On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Gu Xiangqian was preparing to end his annual leave and return to the base. Before leaving, he took Su Ye to visit his parents' graves and burn incense.
When the sky was still grey and not yet bright, He Meimei smiled as she packed out some dried preserved vegetables, preserved vegetable meat sauce, and cured meat and sausages for them to take away.
Su Ye waved his hands quickly: "No, he said yesterday that he didn't want these things anymore."
He Meimei smiled, "You thought they were stuffed into your pocket." She listed them one by one, "This is for Grandma Zhou, this is for Aunt Ning, and I asked you to bring them to my house. Thank you for making the trip."
After packing their luggage, the couple set off and arrived at the cemetery at nine in the morning.
Gu Xiangqian weeded his parents' graves and burned the paper money and incense sticks that Su Ye brought with him.
He finished trimming the weeds, poured three glasses of wine for his parents, and said silently in his heart: "This is the wife I have chosen. I brought her to see you for the first time this year. I hope you will bless her well in heaven."
Gu Xiangqian knew that there were many mysteries surrounding Su Ye, and it didn't matter if she had no intention of confessing to him for the time being. In this long life, he would always have the opportunity to slowly understand. The only thing he could be sure of was that she had a patriotic heart, and that was enough.
After sweeping the graves, they returned to the family compound in City C. Along the way, they met many acquaintances who greeted them warmly: "Happy New Year, Teacher Su!"
"Hey, Xiang Qian is back with his wife to celebrate the New Year?"
"Our top student is back. Teacher Su and the others all said that you taught well in high school and your answers to questions were very accurate. When will you be free to come and teach our useless Dazhu?"
Su Ye clasped his hands together and said, "Happy New Year, everyone!"
"Okay? Okay? I'm free today. I'll come to your house after I deliver the things."
Gu Xiangqian couldn't help but admire Su Ye's affinity with people. Even after leaving the family compound for two years, so many people still remembered her. There were still people greeting her wherever she went.
The neighbors looked at the couple's backs with envy.
The heavy pork belly, the white rice, white flour, peanuts, melon seeds, white sugar, tea, eggs, all are good things. Everyone only heard that Su Ye went to the poor mountain valleys to help the poor, but looking at this posture, it doesn't look like he went there to help the poor, but more like he came back from robbing houses!
Those neighbors who had not had a good relationship with Su Ye in the past thought with regret: If it had been them who were nice to her in the beginning, wouldn't they be the ones getting these New Year's goods now
Su Ye came to Grandma Zhou's house sweating profusely, carrying New Year's goods. They gave five kilograms of pork to Zhou Honghan.
He Meimei was very careful. She divided the New Year's goods for everyone and filled the heavy bags woven with straw ropes with peanuts, melon seeds, pastries, sugar, pork, rice and flour.
Grandma Zhou was overjoyed to find Su Ye back, and Su Ye found her entertaining guests.
That guest? Su Ye was no stranger to him. He happened to be the director of the machinery factory in City C. The oil press that Grandma Zhou had improved was made by this factory. Director Liu bowed to Zhou Honghan and said, "Thank you for your help this time."
Zhou Honghan nodded silently, and Director Liu left the Zhou family and said hello to Su Ye before leaving.
Su Ye asked: "What does Director Liu want to see you about?"
Zhou Honghan looked at the large and small packages of food and meat on the table. The frown on his brows just now relaxed quietly. The dark clouds that had accumulated in his heart were blown away at once, and the sun was shining brightly.
"Xiao Su, you're here!" She shook her head and said, "The director of the machinery factory contacted me to deal with a batch of machine tools. Their factory is having difficulty in turnover and the grain quota is not enough. He is reluctant to lay off workers and hopes to sell fixed assets in exchange for some grain."
"I'm just an ordinary retired teacher. How can I help him with the machine tool? He is desperate and is trying all kinds of methods!"
She sighed, "I thought the First Machine Factory could hold out, but I didn't expect it to fall to this point. The government can no longer support so many factories!"
