Chapter 5: People don’t worry about scarcity but inequality
As the saying goes, a man who is half grown up will suffer from poverty.
Every one of the half-grown boys in the Li family can make great things. If they were really allowed to open their bellies to eat, they would probably eat twenty kilograms of grain a day, let alone return the food. There are others.
It’s not like a wealthy family can really open their stomachs to eat. Therefore, even when farming is busy, the Li family’s meal intake is limited to an average of six steamed buns for men and three steamed buns for women. .
Lao Yuan is in charge of the family's money and food, but she doesn't have to take the distribution of every meal into her own hands like other people do - one person, one or two, all need to be allocated by her, in her words Speaking of which, she wasn't too busy, so she wasn't too tired.
But she couldn't ignore it at all, so she distributed steamed buns to each table according to the number of people on each table.
Like Lao Yuan’s own table, she has four daughters-in-law, one granddaughter-in-law, and seven granddaughters, and a dustpan is about thirty-five or six buns. She doesn’t have much, and she doesn’t have much. Few, everyone counts after eating.
The men's table is divided into two tables. The younger Li Ronghua and others share a table with eight people. The buns are for about five people per person.
When it comes to eating it, it’s not a problem at all to make five steamed buns. As for whether you’ll be full or not, there are too many to eat anyway.
Everything is fine as usual, but today after eating five, Li Rongfeng reached out and snatched two buns from Li Rongtan's hand, opened his mouth and stuffed them into his mouth. Li Rongtan was the youngest and usually only ate four. He was not eating quickly, and he was robbed of the steamed buns without even thinking. This led to the scene where Li Rongtan cried and howled just now.
When Mrs. Wu heard her son's words, she couldn't help but laugh and said: "Brother Feng, if you haven't eaten enough, just ask Brother Tan to share one with you. It's right for a younger brother to be humble to his elder brother. Why do you want to grab it yourself? This is a legend." When I went out, those who didn’t know better thought our house was a bandit’s den.”
She had a smile on her face and a friendly tone, as if she didn’t blame the other party for stealing her son’s food, but what was going on in her heart. No one knows what you think.
Huang's face suddenly darkened, "It's not normal for a child to fight over each other? Sister-in-law, why do you speak so harshly? Who is a bandit? I'm sorry you are not from this nest?" What kind of brother is that? You should be humble to your brother, what are you implying!
Wu Shi said: "What did I say? Isn't this all for Brother Feng? If you are used to grabbing food at home, you won't be able to resist it even if you go back to other people's homes. Isn't it a provocation? Are you kidding me?"
Ms. Huang choked and couldn't help but turn around and glare at his son. He knows how to eat when he is reincarnated by a starving ghost.
Li Rongfeng was not bothered by his mother's glare. He snatched the bun head and saw Li Rongtan crying. He was afraid that the adults would ask him to give the bun back, so he stuffed it into his mouth with big mouthfuls and finished it in two mouthfuls. My cheeks are still bulging now. , but it did not prevent him from saying vaguely: "He wants to study, but he doesn't know how much food he will spend! What if he eats less now!"
"What did Brother Feng say?" Li Dad heard something vague and couldn't help but make a sound.
But Mrs. Huang heard it clearly and stood up quickly and slapped her son in the face, "Eat, eat, eat, you know how to eat! The food can't stop your mouth, don't you dare to grab the food next time? , let’s see if I don’t cut you!”
Li Rongfeng curled his lips and muttered. One sentence: "You didn't say that."
I didn't hear clearly what he said before, so even if I heard this clearly, I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. I saw that my grandson was also taught a lesson by his mother. Although Father Li couldn't stand his grandson robbing his food, he didn't say anything more.
However, Wu, who heard Li Rongfeng's words clearly, couldn't help but look at Huang twice.
Pomegranate was one of the people who heard clearly. He glanced at Father Li who turned around and continued talking about the work in the fields with his sons, and shook his head slightly in his heart.
As the saying goes, don’t worry about scarcity but not equity. With four-bedroom people and so many grandchildren, only Tan Geer, who lives in the big house, can go to the village school. Even if this is the result of drawing lots, other people will inevitably not think so. Have other ideas.
Not to mention anything else, the third and fourth aunts she knew were the ones that Yinzhun was unwilling to accept.
With such a big family living under one roof, there have been a lot of bumps and bruises, but now it seems that there is a new crack.
Even if there are a lot of people pressing down on the head, sooner or later the seam will be torn wider and wider, and if you are not careful, there will be no possibility of mending it back.
Look at when it will completely break out. ——
It took three days to pick the three acres of cotton field, and then it was time to dry the cotton, clean the cotton seeds, and finish the work in the field.
After a small amount of busy work, in a blink of an eye, it’s time to harvest the rice, which is also the busiest and most tiring time of the year.
To say it's a grab, that's not just talk.
It was still dark, so the Li family went out.
It would take two or three days to cut the entire ten acres of rice. This was because the Li family had a lot of labor.
Harvesting with a sickle is purely manual, and it only takes effort and time.
The whole family marched through the village toward the south of the village. Along the way, they inevitably bumped into other families in the village, and the team grew stronger.
Everyone is focused on harvesting quickly, but few people have time to talk and relax.
When they arrived at their respective paddy fields, they put torches on the ridges of the fields. The fields were bright red, and the mountains and plains were filled with human figures.
The people in the Li family who are responsible for cutting the rice are the four sisters-in-law of the Wu family, the Song family, the Huang family, the Jiang family, and the three Li Rongzong, Li Rongyu, and Li Rongwu. On the stubble, a few people went to the fields and soon cut out a clearing.
The four brothers Li Jiren, Li Rongsong and Li Rongbai carried two mixing buckets down to the field. They put the mixing buckets blocking the straw mats and took them in an orderly manner in groups of three. The rice handle began to be whipped vigorously on the mixing barrel stand in the mixing barrel.
It takes at least a dozen times to shake the rice handle hard with one hand to knock off the rice grains on the ears. It is conceivable that Li Jiren and others who are responsible for beating the rice have to keep using their shoulders. , the process is not without hardship.
After the mixing bucket was filled with more than half of the grains, Li Jiren and others who were in charge of the mixing temporarily stepped aside to rest for a while. Li Rongtong and Li Rongchun, who had been on the left and were responsible for bundling the straw after beating the rice, took it. He picked up the basket and came forward to help scoop out the grains from the mixing bucket and put them into the basket.
Then Li Jiren and others, who had rested for a while, let everyone pick. Some of them picked out a few people and took them back to the big sunbathing field in the village.
At the sunbathing area, Father Li was waiting with his three granddaughters, Li Xiangli, Li Yangtao and Li Yangmei, as well as Li Rongzhang and Li Rongfeng's grandsons.
They are responsible for spreading the picked rice grains out on the drying mat. During this period, they must first use a grass rake to remove the grass mixed with the rice grains, and then use wooden rakes to remove them. Rake turns over rice grains.
The most important thing is to prevent birds or someone’s chickens from flying in to eat rice grains and poop.
Of course, what is more important is to keep an eye on the changing weather.
Things like Tiantongyu like to cause trouble when people are rushing to harvest food. The sun is shining brightly in the first second, and the heavy rain can fall in the next second. It makes people unprepared and annoying. very.
You can't go against the weather. You can only work harder and be ready to harvest the food when the weather changes.
Therefore, the work on the drying ground is also a top priority.
(End of this chapter)