Entering Dongfeng Farm, Zhou Yang and Li Youwei were stunned by the desolate scene in front of them.
All I can see are sparse crops. Most of the fields are planted with corns and potatoes, but now the leaves of the corn seedlings have been rolled up, while the potato seedlings are lying softly on the ground, wilted. Wiggly.
And from the perspective of Zhou Yang, an educated youth who has been in the queue for five or six years, the crops grown are not standardized enough. First of all, the land is not leveled well and is uneven.
Secondly, it is not possible to cultivate the land, it is too shallow.
The roots of crops grown in such land are not developed enough. If there is sufficient rain, it will be better. They can barely survive, but the yield will not be very good.
Once there is a drought and no rain, the crops grown in such fields are most likely to wither.
It was almost 1.5 kilometers from the management office to the shack in the distance, and the sight along the way was heart-wrenching.
Especially when he passed a few large bare elm trees, Zhou Yang couldn't help but feel a sudden jolt in his heart.
After a while, the two little soldiers sent Zhou Yang to the place.
Looking at the several low shacks in front of him, which were shaky and about to collapse, Zhou Yang suddenly felt a surge of sadness in his heart.
He had always known that his parents' living conditions here were not very good, but he did not expect that it would be so bad.
A house like this cannot protect against mosquitoes in summer and severe cold in winter. To put it bluntly, it is not even as good as the livestock shed in Babaoliang Village.
But here, all you see are these shacks, not even a decent adobe house. It’s really hard to imagine how my parents have survived in the past few years.
The same goes for Li Youwei. Although she was born in a rural area, Babaoliang Village is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the conditions are actually pretty good. At least in the past ten years, no one has starved to death.
And no matter whether the food at home is good or not, everyone at least has one or two adobe houses to protect them from the wind and rain.
However, looking at the places where her parents-in-law lived, she couldn't help but shed tears.
She really couldn't imagine that the intellectual's parents-in-law lived in a place like this.
Even so, they still sent them the ten yuan they finally saved, and Li Youwei was really touched.
After sending the people to the place, one of the young soldiers pointed to the shack in front of him and said: "Comrade, this is where Professor Zhou lives. The door is unlocked. You can go in!"
"Thanks!"
Seeing that the two soldiers were about to leave, Zhou Yang immediately asked them to wait, then took out two marijuana flowers from his bag and stuffed them into their hands to express his gratitude.
The young soldiers wanted to refuse, but Zhou Yang forced them to accept it.
He could also see that everyone in this place was suffering, but he didn't notice that each of these soldiers had a look of shame on their faces, and they also walked a little sluggishly, which was obviously the result of long-term malnutrition.
Although he couldn't help many people, these two soldiers helped them deliver things all the way. They had to thank them no matter what. This was the most basic courtesy.
Holding Mahua in their hands, the two warriors were quite moved.
Before leaving, the higher-ranking soldier hesitated for a few seconds, and then said: "Comrade Zhou Yang, hide these things you brought as soon as possible. Don't take them out during dinner in the evening. Give them to Professor Zhou in private." They just need to replenish their bodies!”
Before Zhou Yang could speak, Li Youwei asked in confusion: "Why!"
The little warrior didn't speak, but was about to turn around and leave.
Zhou Yang naturally knew what he meant, and immediately asked: "Comrade, has the situation on the farm deteriorated to this point?"
The little warrior nodded and said, "In the past few years, we could barely survive. Although we need wild vegetables and grass roots for at least half of the year, we are not without any food."
"But this year's harvest is about to end, and everyone is panicking. Look at the trees in the village. All their leaves have been stripped!"
Looking in the direction of the little soldier's finger, he found that most of the trees had no leaves.
Only a small amount of the tops of the towering trees that are more than ten meters high are left. Obviously, most people cannot climb to this height.
Li Youwei finally understood what the little soldier just said. In such an environment, everyone was so hungry that they wanted to eat leaves to satisfy their hunger, but their family brought so much delicious food. Isn’t this surprising? Are you jealous?
Besides, with so many things being seen, it is inevitable that no one will ask to borrow them.
When the time comes, should my parents-in-law borrow it or not?
If you want to borrow it, everyone will want to borrow it. What they have is simply not enough. If you don’t borrow it, you will offend others.
So, it’s better not to let people see it!
After seeing off the two soldiers, Zhou Yang immediately pushed open the fence door of the shack where his parents lived.
The so-called fence gate actually refers to a gate that has no wooden boards and is made entirely of wrist-thick wood.
No wonder my parents didn't even lock the door. A door like this would fall apart with just a little force. It doesn't really make any difference whether it's locked or not.
After Zhou Yang walked into the shack and walked around, he immediately understood that there was another reason for not locking the door, and that was that there was really nothing in the house worth coveting.
Apart from a tattered quilt, the most valuable thing in the small shack was probably the broken vat half filled with clean water.
Other than that, there were only a few bulging snakeskin bags left in the shack.
When Zhou Yang opened one of them, he found that it was filled with leaves.
From the conversation with the two soldiers just now, I learned that these leaves are obviously not used to feed livestock, but are rations prepared by parents for themselves.
Once food production ceases, these leaves will become their only hope for survival.
Zhou Yang always felt that he was already having a hard time in the Babao Liang Brigade, especially in the first year, when he could only eat two meals a day, and each meal only had two small black-faced steamed buns and clear water porridge.
At that time, he was growing tall, and he always felt hungry and miserable.
But compared with my parents, how miserable is it for me?
Moreover, since I got married to Li Youwei, my life has not been so hard. In total, I have only endured less than a year of hard life.
But think about my parents, they have been here for six or seven years, and if nothing else happens, they will stay here for another two years.
Thinking of this, Zhou Yang couldn't help crying.
But he held it back in the end. He knew that the most indispensable thing in such an environment was tears, and tears could not solve any problems.
Later, Zhou Yang asked Li Youwei to take out the eggs, pancakes, and pickles prepared by his mother-in-law, and give Bao'er some stomach fill.
And he himself moved all the things outside into the house and hid them to avoid being discovered.
After doing this, it was almost half past six.
Zhou Yang was thinking about cooking something for his parents while there was no one around, but he still couldn't find the stove.
Just when he was in trouble, Zhou Yang keenly heard a sound coming from a distance.
When I went out and took a look, I found a group of figures suddenly appeared on the mountain ridge on the right...
