MAC’60s Chapter 61.2

Old Lady Xu was full of pride, feeling that her fortune truly turned after her son got married.

Even though they always had some savings, life was never this comfortable.

A sewing machine! She had to let everyone envy it!

Old Lady Xu, who had been steady her whole life, couldn’t stay calm in front of a sewing machine. Who could? A sewing machine was practically a family heirloom. If they still had an unmarried son, he could pick any girl in the countryside with that sewing machine alone.

Just as Old Lady Xu left to chat, Wu Guihua came in through Wang Ying’s door.

She was beaming. Today’s meeting had been a huge success—not just a good turnout but also a lively crowd full of laughter.

All thanks to Wang Ying’s idea.

Wu Guihua brought over a bag of tomatoes. Her family always grew the best ones—firm and sweet-and-sour. She gave Wang Ying a whole mesh bag.

“Wang Ying, I don’t even know how to thank you. This whole meeting went so well because of you. But I don’t know what to do next time—do you think you can help me come up with something again?”

This time, Wang Ying had given her the basic idea—to have the kids act out a story about drinking pot-bottom ash and getting sick. But Wu Guihua was afraid to mess up the next performance and ruin such a great beginning.

Wang Ying replied, “That’s easy. Next time: women’s diseases, children’s illnesses, elderly falls, childbirth, pregnancy precautions…”

Wang Ying counted on her fingers and listed out a bunch of topics.

Wu Guihua was both happy and worried. “This time it was like striking gold, but we can’t just keep letting the kids wing it next time, right? Should we prepare, I don’t know, a script?”

Wang Ying laughed. “Well, isn’t that exactly what the educated youth are for?”

You couldn’t expect the villagers to write scripts, and Wang Ying had her own matters to handle. All things considered, the educated youth with some level of literacy were just right.

Wang Ying gave her advice: “Ask the team leader for permission. Those educated youth are all weak and delicate anyway—just give them a few work points per performance. Let them compete to submit scripts. Whoever’s script is used gets work points.”

Wu Guihua thought about it and agreed. Besides, if they were writing scripts for their own kids, the villagers would probably be happy about it too.

After that, she left full of energy.

Wang Ying picked up a tomato and washed it clean. One bite revealed a meaty, juicy interior—the sour and sweet flavor burst across her taste buds. It was nothing like the modern greenhouse tomatoes with no flavor—this was the real deal!

She ate one, couldn’t resist, and went to cut another, sprinkling some white sugar on it.

Tomato dipped in sugar—sweet and tangy. She didn’t even waste the leftover sugar water and drank it all in one gulp.

Feeling satisfied, Wang Ying went to take a nap.

In the blink of an eye, summer arrived quietly.

Wang Ying and Xu Shuang went into the mountains again—this time specifically to prepare provisions. When they came back down, they carried a basket full of wild rabbits and pheasants, and another full of fish.

The little fish pond still hadn’t been discovered. When Wang Ying checked while catching fish, she noticed a new batch of palm-sized fish—probably grown since spring.

She and Xu Shuang still only caught the big ones—five or six in total.

Back home, Xu Shuang didn’t dry the fish this time but turned them all into smoked fish. This method preserved the oil and made them last longer.

Xu Shuang worked for a few days and made two big baskets of smoked fish. Since Wang Ying wanted spicy rabbit heads, he saved all the rabbit heads and turned the rest into dried meat.

Once everything was ready, Xu Shuang carried a big basket of goods to his aunt’s village.

He went secretly in the evening and dropped everything off before heading straight back.

Covered in sweat when he got home, Xu Shuang saw that Old Lady Xu was still waiting and quickly reported, “I told Aunt everything. She said not to worry. She’s told my cousins to go farther out into the countryside these next few days to collect some grain. She’s not telling anyone—just stocking up enough for three months.”

Old Lady Xu sighed, “I’m not worried about her safety. With all your cousins at home, no one would dare rob her. It’s just… hunger is a terrible thing to suffer through.”

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Grandma Xu married a chef—she still went hungry during the hard years.

People always said that even in a three-year drought, chefs wouldn’t starve.

But if there was no grain to harvest, a chef couldn’t magically produce food. Of course she’d been hungry.

Xu Shuang didn’t look too good either. “Things are worse at Aunt’s place. I saw the wheat in their fields—barely anything growing.”

