Chapter 21: Truly Irresistible

At that moment, many eyes turned toward Xiao Tieniu, making his face flush green, then purple, then white in quick succession. It was unclear whether he was furious at having such a foolish son or simply overwhelmed by the intensity of everyone’s gaze.

They arrived at Xiao Pingxi’s home, then visited several other households in turn. At last, Xiao Gonglin addressed everyone: “Thank you all for your cooperation. Now, I announce that starting tomorrow morning, everyone is to eat at the communal canteen, and you may eat your fill. For breakfast tomorrow, there will be fried dough sticks, fried cakes, red bean porridge, and cabbage stewed with vermicelli. Be sure not to miss it!”

The commune members, after a day of marveling at all that was new, went home one by one, each filled with anticipation for the canteen’s opening. Indeed, from this day forward, they were no longer called villagers, but commune members—a title that would last straight through the 1980s.

The next day, the brigade set up the communal canteen. With little time to prepare, they simply built stoves in the open on the threshing ground, where they cooked, served, and ate meals. Everything Xiao Gonglin had promised was there, and everyone truly could eat their fill—but only after finishing what was on their plate before queuing for more.

Xiao Weiguo led his siblings and ate for a full hour, only leaving for home when each of them, clutching their stomachs, could manage no more. Xiao Weiguo alone polished off four arm-length fried dough sticks, two fried cakes, two bowls of red bean soup, and a heaping plate of vegetables.

“This is what life should be!” Xiao Weiguo sighed contentedly.

“Big brother, the canteen is amazing! I heard lunch will be rice with braised pork. I can’t wait—I’m going to stake out a spot at the canteen,” Xiao Weijun chimed in. “Let’s all go together!”

Xiao Weiguo watched them dash eagerly toward the threshing ground, a flicker of worry in his eyes.

As he passed the newly established brigade committee office, he saw a group of women twisting hemp rope and weaving wicker baskets in preparation for the autumn harvest.

Every face was alight with happiness. Truly, people are easily satisfied—so long as they have enough to eat.

And so, Xiao Weiguo enjoyed a week of hearty meals at the village canteen, gorging daily on meat and fish, until he began to crave nothing more than some plain boiled spinach to cleanse his system. He’d grown considerably stronger, too.

With autumn harvest preparations underway, the meals changed: each member now received two steamed buns, a bowl of porridge, and a plate of vegetables per meal. The porridge was now made from corn, and the vegetables were things like beans, cabbage, or radish. Once autumn arrived, there would be another period of feasting—but daily meat and fish was unsustainable for any household.

During this time, Xiao Weiguo did go out to work, though there were many other things to manage: forming production teams, assigning responsibility fields to each team, distributing members, and so on. He hardly did any real field work, managing to coast through the week.

After a week, however, everything returned to normal.

Xiao Weiguo was assigned to the third production team. Because of his age, he only earned six work points per day. For adult men, the standard was ten points; for underage boys or women, five or six—the so-called “women’s points.” Yes, Xiao Weiguo was now earning women’s work points.

Each morning, the team leader would assign tasks, and all that was required was to carry them out.

Dragging his weary body home, Xiao Weiguo felt utterly spent. Though he had been idling much of the week, a day spent under the blazing sun in the fields was still more than he could bear. His longing to escape rural life grew ever stronger.

After a simple meal at the canteen, Xiao Weiguo returned home and collapsed onto his bed, on the verge of sleep. Before drifting off, he decided to enter his space for a closer look—he’d barely had time to check in all week due to work.

Once inside, he found that the wheat, corn, rice, and sweet potatoes were all ripe, the vegetables had already produced several harvests, and he’d gathered them multiple times before. The chicks and rabbits he was raising had grown; a hen and a rooster now wandered about, the hen nearly ready to lay eggs. The rabbits, too, had grown into the likeness of two full-grown adults.

Soon, they would enter their breeding cycles, and before long, he could feast freely on chicken and rabbit meat. Just thinking about it made his mouth water—braised chicken, spicy rabbit heads, chicken stew, braised rabbit—he could almost taste them.

One week earlier, he had conducted an experiment to prevent spoilage, which had been a total success—the piece of pork he’d used hadn’t changed at all. With the canteen now established, he’d stored all the meat and supplies he’d bought and hadn’t touched them.

Now, Xiao Weiguo used his thoughts to harvest all the grain, threshing and drying it with a single command—nothing could be more convenient. The straw and byproducts, he turned to powder with a thought and spread evenly over the fields.

He dug several pits in the ground, storing each type of grain in a separate pit. No matter what era he landed in, he’d have nothing to fear.

Then, he planted every empty patch of land anew; he couldn’t bear to leave the fields fallow.

If only he could find a pig, it would all be perfect.