Chapter Forty-Nine: The People’s Suffering

Early in the morning, a fine, misty rain was falling, and the sky looked somewhat gloomy.

The children of Yangjiazhuang were already awake, getting ready for the early morning study session.

After stepping out of their homes, several kids called out to one another, and in no time, a group had gathered.

They walked up to the house of a companion who was still in bed and shouted inside:

"Tuanjie, get up and go to school!"

Hearing his classmate's call, Yang Tuanjie turned over, glanced at the window, and noticed that the sky looked rather strange.

"Why is it still so dark?"

"It's raining! Hurry up and get up, or we'll be late!"

"Oh, okay!"

Hearing his friend's explanation, Yang Tuanjie immediately scrambled off the kang, put on his underwear, pulled on a short-sleeved shirt, and rummaged through the room until he found a chemical fertilizer bag. He pushed one of the bottom corners inward to shape it into a small triangular cap and put it on his head, giving him the comical look of someone in traditional mourning attire, though fortunately, the fertilizer bag covered his slender frame quite well.

Opening the main room door and looking at the gentle, drizzling rain, he paused to think, then took off his cloth shoes, left them inside the house, and walked right out into the courtyard barefoot.

Together with his little companions, he headed toward the village primary school.

When they reached the classroom, many of the students had already arrived.

The village school offered a very limited curriculum, consisting only of Chinese and mathematics, and most of the daily morning self-study time was dedicated to Chinese.

Yang Liuzhi was both the school principal and the Chinese teacher. He usually oversaw the morning study sessions, and other teachers only came in when it was time for formal classes.

During self-study, the students mostly recited classical poetry and practiced phonetics and initials.

Looking at the puddles on the ground, Yang Liuzhi remarked with a sigh: "The crops were planted just at the right time this year. This rain will save us a lot of trouble!"

When Yang Chunsheng had gotten up in the middle of the night, he had heard the roar of thunder and a torrential downpour, which had only eased up by early morning.

As soon as dawn broke, he had run out to the fields to check if the corn plants had been flattened.

The six mu of land belonging to his family had been planted a bit early. After a month of growth, the corn had reached the height of his thighs. Battered by the fierce wind and heavy rain, there was a high chance a large section of the corn would be knocked down!

With this thought in mind, Yang Chunsheng hurried out to the fields to inspect the situation, terrified that too many cornstalks would be ruined.

He had spent the entire morning wandering through the fields, and the clothes on his back were thoroughly soaked.

Upon returning home, Wang Zhaodi quickly fetched a towel to dry her husband and handed him a bowl of ginger tea.

"Drink this bowl of tea to ward off the chill!"

Without a word, Yang Chunsheng took the bowl and drained it in one gulp.

Seeing this, Wang Zhaodi asked again:

"How are things in the field? Is much of it flattened?"

"A large area is down, but fortunately, not many stalks are broken!"

"That's not too bad. Once the weather clears up, we can go check which ones need to be propped back up, and replant where the stalks snapped!"

"We should go scatter fertilizer when the rain lets up a bit! We can't miss such a great opportunity! Xiaowu said intercropping beans wouldn't hurt the growth either, and that planting beans is equivalent to spreading urea. Who would have thought the corn would grow so fast, only for a heavy rain to flatten most of it?"

"It's fine. Since it hasn't tasseled yet, it will slowly grow straight on its own. As long as the stalks aren't broken, it's not a major problem!"

"It sure is nice to be educated!"

"Indeed!"

After exchanging a few words, the couple fell silent.

The family sat in a daze, watching the rain outside the window. After a long while, Wang Zhaodi asked again:

"Old man, has Xiaowu been at school for a full week now?"

"More than that, it's been ten days already. Donglai and I sent him off on the fifteenth of May, and today is already the twenty-five!"

"That means there are only twelve days left until the exams. Isn't the college entrance examination on the ninth day of the sixth month?"

"Right!"

