Chapter 321: Grain Stored in the Cellar

The children were happily lining up, waiting for the women to measure their heights.

This made the younger children, who weren’t yet old enough for school, very envious. Every time they saw their older brothers and sisters receiving new clothes at school, they wished they could grow up quickly and go to school too.

Now, many rural families thought that studying too much was useless. Education wasn’t like in later years when there was compulsory education and all you had to do was pay a small fee. Though studying up to a vocational school or university would guarantee a job, not many could even pass the entrance exams. It was already very difficult to get into a vocational school, and getting into a university was even harder.

In those days, getting into a university was a matter of great pride for the family.

Watching the children with smiles on their faces, Zhou Yimin felt a great sense of joy. He then found the village head and was preparing to bring over the ten thousand pounds of coarse grains that had been bought for the village, but it would have to wait until the evening.

“Village head, after those outsiders leave tonight, I’ll have someone bring the grains in. Get more people to help, and let’s get the grain moved into the cellar as soon as possible,” Zhou Yimin said directly.

Hearing this, the village head smiled with satisfaction. “Good, I’ll call most of the villagers to help.”

They needed to store the grain as quickly as possible, so they could be at ease.

They were still scared after last year’s scare.

Having food meant they wouldn’t panic. Apart from people eating it, they were also raising chickens and other animals. Though not all of it was fed grain, some amount was still needed.

So, if there wasn’t enough food, the villagers would feel uncertain.

The grain reserved for the autumn harvest this year definitely wouldn’t be enough. They had planted some autumn corn on the riverbed, and it would be ready for harvest in about a month.

By then, they would have one or two thousand pounds of grain for storage. If it were just for the people, they could last until next year’s harvest without any problem.

The village head began arranging for someone to check the cellar they had dug earlier. If everything was fine, they would store the grain there tonight.

They found Zhou Xucai and three others—four people in total.

The four of them went to check the cellar that had been dug earlier. The first thing they needed to check was the ventilation.

Before using the cellar, it had to be ventilated to ensure there was enough oxygen inside to prevent suffocation from lack of oxygen. A lit candle or oil lamp could be used to check the oxygen levels. If the candle or lamp didn’t go out after thirty minutes, it meant there was enough oxygen to breathe.

Before entering the cellar, there needed to be someone standing guard, and a rope should be tied to the people entering the cellar for safety. If they felt dizzy, lightheaded, anxious, or had difficulty breathing, they should signal the people above to pull them out immediately.

Once the cellar was used, the door should be shut promptly to prevent anyone from accidentally entering.

Previously, a child had been tricked into entering the cellar. If the door was shut from the outside, it couldn’t be opened from the inside unless someone on the outside opened it. Otherwise, the person inside would be trapped.

After a thorough inspection, Zhou Xucai and the others confirmed that there was no issue with the cellar.

“Village head, the cellar is fine,” Zhou Xucai reported.

The village head nodded in acknowledgment and moved on to other tasks.

With the new year approaching, there were still many things to do in the village. Fortunately, the reservoir was almost finished. It was expected that in a few days, the power generator would be installed next to the dam.

Once that was done, Zhou Jia Village would have electricity, and since the village had funded the project on its own, there would be no electricity bills. This was another good piece of news.

It was said that in the cities, electricity bills were based on the number of bulbs a household used. A 15-watt bulb cost 0.15 yuan per month, and a 25-watt bulb cost 0.25 yuan. The workers would simply count the bulbs to determine the charge.

This showed that ordinary households didn’t have many electrical appliances, mostly just a lightbulb.

It wasn’t like in later years where you paid for the number of kilowatt-hours consumed.

Soon, it was evening, and after dinner, the villagers of Zhou Jia Village waited for the people from Shuangtian Village to leave before starting their work.

Though Zhou Jia Village was a tight-knit community, there were still outsiders, so they had to be cautious.

Around seven in the evening, Zhou Yimin found the village head. “We can start moving the grain now.”

“Good, I’ll organize the people right away,” the village head responded immediately.

The villagers of Zhou Jia Village received the village head’s notice. Except for the elderly and children, nearly everyone in the village participated.

This was about everyone’s food, so they couldn’t afford to be careless.

In fact, they didn’t even need Zhou Yimin to notify them; they had already seen the truck coming into the village.

When they saw the truck full of grain, everyone was excited. With this much grain, they wouldn’t have to worry about going hungry next year.

Though they were exhausted from a full day of work, seeing all that grain, their spirits lifted, and they could keep moving without rest to unload it.

“If I had all this grain, I wouldn’t ever worry about food in my life,” Zhou Xucai remarked wistfully.

Someone else responded, “You’re dreaming. This is the village’s grain, not just yours.”

The others started chatting excitedly, and the village head quickly interrupted. “Stop talking and get to work.”

“Captain, you stay here with the village’s security team to guard the grain. We can’t afford any mishaps,” the village head added.

The captain immediately assured him, “Don’t worry, village head. No one will dare tamper with this grain.”

With the captain’s reassurance, the village head felt at ease and led the villagers to move the grain into the cellar.

There was so much grain that it couldn’t all be moved in one go. It would take several trips.

The main issue was that the cellar wasn’t near the road, so the truck couldn’t get to it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been such a hassle.

Zhou Yimin had suggested extending the road to reach the cellar, but it would require using some farmland, and the villagers weren’t willing to do that.

Farmers treated their land as precious, and they couldn’t bear to waste any of it, even if the land didn’t belong to them personally.

After more than half an hour of hard work, the village head and the others finally managed to store the grain in the cellar.

Luckily, nothing went wrong during the process.

The village head, seeing how hard the villagers had worked, said, “Everyone, you’ve worked hard. Tomorrow, the village canteen will give you extra food.”

The villagers were thrilled to hear about the extra meal. The extras usually meant meat.

Previously, the village had stored a few hundred pounds of pork, most of which was made into bacon, but the villagers could still enjoy meat from time to time.

Such meals were even better than those of ordinary workers in the city. An ordinary worker in a city like Beijing might only get meat once a month, so Zhou Jia Village’s meals were considered excellent.

Compared to other villages, Zhou Jia Village was truly a paradise.

(End of Chapter)