"Vegetable rice is 15 cents a bowl, and shengjian (stir-fried dumplings) is 80 cents an ounce, plus 3 ounces of food coupons."
Liu Ni was stuffing her last Shengjian into her mouth, but when she heard the price of 80 cents per liang, her chopsticks stopped.
Eighty cents for an ounce? Four for an ounce? Two cents for one? Ten cents for a mouthful?!?!
A pound of eggs only costs 1 yuan, and she ate a whole pound of eggs in one meal?? !!
Comrade Ma Liuni, who originally felt that she could eat four more, suddenly felt that her throat was bloated. The Shengjian was taken out of her open mouth with chopsticks. Her eyes were fixed on the big, white and plump Shengjian, which looked like gold no matter how she looked at it!
However, Chen Chunhua's focus is different.
"Don't you want a meat ticket?"
"No, this is Shanghai." Lin Guoqing shook his head. "Why else do you think I always bring back a piece of meat every time I come back from Shanghai?"
Chen Chunhua: "...I thought it was a sex ticket you gave me during your business trip."
"The few meat coupons we were given can't even buy such a big piece of meat!"
The so-called "the whole country protects Shanghai, and Shanghai protects the whole country" is not just empty talk.
The first pork supply in Shanghai was in 1955, which lasted for 23 days. Later, due to the large number of live pigs arriving, the meat coupons were cancelled from the 24th day. Later, from 1957 to 1964, due to the nationwide pork shortage, the meat coupons were implemented for another seven and a half years. As soon as the live pig resources were sufficient, the policy was terminated.
Even during the ten years of turmoil, they only rationed pork based on the number of people and supplied it with tickets for three years, from 1976 to 1979. The rest of the time, there was no need for tickets.
During the planned economy era, 70% of the live pigs in Shanghai were imported from other provinces and cities. Initially, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces were the main destinations, and later expanded to Shandong, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, and Sichuan.
As a major industrial product manufacturing center, Shanghai uses these pigs as a barter currency to ship various daily-use industrial products to other provinces. This is how the country fosters interaction between industrial hubs and major agricultural and sideline product suppliers. And Shanghai consistently exceeds its targets.
Ordinary people may not necessarily understand national policies, but whether they can get them into their hands and eat them is what they can experience firsthand.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange is the Rome of China in this era. The most difficult time for them was probably in the 1960s, when the milk supply was reduced to once a week.
At that time, in Shen Chunhua's memory, she had never seen fresh milk or milk powder, and being able to catch duckweed from the river to eat was already her greatest luck that day.
Perhaps it was the Mandela effect, but later, when people talked about this period, apart from those Shanghai natives who had experienced it firsthand, everyone would probably say, "How could I not want a meat ticket?" Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
When Lin Guoqing was giving money to Sister Yang, Chen Chunhua asked again, but Sister Yang nodded.
"Of course! I used to work in a factory before I opened the shop. Every day after get off work, I'd go to the market and buy a small piece of meat. Today I'd stir-fry the meat with cabbage, tomorrow I'd stir-fry the vegetables with meat, and the day after tomorrow I'd stir-fry shredded pork with cauliflower. It's just a little expensive! No receipt required!"
Speaking of this, Sister Yang's face still showed the pride of being a Shanghainese, but she didn't know that this was spoken to the people who heard it, especially Liu Ni.
So, if you live in Shanghai, can you eat meat every day as long as you have money?
While standing at the roadside station waiting for the bus, the alley opposite was crowded with people. Between the buildings, countless ropes were hung, with colorful clothes and bed sheets hanging on them, rustling when the wind blew. Below, a row of washing machines filled the alley, and women were busy chatting and moving around inside.
Liu Nimu asked his uncle in a daze, "Uncle, is that a washing machine?"
"yes."
"Do they... every family have a washing machine?"
Lin Guoqing looked into the alley across the street and smiled.
"Not every household, maybe some are shared, but it's definitely more than we have."
"To buy a washing machine... don't you need industrial coupons?" And there are so many bicycles on the streets, how can Shanghai people have so many coupons?
"Hey! Those industrial coupons were originally issued by the Shanghai Stock Exchange. They have so many factories there! They'll definitely give priority to local areas! Urban residents are regularly issued industrial coupons per capita, and farmers in suburban counties are also rewarded with industrial coupons for selling live pigs to the government."
The person who gets the coupon does not have to buy anything, but he can sell the ticket. If there is someone in the city who does not have a washing machine ticket but wants to buy a washing machine, he can ask someone to buy the coupon.
The securities trading in Shanghai is much freer than theirs. When Lin Guoqing went to buy a TV, if Shen Chunhua had not told him not to buy the home appliances he liked first, he would have found a way to get securities from Shanghai and brought them home.
Books describe the capital city as a place of great beauty and the blissful lives of its people. Liu Ni has never been there, nor seen it, but she has witnessed firsthand the lives of Shanghai residents.
Everything that is in short supply, unavailable, or unseen there is part of daily life in the eyes of Shanghai people.
“…It would be nice if I could live here…”
She was still looking at the washing machine in the alley across the street, the sound so low that only she could hear it.
"Huh? What did you say?" Lin Guoqing asked doubtfully, and then the next second, he saw a car coming from the front.
"We're here, hurry up! Get in the car!"
When you stand in one place and look at the scenery, turning your head 360 degrees is just a circle. When you sit in a car and lean against the window, you will see a completely different scene.
The car passed through Nanjing West Road. The building was so tall that her head was stuck in the glass window. She had to lift her head up hard to see the top of her head.
The road was so big! She felt that the largest road in her village was not even half as wide as this one! And those food company signs hanging outside the high-rise buildings! They looked so beautiful!
"Hey, if everything goes well tomorrow, how about we go back to the city to stay tonight?" Lin Guoqing leaned close to Chen Chunhua and whispered in her ear, "The return ticket is the afternoon of the day after tomorrow. We can come here to shop during the day and buy whatever you want!"
Although Chen Chunhua's expression was not as exaggerated as Liu Ni's, she also pressed herself against the car window, staring out with her eyes wide open, not wanting to fall behind at all.
"We'll talk about it when the time comes!" Chen Chunhua said without turning her head. It was true that she was not tempted, but the money in Shanghai seemed to be different from the money in their place. She was afraid that their pockets would be empty after buying the chicks, and then they would like everything they saw but wouldn't be able to afford anything they touched!
Lin Guoqing wasn't discouraged. He was leading the way, so he'd take her back to the city tomorrow. Once they found a guesthouse and paid for it, they'd have to stay. Chunhua's pupils would dilate when she saw something she liked, and she'd pay for it herself! She'd buy everything!
"Look! We're at the Bund!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
