"It really looks like that!" After the cans and bottles had completely cooled down, Li Junli picked up a bottle and looked at it and said.

"It's done. Let it rest for a while. After it cools down completely, the taste will be better when it goes into the peaches," Li Wen nodded and said.

"I can't wait. If we really succeed, it will be unimaginable." Li Junli said as he walked back and forth in the cafeteria rubbing his hands.

"Uncle, if we succeed, we will need a lot of rock sugar and glass bottles. Glass bottles are easy to say. There is a glass factory in the county that can produce them. But what about sugar? This thing requires tickets. It weighs ten or eight pounds. We can get it.

I think it weighs several hundred or even a thousand kilograms." Li Wen analyzed while sitting on a stool.

"Yes! Supplies have been really tight in the past few years. The rock candy we had in the morning was the entire supply of our village supply and marketing store this month." Li Junli turned pale and murmured.

"Awen, how long can these cans be kept before they are ready to be eaten?" Li Junli said, raising a bottle of cans.

"Theoretically, you can eat it after letting it cool, but it will taste best after a few days," Li Wen said with a chuckle.

"In this case, I will take a few bottles to the commune to discuss with Director Zhang to see if the commune can apply for some rock sugar, and then tell me how to deal with the cans we produce," Li Junli said, putting a few bottles of cans into his bag.

"Uncle Junli, go ahead. This matter is really not something we can decide. Nowadays, supplies are sold and purchased under a unified system, and cans are valuable items. The state also has strict control. It's best to go to the commune to apply." Li Wen nodded.

He nodded in agreement.

"Awen, do you still have your bicycle? Let me ride it. The village hasn't had time to buy a new bike today." Li Junli asked with a smile.

"Uncle Junli, I'm sorry, my second uncle and second aunt rode to his father-in-law's house." Li Wen scratched his head and said sheepishly.

"Haha! It's okay, it's okay. Your second uncle is very good at it, so he went to his father-in-law's house to show off today." Li Junli said with a smile.

"Okay, you are all here. I'm going to go to the commune on foot. It's not far away for more than ten miles," Li Junli said with a smile.

With that said, Li Junli hurriedly walked out of the back door of the cafeteria carrying his leather bag.

"Awen's can looks really good, but it consumes more sugar." Gao Aiqin said curiously as he turned the can.

"Auntie, let's put all these cans in ice water and leave them there overnight. We can try them tomorrow." Li Wen said with a smile.

"Okay," Gao Aiqin then quickly put the cans into a large basin and poured in cold well water.

"I can't wait. The first time my aunt ate canned food was in the winter of 1956. My boss came back from serving in the army and bought it. The canned oranges were sour and sweet, and they were so delicious. My aunt can't forget them to this day," Gao Aiqin said, recalling the past five years.

The scene of eating canned food years ago.

"Haha, don't worry, aunt, you can eat the canned food we made tomorrow. You also learned how to make it today. If you want to eat it in the future, you can go home and make it yourself." Li Wen said with a smile.

"I can't afford it, I can't afford it. A pound of rock candy costs almost one yuan and I have to pay for it. My family won't be able to save so much candy in a few years." Gao Aiqin hurriedly shook her head after hearing this.

Li Wen smiled and said nothing. Indeed, candy is really a rare thing in this era. We only have a little like ours all year round. We usually use it to entertain people. I really can't bear to eat it.

"Aunt, if nothing happens, I'll leave first." Li Wen stood up and said goodbye to Gao Aiqin.

After a busy morning, it’s almost lunch time.

Li Wen returned to the space and fed all the livestock. He quietly took a bag of rock sugar, poured it into a paper bag and wrapped it, then walked back home with it.

"Awen is back!" The old lady who was handling the dried beans on her plot in the yard greeted Li Wen with a smile.

"Nai, I'm peeling beans," Li Wen smiled softly.

"Look, I got some rock candy." Li Wen took out the paper bag in his arms and said politely.

"Hey, let me take a look." The old lady stood up quickly, walked to Li Wen and opened the paper bag.

"This rock candy is really good. It's shiny and not yellow. It's quite a lot. It's a pound, right?" The old lady was very happy.

"Well, this is white rock sugar, which is of better quality. The yellow rock sugar has more impurities." Li Wen smiled and explained.

"Then I'll put it away. This is a good thing. Our family hasn't had candy for several years. I'll save these for entertaining people later." The old lady took the paper bag and was about to go back to the room.

Li Wen suddenly couldn’t laugh or cry!

"Grandma, just use the honey I gave you last time to entertain people. That one is better. I'll use this rock candy today." Li Wen looked at the old lady's brisk pace and shouted hurriedly.

"What's it for?" The old lady stopped when she heard this and looked back at Li Wendao.

"I'm going to use this for canning," Li Wen whispered with a smile.

"Can you make cans?" The old lady looked puzzled.

