Chapter 21 Treating You to Dinner
After parting ways with Director Yang, Xie Wei talked to Lin Qingqing about exchanging grain coupons.
Unlike other members of the production brigade, the educated youth were mostly unmarried and lived in dormitories. With four or five people sharing a room, there was naturally no place to store their grain.
Therefore, after the grain harvest, the educated youth team would not distribute all the grain, but would categorize it and store it in a large warehouse, and then issue grain coupons to each person. After receiving the grain coupons, everyone could use them to get meals in the canteen, and if needed, they could also use the grain coupons to exchange for grain at the general affairs office.
"When you move out later, you can exchange the grain all at once and take it with you." Xie Wei paused here. Lin Qingqing had settled in Xingfeng Brigade on her own and chose to live in the educated youth settlement. It was highly likely that she would move out after she got married.
Xie Wei turned his face, which had been turned to the side towards Lin Qingqing, and coughed lightly, saying, "My older brother has discussed this with the person in charge of the educated youth settlement. From now on, you can eat here with grain coupons, just like everyone else. However, the vegetables at the educated youth settlement are all grown by themselves, and your work points will be counted in the brigade."
Hearing this, Lin Qingqing asked, "Then..."
“Each household in the brigade has its own plot of land. If you want, you can cultivate a plot and grow your own vegetables. But if you are alone, you may not have time to take care of your plot during the busy farming season.”
It wasn't just a matter of time; although Lin Qingqing had the original owner's memories, she had never actually worked in the fields before, and she wasn't sure if she could handle it. Besides, she still wanted to find a job, even though it was difficult, and in the end she might still have to resign herself to working in the fields... Hearing the twist in Xie Wei's voice, Lin Qingqing listened attentively.
"Alternatively, you can choose to pay for vegetables with grains."
Lin Qingqing's ears twitched, and she asked, "How much grain is equivalent to how many vegetables?"
“In summer, one ounce of coarse grains is equivalent to three ounces of green vegetables, and in winter, one ounce of coarse grains is equivalent to one and a half ounces. Fish balls are a bit more expensive, so the exchange rate is one to one. Pork is even more expensive. You can also exchange sweet potatoes, but you'll get even less in return.” Xie Wei briefly explained the exchange ratio to Lin Qingqing, and then added, “But the grain we get this way might not be enough to eat.”
Lin Qingqing mentally calculated the proportions. She didn't eat much, consuming about six to eight ounces of grain a day. If she ate vegetables, that would be eight to one pound of grain a day, totaling 360 pounds a year. According to the original novel, she would receive about 350 to 400 pounds of grain annually. If she replaced refined grains with coarse grains, she could get several dozen more pounds, plus the red...
Potatoes... and there's still a surplus of grain at the end of the year.
Of course, the reason she received so much grain was because the original owner of this body was hardworking and earned a lot of work points. If she hadn't been able to find work and had to work in the fields, she probably wouldn't have received so much grain. However, the brigade's year-end bonus was based on a 60/40 work-point system, so even if the grain was a little less, she wouldn't starve if she tightened her belt.
Thinking of this, Lin Qingqing said, "I'll exchange it for grain for now."
"Well, if you want to change it later, just report it to the brigade." Xie Wei said, quickly moving the oxcart into the yard, finding a young educated youth to ask where the general affairs were, and then taking Lin Qingqing there.
The general affairs officer, surnamed Zhou, was a male educated youth who went to the countryside with Wang Fengxia. He was responsible for warehouse management and general affairs. Since he had already been informed about Lin Qingqing's situation, he wasn't surprised to see Xie Wei bring her over and simply led her to the warehouse.
It was called a warehouse, but it was actually just an empty room at the outermost edge of the male educated youth dormitory, which had been cleaned up and used to store grain and farm tools.
Xie Wei drove the oxcart to the warehouse entrance and unloaded the grain from it. The grain was packed in urea bags, each weighing about a hundred pounds.
Lin Qingqing was worried that he couldn't carry it, so she quickly stepped forward to help, but Xie Wei stopped her as soon as she moved: "Don't move, I'll carry it."
Lin Qingqing stopped, feeling a little embarrassed to say, "It's quite heavy." After all, Xie Wei was just someone who came to help.
"I can carry it," Xie Wei said stiffly, and with a strong effort, he hoisted the bag of grain onto his shoulder and carried it inside.
