Bling had finally had a rare period of peace. For the past two weeks, all he'd done was go to work, come home, eat, and sleep—it was incredibly dull and monotonous.
The only diversion was the drama between Widow Liu and the Jiang family in the backyard.
Ever since the last fight between the two families, they've been bickering every few days. From top to bottom, including their children, they don't get along at all.
From small greetings to each other's parents to playful playful slaps on the cheeks, it was quite a lively scene.
Buling was delighted every day, feeling that his visit to the compound had been worthwhile.
Today is the first day of the lunar month, the day when people with urban household registration receive their rations. Buling had already arranged with Aunt Tian and Aunt Zhao's families to help each other queue up.
There was no other way; the grain was at the grain depot, and other goods were at the grocery stores—two separate places. If you queued at one store before queuing at the other, it would be too late, and by then there wouldn't be any good stuff left.
"Aunt Tian, Aunt Zhao," Bu Ling greeted them with a yawn.
The three of them got up in the early morning to prepare for queuing.
It wasn't just those three; every household in the compound was doing the same thing. And some were even more ruthless—they lined up last night!
Aunt Zhao said, "Xiao Bu, you and Sister Tian go to the food station to line up, and my son and I will go to the grain station to line up. Give me your grain coupons."
Aunt Zhao's arrangement was quite reasonable; she and her son were young and strong, so it was best for them to be assigned the bulk of the grain.
Buling readily pulled out his grain coupons: "Aunt Zhao, thank you for your trouble. It would be best if I could exchange all my grain coupons for refined grains."
The grain rations for urban residents vary, but they are all 70% coarse grains and 30% refined grains. Buling's 45 jin of grain coupons are more than enough for her own consumption, so asking for more refined grains is perfectly reasonable.
"Okay, Auntie understands. We'll reconcile the accounts when we get back." Aunt Zhao didn't see anything wrong with it at all.
These days, who doesn't like refined grains? If her family had enough grain, she would eat refined grains too.
After leaving the compound, the four parted ways. Buling pushed her bicycle and walked briskly towards the grocery store with Aunt Tian.
It wasn't that Bu Ling didn't want to give Aunt Tian a ride on her bike; she was simply quite confident in her skills, and Aunt Tian wasn't like Wu Yuanyuan, who would only feel pain for a short while if she fell.
So let's just stick to pushing it, using it as a stroller. It'll save them some effort on the way back.
When they arrived at the grocery store, a long queue had already formed in front of it. Aunt Tian and Bu Ling exchanged a glance, and without daring to delay, they immediately joined the end of the line.
Within five seconds, seven or eight people had lined up behind Buling, and the number was rapidly increasing.
While waiting in line, Buling realized how prescient she had been to push her bicycle; when they got tired, she and Aunt Tian could sit down for a while.
They waited until dawn before they saw three large trucks lined up in the distance, heading towards the grocery store.
The crowd immediately stirred.
Buling perked up. "Finally!" she thought. "Next time, next time I'll definitely bring a stool—no, a small folding stool! Sitting on a stool for so long is uncomfortable."
After the staff from the supply and marketing cooperative came out to hand over the work, the crowd began to move forward.
By the time it was Aunt Tian's and Bu Ling's turn to line up, the sun was already high in the sky.
Aunt Tian was ahead of Bu Ling in line. When it was her turn, she unhesitatingly chose potatoes and eggplants, which keep well. Aunt Zhao's family did the same.
When it was Bling's turn, she looked at the vegetables displayed on the stall. It was summer, and there were many kinds of vegetables, but they didn't keep well.
"Ten pounds of potatoes, ten pounds of eggplants, two pounds of green beans, five pounds of tomatoes, and three pounds of cucumbers."
The staff of the supply and marketing cooperative quickly helped Buling weigh the vegetables. Buling took out a cloth bag that she had prepared beforehand, had it put into the bag, placed it on the back seat of her bicycle, and pushed the bicycle out of the queue.
Aunt Tian waited to the side. When she saw Bu Ling come out, she said, "Little Bu, let's go. Little Zhao should be almost done too."
"Aunt Tian, please put your things on the back of my bicycle. We'll push it back; it'll save us some effort," Bu Ling said. After waiting in line for so long, even a strong person would struggle. They wanted to make things easier for themselves.
Aunt Tian happily did as she was told: "I'm really benefiting from your help."
"Auntie, why are you being so polite with me?" Bu Ling said with a smile.
Aunt Tian laughed heartily: "Auntie was wrong!" She loved this girl's straightforwardness.
The two chatted and laughed as they pushed their bicycles back home.
It was already noon when I got back to the compound.
They encountered many people like them on the road, but they didn't have bicycles and had to carry them by hand. Naturally, they weren't as relaxed as Buling and Aunt Tian. They were all covered in sweat and looked at the two women with envy.
Aunt Tian stood tall and proud; she, Old Tian, was someone others could envy.
When they arrived at the courtyard, Aunt Zhao and her son Tiehe had already returned and were waiting in front of Aunt Tian's door, with three cloth bags at their feet.
Seeing the two return, Aunt Zhao greeted them, saying, "Sister Tian, you two can finally relax this time."
"That's right, it's all thanks to Xiao Bu having a bicycle."
Bling smiled shyly.
After a few words of banter, Aunt Tian opened the door and let them in; then it was time to get down to business.
Aunt Zhao said first: "Sister Tian, this is your and Congcong's food rations, a total of fifty-five catties of grain. As per your request, we only took ten catties of refined grain, and the rest are all coarse grain. Refined grain is six mao per catty, and coarse grain is one mao per catty, for a total of ten yuan and five mao."
After hearing this, Aunt Tian readily took out the money and gave it to Aunt Zhao.
Aunt Zhao accepted the money and then looked at Bu Ling: "Xiao Bu's ration is a total of 45 jin. You want more refined grain, but each person can only buy a maximum of 20 jin of refined grain. So Aunt Zhao bought you 20 jin. The remaining 25 jin are all coarse grain. The total is 14 yuan and 5 mao."
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