BTSAMW 26

The old folks in the team have been trained to follow orders from their higher-ups for a long time.
Thus, even with jealous eyes, no one dared to snatch food.

Anyway, it was going to be distributed.
The captain said it would all be distributed.

Guo Changsheng led a group of people to dig the hole.
He took a few of the old and young to come down together to ensure nothing was moved.

Yup, all perfect.
They also found the mouse they had been looking for previously.
Su Aidang directly placed it in a bag.
He searched around and could not see the mouse’s nest.
They assumed that it was a lone mouse that survived from the pack that the villagers caught.

Expectations turned to disappointment.
In any case, there were grains.
They started loading the bag with grains.

Because it was left out for too long, the rice had a stale smell.
However, no one disliked it and instead felt that it smelled fragrant.

“It smells really good.” Guo Changsheng said happily.

The others were also happy.
Initially, when they were working, they were all feeling powerless.
Right now, they worked like they had endless strength.
Everyone was working with enthusiasm.

Everyone worked together, and soon, all the rice grains were packed into bags without a single grain left behind.

Soon it was weighed.
Excluding the weight of the bag, it was about 4,500 catties.

The others thought the mouse must have eaten some, making them highly distressed.

Anyway, the mouse was given to the old Su family since it was thanks to the old Su’s daughter’s dried sweet potatoes that the mouse was lured out, causing them to discover this place.
That’s why Guo Changsheng gave the mouse to the old Su family as a reward.

The people thought for the first time that even being lazy and eating good food actually had its merits…

This time, the grain was divided by 6:4.
For every six people, four portions of grain were given.

When the grain was distributed, everyone brought back the bags like it was the Spring Festival.

Guo Changsheng sent someone to bring the record book over.
After taking the grains, they had to sign or press their handprint, which indicates that they received their share of the grain.

On average, everyone on the team got several catties of grain.
As long as they had more people, then they would get more.
If they eat sparingly, they will not starve.

Cripple Su brought several children with a face full of tears and held onto the bag of grains, “My children’s mother, we now have something to eat ah.
Our children can finally eat something.
You don’t have to worry anymore.”

Then, he brought the children to Su Qinghe and asked them to kneel.
This made Su Qinghe startled.
She tried to stop them immediately.
Gao Xiulan also stopped them, “What are you doing ah? It isn’t as if my daughter sacrificed her life.
My daughter is still young, don’t let people kneel in front of her.”

“Uncle Cripple, what are you doing?” Su Qinghe said.

“Qinghe, Uncle thanks you.
None of these children would be alive if you didn’t lure out the mouse.
Uncle thanks you——”

Gao Xiulan was elated when she heard this, “That’s right, ah.
The dried sweet potatoes my daughter placed under her pillow because she was so reluctant to eat them… Which one of you would have had such delicious food? That big mouse was used to eating grain, so it did not care about ordinary things.
Only my daughter’s dried sweet potatoes were worthy of it.
If it weren’t for my daughter’s dried sweet potatoes, the mouse would have starved to death, and it would not have found the grains left behind by our ancestors.”

She said proudly as if spotting a mouse was a glorious thing.

Indeed, it was glorious.

Everyone looked at them eagerly.

What Qinghe’s mother said was right, ah.
If those two dried sweet potatoes weren’t there, they would not have lured out a mouse and would not know what to do until they starved to death.

Because the Old Su family was the one who found the mouse and the hole, in addition to their share of grain, they were given an extra five catties of grain.

This was very eye-catching.
Even if the youngest daughter of the Su family, she could still help people earn food.
She can attract big mice.

After the grain was distributed, everyone hurried home to cook something to eat.

Directly cooking husked rice is a waste.
They could peel it off and cook the skin first.
Some people hated the thought of eating rice and wanted to look around and see if people were willing to exchange it for some coarse grain.

The people in the village do not care about the distinction between coarse and fine grain.
As long as it is edible, they can eat them.

The sun had not set yet, and the cooking smoke in peoples’ homes had finally rekindled.

The Old Su family was currently gathering firewood for a meal.

This time, the Old Su family’s share of grain plus the additional reward amounted to about 50 catties.

Carrying back the heavy bags, everyone had a smile on their faces.

The children were looking forward to eating a mouthful of white rice.

Gao Xiulan was not so happy.
After gathering all the rice inside the house, she wanted to prepare white rice for her Qingmiao’er after shelling them.
How fragrant ah.

“Mom, I don’t want to eat that.” Su Qinghe said inside Gao Xiulan’s room, “It smells old.
I don’t know how long it has been since it was left there.
It’s not like my dad won’t give me any food.
I don’t want to eat this.
I don’t want to eat the mouse’s meat, either.
I want to eat the old hen’s meat.”

The old hen was so scared that it shrank into a ball.

Gao Xiulan pinched a few grains and gave it to the hen, “I’ll let you taste rice too.
Every time we harvested rice, we had to hand it in ah.
We can’t afford to eat it ourselves.”

