Chapter 64 : Ma Xiaojuan Buys a Bicycle

In the evening, after Su Mo finished her meal and washed up, she closed the doors and windows and continued to make Su Tingqian’s cotton clothes.

Lu Guihua murmured to Lu Weiguo as they were going to bed, “You said that the third brother’s wife sends food every other day, which makes us look so unfilial.”

“Your parents are really too persuasive. They didn’t even ask the two girls to drink a sip, but they didn’t ask the three grandchildren to drink from such a big earthenware pot either.”

Lu Weiguo was impatient. “It’s fine if we don’t have delicious food to honor our parents, but you want to take it from the old man’s mouth?”

“I don’t want to eat, it’s just that the kids are greedy,” Lu Guihua said. “The third brother’s wife cooking is really good, I can smell the fragrance.”

It was fine at first when the family split up, but now she had to rely on herself for everything and worry about what to eat every day.

The vegetables at home were all eaten up when the third brother got married. The newly planted ones are still sparse, and she doesn’t know what they will grow into. She might even have to buy cabbages for the winter.

Now, she had to go back to her parents’ house every day to get vegetables to eat.

She wanted to buy some meat. The third brother’s family often came over for meals, and it would be bad if she didn’t share the meat with them after they cooked it. But if she gave them the meat, there wouldn’t be much left for her family. It was really frustrating.

Su Mo worked all night and finally finished making Su Tingqian’s cotton coat. She checked it several times to make sure there were no issues before putting it in the space. Then, she turned off the lights and went to sleep.

The next morning, Li Yue’e came early to deliver clay pots, basins, and the bamboo basket that had been used for the chestnuts the previous day. When she arrived, she noticed that the vegetables from the third brother’s family seemed to have grown better after two days, while those from her own family were still sparse.

Although it was indeed difficult to grow vegetables in this season, it wasn’t that bad.

There must be something wrong with the planting method!

It seemed that not only other things were going to undergo a revolution, but even the way they grew vegetables needed to be updated.

Su Mo was in the cat toilet at that time. When she heard Li Yue’e calling her, she responded and asked her to put the things inside by herself.

After Li Yue’e put everything away and was about to leave, she caught sight of the full sacks in the west room. She looked out and was secretly surprised. It seemed that the third brother’s harvest in the mountains had been quite good lately.

She had also gone up the mountain to collect autumn crops the day before, but there were too many people and too little meat, so she hadn’t picked up anything.

When they were rubbing the corn earlier, the other old sisters had asked her why she didn’t bring her new daughter-in-law to rub the corn with them and let her wander around the mountain.

Now it seemed that the third family had been the clever ones. The work points earned from rubbing corn weren’t enough to exchange for so many mountain products. If you were ahead of others, your harvest would be so great that those coming later couldn’t catch up even if they tried.

No wonder people say, “fish seek fish, shrimp seek shrimp, and turtles seek tortoises.”

Her eldest son was smart, so he had chosen a smart wife. But the second son was a fool, so he ended up with Lu Guihua, the troublemaker.

Li Yue’e left with satisfaction. As she saw the fresh green vegetables in the garden, she thought about going to the team to ask for some wheat straw later.

The temperature would probably drop soon, and there would be frost in the morning. Such tender green vegetables needed to be covered with wheat straw to protect them from the frost.

The vegetables at her daughter-in-law’s house grew so well. Maybe, when winter came, the old folks would have to rely on her for winter vegetables.

Not long after Li Yue’e left, Ma Xiaojuan came again, shouting outside the yard. Su Mo had no choice but to quickly come out of the cat toilet. She was quite speechless, she couldn’t even go to the toilet in peace.

“Why are you up so early?” Su Mo asked helplessly. She had finished making the cotton coat late the previous night and had been getting up early recently, so she had gone to bed a little late that day.

“Hehe…” Ma Xiaojuan smiled awkwardly. “I’ve been getting up early since I came here. I’m used to it.”

She had been so excited about going to the county that she had tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She never thought she would be so excited about going to the city.

“Here, your straw basket.” Ma Xiaojuan brought back the straw basket she had used to carry her things the day before.

Su Mo was happy to receive it. It was great to have a straw basket again.

“Have you had breakfast?” Su Mo asked.

“No, I was thinking of going to the state-owned restaurant to buy big meat buns when I get to the county town,” said Ma Xiaojuan.

