Reincarnation in the 60s: My Spatial Supermarket Brings Forth Wealth-Chapter 234: Sacrifice and Gain

"Xiao Xue, sit down and eat with your younger siblings! Don’t be upset, child! Grandma knows you’re doing this for us, your grandparents know! In the future, if anyone dares to be so rude, Grandma will kick them out!" Li Xiuying hurriedly tried to persuade Lin Xue when she saw her leave the table and take her siblings with her.

"Grandma, I’m sorry, I couldn’t hold my temper, making it difficult for you and Grandpa. We had enough to eat at home, we’re not hungry, you should eat quickly!" Lin Xue couldn’t muster any anger towards her grandma.

A little old lady who can even be bullied by her daughter-in-law, a good mother who is wholeheartedly thinking of her daughter, what right does she have to yell at her? Filial piety is what matters.

Grandpa kept a stern face, watching his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren.

No descendants of the Wang Family could compare to the few children his daughter had.

But then he thought, aren’t his daughter’s children his grandchildren too? This thought comforted him somewhat.

Lin Xue finally managed to persuade Grandma to sit down and eat.

In the end, even the food left in their bowls was scraped away to be eaten.

Both aunts had their own plans, so in the presence of both families, neither mentioned any requests, finishing their meals hurriedly and went off to work.

Nowadays, work points are earned based on the amount of water carried, every minute counts.

Both families left, and unlike last time, neither daughter-in-law wanted to divide the things sent from their daughter’s home, which improved Li Xiuying’s mood considerably.

Lin Xue also took her siblings out at noon, because Grandma and Grandpa had to go to work. Staying home until evening and then leaving would require someone to deliver the key, so they decided to leave now.

The children didn’t ride bicycles; the five of them walked home, stopping and resting along the way.

In the hot midday sun, they walked and rested intermittently, taking over an hour to finally reach the village.

The first thing Lin Xue did upon returning was to visit Grandma’s house, and not long after, the brigade leader came to see them.

He seemed troubled, with his head down, lacking energy.

At about fifty years old, he appeared to be a little old man, compounded by not having enough to eat and worrying about the drought, he looked as if he’d aged several years.

"Brigade Leader Grandpa, you’ve come to see me, is there something you need?" Lin Xue picked a few fragrant melons, washed them, and brought them over, placing them in front of Wang Jianjun, then sat on the stiff wooden sofa chair beside him.

Though it was called a sofa, it wasn’t the comfortable padded kind, just hard wood.

But in this era, in such a small village, it was quite impressive.

"How was the journey to the Capital City? Did you see anything interesting?" Wang Jianjun didn’t pick up the fragrant melons to eat; in those days, everyone had to be careful with food, he felt embarrassed to take them.

"There were plenty of sights and experiences, the outside world is fascinating! The development in the Capital City is far ahead of our little village corner!" Lin Xue chatted away about her journey when the brigade leader asked.

Wang Jianjun listened intently, occasionally asking about things he didn’t understand.

When he heard that train meals didn’t require meal tickets, he even got the idea of buying a ticket during meal times just to get a free meal on board.

Lin Xue knew, back then, food was what excited people the most, so she chatted a bit about that topic.

"If it doesn’t rain soon, we’ll truly have no harvest at all! There will be no shortage of starvation!" Wang Jianjun sighed in despair during the conversation.

"Brigade Leader, actually, we can save some fields, and not face complete crop failure!" Lin Xue suddenly proposed, this was what she’d been wanting to discuss with the brigade leader.

"Girl, what do you mean by that?" Wang Jianjun had actually come over driven by an impulse to hear this girl’s advice, and hearing her say that, he excitedly stood up, not even noticing the melon that fell to the ground from the coffee table.

"Calm down, calm down! Brigade Leader Grandpa, sit down and listen to me explain!" Lin Xue quickly helped him sit down and spoke with a smile.

"Go on, go on, I’m alright, I’m alright!" Wang Jianjun quickly sat back down, eager to hear this girl’s suggestions.

Seeing the brigade leader like this, Lin Xue knew that he was doing this for the entire brigade, so that every household could receive grain come autumn and avoid starvation. She couldn’t keep it a secret, saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda.

"Brigade Leader Grandpa, have you ever heard of the phrase ’give and take’?" Lin Xue said mysteriously.

"Of course I’ve heard it, but what’s that got to do with our grain? You can’t give away your life for it!" Wang Jianjun said somewhat disappointedly.

"The principle of ’give and take’ means giving something up to gain something in return! Look, we have many people in our brigade, but many fields as well! Carrying water every day, but every field can only get so much water! If we give up some fields that are too far from the river, isn’t it true that the other fields would get more water? That way, we can water them sufficiently and yield some crops, so come autumn, we won’t face total failure!" Lin Xue explained to Wang Jianjun.

Wang Jianjun first felt confused, but then slowly figured out the reasoning, his eyes lit up as if seeing the dawn of a new world, his face full of excitement, even his beard trembled.

"Indeed! I’m glad I came! You say, such a simple logic, how did I not think of it? Just like that, we’ll have half a harvest, no need to fear starvation anymore, even watery rice won’t leave us starving! How did I not think of this?"

His excitement was loud enough to wake the two little ones sleeping in the inner room.

Lin Yun and her sister quickly put down what they were doing and ran inside.

The two brothers sat still listening, as their eldest sister explained the reasoning, feeling they had learned a lot. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Give and take! Good words! Good! Giving leads to gaining! Giving leads to gaining!" Wang Jianjun repeated endlessly.

"Brigade Leader! How is the ten acres of vegetables coming along?" Lin Xue saw the brigade leader getting increasingly excited, ready to implement this ’give and take,’ she quickly asked.

"The vegetables are fine, already supplied to the supply and marketing cooperative, and I’ve organized several people specifically to look after the vegetables, they haven’t succumbed to the drought yet!" Wang Jianjun replied comprehensively to Xiao Xue’s question, as if reporting to leadership at a commune meeting.

"It’s good to assign more people to tend to those ten acres of vegetables, they might become our brigade’s lifeline against starvation!" Lin Xue spoke mysteriously again.

Upon hearing this sentence, not only was the brigade leader stunned, but even the two brothers widened their eyes to listen attentively.

Without needing anyone to ask, Lin Xue continued to speak, "It’s like this, during my trip to the Capital, I learned a way to make pickles from various vegetables, they’re delicious! And the process is quite simple, we could give it a try, if successful we can make them with the vegetables not supplied, sell them to the grocery station, and exchange them for grain. This way, no one would starve!"