Chapter 40

After giving her brother, the medicine and feeding him a small bowl of cornmeal porridge, Guo Dan’s brother fell into a deep sleep. Liu Yu let out a sigh of relief and turned her attention to Guo Dan. “How much corn flour did you get for the ten pounds of corn kernels?”

Guo Dan, seeing her brother sleeping soundly, finally relaxed and managed to smile a bit. “I got about eight or nine pounds. I’ll save it and use it to cook porridge. It’ll last us quite a while!”

Liu Yu nodded, handing the medicine bottle to Guo Dan. “The doctor said to take one pill a day, remember that. I’ve run out of food, so you’ll have to make do for now. I’ll bring you more next time. I’ll be on my way now.”

But Guo Dan stopped her, rushing to a corner of the room to dig through something. “Wait a minute, sister!”

Liu Yu watched as Guo Dan pulled out a small purse, her eyes large and round as she looked up at Liu Yu. “Sister, we can’t just take your food for free. I’ll give you some ration tickets!”

Guo Dan handed Liu Yu a ration ticket for twenty pounds of grain.

Liu Yu was surprised, as these national ration tickets were rare and not commonly seen on the market, especially with such a large denomination. “Where did you get these?” she asked.

Guo Dan sighed. “My brother and I have our household registration in the county town, so we get ration tickets every month. But we’re too young to work.”

The advantage of urban household registration was that, unlike rural households, they received food, oil, and cloth ration tickets every month based on their household registration.

Liu Yu understood now. These siblings had ration tickets but couldn’t earn money, while she had the ability to earn but lacked ration tickets. Still, she was a bit confused. “But you could just trade them for food!”

Guo Dan shook her head. “Sister, you’re kind, but others aren’t. The local thugs targeted us because of these ration tickets and beat up my brother.”

Life was tough for these two siblings. Liu Yu reached out and patted Guo Dan’s short hair, thinking to herself that Guo Dan, a little girl dressed like a boy with a shaved head, was probably doing so out of necessity.

At this point, Guo Dan spoke again. “Sister, if you have food, I can help you trade it for various ration tickets! You don’t need to pay me money, just use food as payment!”

“Really?”

Liu Yu was overjoyed. She had been wondering where she could find some hard-to-get ration tickets, and Guo Dan unexpectedly offered to help.

Guo Dan beamed with pride. “My brother used to support us by helping people trade ration tickets.”

—-

In these times, grain was more valuable than money. For Liu Yu, grain was the only capital she had at the moment. It was the one thing she had in abundance!

Liu Yu’s eyes lit up. “Tell me, what’s the going rate for the scarce ration tickets right now!”

Guo Dan started counting on her fingers. “Coarse grain tickets are one pound for one pound, cloth tickets are ten pounds of coarse grain for one yard of cloth, pork tickets are two pounds of fine grain for one pound of pork, and oil and meat tickets are the same price…”

There were so many kinds of tickets, and Liu Yu’s head started to spin. She quickly interrupted Guo Dan, “Hold on, let me catch my breath!”

Liu Yu sat down to think about what she could buy for her family.

Cloth tickets were definitely a must! Liu Yu had long wanted to get two new outfits and a pair of new shoes for Liu Ye. Every time she saw Liu Ye’s big toe sticking out from his shoes, it made her uncomfortable!

Oil tickets were a must too. Their meals had no oil, and if this continued, the whole family would end up malnourished.

“Guo Dan, if you can get me meat, oil, and cloth tickets, get as many as you can. I’ll bring you twenty pounds of grain as a thank you when I come back next time.”

Liu Yu grinned and held up two fingers.