Chapter 101: The Current Situation

The mother and daughter chatted idly for a while, discussing how to make work pants, gesturing as they talked. They kept at it until Ping’an woke up. After Zhou Jiao finished feeding her son, she glanced at her watch and saw it was almost mealtime. She looked at her mother with concern.

“Mom, are you hungry? Didn’t we buy some snacks? You should eat something first. Or, do you want to eat meals together with me from now on? There are too many people in the main room, and you’re not used to it. I can talk to my mother-in-law about it later.”

Lin Lishan shook her head. “It’s just a few days, let’s leave it as it is. See what your mother-in-law arranges. I think she’ll probably have me eat with you in the room. If you bring it up, it might cause misunderstandings.”

Not long after she finished speaking, Zhou’s mother came in with her eldest daughter-in-law, Huang Cuilan, carrying dishes. Seeing Lin Lishan, she looked a bit embarrassed and said, “Sister, I won’t stand on ceremony with you. I’ll just have you keep Jiaojiao company and eat in the room. Keep an eye on her—she eats too little, try to get her to eat more.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll be building the house, and I’ll be busy preparing food. The villagers helping out will all eat here. With people coming and going, it’ll be quieter for you to eat here. Otherwise, someone will come in and start chatting, and you won’t even get to eat. Plus, I won’t have time to look after Jiaojiao, so I’ll feel better if you’re with her.”

Lin Lishan nodded repeatedly and took the food. “Big sister, this is best. The two of us can eat and chat together. Tomorrow I’ll help out in the kitchen—just call me if you need anything.”

Zhou’s mother saw Lin Lishan take the bowls and quickly set the kang table on the bed, took the basket from Huang Cuilan, laid out three dishes, and set out soup and two big bowls of rice.

“No need, there’ll be enough people in the kitchen tomorrow—me, the three of us, and my two sisters-in-law. If I really get too busy, I’ll call you, I won’t stand on ceremony. Jiaojiao, let your mother take care of you for the next few days. I’m afraid I’ll be too busy and get flustered.”

Zhou Jiao nodded and apologized to Huang Cuilan. “Big sister-in-law, sorry to trouble you. You and big brother are working so hard to build this house for us, and neither Xiao Wu nor I have helped at all. I feel really bad about it.”

“What’s there to be embarrassed about? You two have helped us plenty before. We’re all family, so don’t fuss over it. Just focus on recovering, so your mom can go home at ease.”

Lin Lishan looked at the food. “Big sister, if you really treat me as family, don’t make so much next time. It’s too much for just the two of us, and it’s a waste. From now on, I’ll eat whatever you all eat—no need to make anything special. Just keep Jiaojiao’s postpartum meals separate, so you don’t have to cook three times.”

Zhou’s mother laughed. “Only Jiaojiao’s food is separate. For you, it’s the same as ours—nothing special. If I’m busy tomorrow, I’ll just cook less. Eat as much as you want, and help yourself after.”

With that, she waved her hand and left with the eldest daughter-in-law.

Zhou Jiao looked at the food and knew it was made especially for her mother. She didn’t say anything—if her mother had to eat those coarse corn buns, she’d cry too. She really didn’t want to see those buns ever again.

While eating, Lin Lishan kept urging her to eat more, telling her to try even if she was full.

“Jiaojiao, what does your mother-in-law’s family usually eat? There’s meat and chicken here—surely they don’t eat like this normally. I bet all the meat is in these two bowls.”

Zhou Jiao sipped her soup, quickly put it down, leaned close to the window to listen for movement outside, then scooted closer to her mother and whispered, “Hehe, Mom, you can tell just by looking at my complexion. The villages around here are considered pretty well-off. Now everyone gets fine grain, but they trade it in town for coarse grain. Even so, most families only eat two meals a day, and one of those is just vegetable porridge.

My in-laws eat three meals a day, which already makes them pretty well-off around here. Breakfast is corn buns and cornmeal porridge, lunch is still corn buns and vegetable porridge, and dinner is sweet potato rice with a few dishes. There’s not a drop of oil in their food, and it’s corn buns all year round.

Corn buns are just coarse flour, water, and wild vegetables kneaded together. Even so, a lot of people are jealous that the Zhang family can eat their fill.

Xiao Wu says their corn buns come in all sorts of shapes, but they’re still just corn buns. Eating them scratches your throat—you have to stretch your neck to swallow, or you’ll choke.

What can you do when everyone eats like this? At the Zhou’s, I didn’t eat much, but at least there were no corn buns. I ate wild vegetable porridge and sweet potato rice with Grandma, all soft food. Most of the time, Xiao Wu and I ate at the school cafeteria, and he’d even take me to restaurants sometimes.

It wasn’t until I married in that I realized there were corn buns in this world that could actually choke you. There’s just no grain to eat. I couldn’t stomach them, but I was too embarrassed to say anything, so I just ate less. Anyway, Xiao Wu and my mother-in-law would secretly make extra food for me. She’s really nice—she’d secretly boil a couple of eggs and hide them in our room, or stash some corn buns for us when everyone else went out to work. That’s why they always say I eat like a cat.”

Zhou Jiao took another bite and continued, “Xiao Wu and I couldn’t take it anymore, so we bought rice. We had his mother make red date rice porridge for me when I was pregnant, and let the whole family have some too. We just hoped we wouldn’t have to eat corn buns every day. If you choke on one, and then try to wash it down with cornmeal porridge, you’ll really choke to death.

