People in the alley: A woman dressed as a man shouldn't be foolishly filial, Zhuang Chaoying

Just as he was about to ask, the post office clerk greeted him as if he were a savior, saying, "Comrade, you're right, we really do have monkey stamps. They arrived last night. How many do you want to buy?"

It turned out that their leader had given a strict order: all two hundred full sheets of monkey stamps that the post office received this time had to be sold.

After all, in this era, with the gradual change in communication methods, there are not many people writing letters anymore; most people send telegrams, and the sale of stamps has become increasingly difficult.

Since they finally saw someone come to buy something, the staff naturally rushed to inquire.

Zhuang Chaoying was delighted, but still tentatively asked, "Would twenty full pages be okay?"

He had initially thought this man would only ask him to buy one whole page at most, but he hadn't expected him to want to buy so much. "Okay, I'll get it for you right away!"

The post office staff responded warmly and then carefully counted out twenty full sheets of monkey stamps in front of him. "That's a total of one hundred and twenty-eight yuan! I'll find a file folder to put them in for you."

"Thank you, comrade!"

Zhuang Chaoying quickly took out the hundred yuan Huang Ling had given her from her pocket, then reached into her pocket and quietly took out twenty-one yuan from the system shelf. Adding the seven yuan given by Engineer Lin, it came to exactly one hundred and twenty-eight yuan.

I handed the money to the staff member and took the file bag containing the monkey stamps. My hands were trembling slightly. This was all future wealth.

After leaving the post office, Zhuang Chaoying looked around to make sure no one was watching, then quickly transferred the four full sheets of monkey stamps to the system shelf, and put the rest into a file folder and then into her briefcase.

I rode my bicycle home.

When Zhuang Chaoying got home, she found that Xiaoting and Tunan were not in the house. The two children must have gone out to play, or they were watching TV at Song Ying's house.

I closed the door and couldn't wait to communicate with the system in my mind.

[System, how much does the system charge for a single sheet of 1980s Year of the Monkey stamps?]

[Replying to the host, the system will recycle the 1980s Monkey stamps for 3,000 each, and the entire sheet for 240,000]

[Could we exchange the money for gold bars?]

The system quickly provided the answer: "Gold is priced at 42 yuan per gram. 240,000 yuan can be exchanged for 5,700 grams, which means you can exchange 57 gold bars, each weighing 100 grams."

It's changed!

Including the five gold bars he bought in the system before, he now has a total of sixty-two gold bars.

I'm rich! So many gold bars! I'm so happy just looking at them!

,,,,,,,

When they all came home from get off work, Zhuang Chaoying carried a whole sheet of monkey stamps and walked towards her neighbor's house.

"Forester! Forester!"

Zhuang Chaoying arrived at Lin Wufeng's house and gently knocked on the door.

When Lin Wufeng opened the door and saw it was him, he hurriedly and warmly welcomed him inside.

Zhuang Chaoying entered the room and, without exchanging pleasantries, handed the monkey stamps directly to Lin Wufeng. "Mr. Lin! The stamps are here!"

Lin Wufeng quickly took the stamps.

When his gaze fell upon the lively monkey designs on the stamp, he exclaimed, "Teacher Zhuang, you must say, this stamp is really quite beautiful! The monkey hairs are all individually detailed, just like the real thing. The craftsmanship is exquisite!"

As he spoke, he gently touched the fur of the monkey on the stamp with his finger.

Zhuang Chaoying nodded slightly. "Engineer Lin, keep it safe. It'll definitely fetch more than 6.4 yuan. This thing may seem unremarkable now, but it might bring a big surprise in the future."

Seeing Teacher Zhuang's serious expression, Lin Wufeng chose to trust his judgment.

After Teacher Zhuang left, his gaze fell on the photo frame hanging on his own wall.

Lin Wufeng gently removed the photo frame, carefully clipped the entire sheet of monkey stamps to the back of the photo, and then hung it back on the wall.

He stood there, examining the newly hung photo frame.

At this moment, Song Ying came out of the kitchen and watched him fiddling with the photo frame: "Wu Feng, will this stamp really make money in the future?"

