Chapter 54 Is this even possible? They're not even letting a lazy bum get a proper night's sleep...
The discussion about the camera didn't reach a conclusion. Qin Xiangxiang, her family of three, and Li Yaowei and his wife returned to their apartment building together. The things that Li Yaowei and his wife had brought were placed at the door. Huang, the woman from the middle apartment, stood at the door and smiled at Qin Xiangxiang.
Li Jianzhi unlocked the door and entered the house. "Why did you bring so much stuff?"
"They're all cheap fish. I saw that my sister-in-law liked bayberry wine last time, so I brought some more for her. I also brought some green cakes for the kids."
"Little Fatty, eat up, see if you like it."
Green cakes are a type of snack eaten around the Qingming Festival on this island. In fact, people all over the country eat similar pastries like green rice dumplings and green cakes around the Qingming Festival.
Liu Xiaoyun washed her hands at the tap by the door: "Comrade Xiao Qin, I picked some Qingming vegetables by the roadside on my way here. They can be steamed and kneaded into glutinous rice flour to make snacks. Do you know how to make them?"
When she first arrived, Liu Xiaoyun was quite nervous, but now she is much more relaxed and speaks more naturally. She grew up in the village and is quite familiar with wild vegetables. She has developed the habit of picking some whenever she sees wild vegetables by the roadside.
I just arrived and picked some "Tian Ai" (田艾), which is the wild vegetable used to make Qing Tuan (青团). It is also called Qingming Cai (清明菜), Bai Ai (白艾), Shu Qu Cao (鼠曲草), etc. The names vary from place to place. This wild vegetable has hundreds of local names, but in the south, it is used to make pastries around Qingming Festival, and it is named with "Qing" (青).
"I can make qingtuan." Qin Xiangxiang also likes to eat glutinous rice balls made with wild vegetables. The wild vegetables are kneaded into the glutinous rice flour, filled with crushed peanuts, sesame seeds and white sugar, and then steamed. They are delicious qingtuan, or wild vegetable cakes.
"Where can I find them around here? I haven't seen any. I'll go pick some next year during Qingming Festival."
Li Jianzhi: "We have a refrigerator at home. If you like this, you can freeze it in the refrigerator."
"This can be frozen too?"
"sure."
Liu Xiaoyun: "Sister-in-law, if you don't mind, I'll take you to our village to pick them next year. There are plenty of them in the mountains."
"Oh, sister-in-law, isn't your family from a fishing production team?"
Liu Xiaoyun: "It's my mom's side."
"Are there any bayberries left?"
"Yes, if you like picking bayberries, you can go to my hometown and pick them. They're everywhere. You can pick as many as you want. If you like bayberry wine, you can pick some and make it yourself. But the bayberries here ripen late. They won't be ready to be picked until mid-to-late June, so you'll have to wait another month or so."
Qin Xiangxiang said happily, "That's great! I'll make some bayberry wine myself and send it to my parents so they can taste the bayberry wine made by their own daughter."
"Ideally, I hope they can eat the eggs laid by the chickens raised by their grandson." Qin Xiangxiang had previously thought that raising chickens and growing vegetables was useless, but now she can send things to her parents. If the weather is good, the port here can send ships at night, and the things carried by the ship can arrive in Shanghai at eight o'clock the next morning.
Having received forty yuan from her parents for nothing in a month, Qin Xiangxiang felt grateful for their kindness and decided to give them some gifts. Regardless of their value, it was still a token of her affection.
Liu Xiaoyun: "Xiao Qin, do you like white crabs? In a while, the white crabs will all have crab roe, which makes them taste quite unique."
White crabs are also known as swimming crabs. May and June are the time when swimming crabs begin to carry eggs and reproduce.
"Huh? It has crab roe? I haven't really eaten this before."
...
When they mentioned swimming crabs carrying eggs, Li Jianzhi was taken aback. In those days, there was no fishing moratorium policy. From May to August, fishing boats were prohibited from operating.
Whenever fishing boats are operating, the navy will arrange patrols to protect them. At this time, half of the East China Sea Fleet's sea missions are patrols to protect fishing grounds.
Available year-round.
It was precisely because of this unregulated fishing that fishery resources were depleted in the 1980s and 90s, leading to the implementation of a fishing moratorium policy. This was probably a process that had no other choice. Ordinary people today can't even get enough to eat, so what else can they do but go fishing? But looking at it from a future perspective, if you hear your elders say, "When I was young, I couldn't get enough to eat. I could only eat big yellow croakers and such large swimming crabs every day. I was worried when I saw shrimp. Life was so hard back then..." Young people might roll their eyes when they hear this, thinking to themselves that they simply can't afford wild big yellow croakers or such large shrimp and crabs.
Whenever fishing boats are operating, the navy must arrange patrols to protect them.
"Comrade Xiao Qin, you're completely different from what I expected." Liu Xiaoyun had lost all the timidity she had when she first arrived, and even adopted the demeanor of a hostess. She found that this younger sister-in-law from the big city wasn't so difficult to get along with.
Liu Xiaoyun was unaware that while her own conditions were considered above average among ordinary people, she had little experience of the world. Teachers were simple-minded, and the people they interacted with besides students were other teachers from the same school.
Qin Xiangxiang: "How is it different?"
"I never expected you to be so beautiful, generous, talented, with such a good personality, a good family, and such a good parent... You are the most perfect woman I have ever met," Liu Xiaoyun praised, her face flushed and her eyes sparkling.
Qin Xiangxiang stared blankly. What?
Who is the most perfect woman? It can't be Qin Xiangxiang, that lazy, gluttonous little drama queen. Since arriving on the island, she's just stayed home, indulging in food and laziness. She even has Xiao Pang buy her fried dough sticks and pancakes for breakfast. With a refrigerator, she's so lazy that she sometimes only cooks one meal for lunch and eats the leftovers for dinner, or she has sweet porridge for lunch, cooks one meal for dinner, and then has rice porridge for breakfast the next day.
