about thirty eggs. Liu Jun had managed to get over twenty eggs as well.
Everyone was thrilled. That evening, they cooked dry rice and rendered some fat from the pork to fry the meat alone, without mixing in any vegetables. They also used more oil than usual in the vegetable dishes, making them richer.
With many people and little meat, the meat was deliberately cut into thick, large, and evenly sized slices. When serving the rice, the meat was divided equally per person first. Though a bit troublesome, this prevented disputes over unfairness.
Ning Xuan accepted this arrangement well. With so many people, cooking for a large group was inherently challenging. She had already taken her turn cooking once during these days and found it exhausting just stirring with the spatula. So, no matter who was cooking or how it tasted, she never complained. She ate what she could and quietly saved anything she didn't want, refraining from casual criticism.
The meal that day was so good that everyone, anticipating the meat, had requested extra rice in advance. Ning Xuan followed suit and added a bit more too. That night, every plate was wiped clean; after the meat was divided, the plate was used to scoop rice from the pot to soak up the remaining grease.
There was no meat the next day, but they started eating eggs. To add richness, the eggs were fried sunny-side up, which used more oil but was worth it.
While the group improved their meals collectively, Ning Xuan secretly treated herself to an extra boiled egg, along with milk powder, steamed buns, and other delicacies on rotation.
After just three days of rest, the harvest rush began. The brigade leader had already mobilized everyone before the break, sternly reminding them that leave would not be easily granted—anyone capable of working had to go to the fields.
Ning Xuan finally understood why both brigade members and veteran Educated Youth had described weeding as relatively light work.
Because the rush harvest was truly exhausting!
Moreover, there was no room for slacking off. Everyone took the rush harvest extremely seriously – even without the brigade leaders supervising, members voluntarily kept watch over those around them. Neither brigade members nor Educated Youth could obviously idle.
After just half a day, Ning Xuan felt as if her back were breaking from bending over.
When work ended in the evening, everyone was exhausted and starving. Even after eating, the fatigue remained.
Yet they still had to muster the energy to bathe and wash clothes.
At this moment, Ning Xuan particularly missed modern showers and washing machines – finishing the dishes comfortably, tossing clothes into the machine, then being free to play with her phone.
Now, however, her arms were so tired she could barely lift them, yet she still forced herself to carry the water basin to the bathing area. After washing up, she still had to hand-scrub clothes stained with dirt and sweat from labor.
Harvesting the wheat alone took a week, followed by tasks like threshing, winnowing, and sun-drying.
Threshing was handled by the male laborers. When most of the wheat was cut, the men would begin threshing.
The sun-drying work was later assigned to the elderly, who oversaw it with the children.
Even after the wheat harvest, there was no rest – they had to clear the stubble and plant a round of soybeans.
After planting soybeans, it was time to harvest the corn. Ning Xuan found this task especially grueling – not only exhausting, but the corn leaves and husks made her skin itch.
From the wheat harvest to finishing the corn harvest took over a month. Finally, there were no urgent tasks left.
At last, they could catch their breath…
Those at the Educated Youth Center who still had some money and ration tickets quickly treated themselves to better meals.
People like Xu Jiajia, Lu Xun, and Zhou Zhipeng went directly to the State-Run Restaurant to improve their meals.
Others who had been there longer traded with brigade members for cured meat, eggs, and such to supplement their diet.
Ning Xuan took the opportunity to legitimize the fresh eggs she had bought later and stored in the Warehouse, asking the cook to boil one for her daily as an extra.
To avoid mixing up their eggs, the veteran Educated Youth reminded everyone to mark their own. Ning Xuan admired their habit of always preventing disputes.
After a brief two-day respite, the brigade assigned some elderly and women to shell corn, while the stronger laborers took on heavier tasks like plowing.
Ning Xuan and the other female Educated Youth went together to shuck corn kernels.
Veterans like Huang Xiaomei were fine – their hands had already developed calluses, so shucking corn was relatively easy for them. They could sit, move their hands, and chat.
Ning Xuan and Xu Jiajia, however, soon developed blisters after shucking for a while.
Then they didn’t dare use too much force, carefully using tools to poke a empty row in the corn, and avoiding using their fingers to shuck – instead using the thicker part below their thumbs to break the kernels off.
Even compared to the veteran Educated Youth, let alone the brigade members, Ning Xuan and Xu Jiajia’s efficiency was much lower.
Huang Xiaomei, noticing their blisters, reminded them not to deliberately pop them, or it would hurt badly.
The hand fatigue and blister pain were bad enough, but sitting with the other brigade women shucking corn, they’d occasionally start asking about the female Educated Youth’s family situations and cracking jokes.
Ning Xuan wasn’t particularly talkative or outgoing by nature, so in these situations she just mumbled vague responses to brush them off.
The short-haired auntie remarked, "Ning Zhiqing is so thin. Does your family have many mouths to feed with not enough grain?"
Ning Xuan replied, "Well, we won't starve to death."
The long-haired auntie chimed in, "You were all too skinny before, especially you, Ning Zhiqing. You're still young and might not understand yet, but women need some flesh—big hips are best for bearing children."
Ning Xuan said, "If you aunties have extra meat and eggs to spare, you could trade some with me."
Then the aunties stopped chatting with Ning Xuan.
However, having touched on the topic of childbirth, the aunties exchanged knowing smiles, and the conversation began steering toward risqué territory.
Ning Xuan really wanted to pretend she didn't understand, but she wasn't truly an eighteen-year-old girl—having surfed the internet in modern times, she'd seen it all. So more often than not, she grasped the implications instantly.
She couldn't help but marvel at the openness and combat prowess of married Daniangs.