Li Wen then explained what happened in the morning to the old lady, which made the old lady overjoyed.

"Come on, let's go process and can the peaches now," the old lady said hurriedly holding Li Wen's hand.

"What's wrong, Mom, why are you and Awen in such a hurry?" At this time, Wang Chunmei and her father, who had finished work at noon, opened the door and looked at the mother-in-law and grandson and asked with a smile.

"Come, let me tell you." The old lady greeted her mother and then whispered in Wang Chunmei's ear.

Li Wen lamented that this may be a common problem among the older generation. They have to whisper some things in a low voice for fear of being heard.

"Awen, it's really great. Let's do some at home. It will be very honorable to visit relatives!" His mother, Wang Chunmei, looked at Li Wenxi and said.

Li Wen didn't understand. Everyone didn't have enough to eat, and they were thinking about others all day long. Maybe this was Chinese culture, etiquette engraved in people's bones.

"Grandma, let's eat first. After dinner, my mother and the others have to go to work, so we'll do it then," Li Wen said with a smile.

"Then let's cook first," the old lady said with a smile, knowing that she was anxious just now.

The mother and the old lady went to the kitchen to cook. Li Wen sat in the yard and told his father Li Deyou what happened today in the village canteen.

"Awen, you did a good job. Everyone has been very sad in recent years. It would be great if we could sell these peaches that everyone wants to eat for money," his father Li Deyou smiled and nodded.

"Today in the fields, several families in the village have begun to complain. The summer grain has been eaten up. The autumn harvest is still a month away. It seems that the situation this year is very bad," Li Deyou said, taking a heavy drag on his dry cigarette.

"Ah! Have you finished eating the summer grain?" Li Wen said in shock.

After Li Wen came to this era, he didn't particularly like to go out, and his family didn't gossip much. In recent months, the family had enough food, so Li Wen didn't take anything else to heart.

When Li Wen heard what his father said today, he immediately became alert. This is the three-year period of natural disasters! Although there is no such thing as the exchange of children for food as in the history books, the people are indeed having a hard time.

Thinking about the time when he was just reborn, his family had a meal of wild vegetables, corn, sorghum, rice, and sweet potatoes. Li Wen realized that he had been drifting recently, really a little drifting.

No wonder the people in the village are so envious if you make money by writing. No wonder the people in the village will discuss it when your family sometimes eats meat. It seems that you have to be more careful in the future. Living in the village, survival is the king.

"Dad, what should we do? This September, there is still nearly a month before the autumn harvest. Do we have enough food for our family?" Li Wen asked.

"Our family has enough food. In the past few times, your second uncle and I have secretly exchanged most of the money from selling fish for food," Li Deyou said slowly, taking a puff of dry cigarette.

"However, several families asked me to borrow food today. I asked your mother to agree to some of them, but I didn't dare to agree to others." Li Deyou looked a little worried.

"Awen, don't buy meat from home later, otherwise the smell of meat will be all over the yard when you cook it. Although your ninth uncle and eighth uncle are next door, you'd better be careful," Li Deyou said with a serious face.

.

"I know dad, I'll be careful in the future," Li Wen nodded in agreement.

"Okay, it's time to eat. Why are you telling your children this? Awen is not filial to us," the old lady walked out and said to her father.

"It's okay, grandma. My dad is right. Our family's life has indeed improved a lot recently. People in the village are talking about it. You should be careful." Li Wen smiled and explained to the old lady.

"Mom, today his third uncle's wife and the old wife of the tenth family asked me to borrow food from them in the field, saying that the family was about to run out of food. I discussed with Deyou and let them come in the evening," one family borrowed

Ten pounds of cornmeal.

Just do whatever you want. The families of Lao San and Lao Ten are indeed pitiful. Their husbands were killed in a battlefield, and the family lost two sons. The old lady sighed.

"Yes, although there are subsidies, there are not many strong laborers in the family, and the food distributed in the village is really, alas!" Wang Chunmei said and shook her head.

"Okay, boss, you and Awu should go and have a rest after dinner. I'll clean up," the old lady put the bowls and chopsticks into the basin and said to her parents who were talking.

After lunch and a rest, Li Wen and the old lady began to process the peaches for canning.

Li Wen originally thought that if he didn't have any tools, he would just make a ready-to-eat can. Unexpectedly, the old lady dug out six glass bottles of different sizes from nowhere.

A basket of peaches, except for the ones that were already soft, the mother-in-law and grandson were busy all afternoon and made a total of six large bottles and a small can of cans.

Li Wen asked the old lady to put away the bottles and cans, and then placed the instant cans in the basin in the well for refrigeration.

"Finally, I finished making these cans before the little guys got off school," the old lady said with a smile as she patted her waist.

Just as he was talking, the door was pushed open by a few little guys,

"Grandma, what are you and third brother doing, looking at the peach skins in the basin," Li Yong asked.
Chapter completed!