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Liu Yinyin’s family received a total of 305 jin (approximately 152.5 kg) of grain.
This included:
At first glance, it seemed like a lot, but in the countryside, grain was only distributed once a year. This allocation was meant to last the villagers for an entire year.
For Liu Yinyin, 305 jin of grain meant that, on average, she had less than a jin per day—and that was not even considering the fact that some of it still had husks.
At this time, people didn’t have access to snacks or fruit. Their diets were simple, and because they worked hard, their appetites were large.
The cellar had just been dug and needed a few more days to air out.
Looking at the small mountain of grain stacked in the kitchen, Liu Yinyin felt a deep sense of security.
With so many sweet potatoes in the house—nearly 1,000 jin including those from their private plot—she planned to divide them into three portions:
Actually, she quite liked eating sweet potatoes.
The next morning, breakfast at Liu Yinyin’s home consisted of sweet potato porridge, steamed cornmeal buns with sweet potato, two poached eggs, and a plate of stir-fried romaine lettuce.
As usual, their family consumed six eggs a day, but since they shared with another household, there weren’t many left in storage.
As they ate, Gu Cheng suddenly remembered something and told her, “By the way, I managed to get a bicycle ticket. I spoke to a former comrade, and he happened to have an extra one, so he mailed it to me. It should arrive in the next couple of days.”
Bicycle tickets were extremely rare at this time. The military had slightly better access to them, while factories occasionally distributed some, but since he was new at work, he wasn’t in a position to compete for one.
Liu Yinyin was pleasantly surprised. “Did you trade money for it?”
Something this valuable shouldn’t be taken for free.
Gu Cheng shook his head. “He wouldn’t accept money.”
After thinking for a moment, Liu Yinyin suggested, “How about we send him some grain in return?”
Knowing what the coming years would be like, she felt that nothing was more valuable than food.
“Alright.” Gu Cheng had the same idea.
At this time, resources were scarce, and no one ever felt they had too much grain.
Gu Cheng had said the ticket would arrive in a couple of days, but that very afternoon, he rode home on a brand-new 28-inch bicycle.
In this era, owning a bicycle was even rarer than buying a luxury car in later generations.
As he rode into the village, the villagers’ eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Even mischievous children ran after him, following the bicycle all the way to the edge of the village.
Even Liu Yinyin’s family came over to see it.
Jiang Cuihua, unable to contain her curiosity, shooed away the onlookers and ran her hands over the bicycle, marveling, “Goodness, how much must this have cost? You two really don’t know how to be frugal.”
Of course, this remark was directed at Liu Yinyin. If her daughter hadn’t insisted on living in the village, they wouldn’t have needed a bicycle at all.
Liu Yinyin: “…”
“Mom, having a bicycle makes traveling so much easier,” Gu Cheng explained.
“Convenient, sure, but it’s just too expensive,” Jiang Cuihua muttered. The cost of a bicycle could have built several brick houses in the countryside.
That being said, it did make things easier for her son-in-law to commute to work and visit his parents.
As her daughter’s mother-in-law, Jiang Cuihua couldn’t say much more. She only reminded them, “Including the village head’s family, only two households in the entire village own a bicycle. People are bound to ask to borrow it, so be careful. Don’t lend it to just anyone.”
If something happened to it, they’d be heartbroken.
Liu Yinyin dismissed the idea. “Why would we lend it out? Gu Cheng has to ride it to work every day—there won’t be any chance to lend it to others.”
“That’s true.” Jiang Cuihua immediately relaxed.
As Gu Cheng left early and returned late every day, the villagers’ curiosity about the bicycle gradually faded.
With the busy farming season over, the county’s biweekly market, held on the 1st and 15th of each month, resumed operations.
That afternoon, Jiang Cuihua came to talk to Liu Yinyin about the upcoming market.
“This is the first big market gathering after the autumn harvest, so it’s bound to be lively. Most villages have already received their grain rations, so there will definitely be a lot of people looking to trade food.”
The term “grain exchange” here didn’t refer to buying and selling grain but rather bartering between coarse and fine grains.
Take the Liu family, for example—there were ten people in total, meaning they consumed a lot. It made more sense for them to trade for more coarse grains to stretch their supply.
“Mom, what do you plan to trade for?” Liu Yinyin’s eyes lit up upon hearing that grain could be exchanged at the market.
Jiang Cuihua sighed. “I’m bringing 100 jin of rice and 100 jin of wheat to trade for coarse grains.”
One jin of rice or wheat could be exchanged for three jin of other coarse grains. Of course, sweet potatoes were the least valuable, with a trade ratio of one to six.
However, she didn’t plan to trade for sweet potatoes since their family had already received over 1,000 jin, more than enough to last them.
Liu Yinyin eagerly said, “Then I’ll bring some grain to trade as well.”
It would be a waste not to take advantage of such a great opportunity.
Jiang Cuihua sighed and agreed, “Alright, I’ll come by tomorrow morning to get you.”
Liu Yinyin thought about it. Since Gu Cheng had to work and couldn’t go to the market, she would be going alone—this was the perfect chance to discreetly take some grain out from her system inventory.
But to avoid suspicion, she still needed to bring some actual grain to trade.
After careful consideration, she decided to take six jin of rice, six jin of premium flour, thirty-six jin of corn grits, and thirty jin of dried sweet potatoes to exchange for other supplies.
Most of these were grains she had traded for last time using wild goat meat. Since they were all old stock, she wouldn’t feel bad about exchanging them.
She wasn’t willing to part with her soybeans and green beans, though—if they ran out of vegetables in the future, she could use them to sprout bean sprouts.
That night, many villagers were thinking about the grain exchange happening the next day.
The next morning, just as Gu Cheng left for work, Jiang Cuihua arrived with her youngest son, Liu Mingyuan, pulling a wooden cart to pick up Liu Yinyin.
Liu Mingyuan helped load the grain onto the cart.
Jiang Cuihua took one look at what Liu Yinyin was bringing and muttered, “What are you even trying to trade for? You’ve got both fine grains and coarse grains in here.”
Most people either brought coarse grains to trade for fine grains or vice versa, but Liu Yinyin was just doing things her own way.
Liu Yinyin grinned. “These are all old grains. I want to see if I can trade them for some fresh ones.”
“There’s nothing wrong with eating old grain first,” Jiang Cuihua remarked, thinking her daughter was being overly particular.
But since it wasn’t a huge amount, she let her be.
The weather had cooled down, so Liu Yinyin decided to go along to the market.
Since she was pregnant, they even stopped to rest once on the way.
By the time they arrived, the market was indeed bustling with activity.
The autumn harvest had just ended, and many villagers had brought their grain to trade.
But it wasn’t just villagers from the surrounding areas—some city dwellers had also come.
With limited access to fine grains in the city, they were hoping to take this opportunity to trade for some.
Miumi[Translator]
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