Chapter 384: Chapter 384

Zheng Long and his comrades ate, slept, bathed, and used the toilet together, always evoking a feeling of being a woman disguised as a man, even though she had been enlisted for a month, she still frequently felt out of place and distracted.

However, after more than a month of adjustment, she had now come to fully accept the reality of her manhood. After enlisting, she had discarded everything related to Long Gang, including her household registration and name. From now on, she would live for herself with her new identity as Zheng Long.

The Cooking Class also made communal meals, at which he was particularly adept, but since it was 1966, Hua Country’s most difficult period, even the life of a warrior was extremely harsh. The only advantage was probably that one could eat one’s fill, especially since they were located in the big northeast where winters were incredibly cold. The daily meals consisted of either salted steamed cornbread or dried vegetables from summer; skilled as he was, it was still hard to cook without the necessary ingredients.

Due to the shortage of vegetables and food, coupled with the large number of people eating, their meals were limited to just a few choices, with no possibility of changing the situation.

Moreover, he was only a low-ranking soldier, obliged to do whatever the higher-ups commanded. Only when he had the opportunity to prepare nutritional meals for the wounded could he show off his skills, and even then, it was just about providing ideas. The troops were nestled deep in the mountains and the old forest. In spring, the soldiers would forage for wild greens to overcome the awkward gap in food supply, but now it was winter, and they could only occasionally fish for river delicacies. However, with no lakes nearby, they couldn’t dream of the luck of smashing roe deer and scooping up fish with a gourd.

When Zheng Long first arrived, he struggled to acclimate due to the intense cold and lack of proper nutrition, with the hard and indigestible cornbread causing sickness for several days. Had it not been for the upgrade of his "space" to level 4, allowing him to grow Little White cabbage, potatoes, rapeseed, and lettuce, and occasionally enjoy some green vegetables or roast a potato in his "space," he likely wouldn’t have survived.

Without access to the Space Mall and lacking money or points to purchase anything, not even a pot, he was left with the mere five yuan monthly allowance from the military (it wasn’t until 1980 that this increased to six yuan). Unable to leave or acquire tickets, he couldn’t even afford a pot, so he took the time to smash a stone with a hollow in the middle, using it to cook some vegetables.

Of course, there was no salt, only plain water for washing food, but fortunately, the vegetables from the "space" had a natural sweetness, and they tasted rather good.

Because he ate more vegetables, his digestive system felt better, sparing him from the discomfort of constipation.

He was more fortunate than the other warriors because he didn’t have to send the five yuan back home as he had already sent 300 yuan to his grandfather. The five yuan were for his personal use.

He first thought of buying toiletries. During these times of scarcity, supplies were rationed and not readily available for purchase, regardless of the amount of money one had.

For example, soap could only be purchased once a month. Others would cut their bar in half as soon as they got it, saving one half to send home, as their families also lacked soap. Zheng Long naturally didn’t want to receive special treatment, so he did the same, splitting off half of the soap to save. After all, he was truly poor now, and there was no guarantee his grandfather had soap – he planned to save up for a few months and send it all back at once.

All were new recruits, and although others were unaware that he had used connections to enlist, he was told that he missed his reporting date due to illness. If he lived better than the others, he feared he might be ostracized. So, he chose to do as the others did, bearing in mind that as the lowest-level soldiers, they shouldn’t live more comfortably than the rest.

Given that telephones were scarce, the main form of communication was through writing letters, which required paper, ink, envelopes, and stamps. A sheet of letter paper cost five cents, an envelope one cent, and a stamp eight cents, thus the total cost for sending a letter came to about ten cents.