Siheyuan: I earned foreign exchange in the heyday

As the number of fish caught by Grandpa Xiao increased, the novelty of catching fish wore off, and Grandpa Xiao regained his composure.

But the angle of his mouth still proved his inner thoughts.

Looking at Chen Changan, whose expression remained unchanged, he asked, "Xiao Chen, if I ask you to be the factory director and you don't have much time to fish, you won't blame me, right?"

Chen Changan turned around and looked at Uncle Xiao. What was going on? Did he regret letting me go to the processing plant? Did he want me to go fishing with him more often?

Chen Changan, who was puzzled, said, "Fishing is a hobby. You can go fishing during your free time. At most, it can be a side job. Fishermen are the ones who take fishing as their main job.

From ancient times till now, I have never heard of fishermen having a good life.”

But I thought to myself that maybe there might be one in the future.

After hearing what Chen Changan said, Mr. Xiao nodded in agreement. Then he asked again, "Besides fishing, what else do you love?"

Chen Changan smiled and said, "If you want to say this, it's because the weather has been too cold recently, so I didn't go fishing. I found a good hobby for myself, which is machinery."

Chen Changan became interested when talking about machinery. He continued, "Recently, I worked with several skilled workers to make a machine that can make honeycomb briquettes. The speed is many times faster than manual labor.

It's a pity that it didn't take long to make it, and it was optimized and improved.

I'll go back and think about it and see what I'm going to do for my next goal."

"What? The machine that you said could make honeycomb coal has been made?" Grandpa Xiao asked in shock.

Chen Changan said with some pride, "Of course, it's not a difficult thing. It's like fishing. Have I ever lied to you?"

Uncle Xiao had mixed feelings. Since the founding of New China, industry, especially heavy industry, has lacked any foundation.

We thought that the big brother from the north could help us, and he did.

In the past few years, it was indeed good, but starting this year, the conflicts with the northern big brother have indeed increased. The next move may have a miraculous effect.

In Uncle Xiao's opinion, Chen Changan was a bit weird. He could really do it as long as he wanted to.

This is true for fishing and for machines. In this case, give him some conditions and let him play his role to see how far he can go.

After thinking for a while, he said to Chen Changan, "I have a few old motorcycles. They can't be ridden anymore, but the engines and other parts are in good condition. If you are interested, I can send them to you so you can study them."

Hey, this is good, motorcycle engine. Although Chen Changan didn't know much about motorcycle engines, he studied mechanics in college after all, and he and a motorcycle enthusiast in the dormitory also studied various motorcycles.

Simple models and layouts are understandable. If they are disassembled and then imitated, then wouldn’t it be possible for our own factory to produce engines and even motorcycles?

That would be much better than having to work for so few temporary workers now.

After figuring it out, Chen Changan immediately said, "Okay, Uncle Xiao, then send it to me tomorrow and I'll study it first. It's a scrapped motorcycle anyway, so if I can't figure it out, I'll just treat it as a hobby and tinker with it."

Mr. Xiao also wanted Chen Changan to try it, so the two of them hit it off.

In the following time, we talked and laughed about fishing.

Someone came to buy fish again after a long absence. This reminded Chen Changan of Director Huang. After exchanging a few fish, Chen Changan had several more tickets in his hand.

It seems that I still need to come fishing more often. Not only can I improve my food, but I can also earn a lot of tickets.

When Chen Changan felt that he had caught enough fish, he prepared to go home. After all, the fish today were not big and there was no fun.

I returned home early in the afternoon and picked out the mackerel. The other fish were kept in the water tank as usual. Chen Changan looked at the row of water tanks at home.

It's almost the year 59, so it seems we need to prepare food in advance.

When the house was first built, more than a dozen large vats were placed in the cellar. At that time, I used them to pickle vegetables because I loved eating sauerkraut.

By then, the cellar will be filled with more than a dozen large jars of grain.

After all, no matter how severe the natural disasters were during those three years, it was not here that people starved to death.

This is Sijiu City. No matter how severe the situation outside is, Sijiu City has only reduced its supply twice.

It was only reduced by 40%. I was not full, but I was barely able to survive.

In fact, Chen Changan only needs to make up for the reduced part to be full.

Prepare more refined grains in advance, and mix coarse grains and refined grains together when the time comes. Also prepare more sweet potatoes.

I can also go fishing to improve my diet, my sisters don’t eat too much. It’s not a big problem.

It means that you need to plan ahead where to buy food, whether to buy it at the pigeon market or to collect it in the countryside.

At first, I thought that I was a buyer with purchasing power, so I could just go to the countryside and buy some things with my own money, and that would be enough for my family to eat.

Unfortunately, I have changed my company and my job now. It is even more difficult to go to the countryside to purchase goods.

Thinking about the situation in the countryside at that time, I wonder if they had started eating from the same pot.

It's a pity that I have never been able to visit the countryside during this period. But the city was like this in the 1949 period, and there was probably nothing to see in the countryside.

If it really doesn't work, you can only go to the pigeon market yourself at night. It is better to prepare food in advance.

From now on, it may not be a question of how much money it has. Basically, every household is out of food.

Chen Changan planned to go to Pigeon City at night when he had nothing to do in a few days to check out the situation.

While I was thinking about something, my hands didn't stop. The black carp is not big, so I poured some oil and fried it.

The green vegetables were the Chinese cabbage stored in winter last year. At that time, Chen Changan was so busy that he had no time to rest. Director Wang arranged for someone to deliver the vegetables directly to his home. Otherwise, Chen Changan would not even have been able to eat the Chinese cabbage.

In this era, there are very few vegetables available for purchase in the north in winter.

Chen Changan also bought a lot of vegetables in advance. Now only cabbage and radish are left.

After all, they are easy to store, so those that are easy to spoil are eaten first. There are also a lot of sweet potatoes.

I asked Xiuying to buy sweet potatoes because Chen Changan was too busy this winter and didn't have much time to stay at home with his sisters.

When Chen Changan is not at home, Xiuying will roast some sweet potatoes for her sisters.

I wanted to finish eating it quickly and make room for buying new food for this year.

Chen Changan cooked cornmeal and sweet potato cubes, and added fried mackerel and a pickled radish. This was already a good meal.

After dinner, Chen Changan set his eyes on the black fish in the fish tank again. What should we eat tomorrow? Black fish or black carp? Well, let's steam the black carp tomorrow.

The next morning, Yan Fugui and Yan Jiefang finally went out openly, and Yan Jiefang and Chen Changan went to work together.

On the way to work, Chen Changan looked at Yan Jiefang and asked, "How is your brother?"

Yan Jiefang said without even looking up, "What else can I do? He went in yesterday and is doing labor reform."

Looking at Yan Jiefang's expression, Chen Changan didn't ask any more questions. The two of them walked to the processing plant in silence.