Chapter 32

After all, in this era, some people don’t have enough food to eat, and if this continues, people will starve to death and do anything.

Jiang Zhizhi nodded: “Okay, Big Brother, you can wait for us under that tree over there, it can provide shade.”

“These days, everyone is struggling.”

The three brothers had a lot to tell Jiang Zhizhi.

Jiang Zhizhi also understood.

To be honest, everyone was living a very difficult and hard life in the 1970s, everything was scarce, everything needed tickets to buy, and without a residence permit and introduction letter, you couldn’t go anywhere.

For buying things, it was still a unified purchase and unified sale, department stores and supply and marketing cooperatives were the points of sale.

Take the people living in the county town for example.

People in the county town had a fixed amount of supplies, every household had a ration book, each month they were only supplied with four liang of oil, one kilogram of pork per person per month, and other vegetables, cloth, and rice were also limited.

Even if you had ration coupons and money, but the grain depot didn’t have any grain, what could you do?

Many places in the county town didn’t even have wild vegetables, so people in the county town could only find ways to buy some miscellaneous grains to make do.

Forget about rice, you couldn’t even see a shadow of it.

There was no corn flour, so they supplied sorghum rice.

There was no sorghum rice, so they started supplying sweet potato dry.

Many people could only buy sweet potato dry to fill their stomachs.

Sweet potato dry is usually about two kilogram, enough for one kilogram of grain.

Then there was the starch made from corn kernels and cabbage roots, this starch was also eaten as a staple food, about four kilogram of starch was enough for one kilogram of grain.

Farmers living in the countryside were even harder off.

Each person was only allocated two mu of land. After harvesting the grain, they had to pay public grain, and the public grain task was large every year.

After paying the public grain, the remaining grain was not enough to eat.

Almost every family didn’t have enough to eat, especially families with many children, they didn’t have enough grain to share, and they couldn’t eat enough.

So farmers would eat sweet potato dry rice when they were busy harvesting and doing heavy work.

Some families didn’t have that much grain, so they would look for elm money, corn husks, sweet potato vines, wild vegetables, or grind corn kernels into powder, these were their staple foods.

If they were doing light work or not working, they would eat porridge.

Life was miserable, many families had constant arguments and crying.

After Jiang Yuanshan told Jiang Zhizhi all this, he smiled and rubbed her little head, “Well, Zhizhi is amazing.”

She could make her first pot of gold in such an environment!

Jiang Zhizhi smiled proudly, she had to stand up straight.

The supply and marketing cooperative in this place was a row of bungalows.

Above the entrance, “Dongfanghong Supply and Marketing Cooperative” was written in red characters.

There was a red five-pointed star above the name of the store.

A red flag was flying in the wind on the roof.

At least at first glance, Jiang Zhizhi felt it was similar to the decoration style of a state-owned restaurant.

Jiang Zhizhi brought her second brother Jiang Yuanfeng and third brother Jiang Yuanyang inside.

Big brother Jiang Yuanshan was watching things under the tree.

Big brother thought that with him there, ordinary people wouldn’t dare to touch his things easily.

After all, his height, build, and fists were all there.

Jiang Zhizhi was excited, like a little bird flapping its wings.

Inside the supply and marketing cooperative, there were rows of cabinets.

Each cabinet was divided into categories, and there were many different kinds of goods on display.

This Dongfanghong Supply and Marketing Cooperative mainly sold tobacco and alcohol, food, knitwear, cotton and linen, daily necessities, clothing, hats…

On the walls on both sides were posters:

“Welcome new and old customers.”

“Remember our mission, serve the people.”

“No beating customers” slogans.

There were quite a few people in the supply and marketing cooperative at this time, several children were standing on tiptoe looking at the fruit candies and sponge cakes on the counter, their mouths were watering, and their eyes were shining.

The air was filled with a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, and coarse salt, it was indescribable, but Jiang Zhizhi thought it smelled good.

The cabinet in the middle of the entrance had iron thermoses, there were three colors to choose from, red, white, and blue.

There were five people buying things in the food section on the left, after weighing them, the salesperson would wrap them in paper, the package would be a small square, and then tied with a rope for the customer to carry.

