Lin Guoqing was stunned when he touched the ticket. A TV ticket?!
Ye Juncai’s family has one, which was bought at the end of 1979. His father gave him the tickets he was allocated, which made him proud for a long time.
In order to let his daughter watch TV at home, Lao Shi worked very hard and was awarded the ticket after being named an advanced worker of the year. He bought a TV at the beginning of last year and told Lin Guoqing the value of the ticket when he showed it off.
"Do you know how much this thing sells for on the black market?" Lin Guoqing held up the bill and looked back at Chen Chunhua who had collapsed back on the bed.
"How many?"
"Four hundred!"
A black and white TV set costs 440 yuan with a ticket. And a TV ticket costs 400 yuan. If Lao Shi still resold the tickets, he could earn several months' salary from this one ticket.
When Chen Chunhua heard this, she sat up in shock. She thought that selling it for one or two hundred was already a high price, but you told me that this thing is the same price as a TV?
“So expensive!”
"It's that expensive! Do you think anyone can get one? It's an industrial ticket! Only state-owned factories can get one. Leaders get priority, and the extra ones are given to the advanced ones. It's impossible for a village-run enterprise like ours to have one, otherwise our factory would have given it to me first!"
Lin Guoqing spoke without stopping, and also mentioned his position in the electroplating factory, which made Shen Chunhua roll her eyes.
"That's the price of a black and white TV. Do you know what a color TV is? It costs over a thousand yuan! Ordinary people like us can't even afford a color TV!"
Chen Chunhua thought, of course I know, I also know about plasma TVs, LCD TVs, and projection TVs! You only know about color TVs, what are you showing off here?
Because of this, she is not particularly keen on buying a TV. The products are being updated too quickly. Things that are extremely expensive now will not be bought for 50 yuan in the future.
But she couldn't say it, she was angry! Forget it, ignore this fool's show-off.
"Sanni said Jinzhou's family had already owned one a few years ago, and he bought it with a ticket... The factory director secretly gave it to him at the end of the year, but his master refused to take it, so he kept it in a drawer..."
"If he wants to give a gift, he can just give it. Why would he send such an expensive gift for no reason?" Lin Guoqing began to worry. There is no such thing as a free lunch in the world. Apart from being the nominal "matchmaker", he and Chunhua can't help others in any other way.
Qi Jinzhou is Qi Jinzhou after all, not Sanni and the other girls. They haven't officially become relatives yet, so how could he accept such expensive things?
Chen Chunhua walked from the bed to the double desk, pulled the remaining chair over and sat down.
"It's not really a gift from Jinzhou."
"Um?"
"Sanni said that it was bought with the money pooled by the sisters. She has already given the money to Jinzhou." Chen Chunhua took the "expensive" TV ticket from Lin Guoqing and sighed.
"Those girls are clearly earning their own money, yet they always feel like they owe us something, constantly wanting to pay us back for this and that... She just said they bought it, but she wouldn't tell me how much it cost. I was wondering if it would be a hundred or two hundred, but even that seemed expensive to me!"
Lin Guoqing laughed out loud, shaking his head while writing something in his notebook.
"My sister and brother-in-law have been muddled through all these years, but the girls they gave birth to are all more worldly-wise than the last. Since they've been given to us, we've given them to us. Sanni will be getting married either at the end of this year or next year, and Sini should be in the next few years too. When the time comes, we, the uncle and aunt, can give her a generous red envelope."
Wu Ni is going to start school this summer, so we need to give her a big red envelope. That way, she'll have an easier time out there. Liu Ni, you said she doesn't want to study and wants to start a farm with you, so let's make a contract and share the profits with her. We can also take care of the seven, eight, and nine girls later..."
On the palm-sized notebook, the red envelopes for entering the house were written at the top, and the lines below were the amounts given by each family. The last row clearly read - Ma family nieces: 400 yuan.
***
Chen Chunhua asked Lin Guoqing to buy the TV when he had time, but Lin Guoqing couldn't wait and went out with the money and tickets the next day.
Chen Chunhua was also annoyed by his impatience. After all, the money was there, and four hundred yuan was not enough for her family to live without. If he didn't mind the effort, then go ahead.
Of course Lin Guoqing wasn't tired of it. That was a TV! God knows every time he went to Lao Shi and Lao Ye's house, he would envy and hate them because they were from the city. There wasn't even a single family in the village who had one!
As a former "ten thousand yuan household", now after building the house, there are still 7,000 or 8,000 yuan left, so why not buy a house to keep the town at home? Otherwise, what else can match such a big house?
Big items like televisions are not available in all state-owned stores and supply and marketing cooperatives, so you can only buy them at the largest state-owned department store in the city.
For Lin Guoqing now, it is no longer difficult to find someone to give him a ride when traveling to a distant place. The most inconvenient thing is that he has to carry a bag of money with him.
Today he had 450 yuan on him, including 45 Great Unity notes of 10 yuan each, which were the largest denomination. Ten in a bundle, that would take four and a half bundles.
Fortunately, I was wearing thick clothes in winter. If it were summer, with these four or five bundles of cylinders in my pocket, anyone with a discerning eye would see that they were money. You can't just give them a gun, right?
I was unlucky and got robbed on the street, so I had no place to cry!
That's why he thought of buying the TV quickly while the weather was cold. The sooner he bought it, the sooner he could enjoy it and feel at ease.
In the past two years, more and more people have been doing business, and state-owned department stores are crowded with people every day. In Lin Guoqing's words, it's as if the things inside are free.
As soon as he entered, he heard an argument at the fabric counter not far away. People gathered around to watch the commotion, and a sign reading "No hitting or scolding of customers" was hung on the ceiling.
Lin Guoqing actually wanted to squeeze in and join in the fun, to see what the commotion was all about. Sihe Village was far from the city, and the accents were a bit different. One person was cursing at the speed of a machine gun, clattering, clattering, and he had a hard time keeping up.
But after feeling the money in his pocket, he thought, forget it, he should go buy a TV while everyone else is crowded here.
I asked a cashier who was leaning over the counter looking at the quarrel, "Sister, where is the home appliance section?"
The older sister didn't even glance at Lin Guoqing, still eagerly looking towards the bustling area, and pointed back casually, "Over there."
Lin Guoqing followed her finger and saw that there was a place selling pots, pans, and utensils over there.
"...Big sis, which way is that?"
"Oh! It's right behind! Are you annoying?"
Lin Guoqing turned around and walked to the back. Forget it, I won’t ask anymore. Just find it yourself!
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