Starting a new chapter in life

The man's expression softened considerably upon hearing Jing Yan's words: "You go back first. I'll tell her that if she wants it, she can get to your house in ten minutes at most. If she doesn't come by then, it means she doesn't want it."

Jing Yan nodded quickly, turned around and slipped away. Just then, a woman's voice came from the direction of the door: "Haibo, who is it?"

The man closed the door and went inside: "He said he's your neighbor from next door, and he asked if you wanted to buy any local products. Do you know him?"

Chen Xinyue was combing her hair: "Ah, is this Xiao Zhang? The soybean oil, eggs, rice, and some dried goods I bought last time were from her sister in that company. Coming here at this hour, it seems you have some good stuff. You cook some noodles first, I'll go to her house to take a look." After saying that, she put down her comb, grabbed her small purse, and went out the door. Her husband didn't say anything, but just turned around and went into the kitchen.

Jing Yan had just returned home when He Chunni looked behind her but didn't see anyone: "She doesn't want pork?"

Jingyan shook her head: "Her husband opened the door and said he would tell her to come back first. Sister He, you wait and see. If she hasn't come back in a quarter of an hour, go find Sister Gao. She has a lot of connections. Pork is a scarce commodity and it's easy to sell."

He Chunni smiled and said, "It's alright. You kept thirty-five jin of pork, and Sister Gao took twenty-five jin. The remaining bones and meat add up to no more than sixty jin. Even if we can't sell them, the team can still distribute them. You don't need to worry about that. By the way, do you have a basin for washing vegetables?"

Jingyan nodded and brought one over from the kitchen: "What does Sister He need a basin for?"

He Chunni took the basin and said as she walked out, "There's pig's blood from slaughtering a pig, right? My brother-in-law made some blood tofu. I brought five pieces to share with you and Sister Gao. It's not worth much, but it tastes good in stewed pig's blood. I don't know if you can get used to it. Try it and if you like it, I'll save a few more pieces for you next year."

As he spoke, he lifted the straw mat on the cart, picked out three large, square pieces of blood tofu from a basin, and handed them to Jingyan. Jingyan took the basin and exclaimed, "Wow, it's quite heavy!" "This must weigh about ten pounds, right? How much is it?"

"What's the price? It was originally a gift for you two. If I didn't know you, how could I have sold my soybean oil, local produce, and now pork so easily? It's true that things are scarce in the city now, and demand exceeds supply."

However, there aren't many people who have the money and are willing to buy. If I go to the market, although I might be able to sell some, I'd have to sell them little by little, and it might not be sold out in a whole day. Besides, I'd have to pay a stall fee at the market. This saves me a lot of trouble. It's just a few pieces of blood tofu; why are you calculating it so clearly with me?

Jing Yan smiled and thanked her. Just as the two were about to go back inside, they heard a knock on the door. Jing Yan handed the basin to He Chunni, went forward and opened the door. Chen Xinyue's eyes lit up when she saw her. She peeked into the yard and asked softly, "Your sister is here? What did she bring this time?"

Jingyan stepped aside to let her in, closed the door again, and whispered, "Want some pork?"

Chen Xinyue's eyes lit up, and she nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, yes! You don't know, my family is dual-income, but we only get a few kilograms of meat coupons every month. We can only put a little bit in each dish just to add flavor. It's been a long time since we've had a proper meal."

"Both working couples? State-run restaurants should have meat dishes, right?" Jing Yan asked, puzzled.

While looking at the meat on the truck, Chen Xinyue answered absentmindedly, "State-run restaurants do have meat dishes, but they are rationed and require meat coupons. If I had enough meat coupons, wouldn't it be more appropriate to buy them and cook them at home? Although my cooking skills are average, as long as there is enough oil, the dishes won't be too bad. Hey, how much is this meat? There's quite a lot of pork belly."

"Pork is one dollar and forty cents, and bones are one dollar." He Chunni's price was two cents higher than what she had given Jing Yan.

Even at this price, Chen Xinyue was overjoyed: "This price is already very reasonable. I heard from my colleagues that pork on the black market costs as much as 1.6 yuan. It's so expensive and you can never buy good meat. You also have to be on edge. I'm too scared to go there. I'm afraid I'll get caught if I'm unlucky."

Her eyes sparkled as she picked up one piece and then another, wanting them all. She decided not to hesitate and said to He Chunni, "Wait a moment, I'll have my family come and choose."

As soon as he finished speaking, he walked to the base of the wall and called out, "Haibo, Haibo~"

Soon, someone responded: "What's wrong?"

