Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 634 Festival
September 9th, the Mid-Autumn Festival.

At this time, the Mid-Autumn Festival is not a statutory holiday, but coincidentally, it is Sunday. There is no work or school, and almost everyone is happy, treating it as a Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which does not interfere with work and allows for family reunion.

Early in the morning, Jiang Tiantian and Jiang Lili got up at the same time. Jiang Tiantian then assigned tasks, leaving her younger sister at home to clean while she went out to buy ingredients for the holiday.

He tied a string to the toy gun, put it in his pocket, and then covered it with the hem of his clothes.

With her current skills, it's almost impossible for her to be robbed, especially since she's so cautious.

Then, carrying the money and tickets, he rode his bicycle to the market.

Along the way, there were many more people buying groceries than usual. They carried their shopping baskets and chatted and laughed as they headed to the market and grocery stores.

Although today is not a holiday, the festive atmosphere is not much weaker than that of the Spring Festival.

During the Spring Festival, each resident receives an increased ration of food, including cooking oil, melon seeds, peanuts, and candy. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the only other day besides the Spring Festival where special provisions for non-staple foods are provided.

Needless to say, the special supply is naturally mooncakes.

(Buying mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival)
So these days, children love two festivals the most: eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival and wearing new clothes during the Spring Festival.

The quantity of mooncakes supplied varies across the country, depending on the region and the organization, as well as over time.

In some years, resources were relatively plentiful, and each person could buy a mooncake. If resources were insufficient, then sorry... For example, one year in Tianjin, the standard was half a mooncake per person. If it was a family of three with two adults and one child, then there would only be one mooncake, which was even less.

But if the children are older, the whole family can line up and buy 1.5 mooncakes.

Therefore, in the memories of people in the 6s and 70s, "sharing mooncakes" has almost become an indispensable ritual for celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the small piece of mooncake that is received in hand is especially sweet.

Sometimes there are more mooncakes available, and if you're lucky, everyone can get a mooncake. It seems like you've saved yourself the trouble of cutting the mooncakes, but the children will scan the few mooncakes with detective-like eyes, hoping to get the biggest one.

Actually, they are all made from the same standard mold, and the weight is about the same. It's not that easy to distinguish between different sizes.

In the end, I could only choose one at random. While eating the mooncake, I looked at the ones in other people's hands and felt that they were all bigger than mine.

Then I sighed to myself, "What a huge loss!"
Although there weren't enough mooncakes to go around, families with the means would find ways to make their own.

Buy some walnuts, peanuts, white sesame seeds, candied fruit peel, rock sugar, and other ingredients. Roast the peanuts, peel and crush the walnuts, and mix them with the rock sugar and candied fruit peel. The mooncake filling is now ready.

If you really don't have any other options, you can just make something sweet.

Then mix the lard into the flour, gently knead and rub it until the flour is evenly mixed. Divide it into small balls, roll them out like dumpling wrappers, fill them with mooncake filling, sprinkle with white sesame seeds, place them in a mold, press them down a few times, and then gently tap them out. The mooncake is now formed.

Finally, put it in the oven, and before long, the whole house will be filled with its aroma.

If you don't have an oven, then steam it; as long as it looks like an oven, it's fine.

If that doesn't work, then don't bother making it; just watch others eat it.

Jiang Tiantian glanced at the crowd at the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative, recalling the scene of making mooncakes with her parents and sister when she was a child, and a smile couldn't help but appear on her lips.

Soon we arrived at the market. I pushed my bicycle to the designated parking lot, paid one cent, received a stamped paper ticket, and then entered the market.

These days there are parking lots specifically for bicycles, and you can also park tricycles and motorcycles there. If you don't park for more than an hour, it only costs 1 cent.

If you stay for more than one hour, you'll be charged 2 cents, and you can stay for a whole day.

Besides paper tickets as proof, there were also small wooden plaques wrapped with rubber bands that could be reused.

Parking lot attendants are usually elderly men or women. These positions are not formal and are considered temporary jobs. Their wages are paid from parking fees.

In small towns it was one thing, but in big cities, their monthly salary was no less than that of regular workers. Later, with reform and opening up, private contracting was allowed, and most of these jobs were taken over by them.

Don't underestimate this inconspicuous parking lot. It only makes a penny or two, but who knows, maybe one of the earliest millionaires is hidden among these old men and women.

There's a lot of money to be made in this!
Jiang Tiantian went to the market and bought a piece of pork belly and a large white fish. In the seafood section, she saw that the hairy crabs were plump and full of roe, so she couldn't resist buying 10 of them in one go.

The price of hairy crabs is quite high, almost the same as pork, at 7 cents per pound. Shanghai's big docks have strict rules, and you even need fish tickets.

