Chapter 10

Qiao Wei observed the people she met along the way, and she understood why Yan Lei was so eccentric when talking about clothes.

Not only was the shattering cloth itself rare and a luxury. And it was not noticeable in the provincial capital, but back in town, many people even wore old-fashioned clothes. There were even patches on their clothes.

Qiao Wei also saw many middle-aged and elderly women wearing old-fashioned slanted-collar gowns.

No wonder the original owner didn't like this place, the difference between the town and the countryside was really not that big, and the original owner yearned for the foreign land described by her grandmother, who was a daughter in trouble.

From the perspective of a modern person like Qiao Wei, it can't be said to be wrong.

But it was really out of place with the times, making the original owner's life and marriage miserable.

I hope that in the next life, she can be born in an era that suits her.

There were people in the canteen of the compound, but not too many. It was probably because Qiao Wei got up late today and most people had already had breakfast.

Qiao Wei went to the counter to pay for two bowls of wontons and two fried dough sticks. Wontons were 0.1 yuan a bowl and fried dough sticks were 0.3 cents each. But you had to pay for grain coupons and meat coupons.

Qiao Wei paused slightly when she opened her wallet. If you calculate it this way, the twenty or thirty yuan in her wallet is equivalent to several thousand yuan in later generations. At this time, the understanding of money finally came into practice and had a real sense.

The difference from later generations is that you have to give coupons. Qiao Wei didn't know how much to give, so she tried to put two or three on the counter. The girl who collected the money glanced at her strangely and took two from it.

Qiao Wei probably had an idea of ​​how much the tickets were used.

The girl gave her four rough-edged paper cards, two of which were printed with "1 bowl of wontons" and two with "1 fried dough stick". Qiao Wei took them to the master chef at the window, waited for a while for the window to call, and went to bring back the wontons and fried dough sticks.

Wontons with fried dough sticks are one of the best breakfast combinations.

Compared with the large wontons commonly seen in breakfast shops in later generations, the wontons here have almost no meat. But the wonton skin is rolled very thin, like a goldfish with a long tail. The skin completely absorbs the taste of the soup, and it melts in the mouth when you take a sip.

Qiao Wei, who relied entirely on nutrient solution before her death, sighed - just for this bite of delicious wontons, it is worth living.

The mother and son ate it with relish. Yan Xiang asked, "Are you going home?"

Qiao Wei shook her plastic basket and said, "Let's go buy some vegetables."

Yan Xiang was very familiar with the farmers' market and led the way. There were no electrical appliances in those days, and of course no refrigerators. Fresh fruits and vegetables could not be kept for long in the summer, and every household basically bought vegetables for the day, or at most for two days.

The scale of the market was much smaller than Qiao Wei had expected, and the variety of vegetables was very monotonous, all of which were common vegetables in the north, and there was no southern food at all. There was only one counter selling meat, but there was a long line.

I kept hearing people saying hello. The place was small, and everyone knew each other. The market and the public toilets became social places.

Memory told Qiao Wei that she had to queue up to buy meat first, otherwise the meat might be sold out.

She held Yan Xiang's hand and queued up. There were also people queuing with their children. The children were impatient and swayed, jumped, or made noises. The parents basically turned a blind eye, and when they were annoyed by the noise, they would slap their children twice.

Qiao Wei looked at Yan Xiang again. In contrast, Yan Xiang was so well-behaved, leaning quietly beside her.

At this time, he looked a bit like the taciturn boy described in the original text.

As if sensing something, the child suddenly raised his head and saw Qiao Wei looking at him, and smiled at Qiao Wei. A pair of bright eyes were curved with a smile, and a mouthful of small white teeth were clean and crisp.

This kind of smile can simply purify the soul of an adult.

Qiao Wei rubbed his head vigorously.

With her around, the cute little boy will never become a gloomy teenager again. It

was finally her turn in the queue and she cut a piece of meat, which was fat and lean.

Because she came a little late, there was not much meat left. The people behind her were still unhappy: "Why buy so much, so many people will eat it."

