The county's supply and marketing cooperative was very large. Behind the glass counter were tall wooden cabinets displaying various goods, and next to them hung a sign with a very distinctive style of the era that read "Do not beat customers."

Everything is available here; compared to this, the supply and marketing station in the family compound can only be considered a sales agent.

An'an nestled in Lu Yang's arms, her eyes already fixed on the food in the glass jar. Seeing that she couldn't take her eyes off it, Lu Yang waved his hand and directly packed a pound of peach shortbread, a pound of mung bean cake, and a bag of salted dates.

Besides the usual pastries, there was another type of pastry in the glass cabinet, which was jujube red. Song Qing had never seen it before and stared at it for a while. Lu Yang immediately bought another pound.

Song Qing swallowed the words in her throat. Whatever, it was his money anyway.

Lu Yang carried An An and a bunch of things in his hands, while Song Qing also carried a bunch of things. They then headed towards the grain station.

The borrowed bicycle was locked in front of the post office, but it wasn't a good place to put the things I bought there, as they could easily be stolen.

The family had no choice but to carry that pile of stuff to the grain station in a grand procession.

They transferred their household registration and grain rations a few days ago and received their household registration book, grain ration book, and non-staple food ration book, so their relocation to the military was finally confirmed.

There were still more than ten days before the grain station would deliver the grain, and they only planned to buy enough grain for these few days, and buy the rest from the grain station in their family compound.

The grains, both coarse and fine, weighed several dozen kilograms and filled half a sack. Lu Yang rode his bicycle to take the goods back first.

At the meat shop, fatty pork cost 80 cents a pound. Song Qing was lucky enough to see two pounds of nice-looking pork fat.

She had a lot of tickets in her hand, all of which her mother had obtained through various exchanges, so she simply bought the piece of pork fat and also bought two extra pounds of meat.

It's mid-to-late March and the snow hasn't melted yet. There's a shortage of fresh vegetables in Northeast China. The vegetables we usually eat are radishes, potatoes, and sauerkraut stored from the winter.

But they actually found cabbage at the vegetable market, not frozen cabbage, but fresh, tender cabbage wrapped in an old cotton quilt.

He only lifted the blanket to show Song Qing when he saw that she wanted to.

Even though I had a feeling the vegetables wouldn't be cheap, I was still shocked when I asked the price: 50 cents a pound! Vegetables I usually buy cost only a few cents, and meat at the butcher shop is only 80 cents.

The people at the vegetable market didn't rush them as they stood there, since the cabbages were transported from the south and generally no one would be willing to eat them.

Song Qing gritted his teeth for a long time, but finally gave up. No matter how rare it was, it was still cabbage. When spring came and the cabbages in the field grew, they would eat a lot of them.

Lu Yang hadn't arrived yet, so Song Qing, holding An'an's hand, strolled to the grocery store again. They had already bought several pounds of pastries at the supply and marketing cooperative, and hadn't originally planned to buy any more, but she saw the pastries that didn't require coupons.

Things that don't require tickets are very expensive these days, and this is a real glutinous rice cake, costing 1.5 yuan per pound.

A chicken only costs 2.5 yuan now, and she thought that since it's cold and she can't get up in the morning, she could have Lu Yang bring it for breakfast.

This stuff makes you feel full easily, and besides, things that don't require a ticket aren't available every day, so she gritted her teeth and bought two pounds.

It's okay, it's okay. Let's be happy today since we're joining the group. It's not like we eat this every day.

The monthly egg ration here is six liang (approximately 300 grams) for adults and two liang (approximately 100 grams) for children. Larger eggs are priced at one liang (approximately 50 grams) each, which is definitely not enough.

Now that they have a yard, they'll ask around in the spring if there are any chicks nearby. She wants to raise a few so she can slaughter them and eat them when they don't lay eggs as much in winter.

There's a mountain behind their house, and they drive the chickens over to graze in the summer. But they definitely can't raise too many, or they'll get reported.

When she was in Xin'an, she talked to an aunt from Northeast China and learned that in the mountains of Northeast China, no one cares if you go hunting, as long as you are not seen by others.

During the off-season, people usually go up the mountain to hunt a few wild rabbits for a treat. If they catch something big, like a wild boar, and if you're capable of sneaking it down the mountain without anyone knowing, you can hide it.

If it becomes known that something belongs to the collective, it will be distributed among the entire village.

In winter, fearing that wild animals, starving all winter, would come down from the mountains and wreak havoc on crops when it was time to plant in the spring, the commune would organize winter hunting teams to go up the mountains to hunt, and that would allow them to get meat.

Although these things have nothing to do with Song Qing and the others, she lives close to the village now, so she can buy them. Of course, it shouldn't be called buying, but rather exchanging them.

When Lu Yang arrived on his bicycle, he found that Song Qing was carrying a bunch of things again.

Without saying a word, he picked it up and hung it on the handlebars. They need to buy a bicycle too, otherwise it's always inconvenient to come here.

"What's this?"

"The tickets I swapped with my comrade-in-arms before."

In the days he waited for them to arrive, he exchanged a bunch of tickets with the group of people below. He had been so busy these past few days that he hadn't thought of giving them to her. He only remembered that there were egg tickets in there when he went back to put his things away.

Eggs are currently the most common type of meat, and most families will definitely keep some for themselves, since eggs only cost four or five cents per pound compared to meat.

Lu Yang usually swapped tickets with single men, whose families didn't accompany them and ate in the mess hall, so they didn't need these tickets.

Moreover, egg coupons are local coupons and cannot be sent home. National grain coupons would be acceptable, as Lu Yang used to make a lot of money by exchanging coupons.

"I just saw the eggs, but I didn't buy them because I didn't have a ticket. I was planning to trade some with Uncle Lao Gen when I go to his house later."

Song Qing beamed and happily took the coupons. There were many egg coupons, a few meat coupons, soap coupons, kerosene coupons and all sorts of other coupons, and even a few industrial coupons.

He knows how to manage his money.

So Song Qing waved his hand and went to the food station again, where he bought 20 eggs and put them in a net bag. He probably exchanged five or six catties of egg coupons, and bought two catties today, which cost him ninety cents.

Eggs at the grocery store cost 45 cents a pound; if you were to trade them with villagers, you'd probably have to pay an extra cent.

Afraid of cracking the eggs, I simply held the net bag in my hand.

"The vegetable market didn't have much produce, only Chinese cabbage transported from the south. It cost 50 cents a pound, which was too expensive for me to buy."

Song Qing was in a particularly good mood, carrying eggs, and chattered on and on with Lu Yang. Upon hearing this, Lu Yang stopped the car.

Why not buy it?

Although it sounded a bit expensive, it wasn't easy to find fresh and tender vegetables in the dead of winter, and besides, they had been eating in the cafeteria during their stay, so he thought he should buy something better.

After saying that, he was about to turn around and head towards the vegetable market when Song Qing grabbed the handlebars.

"It's 50 cents a pound, almost as much as meat. It's just cabbage, not meat."

Song Qing was annoyed. She had just praised him for being good at managing money, but he was now spending lavishly.

Lu Yang looked at An'an, who was holding Song Qingyi's hand, and said in a low voice, "I have money, I don't need to be frugal."