025: Buying things at the supply and marketing cooperative
Xu Ying suddenly remembered the huge amount of luggage that the five of them had taken with them when they set out, and said with a look of regret:
"What a pity, all those pots, pans, and other utensils we brought with us are gone now. Otherwise, we could have saved a lot of money."
"Those things should all be with your two sons. What a pity! That big iron pot with two handles is quite good. It contains several kilograms of iron."
The mother and daughter looked at each other, and the luggage reminded them of their two unlucky sons.
Xu Ying originally felt guilty about leaving the two native sons to fend for themselves.
But when I thought about how all my belongings were divided up among my two sons, including pots, pans, clothes and bedding, I felt that I was at a great disadvantage!
After thinking about it, I gradually felt balanced.
If you can't even protect yourself, how can you have the time to think about others?
Good luck to you!
The mother and daughter discussed what to buy. After struggling for a long time and saving again and again, they decided to buy only a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush for the mother.
Yu Jiahui and Yu Xiaoye would just find a piece of cloth and use it dipped in toothpaste to brush their teeth. The two of them made do with whatever they wanted and could get by with a rougher lifestyle.
Buy another enamel water cup to drink hot water and also to hold rice - if you have rice.
Buy another face towel for the whole family to share.
Buy another bag of shampoo and let the whole family wash their hair that has become matte.
Buy another pack of toilet paper, you can't save on this.
Even if you can hold your pee, you can't not wipe your butt after doing something important, right?
At that time, there was not even a leaf to be found, and you could not just find a stone to use as paper.
If you use a stone to wipe your butt, what if the sharp edge of the stone pricks your anus and you have to go to the anorectal department? How uneconomical is that?
Besides, who knows if the stone has been used by someone else, and whether it will carry other people's E. coli and various infectious bacteria.
So toilet paper must be bought. This is the last stubbornness of being a civilized person from the 21st century.
In addition to these, there are many other things they want to buy, such as socks, laundry detergent, clam oil for face, washbasins, foot basins, mirrors and combs.
But given their current family circumstances, these things have become luxuries for them.
Don't spend money unless necessary.
So I ended up buying only the first few items.
After calculating the prices, needle and thread cost two cents, scraps of cloth cost two cents, a towel cost forty cents, a tube of toothpaste cost sixty cents, a toothbrush cost thirty cents, an enamel cup cost one dollar and twenty cents, a bag of shampoo cost five cents, and a roll of toilet paper cost fifteen cents.
The toothpaste originally cost only fifty cents, and the enamel cup only one dollar, but these two items actually required tickets!
They didn't have tickets, so they had to pay more money before people would sell to them.
So in the end, after saving and saving again, I still spent a huge sum of two dollars and seventy-four cents!
Yu Xiaoye's heart was bleeding when he handed the five dollars to the salesperson.
However, when the salesperson handed these things to them, the mother and daughter felt very happy. They bought so many things for only two dollars and seventy-four cents.
In later times, two dollars and seventy-four cents couldn’t even buy a bottle of Coke, but in the 1970s, money was still very durable and could be spent easily.
After taking the items and the change of two yuan and twenty-six cents, the two left the supply and marketing cooperative.
When I walked out to the street, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon. The sun was hanging on the western horizon. At this time, students were getting out of school and workers were getting off work. The street was bustling with people and cars. There were also some people setting up stalls on the street.
The aroma of wine and meat wafted from several state-owned restaurants.
When the mother and daughter smelled the fragrance, their stomachs cramped and growled in protest, and acid started to come out of their mouths.
Yu Xiaoye first took a deep breath of the delicious food, then quickly pulled Xu Ying to quicken their pace, away from the smell that they could not afford. After walking half a street, they found the cheapest dinner: they spent thirty cents to buy ten cornmeal cakes from an old lady.
Looking at the golden pancake with slightly burnt edges, Yu Xiaoye was so hungry that he couldn't help but take a big bite.
Smells so good!
"Mom, it's really delicious, come and have a bite!"
Xu Ying shook her head and suppressed her craving:
"Baby, you should go back and brush your teeth before eating. If I remember correctly, we have never brushed our teeth in our lives."
Yu Xiaoye took another bite without caring and said:
"Mom, we both lived well without brushing our teeth. Besides, you never brushed your teeth, but when you were not at home, I would secretly take the coarse salt from home, crush it, and brush my teeth with gauze dipped in fine salt. That's why my teeth are very healthy and I don't even have cavities."
Xu Ying said with a sad face:
"Hey, it would be great if this mother could be one-tenth as good as her daughter, but she's not even one-tenth!"
The mother and daughter talked all the way back to the hospital ward.
Yu Jiahui was still sleeping soundly.
The mother and daughter did not wake him up. They took turns to go to the bathroom to brush their teeth and clean their mouths. They filled a large pot of hot water in an enamel pot, sat beside the bed, and ate cornmeal cakes with the hot water.
My daughter is right, this rough and inconspicuous-looking cornmeal pancake is really sweet!
Xu Ying had eaten countless delicious foods in her previous life, but she never expected to be conquered by a rustic cornmeal pancake.
The sound of mother and daughter eating pancakes woke Yu Jiahui up.
Strangely, the noisy clamor in the ward did not wake him up, but the subtle chewing and swallowing sounds woke him up.
As soon as I woke up, I smelled the fragrant scent of cornmeal cakes.
Yu Jiahui was so hungry that he didn't even bother to brush his teeth. He ate three pancakes like a hungry tiger.
The three pancakes were just enough to fill his stomach and didn't even make him feel full, but he insisted that he was full and refused to eat any more.
Yu Xiaoye and Xu Ying both knew how much Yu Jiahui ate. If he ate too much, ten pancakes wouldn't be enough for him. So Yu Xiaoye gave him two more.
"Dad, can you have two more?"
"I don't want to eat anymore.
I'm full now, you two can eat the rest. I'll lie still, for fear that I won't be able to digest the food I eat too much."
"It's okay, two more isn't too much. Mom and I can't finish them."
"Then save it for next meal."
Xu Ying became impatient:
"Just eat it if I tell you to. It's not like you're visiting my house, and you're being polite. Save it for the next meal. But how can you save it? The ward might be full of bacteria. Then, would you rather eat the bread or the bacteria?"
"Okay, okay, don't get angry, I'll eat it, isn't it okay for me to eat it?"
Yu Jiahui couldn't stand his wife's scolding, so he ate another one, making a total of four pancakes.
Yu Xiaoye and Xu Ying each ate three.
The family's dinner was just like this. Although there was no dish or soup and no one was full, at least their stomachs were full and they didn't have to go to bed hungry.
After dinner, it was completely dark and the family’s accommodation became a problem again.
Other patients have someone to stay with them during the day, and go home at night.
But they had nowhere else to go, so the whole family had to stay in the ward for the time being.
There were no vacant beds in the ward, and this bed was a narrow single bed that could only accommodate two people at most. The other person would have to sleep on a chair in the corridor.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
