Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Canteen

A family of three sits at the living room table eating strawberries.

Xia Qinqin held the big strawberry in her small hands and ate it happily, shaking her feet.

"Mom, these strawberries are delicious."

Meng Yufei nodded and said, "The fruits here are sweeter than those in Haishi, and they are bigger."

Xia Qinqin's fair face was stained with red strawberry juice, and she grinned and said, "I want to eat strawberries again tomorrow."

Xia Junshan said cheerfully, "Okay, Dad will buy it for you tomorrow."

Meng Yufei refused mercilessly: "No, we have ordered pineapple for tomorrow. You can only eat one kind of fruit a day."

"All right……"

Xia Qinqin felt a little disappointed, but when she thought about eating pineapples tomorrow, she became excited again and continued to eat strawberries happily.

After eating, Meng Yufei pulled her daughter under the faucet. The little girl's face was covered with strawberry juice. Meng Yufei carefully washed her daughter's face with water and then wiped it dry with a towel.

Thanks again for the running water.

Inside the house, Xia Junshan took out all the remaining tickets and money in the house and gave them all to Meng Yufei.

Meng Yufei sorted it out and found out that Xia Junshan ate in the cafeteria, so he had few grain coupons and meat coupons left, but he did save a lot of non-staple food coupons, cloth coupons and oil coupons.

There were also a few industrial tickets, a sewing machine ticket, a bicycle ticket, and a few cigarette tickets.

Seeing Meng Yufei taking a closer look at the cigarettes, Xia Junshan explained: "I don't smoke them, sometimes I need to ask someone to do something for me, and these are hard currency."

"Like the old man yesterday, although he and I have a close relationship, he was using the company's car after all, and he was doing us a favor. I gave him two packs of cigarettes, not only to thank him, but also so that he could go back to the company to return the favor."

Meng Yufei nodded in understanding, "I know. Dad gave me a few cigarettes this time. He said he doesn't need them normally, so he asked me to bring them to you."

As he spoke, he took out a square iron box from the suitcase, which contained the couple's belongings over the years.

When I opened it, I saw a stack of tickets, money, and a passbook.

Before coming here, Meng Yufei had exchanged all her tickets for national notes, and put the tickets given by Xia Junshan together, and also sorted out the savings of her family with him.

The two have been married for six years. Xia Junshan's monthly salary has increased from 74 yuan at the beginning to 132 yuan now, and most of it has been sent to Meng Yufei.

Meng Yufei herself is also working. She is a college student and her salary was 55 yuan when she graduated. In the past few years, it has gradually increased to 72 yuan.

In this era when the average monthly salary of workers is 30 or 40 yuan, the couple are both truly high-income people.

In addition, Meng Yufei and her daughter have been living in her mother's home for the past few years. Meng's father and mother have high salaries, so all the household expenses are paid by them.

After getting married, Meng Yufei gave her family 20 yuan a month for living expenses. Meng's father and mother were reluctant to accept it at first, but they accepted it anyway because they couldn't persuade their daughter. However, they spent all the money on Xia Qinqin.

Even though Meng Yufei usually spends money lavishly, after a few years, their small family has still saved a lot of money.

After opening the passbook, Xia Junshan widened his eyes in surprise.

Six thousand five hundred dollars!

"Our family has saved so much money!" Xia Junshan was a little surprised.

Meng Yufei said proudly: "You are not the only one in the family who works and gets paid. Besides, Qinqin and I have lived at home for these years, and our parents have also given us a lot of money."

Xia Junshan said: "Thank you for your hard work, Mom and Dad, in the past few years, we must be filial to them in the future."

Xia Junshan's parents died early, and he didn't feel much family love since childhood. After getting married, his father-in-law and mother-in-law treated him like their own son, and he truly regarded them as his parents in his heart.

Meng Yufei found a few industrial coal tickets from a pile of tickets and said, "I just saw a coal stove for sale at the supply and marketing cooperative. Let's go buy one this afternoon. The earthen stove at home is not working well for me."

Xia Junshan took the ticket and said, "I'll go buy it now. I can stop by the cafeteria to get food on my way back."

"Then let's go together. I also know the way to the cafeteria."

After taking a few grain coupons and change, Meng Yufei put the iron box away again.

The canteen in the family compound is not big, mainly because most of the family members who come to follow the army choose to cook their own food at home, which is cheaper than eating in the canteen.

The canteen doesn't have a lot of dishes, but the variety is surprisingly rich.

"We are lucky today. We have coconut chicken, which is the specialty here."

"Really? Well, let's try it. When I was in college, I had a classmate from Qiongzhou, and I always heard him talk about it."

Xia Junshan pointed at the coconut chicken and said to the older sister serving food at the window, "Sister-in-law, give me a serving of coconut chicken."

The man who served the meal was also a military family member, so he naturally recognized Xia Junshan. When he first joined the army, because he looked so handsome and was the regiment commander at such a young age, many people asked to introduce him to a wife.

It's a pity that he was already married and had children.

"Captain Xia, this is your family member, right?"

Now seeing this man and woman, their appearance and temperament are perfectly matched.

"Yes, my wife Meng Yufei just arrived today. I'll trouble you to take care of her in the future."

"What are you talking about? I will definitely give you enough food when you come to my place to get food next time."

"Thank you."

