After chatting about everyday things for a while, Yan Laosan finally got down to business.
"Brother, I'm here to ask you for a favor today, I just want to ask you for a help." He knew it was difficult to get help from others, so he looked a little flustered.
Xu Xiangyang stubbed out his cigarette and said, "Third Brother, what are you saying? What do you mean by asking me for help? If you need anything, just say so. I'll definitely help if I can."
Actually, he had long suspected that Yan Laosan was in trouble, but since Yan had helped him before, he couldn't say no or that he couldn't help.
Yan Laosan didn't expect him to say that. Even though he had said it and no one could help him, he felt relieved.
"Here's the thing, there are eight people in my family, and we don't have enough food every month. We've switched to whole grains, but it's still not enough. We can't buy whole grains on the black market anymore. I was thinking of asking you to bring some back for me next time you go on a business trip. The price doesn't matter."
With a large family, he sometimes struggles to provide enough food, so he tries to eat as little as possible at work each day.
But how can someone who does manual labor eat less? Even if they eat less, it's still not enough for the family.
Xu Xiangyang was surprised to hear that it was about this. "That's too simple!" he thought.
"Third Brother, don't you and your wife work too? How come you don't have enough food?" He was a little puzzled. In principle, each household should have a quota of food, distributed according to the number of people.
Even if it's not enough to eat, replacing refined grains with whole grains should be enough.
But according to Yan Laosan, even if they replaced the refined grains with coarse grains, it still wouldn't be enough to eat.
This is a bit odd, but since it's their business, he doesn't plan to ask any more questions.
Yan Laosan shook his head, his expression bitter. "Don't mention it. My family is originally from the countryside. Isn't your sister-in-law from the city? We settled here. Later, my parents came too, and they also brought my younger brother's two children here."
How can you feed eight people, including two adults and two children? That's why we don't have enough to eat each month, and we can only have porridge at the end of the month.
Xu Xiangyang hadn't expected his family situation to be so complicated, and at the same time, he felt that Yan Laosan was a bit of a character who was hard to talk to.
You might say he's cowardly and gets bullied by his parents, but he can't be unfilial. He can't just stand by and do nothing when his parents ask him to take care of them in their old age, can he?
There's really no way to comment on other people's affairs; all he can do is try his best to get them some coarse grains.
"I can handle the coarse grain problem, but not in large quantities. How much do you plan to buy?" Xu Xiangyang asked, since he couldn't possibly take out too much and it would be difficult to explain where it came from.
Seeing that he wanted to help, Yan Laosan quickly said, "Not much, fifty catties will do. My family usually needs about fifty catties a month."
Their family only goes hungry at the end of the month; they eat dry food the rest of the time. The main problem is that the child is growing and he does physical labor, so they can't keep up with just thin porridge.
Xu Xiangyang nodded. Fifty jin wasn't much. Coarse grains were cheap now, with cornmeal costing about five cents a jin and eight cents a jin on the black market.
"Okay, we'll go with the black market price. If you think it's reasonable, you can pick it up at my place tomorrow."
Upon hearing that he could get it, Yan Laosan quickly nodded in agreement, "No problem, thank you very much, brother."
Although eight cents is not cheap, it's better than not being able to buy it at all. Yesterday he went to the black market and couldn't even buy cornmeal for a dime a pound.
After agreeing, Xu Xiangyang went back. His rest time was coming up soon, and it wouldn't be good to stay any longer and go back late.
After getting off work in the afternoon, Xu Xiangyang walked home. As soon as he stepped out of the gate, he saw Liu Feng standing not far away.
This person hadn't said a word since the last time he greeted him. He had intended to pretend he hadn't seen him to avoid embarrassment, but who knew that this person would take the initiative to greet him.
"Xu Xiangyang!" He walked over with a smile. "Are you going back?"
Xu Xiangyang thought to himself, "Shouldn't we go back here for the New Year?"
He nodded. "Yeah, you just got off work too."
Everyone works at the same time, unless there's overtime, but Liu Feng obviously won't work overtime.
Liu Feng noticed that he was dressed much better than before. "Xu Xiangyang, we have a class reunion next week on our day off. Shall we go together?"
Xu Xiangyang didn't expect to hold a class reunion when it's neither a holiday nor a festival? Is he just bored?
He initially wanted to refuse, but then he thought that since they would be working in the same company in the future, it wouldn't be a big deal to just visit for a while.
“Okay, it’s been a long time since we last met, so it’s a good opportunity to see each other.” Xu Xiangyang smiled and nodded in agreement.
They're just a bunch of kids, currently in college. In less than a year, they'll all be laid off.
Seeing that he agreed, Liu Feng gave him the address and then left.
Xu Xiangyang felt that Liu Feng had contacted him just to talk about this? Something was clearly not right, since he hadn't contacted him much before.
However, since he had already agreed, he wouldn't think about it anymore, and he figured that no one would try to take advantage of him.
Liu Feng knew about his family's circumstances, and so did his other classmates, so they probably wouldn't have any ulterior motives.
Two days later, Qian Wenqing returned from his business trip. During that time, Xu Xiangyang also gave the grain to Yan Laosan.
There's nothing to say about a fair trade between two people.
The first thing Qian Wenqing did upon returning was to find Xu Xiangyang, "Brother Xu, I have a business opportunity I'd like to discuss with you."
He looked somewhat excited. Logically, he should be very tired after just returning from a business trip and should go back to rest.
But this person clearly showed no intention of resting; on the contrary, he seemed to be in high spirits.
Xu Xiangyang wondered if this guy had been injected with chicken blood.
"What's wrong? What kind of cooperation?" he asked, puzzled.
Qian Wenqing looked around mysteriously, glancing to make sure no one was watching, and then said, "I ran into a batch of grain outside, enriched grain flour! It's 10,000 jin in total, but they're selling it for 2,000 jin or less, and it costs 25 cents!"
Xu Xiangyang almost blurted out, "You're a liar!"
But I felt bad because he seemed really excited.
"Brother, you said this whole grain flour costs three cents at the grocery store, and even eight cents on the black market. Are you sure this person isn't a liar?" he asked tactfully.
After all, two thousand catties is no small amount; it's a round number, worth five hundred yuan! Based on Qian Wenqing's income, he would have to save up for a year without eating or drinking!
Besides, this is simply impossible; it sounds like a lie.
Qian Wenqing, however, was unaware of this problem. He confidently declared, "I've already checked. Good heavens, every bag is full of clean, white flour, much whiter than the flour supplied by our grocery store."
Xu Xiangyang was at a loss for words, but he simply couldn't believe it. Where in the world could such a good thing exist? People would go crazy buying five cents worth of goods wholesale on the black market, and they'd buy them two and a half cents?
He thought that unless this person was mentally unstable or had a huge problem.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