She had so much free time that she felt she was being a bit too lazy, and even started thinking about finding something to do.
But forget it. I'll just live a life of leisure and try to send her parents the agricultural products I grow myself... Someone like her? Can she really be considered a perfect woman?
If it weren't for Liu Xiaoyun's simple and honest appearance, Qin Xiangxiang would have thought that Liu Xiaoyun's words were flattering.
"Xiao Qin, I have a request. I'm asking for my friend's teacher. She's a teacher at our school who likes your craftsmanship. Could you help her make a detachable collar? She said she'd give her half a pound of brown sugar and three pounds of noodles in return."
Upon hearing this, Qin Xiangxiang's face went blank. She thought to herself, "Sure enough, those who praise her are just like Master Li, expecting her to be their slave."
"Actually, it's not just her, there are others too. Xiao Qin, your skills are amazing. They say they've never seen anyone do it better than you."
Half a pound of brown sugar and three pounds of noodles—the payment was fair enough. Qin Xiangxiang wasn't particularly greedy for the sugar and noodles, and there was no need to make herself work harder, but… she remembered that the man at home had said he wanted to buy a camera today.
Qin Xiangxiang's breath hitched. Damn it, she was tempted. Buy a camera, buy a camera, buy a camera! The man's words were like planting a seed in her heart. He wasn't wrong. What woman doesn't love taking pictures?
If she weren't tempted, she wouldn't have calculated the price so precisely. A regular camera costs 160 yuan, and a roll of film costs 1.8 yuan. If she uses up a roll of film a month and prints a dozen or so photos, her monthly expenses would be only two or three yuan, and she could take photos every month.
The problem is that Qin Xiangxiang doesn't even have 160 yuan on her right now. If she wants to buy a camera, she'll have to use the more than 1,000 yuan in savings that Li Jianzhi has. He said he wanted to buy her a piano, which touched Qin Xiangxiang. Now he's saying he wants to buy her a camera.
Qin Xiangxiang was worried that in the end, she wouldn't be able to buy the piano, and all the money would be spent.
This damn man wants to buy everything! He won't let me get any sleep.
The sugar and flour are quite substantial, costing about two or three yuan, which can save a lot of money.
Qin Xiangxiang pursed her lips and made a compromise: "I agree to help your friend with this, but I want to make it clear beforehand that I will only do three things a month. If you want me to do something, I will only take on three things a month, and the others will be scheduled for next month."
"If you can't wait, find someone else to do it."
Liu Xiaoyun said happily, "This...this is wonderful! This is so kind of you. You're so smart, sister-in-law."
In Liu Xiaoyun's opinion, this was the perfect solution. She was worried that Qin Xiangxiang would refuse, but she was also worried that Qin Xiangxiang would be too tempted. It was like making clothes for someone. It was fine once or twice, but if she kept coming to her, it would become a "serious problem".
Three times a month is just the right number, just like raising chickens shouldn't exceed the number of people in the household. It's a safe number. Even if people know you're doing handicrafts for a small subsidy, two or three times a month, no one will care.
Qin Xiangxiang was lazy, so she took on some work from Liu Xiaoyun. In addition to the work from Xiaomai, she had an extra income of more than ten yuan a month. Xiaomai could get more precious meat and oil coupons, which made it easier for her to eat and drink well.
That way I can buy a camera.
Li Jianzhi's money remains untouched. She keeps 110 yuan for herself and temporarily disregards other income from handicrafts. She simply continues to spend 50 yuan each month on food and drink, as before, and 20, no, 30 yuan on clothes, shoes, handkerchiefs, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, and other daily necessities for herself, Xiao Pang, and her deadbeat husband. She saves the remaining 40 yuan to buy "big-ticket items" for the family.
That way, it would take about four months to save enough to buy a camera, while Li Jianzhi's money would be saved and not spent, and the savings would be used to buy her a piano.
...She doesn't want to work hard, she just wants to eat and drink well, but she also wants to buy things. It's so difficult.
With fifty yuan for food expenses, that's about one yuan and sixty cents a day. She gets one yuan, and her son gets sixty cents. If you add the days when her husband comes home... it seems a bit hard to bear. But with her extra income from sugar and noodles, she can indulge herself a few times a month.
If the vegetable garden at home grows well and the hens lay eggs every day, life and diet will improve to a new level.
Life goes on, even a salted fish sighs.
Just when I finally felt like I had money to spare, I had to "work hard" again in order to save forty yuan every month.
After Li Yaowei and his wife left, Qin Xiangxiang shared her plans with Li Jianzhi: "I'll save forty yuan every month, and we'll buy a camera in four months."
After making this plan, Qin Xiangxiang did not guarantee a successful outcome. Perhaps in four months, Li Jianzhi would not want to buy a camera, and renting a camera once would be enough for them.
Qin Xiangxiang actually wanted to buy a sofa... she also wanted to buy a bed! If Li Jianzhi saved up enough foreign exchange certificates, she wanted to buy an imported soft mattress!
And summer is just around the corner. Not to mention that a brand new floor fan costs 200 yuan, even a regular table fan costs 100 yuan. Does that man still remember saying that he would put ice cubes in front of the fan in the summer?
She only brought an old table fan from Shanghai with her when she moved... She didn't want to sleep with her child at night.
They either don't spend money, or they feel like they want to spend money everywhere.
Li Jianzhi: "No need to wait four months. We'll buy the camera tomorrow. We'll use my money first, and then you can give me forty yuan every month for four months to make up the difference."
Qin Xiangxiang: "?"
Is this even possible?
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