Qiao Wei looked at the piece of meat, which was really not big. It was because there was no refrigerator and she couldn't store it that she bought such a small amount.

She smiled: "I have to cut another piece when I go home to bring it to my neighbors."

She was dressed beautifully and her smile was warm and bright. The people behind her couldn't say anything even if they were unhappy: "Oh."

Qiao Wei also began to have a real experience of the scarcity of materials in this era.

She bought some more vegetables and wanted to buy some fruits. But she got up a little late in the first place, and was delayed by going to the compound to eat. She had to wait in a long line to buy meat. When she wanted to buy fruit, the fruit was sold out. She had

to give up, secretly reminding herself that supplies were tight in this era, and she couldn't get up too late in the morning, otherwise she wouldn't be able to buy good things.

Carrying the things, she led Yan Xiang back slowly.

In fact, it was nice to walk out like this. The memories of this town slowly spread out and fell to the ground, turning from a movie scroll into the reality in front of her.

As they walked, they saw the store of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Qiao Wei came from the future when commodities were extremely abundant. She always felt that it was shabby to bring only a piece of meat as a thank-you gift to someone. Although she knew that meat was really a good thing in this era, she still felt that the gift was too small.

After all, Captain Zhao's family had taken care of Yan Xiang for several days, and they took good care of Yan Xiang.

Who would take care of other people's children in the future? They are not relatives. They don't even know the last name of their neighbors.

Qiao Wei decided to go to the store to have a look. The store is quite spacious and the house is not small, but when you walk in, you can almost scan the whole place.

There is really nothing to buy or worth buying. There are too few types of goods, and there is not even a canned fruit.

Finally, Qiao Wei decided to buy brown sugar. Because she remembered that her mother once told her that drinking brown sugar water when she was a child was a good thing in that era.

Fortunately, she packed some tickets when she went out, including sugar tickets.

Not knowing how much to buy, she humbly asked the saleswoman for advice. The saleswoman saw how she and Yan Xiang were dressed and knew they were military families, so she said, "Let's go for the 30-cent piece."

So Qiao Wei bought 30-cent brown sugar, wrapped it in oil paper, put a piece of pink paper on top, and tied it up with a plastic rope. After

it was tied up, she saw Yan Xiang's eyes looking at her with sparkling eyes.

Qiao Wei was amused, rummaged through her wallet, took out a one-cent steel coin and put it on the counter: "Give the child a bite."

The saleswoman smiled and took a small piece of brown sugar from the counter and stuffed it into Yan Xiang's mouth. Yan Xiang went home with Qiao Wei happily.

When they got home, Qiao Wei put down her own vegetables and took out two pieces of meat from the basket. When she bought it, she asked the butcher to cut it into two pieces. One was fatter and the other was leaner.

Qiao Wei remembered that in this era, people thought that fat meat was better than lean meat. She was not sure, so she asked Yan Xiang: "Fat meat is better or lean meat is better."

Yan Xiang said without hesitation: "Fat meat is better, fat meat is fragrant."

While saying this, he shook his head: "No one likes to buy lean meat."

Qiao Wei said: "Okay, then we will give the fat piece to Zhao Da and Aunt Yang, thank them for taking care of Xiangxiang."

Yan Xiang nodded vigorously: "Yeah!"

Qiao Wei took the meat and brown sugar and took Yan Xiang out again.

Captain Zhao's house was not far away, just a few steps away.

The courtyard door was open. Qiao Wei did not go in directly. She stood at the door and shouted, "Is anyone there?"

Someone answered and came out of the house. He was in his thirties, with a bun on the back of his head, a thin figure and a sallow complexion.

From his appearance, you can tell that he came from the countryside.

It's not surprising. Yan Lei and many of his comrades-in-arms were born into a poor peasant militia. They relied on their blood and patriotism to fight for their current rank.

The treatment of the troops is better than that of the workers because the country has a guiding ideology of "bleeding is more important than sweating."

Many people in later generations only know about the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, but they don't know that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country has been fighting wars of all sizes due to geopolitics.

