Lu Fangfang touched the money in her pocket, feeling a sense of powerlessness.

In this day and age, it's true that even if you have money, you can't spend it.

She had originally planned to buy a hen and raise it to lay eggs, but it seems she shouldn't get her hopes up.

Turning her head to look at the eggs on the stall, Lu Fangfang suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked, "Comrade, do I need coupons to buy eggs?"

Salesperson: "..."

If it weren't for the fact that Lu Fangfang was wearing a military uniform, she would have definitely cursed at her.

"Comrade, do you not need egg coupons to buy eggs?"

Lu Fangfang nodded with a wry smile. She remembered that at the supply and marketing cooperative in Hongxing Brigade, you didn't need coupons to buy eggs.

It seems supplies are really tight here. You need poultry coupons to buy chickens and egg coupons to buy eggs. What are we going to do? She was planning to buy fertilized eggs with Sister Shufen to hatch chicks.

I don't know if there's a black market nearby.

Lu Fangfang really didn't want to go to the black market unless absolutely necessary; it was too dangerous.

If she gets caught, not only will she be locked up, but Zhuang Mingcheng will also be implicated, and he might even lose his position as battalion commander.

Lu Fangfang was very anxious, and she turned around to go and discuss it with Sister Shufen.

"Hey? Comrade? Comrade?"

The chicken vendor quickly stopped Lu Fangfang, who was about to leave, and asked, "Do you really not need coupons to buy eggs there?"

Lu Fangfang nodded, then hurriedly walked towards the meat-buying line.

"Looks like you're from a big city." The sales clerk was momentarily stunned.

...

Wang Shufen and Sun Manling were still queuing in front of the meat stall; it would be their turn soon.

Lu Fangfang hurriedly went over and said, "Sister Shufen, I just went to the place that sells eggs and they require egg coupons. What should we do?"

Before she and her sister Shufen could even begin their chicken-raising venture, they were stumped by an egg ticket.

As for quail eggs, Lu Fangfang had already given up hope. She looked around but couldn't find any for sale. She could only try to find them in the city later.

"Hey girl, don't rush, look what this is?"

Wang Shufen smiled and took out two small yellow receipts from her pocket.

Lu Fangfang's eyes lit up. She took the receipt and saw several large characters written at the top: "Supreme Directive: Prepare for war, prepare for famine, for the people."

Below it was written "eggs" and "one jin".

"These are egg tickets."

Lu Fangfang was completely relieved; two egg coupons could buy two jin of eggs, which was more than enough.

When it was Sun Manling and Wang Shufen's turn to buy meat, the queue had come up.

Since Lu Fangfang didn't have any tickets, she stood aside and watched the commotion.

In front of the meat stall, there were two sales clerks, a man and a woman. The woman collected money, while the man cut and weighed the meat.

Sun Manling knew the saleswoman. She chatted with her for a couple of minutes with a smile, and then said she wanted one and a half pounds of beef.

While the man was cutting the meat, Sun Manling waved behind her, "Fangfang? Fangfang? Come here quickly."

Lu Fangfang was puzzled, but she still walked over quickly.

“Sister-in-law Meijiao, this is Political Commissar Xiao’s wife, Wang Shufen, and that is Battalion Commander Zhuang’s wife, Lu Fangfang. They just arrived to join the army.”

Sun Manling introduced them to the two women: "Sister-in-law Shufen, Fangfang, this is Zhang Meijiao, the wife of Battalion Commander Liu of the Second Regiment. She works as a saleswoman at the non-staple food market."

Lu Fangfang was very surprised. She didn't expect that there were military spouses living in family compounds in the county's non-staple food market.

After thinking for a moment, she remembered.

Sun Manling had mentioned her before; she was a military wife who worked as a saleswoman.

Lu Fangfang greeted her with a smile.

Looking at Zhang Meijiao, I saw that she was wearing work clothes, had short hair, was slightly chubby, and had a very beautiful smile.

"Sister-in-law Shufen, Fangfang, hello."

Zhang Meijiao greeted them with a smile, and then asked how many kilograms of beef they wanted to buy.

"Give me two pounds."

Wang Shufen took out money and tickets from her pocket.

Zhang Meijiao asked the butcher to cut the beef, then looked at Lu Fangfang and asked, "Fangfang, how much beef do you want?"

Lu Fangfang shook her head shyly, "Sister-in-law Meijiao, I don't have any meat coupons, so I won't buy any meat."

Zhang Meijiao seemed to be deep in thought.

Looking back, she pulled Lu Fangfang aside and whispered, "Fangfang, there are still some beef bones on the stall. No meat coupons required. If you want them, I'll sell them to you cheaply."

Following the direction Zhang Meijiao pointed, Lu Fangfang looked towards the meat stall.

A large cow skeleton hung on the iron pole behind the stall, looking to weigh at least 60 or 70 pounds.

Rubbing her eyes, Lu Fangfang tried to find some meat on the cow skeleton, but after a while, she gave up.

I was truly impressed. I have to say, the butcher in the market is really skilled. He shaved the meat so cleanly, not a single shred of meat was left.

However, Lu Fangfang was actually quite tempted by the cow skeleton.

There wasn't much meat left on the skeleton, but it still had other uses.

In just a short while, Lu Fangfang came up with three uses for the bones: cracking them open to extract the marrow and render it into beef tallow, grinding the bones into beef bone powder to feed chickens and quails, and using the beef bones as bait to put in cages to catch fish.

By the way, the bones themselves can also be sold; I heard the purchasing station sells them for three cents a pound.

Such a large skeleton could fetch a dollar or two even if sold to a recycling station.

What a treasure!

Lu Fangfang was increasingly tempted as she looked at it, and she quickly asked, "Sister-in-law Meijiao, how much would such a large cow skeleton cost?"

"Don't worry, I won't rip you off. I'll give you an insider price of six yuan, and I'll secretly get you a beef liver too."

Zhang Meijiao gave Lu Fangfang a knowing look.

By taking public property and using it to curry favor with her own family, she thrived in the family compound and was even more popular than the regimental commander's wife.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!