Originally, Jiang Tiantian and Jiang Lili were both college students who only received meal tickets at school and did not have resident food ration books or coupons.

But Chen Fan is shameless.

Every time I come to Shanghai, I go to the Writers' Association and shamelessly ask to exchange my ticket.

They used national grain coupons to exchange for various oil coupons and non-staple food coupons that their work units couldn't use up. Besides meat and fish coupons, there were also quite a few sugar and fruit coupons.

The Writers' Association didn't lack national food coupons, but he kept pestering them, and each time they "suffered heavy losses".

Moreover, he still had remittance certificates and foreign exchange given to him by Zhou Yali, which he could use to buy things at foreign-related stores, thus reducing the need to use coupons.

So there's no shortage of tickets at home.

Not to mention ordinary tickets, he can easily get his hands on even in-demand items.

After buying meat, fish, and crab, and then tofu and vegetables, Jiang Tiantian turned around and went to the grocery store next door with her full shopping basket.

Similar to grain coupons, her and her sister's mooncake coupons could only be redeemed at school, and only half a mooncake was available.

It's okay, my sister learned how to make mooncakes from Chen Fan, and we have an oven at home, so we can just buy some ingredients and make them ourselves.

Actually, there is a simple way: just take the remittance certificates and go directly to foreign-related stores to buy as much as you want.

But today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and neither of the sisters wanted to go out. They figured they might as well stay home and make mooncakes to pass the time.

Finally, I bought a bag of fruit, including pomelos, apples, and bananas, as well as a lot of melon seeds and peanuts, which meant I had all the essentials for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

There were too many things, and hanging them on the bicycle handlebars made it a bit heavy.

As Jiang Tiantian pushed her bicycle out, an old man stopped her at the door asking for a ticket. She handed over the ticket and rode her bicycle home.

When she got home, Jiang Lili had already mopped upstairs and downstairs clean. Although the weather was getting a bit chilly, she was only wearing a single layer of clothing, and there was a thin layer of sweat on her forehead.

Seeing her sister return, she immediately went over and took the basket and net bag. "Oh, it's just the two of us, why did you buy so much stuff?"

Jiang Tiantian smiled and said while changing her shoes, "I bought so many without even realizing it."

Then he added, "It's okay, the weather is getting cooler now, and we have a refrigerator. If we can't finish it today, we can save it for tomorrow."

Jiang Lili carried the things inside, still saying, "If Xiao Fan were here, he could have eaten it all by himself."

Thinking back to that morning at the breakfast shop near Changchun Railway Station, where Chen Fan's appetite amazed many people, the two sisters couldn't help but laugh.

But the next second, Jiang Lili's face fell, and she muttered, "It's a pity he's not here."

Jiang Tiantian followed her into the kitchen, tidying up the things she had bought while saying, "Missing him? Then go call him. I'll take care of things here."

Jiang Lili blinked, turned to look at her, hesitated for two seconds, and then said, "Let's go together."

Jiang Tiantian smiled and said, "I'll go over when I call my parents later." "Tch."

Jiang Lili pulled her outside, "Didn't you talk to Xiao Fan when the call connected?"

Jiang Tiantian's gaze sharpened for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure. "Alright, alright, I'll go, okay? But I need to wash my hands first."

The two sisters quickly washed up and lay down on the sofa. Jiang Lili picked up the phone, turned the dial, and made a call.

Half an hour, an hour, two hours... the call still went unanswered.

While waiting, Jiang Tiantian turned on the large color TV that Zhou Yali had bought on the side when she bought the air conditioner last time, and snuggled up with her sister to watch TV.

Today is Sunday. There are no TV programs during the day, only at night.

However, the local Shanghai TV station will rebroadcast programs that have been broadcast by CCTV, and the content will be random.

At that moment, the television was broadcasting footage of the renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa conducting the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in a symphony concert.

This was one of the activities of the Japanese delegation during their recent visit to China.

When the symphony ended, there was still no response from the phone.

Jiang Lili leaned against her sister, looking utterly dejected. "I can't get through on the phone at all."

She dialed the numbers of the provincial capital's cultural palace guesthouse, the Lujiawan brigade headquarters, and the cotton mill, and then waited for the call to be answered.

Unfortunately, no.

Jiang Tiantian wrapped her arms around her and pressed her face against the top of her head. "It's the Mid-Autumn Festival, so there will definitely be a lot of people making phone calls. It's normal if you can't get through."

Then she smiled and comforted him, "Anyway, we're in line, we'll get through eventually. If they call back tonight, it'll be just in time for moon viewing, wouldn't that be even better?!"

That's what she said, but there was also a hint of unseen melancholy in her eyes.

These days, to make a long-distance call, you first have to dial the telephone exchange on the other end, and then enter a queue. You can hang up at this point, and once the other end answers, the telephone exchange will call you back before you can actually speak with them.

