Chapter 12 Chapter 12 Fu Zhiqing, what a coincidence
The bearded man was carrying a straw mat and walking in front, while Shen Moer and Shen Shaoyuan followed behind. When they were leaving the market, a red armband stopped them and asked, "Where are you going?"
"They want to buy bamboo mats. I only brought straw mats today, so I wanted to take them home." The bearded man had obviously thought of what to say.
The man with the red armband narrowed his eyes and asked, "Is your home in the commune?"
The man with the long beard smiled and said, "No, my brother-in-law's home is in the commune. It's inconvenient to take things back and forth, so I leave them at his house."
The man with the red armband didn't say anything. He looked up and down at Shen Moer and Shen Shaoyuan for a while. Seeing that they were both very calm and didn't show any timidity, he waved his hand and said, "Let's go."
The man with the long beard smiled and said, "Okay."
They walked until they passed an intersection and looked back and couldn't see them anymore. Seeing the red armband, the bearded man heaved a sigh of relief: "You are quite brave, I was afraid that you would show your true colors."
Shen Moer smiled: "Uncle, you didn't lie, we really want to buy bamboo mats."
The bearded man nodded, then shook his head quickly, staring: "No, I am not much older than you, why do you call me uncle?"
Shen Moer was surprised: "Shouldn't I call you uncle?" He looked older than her father.
Shen Shaoyuan looked at the bearded man and was also a little surprised: "You don't look younger than me, what's wrong with my daughter calling you uncle?"
The bearded man turned his head and looked at him twice, and was speechless for a while.
Although he looks old, thanks to his beard, it is undeniable that he has a good-looking face, looks young, and doesn't look like he would have such an old lady.
He only dared to confirm that they were father and daughter after secretly eavesdropping on their conversation. Otherwise, they looked more like brother and sister.
However, even if he shaved his beard, he wouldn't dare to say that he looked younger than the other person.
The man with the beard touched his beard subconsciously and felt a trace of sadness.
The commune is not big, certainly not comparable to the county town, but it is not small either. There are two community-run factories in Liuqiao Commune. The original inhabitants of the commune plus the workers recruited by the factories make the population quite large, so the residential area plus the factory dormitories are lined up with houses that stretch as far as the eye can see.
Luo Shai Hu led Shen Moer and the others around the dormitory of the commune textile factory. After a long time, he finally led them into a small bungalow. As soon as
she entered the door, Shen Moer smelled a strong aroma of food.
The house was not big. There was a stove on the right side of the door. A woman in her thirties was burning a fire. There were several layers of steamers stacked on the big iron pot. The aroma came from the steamers.
When the woman saw the stranger coming in, she hurriedly stood up from the small stool and looked at Luo Shai Hu nervously.
After bringing the people home, the man with a beard didn't hide anything and said directly: "This is my sister. The buns in the pot are steamed. The scallion buns are 8 cents each, and the vegetarian buns are 5 cents each. The price is a little higher than the state-owned hotel, but it doesn't require a ticket, so it's cost-effective."
Shen Moer was hungry because she had only eaten half a melon in the morning, so she said: "Is it cooked? If it is, give me three scallion buns and two vegetarian buns."
The woman hurriedly said: "It will be ready soon." The
man with a beard led the people into the house: "It will be ready in two minutes. Take a look at the cotton and bamboo mat first."
He said he was going to look at the cotton and bamboo mat. He led the people into the house, pointed to two stools for them to sit on, and then went out through the back door.
Shen Moer did not find it strange. They were doing such a life-threatening business, so they would not leave things openly in the house. Most likely, there was a hidden place nearby to hide things.
She looked around. There was only a table and a few stools in the room. Shen Moer guessed that this might be a private canteen, and the table and stools should be used by diners.
There were several propaganda posters commonly seen on the walls on both sides of the room. The characters in the posters were energetic and high-spirited. Slogans such as "Raise vigilance, defend the motherland" and "Resolutely follow the path of combining with workers, peasants and soldiers" were printed on them. The
original owner of this kind of poster had seen many times, but Shen Moer herself saw it for the first time. She found that the brush and ink techniques were very different from those she had seen in Daliang, and she looked at it with interest for a long time.
Shen Shaoyuan also stared at the picture for a while and whispered, "This painting is quite interesting. I will take a closer look at it someday and draw you a picture like this."
