Chapter 51 Sneaking into the Lecture

On the morning of the dividend distribution day, the members gathered early at the team headquarters, eyes fixed on the annual income and expenditure announcement posted on the wall. The sharp clacking of abacuses filled the air as the team leader, accountant, and labor recorders busied themselves. Everyone waited eagerly, hoping to learn their family’s dividend results as soon as possible.

The Caiyun family of four received a total of 1,045 jin of rice and miscellaneous grains, equivalent to 99.82 yuan in grain value. They earned 2,665 work points, with each point valued at 0.009 yuan, resulting in 23.99 yuan in work-point dividends. However, they overspent by 75.83 yuan, making them the largest debtor family in the entire team.

Because the "responsibility field" system was only abolished in July, this dividend distribution did not reflect the full year’s results.

Despite this, one family surprisingly received over two hundred yuan in cash. As they counted the thick stack of notes handed over by the accountant, smiles stretched across their faces, unable to contain their joy. However, upon seeing a twenty-yuan promissory note, their mood soured. The accountant quickly explained that the amount would be reimbursed as soon as the overspending households settled their debts.

Caiyun was the team’s largest overspending household. The 32.55 yuan she should have received in work-point dividends was forcibly deducted by Wang Hongbing from Caiyun’s overspending debt. This infuriated Qingying, whose lips curled so high they almost touched her nostrils. She knew their two pigs were gone, and with the deduction from her dividend, they still owed the team over forty yuan. Where would she find such money? Yet there was no solution but to grumble quietly. Caiyun furrowed her brows deeply, listening silently to Qingying’s complaints, unable to respond. Truly, one family’s joy was another’s sorrow.

After the dividend distribution, a few household heads who had not fully paid their overspending debts were detained for a separate meeting to discuss solutions. The team committee set a one-month deadline to settle all arrears.

The following day coincided with the village market day. Caiyun sold vegetables from their private plot, a few chickens, salted fish, and some grain, managing to gather over thirty yuan. She handed it over to the production team but still owed ten yuan.

The Spring Festival of 1965 was fast approaching, and every household busied themselves preparing for the New Year. Caiyun bought only a few sheets of red paper for Spring Festival couplets and a string of firecrackers. Fortunately, on the eve of the festival, Fafu quietly brought back two jin of pork, two fish, and some tofu and dried bean curd sheets. Caiyun prepared six dishes for the reunion dinner, both meat and vegetables, making for a modestly abundant meal.

Yuqiang and Yujun ate happily, laughing and chatting. Only Yulan kept her head down, her face solemn and silent. Caiyun, puzzled by her daughter’s mood, offered her a piece of braised pork. Without raising her head, Yulan put the meat back on the plate and ate only cabbage and carrots.

“Yulan, with so many delicious foods, why do you only eat vegetables?” Caiyun asked, watching her closely.

Yulan frowned deeply and said coldly, “The good food is for my brother and little brother. I’m a girl, useless, so I should just eat vegetables.”

“Yulan, when we had the responsibility fields, you contributed a lot to the family. After they were abolished, you still earned work points, received grain, and reduced our overspending. You’ve contributed just as much. Your mother is a woman too, and our family’s work points have all been earned by the two of us. How can you say girls are useless?”

“But our clothes are the most ragged,” Yulan muttered, pouting with furrowed brows.

“New Year is about clearing debts, but this year we overspent so much, and even after trying hard, we couldn’t settle all the debts. We still owe ten yuan. There’s no way around it; we have to carry this debt into the New Year. I promised to make you a new cotton-padded jacket, but I can’t keep that promise right now. I have to make you suffer this once. But I’ll remember my promise. As long as we work hard, life will get better. I will not only make you new clothes but also make sure you can eat rice every day!”

Yulan looked up at her mother, eyes bright. “Really?”

“Really!”

Yulan smiled and eagerly took two pieces of meat, eating heartily.

Caiyun sighed in relief, thinking, “She’s so grown up, but still just a child.”

***

By the summer of 1965, Yulan still had no cotton-padded coat, and not even a single-layer shirt fit her anymore; it was torn, thin, and short. Caiyun had no choice but to patch the clothes with scraps, making do for the time being. Yulan was very upset.

Early on the morning of September 1, 1965, Yuqiang happily packed a few books into a bag made of braided straw ropes and went off to school. Seeing this, Yujun turned to his mother with a request, “Mom, I want to go to school too!”