"Then should we try to get Xiaowu a wristwatch? It'll help him keep track of the time during the exams. I heard him say before that he has to take three tests in a single day, and the schedule will be tight. Having a watch would make things much easier! This is the biggest event in Xiaowu's life; we mustn't skimp on this!"

Hearing this, Yang Chunsheng fell silent. He picked up his tobacco pipe from the table in a quiet motion, while Yang Xiaolan, standing nearby, picked up a box of matches to help her father light it.

Yang Chunsheng lit his pipe, took two puffs, and then said:

"Alas! It's not that I don't want to. Our family has some money now, but we don't have ration coupons! You know as well as I do that buying a watch requires both money and coupons, and even if we want to buy one, we can't find a place to get those coupons!"

"Then what can we do? Are we just going to sit here and watch Xiaowu..."

As she spoke, Wang Zhaodi's eyes turned red, and she stood up and walked back into the east room.

Watching his wife retreat into the room, Yang Chunsheng sat alone by the doorway, puffing on his pipe in silence and staring blankly at the rain outside. The heavy burdens of life had long since bent his shoulders.

Once again, the household fell into a heavy silence.

Seeing this, Yang Xiaolan quickly pulled her younger sister back into the west room.

As Yang Xingwen watched his parents, a bitter taste rose in his heart.

This society was far too harsh on farmers.

While it was true that grain coupons for coarse grains had been canceled, allowing farmers to buy coarse grain to survive during the lean spring months, for the rest of the time, they were like wild grass growing in the fields, swaying and bending with the wind, only showing their faces when it was time to deliver the public grain quota.

If the public grain quota fell short or the agricultural surcharge payments were delayed, even the children attending school would be driven away.

If it weren't for having a high school student in the family, they would have long since stopped paying those surcharges, but their household had truly been reduced to bare walls!

Now that the family finally had a little surplus wealth, they were faced with the impossible hurdle of lacking the necessary coupons. Since they were all farmers, where on earth were they supposed to acquire such things?

At that moment, Yang Xingwen wished more than anything that his younger brother would pass the university entrance exams. That way, their family would finally have someone to rely on, sparing them from having to bow and scrape, and allowing them to speak with their heads held high.

Faced with the harassment over public grain deliveries, if he could just shout, "There's a college student in our family!" they probably wouldn't even have to wait in line, and their grain grade wouldn't be arbitrarily lowered.

Thinking of this, a sudden wave of warmth stirred in Yang Xingwen's chest.

A sudden flash of inspiration struck him, and an idea came to mind.

Looking at his father, who was still smoking by the doorway, he quickly said:

"Dad, Teacher Yang at the village school has a watch. Why don't we go borrow it for a few days?"

"You mean Yang Liuzhi?"

"Right, he seems to have one. Even if he doesn't, he's the principal and a man of broad horizons. We can go ask him and let him give us some advice!"

After listening to his son's words, Yang Chunsheng pondered for a moment and felt it was a good suggestion—at least it was better than sitting at home brooding in frustration.

With that thought, Yang Chunsheng stood up, shook his right hand a few times to knock the ash out of his pipe, put the pipe away, and prepared to head out.

"Should I go ask him then? If that doesn't work, I'll go ask Jianguo. As the village head, he should have a way! We can't let anything delay your brother's exams!"

"Dad, wait a bit! It's still early. Let's go after we've had our midday meal!"

"That's true!"

With these words, Yang Chunsheng turned and walked into the east room to share his son's idea with his wife.

Hearing this, Wang Zhaodi's worries eased considerably, and seeing that it was still a bit early, she immediately called her daughter to help prepare lunch.

After the family finished eating and the rain finally stopped, Yang Chunsheng waited a little longer. Seeing that the time was about right, he finally got up and walked over to Yang Liuzhi's house.

"Uncle Liuzhi, Uncle Liuzhi, are you home?"

Hearing the call from outside the courtyard, Yang Liuzhi told his son to go and answer the door.

Seeing Yang Chunsheng walk in, he looked surprised.

"Ah, Chunsheng is here? What brings you over?"