Zhou, the general affairs officer, had just moved the things inside out when he saw him carrying a large bag of grain. He was startled and his mouth dropped open. After a while, he came to his senses and said, "This can't be put in, it's too high."
The doors to the houses in the educated youth settlement were not high. Xie Wei, who was over 1.8 meters tall, had to bend down to enter the house, not to mention that he was carrying grain on his shoulders.
As General Affairs Officer Zhou was speaking, Xie Wei had already reached the door. He paused, then finally decided to put down the grain, carry the bag inside, and place it on the scale. General Affairs Officer Zhou went in, glanced at it, and said, "One hundred and fifteen jin." Then he wrote it down in his notebook.
Xie Wei went out to buy a second bag of grain. This time, he didn't carry it on his back; he just lifted it by the top.
This bag contained sweet potatoes, and it wasn't any lighter than the previous one, but although Xie Wei had used force, his expression seemed fine. Lin Qingqing remembered that he was a soldier and realized she had been overthinking things.
Soon, Xie Wei unloaded all the grain from the oxcart. Zhou, the general affairs officer, sorted and registered the grain, then had Lin Qingqing sign it before handing her the grain coupons: "This is a large denomination of 100 jin grain..."
"Keep the coupons safe. You can come back here to exchange them for smaller ration coupons when you run out."
Lin Qingqing took the grain coupons, counted them, and nodded, saying, "Okay," when the amount was correct.
"How did you prepare the food later?" General Affairs Officer Zhou asked again.
Lin Qingqing said, "Let's use grain coupons for now."
After counting the grain, Lin Qingqing and Xie Wei walked out of the warehouse. Just then, Li Juan and her friends came from the canteen after finishing their meal. Seeing her, Li Juan asked, "Qingqing, you got your grain back? How much? And what about this quilt...?"
Lin Qingqing did not hide anything and told them how much grain she had brought back, and added, "The cotton quilts were from the Lin family."
"Oh my! You must have had a very fruitful trip," Li Juan said with a beaming smile. Then, remembering that they had set off very early and were back at this hour, she asked, "Did you have lunch? There's still some left in the cafeteria."
"Not yet," Lin Qingqing said, glancing at Xie Wei. "How much rice is left?"
Li Juan looked at Lin Qingqing and Xie Wei, her eyes darting around, and said, "It's enough for two people. Commander Xie has helped so much, you have to treat them to a good meal."
Even without Li Juan's prompting, Lin Qingqing thought the same thing. She planned to go to the black market tomorrow if she had time to see if she could exchange some food coupons and meat coupons, and also some money. As for now… Lin Qingqing looked up at Xie Wei and said, “Comrade Xie, are you hungry?”
Xie Wei had a big appetite and had already digested what he ate that morning. However, he thought that although she had gotten the food, there were still many things to buy, and he wasn't short of money. But... looking at the shy yet expectant expression on the girl's face, Xie Wei mumbled an "Mmm."
Because of her previous experience, Lin Qingqing was prepared for Xie Wei to refuse, so when she heard him agree, she immediately smiled and said, "Wait here for me for a while, I'm going back to my dorm."
As Lin Qingqing spoke, she picked up the quilt. The quilt was quite thick, and it was difficult for her to hold the two quilts stacked together. She almost fell off.
Xie Wei saw this and reached out to help, saying, "Let me help you take it inside."
"No need, no need, I can carry it by myself. You can wait here for me." After saying that, Lin Qingqing quickly turned around and hurried back to the dormitory.
Li Juan didn't return to the dormitory; only Wang Fengxia was in the room. When she saw Li Juan carrying two quilts back, she was taken aback and asked, "Is this what you were just about to bring back?"
Lin Qingqing hummed in agreement, put the quilt on the bed, then took out the grain coupons from her pocket, pulled out one pound each of fine grains and sweet potatoes, handed them to Wang Fengxia, and said with a smile, "I've got my grain."
Wang Fengxia laughed along, but shook her head and said, "Too much."
Lin Qingqing ate a sweet potato for lunch yesterday and another one this morning. She ate rice last night, but it was only about 150 grams in total.
"I also ate some vegetables, and..." Lin Qingqing was a little embarrassed, "I haven't bought a lunchbox yet. Could I borrow your lunchbox from yesterday for another day? I'll go to the commune to buy one tomorrow."
