Chen Xingling didn't go far, but walked around the factory to find the Personnel Department.
It was just after lunch break and the workers started to work one after another. Ma Damei was adjusting her sleeves. When she saw Chen Xingling knocking on the door, she quickly stood up and greeted him warmly.
Chen Xingling lowered her voice and asked, "Sister, I want to ask if there are any bicycle tickets in the factory."
"Oh!" Ma Damei asked in surprise, "You want it?"
Chen Xingling nodded and whispered, "I'm going to Chongwen Middle School next. The journey is quite far, so I need to buy a bicycle to go to and from school conveniently."
Food, drinks and daily necessities can be taken freely in the supermarket, but some things are difficult to take, such as bicycles.
There were also bicycles for sale in the supermarket, but unfortunately they were either small children's bicycles or petite horizontal-bar bicycles, or professional racing bicycles, and she really didn't dare to take them out to use.
In those days, most of the horizontal bars were 28mm, and even the brands were limited to a few such as Sheep and Phoenix. She didn't dare to get something too exaggerated, for fear of not being able to explain it clearly.
Because of the two bars of soap, Sister Ma was very enthusiastic and started explaining everything one by one.
"Our factory gets bicycle tickets every year. In the past few years, we only got two or three. In the past two years, many people have bought bicycles, so we usually get more than ten. However, these bicycle tickets are not ordinary tickets - there are too many people and too little food! Now, if you want a bicycle ticket, you must get approval from the factory director himself."
Then, she lowered her voice and said, "It's just the beginning of the new year, and none of the quotas have been used. It's the New Year, and every household has to spend money. The first month's salary hasn't been paid yet, so money is inevitably tight. No one has come to apply in the past few days."
After hearing this, Chen Xingling hurriedly thanked him and said, "Then I'll ask the factory director for help."
"Well, let's do it quickly." Ma Damei whispered: "In fact, according to Engineer Gu's level, he could have applied a long time ago. A lot of people applied for our factory the year before last and the year before last. In the end, the factory director decided to divide them according to their titles and levels for the sake of convenience."
Chen Xingling thanked him again and said, "Then I'll come back to bother you after Director Guo approves it."
Afterwards, she hurried to the factory director's office.
Unexpectedly, Director Guo was not there. His secretary said that he had attended a meeting in the morning and had not returned yet.
Chen Xingling asked politely: "Will the factory manager come to work this afternoon?"
"I don't know." The secretary replied indifferently: "You can either wait or come back later."
Chen Xingling thought about it and decided to sit in the corner and wait.
If you don't have a bicycle ticket, you have to buy one on the black market, which costs at least a few dozen dollars more. If you have a ticket, it will only cost about 100 yuan. If you don't have a ticket, it may cost 220 or 30 yuan. Some resale bicycles even cost 200 yuan.
My eldest brother said that their family's walk-behind tractor was a quota for the village committee. There was only one in a village, and they had to pay three thousand and a hundred yuan.
No one in the village could afford it at that time. Fortunately, the fourth brother had earned a lot in recent years, and several brothers scraped together enough money to buy it, becoming the only family in the village to own a tractor.
Her hypoglycemia has improved a lot these days, and she is not as weak as before. However, she does not have the confidence to walk from the north to the south of the city every day, which takes more than an hour to go to and from school.
Yucheng had public transportation many years ago, but it only ran on two very simple routes and did not cover the factory or Chongwen Middle School at all.
Therefore, the top priority is to quickly buy a bicycle for transportation.
She was very patient and waited for more than an hour.
The secretary probably found her annoying and couldn't help but ask, "What do you want to talk to the factory director about? The factory director is very busy every day. If it's not something important, please go back first."
Chen Xingling smiled and explained, "I'm Gu Qi's wife. He's still at sea and can't come back. I want to help him apply for a bicycle ticket."
"You need to bring Engineer Gu's work permit." The secretary said, "And you need to fill out an application form. You can't do it. You'd better wait until Engineer Gu comes."
Chen Xingling smiled and asked, "Do I need my husband's signature?"
"Yes!" the secretary answered casually.
Chen Xingling was a little disappointed, but still nodded in thanks and quickly went downstairs.
I walked slowly back to the first floor facing the river, and while there were not many people in the stairwell, I quietly took out a bag of rice and a bag of flour from the supermarket, and found a few old iron pots, and hurried up to the third floor by carrying and twisting them.
Gu Yi was playing with Xiao Huzi when he saw her come in with a lot of bags.
"Sister-in-law, do you need help?"
"No need." Chen Xingling panted and replied, "I can do it alone."
Gu Yi led the little tiger over and said, "Sister-in-law, the weather outside is nice. I'll take Huzi downstairs for a walk."
"Okay." Chen Xingling was busy packing up and reminded, "It will probably get cold and windy in the evening. Drink some water before going out, and come back when it gets windy. The kitchen is still short of a lot of things, and I'll have to go out to buy them later. If no one opens the door at noon, you guys just wait."
Gu Yi replied yes.
After a while, Chen Xingling watched them go downstairs, turned around, closed the door, and went back into the supermarket.
The kitchen currently only has a small kerosene stove, which is fine for boiling water, but is too slow to cook other things, and consumes a lot of oil, which is really a bit wasteful.
She washed the rice, put it in the pot, and pressed the "cook porridge" button.
I have to buy some honeycomb coal every afternoon to burn. When there is no one else around, I can use the rice cooker to cook in the space, but when there are many people, I still have to make a fire in the kitchen.
Then she went to the kitchen cooking area and took out two spatulas, a large spoon, two small ones, and several casseroles of different sizes.
People in Yucheng like to cook with clay pots, and many country people even make their own clay pots. It is quite suitable to bring a few clay pots with you for cooking.
Then, she saw a row of steamers of different sizes and instantly became interested.
Bamboo steamers are very popular among housewives in all eras. There are several in my mother's kitchen. They are used to steam fish, shrimps, crabs, buns, rice cakes, etc. They are very convenient and practical.
Considering that the kitchen area was not very large and there were only three people in the family eating at the time, she selected a few small steamers to bring out.
The bowls and chopsticks had already been taken, and she found a few small plates and some spoons.
The tableware and cooking utensils were almost ready, so she turned to the seasoning area and first found two bags of coarse salt.
There is only coarse salt on the market now, and refined salt is still not available, so we can only use coarse salt for the time being.
She also took out a bottle of brewed soy sauce, which is popular among southerners, and a small bottle of cooking oil. She tore off all the packaging, leaving only two plain white bottles.
…
A lot of things were moved out, and then they were busy putting them back in place.
Things were a bit messy, so she found a wooden rack and two large bamboo baskets and sorted them out one by one.
There are not many plastic products at that time, so try to use wooden or bamboo ones to avoid arousing suspicion from others.
After finishing my work, I came out of the kitchen exhausted and found that it was getting dark outside.
Oh no!
I only had time to cook the porridge, and the other ingredients were not available for purchase.
It would be impossible to buy eggs at this time, and she was not in time, so she hurried into the space, took out a dozen eggs, washed a few and put them on the kerosene stove to cook.
When the eggs were almost cooked, she took out the porridge and scooped it into a large bowl to let it cool.
At this time, Gu Yi came back with Xiao Huzi.
The lights in the large living room were turned on, illuminating every corner of the living room.
The three of them sat around the coffee table, crowded around it and ate dinner.
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