Chapter 36 : Picking up a Cow Skeleton

Lu Fangfang touched the money in her pocket and felt powerless.

In this day and age, it’s really hard to spend money even if you have it.

She had originally thought of buying a hen and raising it for laying eggs, but it seems she had better give up on that hope.

Turning her head to look at the eggs on the stall, Lu Fangfang suddenly thought of something, and she hurriedly asked, “Comrade, do I need a ticket to buy eggs?”

Salesperson: “…”

If Lu Fangfang hadn’t been wearing a military uniform, she would have cursed at her.

“Comrade, your family doesn’t need egg coupons to buy eggs?”

Lu Fangfang nodded with a wry smile. She remembered that at the supply and marketing cooperative over at the Red Star Brigade, buying eggs did not require a ticket.

It seems that supplies are really tight here. You need poultry tickets to buy chickens and egg tickets to buy eggs. What should I do now? She and Sister Shufen are also planning to buy breeding eggs to hatch chicks.

I don’t know if there is a black market nearby.

Unless it was absolutely necessary, Lu Fangfang really didn’t want to go to the black market because it was too dangerous.

If she was caught, not only would she have to go to jail, but Zhuang Mingcheng would also be implicated, and he might even be stripped of his position as battalion commander.

Lu Fangfang was very anxious, so she turned around and wanted to go to Sister Shufen to discuss it.

—

Wang Shufen and Sun Manling were still queuing in front of the meat stall, and it would soon be their turn.

Lu Fangfang hurried over and said, “Sister Shufen, I just went to the place where they sell eggs and asked, they want egg coupons, what should I do?”

She and Sister Shufen had not even started their chicken-raising business when they were troubled by an egg ticket.

As for quail eggs, Lu Fangfang no longer had any hope. She looked around but didn’t see any for sale. She could only look for them in the city someday when she had the chance.

“Girl, don’t be anxious, look at what this is?”

Wang Shufen smiled and took out two yellow receipts from her pocket.

Lu Fangfang’s eyes lit up. She took the receipt and saw a few big words written at the top: “Highest instructions, prepare for war, prepare for famine, for the people.”

Below it was written “eggs” and “one catty.”

“This is the egg ticket.”

Lu Fangfang was completely relieved. Two egg coupons could buy two kilograms of eggs, which was enough.

It was Sun Manling and Wang Shufen’s turn to buy meat.

Lu Fangfang didn’t have a meat ticket, so she stood aside and watched the excitement.

In front of the meat stall, there were two salespeople, a man and a woman. The woman collected money, and the man cut the meat and weighed it.

Sun Manling knew the saleswoman. She chatted with her with a smile and then asked for a pound and a half of beef.

While the man was cutting the meat, Sun Manling waved to the back, “Fangfang? Fangfang? Come here quickly.”

Lu Fangfang didn’t understand what was going on, but she still walked over quickly.

“Sister Meijiao, this is Political Commissar’s wife, Wang Shufen, and that is Battalion Commander Zhuang’s wife, Lu Fangfang. They both just joined the army.”

Sun Manling introduced them to the two, “Sister Shufen, Fangfang, this is the wife of Captain Liu of the Second Regiment, Zhang Meijiao, who works as a salesperson in the food market.”

Lu Fangfang was very surprised. She didn’t expect that there would be soldiers’ wives from the staff quarters in the county’s non-staple food market.

After thinking about it, she remembered.

Sun Manling had mentioned to her before, this military wife who worked as a salesperson.

Lu Fangfang smiled and said hello.

She looked at Zhang Meijiao and saw that she was wearing work clothes, had short hair, was a little plump, and had a very pretty smile.

“Sister Shufen, Fangfang, hello.”

Zhang Meijiao greeted her with a smile, then asked how many pounds of beef she wanted to buy.

“Give me two pounds.”

Wang Shufen took out money and tickets from her pocket.

Zhang Meijiao asked the butcher to cut the beef, and then looked at Lu Fangfang, “Where’s Sister Fangfang? How much beef do you want?”

Lu Fangfang shook her head embarrassedly, “Sister Meijiao, I don’t have a meat ticket, so I won’t buy any meat.”

Zhang Meijiao seemed to be thinking about something.

Looking back, she pulled Lu Fangfang aside and whispered, “Sister Fangfang, there are still some beef bones at the stall. No meat tickets are needed. If you want them, I’ll sell them to you at a low price.”

Lu Fangfang looked toward the meat stall in the direction Zhang Meijiao pointed.

Hanging on the iron pole behind the stall was a large cow skeleton, which looked to weigh at least sixty or seventy kilograms.

Rubbing her eyes, Lu Fangfang tried to find some meat on the cow skeleton, but after a while, she gave up.

I really admire them. I have to say that the masters in the market are really good. The meat is shaved so cleanly that there isn’t even a trace of meat left.

However, when Lu Fangfang looked at the cow skeleton, she was really moved.

There isn’t much meat left on the skeleton, but it still has other uses.

In just a short while, Lu Fangfang thought of three uses for the bones: smash the bones and use the marrow to make butter, grind the bones into bone powder to feed chickens and quail, and use the bones as bait to put into the cage to catch fish.

By the way, the bones themselves can also be sold. I heard that the purchasing station buys them for three cents per pound.

Such a large skeleton can be sold for one or two dollars even if it is sold to a recycling station.

What a treasure.

The more Lu Fangfang looked at it, the more excited she became. She quickly asked, “Sister Meijiao, how much does such a large cow skeleton cost?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t cheat you. I’ll give you an insider price of six dollars, and I’ll secretly get you a pair of beef livers.”

Zhang Meijiao gave Lu Fangfang a look that showed she understood.

She took public property and used it to do favors for herself. With this trick, she got along very well in the family compound and was more popular than the regiment commander’s wife.

“This…this won’t be a mistake, right?” Lu Fangfang was shocked.

“No one wants beef bones. What’s wrong with that? You want a lot, and this is an internal discount price.”

Zhang Meijiao curled her lips and didn’t care.

Seeing that her sister-in-law was not afraid, Lu Fangfang felt relieved.

Without further hesitation, she nodded and said, “I’ll take this cow skeleton, sister-in-law. Thank you so much.”

As she spoke, she took out six dollars and grabbed the sack.

Fortunately, she brought a sack, otherwise she wouldn’t know how to carry such a large cow skeleton back.

Zhang Meijiao waved her hand and said, “Why thank you? We are all here with the army, so we should help each other. But don’t tell anyone else in the family compound about this.”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

Hearing this, Zhang Meijiao smiled. She took the money and returned to the meat stall.

“Master Liu, please cut the cow skeleton at the back and pack it for my sister.”

“Okay.”

Master Liu took down the cow skeleton and started chopping it with an axe.

This cow skeleton is so huge that it cannot be assembled without cutting some of it.

Lu Fangfang took the sack and hurried over to put the beef bones that the master had chopped into the sack.

Holding the palm-wide beef ribs, she was amazed. This cow was really big.

Lu Fangfang estimated that with so many beef bones, at least six or seven kilograms of butter could be made.

Just these six or seven pounds of butter are more valuable than the cow skeleton, and the rest is pure profit. It’s really a fortune.

That is to say, in this era, not many people knew how to use bone marrow to make butter, otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to get this opportunity.

Of course, I have to thank Sister Meijiao even more.