Su Ye thought that the city's finances really couldn't hold up until now. Right now was a lean period, and if there was no food now, it would be even more difficult in the future.
She touched her nose, remembering that the machinery factory had bought a lot of tea before. Now the most abundant thing in Shanggou Village is food. It is impossible to revitalize a large factory, but it is more than enough to help them turn around for a period of time.
She immediately smiled and said, "Don't worry, Grandma Zhou. I have a solution for this. When I was selling tea leaves, Director Liu helped me a lot. I will help him think of a solution this time."
Zhou Honghan wondered what Su Ye could do. Su Ye touched his nose again and said vaguely: "It's not convenient for me to talk about it. Just know that I can solve it."
Gu Xiangqian couldn't help but smile. He thought of the farms on the hills of Shanggou Village, the experimental fields, and the piled-high granaries. Others? Maybe there's nothing they can do, but it can really help.
After delivering the New Year’s goods, Su Ye sent Gu Xiangqian to the airport.
Before leaving, Gu Xiangqian told Su Ye: "If you encounter any obstacles in policy, you can write to me. We can win the support of uncle. Uncle has been in politics for many years and knows a lot of people."
Su Ye nodded and said, "I would like to thank you on behalf of the villagers of Shanggou Village."
After returning to Shanggou Village, Su Ye told everyone about the incident at the machinery factory. "The No. 1 Machinery Factory in City C is short of food and can no longer afford to pay its workers. If no one helps it, it will soon go bankrupt."
Ma Gensheng asked, "Is it the machinery factory that bought several hundred kilograms of tea from us in one go?"
Su Ye nodded, "Yes." The year before last, the machinery factory called on 600 workers to buy tea, and many workers have not finished drinking the tea at home. They actually didn't need to buy tea, but they bought a lot just to help Shanggou Village raise food.
When Ma Gensheng heard that it was a benefactor, he immediately said readily: "They have helped us before, so we really have to give them a hand."
The villagers discussed the matter one by one. Although they knew that grain was precious, the First Machinery Factory was their benefactor who had helped them, so it was not an outsider.
They all looked at Su Ye, "Teacher Su, how much food should we give it? We calculated that it would be a bit difficult to gather three to five tons, but two to three thousand kilograms of food would definitely be no problem."
The old Party secretary pondered for a long time, organizing his words and said, "We harvested a lot of grain last year, and each household can share a lot of grain. But isn't Teacher Su planning to recruit more graduates from the city to go to the countryside this year? We have to save some food for these educated youth."
Su Ye shook his head and said with a smile: "That's not the case. Our food doesn't come for free. Selling it to them at a cheaper price than the market price is already a great help."
A lean camel is bigger than a horse, and they can still afford the grain. But large-scale grain transactions are against market regulations.
Su Ye thought of a way: "We can find an excuse to give them food. Let the workers from the machinery factory come to the countryside to teach us technology. We will pay them wages and use the food as compensation."
The old branch secretary nodded vigorously, "I think so!"
It's not like the food is given away for free; the old branch secretary fully supports it.
"Our village really needs a few skilled workers to teach us how to repair machines. The last batch of juicers we bought often broke down. If they broke down during this year's bumper harvest when everyone is rushing to produce, it would delay a lot of things!"
Not to mention "a drop of water should be repaid with a spring", at least we should know how to be grateful. They bought their tea when they were in such a difficult time, so it's nothing for them to give them some food now.
When the villagers heard that they were going to allocate some grain to the machinery factory and sell it to them privately at the market price, no one objected. They were in need of everything except grain. The granaries at home were full, enough to last them three years.
Although you can get more money by taking the grain to the black market to pay back the debt, the meaning of selling it to the machinery factory is different, as it is selling it to your former benefactors!
As long as we remember the days of famine when people were starving to death everywhere, no one will forget who helped them.
The representative of Shanggou Village quickly contacted the machinery factory. Director Liu was worried about raising food. When he heard on the phone that Captain Ma wanted to send him food, the grown man was so moved that his eyes filled with tears that he almost cried.
