Hello 1983

  Chapter 63 Mooncakes and Bean Cakes

   After working for several days in a row, most of the crops in the field were harvested and piled up in the yard, waiting to be played. Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  In the past few days, Liu Qingshan has had the hardest time working in the fields during the day and studying with his second sister at night.

   Liu Yinfeng is a very conscientious and hardworking student. When she saw the textbooks sent back by her younger brother, they were so brand new that she didn’t even turn them over. She immediately became angry and supervised him every night to read and study, reciting subjects that required rote memorization.

   This is also Liu Qingshan's fault, running around every day, forgetting that he is still a student, and the books are almost covered with ashes.

   Fortunately, early in the morning, the boss uncle drove a carriage and told Liu Qingshan to go to the commune, followed by a carriage driven by Da Zhang Luo, who were going to the grain storehouse to sell bean cakes.

   Wasn’t Secretary Sun of the commune leading many people to Jiapigou that day? When he was happy, he helped approve three thousand catties of bean cakes to make pig feed, which is another form of reward.

  Bean cakes are the residue left after the oil is squeezed out of soybeans, pressed into large round cakes with a diameter of half a meter. This stuff is delicious, and it is definitely a must when mixed with pig feed.

  Let’s not talk about pigs, people couldn’t eat them when there was a famine a few years ago.

   Finally liberated!

  Liu Qingshan jumped onto the carriage, and then heard a whoosh sound, and a book flew over and fell into his arms.

   This was thrown by Liu Yinfeng who came out from behind: "Sanfenger, don't forget to memorize the book on the way, I will test you when you come back."

  Second sister, you want to make me a nerd, right?

  Liu Qingshan could only sigh in his heart, but on the way to the commune, he still concentrated on reciting the book.

  His self-control, of course, is not comparable to those who are half-sized. Some time ago, he was mainly busy with work and forgot. After that, he decided to set aside an hour or two every night to read and review.

  Go to the commune first, and ask Secretary Sun for approval. Before leaving, Secretary Sun slipped two paper tickets to Liu Qingshan.

  After going out, he opened it and saw that it was stamped with the seal of the supply and marketing cooperative, and there were a few words: get two catties of mooncakes for free with the ticket.

  Moon cake?

  Liu Qingshan thought for a while, and asked the boss uncle who was driving ahead: "Isn't tomorrow the August Festival?"

  The Mid-Autumn Festival is called the August Festival locally, and the Dragon Boat Festival is called the May Festival.

   "It seems so, I forgot about it."

  Uncle Boss replied casually, in fact, he didn’t really forget it in a hurry, adults don’t remember it, but children still think about it, and don’t think about anything else, but also want to eat some delicious food for energy saving.

   Mid-Autumn Festival, even a piece of moon cake is fine.

  The main reason is that this year’s wheat was not sold to the grain depot, and the money was not exchanged. The family’s original activity money was all invested in the cooperative. Everyone had no money, so they deliberately chose to forget it.

   New Year’s Day is easy, but ordinary life is hard.

   "It's a big festival, why don't you have to ask everyone to eat a piece of moon cake, to celebrate the festival."

  Liu Qingshan muttered, telling the boss uncle to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to see if there are any moon cakes for sale.

  The boss uncle also scratched his head: "Qingshan, our loan is almost exhausted, we should tighten our belts and live a hard life for two years."

   "The children are all looking forward to this." Liu Qingshan understands the thoughts of those children best, because there is a fourth child in his family.

  Boss Che also thinks about the two youngest girls in the family. Waiting for tomorrow night, they will stretch out their little hands pitifully and ask him for mooncakes, and he...

  Thinking about it, he couldn't help but feel sore: "Success, let's take a look first!"

  In the supply and marketing cooperatives, there must be moon cakes for sale. The cheapest ones are one for four and one catty, and the five-headed ones are wrapped in butter paper and tied with paper strings.

  Through the oily yellow paper, you can smell the fragrance coming from inside.

   There are paper boxes for more advanced ones, with Chang'e flying to the moon printed on it, and the price is also more expensive: two yuan per box.

  Liu Qingshan made some calculations, the entire Jiapigou villagers, with a family of nearly 200, just bought 200 yuan of mooncakes, no matter what, everyone had to buy one.

  So he said to the salesperson: "Comrade, invoice us for 40 catties of mooncakes."

  The salesperson next to the counter was not frightened by the amount of 40 catties, and he didn't buy it from her house, so he was still lazy: "I want 40 catties of food stamps, do you have any?"

   This is really not the case. The public rations have not been paid this year, so naturally no food stamps have been issued.

   "If you don't have food stamps to buy mooncakes, don't sell them!"

  The salesperson grumbled, then stopped talking to Liu Qingshan and the three of them, and knit sweaters with his head bowed.

  There is no way out, even if you add more money, they will not sell you.

  Liu Qingshan had a four-kiloton mooncake ticket given by Secretary Sun, but he couldn’t get it, so he went back with the four-kiloton mooncake, what do you guys think?

  The three of them left the supply and marketing cooperative rather disappointed, so they could only go to the grain depot first and get the bean cakes.

   This went quite smoothly. A large piece of golden bean cake was loaded onto the carriage. Good guy, each piece is as big as a sewer cover.

  Uncle Boss was overjoyed on the spot: "There are no moon cakes, so go back and ask those little bunnies to eat bean cakes. One piece of soybean cakes is enough for them to eat on the 15th of August next year!"

