Back to 1978: Getting rich starts with treasure hunting

Liu Xiao'e and Lin Shu got up early the next day, had breakfast, and then said goodbye to the Ding family. Ding Zaichun carried half a bag of lotus roots and sent them to the roadside to wait for the bus.

These lotus roots were dug by the two cousins ​​of the Ding family in a swamp field a few days ago. Some of them were used in the full-moon banquet yesterday. The rest, which my second aunt had packed into half a bag, weighing about ten pounds, were given to them to take back as an addition to their dishes.

In the morning, the bus ran from the county town to the townships below, so they stopped the bus in the morning, and there were still three or four seats in the bus.

Lin Shu knew that Liu Xiao'e was prone to motion sickness, so he helped her choose a window seat. Just as she sat down, before she could wave to Ding Zaichun outside the bus, the bus started moving. Lin Shu hurriedly waved outside.

Seeing Ding Zaichun responding outside the car, Liu Xiaoe shouted out the window: "Chun Ge'er, go back."

Sitting inside the car felt safer than sitting on the roof. Lin Shugang breathed a sigh of relief, but soon he noticed that Comrade Liu Xiaoe's face looked strange.

"Mom, the bus hasn't gone far yet, are you going to get carsick?"

Liu Xiao'e tried to adjust her breathing, "It's okay, I can still hold on."

Liu Xiao'e tried her best to ignore the fact that she was motion sickness and held it in all the way, but when the bus stopped at a village, she instantly lost her temper.

"Ugh, vomit, vomit!"

Almost the moment the bus stopped, her head stuck out of the window and started vomiting.

Fortunately, they were sitting on the right side by the window, so they didn't have to worry about cars coming from behind.

Lin Shu patted her on the back, noticed the disgusted looks on the faces of the passengers in front and behind her, and quickly apologized. After Liu Xiao'e had finished vomiting, she handed her an IV bottle filled with boiled water.

"Just rinse your mouth and wait until the car starts moving."

Liu Xiaoe took a sip of water and said, "Oh, this car is really not for human beings to sit in. It's too uncomfortable."

The passengers in the front and back rows all looked grim after hearing this. “What are you saying? This car is not for people to sit in. Could it be for ghosts to sit in?”

The whole car was in uproar.

You can't say this casually, it will incur public outrage.

"Sister-in-law, you misunderstood. My mother meant that this car is not suitable for people like her who get carsick. She was just expressing her feelings about being carsick. She didn't mean anything else."

Liu Xiao'e also patted her mouth lightly, "Comrades, I am the one who doesn't know how to speak. I am just expressing my feelings. I have no other intentions."

The woman in the front row snorted coldly but said nothing else.

Next, Liu Xiao'e really felt carsick. Whenever the bus stopped to pick up or drop off passengers, she would vomit. Since there was nothing in her stomach to vomit, she would vomit acid. When she finally stood on solid ground, her legs were already weak and powerless.

Lin Shu moved the things out of the car and hurriedly helped her to the side of the road to sit down and rest.

People who get carsick feel like they are seriously ill when sitting in a car. As long as they get out of the car and take a rest and recover, they will be full of energy again.

Lin Shu looked at the bus going away in a cloud of dust. Many people sat on the roof along the way, swaying from side to side as the bus shook. If they could make it to the destination, it was luck; if they couldn't, it was fate. They were afraid of accidents, so they kicked off the bus, covered it with cloth, and the whole village, young and old, waited for the food to be served.

"Mom, come and have a drink of water. Are you feeling better?"

Liu Xiaoe took a deep breath and said, "The fragrance of the plants and trees in our countryside is nourishing. I feel refreshed just by smelling it. I'll rest for a while."

"Then let's go a little further away from the road."

Lin Shu moved the luggage to the grass beside the dirt road and waited for Liu Xiaoe to sit down. "Mom, I still have two meat tickets here. You sit here and rest while I wait for you. I'll go to the grocery store to see if there's any meat left."

"We just had a feast at your second aunt's house. Let's buy it next time, okay?" Liu Xiao'e was used to being frugal, so she habitually raised objections after hearing her words.

