Chapter 67 Wow! We can't even see the spectacle in person! ...

Compared to the price of rice and flour, rice bran costs only one or two cents per pound, which is ten times cheaper. Cornmeal is also a type of coarse grain and is inexpensive.

Cornmeal can be used to make coarse grain steamed buns, while rice bran and wheat bran are purely for feeding chickens and pigs. Unless it is a year of famine, who would eat that stuff?

Zhuang Xiaoman was eating in the courtyard, but she was doing it purely to save money, otherwise she would be laughed at.

But if he didn't buy some rice bran and bran to mix in, the little bit of rice left at home wouldn't be enough to eat. As for borrowing money from his comrades, Chen Ruifeng would never agree. He had just proudly shown off his imported watch, and if he turned around and went to borrow money, wouldn't he become a laughing stock?

Zhao Yangyang asked incredulously, "Chen Ruifeng, are you speaking human language?"

"I'm trying to figure out a solution too. What else can I do? Where am I supposed to get the money?" Chen Ruifeng guessed that Zhao Yangyang probably still had some money hidden away. Could it be that she gave it all to Zhou Lu? Then she could go ask Zhou Lu for the money herself. Anyway, he couldn't find a single penny in his pocket.

If Zhao Yangyang refuses to ask Zhou Lu for money, fine, then she can eat rice bran herself. Anyway, Chen Ruifeng is a soldier, so he can just eat at the mess hall, pretend he has a lot of things to do, have a couple of bites of the mess hall food, and then go back.

Generally, soldiers who have access to family-style meals don't like eating at the mess hall, as it would be ridiculed. However, some soldiers occasionally take a few meals back to their families, although this is not allowed in principle, it's acceptable once or twice a month.

But Chen Ruifeng and his wife were newlyweds! In the eyes of outsiders, the newlyweds are the most loving time. Who would want to work in the mess hall? Wouldn't it be better for the couple to go home and have a sweet meal together?

"Rice bran is cheap, we need to save some money to buy honeycomb briquettes..." Chen Ruifeng opened his mouth, then silently swallowed his words. He wanted to remind Zhao Yangyang that the family needed to buy a water tank; in the last month or two of the summer heat, water was scarce, and the water pressure on the third floor might not be enough...

"That's enough. We don't even have enough food, firewood, or coal, let alone water tanks," Chen Ruifeng thought angrily. "This stupid woman lent out all her money; she deserves to suffer the consequences."

"Go get a few free chicks, raise them for a few days, and they'll at least be considered meat. As for shellfish, clams, and razor clams... you can find a woman to take you to the mudflats to fish for tidal bores, and that's at least some meat."

"Just hang in there, it'll be fine once I get paid."

Zhao Yangyang was going crazy. Chen Ruifeng said that he only had this little bit of money, and Zhao Yangyang had given all her money to Zhou Lu. She didn't keep any for herself. How was she going to live now?

Three hundred yuan! That's three hundred yuan! Even ordinary families don't have three hundred yuan in savings, so how could she have been so foolish as to lend three hundred yuan to Zhou Lu?

Zhao Yangyang bit her lip. No, she had to ask Zhou Lu for ten or twenty yuan back. Even if she only got ten yuan back, it would be enough to get by if she was careful with her spending in the future.

Zhao Yangyang thought that ten yuan wasn't a lot of money, so she went downstairs to knock on Zhou Lu's door. To her surprise, Zhou Lu opened the door and gave her a wry smile. As soon as she entered, she could see the kitchen, where Zhou Lu was making side dishes, steamed buns, and cucumber salad. There was also a bowl of loofah soup that was thin and watery with no meat in it.

"Yangyang, I'm so sorry to have you see this. Last year, the child had prickly heat, and it broke my heart to see him like that. After sending the money I was going to give home, I bought him an electric fan with my own money..."

Faced with Zhou Lu's complaining, Zhao Yangyang felt too embarrassed to ask for the money back.

She cares about her reputation and face!

Zhao Yangyang wanted to ask her family for help, but she was afraid that the phone in the military family compound would be overheard. How embarrassing would it be for her to ask her family for money so soon after arriving? It was too late to send a letter home. What if her family asked her in the letter where the money had gone?

This is insane! This is insane! This is insane!

Now, the only option is to follow Chen Ruifeng's advice and for the couple to bravely get through this month. Zhao Yangyang went to claim her own vegetable plot, asked the production team for a brood of chicks, and bought twenty catties of rice bran, wheat bran, and cornmeal from the store, saying it was for the chickens.

Zhao Yangyang tried making a side dish of boiled rice bran. To be honest, rice bran smells quite fragrant, but tastes... cough cough cough, it cuts your throat.

This is the rough, grainy texture of a blade!

"Zhao Yangyang...you, the new family member is eating rice bran!" Zhuang Xiaoman's eyes widened in disbelief. She smelled a familiar scent on Zhao Yangyang.

Through her careful observation, Zhuang Xiaoman discovered that Zhao Yangyang, a new family member from the big city, also ate rice bran, wheat bran, and cornmeal, which was quite unusual.

Back in the 1960s, life was tough. Even in the city, people ate rice bran and wheat bran. Now it's the 1970s. Although we don't have enough oil and fat, we can still afford to eat some coarse grains and rice. We don't have to eat pig feed or chicken feed anymore.

Eating this stuff is torture. It doesn't fill you up, and you can't poop after eating it. It's so uncomfortable.

