Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space-Chapter 490 - 375: Steel, Oh Steel

The bustling street canteen life lasted only a few days before Aunt Wang and the staff from the neighborhood committee announced the latest news — iron smelting.

Everyone in the canteen was having breakfast, listening and discussing.

"Everyone, please quiet down first. Since you eat at the canteen, what’s the use of the iron pots at home? After breakfast, everyone should go home and collect all the iron items and place them at the door. We will come by before noon. Please be proactive, don’t make us come in and start on our own."

Someone quickly asked, "Auntie, when you say all iron items, do you mean we should donate things like scissors and hoes as well, apart from kitchen items?"

"Yes. Go back and check carefully. As long as it’s iron, we need to turn it in. Every street is starting this morning, we can’t let others beat us to it."

Someone laughed out loud, "Don’t worry. Our street, if not first, will be second. I’ll go home and have my wife pry off the handles from the cabinets."

Immediately, someone else added, "My front door is still iron. Everyone come help with it later."

Aunt Wang saw everyone’s positive attitude and happily clapped her hands, causing the whole crowd to follow suit with applause.

The enthusiastic applause continued, and once things quieted down, she continued, "Since we’ve got iron, we need a furnace. I have invited Master Cui to guide us on how to build a blast furnace. Now, let’s welcome Master Cui to say a few words."

Mother Zhang secretly tugged at her older son’s sleeve, looking at him anxiously.

Zhang Guoqing smiled at her and nodded reassuringly.

Mother Zhang immediately laughed heartily, pointing at Master Cui who was walking up front, "Let’s listen to what the master has to say."

Master Cui stood on a stool, his tone passionate as he shouted, "... There are many people on our streets. What’s the benefit of having many people? Strength in numbers! That’s why we must strive even harder to seize the number one spot in the county. Let’s unite, work hard to produce more iron, and show the whole country! Let’s show the Northeasterners..."

Mother Zhang was a bit puzzled and quietly asked the family, "Why isn’t he talking about how to build the furnace? What’s he doing?"

Hearing this, Zhang Guoqing put his fist to his mouth, coughed a few times, and said, "He’s so excited he hasn’t thought it through yet."

"I’ve seen this old man a few times. Every time, he’s just chatting with people. Don’t worry, Mom, just wait a little." Zhang Meili quickly said.

Zhou Jiao glanced at Zhang Guoqing, about to say something, when she heard Master Cui finally getting to the point. She immediately turned her head forward. The man gestured as he spoke, loudly expressing his views, spitting wildly.

"... So we need to build a blast furnace in the small square..."

Zhou Jiao was secretly pleased, luckily it’s in the small square, or she’d be disgusted if it were near her home.

"... We need to build the biggest one. Haha... just kidding. I mean the tallest and biggest in the county. What do you think? Why can’t our men, old and young, make it to first place? Do you agree?"

A woman immediately shouted, "Master Cui, equality between men and women. We women can also fire the furnace. Please add another furnace, old sir."

Zhang Guoqing looked at the woman with a headache. That crazy fool, she caused his wife so much trouble. Before he could think of an excuse, more women were shouting to add more furnaces.

Frustrated, Zhang Guoqing only wanted to go up and slap these foolish women.

The exchange of voices rose and fell, continuing until it was almost work time, resulting in a decision to build a nine-meter blast furnace, with every household on the street, regardless of age, participating in the activity.

As for Master Cui’s tallest and largest furnace in the county, that was never mentioned again. It was just a joke, even the head of the largest textile factory in the county wouldn’t dare make such a decision.

Zhang Guoqing silently patted his son. His son couldn’t escape either, though he didn’t know what such a young child would do. He didn’t want to think more about this ridiculous situation.

On the way, the Zhang family’s old couple worried about their village courtyard and decided to walk home.

To Zhang Guoqing’s regret, after joining the commune, everything became collective property. Now there wasn’t a single horse-drawn cart on the street.

Back home, the couple settled their son. According to plan, they piled up some scrap copper and iron at the door, along with two large pots left by Professor Liu, and a bunch of kitchen knives. They finally noticed the handle on the front door, exchanged bitter smiles, and still took it off and threw it onto the pile.

After tidying up, Zhang Guoqing went to his workplace, where another meeting had just been held an hour earlier. This time, the unit also needed to build a furnace.

As expected, he followed his colleagues to pry off the big iron doors and collect all iron items, piling them on the vacant lot to the right of the unit. This would be the site for the furnace.

Strength in numbers.

All units and streets in the county town gathered the iron items from every household, preparing to search for mineral resources in the mountains.

By evening, in many vacant lots in the town, iron items, piles of firewood, coal, and some iron ore, coke, limestone, and materials for building the furnace were piled high.

Zhou Jiao was now very troubled, extremely troubled.

All the firewood and coal balls from her house were taken away, and the two stoves in the kitchen stood open-mouthed. These wouldn’t trouble her as much as the little one in front of her.

Ping’an was crying softly, "My... my..."

Zhou Jiao didn’t know how to explain it to him.

To tell him that if people wanted them, you had to give them happily? Such an explanation might impact the child’s outlook on life and values.

Or tell him that our family has plenty more? Such an explanation worried her even more, fearing his childish innocence, and a slip of the tongue would ruin it.

In the end, Zhou Jiao hugged him, locked the door, and went back to the kitchen.

Pointing to the cellar door, she thanked heaven that the iron piece on the cellar door in her home was saved. At this moment, she treasured the iron piece more than gold.

Opening the cellar, Zhou Jiao held him and brought out two large pots, a pile of firewood, and coal. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

She gently patted the child, turned to let him look, "You see, Mom has hidden them. You can’t tell, or there will be none left. Shh... If someone asks Ping’an, just shake your head, alright?"

After saying this, Zhou Jiao, worried, demonstrated it twice, seeing a smile on the child’s face, she finally breathed a long sigh of relief. What a challenge!

"Ping’an, does your family have any food?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the child immediately shook his head.

"Ping’an, your family’s pot is gone, did you cry?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the child immediately shook his head.

"Ping’an, can I have your family’s pot?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the child immediately shook his head, saying "Gone."

"Where has your mom hidden the things, do you know?"

Ping’an happily shouted, "Gone."

This made Zhou Jiao laugh heartily, kissing him several times, giving him a thumbs up.

Afterwards, she wrote in code about this simple mother-son conversation and sent it to her father, Zhou Xiaozheng.

It was just an ordinary conversation, but in her eyes, her son, not yet eight months old, made her proud and worth boasting about.

Back in the bedroom, the mother and son changed into homespun clothes.

Leaving the house, crowds filled the small square, with piles of iron items, firewood, and coal everywhere. Children happily played mud, and the loudspeakers couldn’t drown out the human noise.

Zhou Jiao looked at the direction her son pointed, and burst out laughing. Her son was so stingy, still thinking about their big pot and firewood.

"Shh... there’s fire, there’s thorns, danger! Ping’an be good, don’t come down. Mommy will take you to find Grandpa and Grandma." Zhou Jiao quickly instructed him a few times before heading off to find Mr. and Mother Zhang with him in her arms.

After searching for a long time, she finally found them, seeing them moving items, she didn’t approach.

She heard from the loudspeaker that dinner would be in groups, and that the work would continue by lantern light at night.

She understood, it wasn’t time yet.

She started adjusting her position to carry her son on her back, slowly moving forward with things, occasionally turning to look at him. She pondered internally about finding a way to avoid becoming a burden as they would be grouped later.