Chapter 16: One Pound of Meat and One Pound of Ticket
Gu Yuehuai blinked, tears welled up in his eyes, but he quickly lowered his eyes, not daring to let anyone see.
Gu Zhifeng looked rough, but he was actually careful. When he saw that Gu Yuehuai was in a bad mood, he hurriedly said, "What's wrong, Nannan? Don't you like it? It's okay. If you don't like it, Dad can take it back and change it to something you like, okay?"
Gu Yuehuai shook his head and gritted his teeth and said, "It's okay, Dad, I'm fine. I like this pair of shoes very much."
"I'm glad that you like it, I'm glad that you like it. Does your head still hurt? Your eldest brother has told dad about it. It's a sin. Please don't disfigure your face. Dad will take you to the commune to have a look later!" Gu Zhifeng looked at Gu Yuehuai with pity.
She said, "It doesn't hurt anymore, Dad. Don't worry. The doctor said it's nothing serious. Just rest more."
After Gu Yuehuai finished speaking, he put the shoe box aside and said to Gu Zhifeng, "Dad, sit down and rest for a while. I'll go help my second brother cook and let you taste my cooking skills. My eldest brother kept praising me last night."
After saying that, without waiting for Gu Zhifeng to speak, she jumped off the kang, ran over to rummage through the grain bag, and while Gu Ruihuai went out to fetch water, she poured half a bag of rice into the basin and put it in the steamer to steam.
There were no more vegetables at home, so she put the eight dollars and twenty cents under her pillow in her pocket and prepared to go to the village to find someone to buy some meat at a high price.
"Dad, watch the fire. I'm going to go out for a while!"
Gu Yuehuai greeted him and hurried out the door.
Gu Xihuai glanced at her, then walked to the stove, opened the lid of the pot, and was so surprised that his eyes almost popped out. He said in a strange tone: "Dad, did the sun rise from the west today? Look, Gu Yuehuai actually steamed the rice!"
Gu Zhifeng was stunned and puzzled. In the past, Nannan valued the fine grain in the bag more than anything else. What happened today? Did she really get hit on the head? He couldn't help but look a little worried, thinking that he should go to the clinic to check after dinner.
Even though she was thinking about it, Gu Zhifeng still looked up and glared at Gu Xihuai: "Stop making up stories, girl!"
Gu Xihuai curled his lips. He was really worrying about nothing. Maybe Gu Yuehuai steamed so much rice not for them to eat.
*
After Gu Yuehuai went out, he went straight to the branch secretary's house.
These days, there are not many families in the Dalaozi Production Brigade who can eat meat. Chen Yuesheng’s family is one of them, Director Huang’s family is one of them, and the other is the family of the branch secretary Wang Fuji.
However, it was impossible for her to go to the Chen family. Director Huang had taken Tian Jing to the commune clinic and was not there either.
Wang Fujia’s house was also built with rammed earth, and a bunch of green leaves poked out from the top of the wall, which was quite elegant.
The door of his house was open, and Wang Fu's wife Duan Juhua was cooking behind the door curtain. A rich aroma of meat wafted into the air.
Gu Yuehuai knocked on the door and strode into the yard: "Aunt Juhua!"
"Who is it?" Duan Juhua heard the voice and stuck her head out with a spatula. When she saw it was Gu Yuehuai, her eyebrows frowned and she asked with a dark face, "What are you doing in my house?"
She thought to herself: Gu Yuehuai is used to being lazy and gluttonous. He came here at dinner time today. Does he want to get a free meal?
Thinking of this, Duan Juhua's face became even darker.
Gu Yuehuai pretended not to see it, smiled slightly when seeing people, and raised his lips and said: "Aunt Juhua, my family finally got together today, I wanted to cook a dish, but there is no meat at home, so I came to buy some from you, what do you think?"
As he spoke, Gu Yuehuai raised a stack of bills in his hand.
