Siheyuan: Survival Guide for Courtyard No. 95

The next morning, Zhao Shanhe was not in a hurry to get up. As the regular meeting had just ended yesterday, it was estimated that everyone in Group 1 would have to go downstairs to find a way out, and no one would go to work in the factory.

After getting dressed, he went to the public toilet outside the yard to flush the toilet. The smell was pungent and unbearable even in winter. It was not that Zhao Shanhe did not want to relieve himself in the small world, but he did not come out to use the toilet yesterday. If he did not show up every day, people in the yard might not know how to accuse him after a long time.

Rumors about urinating and defecating anywhere and pooping in the room are not just Zhao Shanhe's imaginations. There are so many beasts in the yard.

When he came back from the public toilet and walked to the gate of the yard, he met Aunt Sun, a resident of the front yard. Aunt Sun's family arrived in this yard a few months earlier than Zhao Shanhe, and they were allocated the last two rooms. Her husband worked in a valve factory in Haidian, and there were two girls in the family, both of whom were in middle school. Although there were no boys, it was much better than Yi Zhonghai's family with no descendants.

"Aunt Sun, are you going to buy groceries?"

"It's Shanhe. I just received this month's meat coupons yesterday, so I went to buy three taels of meat for your uncle to replenish his body. Fortunately, I went early so I could buy some fatty meat. There were so many people buying meat that I'm afraid the lean meat would be sold out if I went there at this time."

Zhao Shanhe then remembered that yesterday was the day people could get the meat tickets on the 1st. He had been so focused on the small world and hunting that he had forgotten about it. However, seeing Aunt Sun's boastful expression, he stopped talking about what he wanted to say.

It is not acceptable to see people eating meat in this yard. Haven't they learned enough from the previous lesson? I guess there will be something exciting to watch in the evening.

I went back to the house, washed my face and brushed my teeth, then rode my bike to the breakfast stall at the entrance of the alley, where I ate a few sesame cakes and drank a bowl of soy milk. It only cost me 1 cents in total.

The taste of sesame cakes and soy milk is incomparable to cornmeal porridge, but it is a bit cold to eat them outdoors. Zhao Shanhe felt that it was about time, so he rode his bike to the street office.

When I arrived, I saw that there was already a long queue in front of the street office. I had to wait. It was like this at the beginning of the month, with people all coming to get tickets. If there had been more people yesterday, there would have been more people.

Fortunately, the staff was very efficient. He waited in line for half an hour with the household registration booklet (the household registration system was established in 1958), grain booklet, and non-staple food booklet that had just been issued this year. The staff from the two street offices supervised each other and handed over Zhao Shanhe's receipts one by one. The receipts had to be counted clearly on the spot, and no one would care if the number was less.

The oil coupons are two taels, which are supplied once a month. If they are not used until the next month, they will become invalid. The cloth coupons are seven inches. If you receive them in January next year, you can save them and use them at the end of the year. However, the cloth coupons issued in December can only be used for one month.

8 taels of meat coupons and 39 jin of grain coupons, this was Zhao Shanhe's monthly food ration, of which only 5 jin were fine grain coupons, and the rest were coarse grain coupons. But even with the fine grain coupons, few people were willing to buy them themselves. Most families took them to the pigeon market to exchange for coarse grains. Yan Bugui's family often went to the countryside to exchange for sweet potatoes. With so many people, they were lucky enough to have enough to eat.

There were other miscellaneous tickets like match tickets (2 to 4 boxes per month), fuel tickets (one pound of kerosene), soap tickets (one dollar per month), etc. I won’t go into the numbers here.

As soon as Zhao Shanhe left the street office, he threw the tickets into his little world and rode his bike to Wanglizhuang Village. He had made up his mind to buy a hen that could lay eggs today even if it cost a lot of money.

More than two hours later, he stood at the door of Village Chief Zhao's house again, shouted and waited for a while. Zhao Desheng came out and was very surprised to see that it was him.

"Purchasing Officer Zhao, didn't you say you would come in the middle of the month? How come you're here just two days later? I can't give you all the eggs today. Many purchasing agents from other factories have come in the past two days, so I have to save some for them."

Zhao Shanhe was well aware of this kind of 21st century rhetoric. If he offered 5 cents for each egg, not only would buyers from other factories, but even the factory director would be turned away.

But the purpose of his visit today was to collect hens, which are much more difficult to purchase than eggs. After Zhao Desheng opened the yard door, he pushed the cart in and began to make up stories.

"Uncle Zhao, I'm not here to collect eggs today. The factory leaders want to buy some hens that can lay eggs as gifts. Can you help me get them?"

When Zhao Desheng heard this, his eyes lit up. No wonder the magpie was calling this morning. It meant that there was a big business coming.

What roosters and hens? As long as the money is right, we can get them for you as long as they are not fighter jets. However, he still said with an embarrassed expression.

"Xiao Zhao, you have to know that every household in the village now holds these egg-laying hens very close to their heart, hoping to exchange the eggs for money. If you sell the hens, it's like killing the chicken for the eggs.

If you want to buy it, you have to pay a high price."

On his way here, Zhao Shanhe had already decided that he would be ripped off, but there were really no laying hens for sale in the city now, otherwise no one would come here.

He knew that the other party was acting, and although his expression was embarrassed, he still saw the smile in his eyes and cooperated.

"Uncle Zhao, the boss at my factory is pressing me to do something urgent, otherwise I wouldn't have ridden for more than two hours to come to you. Please help me. If you can do it, I will reward you handsomely."

After the double blow of paying a high price for the chicken and receiving a generous reward, Zhao Desheng felt that he had extorted enough money. What if he raised the price further and the customer ran away?

"Okay, then you go into the main room and wait for me for a while. I'll go and ask for you. How many do you want?"

"Uncle Zhao, two or three hens and one or two roosters will be enough. Please take care of it."

Zhao Shanhe put his bicycle away and went into the house. He still didn't dare to rush in and just waited in the house.

This time the wait was longer. It was almost an hour before Zhao Desheng came back carrying two bamboo cages covered with cotton cloth.

"Xiao Zhao, thank you for fulfilling my mission. I went to many households to get this for you.

You are also lucky. There happened to be a family in the village who was planning to arrange a marriage for their child and renovate their house in the spring. After much persuasion from me, they finally agreed to sell so many chickens.

"What do you think of these chickens? Three females and two males. Is that enough for your factory leaders to give as gifts?"

Zhao Shanhe finally breathed a sigh of relief after removing the cotton cloth covering the cage and seeing five chickens neatly arranged. If he couldn't get them in this village, he really didn't know where to buy them.

In this era, the Chicken Butt Bank is more powerful than the central bank. Ordinary people only believe in what they can eat. It is troublesome to buy things with only RMB but no tickets.

"Thank you for your help, Uncle Zhao. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have been able to complete this mission. It's all thanks to your great power. By the way, how much do these five chickens cost?"

Everything else is empty talk, in the end they still have to talk about money. Zhao Desheng stretched out three fingers at him, and Zhao Shanhe suddenly felt that this Uncle Zhao looked kind, but his heart was really black.

But when I think about it, although the price can be said to be extremely expensive, as long as these chickens enter the small world, it is the chicken that lays eggs, and the eggs that lay chickens, just like what Xu Damao said in the TV series, is it the chicken that I throw away? I throw away an egg a day.