Siheyuan: Craftsmen of a Great Country

Chapter 4 Big Purchase

The transfer of household registration will be handled by the steel rolling mill. After completing the registration matters, Jiang Chen left the street office and went to the pigeon market.

Nowadays, the planned economy is implemented, and various materials such as food stamps and cloth stamps are distributed uniformly every month.

This creates a problem, circulation.

Those who are relatively well-off want to eat refined grains, eat more meat and fish, and want to improve their quality of life, but they don’t have tickets and can’t buy anything even if they have money.

Some people who live relatively poor lives only want coarse grains to meet two meals a day to feed themselves and their families. They want to sell non-essential tickets such as meat stamps to exchange for coarse grains.

So the pigeon market came into being.

This place specializes in private transactions of various types of tickets, mainly food stamps, meat stamps, cloth stamps, oil stamps, and even bicycle tickets, watch tickets, sewing tickets, etc.

Of course, the price will be much higher than the price of the goods. After all, people who take risks and speculate must always earn something.

Take food stamps for example. The price of a pound of grain in the market is 11 cents, but here a pound of food stamps will sell for 15,160 cents.

Before Jiang Chen left Sichuan, except for some national food stamps and oil stamps, all other local receipts were thrown away to his mother.

I don’t have many tickets in hand now, so I need to go to the pigeon market to purchase them.

He was originally diligent and frugal, and his three years of work left him a huge sum of nearly 700 yuan. As a hedonist, he naturally wanted to live a better life.

As for making money and saving money, he believes that with his knowledge base and system, he will not be short of money in the future.

At least, after the level of technical personnel is raised, one month's salary is still relatively considerable.

Of course, although we are currently turning a blind eye to the pigeon market, we are not strictly controlling it for the time being.

But this is a speculative business, and as a formal worker, he cannot stay old.

You can better protect yourself by purchasing multiple points at one time to reduce the number of visits.

He first bought a large number of food stamps. Cloth stamps and gas stamps were reasonably priced, and he also bought some. These things would not depreciate in value if left alone.

After that, we called a truck and started shopping.

Because it would take a while, the cost was negotiated to one dollar, so he was willing to pay an extra two cents and let the driver help carry it.

And such a good thing, the driver's mouth almost split open to the back of his head.

He first went to two beds of eight pounds of cotton wool.

The cotton batting at home is used to make mats, and two new cotton battings are used to make two quilts. If the weather is cold in winter, they will be used to cover two beds.

Cotton is extremely expensive in this era, but the winter in the north is cold, and without thick cotton quilts, you may wake up from the cold at night, so you can only buy it reluctantly.

Finally, I bought a lot of ingredients, seasonings, pots and pans. The kitchen utensils at home before were too rudimentary, and many of them were rusted and unusable. New ones needed to be purchased.

I bought some other cigarettes. Huazi is indeed easy to smoke, but the output of these cigarettes is low. Even in Sijiu City, they are not easy to buy.

Besides, you can't smoke that cigarette all the time. When facing different groups of people, smoking cigarettes that match them will make it easier to blend into the group.

You can't buy too much vegetables. The weather is not cool enough now, and there is no refrigerator at home.

In the future, if I want to buy food, I can only go to the vegetable market at noon.

Although there may not be good food if you go late, there is no other way.

Who said there is no one at home?

I also bought some firewood, briquettes and the like according to the capacity of the cart. The briquettes were enough for a month and the firewood was enough for half a month.

Finally, he weighed two kilograms of meat before preparing to go home.

Even in Sijiu City, meat is not available every day.

Jiang Chen happened to meet him today, so naturally he wouldn't miss it.

He arrived late, and all the fat meat in the supply and marketing cooperative had been sold out, and even the pork belly was the only one left in his hand.

However, lean meat is not popular, and there is still a lot left.

In this era, there are not so many routines, the prices of things are transparent, the choices are small, and it doesn’t take much time.

When they arrived at the courtyard, Jiang Chen walked in front carrying the meat and seasonings, while the master walked behind carrying the bulky items.

There are still some things in the car, and the master has to make two trips.

Yan Bugui was sitting at the door irritably and sulking, when he saw Jiang Chen coming back carrying something.

Suddenly his eyes widened again: This bastard is so rich, how can he buy such a big piece of meat? It's just that the meat is too lean and it's a waste of money.

