At Old Wang's house, everyone gathered in the main hall, discussing the division of the family property.
Qian Shulan asked everyone, "I am planning to build a red brick house. Does anyone have any connections?"
Wang Shouquan smiled and said, "The Yaozhuang Production Brigade has now restored the kiln factory. Our production team had loaned them grain before, and they still owe us money. We have a quota in their production team, and your family should be able to get a few hundred bricks."
Qian Shulan frowned slightly. Although she had never built a house, she knew that a few hundred bricks were of no use at all.
Qian Shulan asked everyone, "I want to build a house that is 10 meters long and 5 meters wide. How many bricks do I need?"
Wang Liwei had built houses for others before the founding of the People's Republic of China, so he was very familiar with this aspect. "If it is a three-meter-high house, it will probably need 24 square bricks, which is about 12,000 bricks."
Qian Shulan thought for a moment and asked, "Can other families in our team share some of the money?"
Wang Shouquan nodded. "Of course. There are several families whose children are too young to build a new one. There are also several families who may not have enough money to build one."
Qian Shulan smiled and nodded, "I'll go discuss it with them later."
Wang Liwei added, "Bricks are easy to get, but you also need cement, right? And trees are also needed."
Qian Shulan was confident about cement, but what about trees? Not to mention that there were no mature trees now, even if there were, they couldn't be used right away. Trees had to be dried in the shade for a year before they could be used as beams. When they built the house before, they exchanged trees with the furniture factory, but now the furniture factory hasn't recovered yet!
Qian Shulan thought for a long time and finally decided to ask No. 153 for help. She smiled and said, "I know a few friends who should be able to get it."
Everyone felt relieved.
After everyone left, Qian Shulan called Wang Danzhi back to her room and said, "You should stay here tonight and come to my place for dinner during the day, okay?"
Wang Danzhi said a little embarrassedly, "Mom, I'd better eat here! I can build a stove by myself, and it will be more convenient when the little donkey comes back."
Qian Shulan also thought it made sense.
Since Wang Danzhi moved here, although her household registration was registered here, the food and money distributed by the team were directly distributed to Wang Danzhi. In order to prevent others from talking about her, she also accepted Wang Danzhi's food expenses. Although it was not much, it at least proved that she was not living in her mother's house and eating for free.
The daughters-in-law had no reason to say anything bad about Wang Danzhi.
Before, Qian Shulan chose a place for her homestead that was a bit far away, almost at the end of the village, with large fields behind it.
She chose this place because it would be secluded in the future and it would be convenient for her to do private things. Also, it was because she could stay away from those rooms so that people wouldn't come to her for no reason.
After Qian Shulan distributed the food and money, she saw them running excitedly to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy pots. When they came back, most of them were dejected.
When Sun Daqin got home, she complained to Qian Shulan, "Mom, now you need industrial coupons to buy a pot. Although my husband is a worker, he can only get one industrial coupon a month. A pot needs twelve industrial coupons! Don't I have to save up for a year?"
Since the end of last year, all industrial products have to be purchased with industrial coupons, such as bicycles, iron pots, scissors, kitchen knives, towels, wool, batteries, aluminum basins, aluminum lunch boxes, enamel products, bamboo thermos, umbrellas, cotton-rubber shoes, sewing needles, sewing thread, oilcloth raincoats, laminated raincoats, leather shoes, liquor, etc.
Industrial coupons were issued in proportion to wage income, with an average of one industrial coupon for every 20 yuan of wages. Only those with jobs could get them, and rural people could not get these coupons at all.
We went to buy a pot excitedly with nearly a hundred dollars, but returned disappointed. Everyone looked unhappy when they came back.
How happy I was before, how frustrated I am now. I don't even have a pot to cook. In the end, I had no choice but to use a clay pot first, and then use an iron pot when cooking!
Regardless of the suffering of the three rooms, Qian Shulan finally found all the materials. She got the cement from the purchasing manager of the department store.
Although the eggs from their chicken farm must be sold to the government, they can sell them to anyone, including the county department store, provincial department store, and nearby supply and marketing cooperatives.
In order to get more eggs, the heads of several companies tried their best to get close to Qian Shulan, the director of the chicken farm. In this era, job transfers depend on connections and performance. Who doesn't want to be promoted to a higher level and get a higher salary!
Qian Shulan took the opportunity to ask them how to get cement. Then the purchasing manager of the provincial department store, who had the most connections, finally helped her find it after much hardship.
Although the other party was exaggerating, Qian Shulan was still very grateful to him and let him take more than 3,000 eggs on the spot. He was so happy that he smiled from ear to ear.
Qian Shulan's red brick house was finally built two months later. Although it was not bright enough without white lime, at least the house would not get wet on rainy days and was very dry.
The whole family came over to help warm up the house.
When the children in the family saw such a nice house, they were so envious that they kept asking their mother when they could live in such a house.
Several daughters-in-law in the family all looked worried.
The initial enthusiasm for separation has been crushed to the point where nothing is left.
The most important thing is food. Except for the first day of separation, we had a big lunch, and then we had sweet potato porridge with boiled sweet potatoes. There was no oil to stir-fry vegetables!
Before the private plots were distributed to each family, they were all planted with sweet potatoes, mainly to prevent hunger. No vegetables were planted at all. So Qian Shulan initially thought that the scene where the daughters-in-law would fight over the pot would not be possible because there was no material.
Qian Shulan looked at the three people with sad faces, and she felt happy. She found that she was also a person who enjoyed other people's misfortunes!
Sun Daqin held the baby and came close to Qian Shulan. She found that as long as her mother-in-law saw her daughter, no matter how angry she was, she would restrain herself.
