Chapter 72 Buying Meat

Li Auntie, seeing that Liu Yinyin appeared to come from a well-off family, had eased her worries. She didn’t know exactly which family Liu Yinyin was from, but she thought it was probably a decent one.

Suddenly, she thought of her own son, Li Chunshan, who was twenty-five this year. However, he still showed no signs of wanting to settle down, which had been a source of great concern for her.

“Auntie?” Seeing that Li Auntie had suddenly zoned out, Liu Yinyin called to her.

Li Auntie snapped back to reality, slightly annoyed, and said, “We do have grains, but they’re not in this room. How much do you need? I can go get them for you.”

Liu Yinyin wasn’t in a hurry to buy grains and instead asked, “What about meat and fruit?”

“The meat is over there,” Li Auntie pointed to two jars nearby, and then gestured with her mouth, “There’s only a few pieces of lean meat left, two pig’s feet, and one bass fish.”

After speaking, Li Auntie walked over to the shelves and pulled out a few boxes from beneath. “The fruits are here.”

Liu Yinyin took a look and saw apples, oranges, bananas, and bayberries.

The variety wasn’t much, but at least it was better than what the supply and marketing cooperative had. The fruits looked fresh too.

Lean meat was priced at one yuan per jin (about 0.5 kg), pig’s feet were eighty cents per jin, and the fruits were a bit more expensive, with each kind priced at over one yuan per jin.

Liu Yinyin thought for a moment and then bought a pig’s foot, four large apples, and one jin of bayberries, which came to a total of 9.6 yuan.

Liu Yinyin couldn’t help but click her tongue. It was really expensive—almost as much as a typical county worker’s monthly salary.

No wonder fruits were so rare at this time; not many people could afford them.

Seeing that Liu Yinyin was a good customer, Li Auntie smiled and said, “If you want to buy fatty meat, let me know in advance, and I’ll set some aside for you. You can just come by and pick it up later.”

At this time, people were short on oil, and fatty meat was universally regarded as a good kind of meat. More importantly, it could be rendered into oil for cooking, which was much more economical than buying vegetable oil.

Liu Yinyin smiled sweetly and said, “Thank you, Auntie.”

To avoid raising suspicion, she knew she would be coming here regularly.

Li Auntie felt warm in her heart and couldn’t help but ask, “Young lady, where do you live?”

Liu Yinyin glanced at her without responding.

Li Auntie, embarrassed, said, “Please don’t misunderstand, I was just asking casually. You’re so pretty, you probably aren’t from around here, right? So I was wondering if you lived far away.”

Li Auntie had lived on this street for decades and knew most of the people around, but she had never seen or heard of someone like Liu Yinyin.

Liu Yinyin smiled and then said, “Yes, I live quite far away.”

As for where she lived, Liu Yinyin certainly wouldn’t tell her.

Li Auntie saw that Liu Yinyin wasn’t willing to share more and didn’t press further. After all, it was their first meeting, and she didn’t want to scare the young lady off.

Having bought no other items, Liu Yinyin left Li’s house, carrying her basket.

When she came, she thought she might be buying more things, so she had brought a basket with her.

On the way, Liu Yinyin used the system to secretly “import” two jin of bananas, one jin of lean meat, two jin of bayberries, two eggplants, ten jin of flour, and ten jin of rice.

She had just inquired about the prices from Li Auntie: white flour was 32 cents per jin, and rice was 36 cents per jin.

It was nearly half more expensive than at the supply and marketing cooperative, but grains were precious in this era, so selling them at a higher price was normal.

Carrying a full basket of goods back home, Jiang Cuihua felt a twinge of pain in her heart, but she didn’t say anything to her daughter.

Liu Yinyin started organizing the items—putting the flour and rice into the cupboard to store.

Their household’s current food supplies were quite ample, not counting the scattered supplies like mung beans, soybeans, and peanuts.

In the kitchen, there were about 140 to 150 jin (70 to 75 kg) of rice and flour, over 40 jin (20 kg) of cornmeal, over 30 jin (15 kg) of corn kernels, and around 20 jin (10 kg) of millet.

In the cellar, there were 200 jin (100 kg) of unhulled rice, 200 jin of wheat, and 500 jin (250 kg) of corn on the cob.

There was also a bag of sweet potato noodles, over 40 jin, a bag of dried sweet potatoes, around 100 jin, and several sacks of wild vegetable greens.

The main reason they had such a large supply was that Gu Cheng received government-supplied food rations every month, and Liu Yinyin occasionally “imported” some grains through the system.

As a result, their family’s food consumption wasn’t very high.

After organizing the grains, Liu Yinyin took out the pork and fruits.

The bananas and apples were bought for Gu Yan Yan.

The rest of the items were to be shared between the two families. Liu Yinyin packed a jin (500g) of lean meat and one and a half jin of bayberries for Jiang Cuihua.

Jiang Cuihua sighed and said, “It’s a good thing you brought meat, or your father and the others would have been worn out.”

Her two daughters-in-law also appreciated it when she occasionally brought good things back from her daughter’s place. They were eager for her to help look after the children more often.

Sigh, this year’s weather has been unusual, and the people in the village were getting desperate.

Recently, Jiang Cuihua had also been worried, as the weather wasn’t getting better, and she wondered if, like her daughter had said, they might have to find a way to buy food soon.

Liu Yinyin took a sip of water and asked her, “Mother, is Father still fetching water every day?”

Jiang Cuihua sighed again, looking worried. “Your father is fetching water for the fields, and your brothers have been sent to build houses.”

Liu Yinyin was surprised, “Is someone in the village building a new house?”

Since her house was in a secluded area and she rarely interacted with the villagers, Liu Yinyin didn’t know much about the village affairs. However, if something important happened, Jiang Cuihua would always tell her.

“The villagers don’t usually make such a big deal about building houses,” Jiang Cuihua frowned. “I heard from the village head’s wife that something… something ‘qing’ or whatever is coming to the village.”

After a pause, Jiang Cuihua couldn’t quite remember the term. “Something from the city. They’re supposed to help with rural development.”

Liu Yinyin asked, “Intellectual youth?”

Jiang Cuihua slapped her thigh. “Yes, that’s it, intellectual youth. They’re being sent down from above. I heard the village head is really worried about it.”

When the intellectual youth came to the village, they not only had to build houses for them but also provide them with food.

Sigh!

The weather this year was already abnormal, and now they had to share their food with these newcomers. Who would be happy about that?

They said it was for rural development, but could they really expect city people to help with farming?

That was ridiculous. The villagers had been farming for generations; why would they need help from the city?

Liu Yinyin hadn’t expected the intellectual youth to arrive so soon. “Are there many of them?”

Jiang Cuihua shook her head. “We don’t know yet, but they’ll have to build at least two houses first, or there won’t be anywhere for them to stay when they arrive.”

This was an arrangement from the authorities, and whether they liked it or not, they had to accept it.

After talking for a while, Jiang Cuihua left.

Liu Yinyin placed Gu Yan Yan in the stroller, peeled a banana, and mashed it with a spoon, preparing to feed him.

As soon as Gu Yan Yan saw what was going on, he knew there was something good to eat. He excitedly kicked his legs.

His little mouth opened wide, and he tilted his head back, like a hungry bird waiting to be fed by his mother.

Seeing this, Liu Yinyin couldn’t help but rub his little nose and laughed, “Look at you, so eager for food. You’ll definitely be a little foodie when you grow up.”