He quickly assigned a group of the most experienced skilled workers, asked for a truck, and headed straight for Shanggou Village with great anticipation.
On the day Director Liu came to the village, Ma Gensheng was responsible for receiving him.
He pointed to the baskets of grain and said, "Hello, Director Liu. This is the grain our village sent to the machinery factory. There are 1,000 kilograms of grain here, including corn and wheat."
Director Liu counted out dozens of big black tens and handed a thick stack to Ma Gensheng.
Ma Gensheng refused the money. "No need for money. This is a gift from our village to the First Machinery Factory. The grain over there is what needs to be bought, because it is the food that the villagers have shared out from their own rations. The fine grain will be purchased at a unified market price, and the sweet potatoes will be purchased at half the market price."
Director Liu was so moved that he was speechless for a moment, "Why... These grains are too precious."
Don't want it on the black market? The price of food with food coupons has doubled or tripled. How can they buy such cheap food? Everyone took the food coupons to the grain station to buy food. Three catties of fine grains were mixed with one catty of sweet potatoes. But Shanggou Village sold them white rice and yellow corn. Sweet potatoes could even be bought at half the price.
Ma Gensheng smiled and said, "The director may be a noble man. He forgets things. Our village sold 600 kilograms of tea to the First Machinery Factory two years ago. We raised life-saving food with the money from the tea sales."
Secretary Ma, hunched over, looked at Director Liu with his dim eyes and said seriously, "We farmers have always been loyal. The land feeds us, so we cultivate it carefully and take good care of it. We also remember who has helped us! Although our strength is very meager and we can't help much, we can only give this little grain."
"Take it and eat it!"
He was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes. He wanted to kneel down and kowtow to them right there. "It's you. Thank you so much, folks!"
The First Machinery Factory took away 5,000 kilograms of grain, and the trucks took several trips to complete the transportation. At the same time, they sent a group of key workers to the countryside to repair their machines, teach them how to maintain the machines on a daily basis, and teach them simple troubleshooting principles.
…
Watching the trucks bringing food back to the factory, Ruan Ruliang couldn't help but frown. "I know the First Machinery Factory. It used to be the landmark of City C."
Unexpectedly, such a large factory almost went bankrupt. He paused and said, "We seem to have achieved good results, but in reality, we can only feed a few hundred people. A village is still too small."
What he wanted was to restore the entire city to its pre-famine level so that everyone would no longer have to worry about food.
Teacher He thought that being able to feed hundreds of people was already pretty good. The conditions in this small village were not very good to begin with, and being able to achieve this in just two or three years was already pretty scary, okay? "Teacher Ruan, don't think too much. You can't get fat in one bite."
Su Ye felt that Ruan Ruliang was not the kind of person who would easily say "depressing words". After everyone went back, she asked him privately, "What does Teacher Ruan mean?"
Ruan Ruliang took off his glasses and said, "Our village is too small. Even if every inch of land is planted with food, it still won't change anything."
He paused for a moment and said seriously: "Take our sweet potatoes for example. In the first year we planted sweet potatoes and cultivated a new variety. In the second year, our new variety will be tested in Qingxi County. Only when the test results prove that it is high-yielding will it be promoted nationwide. However, promotion is a very long process. It will take three, five or even ten years for the new variety we cultivated in the first year to be slowly planted all over the country."
"In theory, as long as the trial planting in Qingxi County is successful, there will be no problem in promoting it across the country. I know that any new variety will have to go through countless trials, but seeing that there are still many people starving to death outside, I can't help but worry."
Su Ye nodded after hearing this. She patted Ruan Ruliang on the shoulder and said, "This is a necessary process. There is no point in being anxious. There is nothing we can do about it."
After Su Ye returned, he lay on the bed, tossing and turning, thinking: There is really nothing we can do about this
—That’s not necessarily true. She silently took out the dusty wig and disguise suit from the corner.