She turned around and said, “Since you don’t want to eat rice, I’ll take it to exchange for coarse grain later.”

Su Qinghe was doubtful, “How much course grain could we exchange for such an old grain?”

“As much as we can.
Anyway, I can’t give it to them to eat.
It’s such a waste.
These are really good stuff.” Gao Xiulan looked like she was guarded against outsiders.
As if it wasn’t her old sons outside.

Su Qinghe said, “Mom, I think we should cook it into a meal for my brothers and everyone else.
Tell them that it’s thanks to me, their sister, that they can eat rice.
Let them remember it.
Otherwise, would they be able to remember my contributions?” She pouted unhappily.

Gao Xiulan thought for a while and felt that her daughter’s words were somewhat reasonable.
Those white-eyed wolves might forget this matter if they ate coarse grains.
“Then, let’s cook it for meals and eat it with meat.”

When Su Qinghe heard her talk about meat, her whole body ached.

“Mom, I was frightened by the mouse today.
I don’t want to cook anymore.”

“Oh, if you don’t want to do it, then don’t do it ah.
Take a good rest.
I don’t want to watch you work.
It hurts to see you struggling.
You already lost a lot of weight.” Gao Xiulan said painfully, “Drink some more soup later.”

Su Qinghe waved her hand, “Mom, I only like drinking old hen soup, nothing else.
Don’t give it to me, or I will be anxious.”

Gao Xiulan looked at her old hen distressedly, “Let’s wait.
Once it stops laying eggs, mom will stew it for you.”

The old hen squatted in the corner, protruding its butt.

With Gao Xiulan’s words, the three Su brothers hurried to thresh the grain.
Without the commune’s threshing machine, it was a hassle for them to do it manually.
However, for the sake of eating a good meal, no one felt troubled.

Since they did it manually, the threshing would not be as clean.
Sometimes, a layer of skin was left.
The husk would not be thrown away but would be left to turn into bran, which would be a life-saving food for them if they grow hungry.

The three Su brothers took the husks off while Ding Guihua and Lin Shuhong were preparing the meat in the kitchen.
It was half a catty of meat.

With the two sides’ combined effort, the meal was soon ready.

Su Qinghe wanted to use the stove especially, so she continued to sleep inside her room while waiting.

The food outside was all ready.
Gao Xiulan sat at the dinner table and pointed at her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren, “Before, they all disliked our Qingmiao’er for not working, but now they all know better.
Others, like Cripple Su, even brought their children to kneel before Qingmiao’er.
The outsiders know to remember her good deeds.
Make sure you guys remember, or you will be white-eyed wolves who are worse than outsiders and will be struck by lightning!”

The people shrank in fear and nodded hurriedly, “Mom, we remember.
We remember it clearly.”

Her grandchildren shouted, “Grandma, we remember that Auntie is good.
She’s very kind.”

Gao Xiulan nodded, “Well, it’s good that you know.
Let’s eat.”

After eating, it was still quite early.
Since everyone was still too excited to sleep, the three Su brothers chatted.
Usually, they go to bed early because they are hungry.
Today, they got to eat a meal, which made them particularly happy, so they could not sleep.
They went out to the square to walk around.
Who would have thought that there would be a cellar under the square? Now, the hole in the big locust tree was sealed.
It will be used as the team’s granary in the future.

When some people saw the three Su brothers, they asked Su Aidang, “How did your younger sister find the mouse? Tell us.”

There was not much entertainment these days.
When people encounter something new, they want to hear it a few more times.

Su Aidang immediately said, “Younger sister goes to bed to nap every day after lunch….”

Yo, going to bed after eating! That’s so enjoyable.

“She likes to eat dried sweet potatoes the most, so I gave her the dried sweet potatoes I got as a snack from when I was working with steel….”

Dried sweet potatoes as snacks, she can really eat! What a blessed person!

“When she went to take a nap today, she found a big mouse in her pillow and screamed in fright.
Since my brother and I were not afraid, we immediately ran after the mouse and caught up with it.”

Everyone listened in awe.

Su Aihua said, “So, it’s also thanks to my little sister who likes to eat dried sweet potatoes and takes a nap after eating.
Not a single one is to be left out.”

The crowd nodded.
Yes, yes, yes.
It’s also good to be lazy.
If no one was lazy, how would we have seen the mouse? Otherwise, the mouse wouldn’t have found sweet potatoes, and no one would have run into the mouse.

From this moment on, everyone felt that it was good that Su Qinghe liked to eat good food and was lazy! Only such a person would have the good fortune to eat dried sweet potatoes and would be able to attract such a big mouse.

That’s how people are.
Once something that was not pleasant to their eyes brings significant benefits to everyone, such as life–saving grain… then that would be infinitely beautified in their eyes… Then look at Su Qinghe’s white and plump appearance.
En.
She seems very blessed.

The next day, before working, Guo Changsheng called for another meeting.