I ordered a coconut chicken and added a portion of steamed sea bass, a portion of stir-fried spinach, and a bowl of kelp and shrimp rice soup.

The coconut chicken cost 47 cents plus two taels of meat coupons, which is quite expensive, almost as expensive as braised pork.

Steamed sea bass was 23 cents, stir-fried spinach was 5 cents, and kelp and shrimp rice soup was 7 cents. I also bought 10 cents of rice, using half a pound of grain coupons.

A meal cost 92 cents, plus two ounces of meat coupons and half a pound of grain coupons.

Live by the sea and eat from the sea. Most of the dishes in the cafeteria are seafood, and no tickets are required.

After eating, the family of three met Qi Huiying, a family member of Deputy Head Chen, at the entrance of the cafeteria.

She was still wearing the same pink dress she had worn in the morning and a pair of black high-heeled leather shoes as she walked on the cement road in the cafeteria, making a clacking sound.

The sound was particularly loud in the empty cafeteria, attracting many people to look over.

The two parties didn't say hello when they met, they just passed each other.

Qi Huiying pouted, looking at the backs of the family of three and muttering in her heart: Women of this era don't cook at home, but actually come to the cafeteria to eat! She just saw that she spent almost a dollar and gave birth to a daughter, but she is still so pretentious.

Qi Huiying came from several decades later, she traveled through time.

A month ago, she found herself traveling back in time to the body of a girl from sixty years ago.

The original owner was twenty-one years old, a high school graduate, and a temporary worker in a garment factory in Qiongzhou City. She came from a poor family and her father was a capitalist. After liberation, her father went abroad with his concubine, and she and her mother and brother stayed in the mainland.

Half a year ago at a unit's social gathering, Deputy Head Chen took a fancy to Qi Huiying and began pursuing her.

But Qi Huiying already had someone she liked in her heart, her childhood sweetheart. The boy was studying at a university in another city, and the two of them privately agreed to wait for him to graduate and return to get married.

So when faced with Deputy Head Chen's pursuit, Qi Huiying directly rejected it at the beginning.

Who would have known that by coincidence, her brother had lung disease and needed antibiotic treatment. Antibiotics in hospitals in those days were extremely precious and not available to ordinary people. Given their family's current status, they had no chance of getting treatment.

In desperation, Qi Huiying was forced by her mother to find Deputy Head Chen.

After some discussions, with the strong help of her mother, she finally got engaged to Deputy Head Chen.

Unexpectedly, on the eve of the wedding, the childhood sweetheart came back, and the two young people made an appointment to elope late at night.

Before she left the house, she was discovered by Qi Huiying's mother, who naturally refused to let her go. During the argument, the girl hit her head on the corner of the table and fainted.

When I woke up again, there was a different person inside.

The new Qi Huiying knows what will happen in a few years. So what if her childhood sweetheart is a college student? Given his background, his future will not be easy and she will suffer if she follows him.

But Deputy Head Chen is different, she will be a government official’s wife after she gets married!

She chose to marry Deputy Head Chen without hesitation.

After getting married, she immediately quit her previous job. She refused to work as a temporary worker on a factory assembly line. After all, she was only a high school student, which was considered a highly educated person in that era.

Since arriving on the island, she has been actively trying to build good relationships with the wives of Commander Li and Political Commissar Yu, and from time to time she would bring them what she considered to be relatively expensive gifts of that era.

Although Political Commissar Yu's wife never treated her well, she was magnanimous and didn't bother with this vulgar country woman. However, she was lucky enough to enjoy the dividends of the times and marry Political Commissar Yu.

Mrs. Li was of decent character and was always pleasant to the eye. After observing for a month, she considered herself to be the youngest, prettiest, most fashionable, and most educated person in the family compound on the island, and she was determined to get the position of elementary school teacher on the island.

After seeing the new family of Captain Xia today, she immediately became alert.

However, I just saw how this woman squandered her money and she only gave birth to a daughter in this era. Humph, it’s just that my comparison group has collapsed.

Thinking of this, Qi Huiying curled the corners of her mouth happily.

…

Xia Qinqin walked out of the cafeteria and suddenly stopped, waving her hands in front of her ears.

"Qinqin, what's wrong?" Meng Yufei asked curiously.

Xia Qinqin frowned and said, "Mom, my ears are so noisy, buzzing all the time."

"Quarrel?"

Meng Yufei squatted down and looked carefully at her daughter's ear, then touched it gently again, but found nothing unusual.

"Now, are you still arguing?"

Xia Qinqin paused, listened carefully, shook her head and said, "Stop arguing."

Xia Junshan also squatted down to check and guessed, "Maybe a mosquito just ran to her ear."

Meng Yufei said, "Are there mosquitoes now? Does the supply and marketing cooperative sell mosquito nets? How about buying two mosquito nets and taking them home? I'm afraid there will be mosquitoes at night."

Xia Junshan said, "I asked before, the supply and marketing cooperative has not started to stock mosquito nets this month. I guess Qiongzhou City has some. Let's go to the city to buy some when I'm on vacation next time."

Then, he lowered his head and asked his daughter, "Qinqin, does your ear still hurt? Are you feeling unwell?"

Xia Qinqin shook her head and said, "It doesn't hurt."

Seeing that their daughter was really fine, the couple breathed a sigh of relief.

The family of three continued walking home to have lunch.