   This joke is not funny at all, even Liu Qingshan feels a little sad.

  On the two large carriages, stacks of soybean cakes were placed high up, and then tied with ropes, they rattled out of the gate of the grain depot.

   "Moon cakes, sell moon cakes!"

  There was a yelling sound from the side of the road, Liu Qingshan thought he was crazy about moon cakes, and had hallucinations, because the sound was really not loud, as if he was deliberately suppressing his throat.

He looked around on both sides of the road, and he really found that there was a man squatting at the bottom of the wall of the veterinary hospital, holding a cardboard box in his arms, his eyes wandering around, as if he was ready to run away at any time .

  Liu Qingshan jumped out of the car with a whoosh, and ran over, but the guy also crouched down, hugged the box and ran away.

   "Hey, we are buying moon cakes, why are you running?"

  Liu Qingshan yelled, selling mooncakes generously, why is he acting like a thief.

  The man stopped when he heard the sound, looked back and saw the carriage and the goods on it, he was relieved, and said with a smile:

   "Little brother, there is no way, these days are strictly controlled."

  Thinking about the current environment, Liu Qingshan suddenly realized, so he went over to see that the paper box was really filled with mooncakes.

   Moreover, it seemed that the old mooncake molds were used for some years. The patterns and characters on the surface of the mooncakes looked very simple, so he asked casually, "Let me break a piece and see if it looks right?"

   "Okay, I baked it at home, it doesn't matter if you try a piece."

  The man was also quite refreshed. He directly broke a piece of mooncake and divided it into three parts. Once he broke it, the fragrance immediately came out.

  Looking at it, there are plenty of sesame seeds and peanuts in the stuffing, as well as brightly colored green and red silk, which is not worse than the ones sold by the supply and marketing cooperatives.

  Liu Qingshan took a sip, and it was quite fragrant, so he asked, "How do you sell these mooncakes?"

  The man looked around: "One yuan and five catties, no food stamps, for retail, forty cents a piece."

   Don’t need food stamps, the price is about the same as the supply and marketing cooperatives, Liu Qingshan made a decision on the spot: "How many yuan do you have in this box, we will cover it!"

   "It's round?!"

  The man was also taken aback, and then his face showed ecstasy. This box is fifty yuan, even if someone buys it, it will cost three to five yuan, or two catties at most, and he will die.

   "That's not enough points, do you still have any stock in your house?"

  Liu Qingshan patted the man on the shoulder, brought him back to his senses, and then nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, how much do you need in total?"

   "Two hundred yuan, you see we bought so much, can you give me a wholesale price?"

   "Okay, then I will give you one yuan and three pounds, which is cheaper than the supply and marketing cooperative!"

   Just like that, after Liu Qingshan and the others went back to the main road of the commune, there were four more cardboard boxes on the carriage.

  Uncle Boss and Da Zhang Luo were also happy from ear to ear at the moment, and they swung the big whip with extra vigor.

   Now it's all right. After returning home, I have an explanation to the baby at home.

   Adults have nothing to say whether they eat or not. As parents, seeing their children happy is the happiest thing for them.

   Just happened to be on the way, so Liu Qingshan went to the post office again, and there was indeed a letter from the eldest brother-in-law and a heavy package.

   I am familiar with the people in the post office, and when Liu Qingshan came, he asked Gao Wenxue for his hand stamp, so he took the things out smoothly.

  Da Zhang Luo glanced at the big package he was carrying, and immediately yelled: "Oh my god, it's the manuscript fee for literature again, how much does it cost?"

  Liu Qingshan blinked his eyes, and was also amused: "I also think it's the manuscript fee, but I guess it's a sample booklet sent by the magazine."

  The boss uncle also stroked his chest: "If it's all money, I don't dare to take it. I have to find a company of militiamen to help **** it back."

  The three of them laughed loudly, and the crowd who were about to gather around to watch the excitement dispersed immediately, and they all gathered around another large carriage to watch the excitement.

  Liu Qingshan had sharp eyes, and saw that there seemed to be a butcher seller, so he also went over there.

  Hey, it really sells meat, but it's not pork, but beef.

   It turned out that this group of people belonged to the Qianqian brigade, and the cattle in the family ate soy beans and swelled to death, so they greeted the commune and slaughtered the meat for sale.

  Under normal circumstances, without the approval of the commune, it is not allowed to slaughter cattle casually.

   There are quite a lot of people watching the fun, but there are few people buying meat. Da Zhang Luo also muttered in disappointment: "The beef is too thin and there is no oily water."

   These words actually represent everyone’s aspirations. Although the beef sells for 80 cents a catty, which is much cheaper than the normal price, it still cannot be sold.

  Beef!

  Liu Qingshan's eyes flashed. These days, it's not easy to want to eat beef and mutton. Usually, you can't see it at all. It's hard to come across this, so of course you can't miss it.

  So he said excitedly: "Uncle Boss, Uncle Zhang Luo, each family in our village will buy another two catties of beef. It's the holidays, so we have to eat dumplings!"

  When those two heard this, they shook their heads together. Although they were also greedy, they didn’t live like this.

   "Don't worry, when the vegetables in the greenhouse are sold, we will have money!"

  Liu Qingshan comforted the two old brothers, and then squeezed to the carriage selling meat: "Cut sixty catties of meat for me, and I want ribs and chest, and make it fatter!"

"okay!"

  …

  (end of this chapter)