Chapter 98

Then, ** held Yuan Yuan's hand and began to explain in detail how to make sweet potato porridge.

First, you need to clean the sweet potatoes thoroughly and then cut them into small pieces. However, some people cut them into slices, dry them, and then grind them into granules or powder.

When eating, you mix a large amount of sorghum (not the sticky kind we eat now; I ate it when I was a child, and we usually call it song rice, which is locally known as笨song rice, different from sticky rice) and cook it into porridge.

Talking about sorghum, ** became more excited and added a bit more: "Sorghum is really not tasty; it's mainly hard to swallow. I think it's almost extinct now. I haven't seen it for many years, but at that time, it was a good thing, feeding a whole generation."

"Right, I ate it for a few years when I was a child. Not only for porridge but also for rice. It was much harder to eat than rice, mainly because it was hard to swallow. Now it's still sold, and it's said to be very nutritious, like other coarse grains," Wang Yong added.

"At that time, being able to eat sweet potato porridge all the time was considered quite good. This stuff is very sweet and much better than other foods. Even this couldn't last until the end of the year. Many families couldn't even afford a pound of meat by the end of the year. Back then, I would get so excited at the sight of meat that I would dig rat holes enthusiastically," Da Bo said, and Da Ma picked up the conversation before he could finish.

"Digging up a rat hole would make the whole family happy for at least a week, especially in winter. Not only could you eat the meat, but there would usually be stored food in the rat holes. If you were lucky, you could dig up half a bag, enough to feed the family for a month."

"Ah! Eat rats?" Yuan Yuan covered her mouth, trying hard not to vomit.

"Is it tasty?" Wang Yong was quite interested. When he was a child, there was a time when the market sold rat poison and offered to buy rat tendons for several dozen yuan per pound.

Several dozen yuan? At that time, Wang Yong remembered that an ice lolly cost five cents, and so did plum powder, while a piece of candy cost one or two cents. He and his friends went crazy, running around to catch rats.

Da Wei said he heard from his father that rat meat was very fragrant, and they planned to cook and eat it. Wang Qiang and Wang Bin, hearing this, also got hungry and decided to have a big meal after catching the rats. They even asked two kids to find dry firewood to cook the rats.

However, they didn't know if it was because people had caught too many rats before or if they were just too clumsy. They worked hard for half a day but didn't catch a single rat. In the end, they caught a wild chicken and roasted it. Everyone got a piece of meat, and it was so delicious that they still drooled thinking about it.

After that, the group of friends always wanted to try rat meat, wondering if it was as tasty as the legend said.

"What's tasty or not? At that time, any meat was tasty," Er Ye said.

"Right! At that time, we were really poor. We didn't have enough to eat or wear. The older children would get clothes, and when they outgrew them, they would pass them down to the younger ones, and so on. If there were no more children in the family, they would give the clothes to relatives and friends," Liu Huilan said, making Yuan Yuan's eyes widen.

Born in the city, she had never experienced such hardships. When she was born, her parents were already teaching in the city. Although the living conditions were not great, they never lacked food or clothes, and she even had pocket money, which made her much happier than Wang Yong, who grew up in the countryside.

"It was the same for everyone. At that time, everything was rationed. You only got so much per year, and it was never enough."

"Who says it wasn't? How difficult was it? Even the Premier's shirt had patches and he was reluctant to change it. In the end, he had to make a new collar to make it look new, but inside it was all patched," **'s words reminded the young people of a passage they read in school.

It was hard to imagine that the Premier of a major country couldn't afford a new shirt! But the reality was probably like that. People born in the countryside in the early 1980s, how many of them hadn't worn patched clothes or socks?

"I remember I still wore patched clothes and socks when I was in elementary school. It seemed that all my classmates were like that. The only new clothes, or those without patches, were worn during the New Year," Wang Yong said with a sigh.

"You were lucky. You just caught the tail end of the rationing system. It was much better than before. We needed tickets for everything. From a box of matches to the 'three big items'—sewing machines, bicycles, and watches—nothing was without a ticket."

"Even matches needed tickets?"

"Of course. I remember when I first started working in the city, the school gave us two pounds of fish tickets as a welfare benefit. I was so happy that I went to the grocery store right after school, thinking I would buy some fish to improve the diet for my grandmother and the others," Liu Huilan said, pausing for a moment.

Yuan Yuan, who was listening intently, asked, "What kind of fish did you buy for my grandmother?"

Wang Yong noticed that the elders all showed a bitter smile when they heard Yuan Yuan's question. What was going on? After all, Gangcheng was a coastal tourist city, and it should be easy to buy fish by the sea.

