Chapter 28 A Little Business
In the afternoon, Xie Yun carried the basket and followed the old man's instructions to an alley near the commune clinic. He knocked on the door of a small courtyard according to the pattern of 2235.
On the way here, she had quietly put a small bag of peanuts into the basket, about five or six pounds.
The person who opened the door was a woman in her fifties, fair and slender, gentle and kind, with a better temperament than the old man.
She let Xie Yun in and said with a smile, "The old man came back at noon and said that a young girl would come to visit in the afternoon and asked me to entertain her well. Please sit down first and I'll pour you a glass of water."
"No need, Auntie, don't bother. I have to go back. My home is far from here."
"Okay, then I won't be polite with you anymore."
She turned around quickly and went back to her room to get the money and scale.
Xie Yun took out the wheat and peanuts and said, "Give them as much as you like. I plan to go into the mountains more often to collect herbs and sell them to the purchasing station. This isn't a one-time deal."
When the old lady heard this, she immediately laughed.
She insisted on weighing the wheat, and found it was a little over 11 pounds, and the peanuts were less than 6 pounds. "Wheat is 1.5 cents a pound, so that's 11 pounds. I'll charge 60 cents a pound for the peanuts, so that's 6 pounds. That's a total of 5.25 yuan, so I'll give you 5.3 yuan."
Xie Yun's brain raced, and it was indeed reasonable. Peanut oil was only 80 cents per pound right now. Even if you couldn't buy it without oil coupons, the price was really not expensive. Raw peanuts were 60 cents per pound, which was fine.
She smiled and said, "Thank you for your care. Just give me five dollars."
"That won't do. You've already done us a great favor by selling us this rare item."
Xie Yun didn't refuse. He took the money and put it in his pocket, actually putting it into the space.
The old lady continued, "If you can get any of these again in the future, please send them to me. I want them all. You can also get eggs, sesame seeds, wild fruits, and so on. If you can get some meat, that would be even better."
She approached Xie Yun and whispered, "It would be even better if you could stew the meat and bring it to me."
Xie Yun couldn't help but blurt out: "You are quite thoughtful!"
The old lady was a little embarrassed and said, "Be careful about everything. The smell of stewed meat shouldn't be wafting out of our yard. Occasionally, we get some meat, but we chop it up and make dumplings. We don't dare eat it any other way. I can count the number of times I've eaten stewed meat in the past two years on one hand. Little girl, let me tell you, if you stew a chicken and bring it to me, I'll give you 5 yuan. Is it worth it? A chicken only sells for two or three yuan now."
She has money. The reason she lives in poverty is because she has money but nowhere to spend it, and she dares not spend it. Now she is just begging for food with her gold coins!
Their family had food rations, so they weren't starving, but they didn't eat well either. The problem was that they were also taking in three "illegal residents," who had no food rations.
These past two years have been really hard for her!
Xie Yun thought about it and agreed.
"Next time you come, I'll try to get you some meat. As for what I can get, I can't guarantee it."
The old lady smiled happily. "Okay, okay, as long as it's meat. I'll charge you a little more than other places. If it's cooked and delivered to you, I'll charge you twice as much, a little more than the state-owned restaurants."
"good."
After Xie Yun left, the old lady immediately closed the door, bolted it, and with a smile on her face, she picked up the peanuts and went to the backyard.
There was an old man and an old woman in the backyard, sitting there in a daze.
The old lady whispered, "Brother, sister-in-law, we bought some good things today. We have so many peanuts. You can peel some and eat them. I'll cook some and mash them up to mix with the porridge for the children."
The old man and the old woman came to their senses after hearing this and asked her, "Is she reliable?"
"Reliable. Wenrui asked her to come."
The old man sighed and said, "Thank you for your help."
"Brother, what are you talking about? We are siblings. You should think that in such a mess, we can still be together peacefully. That's good enough, right, sister-in-law, you and my brother shouldn't think too much. We are a family together, which is better than anything else."
The other old lady smiled and said, "You're right. Compared to those who were sent to farms or imprisoned, we are very lucky to be able to escape to your place. It just brings trouble to you and Wenrui."
"It's okay, Wenrui isn't afraid of trouble. It's fine now, and it will get better day by day. You guys eat, I'll go next door to check on the kids."
"Hey, go ahead."
The old lady got up and left.
Since the movement began, they had lived apart from their son, ostensibly severing ties, but in reality, not. Her small courtyard housed her and her husband, along with her brother and his wife, who had fled from the capital. Because they were "fleeing," their household registration hadn't been transferred, nor had their food and oil supplies been transferred.
It can't be said to be surrendering.
It was her husband Li Wenrui who heard about the situation in the capital and went there to bring them here, otherwise these two people would not have come to bother them.
Living next door are her son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and her brother and sister-in-law's little grandson. The child is about the same age as her little granddaughter, just over two years old, and they are now being raised as twins.
My brother's son and daughter-in-law are both in Beijing. He went from being a promising young doctor to a cleaner in a hospital. He was not demoted.
Alas, this world!
———☆———
Xie Yun returned home and gave Zhang Ruifeng another two cents. "They gave me 1.46 yuan before, and there were a little over 11 kilograms of grain. They calculated it at 1.5 yuan per kilogram, and gave me another two cents."
She wasn't trying to hide her own money; it was all about rationalization. If she gave her five more dollars, her mother would be terrified. She'd definitely think she'd done something wrong.
Zhang Ruifeng took the money and put it away.
She said to Xie Yun, "You know where Mom keeps her money. If you need it, just go get it."
"knew."
Her mother had several places to hide money, which she hid in batches. There was a place specifically for some change, just in case she and Xie Shen needed it.
However, the original owner and Xie Shen never used money.
She sat on a stool, took off her shoes and checked them, and felt that the soles of her shoes were worn thin.
Thousand-layer soles are not suitable for long-distance travel.
Zhang Ruifeng laughed and said, "You should buy yourself a pair of Jiefang shoes from the commune. They're more durable."
"I just made so little money, and I'm going to spend it before it's even warmed up. I can't bear to do that. I'll wait until I sell more."
She said mysteriously, "The old comrade's wife told me that if I stewed a chicken and sent it to her, she would give me 5 yuan."
"How much? This much? Even a chicken at a state-owned restaurant wouldn't have this much, right?"
"I don't know. I've never been to a state-owned restaurant. Besides, state-owned restaurants require tickets, and she didn't have one."
Zhang Ruifeng thought for a moment and said, "That's something we can do. We can go to the market and buy chicken, or we can buy it from the villagers, but our house isn't suitable for the smell of meat."
Xie Yun thought for a moment and said, "I've heard of a way to cook it. Wrap the chicken in leaves, coat it in a layer of yellow mud, and then put it in the fire. It has almost no smell when it's cooking, and when the smell comes out, it's almost done. You can crack open the mud shell and eat it."
“What kind of leaves are you using?”
“Chinese cabbage.”
If you don't have lotus leaves, you can use Chinese cabbage instead. No problem. The dish will still taste just as good.
"Well, let's try it? If they're not satisfied, we can bring it back and eat it ourselves. It won't be a waste."
"Okay, I'll get it for them next time I go."
Xie Yun thought, isn’t this her private chef business?
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