nycdaug Chapter 375: Bitter Rice
Chapter 375: Bitter Rice
The production team leader saw that Nini and her friends were not eating but were chatting together, so he asked loudly, "What are you city kids mumbling about?
You guys keep shouting about revolution, arresting this and punishing that, can't you even eat this small bowl of bitter rice?"
Jiang Huan, one of Nini's female classmates, came from a well-off family and had never suffered hardship since childhood. Even during the three difficult years, her parents managed to get a lot of fine grains.
Jiang Huan already disliked food without oil or water. After hearing Nini say that it was pig food, he became even more unwilling to eat it.
She retorted: "The organization asked you to make bitter memories rice, not to cook pig food for everyone. You pretended to obey but secretly disobeyed. I won't eat this meal!"
Captain: “During the period between 60 and 61, if someone gave me pig food like this every day, I would kowtow to him every day!
You have no worries about food and drink in the city and don't understand the hardships of life. Our old soldiers climbed snow-capped mountains, crossed grasslands, ate tree bark and grass roots, and persisted in fighting, which brought us the peaceful life we have today.
You can't even eat the bitter memory meal, how can we believe that you can become the successor of the motherland and do a good job in the revolutionary cause? ! "
Jiang Huan didn't expect that a rural production team leader could be so eloquent. He planned to quote the "instructions" in the little book to suppress his arrogance, but was stopped by Nini.
Nini persuaded in a low voice: "This captain seems to be of some importance. We only have a dozen people. If we get into a fight with them, we probably won't be able to leave this village. It's just a bowl of rice. As long as it's not poisonous and won't kill us, we can swallow it."
Jiang Huan bit his lip and said depressedly: "I want to go home. I can't stand this kind of life."
Nini: "Okay, after we eat this meal, we'll go home!"
The team leader took the lead in eating the "bitterness rice" and turned the bowl over for everyone to see.
The other members followed closely behind and finished a bowl of "bitterness rice" in just a few bites.
They have all experienced those years when they had no food to eat, and a bowl of "bitterness rice" is worth nothing to them.
If there was "bitterness rice" to eat back then, so many people wouldn't have died in the village...
Seeing that everyone had finished eating the "bitter rice", Nini and the others could only close their eyes, hold their breath, and quickly pour the rice in the bowl into their mouths...
Jiang Huan took a bite and then ran aside to vomit.
Luo Dafen, Luo Xiaofen and Nini's throats and stomachs were also experiencing uncontrollable spasms.
The captain said contemptuously: "The food you eat is grown by us with great effort. What do you mean by vomiting it? You are just being ziben!
You young generals, you are full of energy when you are arresting people everywhere, but you are frowning when you are eating the meal to commemorate the bitter past. Which school are you from? I will report you!"
Nini guessed that some young player had angered the production team leader before, causing him to have a bad impression of all the young players.
My mom once said that pointless arguments will only make things worse.
Nini didn't want to escalate the conflict, so she quickly explained: "The captain misunderstood. We have been hiking these days. My classmate is weak and has stomach discomfort. We will finish this bowl of bitter rice."
Following Nini's eye signal, Dafen, Xiaofen and others endured the discomfort and quickly poured a bowl of "bitterness rice" into their mouths.
After eating the "bitterness-recalling meal", Nini and her friends thanked the captain and then walked back to Jiangcheng.
What happened during this period still did not solve Nini’s doubts. The world she saw was completely different from what she expected, and she felt that her beliefs were collapsing bit by bit.
But she couldn't say it, otherwise she and her family would be implicated.
Nini only hopes that school can start normally after the new year. She wants to go to college like her two brothers to learn more knowledge, have greater abilities, and slowly change the world...
Nini and the others need to eat "bitterness rice" when they are outside, and Zhou Rong and the others also need to eat it when they stay in the city.
After receiving the government order, the neighborhood committee convened residents in the area to hold a "bitter past and sweet present" meeting.
In order to make everyone empathize, the neighborhood committee invited several people who had suffered many hardships in the old society to come on stage and talk about their tragic experiences.
The narrator stood in the center of the meeting room, crying and denouncing his family's experience.
Some people said that his family had nothing to eat when he was a child, and his younger brothers and sisters starved to death. The rulers at that time not only did not help them, but also forced them to do hard labor, and beat them to death if they were disobedient. His father was beaten to death.
He also said how he was exploited and enslaved by his family after he started working.
Some people said that his father was beaten to death by a landlord bully, and his uncle worked as a farmhand for the landlord, doing the work of an ox or a horse and eating the food of a pig...
As everyone listened to their stories, some people burst into tears, and soon the whole place was filled with crying.
Zhou Rong couldn't cry, but seeing that everyone around her was covering their faces with their hands and crying with their heads down, she had no choice but to lower her head and cover her face...
The neighborhood committee members stood up at the right time, raised their fists and shouted: "Never forget the suffering of Jieji!"
The people below raised their fists and shouted in unison: "Never forget the suffering of Jieji!"
Neighborhood Committee: "Remember the blood and tears!"
Citizens: "Remember the blood and tears!"
Neighborhood Committee: "Down with the evil old society!"
People: "Down with the evil old society!"
The whole venue was filled with excitement......
Jiang Wenjuan's family and those people with bad backgrounds stood in the crowd trembling, worried that people would attack them in a state of excitement...
After the instruction, the neighborhood committee led everyone to a nearby cafeteria to have a meal to commemorate the hardship.
"Bitterness Rice" is made by cooking rotten vegetable leaves mixed with broken rice with chaff.
Before the meal, the neighborhood committee taught everyone to sing: "The sky is full of stars, the crescent moon is shining brightly, a meeting is held in the production team, grievances are complained and grievances are redressed, the evil old society, the blood and tears of the poor, thousands of hatreds and resentments surge in my heart..."
After singing the song, they began to distribute the "bitterness rice" to everyone, requiring each person to have at least one bowl.
If you eat a few more bowls, you will be praised, and if you don’t finish them, you will be criticized.
Some children held the smelly "bitterness rice" and cried, "I don't want to eat it, I don't want to eat it!"
A young man looked at the "bitterness rice" in his bowl and whispered to the person next to him: "Isn't this pig food? What on earth does the organization want? Isn't it better to eat more and more in a happy life? Why do you let us eat the same thing as pigs?"
The people beside him hurriedly pulled him back and said, "You are such a loose-lipped person. You keep saying everything out there. Aren't you afraid of being taken to a meeting?!"
The young man was startled and quickly covered his mouth.
Under the watchful eyes of the neighborhood committee members, everyone closed their eyes, opened their mouths wide, and gulped down a bowl of "bitterness rice."
Some children hid their faces between their mothers' legs and refused to eat.
Some adults took it and ate it for their children, while others vomited while eating.
There were also people who, after finishing a bowl, asked for more and were praised continuously by the neighborhood committee members.
Zhou Rong took a bite and couldn't eat it anymore, so he used his arm to cover the "bitter rice" and poured it all into the trash can in the RV...