Jiang Zhizhi felt like she had opened the door to a new world.

This was the first time she had visited this kind of supply and marketing cooperative.

It was so novel!

This feeling was different from shopping in a supermarket in the future.

Jiang Zhizhi excitedly walked around, and took the opportunity to inquire about the current prices.

Soybeans were sixteen cents per kilogram, strong flour was fifteen cents per kilogram, cornmeal was eight cents per kilogram, japonica rice was fourteen cents per kilogram, and ordinary flour was seventeen cents per kilogram.

Zhonghua brand toothpaste was thirty-six cents a tube, soap was thirty-eight cents a bar, and a thermos was five yuan and two yuan.

Yarn was eighteen yuan per kilogram, cotton cloth was one yuan and eight yuan per meter, cotton shirts and trousers were four yuan and three yuan each, and coarse cloth was two yuan and three fen per foot.

Maotai was seven yuan a bottle, Da Menqian was three yuan and five yuan a box, Double Happiness was seven yuan a pack, and a can of 800g of milk powder cost thirty-five yuan.

Live chicken was eight yuan and eight fen per kilogram, premium pork lard was one yuan and two yuan per kilogram, and salt was fifteen cents per kilogram.

White sugar was seven yuan and eight fen per kilogram, it required sugar tickets, edible oil was eight yuan and eight fen per kilogram, and it required oil tickets.

Jiang Zhizhi decided to buy, buy, buy!

She was carrying ration coupons, meat coupons, cloth coupons, industrial coupons, sugar coupons, soap coupons, wine purchase certificates, and shoe coupons, all of which were given to her by her father and mother before they left, they were valid nationwide.

So she didn’t have to worry about not having tickets.

Besides, the main purpose of coming to the supply and marketing cooperative this time was to buy things legally, so it would be easier for her to take things out of her space.

This way she could easily explain where the things she took out came from.

Besides, this time she came to the county town with her brothers, they had an ox cart, so when she bought things to go back, she could put them on the ox cart and transport them back together.

This way her brothers wouldn’t have to carry baskets on shoulder poles to walk back.

It was simply a benefit for her brothers.

There was a shelf with printed fabrics, there were peony flower patterns, bright red, gray, green, and white flowers on a blue background.

The second layer of the shelf was long johns, there were pink, yellow, and bright red, and on the right there were several bolts of white cotton cloth stacked.

Jiang Zhizhi saw that her aunt’s family used this kind of coarse cloth, the bed sheets at home were also sewn from this gray coarse cloth.

It felt rough to the touch, and it was quite heavy to lift.

Jiang Zhizhi looked at the blue and white and red and white coarse cloth for a while.

Jiang Yuanfeng stood next to her and explained: “This kind of cloth is also good for making mattresses, it’s quite cool to lie on in the summer.”

Jiang Zhizhi nodded: “I think this coarse cloth is suitable for wearing when working, the color is dirt-resistant, I wonder if it will become softer after washing.”

The saleswoman, Cuihua, in front of the glass cabinet was tapping her abacus to calculate, she heard Jiang Zhizhi’s words, looked up and said calmly: “It will.”

The saleswoman at the counter, Zhang Ping, was startled and said “Oh my” in surprise, she looked at the cute little girl in front of her with a smile, and said:

“Hello, do you need to buy cloth?

You’re in luck today, our supply and marketing cooperative just received a batch of scarce goods, there are many things that people have been waiting in line to buy.

If you need anything, you can take this opportunity to buy it, as the old saying goes, opportunity doesn’t wait for anyone.”

The little girl and her brothers came as a group, they were laughing and talking, at first glance they were youthful and energetic.

Saleswoman Zhang Ping was envious.

She remembered that she also had this kind of youthful beauty, she really missed it.

With a layer of beautiful filter, Zhang Ping’s recommendation of goods became even more enthusiastic.

Jiang Zhizhi blinked her eyes, the big sister in front of her had a natural and bright smile, giving people a very friendly feeling.

Didn’t they say that saleswomen have bad attitudes?

Isn’t this quite good?