When Duan Juhua saw the money in her hand, her dark complexion looked better. Then she was surprised to hear that she bought the meat for her family. After all, everyone in the team could see how selfish Gu Yuehuai was.
She thought for a moment and said, "I don't have much meat left. I have a piece of pork belly. Do you want some?"
Gu Yuehuai was delighted and said in a strong voice: "Yes!"
Duan Juhua cooked the vegetables before going into the house to get the meat. She also took out a scale and asked, "How much do you want?"
Gu Yuehuai looked at the three-finger-wide strip of pork belly in Duan Juhua's hand and said, "I want this piece of meat!"
"You want all of them?" Duan Juhua was slightly surprised. Her family didn't get much meat every time they bought it. After all, meat coupons were hard to get and the supply and marketing cooperative also limited the supply. This meat was given to her daughter who married into the city when she came back to visit her.
Gu Yuehuai nodded: "Yes! I want both! But I don't have any meat coupons, I'll give you more money, okay, auntie?"
The 1970s is what later generations called the "ticket era". In the planned economy era, tickets were very important to every individual and every family, and were indispensable in daily life.
There are many kinds of tickets, including grain tickets, meat tickets, oil tickets, cloth tickets, cotton tickets, sugar tickets and so on.
The tickets are issued annually in a fixed quantity based on the worker's age and type of work, and are supplied at designated locations. There are also tickets for some scarce materials, such as watch tickets, sewing machine tickets, cigarette tickets, bicycle tickets, etc.
However, most of these tickets were issued to residents in the city who ate commercial grain. Farmers in the village brigade could only get a small portion of them. They still relied on the distribution of vegetables and grain based on work points at the end of the year.
Duan Juhua hesitated for a while, then gritted her teeth and said, "Okay."
Her family was reluctant to eat so much meat, so they would only cut a piece of meat as big as a little finger each time so that they could taste it. But the more they ate, the greedier they became. It would be better to exchange it for money.
She weighed it with a scale and found it was two pounds and three ounces in total.
"The pork belly at the supply and marketing cooperative is 75 cents per pound. Since you don't have a ticket, I'll give you 77 cents." Duan Juhua packed the meat swiftly and handed it to Gu Yuehuai. She didn't feel embarrassed at all and asked for the price with confidence.
These days, meat costs one ticket per pound of meat. She only raised the price by two cents, which was already a consideration for the fact that they were from the same village.
Gu Yuehuai calculated in his mind and found it was 1.77 yuan. He counted out 1.8 yuan and handed it to Duan Juhua: "Aunt, thank you."
After she finished speaking, she took the meat and left Wang Fuji's house.
Duan Juhua counted the money in her hand, one dollar and eight cents more.
She looked up suspiciously at Gu Yuehuai's fat figure walking away, and smacked her lips: "It seems that the daughter of the old Gu family is not as ignorant as everyone says."
*
Gu Yuehuai was carrying the meat back home and ran into Gu Tinghuai and Gu Ruihuai who were carrying water.
Gu Tinghuai paused when he saw the meat in her hand, and said in a gentle voice: "Nannan, do you want to eat meat? I will fry it for you later. How about stir-fried meat with peppers?"
Gu Ruihuai watched coldly, walked into the yard, poured two buckets of water into the vat, and threw the carrying pole casually, making a bang. He seemed to want to use these tools to vent his anger and depression.
He really didn't understand, could he die without eating fine grains and meat?
Because of building a house, their family owed a lot of debts. Gu Yuehuai didn't even know how to share the burden for the family. He also kept making things difficult and demanded this and that. Not only did he not pay back any of the money, but he owed more and more!
If this continues, he doesn't know how long his family can last.
As soon as he entered the house and smelled the smell of rice floating in the air, Gu Ruihuai couldn't help but saliva.
However, he knew that the rice in the pot was steamed by Gu Yuehuai for himself and there was no portion for them at all.
She is so selfish, she never considers her family and always thinks only of herself.
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