Chapter 10

She had lots of cooked food in her interspace. Red braised pork was one of them. It was rare for her family to eat meat, and she wanted to seize the opportunity to let her grandma have a little more.

After that, she took out about half a kilogram of pork ribs and added it to the pork ribs she had bought. She washed and salted them, then went to deal with the fish.

At that moment, Wen Ruyu came in and was shocked to see the pork ribs and the large fish!

“Did you buy all these? Wow! These items may not be available even if you want to buy them. How unusual that you managed to get them!”

Gu Qingyao smiled. “We were lucky today. We bought them at the grocery store. Only this fish and the pork ribs were left when we were there, so we bought them all.”

Wen Ruyu smiled, “Wonderful! Salt them and when your father and grandfather get back, they can have some meat. That’s a lot of pork rib! We can add some carrots and cabbage later and it will be enough for several meals.”

In times like this, resources were scarce. To everyone, meat, no matter whether it was fatty meat, lean meat, pork collar, or pork ribs, they all had to be braised with carrots and cabbage in a large stew so that everyone in the family could taste some meat and have a share of these coveted foods.

Gu Qingyao did not argue. In times like these, she could not change her grandma’s thinking at once. Anyway, she had her interspace. In the future, she certainly would not allow her grandma to suffer!

Grandma had once enjoyed a good life. In the future, her living conditions would improve and she would naturally get used to it.

Gu Qingyao carried the fish to the well to clean it. By the time she had gutted and cleaned the fish, Wen Ruyu had already eaten and emerged. The red braised pork had been soft and tender, melting in her mouth. Wen Ruyu had been completely satisfied with her meal.

She carried a basket and a small hoe, and was prepared to work in the vegetable patch.

At that time, every household had a private plot which they used to grow some vegetables. These vegetables were part of the farmers’ diet. Most families lacked food and only continued to eke out an existence by growing vegetables for half a year and melons and other vegetables for the other half.

When Gu Qingyao saw that, she said, “Grandma, I’ll go up the mountain later to dig for some wild herbs. Perhaps I can pick some mushrooms or fungus, and I’ll also bring back some firewood while I’m there.”

Wen Ruyu said, “Don’t worry about the firewood. You can’t possibly manage it. You must be careful when you go up the mountain!”

It was common for the children in the village to go up the mountain to dig for wild herbs. Gu Qingyao had also frequently done so in the past, so Wen Ruyu did not feel that anything was amiss.

Wen Ruyu left and Gu Qingyao brought the fish to the kitchen, covered it with a layer of salt, then left it there.

She looked at the oil, salt and other condiments in the kitchen and hurriedly added to them from her interspace. Then she looked in the household’s rice jar. Many sacks of grain were in the large jar. At the top were the coarse grains – some sorghum flour, sweet potato flour, dried sweet potatoes and corn husks.

Below was the rice, wheat flour, and some cornflour.

In these times, fine grains were very dear and very few could afford them. Even the Gu family, which was supported by the wages of several people, had a pitiful amount of fine grain.

There was less than fifteen kilograms of rice, and about ten kilograms of wheat flour. There was slightly more cornflour, about twenty kilograms of it.

Gu Qingyao knew that there was not much grain in the house. The autumn harvest had just passed, and the grain would only be distributed at the end of the year. At this time, some families in the brigade who were in more difficult circumstances would be almost out of food. There was not much left in the Gu household either!

After some thought, Gu Qingyao added two kilograms of rice, a kilogram of wheat flour, and two kilograms of cornflour. She also added a few dried sweet potatoes.

She did not have much coarse grain in her interspace, or at least, she only had a few types.

Food and other resources were abundant in her modern life, and her interspace was mainly used as a supermarket and to provision hotels and restaurants. In modern times, the only people who ate coarse food and grains were those seeking its health benefits.

It was not like the present, when they could not afford to eat fine grains!

After she had finished doing all this, Gu Qingyao took her basket and cloth sack and went up the mountain. Winter was coming and in order to survive the winter, the people here were all frantically searching everywhere for food.

Everywhere on the mountain-side were people digging for wild herbs and looking for tree bark.

Gu Qingyao found some shepherd’s purse at the edge of the field. Then she carried her basket and went deeper into the mountain.

The Qing River Brigade occupied a large mountain which stretched over a huge area. In the deepest part of it was a primeval forest. The trees in the outlying region had mostly been cut down in the Great Leap Forward, but it had recovered after many years and the mountainside looked like itself once again.

The outlying regions were very safe and small animals like wild chickens, rabbits and hedgehogs could often be seen. However, these animals were not easy to catch unless one knew how to go about it.