Back to the 60s: The Struggle Career of a Charmed Wife

The family enjoyed a delicious meal of scallion pancakes made with the previously mentioned white flour.

Coarse grains scratched their throats, making it painful to swallow, but the scallion pancakes made with white flour and lard didn’t cause this discomfort.

Not just the kids, Feng Qingxue herself also preferred refined grains.

Their family had three hundred jin of wheat, of which Feng Qingxue, with the help of Lu Tianjun and Guan Cheng, selected and washed one hundred jin. She picked out all traces of chaff, husk, and dirt mixed into the wheat. Although there were very few impurities as it had been dried on the ground, she couldn’t overlook them completely. She repeated the process of washing three to four times until only clean and full grains of wheat remained, which she then dried.

Next, Feng Qingxue processed over two hundred jin of corn, which also contained impurities such as corn silk and husk. While it wasn’t necessary to rinse corn, she still carefully wiped it with a clean, damp cloth.

Then, borrowing the mule cart from the brigade, Feng Qingxue, Lu Tianjun, and Guan Cheng transported the wheat, corn, and one hundred jin of rice to the city mill.

Wanglou Brigade had several stone mills and rice hullers, but Feng Qingxue didn’t like to use them.

First of all, they were physically exhausting. The millstone was large and heavy, and it took all of her strength to turn it in round after round. It was impossible to separate the flour and the bran, so the outcome was coarse flour. The same was true for the cornmeal. The rice huller was equally burdensome, resulting in a lot of broken rice and brown rice.

The mill was an entirely different story. The national mill was equipped with electric tools that gave free choice of the kind of product one wanted.

As it was just after the busy autumn season and the farmers had new grain, along with city folks who had relatives in the countryside and could access fresh grain, there were always those in need of white rice and flour. Therefore, in front of the mill, a long line had formed, with people pushing wheelbarrows or bicycles, or carrying shoulder poles, lined up, waiting for their turn while taking rest.

Feng Qingxue glanced at the sky and the long queue ahead, and while picking up the prepared basket, she told Guan Cheng and Lu Tianjun, "You guys watch over our mule cart and grain. I’ll go to a friend’s house for some hot water and drop off some corn for them. They’ve helped me in the past."