Sun Daqin looked at her mother-in-law pitifully, "Mom, we haven't had any vegetables to eat for more than a month!"
Why did she ask her mother-in-law for help? Because she was the only one who could eat her mother-in-law's food. No one else could. The reason was simple: she had to breastfeed her child.
Qian Shulan took the child and teased the baby. The three-month-old baby was much more lively than before, and her vision was enough to see clearly who was holding her.
Seeing the baby staring at her, Qian Shulan actually had the illusion that it was her grandmother who recognized her. But thinking about it, she felt that it was impossible.
Qian Shulan raised her eyelids when she heard what Sun Daqin said. "I don't have many vegetables here. They are all saved for me by Yuying and Dana. If you are greedy, you can go to the chicken farm and exchange them for some eggs."
Sun Daqin looked at her mother-in-law pitifully and said, "Eggs are only three cents each, they're too expensive." One needs at least ten fried eggs to make a plate, which costs thirty cents. She only has more than eighty yuan in her hand, so she has to be frugal!
Qian Shulan looked at her expressionlessly, "Isn't your man able to support the family? Don't come to me again!"
Sun Daqin was choked by her mother-in-law. She suddenly remembered that when she was in the hospital, the child's father said that he earned money to support the family. Now that her mother-in-law said this, it was like a slap in the face of her man!
Sun Daqin returned empty-handed and dejectedly to her sister-in-law.
Li Chunhua eagerly chased after him and asked, "How is it? What did mother-in-law say?"
Before Sun Daqin could answer, Zhou Xuemei hugged her eldest son and sighed, "Looking at her like this, there's no hope for her!"
Sun Daqin: "My mother-in-law said that dish was saved by Yuying and Dana."
The three of them looked unhappy. Although their men worked in the county, they still had to eat. It was impossible for them not to eat vegetables, right? In addition, because of their jobs, they had no time to queue up to buy vegetables. It was not convenient for them to buy them for them since they lived in the countryside.
If you want to find someone to help you buy, Xiaowu can't go to the countryside often. Dana has to go to work, she doesn't even queue up. You can't always ask Fang Yonglin to help you buy, after all, it's not just once or twice, it's a frequent help. There is a layer of relationship between them, and they are not very familiar with each other, so it's too embarrassing to ask.
As a result, their food stamps expired before they were used up, and they were still in the countryside without any food to eat.
The three of them stood in front of the new house built by the mother-in-law, looking dejected.
Qian Shulan held her baby and greeted everyone. Qian Shulan still did not prepare a banquet for this gathering, mainly because she did not want it to be too unique, after all, food is still very scarce. However, Qian Shulan specially prepared some candies and steamed buns, and she stood on the roof and scattered them down, so that everyone could share in the joy.
Almost everyone was able to grab some of the two baskets of food. In the evening, Qian Shulan cooked a table of dishes and invited several close friends to come over for dinner.
During the meal, Wang Shouzhi seemed to be worried about something and wanted to numb himself, so he kept toasting everyone.
The men themselves were lovers of wine, and since this wine was a very good one that could only be obtained with a very bad smell, they did not refuse.
In the end, Wang Shouzhi and Qian Weihan each held a wine bottle and started blowing.
As for the women and children, because of the famine, they had not had such a good banquet for a long time. Coupled with Qian Shulan's good cooking skills, they were very satisfied with the meal.
After eating and drinking, Qian Shulan came back from seeing the guests off and found that all the leftovers on the table had been put away by her three daughters-in-law, and each of them had a bowl of miscellaneous dishes in front of them.
"Mom, there are no vegetables at home. Can we take these back?" Sun Daqin asked with a licking face.
Although Li Chuntian and Zhou Xuemei didn't say anything, they looked at their mother-in-law in a flattering manner.
Qian Shulan twitched her lips. "It's not impossible. But you guys are living like this, shouldn't you reflect on it?"
Wang Shouren, Wang Shouyi and Wang Shouli all had to go to work tomorrow and didn't drink. Unlike Wang Shouzhi, who had a day off tomorrow, he accepted everyone and got drunk.
The three of them lowered their heads and said nothing. The three families who had never been in charge of a family had completely lost their previous joy, and now their lives were much worse than before. Thinking of the complaints of their children, everyone was exhausted.
Qian Shulan asked everyone to sit down. "You clearly have a quota, but because of the irregular time, you always miss the opportunity to buy groceries. Don't you know how to make some adjustments?"
Wang Shouli humbly asked for advice, "Mom, how can we make it work?"
Qian Shulan pointed at the sweet potatoes on the table and said, "We don't need them at home now. You can make vermicelli out of the sweet potatoes and give some to Fang Yonglin to ask him to help buy groceries. Is that difficult? You are in-laws. You can help a little. It's not like you are borrowing money. Why can't you open your mouth? You are really good. You deserve it for eating pickles every day. My grandchildren are all starving and thin!"
The three of them suddenly realized something. They had thought about asking Fang Yonglin to help buy groceries before. After all, he worked in a department store and could buy them first without queuing. But they couldn't come up with anything decent to give as a gift. There was nothing else at home except sweet potatoes. The most important thing was that the city was also giving out sweet potatoes. They were all the same stuff, without any sincerity. People might not be willing to help you with this.
But his mother said to give him vermicelli, which was rare in the city.
The three of them immediately felt most relaxed with their mother around. Elders understand human relationships and accidents better.
Qian Shulan waved her hand and asked them to go home as she was going to lock the door and go to sleep.
Sun Daqin returned to her mother-in-law's room and picked up her sleeping daughter. Qian Shulan felt very sad to see her baby being taken away like this. But who could blame her for not having started weaning yet
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