1968: Started from breeding

Chapter 9 Gossip under the Banyan Tree

When the Su family came back from work, they saw Su Wenchen steaming egg custard.

Su's mother couldn't help but say.

"Oh my God, my son, you have no intention of living at all. How can you eat eggs every day?"

"These eggs are sold at the supply and marketing cooperative for 4 cents each. Who eats eggs every day? No, I can't leave the eggs with you tomorrow!"

Upon seeing this, Su Wenchen immediately retorted that this would be his main source of income in the future!
"Mom! This is the one egg left over from this morning. In the evening, I searched the chicken coop and found six more eggs. I didn't touch the eggs I found later!"

"Don't fool your mother. Do you think your mother is stupid? She has raised chickens for so many years, how could she not know how many eggs a chicken lays? Stone has touched the chicken coop in the morning. It would be good if she could lay one or two more eggs during the day!"

Father Su said as he watched from the sidelines.

Su Wenchen rolled his eyes. My mother is not stupid, but she knows too little! Just because she doesn't know doesn't mean it's impossible.

In rural areas, there is no electricity now, so it is a bit of a pipe dream to want lighting assistance! Otherwise, if there is lighting assistance, chickens will lay more eggs, but it is not cost-effective for individuals to raise chickens.

If the brigade can build a large chicken farm in the future, we can try to apply for electricity from the commune! Then use lights to assist egg production. As long as we raise enough chickens, it should be cost-effective!

Su Wenchen looked at Su's mother with a questioning look.

"Mom, I'm telling the truth. Look, there are still six eggs left in this basket. And these five chickens will probably lay more than ten eggs every day in the future!"

Looking at Su Wenchen's solemn words.

Su's mother turned over the eggs in the basket.

"Old man, it seems like what the youngest one said is true. Could it be that his secret recipe for raising chickens is really useful?"

Father Su said doubtfully, "Don't tell me you went to someone else's house to touch it!"

Su Wenchen said angrily, "Dad, nowadays people guard their eggs like their lifeblood. If someone really stole eggs from someone else's house, they would probably tell the whole village about it!"

Father Su took a puff of his cigarette and nodded slightly.

That's true. Nowadays, almost everything in a house is counted, not to mention eggs which are more precious than food. If they were really stolen, no one would swallow their anger!
Does the youngest really have some secret recipe for raising chickens?
If they could produce two eggs every day, the team could set up a chicken farm. Although Father Su had a plan in mind, he did not show it on his face.

He still needed to confirm whether he could really lay two eggs every day or if he was just lucky today.

dinner.

The whole family started cooking, and Su Wenchen also brought out a bowl of cornmeal from the house and asked his mother to help make steamed bread.

While eating, the sister-in-law watched Su Wenchen eat a bite of steamed bread and a bite of smooth and tender egg custard.

I was so envious that I kept muttering to myself, wishing that she would have wanted an old hen too. But when I thought about the pigs in the pigsty, I felt that something was not right.

If she can only choose one, she will still choose pig, not for any other reason, just because it is pork!
After Su Wenchen finished his meal, he prepared to go out for a walk to help digest the food.

I found that there were already quite a few people sitting and chatting under the big banyan tree in front of my house.

Even his old mother and two sisters-in-law were inside, listening to the gossip with great interest!

"Hey, the youngest of the Su family is here to digest his food today! I heard from your sister-in-law that you ate five eggs a day, but you didn't even bother to take them out to honor your elders. Aren't you afraid that you won't be able to digest so much?"

Su Wenchen knew that in the countryside, one cannot be too polite when facing such sarcastic people, otherwise the other party will take advantage of you!

What's more, the other person's personality is the kind that never gets enough of taking advantage of others!

Said directly and bluntly.

"It's not hard to digest. If you don't believe me, go home and bring me five eggs. I can show you how to eat one egg in one bite right now!" Someone next to him said, "Don't even mention five eggs. I can eat ten eggs in one go!"

"Haha, twenty eggs are no problem for me. If you don't believe me, Zhang Pandi, go home and bring them to me. I'll show you how to do it."

Zhang Pandi said angrily.

"My eggs are for my golden egg. Who do you think you are to want to eat my eggs?"

She even asked me to go home and get some eggs so she could eat one egg in one bite. Do you think I'm a fool? There aren't enough eggs at home for ourselves to eat. If she had free eggs, she could eat one in one bite too!

Su Wenchen reminded her at the right time, "Aunt Pandi, since you don't want to take your own eggs, don't always think about other people's eggs."

At this time, Su's mother also spoke up, "Zhang Pandi, don't act like an elder to my youngest. What kind of elder are you? Do you think my youngest should respect you?"

"Don't think you can become the elder of our family just because you married an old man. If you have the guts to ask Su Da Nao to come to my house in person, I'll see if he dares to come. What's wrong with the youngest child eating an egg? He raises his own chickens, so I have no objection even if he eats it every day!"

After saying that, he glanced at his eldest sister-in-law and said, "Old man, be careful with your words when you go out. You just talk nonsense all day long! The youngest one is eating your eggs!"

The sister-in-law quickly lowered her head and said nothing more!
As soon as this topic ends, a new topic pops up. There is always something new in the surrounding area!
In this era, there are almost no entertainment tools in rural areas, so gossip is naturally the best spiritual food for the people!
This means that if something new happens in a family, it will spread quickly throughout the surrounding area within a few days!
An elderly lady was now vividly recreating for everyone what she had seen and heard in the commune during the day.

"I'm telling you, isn't my daughter going to give birth soon? I asked for leave today to go to the commune to give her some eggs, but guess what I saw at the commune?"

"What did you see?"

"That's right, Cuihua, stop keeping me in suspense and tell me quickly!"

When Su's mother heard this, she didn't want to argue with Zhang Pandi anymore, and immediately spoke excitedly.

"Don't hurry me, don't hurry me. You don't know, the commune is very lively today! A very pretty little girl has been shouting that she wants to go back to the city!"

"Tsk, what did I think it was? Isn't it just that the educated youth couldn't stand the hardship and wanted to go back to the city? This isn't big news!"

"If she just shouts that she wants to go back to the city, it's not a rare thing, but this girl is different. I heard that she was asked to work as a clerk in the commune, but she refuses to do it and insists on going back to the city!"

"In the end, the incident was reported to the county. I heard that the girl was so upset that she jumped off a building in the county! It seems that even the county magistrate was alarmed!"

"Ah, you don't want to do good things in the commune and insist on going back to the city! Isn't this a sin?"

"These educated youth from big cities are so arrogant that they don't even want to work as commune officials. I think they are aiming for the sky!"

Su Wenchen, who knew history, felt that the other party might have always been in the sky and had just fallen down temporarily.

In this era, there is a world of difference between big cities and rural communes.

Not to mention that there are various ice skating rinks and cinemas in the capital, which are the most cutting-edge entertainment facilities in this era.

Su Wenchen deeply understands the other party's discomfort, because he is also uncomfortable in many aspects now.

Especially the dry toilet with those big white maggots wriggling inside!

Every time he used the dry toilet, he felt the urge to build a new toilet.

Su Wenchen thought about it and realized that this year was the first year of that decade. Some families with a keen sense of smell might have already started to make arrangements for their children's future.

Because at the end of this year, after the leader publishes an article, the ten-year large-scale program of sending educated youth to the countryside will officially come to the fore!

Before this, although there were educated youth going to the countryside, most of them did so voluntarily.

In the future, it will probably happen frequently that some families secretly sign up their brothers and sisters to go to the countryside.

(End of this chapter)