"Come here and bring a big basin."

"Good~"

Soon, there was another knock on the door. Jingyan opened the door and let the man in. Chen Xinyue quickly went to greet him: "Come and see, it's pork. I can't choose, so you pick it. Let's buy more so we don't have to fight for meat during the New Year."

Gong Haibo walked to the truck, looked at the meat and bones on it, and asked, "How much are they?"

"Pork is one yuan and forty cents, and bones are one yuan," He Chunni repeated.

Gong Haibo paused in picking out the meat, then spoke calmly, "Is this the pig your company is keeping for the New Year?"

“That’s right. We kept three this year. The families in the brigade took one and a half, and we were planning to sell the rest for some money. We were thinking of going to the market to sell them in a few days, but I thought I’d share some with my younger sister, so I brought them over for her to choose from first. She and your wife have a good relationship, so she said she wanted to ask your family. Otherwise, I wouldn’t dare let you know. I don’t know what’s going on lately, but the Revolutionary Committee has been checking much more strictly.” He Chunni explained and then casually complained.

Gong Haibo stopped picking at the meat and asked, "Have you been investigated by the Revolutionary Committee?"

He Chunni quickly waved her hand: "It wasn't our company. It was the people from the Seventh Company who were arrested a couple of days ago for delivering pork to a relative. Luckily, it was a really good relative who had some connections in the city, and they got him out of there. But I don't know if the pork was confiscated. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come here before dawn. I just wanted to avoid those people."

Gong Haibo continued picking out meat: "They won't be able to keep up this for long. As far as I know, the municipal party secretary strongly advocates for the free trade of people's livelihood markets, but there is currently a lot of resistance. However, the stability of the market shows that this is the general trend. Don't worry, things will always get better."

He Chunni only partially understood what she was hearing. Jing Yan was startled. In her previous life, she knew nothing about politics, but she vaguely remembered that around the 1980s, around 1987 or 1988, ration coupons were withdrawn from circulation. At that time, all the grain coupons she had painstakingly saved were invalidated. She could only tell her children that these things were once more valuable than money, even though they were now useless and just pieces of paper. It was only the end of 1975, and the signs of this were already emerging. Indeed, it really takes at least ten or eight years for any policy to be proposed and implemented. However, these policies didn't really concern her much. As long as her family had enough to eat and drink and were financially secure, that was enough.

Gong Haibo didn't intend for them to understand; he was just saying it casually. He pointed to the large basin of pork he had picked out and said, "That's all. Weigh it and see how much it costs."

He Chunni weighed the meat. Goodness, it weighed thirty-four jin (18.5 catties), all good meat, not a single bone was picked out. "Forty-seven yuan and sixty cents, you can give me forty-seven yuan."

Chen Xinyue quickly opened her wallet and gave the money to He Chunni. Jing Yan asked her with some doubt, "Don't you buy some spare ribs to stew or some big bones to make soup?"

Chen Xinyue shook her head: "There's not much meat on the ribs, and even less on the big bones. It's time-consuming and uses a lot of firewood, so it's not worth it."

As the couple was about to leave, Jingyan thought for a moment and took out a piece of blood tofu from her basin: "Sister Chen, this is blood tofu made by Sister He's family. Do you want a piece? It can be used to make a stew for pig slaughtering."

Chen Xinyue was pleasantly surprised: "Blood tofu? Ordinary families don't usually make this. It's such a big piece, how much does it cost?"

Jingyan and He Chunni exchanged a glance and smiled, "This is a gift from Sister He. You bought so much meat this time, so this is a little something extra. It'll be good to keep in touch next time."

Chen Xinyue readily accepted the blood tofu and placed it on the bowl. "Thank you so much. Please come back to me next time you come. If I need anything, I can buy it anywhere. You don't need any tickets here, and it's cheaper and safer than the black market. It's a win-win situation."

The couple left happily. He Chunni said, "What does her husband do? He seemed to be talking in a very profound way; I couldn't understand him at all."

Jing Yan also shook her head: "I don't know, as long as it's not from the Revolutionary Committee, it's fine."

The two smiled at each other and went inside. He Chunni touched the cotton shoes on the radiator; they were almost dry. "Little sister, what time is it?"

Jingyan glanced at her watch: "It's 7:30."

"I have to go now. If I go to Sister Gao's house too late, she'll probably be going to the neighborhood office. I don't plan to go there anytime soon. It's safer to go directly to her house."