Originally, Zhao Yangyang was secretly eating rice bran and cornmeal to maintain a respectable appearance, but she was completely devastated when Zhuang Xiaoman found out.

She's clearly wealthy! Her husband earns a high salary too! Why has her life turned out like this?! She can't even ask for money from others just to maintain appearances!

Zhao Yangyang stubbornly said, "...I just want to taste this stuff, add some wild vegetables to remind myself of the bitter past and appreciate the sweet present. I've always heard my elders say that this stuff is very bitter, so I'm just trying it myself."

"Oh, the 'bitterness-remembering-the-sweetness-appreciation-the-sweetness' meal, I know, I know that. Every year, the kids' school has to have the 'bitterness-remembering-the-sweetness-appreciation-the-sweetness' meal. You city folks are just too curious."

Zhuang Xiaoman smiled at Zhao Yangyang, then whispered, "You have to be careful since you live on the third floor. Zhou Lu, who lives on the second floor of your building, loves to borrow money. She borrowed five hundred yuan from me last time and hasn't paid it back for several years."

"If you lent her ten or twenty yuan, just consider the money gone and you won't get it back."

Zhao Yangyang: "What if someone lends her several hundred yuan?"

Zhuang Xiaoman: "There probably aren't many people as clueless as me."

Zhao Yangyang: "..."

"New family member, your home is on the third floor. Remember to buy a water tank to store water. The water pressure is low on the third floor, and the water supply is often interrupted. Store more water in the tank regularly."

Zhao Yangyang was stunned, but where would they get the money to buy a water tank at this point?

"Zhou Lu, pay me back!"

Qin Xiangxiang's family was picking vegetables in the garden. Tomatoes, cucumbers, loofahs, and green beans hanging from the trellis were gradually ripening. Each person carried a bamboo basket and picked the ripe fruits.

Cucumbers can be eaten directly as fruit, or made into cold dishes like smashed cucumber, or popular crisp and refreshing side dishes like pickled cucumbers and sour cucumbers.

Loofah can be stored for several days. If you can't finish it, you can hang it by the window to dry and make loofah sponges to use for washing dishes. It is the most natural dishwashing tool.

Tomatoes can be used to make borscht. I picked a big bunch of cowpeas and took them home, which is perfect for making a jar of pickled cowpeas. The pickled cowpeas, once chopped, are great for cooking noodles or rice, as well as for cooking fish and stir-frying pork offal to remove any fishy smell.

Qin Xiangxiang also traded some of the cucumbers she grew herself for other people's gourds and snake gourds.

An older woman told her, "Xiao Qin, do you know how it is for people from the city? In the summer, you can buy a winter melon and keep it at home. If the child can't sleep because it's too hot, let him hold the winter melon while he sleeps."

Qin Xiangxiang: "Thank you, sister-in-law, I understand."

Hehe, they don't worry about that at all. They have two or three electric fans at home, and they just take a bottle of ice from the refrigerator and put it in front of the fan. The cool breeze that blows out is so comfortable.

When I got home, the water was indeed cut off at noon, but we had a large tank of water stored at home, so there was no rush.

Li Jianzhi said, "Don't be stingy with water. If there's still no water by tonight, I'll go fetch well water to take home."

Qin Xiangxiang felt sorry for him: "It's a bit far. Why don't you remove the wheels from the car at home and we can make a trailer?"

Li Jianzhi paused for a moment, then casually said, "Let's forget about it. If we use this thing, people will come to borrow it every day. It's too much trouble."

That makes sense. Qin Xiangxiang reluctantly gave up the idea. The children's stroller she bought cost fifty-eight yuan, and it was precisely because it had wheels that its most precious feature was those wheels.

"I'll take Little Fatty out to fish for tidal bores later."

"Okay." Qin Xiangxiang also wanted to go to the mudflats to go beachcombing, but her current health wasn't suitable. She quite liked collecting sea snails and digging for razor clams, which was also interesting.

The mantis shrimp is a small octopus that likes to eat crabs. You can use crabs to catch mantis shrimp, which is relatively safe and fun.

Li Jianzhi took the child to catch the tidal bore, while Qin Xiangxiang stayed home to take a nap. However, a loud argument upstairs woke her up. When she opened her eyes and heard the noise, she realized that the male lead, Chen Ruifeng, and the new female lead, Zhao Yangyang, were arguing.

"I want to go back. I want a divorce. I don't want to live in this godforsaken place anymore. There's not even water."

“I’ve already said we need to store water. No matter where you go in the country, there’s a water shortage in the summer. The water pressure on the third floor is too low.”

"Xiao Chen, comfort your wife. Go buy a water tank tomorrow. It's not a big deal. There's no water at home, but there's a well in the yard. Let the men go fetch water."

"Let me see your kitchen... My goodness, Xiao Chen, you're out of rice! You need to buy some!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yangyang was devastated. "Zhou Lu borrowed money from my family. She borrowed all my money!!"

Other onlookers exclaimed, "Wow!"

Standing behind, Qin Xiangxiang couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow!"

How much money must have been borrowed? Qin Xiangxiang had only borrowed twenty yuan back then. Most people who borrowed ten or twenty yuan wouldn't be destitute; they could just be frugal and save money.

"Xiao Chen, all you have left in your house is rice bran and wheat bran..."

The others exclaimed in surprise: "Wow!"

Qin Xiangxiang was even more shocked: "Wow!"

She looked around, wishing she could see Li Jianzhi. She had a lot to complain to him about. That damned man was so unlucky. He was on vacation at home, but he couldn't even watch the excitement live.