Chapter 39 Buying Fish
"Yeah." Liu Yinyin looked at him and said, "You don't know if you haven't been there. There were a lot of people exchanging food at the market today. Some people even sold food directly. It's not much more expensive than the supply and marketing cooperative. I thought it was a rare opportunity, so I bought a little more."
Gu Cheng was just surprised and didn't ask any more questions. He just said, "I wonder if the cellar at home is too small."
If he had known that his daughter-in-law loved buying food so much, he would have dug the cellar bigger.
Liu Yinyin hesitated and asked, "You...don't think I'm wasting money?"
Gu Cheng said calmly, "It's not like you're wasting money on food. Besides, if you can't finish it, you can sell it later."
The same tone she used when talking to Jiang Cuihua.
Gu Cheng was born in the countryside, and like most country people, he had a special feeling for the land and food.
Liu Yinyin smiled. Since Gu Cheng didn't ask, she naturally didn't say anything more.
Seeing the watermelon in his hand, she smiled and asked, "Are you selling watermelons today?"
The supply and marketing cooperative would occasionally sell fruit, and whenever he came across it, Gu Chengdu would buy some to eat.
You don’t need tickets to buy fruit, but there are usually purchase limits and the prices are not cheap.
"Well, it's a pity that we went too late. There are only a few small watermelons left." Gu Cheng handed the watermelon to her and turned to clean up the things in the yard.
The grain was put into the cellar and the large vats were moved into the kitchen. There were three large vats, just enough to hold rice, flour and cornmeal.
There were also two small jars. Since Liu Yinyin didn't plan to pickle vegetables, she used them to store millet and eggs.
In addition to a few large vats, all the other large bags of grain in the kitchen were moved into the cellar, which made the place look much cleaner. Otherwise, a pile of grain would be an eyesore.
The house is looking better and better.
Liu Yinyin suddenly got excited and took out a pencil and a notebook to do some calculations. Her family's current food reserves were as follows:
In the kitchen, there were more than 30 kilograms of flour, more than 30 kilograms of rice, 50 kilograms of cornmeal, and 5 kilograms of millet in the jar.
There are two layers under the cabinet. On one layer, there is a bag of mung beans, weighing 14 pounds; a bag of soybeans, weighing 20 pounds; a bag of red beans, weighing 9 pounds, and a bag of peanuts, weighing 3 pounds.
The other layer contained 15 kilograms of buckwheat flour, 25 kilograms of millet, more than 10 kilograms of brown rice and more than 20 kilograms of corn grits.
There were some scattered food in the kitchen, which added up to about two hundred and fifty kilograms.
The cellar is much simpler. It mainly contains the food bought today and the food distributed in the village a few days ago.
There were 220 kilograms of millet, 215 kilograms of wheat, 604 kilograms of corn cobs, and a bag of cornmeal, not much, only about 30 kilograms.
Gu Cheng had previously received a bicycle ticket from his comrade-in-arms. In order to repay the favor, he sent 50 kilograms of cornmeal to his comrade-in-arms.
What's left is about 1,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes.
There are only two people in the family now, so the consumption is not that high. Gu Cheng eats in the factory cafeteria at noon, and Liu Yinyin herself doesn't eat much.
Therefore, more than two kilograms of food a day is enough for the family.
Liu Yinyin could also smuggle some food out of the system from time to time, so the family's daily food consumption could be controlled within two kilograms.
There is so much food stored at home, enough for them to eat for about two years.
In addition, Gu Cheng received a food ration subsidy of 36 kilograms every month.
According to his level, he can receive 12 kilograms of fine grains and 24 kilograms of coarse grains per month.
We missed the deadline this month and will have to start receiving food supplies next month.
The more Liu Yinyin thought about it, the more relieved she felt. It was enough to stockpile this much food at home for the time being. As for the rest...she could worry about it after she gave birth.
After cutting the watermelon and handing a piece to Gu Cheng, Liu Yinyin smiled and said to him, "We need to prepare a stone mill at home."
The food stored in the cellar is in its shell and can be stored for several years.
It’s just not convenient to eat, you have to peel it yourself.
Without waiting for his response, Liu Yinyin continued to speak on her own: "There is an old master in the village who has the skill to make a stone mill. We can go ask him later. It seems that we can exchange food for it."
Of course, she actually wanted to buy it with money, but always using money seemed a bit extravagant, and it was not easy for Gu Cheng to make money.
Gu Cheng took a bite of the watermelon and said, "I'll go take a look when I have time."
"I need a big stone mill for grinding rice, and also a small stone mill so that I can grind beans to make tofu when the weather gets colder." Liu Yinyin muttered.
"Okay," he said.
Fortunately, stone mills were not expensive. Within two days, the family had two stone mills, one large and one small, which they exchanged for thirty kilograms of cornmeal.
The weather has been bad these past two days, with a few showers.
With each autumn rain comes a chill, and the weather is getting colder.
That day, the village head's wife Li Chunfang came to see Liu Yinyin and said that there were several lotus ponds in her mother's village that were going to be released for fishing and digging lotus roots. She asked her if she wanted to exchange some fish and lotus roots for food.
Liu Yinyin naturally would not refuse. The family had almost enough food, but there was no meat yet.
Fish meat is also meat, and it can be made into dried mackerel and kept for a year or so.
She bought two kilograms of white wine at the market last time, which is just right for pickling mackerel.
Moreover, fish is not expensive nowadays, only about 20 to 30 cents per pound.
In a famine year, the price would be outrageously high.
Liu Yinyin thought for a moment and asked Li Chunfang, "Auntie, can you afford to buy it?"
This was not the first time Liu Yinyin had made a deal with Li Chunfang, so she didn't beat around the bush.
Li Chunfang rolled her eyes and said in a low voice, "Okay, but don't tell anyone this directly. You have to tell others that it was exchanged for food."
"I know." Liu Yinyin replied in a low voice.
Then, he took out two large wedding tickets from the room and stuffed them into her hands, saying, "Auntie, I'm not feeling well. Please buy the fish and lotus roots for me. Just buy about ten kilograms of lotus roots, and buy more fish."
According to the market price, lotus root is one cent per pound, and fish is two or three cents per pound.
Twenty yuan can buy thirty or forty fish.
Li Chunfang knew that her family was rich, but was still surprised by her generosity: "Yinyin, isn't twenty yuan too much? You can buy dozens of fish. Can your family eat all these fish?"
Other families would only buy two or three fish at most. Who would buy thirty or forty at once?
Liu Yinyin blinked and explained, "Buy more, and then I'll send a few to my parents and Gu Cheng. I want to make some dried mackerel with the rest and keep it for later."
Auntie, you can buy as much as you want. If you don’t have that much, it’s okay to buy less.”
Seeing that she had a plan, Li Chunfang stopped persuading her and nodded, "Okay, I'll try to buy more for you."
Liu Yinyin smiled and said, "Thank you for your help, Auntie. Please... wait for me for a while."
Liu Yinyin went into the kitchen, smuggled twelve eggs out of the system, put them in a basket and gave them to Li Chunfang.
"Auntie, take these eggs back and eat them."
It wasn't easy for Li Chunfang to run around buying things for her. You have to repay the favor you owe to others, otherwise they won't think of you next time something good happens.