Back to the 60s: The Struggle Career of a Charmed Wife
Chapter 268 - 0268: Dividing Food and Money 2_1

Chapter 268: Chapter 0268: Dividing Food and Money 2_1

Although her household was full of women and children, Feng Qingxue was taken aback by their annual income of over twenty Chinese dollars.

What surprised her even more was the presence of a ’hanging family’ within their production team.

A ’hanging family’ is one with little labor power, earning few work points that, when finally converted, fall short of grain money. They either have to dig into their own pockets and buy work points from Production Team Three, essentially purchasing food, or they rack up a debt with the team when collecting their grain allocations. Some families accumulate debt year after year, stuck in a perpetual state of indebtedness, colloquially referred to as ’perpetual hangers’. This is a tremendous source of shame among their neighbors.

Families like Lu’s that could save money were known as ’successful hangers.’

As Wanglou’s seventh team offers high labor value, in theory, any hardworking person would not end up as a ’hanging household’. Yet ironically, that single ’hanging family’ only had one woman capable of working. The elderly parents were chronically bedridden, the husband suffered from back and leg pain and couldn’t work, and their four young children were completely dependent, leading their family to insufficient work points.

Even so, when grain distribution arrived, there was always a buzz of excitement, a long queue formed in front of the granary, brimming with anticipation.

Whether they could eat their fill in the following year depended on this day..

There were many people waiting in line for the grain distribution. Wang Dachun, holding the household register and work point book, calculated first for Lu family. Based on Feng Qingxue’s assessment, out of 1890 pounds of grain, they could collect 567 pounds of fine grain. Feng Qingxue requested 300 pounds of wheat, 267 pounds of rice, and 400 pounds of fresh sweet potatoes. The remaining 1223 pounds of coarse grain were 800 pounds of corn and 423 pounds of sweet potato dry.

No one objected to Feng Qingxue being the first to receive grain.

The individuals tasked with packing the grains, Damao and Sanmao, showed a high level of understanding. The grains distributed to the Lu family were all top quality – dried sweet potatoes with no signs of mold, rice, wheat, and corn, each kernel filled out to meet the state standard for grain.

"Thank you, thank you. You’ve all worked hard!" Feng Qingxue knew to express gratitude.

Wang Zhengguo called upon his second and third sons. With the help of several strong laborers, they delivered the grain to Feng Qingxue’s home; fresh sweet potatoes stored in the cellar and the rest of the grain was piled as per Feng Qingxue’s instruction in the west wing.

Lu’s father’s 200 pounds of dried sweet potatoes and 250 pounds of corn were also delivered to his son and daughter-in-law’s home.

The reason he didn’t accept the fine grains was not that he didn’t want them, but rather, he feared being targeted by others using the excuse that as a ’counter-revolutionary’ character, he had no right to eat fine grains, or enjoy the benefits of school admissions, factory recruitment, army recruitment, etc., available to others. Such instances had indeed occurred in other production brigades. In the eyes of some people, ’counter-revolutionaries’ did not deserve fine grains or such benefits.

Feng Qingxue had no objection. After all, she had a space of her own with plenty of supplies to support her family.

The food for seven family members for the coming year was all here. Feng Qingxue looked at the two thousand kilograms of grain in the house.

If there were no other food items to supplement these grains, they alone could not satisfy their hunger.

An adult averages over a pound a day, only a few ounces per meal – no wonder people often say they are dependent on half a year’s vegetables and half a year’s grains.

In stark contrast to the sigh brewing in Feng Qingxue’s heart, Lu Tianzhi, holding both Guan Yu and Feng Qingyun’s hands, and the three little ones were brimming with joy. They crouched in the west wing, eyes fixated on the heap of grain. They had never seen so much grain amassed together before and thinking that all this was theirs, they wished they could throw themselves at it and give it a kiss.

"We finally don’t have to starve!" the three of them said in unison, their faces red with excitement.

Lu Tianjun and Guan Cheng also nodded vigorously, equally thrilled.

Feng Qingxue smiled and said, "We’ve all been working hard for a long time, so let’s eat white flour buns for lunch today!"

"Excellent!" Cheers echoed all around.

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I went out during the day and got a headache. I’ll do the word count. Just to pre-warn, I’m not sure when I’ll update tomorrow, as I’ve got an unavoidable appointment. I really don’t want to go, o(╥﹏╥)o.