“Eat something first, or you won’t have the energy to ride. I have some egg cakes here.”

Su Mo bought these egg cakes together with Ma Xiaojuan when she went to the county town for the first time. However, she never ate them much and had put them away.

Su Mo pretended to go into the room and took out three pieces of egg cake, giving one and a half pieces to each of them, and they shared them.

Because Ma Xiaojuan appeared taller and stronger than Su Mo, it was decided that she would ride the bike with Su Mo.

Su Mo picked up a bamboo basket and hung it on the back seat of the bicycle. Ma Xiaojuan pushed the bicycle out, and Su Mo locked the door and they set off.

When passing by the commune post office, Ma Xiaojuan went in to pick up a remittance. It was quite a lot, about 200 yuan.

Ma Xiaojuan chatted the entire way. She had no choice but to work in the countryside for so long, and once she got the chance to go to the city, she was excited.

When they arrived at the county supply and marketing cooperative, Su Mo saw two trucks parked nearby, unloading goods into the cooperative’s warehouse. One truck was unloading honeycomb coal, and the other was actually unloading firewood.

Su Mo didn’t expect that the supply and marketing cooperative actually had firewood for sale. She had thought everyone in the city burned coal.

From the original owner’s memory, her family had used to burn coal when she was a child. After liquefied gas became available in 1965, the family switched to using gas cylinders. A cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas cost 3.2 yuan, which could last a family of three for more than a month.

It was just right. She would ask Sister Liu how much firewood was sold for later, so when Lu Guoping helped her collect firewood, she could pay him properly without giving him too little.

Su Mo brought Ma Xiaojuan into the supply and marketing cooperative. When Sister Liu saw Su Mo, she immediately smiled, but when she noticed that there were people following her, she didn’t say anything.

“Sister Liu, I’m bringing my friend here to buy a bicycle. Do you have any available now?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Sister Liu smiled, “Sister Su, you’re the best! You always think about me.”

Sister Liu took them to look at bicycles, a Type 26, a northern brand, costing 140 yuan plus a bicycle ticket.

Ma Xiaojuan immediately paid for it, then went on a shopping spree at the supply and marketing cooperative, buying all kinds of daily necessities and a lot of food, which made Sister Liu very happy.

This friend of Miss Su is as generous and decisive as she is.

Like Su Mo, Ma Xiaojuan bought a bamboo basket to carry the things and filled the entire basket to the brim.

After Ma Xiaojuan finished shopping, Su Mo asked Sister Liu, “Sister Liu, how much is the firewood in the supply and marketing cooperative?”

Sister Liu was surprised. “Sister, do you still need to buy firewood in the production brigade?”

“My husband asked someone to help me chop firewood. I just wanted to know the price so I can pay him when the time comes,” Su Mo said with a smile.

“The firewood in the supply and marketing cooperative is pre-chopped, and it’s a bit expensive, thirty cents for ten catties.” Firewood was sold by the dozen these days.

Su Mo was surprised. She didn’t expect firewood to be so expensive.

“Firewood is more expensive in the city. Everyone burns honeycomb briquettes, but you need tickets to buy them. If you don’t have enough, you just buy more firewood.”

“Don’t you need a ticket for firewood?”

“We don’t need tickets here, but tickets are required in big cities,” Sister Liu explained with a smile. “You guys in the countryside collect firewood from the mountains, so it doesn’t have to be so expensive. You can just pay one cent per pound, and it will be about right.”

Su Mo had an idea in mind and bought the same daily necessities she had bought at the commune supply and marketing cooperative yesterday. She spent 1.78 yuan. These were consumables, and her parents also needed them, so it was better to stock up in small quantities each time she came.

She also bought ten kilograms of cornmeal, planning to mix it with rice and give it to Su Tingqian and the others. Her family only had rice and flour, and it wasn’t good to eat too well in the cowshed.

Cornmeal was 9 cents a pound, so she spent 90 cents on 10 pounds.

She also bought a pound of fruit candy, a pound of egg cake, and two pounds of red dates. The fruit candy cost 1 yuan, the egg cake cost 1.3 yuan, and two pounds of red dates cost 0.78 yuan, totaling 3.08 yuan.

Finally, she decided to buy a few net bags to hold the items. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have anything to put them in when giving them to others. Sister Liu had sold so many things that day and was very happy. She gave a few bags to Su Mo for free.

Anyway, this item was provided by the supply and marketing cooperative to customers for free.