Chapter 25: Male Lead (Part 3)

The noodles cost fifteen cents per bowl, plus three liang of grain coupons. The stewed noodles with cabbage and stir-fried shredded potatoes were both eight cents per bowl, plus two liang of grain coupons. As for the vegetable and egg drop soup, it was a bit more expensive due to the inclusion of eggs, costing fifty cents per bowl, plus half a jin (five liang) of grain coupons.

Worried about not having enough to eat, Jiang Cheng asked the waiter to add four more steamed buns, two for each of them.

The steamed buns at the state-owned restaurant were quite large, costing eight cents each, plus one liang of grain coupons.

After calculating the total, it came to one yuan and twenty-eight cents, plus one jin and nine liang of grain coupons.

After settling the bill, Jiang Cheng handed over the money and coupons to the waiter.

Seeing the grain coupons handed over by Jiang Cheng, the waiter’s eyes lit up.

Because Jiang Cheng didn’t give them the usual local grain coupons but instead provided special supply coupons!

During this time, special supply coupons were not common. Most people used local grain coupons.

Special supply coupons were different from local grain coupons. Special supply coupons allowed priority access to food supplies in any part of the country!

In some areas where food production was low, even with local grain coupons, it was difficult to obtain food.

With special supply coupons, regardless of location, priority access was guaranteed, eliminating concerns about not being able to obtain food with coupons.

Therefore, special supply coupons were more valuable and had greater circulation than local grain coupons.

The waiter glanced at Jiang Cheng and thought that the person sitting in front of him was probably not an ordinary person! His attitude immediately became much better.

After receiving the special supply vouchers, the waiter immediately went to the kitchen to instruct the chef to prepare the food.

After a while, the waiter came out again and asked Jiang Cheng, “Comrade, do you have special supply meat coupons?”

Jiang Cheng nodded, “Yes, I do.”

The waiter’s face lit up with a smile, “Here’s the thing, comrade. We have a pair of pig trotters left here. If you’re interested, you can exchange one jin of special supply meat coupons, plus two yuan.”

Hearing that there were still pig trotters available, Jiang Cheng immediately said, “Yes, I want them for sure!”

He was worried about not having any meat to serve to Lu Qingguo. It wouldn’t look good to invite him over for a meal and not have any meat at all. Even though it wasn’t pork belly or fatty meat, at least it was a meat dish with some oiliness!

Jiang Cheng readily took out one jin of special supply meat coupons and two yuan from his pocket, handing them to the waiter.

Zhao Xiulan observed everything and was dumbfounded.

Wasn’t it said that there was no meat left? How come there’s meat now?

Zhao Xiulan also wanted to eat meat, so she argued with the waiter, “Waiter, didn’t you say there was no meat left? How come there’s meat for someone else but not for me?”

The waiter’s attitude towards Zhao Xiulan became much colder, “Comrade, you should look at what kind of meat coupons you have and what kind of meat coupons others have!”

“No matter what kind of meat coupons I have, they’re still meat coupons. If you have meat here, why not sell it to me instead of someone else? I arrived here first, so there should be a first come, first served order, right?”

The waiter showed a dismissive attitude towards Zhao Xiulan, “That’s different. Even if we sell it to you, it’s not necessarily easy for us to get meat with your meat coupons. But the person over there has special supply meat coupons, and once we take them, we can definitely get pork. The restaurant is out of meat, and the chef saved these trotters for himself to take home. It’s only because the gentleman over there has special supply meat coupons that we’re willing to sell them to him!”

(End of Chapter 25)