It was about yesterday’s grain distribution.

“The grain has already been distributed, and I, Guo Changsheng, do not want to say anything else about it.
I will be watching if anyone wants to report or go out and say something.
I hope everyone can eat as thrifty as possible and wait for the relief grain.
Do not let the elderly and the children in the family starve.
This is our life-saving grain; let us protect it!”

Guo Changsheng has been worrying about the team starving for a long time.
Then suddenly, grain came out of nowhere, and everyone suddenly couldn’t wait to eat a full meal.
The relief grain would be arriving late, just like before.

Su Aidang said, “Who the hell would make us lose our food?! We shouldn’t tolerate such a black-hearted person in the future!”

Other people who had been starving also shouted, “Yes, whoever comes out to tell on us and let people take away our food, we will not be polite to them!”

Smack those with a loose mouth! Smack the unworthy descendants who betrayed their ancestors to death!”

The old ancestor Su Qinghe stood honestly beside Gao Xiulan and looked up at the sky.

She saw that the people nearby looked at her wrong.
They were all smiling as if she was a famous person.

Clearly, everyone looked at her with contempt before.

Even her second aunt Gao Xiuju said, “Qingmiao’er, ah.
Your mother didn’t misname you; it really suits you.
You should eat and sleep more.
If you lack dried sweet potatoes, ask your mother to come to your grandma’s house to get some.
Continue placing it under your pillow.”

Su Qinghe: “…Aunt, you can do that yourself.” She did not really want to attract rats.

Gao Xiuju replied, “It’s useless for me to do it.
I work during the day.
You’re the only one in our village who has the time to watch what you put away in our village.
You are so white and tender; maybe that’s why the rats are attracted to you.”

Su Qinghe could not tell if this was a compliment or an insult……

But looking at her mom, Gao Xiulan’s smug smile, she knew that her second aunt was really complimenting her.
However, the way she praised people was really unpleasant.
No wonder her mother said that grandmother likes her the most, while she dislikes her second aunt.
It’s better for you to stop complimenting people, Second Aunt.

The men who were swearing with great fanfare had already finished.
Anyway, the grains would be eaten by the entire team.
Whoever doesn’t want to see the team members survive must not want to live anymore.

Guo Changsheng did not say anything else.
As long as the team members could survive, he would be at ease.
It wasn’t like last time’s sleepless nights.

At this moment, he was very grateful to the three villages’ ancestors.
He was also thankful for the mouse and Su Qinghe, who caught the mouse in the act.

“This time, we all have something to eat because of Comrade Su Qinghe.
The team has decided to award Comrade Su Qinghe the title of Altruistic Hero.
We would not have grain without the dried sweet potatoes that Comrade Su Qinghe sacrificed.”

When Su Aidang heard this, he immediately clapped, “The captain said it well.
My younger sister likes to eat dried sweet potatoes the most!”

Su Aihua said, “Yes, our younger sister is always reluctant to eat it and secretly places it under her pillow to have a bite every day.”

Su Aiguo added, “It’s all gone because of the mouse!”

Su Qinghe: “…” How come her brothers know her better than she did?

“Comrade Su Qinghe, please come up to receive the certificate of honor and a towel.” Guo Changsheng spoke loudly.

Gao Xiulan pushed Su Qinghe.
She immediately breathed, then ran up.
She received her certificate and the towel from Guo Changsheng’s hands.

The three Su brothers led everyone by starting the applause, which everyone enthusiastically followed.

Gao Xiulan felt that her daughter was more promising than her sons.
This was the first certificate of honor that the Su family received.

Guo Changsheng asked Su Qinghe to say a few words for everyone.
Su Qinghe thought for a while and worried that someone might follow her example in the future, which would not be good.
“I think that this honor belongs to my whole family.
Without my family’s hard work and diligence, I would be unable to eat dried sweet potatoes.
Without my family’s heartfelt concern for my weak body, I would not be able to take naps, nor would I be able to find the mouse.
We are a harmonious family, and if the family lives in harmony, everything will prosper.
Everyone must work hard to earn sweet potatoes and live a good life in the future to attract big mice.
It’s the most honorable thing to work hard! Mom, big brother, second brother, third brother, eldest sister-in-law, second sister-in-law, Da Ya, Dabao, Er Ya, Erbao, and San Ya are all honorable!”

“Well said, well said! Diligence attracted the mice!” Guo Changsheng immediately applauded.
Previously, he had a headache, thinking that people might learn from Su Qinghe and be lazy in the future.
This was very good.
If they wanted to learn from Comrade Su Qinghe, they must have a family like the old Su family, who almost had no bottom line.

The others applauded enthusiastically.

The old Su family was moved to tears.
Su Qinghe did not mention anything about her contributions to the family, and she even spoke for their honor! Their younger sister was so kind to them!

Gao Xiulan wiped her tears and said, “Our Qingmiao’er is the most sincere.”