Since everyone ate from the communal pot, no one really cared much about the collective farmland. On top of that, a hailstorm hit in early spring.

Xu Shuang had even overheard customers at the restaurant talking about the Lazybones Commune downstream. Over there, folks figured since the land and grain belonged to the state, it didn’t matter if they replanted or not. They just assumed the higher-ups would send relief grain eventually, so they lay flat and did nothing.

Now everyone was basically just lying at home, waiting for government aid.

Grandma Xu felt sorry for the hardworking farmers who’d been failed by the heavens, but she had zero sympathy for the Lazybones Commune and their nonsense.

“Those people are done for,” she said. “Once you start cutting corners on the crops—doesn’t matter if it’s a good year or bad—you’re screwed. Keep this up and people are going to starve to death.”

Things had been getting better in recent years. There were natural disasters back then, and the country had to tighten its belt to repay the Soviets. Everyone had lived through tough times. But now, life was clearly improving. As long as people worked hard, it had been years since anyone died of hunger.

But somehow, those people still managed to mess things up.

Grandma Xu pulled her thoughts back and muttered about their own matters. “We shouldn’t wait. Let’s go pick up the sewing machine in the next few days. I have a feeling the county town won’t be peaceful much longer.”

When people are hungry, they’ll do anything. It’s better to stay home and keep a low profile.

Xu Shuang calculated the timing and said, “Sounds right. I’ve got my exam early next month. We’ll get the sewing machine on the same trip. Kill two birds with one stone. I’ll also bring some things to Master, and then we won’t go into town for the next two months.”

Xu Shuang’s exam had been moved up, and the one who decided that wasn’t anyone else—it was Chen Dong.

Chen Dong sensed the coming fluctuations in grain supply and didn’t want to wait for the chaos to hit. There were only five candidates for this round anyway, so he figured it was better to get it done early.

After listening for a while, Wang Ying asked, “Is your master going to be one of the examiners? Shouldn’t he recuse himself? What if people accuse him of leaking the questions?”

Xu Shuang replied, “The test questions are always the same. Whether they’re leaked or not doesn’t make much of a difference.”

Becoming a chef was all about skill—especially for the second-level chef’s certificate, which mainly tested the fundamentals. There was nothing to leak.

Wang Ying asked, “So what exactly do they test?”

Xu Shuang explained, “Knife skills, cooking techniques, regional cuisine, and handling ingredients. Those are the four parts of the second-level test.”

He went into more detail. “Take knife skills for example—it’s about color matching, shape, and presentation. Usually, they’ll give a cold dish prompt, and you have to select and prepare the ingredients, match the colors and shapes. Knife work is key. Cooking methods include stir-frying, quick-frying, exploding, steaming, braising, boiling, and roasting. It’s a random draw. Harder ones are like sautéed liver slices or poached chicken fillet. For regional cuisine, you need to prepare a local signature dish in advance. As for handling ingredients, it includes processing chicken, duck, goose, and various prepping techniques like marinating or thickening with starch—that’s a whole dish too.”

It was the first time Wang Ying had heard how chef exams worked. She was fascinated. “So basically you have to prepare some dishes in advance, and cook others on the spot? I didn’t know the second-level test was so hard!”

Hearing Xu Shuang break it all down, it was clearly no walk in the park.

Wang Ying had thought the second-level chef certificate would be easy to get. But clearly, it was seriously tough.

Xu Shuang shrugged. “It’s alright. The next level after that is the first-level, and that one’s even tougher. You have to come up with your own signature dish.”

Wang Ying’s eyes lit up. “So in the next few days, you’ll be practicing all of this at home, right?”

Xu Shuang grinned. “Of course.”

Wang Ying picked up her chopsticks. “Then as the unofficial judge, I absolutely have to taste everything!”

Everyone in the room laughed.

Grandma Xu joined in. “You go ahead and let Wang Ying give her opinion. That girl has sharp taste buds.”

After spending so much time together, Grandma Xu had come to understand that while Wang Ying was picky, she didn’t waste food. If a dish wasn’t great, she’d calmly talk it over with Xu Shuang instead of refusing to eat. And the boy would actually pull out a notebook to take notes.

While they were all still laughing, they heard the postman calling from outside.

“Xu Shuang! Is Xu Shuang home? You’ve got a letter!”