Chapter 7

This big sister is very clever.

On the way to the supply and marketing cooperative, Aunt Ma suddenly asked:

“Where is your aunt? Usually, she’s the one who goes out to buy things.”

“She said she has been working too much recently and her waist hurts, so she asked me to go out.”

Tie Lanyan had already thought of an excuse to tell the outside world.

“Is that so.” Aunt Ma glanced at Tie Lanyan and sighed:

“I heard from your aunt that you’ve been a little off lately, poor child, are you feeling better?”

Thanks to Zhang Cui, everyone outside was saying that the original owner had gone crazy, Aunt Ma’s words were considered tactful.

Tie Lanyan’s heart warmed slightly, she smiled and nodded: “I’m much better, thank you for your concern, Auntie.”

Aunt Ma’s expression relaxed: “That’s good, do you want to go out for a walk? I’ll ask Chen Jian to take you out for a walk.”

Chen Jian was Aunt Ma’s son, not much older than Tie Lanyan, he was a temporary worker at the textile factory.

Tie Lanyan: “No need, Auntie, I have some things to do lately.”

She had to deal with Zhang Cui’s family, and she also had to stock up and make money, she really didn’t have time.

Besides, if she went out with Chen Jian, a lone man and a lone woman, people would gossip.

If it were the modern world, Tie Lanyan wouldn’t care about these things.

Aunt Ma’s face showed a little disappointment: “Okay, then, we’ll talk about it when you have time.”

The supply and marketing cooperative wasn’t far from the Tie family’s house, it was a 40-minute walk.

When she got there and wanted to buy something, Tie Lanyan was stunned.

She had forgotten that you needed ration coupons to buy things in this era.

The ration coupons at home had already been used up by Zhang Cui, she didn’t have a single one.

Aunt Ma, who was beside her, knew that she didn’t have any coupons, so she took the initiative to say:

“I happen to have a few spare coupons, what do you want to buy? I’ll lend them to you first, you can pay me back with money later.”

Tie Lanyan’s face lit up: “Then thank you, Auntie.”

Prices were very cheap these days.

Rough rice was only 12 cents a pound, polished rice and white flour were 20 cents a pound, of course, they needed grain coupons.

Soybean oil was 50 cents a pound, and it also needed oil coupons.

Brown sugar was also 50 cents a pound, white sugar was 80 cents a pound, and it needed sugar coupons.

Pork was 90 cents a pound, chicken and duck meat were 1 yuan a pound, and they also needed meat coupons.

Eggs also needed egg coupons, 9 cents each.

Because they were all free-range eggs, the eggs were small, 11 were exactly one pound for one yuan.

Finally, the vegetables were very cheap, 5 cents a bunch.

These didn’t need coupons, they were all vegetables grown by farmers from the suburbs of Beijing or the countryside…

She carried a backpack and walked more than 10 kilometers to the supply and marketing cooperative to exchange them.

Aunt Ma had a 5-jin grain coupon (see picture).

There was also a 1-jin meat coupon, a 5-jin egg coupon, and a 2-jin sugar coupon.

Tie Lanyan borrowed all the coupons.

She bought 5 jin of white flour, 1 jin of pork, 5 jin of eggs, and 2 jin of white sugar, for a total of 8 yuan and 50 cents.

Because of the supply and demand, ration coupons were more valuable than money.

Tie Lanyan directly gave Aunt Ma a “Great Unity” note.

Aunt Ma didn’t refuse, she even reminded her:

“Lanyan, you’re spending a bit too lavishly, you’ll have to be more frugal in the future when you get married, you can’t spend like this.”

Tie Lanyan didn’t take it to heart, she nodded perfunctorily.

She was going to gain 30 pounds, how could she not eat more?

Besides, money was meant to be spent, just earn more after spending it.

Before leaving, Tie Lanyan spent 10 cents to buy two large handfuls of string beans.

These string beans were good stuff, they were crispy and delicious.

There were many ways to cook them, string bean braised noodles, string bean stir-fry noodles, pork ribs and string bean braised rice, etc.

Tie Lanyan decided to make string bean braised rice for dinner tonight.

She didn’t have pork ribs, but she had plenty of braised pork, just thinking about it made her happy!

……

After saying goodbye to Aunt Ma.

Tie Lanyan didn’t go home immediately, she went to the hospital.

She wanted to find the black market that was rumored about in time travel novels.

Tie Lanyan had a big appetite, and she also needed to supplement with more nutritious food.

With just today’s supplies, she would run out in three or four days, she couldn’t keep borrowing coupons from others.

The black market was the best place to go.

But Tie Lanyan didn’t know the exact location.

She couldn’t directly ask Aunt Ma.

Before the reform and opening up, private trading was not allowed, it was considered profiteering.

If you were caught, you would be fined and criticized at the very least, and you could even be executed at the worst.

So everyone avoided talking about the black market, they would only secretly find ways to go there secretly.

The reason why Tie Lanyan went to the vicinity of the hospital was because patients in the hospital urgently needed nutritional supplements, so there would definitely be some bold people selling things nearby.

This method was also seen by Tie Lanyan in time travel novels.

Before the apocalypse came, she was a bookworm, she especially loved reading time travel novels.

She didn’t expect it to be useful one day, haha！

Tie Lanyan wandered around the People’s Hospital for two rounds.

After eliminating several suspicious figures, she finally locked onto a fat man.

The fat man was dressed well, standing under a big tree, carrying a backpack, his eyes were darting around.

Tie Lanyan quietly walked over and whispered:

“Comrade, let’s talk over there?”

The backpack was covered with cloth, tightly wrapped, it was obvious that it was filled with good stuff.

The fat man, hearing this, immediately smiled brightly, his previous anxious expression gone:

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s talk over there in the alley!”

The two of them walked quickly towards the hidden alley not far away, one after the other.

When they got there, they both said almost at the same time:

“What good stuff do you have?”

“Is your stuff good?”

As soon as these words came out, both of them were stunned.

It turned out they were both looking for sellers!

This was so awkward!

Niu Dapang: “Ahem… big sister… we both got it wrong.”

Niu Dapang: “This is the soil my grandma dug from the park, she insists that this soil is better than her own, she wants to carry it back to use it for planting vegetables.

But she accidentally sprained her waist on the way here, she’s in the hospital now.

She’s afraid that I’ll throw away the soil, she asks me to carry it here every day to show her.”

Tie Lanyan: … This old lady is quite troublesome.

A backpack full of soil was more important than her grandson, she wasn’t afraid of spraining her grandson’s waist again.

Tie Lanyan was speechless: “I thought it was something good… it was wrapped so tightly.”

“It’s just that I was afraid of being laughed at.” Niu Dapang touched the back of his head awkwardly and said:

“Actually, I was waiting for a friend of mine who introduced a reseller, I was going to buy some beef bones from him to supplement my grandma’s health.

I didn’t expect to bump into you… I’m sorry…”

Tie Lanyan, hearing this, her dull eyes immediately lit up.

“It’s okay, big brother, we met by chance!

I think you’re very likable, let’s be friends, can you also introduce me to that reseller?”

Niu Dapang twitched his mouth: …

Wow, what a change of face.

Probably making friends is fake, wanting to know the reseller through him is the real deal.

But he didn’t mind at all, he was even quite happy.

This big sister is very clever, she’s right up his alley, it’s not bad to make a friend!