Chapter 15 Recovering the Grain Book to Buy Rice
Before going to Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital, Jin Caifeng took her son to the street office to settle his household registration.
Lin Sanqi's predecessor had a formal household registration in Sijiu City. Even though he was lost 10 years ago, his household registration has never been cancelled at the insistence of the Lin family.
However, household registration is related to food supply. If you can't find your household registration, the street office can't give you a quota of food based on the number of people, so we finally made a compromise.
The household registration will be retained and the person will be treated as a missing person. The issuance of food coupons and food certificates will be suspended.
Now that Lin Sanqi and his men have been found, the first thing to do is of course to restore the food supply, as eating, drinking, defecating and urinating are the most important things in life.
The mother and son of the Lin family came to the Jingshan Sub-district Office, which is a low bungalow that also houses the director's office. If ordinary people want to find someone, they can just knock on the door and go in. There is no security guard to scan their faces or register their ID cards.
Aunt Qian, the neighborhood director, smiled when she saw Jin Caifeng: "Mrs. Lin, are you here to register your youngest son's household registration?"
Jin Caifeng was also very polite:
"Yes, Director Qian, you know that the food supply is tight right now. If Sanqi doesn't have any food, he'll starve. Qizi, quickly call Aunt Qian."
"Hello, Aunt Qian."
Aunt Qian looked at Lin Sanqi and laughed, jokingly saying:
"Just based on your father, Doctor Lin's medical skills, so many people are vying for him to see patients. How could he let your precious son starve? Don't worry."
Lin Sanqi, listening nearby, was secretly surprised. He thought, "It seems everyone knows how his father makes extra money. No wonder there's 4,000 yuan in cash at home?"
The big yellow croaker can be explained by selling off the family property in Huadu, but such a large amount of cash can only be said to be the salary + extra income earned in the past 10 years.
Isn’t he afraid that the government will invite him for tea?
Aunt Qian took the household registration booklet from Lin's mother, pulled out the population registration card belonging to Lin Sanqi, and stamped "invalid" on the word "missing".
Then he wrote another line of words under the relocation column: "Food supply will be resumed from July 1, 1959" and stamped it with the street's official seal.
"Okay, take this household registration booklet to the grain station to exchange it for a grain booklet."
Coming out of the street, Lin Sanqi saw that there was no one around and quietly asked:
"Mom, how much does my dad earn a month now? Can he make some extra money?"
As Jin Caifeng walked, he explained nonchalantly:
"Because your father is a special talent supporting the capital, and now he's also the director of the outpatient department, he doesn't have a technical position. Instead, he gets an administrative level 13 salary, which is 159 yuan a month. In addition..."
Jin Caifeng lowered her voice:
"Also, there are often people who are not convenient to come to the hospital, and their families are rich and powerful and need your father to see them. You can usually get 10 yuan for a visit, or give some food coupons, meat coupons, oil coupons or something like that as consultation fees, so your father is not short of money.
It's a pity that your father is aloof and doesn't see many patients. Otherwise, with his skills, this extra income would be much higher than his salary.
But your father also said that having too much money is not a good thing. It can easily cause trouble for the family if someone targets you. Nowadays, people emphasize egalitarianism, and the poorer you are, the more glorious you are."
Lin Sanqi completely cannot understand the thinking of people of this era.
Of course the more money the better.
Haven’t you seen that in hospitals of later generations, those doctors prescribe drugs and use medical equipment crazily in order to get more kickbacks? As long as you pay the surgery fee, they are willing to send medical services to your home no matter how far away you are.
As a result, in this era, seeing more doctors, saving more lives, and making more money have become a sin?
Lin Sanqi knew that times were different and logic was also different. Even if he didn't understand it, he had to first accept this matter and integrate into the thinking of this era, otherwise he would definitely not end up well.
The grain station is not far from the street office. After walking through two alleys, you will arrive at a small courtyard.
There is a store facing south, and the store is crowded with people. Food for tens of thousands of people in the nearby communities has to be purchased from here, so of course the business is very busy.
Jin Caifeng took a look and said, "There are too many people inside. It's not convenient for a grown man like you to squeeze in. I'll go get the food certificate. You just wait here."
Lin Sanqi nodded: "I understand."
After Lin's mother left, Lin Sanqi felt bored and wanted to see what the famous grain station looked like, so he stood at the door and tiptoed to look inside the store.
I found that there were sacks filled with food piled there.
After the clerk got the food coupons and money, he weighed the food and handed it to the people. There were no plastic bags, so everyone had to bring their own bag and fill it up and leave.
Don't expect the store clerk to have a good service attitude, of course he is not as ferocious as Zhu the Butcher.
The eight most popular occupations in the 1950s and 1960s were the "eight major positions": salesperson, driver, postman, childcare worker, barber, projectionist, cook, and art troupe member.
Being a salesperson in a grain store is one of the most sought-after jobs.
There are dozens or hundreds of tons of grain lying there, who can tell that some of the food is being fleeced?
Even if you have pure thoughts and are incorruptible, when the food arrives, you know which batch of rice and flour is of the best quality, or which scarce food has been secretly bought up internally. Who among the common people knows?
Just like in "The Story of Siheyuan", Sha Zhu is a good and honest person, right?
But people still pack up the leftovers from the cafeteria and take them away. This is taking advantage of the situation.
When he prepares banquets for private parties, he will still secretly take away some of the ingredients. This is the convenience of being a chef, and it is also an unwritten rule of society.
The rice sellers all had rosy faces, while the rice buyers all had frowns on their faces, and there was no sign of joy in shopping at all.
Lin Sanqi stopped an old lady like a curious baby and asked:
"Auntie, I noticed you were discussing something with the people at the grain station. What kind of rice did you buy?"
"Rice? Rice? Humph, where can we get rice nowadays?"
Seeing that Lin Sanqi was a handsome young man, the old lady said a few more words and opened the bag for Lin Sanqi to see for himself:
"Look, now we can't even buy flour, let alone rice. We don't have enough to eat. I'm wondering how many kilograms of coarse grains can I get for one kilogram of fine grain? Last month, one kilogram of fine grain could be exchanged for five kilograms of coarse grains, but this month it can only be exchanged for four kilograms. Sigh."
Lin Sanqi's family owned a rice shop, so he knew a bit about grains, but seeing this brown powder was a bit strange.
"Auntie, what kind of powder is this? Why haven't I seen it before?"
"This? Cornmeal."
"Corn noodles?"
Lin Sanqi looked suspicious, thinking to himself, "I'm well-educated, you can't fool me."
"Isn't cornmeal just cornmeal? It should be yellow, but yours is brown and looks so rough. It doesn't look like cornmeal."
Lin Sanqi's words drew laughter from a group of elderly people nearby. One of the elderly men explained:
"Young man, you are from the South, right? No wonder you don't recognize cornmeal. It's a good thing."
(End of this chapter)
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