But you can’t say this out loud, because this is just how their family eats, and they all enjoy it. We couldn’t say anything. Luckily you came and brought rice and flour—otherwise, I really don’t know what I’d do.

The day after Ping’an was born, at five in the morning, Xiao Wu ran to the county to buy two pig trotters and two black chickens, and had his mother stew them for me. But my mother-in-law said to save them and eat slowly—one pig trotter should last a day. As for the black chickens, Xiao Wu wanted her to cook one for the kids, but she refused, saying kids shouldn’t eat that. It’s all for postpartum recovery. The family can eat their fill, so there’s no need to cook more.

Even if I had money, I wouldn’t dare buy more—it’s too expensive. If I bought less, there’d be nowhere to cook it. Thank goodness you came. Otherwise, we were ready to buy a stove and secretly cook wild game with a handful of rice every day.

Xiao Wu said he’s cried from eating like this, but he doesn’t dare say anything. The whole family eats this way, even Xizi and the others. He was away at school, eating at the cafeteria with his own grain. If he complained, they’d say he was ungrateful, and his parents would be hurt.”

Lin Lishan chuckled as she listened and ate.

Zhou Jiao went on, “Do you know why Xiao Wu gets along so well with the head chef at the county restaurant? It’s because whenever he caught wild chickens or rabbits, he’d take them to the chef to cook, and bring some back for me. If we didn’t have meat coupons, we’d order dishes at the restaurant instead. Once we got familiar, they’d make extra for us.

You say I’m skinny now, but you didn’t see me before—I was even thinner. In winter, when the snow and wind blew, I didn’t even dare go outside. Really, the wind would push me along—I didn’t need to walk. So unless it was important, I never went out in winter.

Before I got married, I had no money. Everyone called me ‘golden baby,’ but I really had nothing. I just relied on Xiao Wu to get me some nourishing food. After I got married, I finally had money, but then those damned ration coupons became a problem. Without grain or meat coupons, money was useless—especially without grain coupons, you couldn’t even eat at restaurants. At least we had wild game, so I got stronger.

This time, you brought so many things—grain is the most precious. Even if you have money, you can’t buy it. If you haven’t been to the countryside, you have no idea how scarce grain is. It’s the same in the county—the supply only lets you eat about 80% full, and you have to plan for the whole family to have white porridge in the morning, and only feel 80% full at night. Where did you get the grain? Isn’t there a shortage in Beijing?”

Lin Lishan drank her soup, sighed, and shook her head. “There’s a shortage, but not for us. How could soldiers go without grain? If I’d known, I would have brought more.”

Zhou Jiao smiled. “No need to bring grain next time. We’ll be able to buy some soon. The New Year’s coming, and there’ll be markets. Some villagers with fine grain will sell it—we’ll buy it secretly, buy more, and store it up. If it’s expensive, so be it.

Mom, you really haven’t seen how poor some families are. For example, in winter, a third of the people in Zhangjia Village don’t have cotton-padded jackets. What do they do? The girls just wear thin clothes, shivering as they do chores. The men take turns wearing the padded jackets when they go out. Some families still use straw as quilts—that’s why so many people die in winter. The poverty is heartbreaking. So, we’re actually doing pretty well. We should feel happy and grateful.”

Lin Lishan nodded. “Yes, we should feel blessed. I’ve seen places where people only have porridge, and only get a proper meal on New Year’s Eve.”

“Mom, go get your food. I’m already doing great with this bowl.”

Lin Lishan shook her head. “I can’t eat any more—I usually only eat this much. I’ll tidy up after you’re done. By the way, is there enough for your grandparents? They don’t go out to work.”

Zhou Jiao rolled her eyes at her mother. “Did you forget that Grandpa and Grandma get a salary and subsidies every month? They have plenty to eat. Even with the big family, everyone’s full. Before ration coupons, you could just buy food with money. After coupons, they added wild vegetables, but they still ate as well as people in the county.

But their table manners are terrible—they eat like they’re robbing the place, shouting and spraying saliva everywhere. Just thinking about it puts me off my food. When I went back to the Zhou’s, there wasn’t much to eat. But after I left, they’d make extra, and everyone got big and strong. That Huang Zhaodi is twice as fat as you now—no one would believe they don’t have enough to eat.”

“Haha, really that fat? She wasn’t before, she used to be pretty. Time really does change people. Are you done eating? I’ll clean up and take it out. You just rest—don’t lie down yet.” With that, she tidied up, put everything in the basket, and took it out.

After a while, Lin Lishan came back. Zhou Jiao stared at her, checking to make sure no one followed, then winked and nodded toward the door. Lin Lishan rolled her eyes at her daughter, then covered her mouth and laughed at her antics.

“There was only your sister-in-law in the kitchen. The others were eating in the main room. I didn’t go in. There was a smell of sweet potatoes in the kitchen—they’re probably having sweet potato rice for dinner. All the white rice was given to us. The kids are well-behaved, too—no fussing.”

Zhou Jiao nodded. “Their kids are really well-mannered. When they come to my room, they never touch anything. If I give them candy, they know to take it home for their siblings. Even the little ones know to save some for their older brothers.”

Lin Lishan went to the kitchen to fetch hot water, brought it to the room, and the two of them washed up, turned on the radio, and lay on the kang chatting."