Chapter 63

If Yao Chunyu was planning to go abroad, she would need to exchange currency, but foreign exchange was hard to come by these days, and with the current sensitive situation, she thought of storing gold instead—gold was the true hard currency.

Exchanging gold wasn’t difficult, in the 1960s, the price of gold in the country was not high. Yao Chunyu had the most expensive rice and wasn’t worried about not being able to exchange it for gold.

It was best to buy aged “Fuqiang” flour, as flour could easily get damp, but Yao Chunyu preferred rice.

She took three pounds of Fuqiang flour from the cellar and sent it to the home of a middle school classmate.

Her classmate’s name was Su Lina, a name following the Soviet trend of the time. She was very delicate and fair-skinned, with a hint of petit bourgeois aura, and came from a very well-off family.

“My God, thank you for the Fuqiang flour!” Su Lina happily accepted the flour. Although flour wasn’t exactly valuable, it was very difficult to buy on the market now. Things became valuable when they were rare, and getting Fuqiang flour was no easy task.

Su Lina hadn’t had food made from pure flour in a long time. She took a gold bar from her box and handed it to Yao Chunyu.

The gold bar was small and exquisite. Although it looked small, the gold was dense, and the little bar weighed a full pound.

Yao Chunyu took the gold with a faint smile, “If you ever want to get fine food in the future, you can let me know.”

Su Lina affectionately said, “Of course, I will never forget an old classmate!”

Although she was curious about Yao Chunyu’s habit of collecting gold, she thought it might just be a personal quirk and didn’t pursue it further.

Su Lina’s family was well-off. The older generation liked to collect gold bars, and they had several boxes full. While gold was rare, it wasn’t as precious as food.

The fragrant, plump white steamed buns and the soft, fragrant noodles were truly nostalgic!

After Yao Chunyu left, Su Lina’s grandmother found out that she had exchanged a gold bar for three pounds of flour and scolded her for wasting gold.

Su Lina protested, “Grandma, you haven’t seen it yet. Just a few days ago, someone exchanged an entire house for a month’s worth of food.”

Grandma Su said earnestly, “You silly child, gold is the most valuable thing. What’s a house worth? When times are tough, gold is the most valuable, you can buy anything with it wherever you go. You don’t know… during the war, our area exchanged paper money for more than ten different kinds of currency, but gold was always accepted.”

Mother Su smiled and interrupted, “Mom, Nannan has worked hard to get some fine food, just let her enjoy it. She exchanged gold for it, so what? Let’s just enjoy the noodles today. In these special times, we’ll make special arrangements.”

To be honest, mother Su leaned more toward her daughter. While gold was rare, fine food wasn’t cheap, and even with one pound of gold, you might not be able to get three pounds of fine food outside. Grandma was old-fashioned, stubborn, and didn’t understand how difficult things were now.

After finishing a hearty meal of pig fat noodles, Grandma Su was too satisfied to fuss about the gold.

Once the family finished their meal, Aunt took the bowls to wash in the sink. There was a knock on the door. A man with a square face stood outside, holding a bag. He lowered his voice, saying, “Grandma, I’ve brought you something good!”

The man with the square face was none other than Guo Aiguo.

He carefully unwrapped the tightly tied bag, revealing a heavy, translucent sack of fragrant rice. The family looked in surprise at the bag of rice, weighing it in their hands—it was a full ten pounds.

The rice looked so fresh, it seemed as if it had just been harvested. You could smell the fragrance of the ripened grain even before getting close. It was fragrant, the grains were plump and glossy. You could only imagine how delicious the rice would be once cooked.

Grandma Su said to her grandson, “You came at just the wrong time. We’ve just finished eating. This batch of noodles was exchanged by your cousin for gold. They’re really tasty, do you want to try some?”

Guo Aiguo heard Grandma teasing about three pounds of Fuqiang flour being exchanged for a pound of gold. If it were another time, he might have frowned and let it pass, since fine food was hard to come by.

Now that he had just enjoyed two-yuan-a-pound fine grain, he found it too expensive. He frowned and said, “Exchanging gold for food isn’t worth it. Don’t make such foolish decisions in the future.”

Su Lina, who was usually the most generous, was surprised and stared wide-eyed at him.

While the wisest person in the house, Grandma Su, was chatting with her grandson, Guo Aiguo lowered his voice and said to her, “Grandma, I can get fine grain now, and it’s not expensive—two yuan per pound. I’ll bring you ten more pounds next month. Just keep this between us, don’t tell anyone.”

Grandma Su was very happy when she heard this, her cheeks reddening. “This is indeed great news.”

This was much more practical than exchanging gold for food!

She listened to her grandson’s description. He had bought the rice from a group of farmers. She sighed in relief, saying, “They are honest people. You and your cousin need to maintain a good relationship with them, understand?”

She quickly rummaged through her belongings, taking out a stack of colorful coupons. “These coupons were issued by your brother-in-law’s workplace. They’re unused, and I have no use for them. Take them and do a favor for someone.”

“Grandma, if you can think of it, how could I forget?” Guo Aiguo nodded, helplessly laughing and crying.

Grandmother didn’t know how carefully he handled things. Last time, he had given someone forty pounds of food coupons, along with bicycle coupons, cloth coupons, candy and snack coupons, oil coupons… all sorts of things. Not to mention the bicycle coupon alone, which was quite valuable.

