In any case, in this area of Greenfield County, farmers planted conventional rice.
After husking and removing the bran, 100 kg of rice yielded less than 70 kg of rice. A family of three had about five mu of land, but not all of it could be used to grow rice. Poor, unproductive land on slopes – the grain tax was unconditionally surrendered, and any surplus grain would be sold to the state at a low price. Without selling grain, how would farmers have money? The money from selling grain couldn’t be kept either; pesticides, seeds, fertilizers, and the “retention funds” Amanda mentioned.
The full name of the retention funds was “unified retention funds,” three retentions and five unifications, which were two parts of the money.
The five unifications were the township’s unified five items: education surcharge, family planning fee, militia training fee, civilian relief fee, and civilian transportation fee. The village retained three items: public welfare fund, public welfare fund, and management fee. The public welfare fund was not the housing provident fund of later generations; it was used for farmland water conservancy construction, afforestation, and the purchase of fixed production materials; the public welfare fund was used to support the destitute elderly, subsidize impoverished households, cooperative medical care, and other welfare undertakings; the management fee was used for the remuneration and management expenses of village cadres.
Amanda certainly didn’t know these details; the township instructed them to pay whatever money was required, and everyone followed the instructions.
Whitaker Scarlett was even less clear; she had only worried about starvation for the first two days after her rebirth. Later, her business thrived, and Whitaker Scarlett hadn’t experienced the true poverty of rural life.
Several bags were filled with carefully selected, bright yellow rice grains. Whitaker Scarlett refused to stay home to study. These days, Amanda and Elizabeth were unwilling to let her go out, but Whitaker Scarlett couldn’t stay still and insisted on going to the township with her aunt to deliver the grain tax.
Amanda was also afraid that she would get bored, so she agreed to let Whitaker Scarlett go with her.
It’s no wonder that having a bicycle is convenient. A 28-inch bicycle could carry hundreds of kg of grain; without a bicycle, they would have to use a cart to pull it to the grain station. On the way, they met Uncle Daniel’s grain delivery team, and Carson’s mother called out to Whitaker Scarlett and Amanda:
“Let’s go together; it’s good to have company on the road.”
Amanda was quite happy and called her sister-in-law.
Whitaker Scarlett obediently called her aunt. She liked the people of Wellwater village quite a bit. These people would certainly gossip behind their backs, but they weren’t the kind who would maliciously try to harm others. The atmosphere in Wellwater village and Larkspur Village, both in Greenfield County, was vastly different… Whitaker Scarlett felt it had something to do with Uncle Daniel being the village head of Wellwater village.
Mrs. Harris seemed quite concerned about Whitaker Scarlett and asked her about her studies along the way.
Whitaker Scarlett had scored full marks twice in English, a weak subject for Carson. Whitaker Scarlett remembered the help Uncle Daniel had given her and her mother, so she proactively offered to tutor Carson:
“Aunt, if you trust me, I’ll tutor Carson in English during his holidays.”
The English in the current college entrance examination wasn’t difficult. Even in the later college entrance examination, mastering over 3,000 vocabulary words was sufficient. But the candidates in later generations had accumulated vocabulary from elementary school, middle school, and high school. By the time Whitaker Scarlett was reborn, there were various apps that utilized fragmented time to memorize words; 3,000 words were nothing!
For the candidates of 1983, especially those from remote areas, it was too difficult.
No matter how poor the English language score was, facing their familiar mother tongue, they could always get some points. English was something they had no foundation in. In the first few years after the resumption of the college entrance examination, it wasn’t included in the college entrance examination score, which was sudden for the candidates, and the teachers didn’t know how to teach systematically.
Rote memorization, completely lacking efficient memory methods.
Vowels and consonants?
They couldn’t even pronounce the words, let alone distinguish vowels and consonants.
English was not only a stumbling block on Carson’s path to the college entrance examination but also for other candidates… Even if they wanted to find a teacher for private tutoring, they had to find a teacher! Even if Uncle Daniel knew people in the county, he couldn’t find such a way; he was just the village head, not the county head.
No one knew how Whitaker Scarlett learned English, but she had scored full marks twice, which meant she learned well.
Carson’s mother was overjoyed and didn’t want to let go of Whitaker Scarlett. Carson’s grades weren’t bad; if his English score could improve, next year’s college entrance examination would be more stable –
“Scarlett, when we deliver the grain later, you should queue up behind your aunt.”
