She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 857 - 796: Famine Era 37 (Second Update)

After waking up, she immediately sent a letter home, mainly to report her safety.

During this trip home, she mentioned to her father about stockpiling food, because the years from 1959 to 1961 were another three years of famine. However, she couldn’t say it explicitly, she merely suggested to dry more goods each year that could be preserved long-term, just in case.

Meanwhile, Ye Huan also began to stockpile food, exchanging the fruits from the space for as much grain as possible to store.

An individual’s power is limited, but if one can help others at a critical moment, it’s considered a great merit.

As for their tofu business, it should completely end by 1959; even if they survive the famine years, it can no longer continue.

Entering the year 1954, Ye Huan’s work also became increasingly busy. Because of work issues, the couple could see each other at most once a month or at least once every half month, but mostly, after spending two days at the army for a short break, they would have to return to work.

In April of this year, Grandma woke up in the morning, felt a dizzy spell, and never woke up again.

Upon receiving the call, Ye Huan hurried home; Tong Zhan was on a mission and couldn’t return. After completing Grandma’s funeral, Grandpa also fell ill.

Ye Huan conducted an initial examination on the elderly man, finding no major issues, likely just excessive sorrow. For safety’s sake, he was sent to the hospital, and only after confirming no problems through tests, was he discharged and brought back home. Since then, the family paid even more attention to the elderly’s condition, arranging for someone to accompany them each night.

Ye Huan stayed home for five days before rushing back to work. Because of her frontline experience and excellent performance during internships in various departments, the hospital decided through a vote to reduce her three-year internship to two years, which was a boon for her.

However, because she had already taken too much time off for marriage and bereavement leave, she had no vacation left for this year.

Over on Tong Zhan’s side, he often had missions, and although he was a brigade commander, at 33, it was rare for one so young, so the burden on his shoulders was heavier. Sometimes for particularly dangerous missions, he had to go himself. Being a soldier was tough, but being a military wife was even tougher, and since Ye Huan was both, she had to endure more.

Fortunately, even though there were people in her department who were calculative or envious, the basic moral principles and boundaries remained, and being a soldier created a relatively comfortable working environment for her.

In her spare time from work, she was either soaking up more professional knowledge at the unit’s library or going out to exchange for grain.

Generally, saving up ten days to half a month’s worth of fruits could be exchanged for fifty to sixty jin of grain, and if there were more mixed grains, even more.

Meat and eggs were always rare commodities in this era; having money didn’t mean you could buy them. Occasionally, she was lucky enough to stockpile two or three dozen eggs, which she considered fortunate. As for meat, it was impossible to even think about.

Upon reflection, she realized she hadn’t eaten dumplings in a long time.

The unit cafeteria’s dishes were primarily seasonal; upon returning to the unit after the year, they ate blooming cabbage and chaff radishes. In March and April, even edible wild vegetables were considered good because it was the lean season. Pickled vegetable cornmeal bread was nearly a daily meal, and only in May and June could they have green vegetables, eggplants, chilies, tomatoes, green beans, and other vegetables.

Since she missed out on pickling vegetables last year, as soon as the green beans came down this year, she bought a jar to pickle pickled green beans in the space.

When tomatoes came down, the exchanged tomatoes from fruits were made into tomato sauce.

Additionally, the soybeans she exchanged were made into soybeans, and using materials like watermelons, mushrooms, and chilies from the space, she sun-dried Watermelon Sauce, Chili Bean Sauce, and Chili Sauce in the hospital dormitory yard.

If the cafeteria’s meals didn’t suit her taste, she’d spread some homemade sauce on a steamed bun, which added a unique flavor.

She bought many glass bottles to store these sauces, and if colleagues found them delicious, she’d give them a little to taste. However, if they wanted more, it wouldn’t be possible unless they paid or exchanged goods for them.

Occasionally, when craving hot pot, she would use Chili Sauce, sesame sauce, and fried spice oil to make do because she couldn’t buy beef tallow or pig lard, so she had to substitute it with vegetable oil. The vegetable oil was produced from sesame, peanuts, and rapeseeds she grew in the space, and she paid others to press it at oil stations.

Although a hot pot lacking lamb or beef lost its soul, with tofu, tofu skin, tofu sticks, mushrooms, potatoes, meatballs, and vegetables as ingredients, and with potato noodles, sweet potato noodles, and rice noodles as accompaniments, the resulting flavor was satisfying enough to get by.

In the rural areas, there were lots of toona sinensis trees and locust trees, and every household would climb up to pick them when seasonal. But in the city, you couldn’t even buy them if you wanted to.

Ye Huan loved eating these two items but couldn’t find any. Fortunately, when her space reached Level 18, she was eligible to purchase seeds for these two plants.

She kept a close eye on them during sprouting or flowering. The locust tree didn’t matter much; when it blossomed, plucking a bit allowed it to continue growing. However, as soon as the toona sinensis tree sprouted a bud an inch long, she’d pluck it off. Therefore, the tree meant to mature in 25 hours took seventy to eighty hours due to her actions.

She didn’t know how many times she plucked them before realizing that the leaves of a mature toona sinensis tree were also very tender, and afterwards, she no longer plucked indiscriminately but waited for it to mature before accumulating them.

Since only the leaves were used, the remaining trunk could also be sold, albeit at a reduced coin value. But that was fine, considering the most valuable parts of the toona sinensis and locust trees were their leaves and flowers; the other parts served no immediate purpose for her.