Liu Huilan continued, "When I got to the store, I saw a crowd at the entrance. I found out that a new batch of frozen carp and mackerel had just arrived. I was so excited! But when it was almost my turn, I saw the salesperson just pick up the scale and walk away."

"Really? They sold out that quickly?" Wang Yong was really surprised. Were people that fond of fish back then?

"Exactly. It took me more than half a year to finally get the fish with those two pounds of fish tickets."

"How could that be? We're by the sea, how could we lack fish?" Yuan Yuan asked, clearly puzzled.

"Do you need tickets for fish? Just go to a river or stream and catch some," Wang Yong, who grew up in a semi-mountainous area with plenty of water, had never lacked fish.

Yuan Yuan's father explained, "Everything was scarce back then. Although we were by the sea and had more opportunities to eat fish than inland areas, it was a planned economy. Everything was centrally allocated by the state. Just because you had more of something didn't mean it would all stay with you."

"Right. For example, when our fishermen caught fish, they didn't sell them directly in the market. They had to hand them over to the city first, and then a large portion would be transported to other places according to the plan. This led to the paradox of fish-producing areas lacking fish," **'s explanation aptly described the common phenomenon of that time.

"I remember during the New Year, to buy a little melon seeds, I went to the grocery store to queue up before midnight the day before. Even then, I wasn't first. There were already dozens of people in front of me, and the earliest one had come right after work the day before," Yuan Yuan's father said slowly.

"Do you remember the New Year in the early 1960s when the Chairman invited a group of actors who had just performed at a gala to have dinner? Do you know what they ate?" Er Ye asked Wang Yong and Yuan Yuan.

"State banquet, of course," Wang Yong said, as if he knew it well.

"Meat, right? It was hard to have a good meal of meat back then," Da Bo added.

"Steamed buns, you wouldn't have guessed! A pot of steamed buns and a pot of soup per table," ** didn't let Er Ye keep them in suspense and revealed the answer directly.

"Really? The Chairman invited guests to eat steamed buns? This is a state banquet!" Da Bo's eyes widened, clearly not believing it.

"What's the big deal? During the three years of natural disasters and the split with the Soviet Union, the Chairman and the Premier didn't eat meat for more than half a year," **, as a staff member of the Premier, had a lot to say on this matter.

"Ah! Those years were really hard! The whole country was hungry. Even the leaves and bark of trees in Beijing were almost eaten. There were even cases of people starving to death, and this was in Beijing. Who knows what it was like in other remote and poor provinces!" **'s words left everyone speechless for a long time.

Wang Yong looked at the table in front of him and felt extremely wasteful, especially when he saw the half-bowl of meat he had left uneaten and planned to throw to the white cat under the table. He felt he had committed a grave sin!

"Our country had such things happen!" Yuan Yuan, who had grown up in a well-off environment, found it hard to understand how such things could happen.

"Ha ha, when you were born, our lives were already much better. We might not have eaten well, but at least everyone could have enough to eat," Tian Yufan sighed.

Da Bo also said excitedly, "You don't know! In the first year after the land was distributed to households, after the harvest, besides the grain we had to give to the state, our family had so much wheat and corn for the first time. Da Jiang and I secretly filled our pockets with corn and chewed it raw! It was so fragrant, really fragrant!"

"Right! That year, we slaughtered the big fat pig we raised at home for the New Year. We kept about ten pounds of meat and a big pig's head. My mother cooked the pig's head that day, and our family of seven ate it all up in one meal. We never thought we could eat only meat in one meal. The meat was so fragrant!" Da Ma said, swallowing her saliva.

"Right, after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, our lives got better every day. In our area, the land was distributed in 1983 and 1984. After that, we never heard of anyone going hungry in our village," Da Bo added.

"We also felt the same. After the country's reform and opening up, life got better and better. Especially after entering the new century, just look at the children now. A can of milk powder costs several hundred yuan, a piece of children's clothing costs several dozen to several hundred yuan, and there are all kinds of toys that make my eyes dazzle," Liu Huilan said with a smile.

"Exactly, take the phone Qian Qian bought for me. It costs several thousand yuan. Our monthly salary back then was only fifty yuan. I couldn't afford such a thing even with several months' salary," ** showed off the phone Qian Qian bought for him.

"Back then, we were crazy to eat meat, but now we are tired of eating meat and prefer vegetables, even wild vegetables!"

"Right, now green, pollution-free, and organic vegetables are much more expensive than meat. Not to mention the super vegetables that Wang Yong grows. I heard that some people in the city are willing to pay a thousand yuan per pound and still can't get them," Liu Huilan said, getting excited.

"The children now are really blessed!" Er Ye sighed. He never imagined that he would one day be tired of eating, and the current life is something he never dreamed of. (To be continued.)

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