"We ate meat, but the rest of the family hasn't had meat for a long time."

Lin Shu trotted towards the grocery store.

There isn't much meat in the grocery stores in towns and villages every day, as most people rush to buy meat in the morning. Now it's almost noon, and I don't know if there is any meat left.

Turning the corner, Lin Shu found that there were only a few people in front of the grocery store. He trotted into the store. There were still a few pieces of hind leg meat and a pig's foot left on the chopping board.

"Comrade, how much is this meat?"

"78 cents a pound, how much do you want?"

Lin Shu lamented that the quality of meat is good now, there are no feed pigs, and the meat is cheap. The only restriction is that you need meat coupons. He took out a few meat coupons from his pocket and asked, "How much is the pig's feet?"

"50 cents a pound, no meat coupons needed."

Nowadays, when grocery stores sell meat, the hard-to-sell parts, or internal organs such as bones, large and small intestines, are sold as extras and are not counted as meat tickets.

This was exactly what Lin Shu wanted. "Comrade, I have a pound of meat ticket here. Please help me weigh a pound of fattier meat, and give me this pig's trotter as well."

"Row."

One pound of meat cost one pound of meat ticket and 78 cents. The pig's trotter weighs a little over three pounds, so three pounds cost one dollar and fifty cents. That's four pounds of meat, which should be enough for a good meal for the whole family.

The butcher tied the meat with straw and threw it on the chopping board. "Lady, I have half a pig's head here. Do you want it?"

"There's still some pork head meat. Haven't you finished it today?"

An experienced butcher can usually sell all the pig parts after he has sold out the pork.

"I'm too lazy to talk, and there's only this little bit of meat left. If you're willing to take this half of the pig's head, I can relax a little later."

Lin Shu looked at the half pig's head thrown to him by the butcher and swallowed his saliva. This thing was still edible, but it was too difficult to handle.

"How much does this cost per pound?"

"Two cents a pound."

Well, it is indeed cheap. You can just pick a few handfuls of plantain in the wild and get half a pig's head. "Then weigh it for me to see how heavy it is."

"Two and a half pounds, less than three pounds, just give me fifty cents." The butcher saw that the girl was pretty, so he readily charged her only fifty cents.

Lin Shu rushed to the side of the road with the pig's head in her left hand and the pig's feet in her right hand. When Liu Xiao'e saw the meat in her hands, she felt dizzy again. She took a deep breath and roared, "Youngest!"

"You are really like a mouse that cannot keep overnight food. You only need to buy a few taels of meat. You bought so much meat because you have bought all the meat for this year. Aren't you going to eat meat before the New Year?"

Lin Shu pretended not to hear the roar of the Hedong Lion. She noticed Lin Gang sitting on the grass and asked, "Why did he come to the village?"

Liu Xiao'e felt pain in her chest at this moment, she was angry.

Lin Gang picked up a piece of thatch root and said, "I didn't mean to be lazy. Dad sent me to pick you up."

"Come to pick us up?" Lin Shu looked at him in surprise and kicked the luggage on the ground. "That's great. Since you're here to pick us up, get up and carry the bag."

The lotus roots that my second aunt gave me were packed in a sack. I was originally planning to carry it back, but now that I’ve bought a few pounds of meat, I can just use a stick to pick it up, with the meat hanging on one end and the sack on the other.

Lin Gang looked at the load with a sad face and wailed, "I have traveled more than 20 miles to pick you up. My legs are so thin. Little sister, can you bear to let your third brother carry the load?"

"You don't have to be picky, but you can't eat the meat when we get back. I bought some pig's feet and am going to stew lotus roots."

After hearing this, Lin Gang glanced at the meat in her hand and his eyes sparkled with greed.

Lin Shu took in his expression and said with a smile, "I got a lot of old lotus roots from my second aunt's house this time. This kind of lotus root soup is the best. It is soft and sticky, and has absorbed the fat from the pig's feet, so it is not greasy. The lotus root soup has the aroma of meat and the freshness and sweetness of lotus root..."

"Stop talking, I'll carry the load!" Lin Gang felt that if he listened any longer, his saliva would overflow.