Wang Fengxia had two lunchboxes. The one she gave Lin Qingqing yesterday was old and rarely used. She immediately took out the lunchbox from the drawer and said, "You can use this one. There's no rush to buy a new lunchbox." Buying a lunchbox also required coupons.
Lin Qingqing quickly thanked her and took the lunchbox outside.
Xie Wei had already driven the oxcart to the outside of the courtyard. He leaned against the wall, surrounded by several male educated youths. When he saw Lin Qingqing coming over, Xie Wei said something to them and walked towards her, heading towards the canteen together.
As they turned the corner, Lin Qingqing felt the male educated youths looking at her, and feeling a little awkward, she asked, "Comrade Xie, do you know them?"
"I've met you before," Xie Wei said casually. As he walked to the cafeteria entrance, he stepped aside, gesturing for Lin Qingqing to go in first.
It was getting late, and the cafeteria wasn't crowded, but Wang Li and Zhao Lan were both there. Seeing Lin Qingqing enter, Zhao Lan patted Wang Li's arm. Wang Li looked up, a hint of disdain flashing in her eyes as she saw Lin Qingqing. Just as she was about to turn away, she saw Xie Wei following behind, and her gaze paused slightly.
Lin Qingqing noticed Wang Li's gaze, but she didn't pay much attention. Wang Li didn't like her, and she wasn't going to waste her time trying to be friendly. She went straight to the person serving food, took out her food coupons, and asked them to give her two meals.
There were extra bowls in the canteen, but only two or three, which were for the new educated youth who hadn't had time to buy lunchboxes yet. But Lin Qingqing thought that there might not be enough bowls for just her and Xie Wei, so she borrowed a lunchbox from Wang Fengxia.
After getting their food, the two found an empty table and sat down.
Lin Qingqing and Xie Wei sat facing each other, and when she looked up, she saw the food in his bowl. The meals ordered by the educated youth were very ordinary, basically one fresh dish and one pickled dish, which looked rather meager, and she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.
If Xie Wei were to eat at home, he would probably have a more lavish meal than if he were here.
"The food was quite simple," Lin Qingqing said shyly.
Xie Wei took a bite and said, "It tastes very good."
He likes to look people in the eye when he speaks, so that they can see his sincere gaze.
Lin Qingqing couldn't resist taking a bite of the dish and said, "Hmm, the educated youth who cooked this is very good at cooking." As she spoke, she couldn't help but smile, her eyes crinkling.
They exchanged a smile, while Wang Li's expression completely changed.
As darkness fell, Zhao Lan couldn't help but walk over and sit in an empty seat. She casually said "Comrade Lin," but when she turned to Xie Wei, she smiled and asked, "Commander Xie, what brings you to our educated youth canteen?" She seemed quite familiar with Xie Wei.
However, Xie Wei only frowned and looked at her for a moment after hearing this, then asked, "Who are you?"
"Oh, my name is Zhao Lan. I was a sent-down youth two years ago. And that's Wang Li. She shared a room with Comrade Lin." Zhao Lan waved to Wang Li, who came over and greeted Xie Wei, but didn't even glance at Lin Qingqing.
Xie Wei then looked away from Lin Qingqing and said calmly, "Comrade Lin and I came here for dinner."
Hearing this, Zhao Lan and Wang Li exchanged a glance. Zhao Lan forced a smile and said, "The brigade leader is really something. Even though you're his brother, it's not easy for you to come back. How can we make you run around like that? It's so tiring! And some other people are just so inconsiderate!"
When mentioning certain people, Zhao Lan glanced at Lin Qingqing.
Xie Wei sensed the veiled meaning in Xie Wei's words, his brows furrowed slightly, and he said in a serious tone, "I'd be happy to help."
At those one sentence, the smiles on Zhao Lan and Wang Li's faces froze. Lin Qingqing saw this, put the back of her hand to her lips to hide her smile, and when she could control her expression, she said, "I invited Comrade Xie to dinner to express my gratitude." Then she glanced at their bowls and asked, "Aren't you finished eating yet?" indicating that it was time for them to leave.
At this point, Wang Li's smile completely vanished. She glanced at Xie Wei, and seeing that he didn't react, she snorted and got up to leave.
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