She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 885 - 810: Famine Era 51

But since then, every time that male colleague sees her, he’s nose out of joint and eyes glaring, always opposing her.

The guy works in proctology and spends his days gossiping with a group of women behind her back. Now it’s clear who he’s taking after.

Thankfully, everyone else is sensible enough and doesn’t think she’s done anything wrong.

But this indirectly highlights how hard it is to raise a child in this era. Although she has stored all the valuables in her space, taking the milk powder out little by little and rationing food for two or three days at a time, there are still people spreading rumors, saying it’s such a waste to give a child milk powder at a time like this.

Regarding such rumors, she only finds them bizarre. How can you criticize us for feeding milk powder to such a tiny baby while your family is breastfeeding? She decides not to listen to outside gossip, focusing only on her work and home, ignoring everyone else.

However, one noon, when she went to the canteen to get food, some people from the hospital inspection team suddenly approached her.

"Sorry, Comrade Ye Huan, we’ve received reports that there are issues with the source of your family’s milk powder. Please come with us for investigation."

Ye Huan: "...."

See, here come the people who can’t stand you succeeding, right?

Ye Huan hadn’t even started her meal before she was taken to the political office. They didn’t say much to her, heading straight to her home with a search warrant.

Ye Huan sat there expressionless, mocking to herself the prevalence of jealousy in this era. She also knew that feeding milk powder to an adopted child had drawn public ire, as so many were going hungry. In town, very few even managed to eat half their fill each meal.

Milk powder is so expensive; not only do you need milk powder tickets, but you also need money to buy it.

In times of material scarcity, milk, like other supplements, is extremely in short supply. When you can’t even afford grains, isn’t milk precious?

Back then, there were both canned and plastic-packed milk powders. She bought whatever she could. A little more of these milk powder tickets was procured by Tong Zhan through connections. She also bartered fruits for some of them. Of course, she didn’t miss out on asking around within her own unit either.

The reason for going through so much trouble back then was so that in situations like this, there would be some ground to argue with.

Five yuan could buy approximately 500 grams of milk powder (in a bag), while ten yuan could get 900 grams (a large iron can). In an era where the average salary was just twenty yuan, one child required about forty yuan worth of milk powder a month, using four milk powder tickets. No wonder people doubted the legitimacy of her milk powder source.

At this time, no one has pity or sympathy for a family that can’t have children. Most just watch with schadenfreude, pretty much wanting to see how on earth your family is getting their milk powder.

Eventually, these people found nothing questionable in her home. Everything was normal. Apart from the child’s items, she didn’t even have moisturizing cream for her face. And even if she did apply it, would she let them see it?

When eating fine white flour, she consumed it from the space. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The mixed flour given to the nannies was also bought after queuing at the grain store.

Oil, salt, and vinegar were purchased monthly with the ration book according to regulations. When going to the canteen, the meals were vegetable steamed buns and pickled veggies.

Since giving birth to twins, Ye Huan had lost weight. Especially after entering 1959, she weighed only eighty jin, standing at one meter sixty. To Ye Huan, that already felt bone-thin.

By right, she should have been cautious enough, but in terms of milk powder, it was inevitably exposed.

Though they didn’t find anything in the dorm, they came asking her about the origin of her monthly milk powder tickets.

She candidly replied, "Half were obtained through connections by my children’s father. The other half, I asked colleagues one by one through various connections. Oh, and my brothers helped out too. If you don’t believe me, feel free to inspect my family’s letters to see if I’m lying. My eldest son, Zhuangzhuang, also got by like this back then. What my family eats is visible to everyone. What my husband eats, you can ask over at the munitions factory. Didn’t all the expenses just go towards the children? How could they be illegitimate?"

Letters that others could see naturally contained no secrets. Indeed, Ye Huan did ask her brothers for help, and some milk powder tickets were sent back, but the proportion was minuscule. Most were exchanged by Tong Zhan and herself. Supposedly illegitimate, merely because some relationships were unclear.

So, when the political office asked her to account for everything line by line, she simply looked them in the eye with calm determination.

"Sorry, but I won’t be accounting for this to you. Firstly, I’ve done nothing wrong, harmed nobody’s interests, nor sought any benefit. I merely raised a child and incurred some debts of gratitude. Now, you want me to account for everything line by line from 1956? I don’t have the time, energy, or memory for that."

"Believe it if you will, otherwise, just fire me. My child is on milk powder, so what? Why must my child suffer the same as yours just because yours are having bran and vegetables? People took care of us, which is why we got milk powder tickets. Now, to clear my name, should I drag others down? Ha! That’s something I, Ye Huan, would never do. So, just get on with it, don’t waste words!"

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