As for when the call will go through, we'll just have to wait and see.

Jiang Lili understood this principle, but she was just grumbling.

Hearing her sister's words, she immediately perked up, sat up straight, and said, "Then let's make mooncakes."

Jiang Tiantian tightened her grip on her arm and stood up, saying, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

After turning off the TV, the two sisters ran to the kitchen to get busy.

They ate something simple for lunch, and as evening approached and dusk fell, the two carried a small round table to the courtyard in front of the house.

The courtyard here is quite simple. There is an open space after entering through the iron gate. There are vans left here and small courtyards on the side. There is a large tree planted in a flower bed between the two courtyards.

Move the table to the center of the front yard, and you can see the sky above when you look up.

Then, dish after dish was served, including braised pork (someone's favorite), whitefish (someone's favorite), hairy crab (someone's favorite), Xi Shi tofu (someone's favorite), and...

When the two sisters saw the table full of delicious food, they realized that it was all someone's favorite food.
Jiang Tiantian glanced guiltily at her younger sister, and she herself was a little confused.

I didn't pay any attention when I bought it; it looked nice, so I just bought it on a whim.

Jiang Lili scratched her head, then suddenly grinned and said, "If Xiao Fan were here, he would definitely be very happy."

Jiang Tiantian pursed her lips, wanting to explain, but in the end she swallowed her words.

Forget it, this stuff is impossible to explain. The more you explain, the more confusing it gets. Anyway, they like to eat these things, so let's just leave it as it is.

Today was a special day, so the two of them brought four chairs, because half a catty and eight taels were also placed on the table.

Add a stool to the chair, and the two cats will sit on the stool, staring longingly at the table full of delicious food, and can't help but push their plates forward.

Jiang Tiantian smiled and gave them some dried fish, and the two cats immediately started eating.

Jiang Lili picked up a bottle of rice wine and poured a cup for herself and her sister. "Last Mid-Autumn Festival, we drank rice wine that Xiao Fan brewed himself. He said that rice wine is the best drink for Mid-Autumn Festival, and it should be heated with ginger and red dates to neutralize the coldness of the crab."

After putting down the bottle, Jiang Lili found herself somewhat lost in thought.

Jiang Tiantian pulled up a chair and sat down next to her, gently putting her arm around her shoulder. "If you miss him, go see him."

Jiang Lili snapped out of her daze, smiled slightly, and said, "It's better not to. What if he has something important to do?"

As he spoke, his gaze unconsciously drifted toward the telephone in the living room, but unfortunately, it still didn't ring.

So many people are calling today, it's a bit annoying.

Jiang Tiantian took a deep breath, then chuckled softly, "That just shows how capable he is. Lujiawan, the machinery factory, and even the Writers' Association can't do without him. He helped them set up aquaculture and sideline factories in Lujiawan, and designed cars at the machinery factory, giving Yunhu an additional car factory."

Even within the Writers' Association, they started literary training correspondence courses and launched a new magazine…

At this point, she stopped abruptly, and she and her sister both fell into a daze.

After an unknown amount of time, the two cats suddenly meowed twice, startling Jiang Tiantian awake. She then realized that the plates in front of them were empty and couldn't help but chuckle, "What gluttonous cats!"

Half a catty and eight ounces couldn't understand what she was saying, but they still stared at her expectantly. Otherwise, they would have argued a bit—would eating a few dried fish make them big gluttons?
You guys are still eating so much food!
The two sisters put dried fish on the two cats' plates together, then put down their chopsticks, smiled at each other, picked up their wine glasses, and clinked them together.

Jiang Lili: "Sister, I wish you a happy, healthy, and fulfilling Mid-Autumn Festival."

Jiang Tiantian also smiled and said, "I wish you a happy Mid-Autumn Festival, and peace and happiness."

Just as the two sisters were about to drink, they heard a noise at the door.

They all looked at the cold iron gate.

The next second, a familiar voice rang out, "Hey, are you guys drinking? Why didn't you wait for me? Hurry up and open the door."

Jiang Lili jumped up and ran over quickly. She opened the small iron gate, and a familiar face appeared in front of her. At this moment, she didn't care that her sister was right behind her. She hugged Chen Fan's neck and said, "Oh, what brings you here?"

There's no need to raise a cup to invite the bright moon; there are already three people before me.

Chen Fan sat down at the table and placed the homemade rice wine he had brought on it. "What's so good about yours? Drink this. I brewed it myself. It tastes much better than that."

With one more person, the atmosphere was completely different, and bursts of laughter could be heard from time to time in the small courtyard.

Only the two cats stared longingly at the three baby birds in front of their owner. They seemed to have grown a bit bigger and were plumper than before.

But they were still small and tender, and looked delicious.

(End of this chapter)