The father and daughter agreed that the picture was quite interesting.
At this time, the man with a beard came back, holding a sack in one hand and a rolled bamboo mat in the other.
"There are indeed no two bamboo mats. Take a look at the quality of these bamboo mats. If you think they are good
, take one first. I am not bragging. Look how smooth and tightly woven these mats are!" The man with the beard spread out the mats on the ground and untied the sacks tied with them: "The new cotton has not arrived yet. This is from last year. The stuff is very good. Take a look at how soft the cotton is and how white it is. It is snow-white."
Shen Moer thought to herself that you are not bragging enough, but she had to admit that the quality of the stuff is indeed good.
The bamboo mats are 3.8 yuan and 1.2 yuan per pound of cotton. Compared with the regular channels, it is much more expensive, but as I said, it is still cost-effective if you don't need a ticket. There were eight pounds of cotton in the sack, which was nine yuan and sixty cents, plus five buns for thirty-four cents, a total of thirteen yuan and seventy-four cents.
Shen Moer took out two large banknotes from her pocket, and took out the fifty cents in change that the original owner's father and daughter had saved, counted out four cents, and gave them all to Luosaihu, who quickly counted the change and returned it.
The buns had been steamed, and they had a strong smell and were inconvenient to carry, so they simply sat down and ate the buns first.
Shen Moer ate a meat bun and a vegetarian bun, and bought two meat buns and one vegetarian bun for Shen Shaoyuan according to his usual appetite. After Shen Shaoyuan finished eating, he touched his belly and asked for another vegetarian bun.
Shen Moer suddenly remembered that her father used to be an idle prince who did nothing all day, so he didn't eat much.
It's different now. Even if he has to cook to make up the number, he still has to go to the fields to work. Even if he is at home, he still has to fetch water and chop wood, so his appetite is bigger.
After eating the buns, the two of them picked up the sacks, picked up the bamboo mat, and were about to go out.
Suddenly, there was a rhythmic knock on the door outside. The woman in the stove responded and quickly opened the door.
"Qiaojie, give me three meat buns."
A man's clear voice came from outside.
Shen Moer inexplicably felt that the voice was a little familiar. Before she could think about it carefully, the man had already taken a few steps in. Probably because he noticed someone, he suddenly stopped at the junction of the inside and outside.
The two of them bumped into each other face to face.
After seeing who was coming, Shen Moer blinked in surprise, and then subconsciously looked at the other person.
In fact, she had noticed that this Fu Zhiqing's clothes were covered with patches, and there was a hole in the front of his shoes, with half of his toes sticking out. He looked very poor...but why did he come here to buy expensive buns? And they were not vegetarian buns, but meat buns.
Fu Mingze was also stunned. He didn't expect to meet Shen Moer and the others here.
In fact, Fu Mingze didn't have much impression of the father and daughter. It was only after seeing the excitement during the grain distribution that day that he remembered them.
Fu Mingze's first reaction was the same as Shen Moer's. He thought, isn't their family very poor? Otherwise, they wouldn't have almost starved to death after having some food stolen. Why did they come to Qiaojie to buy things today?
Then he quickly thought that they must have heard what he had just said, and ran to a private canteen to secretly buy meat buns to eat... Fu Mingze frowned slightly. If this matter were to be spread out, it would probably cause trouble.
The two were silent for a while. Shen Moer, who had a legitimate source of money, was obviously more confident, so she spoke first and said hello: "Fu Zhiqing, what a coincidence."
Fu Mingze looked at her and nodded: "It's quite a coincidence."
Shen Moer took the initiative to explain: "My house is leaking, and the quilts and mats are all wet and rotten. Cotton is hard to buy, so I had to exchange some with this uncle."
Even if they knew it well, they certainly couldn't say it was a transaction openly. Bartering between the people was allowed by policy.
Fu Mingze hummed, indicating his understanding. Just then, Qiaojie took a bowl with three steamed buns and brought it over. Fu Mingze took the bowl and chopsticks and felt a little awkward for some reason. After thinking for a while, he said, "I got a few eggs for writing a letter for someone a few days ago. I heard that the steamed buns here are delicious, so I came here to exchange some for a snack."
In fact, strictly speaking, the two of them didn't even know each other, but when they met in this situation, they both wanted to make each other believe that they were really poor and that they would meet in such a place -
well, it was purely accidental.