Looking at the driver behind him moving things, Yan Bugui was shocked again: Even if he had gold at home, he couldn't help but waste it like this. Now that he is cool, I estimate that in a few days, this kid may not even be able to eat.

He thought that since he hadn't broken his skin yet, he would go to this bastard's house later for a meal and a toothpaste.

If you occupy your own house, you will get it back sooner or later, so it is not a bad idea to collect some interest now. Jiang Chen turned a blind eye to Yan Bugui and walked straight in.

After leaving the street office and thinking about it carefully, I was basically sure that the person who coveted his house was Yan Bugui.

After all, when it came to going home, the third uncle's face was ugly at that time, which should be a sign of failed hope.

He lived in a courtyard house entirely because of system restrictions and did not want to become enemies with his neighbors.

But if Yan Bugui wants to take advantage of his house, he will naturally not give it a good look.

Seeing Jiang Chen passing by him, Yan Bugui felt angry: This bastard didn't even say hello when he saw the third uncle. He had no tutor and no etiquette.

The driver moved everything in and neatly piled briquettes and firewood at the foot of the wall.

Jiang Chen readily gave the money, and the coachman left happily.

Earning more than one yuan in half a day is considered a big business for him.

After the coachman left, Jiang Chen took back the cotton wool that had been exposed to the sun, made the bed, put on a new quilt, and put on new sheets.

Lie on it, it's soft and refreshing!
  After lying on the bed and smoking a cigarette comfortably, watching the sun set in the west, I started to light a fire to cook.

Dinner consists of two dishes and one soup, one mapo tofu and one twice-cooked pork with green pepper and garlic sprouts.

Then use the remaining tofu to make cabbage and tofu soup, just right.

The meat is all cooked and stir-fried at once, and can be eaten for two or three days.

The more times the twice-cooked pork is recooked, the better it tastes.

His cooking skills aren't great, but they aren't bad either.

In my two lifetimes, I have never missed cooking, especially when my mother was in bed.

The rice was cooked first, then the meat.

Add cabbage tofu in broth and stir-fry mapo tofu.

Finally stir-fry the twice-cooked pork.

The meat is first oiled, then green pepper and garlic sprouts are added, and seasonings are added. The aroma immediately spreads in the courtyard.

Jia Zhang smelled the fragrance, took a few deep breaths greedily, stood at the window and looked out, murmuring:

"Damn it, whose fried meat is this? It's so fragrant, damn it."

In 58, Jia Dongxu was a second-level worker, and his family lived on his ration and the salary of about 40 yuan.

Just buying food every month costs a lot of money.

Not only could Jia Zhang, who was fair and chubby, eat, but she also had to pay three yuan for living expenses every month. The family's life was tight.

After Qin Huairu became pregnant with her second child, the expenses increased.

Relying on Yi Zhonghai's support, we could barely avoid famine.

But if you want to eat meat, it is already very difficult to buy some scraps for a month or two.

The stick stalk next to it smelled the fragrance and shouted loudly: "Grandma, I want to eat meat, I want to eat meat."

The six-year-old child, when he was greedy, smelled the fragrance and immediately clamored to eat it.

Mrs. Jia Zhang then said to her daughter-in-law, "You are deaf. Didn't you hear that our eldest grandson wants to eat meat?"

Qin Huairu knelt down, held Banggeng's head and said, "Hey, wait until your dad gets paid in a few days, then let's go buy some meat, okay?"

Bangge suddenly started crying: "No, I want to eat meat. I want to eat meat now."

Jia Zhang looked at Qin Huairu who was still squatting on the ground, and suddenly became angry and shouted: "Go and see whose fried meat is fried. If you want some, come back and give it to our eldest grandson."

"What are you doing there? Go quickly and get a bigger bowl! If the eldest grandson eats his meat, it is his blessing. When the eldest grandson succeeds in the future, I can invite him to eat it."

In fact, she couldn't control her own greed.

They occasionally eat meat on weekdays, but most of it goes into her and Banggian's stomachs.

Jia Dongxu can get a little bit.

It was only after Qin Huairu became pregnant with her second child that she could barely eat meat, and the food she ate had to be more refined.

After all, at this time, no one knew that the second child was a girl.

Qin Huairu eats well, and her living standard naturally declines. She has been craving for meat for who knows how long.

(End of this chapter)