It was early morning and the sky was dim.
The wind outside was blowing coldly. Su Yuhe just poked her head out of the quilt and then shrank back in. It took Xu Yunduo calling her twice for her to finally come out of the gentle place.
After quickly changing into cotton clothes, Su Yuhe regained consciousness. She heard a lot of noise in the yard and said, "Everyone got up early today."
Xu Yun: "That's right. If you don't get up early to go to the state-owned coal construction plant in the county, you'll have to wait in line everywhere. Of course, it's better to go early and buy coal early, otherwise you'll have to freeze outside."
"Have you finished washing your face?" Su Yuhe saw Xu Yun combing his hair and reached out to touch Xu Yun's face.
Xu Yun shrank back. "You're so good, Yuhe! You have cold hands, come and touch me! I'll beat you up!"
Su Yuhe chuckled twice: "You teased me just now, I'm going to wash my face first."
There is a stove in the house with hot water.
Those who get up early can use the hottest one, add water to it after use, and the next one can either wait for the water to heat up or take a cold shower.
Su Yuhe was the last one to get up in the dormitory, and the hot water in the stove was just right.
She poured the hot water into her enamel basin and put some new cold water in it to boil.
The weather was cold, and Su Yuhe was too lazy to work hard at the educated youth camp. She often made dozens of buns and steamed buns at a time, and heated them up when she wanted to eat them. If she wanted to eat hot dishes, she would go to Jiang Lin's house.
Xu Yun cooked corn porridge. It was not tasty when the weather was hot, but it was quite comfortable to eat a bowl of it when it was cold. She asked Su Yuhe embarrassedly if she wanted some.
Wu Ling didn't wait for Su Yuhe to answer, and said sarcastically, "They don't eat these coarse grains, they eat fine noodles! Xu Yun, it's cold outside, why are you still sticking to other people's cold butts?"
Ever since the last time Su Yuhe had a quarrel with Wu Ling because Xu Yun enrolled in the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University, Wu Ling has been dissatisfied with Su Yuhe in every way.
In fact, it was not just because of this. There were many times when she couldn't stand Su Yuhe's enduring it. She probably wanted to make trouble because she saw that Su Yuhe didn't care about her.
Deng Mei, who had also argued with Su Yuhe, chimed in: "That's right, Su is a highly educated and progressive person. How could he just ask for someone else's things?"
Su Yuhe had no idea that she was so unpopular among the educated youths. Everyone wanted to step on her whenever they got the chance.
Su Yuhe smiled: "Yes, you can't just ask for other people's things."
She turned to look at Xu Yun and said, "Sister Xu Yun, I heated up an extra meat bun. I'll trade it for a bowl of hot cornmeal."
She heated up two buns and an egg, gave one to Xu Yun, and exchanged it for her corn porridge, which was also a hot breakfast.
Wu Ling widened her eyes. A bowl of corn porridge could be exchanged for a white flour meat bun?
Why isn't this good thing her turn?
Su Yuhe didn't care what she thought. After filling her stomach, she took Xu Yun to buy coal.
Su Yuhe was wearing gloves, a large cotton-padded jacket and cotton-padded trousers, and a sheepskin hat on his head. He stared at the bicycle against the wind.
Xu Yun wore much less than her. The sheepskin hat on his head and the military coat on his body were given to him when he went to the countryside.
The military coats distributed to the educated youth were not real military coats. The buttons were the civilian kind, the fabric was twill, and the lining was cotton. A real military coat had sheepskin inside.
This is also called an imitation military coat, but it is very thick. It is warm to wear, but it makes people look a bit clumsy when wearing it.
Xu Yun had worn it for three or four years, and the hat and coat were worn out, and their warmth retention was also much worse.
Su Yuhe was still pedaling her bike and sweating, but she didn't feel that cold. When she arrived at the coal construction plant, she found that Xu Yun's mouth was purple and he was shaking.
Su Yuhe was startled: "Let's go to the state-owned restaurant and get some hot water to drink."
Xu Yun shook his head and said in a trembling voice, "No, let's go and line up. We're already here."
When Su Yuhe went out, she saw that she was wearing very thick clothes. She reached out and pinched her sleeve, but it was very loose.
Su Yuhe frowned: "Why don't you wear something underneath? Even though it hasn't started snowing yet, the temperature is still very low!"
Xu Yun shook his head and pushed Su Yuhe inside: "If you don't go now, you won't be able to buy coal later."
They arrived not too late, but there was still a long line, and the two of them stood at the back of the line.
There were many people coming to buy coal, some carrying loads on their shoulders, and some pushing hand-pulled tricycles.
Su Yuhe and the others came with two sacks, which they would tie onto the bicycles and pull back.
After about half an hour, the line for buying coal had become very long. Su Yuhe could see several familiar faces of educated youth. They did not come on foot, but probably took the bus.
"Make way, make way!" Someone came pushing a slab of coal, and the human-powered tricycle passed in front of them.
Xu Yun's face was full of envy: "So much coal."
Su Yuhe joked with her a few times and the two of them started chatting idly. After an unknown amount of time, it was finally Su Yuhe and her group's turn.
Just as Su Yuhe was about to reach out to take out her coal briquettes ticket, the staff member in front of her waved her hand and said as she packed up her notebook, "We're out of coal briquettes. Come back tomorrow."
Su Yuhe was stunned for a moment. She clearly saw coal inside and someone was making coal briquettes on the spot.
How could there be no coal?
Su Yuhe said patiently, "Comrade, isn't there coal in there? Why are you telling me there's no coal?"
The ticket counter worker, a woman in her thirties wearing a dark blue cotton coat, looked at Su Yuhe with disdain when she heard she dared to question her: "If I say there are no more, then there are no more."
Su Yuhe took a breath: "I have a ticket, why don't you give me coal!"
The people behind Su Yuhe heard their voices and also heard the staff asking them to go home.
Those behind them couldn't buy coal, and because Su Yuhe dared to speak out in rebuttal, they surrounded her and loudly expressed their dissatisfaction and the injustice of the staff.
"The people in front of us just pushed so many coal briquettes away. We've been waiting in line for half a day. Why are you telling us there are none?"
"I saw it all. There's a lot of coal in there!"
…
The lady was not afraid of the public's condemnation at all, her voice was like a megaphone:
"What are you arguing about? Others have already ordered the number of briquettes in advance and even paid for them!"
The older man next to Su Yuhe shouted even louder: "Who the hell are you trying to fool? I've never heard of booking in advance. I got up early and ran here to stand in the wind all morning, and you say it's gone?"
Someone rushed to the front and pointed at the coal briquettes at the back, "Isn't that coal? There's so much of it, why don't you sell it to us?"
The staff member seemed accustomed to such scenes: "Come back tomorrow."
She called a few people to close the door.
Six or seven staff members pushed the person out and struggled to close the door.
He was kicked away by several men.
These men have been queuing for two days, and they still can't buy coal even after being exposed to the wind all morning. They are so angry that they are about to explode.
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