“Didn’t I tell you? Your brother will graduate from junior high in July next year. You can start school in September then. For now, you need to tend the cattle for another year and earn some work points for the family.”

“But my brother is so big. Why doesn’t he earn work points for the family?”

“You should learn from your sister. She didn’t go to school and never complained. She does the most work but wears the worst clothes.”

After breakfast, Caiyun saw Yujun go to tend the cattle with a sullen face and felt heavy-hearted. It was a good thing that the child wanted to study, but the reality could not fulfill his wish.

Last year’s year-end dividends had already overspent by more than ninety yuan, and now the debt exceeded a hundred yuan. When would they be able to repay it all?

The promise to make Yulan new clothes had yet to be fulfilled. This year’s year-end dividends would surely overspend again. The family’s table and a few benches had already been evaluated at eight yuan by Wang Hongbing and moved to the team headquarters to offset the debt. He even threatened that if the debt wasn’t repaid soon, grain would be withheld. If that happened, life would become unbearable.

Since the abolition of the responsibility fields, Caiyun had gone without grain for more than a month during the lean seasons for two consecutive years, relying only on vegetables and wild greens to fill their bellies. If the team deducted grain again, they would return to those harsh times. She dared not think further down that road.

Hearing the school bell ring, Yujun tied the cattle to a willow tree by the west pond and ran to listen outside the window of the lower-grade classroom. The teacher discovered him and chased him away.

Undeterred, he hid under the window to eavesdrop. When the teacher lectured, Yujun used the ground as his paper and a small stick as a pen, beginning his unique student life.

During Chinese lessons, he could only hear the pronunciation of words but did not know how to write them. He would occasionally crouch and peek inside.

Once, while intently practicing the strokes of new characters under the window, he suddenly exclaimed, “Ouch!” and stood up, touching his head. The teacher stood before him, holding a small stick and tapping his head twice more, then grabbing his ear and dragging him into the classroom. “Whose child are you? Why do you keep causing trouble?”

“Teacher, he is Yuqiang’s younger brother, named Yujun,” three class leaders reported.

“I’m not causing trouble. I’m listening to the lesson,” Yujun defended himself.

“Teacher Cao, this is Caiyun’s youngest son. The family is poor and can’t afford school. He just wants to listen outside,” Teacher Yang interceded.

“There are many poor children. If they all come to listen, won’t it disrupt the class?”

“You’re exaggerating. He’s the first in years. Please consider his special situation.”

“That won’t do. It disrupts my teaching.”

Teacher Yang took Yujun outside. “You sneak in to listen to classes. Does your mother know?”

“No.”

“Why don’t you just tend the cattle properly instead of coming here?”

“I find learning interesting. I’m very happy when I learn a new word or solve a math problem!”

“I’ll tell you, next time you can listen outside the north window of the classroom. It has no door. If Teacher Cao sees you, you can see him coming and run away in time.”

Yujun nodded.

Every afternoon after school, Yuqiang would go to North River Bend to catch fish. He could hold his breath underwater for a long time, and whenever he touched a fish, he caught it most times.

By the river, he would strip a willow branch of its bark, stroke it downward to the tip, tie a knot, and use it as a fish stringer by threading the skinned branch through the fish gills. Then he would carry it home to improve their meals.

One day in late September, Caiyun noticed Wang Hongbing writing many slogans on the team headquarters and village walls. Looking at them, she suspected they were related to the “Four Cleans” movement.

She remembered that early last year, the entire team had gathered for a meeting to study the “Ten Precepts” and “Ten Postulates” documents of the “Four Cleans” movement. She had listened for a long time without fully understanding the content because she wasn’t interested; her main concern was how to improve production and solve their food and clothing problems quickly.

The “Four Cleans” movement had been discussed for over two years. Other counties had already fully implemented it, but here, there had been no sign of activity. Caiyun thought the movement might have passed over. Wang Hongbing’s recent actions made her realize that the “Four Cleans” movement was about to arrive.

Only then did she understand that the “Four Cleans” movement was a socialist education campaign launched nationwide in urban and rural areas, also called the urban-rural social education movement.

Caiyun and Fafu decided that the grain cellar they had secretly dug beside the ancestral grave was dangerous. If discovered, it would cause serious trouble. So, over several nights, they quietly filled in the cellar.

Sure enough, within days, a three-person advance team from the county’s “Four Cleans” work group arrived at Wangjiayu Team. Several team leaders had already gathered early at the team headquarters. Wang Hongbing busily led the work group members on visits to each household to understand their situations.