As the saying on the Internet goes, there is no such thing as a quiet life. It's always others who are carrying the burden for you.

"Sister-in-law." Qiao Wei called sweetly and walked into the yard with Yan Xiang.

Yan Xiang was particularly polite: "Auntie Yang."

"Hey." Sister Yang wiped her hands with her apron and replied, "Xiao Qiao is back. Have you two had breakfast? I'll make you some noodles?"

"No, no, we've already eaten." Qiao Wei said.

Yan Xiang said loudly: "Auntie Yang, we went to the yard to eat wontons."

"We ate wontons." Sister Yang smiled and glanced at Qiao Wei.

This look made Qiao Wei a little confused.

She couldn't ask what that look meant, so she put aside her doubts and stepped forward to stuff the meat and brown sugar into Sister Yang.

"What's this?" Sister Yang asked.

"That's brown sugar." Qiao Wei said, "I was unlucky. I got sick in the provincial capital. I was so feverish that I was confused. I didn't have time to buy anything and came back empty-handed. I just went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy this. Bring it to the children."

Sister Yang pushed it out: "What are you doing?"

Qiao Wei said: "I'm not at home. Yan Xiang has troubled you for a few days. I bought something as a token of my appreciation. Don't mind it, sister-in-law."

Sister Yang said "Why are you so polite?" but her hand was not so hard. Qiao Wei forced it into her mouth.

Sister Yang scolded her: "Look at you, why are you being so polite to our family?"

After accepting the thank-you gift, she grabbed Qiao Wei: "Drink some water."

Qiao Wei stayed and followed her to sit at the small table under the eaves.

In this era, there would be no drinks at home. If you drink water, you really drink water, boiled water.

Qiao Wei took the opportunity to look around the yard and house. The yard of Captain Zhao's house is bigger, and some vegetables are planted in the yard. But his house is different from Qiao Wei's, because there are more people, and he built two more rooms after moving in. The layout of the house seems messy due to the illegal construction.

But the land in the yard is well tidied, and several kinds of small green vegetables are planted, which are green. You can tell at a glance that the family is good at tidying up the land.

"How are the relatives going?" Sister Yang asked with concern.

In this era, there is almost no privacy between neighbors. Fortunately, everyone has a yard, not a big yard, so no one can eavesdrop on them.

But it is normal for such an old sister to ask when meeting.

Sister Yang actually didn’t have a very good relationship with the original owner. She was a rural woman, and the original owner claimed to be an intellectual. Although their husbands hoped that the two of them could get along well, the two of them had no common language at all.

The original owner entrusted her child to her before she left, and Sister Yang couldn’t refuse due to the friendship between the two husbands. But to say that she was very close to the original owner, that was not the case.

But today Qiao Wei came with gifts, and you shouldn’t hit someone who smiles. She suddenly became polite, and Sister Yang naturally became a little more warm to her.

For the sake of her future life, Qiao Wei had to clean up the mess for the original owner, Qiao Weiwei, and smooth over the fact that she eloped. She repeated the same words she used to fool Driver Zhang.

Sister Yang straightened her back and slammed the table in anger: "How dare you look down on us!"

Qiao Wei said: "I didn't have time to tell people that I was a military family member. The main thing is that they didn't ask."

The key person in this matter is Sister Yang. If Sister Yang is fooled, the matter will be smoothed over.

Qiao Wei can replace Qiao Weiwei and start a new life.

Sister Yang is from the countryside. She looks like a farmer. She has been looked down upon by the city people several times when she went to the city. She can empathize with this kind of thing. As expected, she was fooled and was so angry that she cursed and spoke in her hometown dialect.

"Don't be angry, don't be angry. We won't have any contact in the future. We are just distant relatives." Qiao Wei looked around, "Where is your Xiao Lin?"

As soon as she mentioned the heroine Lin Xixi, Sister Yang started talking: "You have met my Xixi, right? How is she? This little girl is not bad."

Sister Yang's tone was full of pride, revealing her love for this niece who was not related by blood.

The heroine really has the aura of a heroine.