"Okay, then I won't keep Sister He any longer. When will you come over next time?" Jing Yan asked.

“There’s not much left at home. We killed most of our chickens before the New Year, leaving only a few young hens. We’ll have to hatch them again in the spring, and the eggs won’t be ready until July or August. I really can’t come over anytime soon. But there’s a low hill near our company. If you have time after spring planting, you can come to our company to find me. I’ll take you to the hill to dig for wild vegetables.” He Chunni invited her warmly.

Jingyan smiled and agreed: "Sister He, when you hatch your chicks, could you bring me a few too? I'd like to raise a few chickens in my yard to lay eggs, so I can eat chicken when I get old."

“Okay, I’ll bring you a few chicks, raise them, and send them over.” He Chunni agreed readily.

"Is the policy here that each household can only raise four chickens?" Jing Yan asked.

"The four chickens refer to adult chickens. Generally, people are afraid that the chickens will die halfway through raising them, so they will raise two more. Once they grow up, you can pick out two young chickens to eat, leaving only four in the coop. Who can say anything to you? Besides, your yard has high walls and iron gates, so who knows how many chickens you have? As long as it's not too excessive, generally there won't be any problems."

"Then I'll thank you in advance, Sister He."

"Don't be so polite with me, little sister. I'm leaving now. I'll come back when the chicks are done." He Chunni had already changed into her cotton shoes.

Jingyan didn't try to keep the guest any longer. She opened the door for her and watched her leave.

After He Chunni left, Jingyan cut the meat into small pieces and put them in a large vat in the storeroom along with the bones. She covered the vat, and in less than half a day, the meat froze solid. She took a piece of pork belly with alternating layers of fat and lean meat into the room and, while it was still frozen solid, sliced ​​it into thin slices. She continued slicing until she had filled a whole basin with meat before stopping. She rubbed her sore wrists, thought for a moment, and then covered the basin with a lid and put it back in the storeroom, planning to wait for He Zhijun to come back before preparing it. After all, it's best to have a barbecue together.

The next day, Jingyan went to the scrap metal recycling station by herself. The old man saw her and smiled, "You came alone this time? What are you looking for?"

Jingyan stepped forward and asked, "Grandpa, do you have any bicycle spokes here?"

"Why are you asking this?" the old man retorted.

"I want to make some barbecue skewers."

"Oh, then you don't need to look for bicycle spokes. You have to grind those yourself, which is a lot of trouble. I have some iron skewers in my warehouse, but they've been sitting there for a while and probably aren't in good condition. They need to be cleaned properly. Let me take you inside to have a look." The old man said, taking the keys and walking inside.

"The auntie isn't here today?"

“She went to the supply and marketing cooperative. Look, this is the warehouse.” The old man opened the warehouse door and led her inside. He dragged out a large basket containing about thirty oil paper packages. Pointing to these packages, the old man said, “This is from a restaurant that closed down. They sold these things as scrap metal. These iron skewers were soaked in oil back then. They were packaged in bundles of a hundred, supposedly to prevent them from rusting. Open them and see if any are rusty. If they are, pick them out and take the good ones.”

Jingyan squatted down, opened a package, and neatly arranged shiny iron skewers were wrapped in oil paper and tied with hemp rope: "Grandpa, since the restaurant sold these as scrap, why did they take such good care of them?"

"They didn't want to close down either. It's all a craft passed down from their ancestors. But in those days, who would dare to go against the tide? Everyone tried to hide as much as possible. These things aren't worth much, but polishing them isn't easy. His family was probably scared. It's true, if an ordinary family keeps these things and they're discovered, they're likely to suffer. This is a junkyard. When people come to inspect, they only look for things that might be valuable. This kind of thing is relatively safe because nobody looks at it."

I figured these things weren't heavy, and I wouldn't get much money selling them. I figured I'd leave them here in case the person came looking for them someday, and I could sell them as valuables and make a little more money. So I kept them.”

"They're really well protected. Look, none of them are rusty. You can tell they've been carefully protected. Is this bundle of a hundred?" Jing Yan asked.

"The seller said it was 100 pieces, but I bought it by weight. I only opened one package to check the material, and I haven't opened the rest, so I don't know the exact number," the old man explained.

"So, how much do you plan to sell it to, sir?"

"One cent each."

"Isn't it a bit expensive?" Jing Yan bargained.

"Pig iron is now 1.5 yuan a piece, so 20 pieces should be more than a pound, right? 10 cents a piece is really not expensive." The old man insisted on not lowering the price.