Lin Wufeng shook his head. "I don't know, but Teacher Zhuang is right, it'll definitely be higher than 6.4 yuan. Let's just consider it saving money for Dongzhe!"

When Zhuang Chaoying returned home, she saw Ah Ling standing in front of the table, staring at a large stamp on the table.

"Chao Ying, are these the stamps you bought?"

Zhuang Chaoying nodded, quickly walked to the table, and gently picked up the stamp. "Ah Ling, don't underestimate it. This thing may seem insignificant now, but it will be very valuable in the future. Find a safe place to put it, and try not to crease it."

Huang Ling looked at his nervous appearance.

Gently place the stamps into the file folder, then walk to the wardrobe, open the door, and place the file folder inside, right next to the metal box containing the important item.

That's a hundred dollars!

、、、、、、、、

July 1981.

People have long since switched to short sleeves.

In the yard, snake gourd vines meandered and climbed, and many more slender snake gourds had appeared.

Old Wu's chickens and ducks lay a lot of eggs every day.

Today, Ah Ling and Song Ying are off work, and the two of them are sitting in the courtyard.

Song Ying's gaze lingered on the gourd trellis for a long time, then her eyes suddenly lit up: "Sister Ling, look, now we don't need coupons to buy meat anymore, so this gourd trellis is pretty useless, isn't it? Let's take it down, it'll make the yard more spacious."

Huang Ling looked at the snake gourd frame: "Tear it down!"

"Great, Sister Ling! I'll have Wu Feng take it down right away!"

"Then I'll go call Chaoying." Huang Ling said, turning around and going back into the house.

Inside, Zhuang Chaoying was leisurely lying on the bed. Huang Ling walked over and patted him on the shoulder. "Chaoying, get up and go help Engineer Lin dismantle the snake gourd trellis!"

Zhuang Chaoying lazily stretched out her hand. "Help me up!"

Huang Ling pulled him up with force and then found a glove and handed it to him.

Zhuang Chaoying took the gloves, muttering, "Ah Ling, to be honest, the snake gourd is sweet and quite delicious."

Huang Ling glared at him. "Delicious? Then I'll make it for you every day from now on!"

"Forget it, forget it, don't bother my Ah Ling, I'll go take down the frame right now!"

Zhuang Chaoying responded with a smile and turned to walk towards the snake gourd trellis.

The two men began to carefully untie the ropes one by one and gently placed the bamboo on the ground.

Huang Ling and Song Ying sat on bamboo chairs to the side, peeling oranges and drinking tea, looking quite content.

Huang Ling peeled the orange, as if she remembered something: "The factory often holds meetings for us now, talking about things like breaking down walls to open shops and taking unpaid leave."

Song Ying ate an orange, nonchalantly saying, "Leave without pay is no better than staying in the factory. We're all getting on in years, and we don't want to go out and make a living. We don't mind the low wages, so the factory shouldn't look down on us for being lazy!"

Huang Ling nodded, got up, walked over to Chao Ying, and casually stuffed half an orange into Chao Ying's mouth. "Yes, the factory is more stable. There's housing, insurance, and medical care—everything is secure!"

When the shelf was half dismantled, Xiaomin came in carrying a basket. "Aunt Huang, Aunt Song, the eggs we just laid are still warm."

Huang Ling quickly got up and took the eggs. "Thank you, Xiaomin. Please thank your mother for me! Tu Nan loves eggs!"

Zhuang Chaoying's hands kept moving. This girl was being unusually attentive; she must have some ulterior motive!

All she wanted was for him to tutor Xiaomin so that she could take the entrance exam for the textile factory technical school.

He swallowed the orange, shook his head, and continued with his work.

Finally, the scaffolding was dismantled, and Zhuang Chaoying and Engineer Lin carried the dismantled bamboo out together.

After washing my hands and entering the house, I saw Xiaoting and Tunan sitting inside, engrossed in reading magazines, while Huang Ling lay on the bed. "Where's Dongzhe?"

Xiaoting looked up at her father as he walked into the house. "Aunt Song took him out!"

Zhuang Chaoying nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed. Times were changing, and so was this small courtyard.