It must be hard to get a bicycle in the countryside, right?

Grandmother counted out twenty large black ten-yuan bills and said, “Next time, ask them if they can get enough food. If they can, buy more, don’t be so stingy. I’ll have your brother-in-law help you.”

Guo Aiguo had been waiting for these words. Right now, the police were cracking down hard on speculation, and those who were in the business of reselling goods probably feared getting caught. With his grandmother’s protection, they’d be safer.

He nodded and accepted the money.

—

At the Military District Compound.

Su Ye received another note from Guo Aiguo and his wife, asking if they could buy more food. After reading the note, she felt both anxious and pleased.

The good news was that a chance to make money had come again, but the bad news was that the money had already been delivered, but there was no way to earn it!

Mrs. Fang had asked in the note if Su Ye could provide more food, as they needed another thirty pounds.

Although Su Ye thought their “appetite” was big, these two customers were really high-quality clients—generous and very considerate. The last time, they had given her forty pounds of food coupons, but that wasn’t enough, so this time they gave her another forty. Su Ye could get thirty pounds of food coupons every month from the school. The coupons couldn’t be used up, and there were always more coming, so she had to go sell the coupons again.

In disguise, Su Ye went to the black market and sold the food coupons in batches at a low price.

Unlike other resellers who would demand one yuan per pound, Su Ye only asked for three to five cents per pound as a symbolic handling fee. In less than ten minutes, Su Ye had sold all forty pounds of food coupons.

She then switched to another location and sold a bicycle ticket. Bicycle coupons were very valuable because each year, only a limited number were issued to the market, and every factory only had a few spots. It was not easy to get a bicycle ticket.

However, the military’s welfare was still quite good. If Guo Xiangqian wanted one, he could easily get it by writing an application.

So, Su Ye happily sold the bicycle coupon and earned 30 yuan. If she had not been in such a rush to sell it, she could have waited a few more days and sold it for 50 yuan.

As for the cake and snack coupons, candy coupons, and cloth coupons that Guo Aiguo and his wife had given her, Su Ye kept them for herself. These consumable coupons were not enough, just with what the school gave her, to even fill in the gaps for her own use.

Su Ye went to the public restroom to change her makeup, and with a stack of fresh bills in her pocket, she counted a total of 106.8 yuan. Including the money she had saved from selling grain, she now had 401.8 yuan.

Her little savings were growing, but Su Ye was confident that she would be able to save enough to build a small fortune in the future.

As for the 30 pounds of grain Guo Aiguo had requested, Su Ye didn’t have a single grain at the moment. After selling the coupons, she walked around and then returned to the compound. She brought a pound of dried pork and a box of tea leaves from home and went to visit an old friend she had met at the last representative meeting, a provincial-level distinguished doctor.

When Su Ye sold tea leaves before, she had also given these old friends each a pound of tea. Doctor Fei received the items Su Ye had brought, opened them, and was surprised, saying, “You’re really too kind, I feel embarrassed if you keep doing this.”

Inside the box was a thick layer of oil paper, and when it was opened, a faint soy sauce aroma wafted out. What greeted her eyes were pieces of marinated dried meat.

The color was dark brown, glistening with oil, and looked extremely delicious.

Su Ye smiled and said, “It’s nothing, really. I came here today to ask for a favor.”

“I have a student who is very mischievous. He doesn’t always act wisely, but he has a good heart. Recently, he offended someone in society, and the other party has a very narrow mind. They’re making things difficult for the boy by forging medical records and trying to send him to the police station on charges of hooliganism.”

“I was wondering, if this false accusation stands, wouldn’t it ruin the child’s life? I wanted to ask you if there is any way to withdraw this slander?”

Doctor Fei thought for a moment after hearing Su Ye’s description and said, “I know this doctor. Wait a moment, I’ll get you something useful.”

—

An hour later, Su Ye had an extra package in her hands. She shook hands with Doctor Fei and left her old friend’s home.

Su Ye went to the city’s No. 1 Hospital and headed straight for the personnel office.

She handed the letter to the office clerk and smiled, saying, “Doctor Liu from your hospital often privately prescribed nutritional supplements for himself, takes patients’ nutritional powder, soybeans, and pig bones for his own use, and resells nutritional prescriptions, even fabricating medical records. This matter is very serious. If you report it here, can you take it seriously and handle it?”

The young office clerk glanced at the letter, uninterested, and after briefly scanning it, he continued reviewing the materials. He then said seriously, “Comrade, you shouldn’t be making baseless accusations. Our doctors here are all hardworking and patriotic colleagues.”

At this point, withholding a bit of grain wasn’t much of an issue. Besides, they would have to buy the grain with their own money anyway. However, such matters on the surface would be embarrassing for the hospital, and they would certainly make an example of Doctor Liu and fire him. It was better to avoid any trouble.

Su Ye observed the situation for a moment, then took out a ten-pound grain coupon. Seeing that the clerk remained unmoved, she added another one, stacking them one by one… until she reached the fourth.

Su Ye smiled and asked, “Is this enough?”

“I’m not really a patient at your hospital, and grain coupons aren’t money. I’m just looking for convenience. If you don’t want to, I can take this letter to your director, and if the director can’t help, I’ll go to the hospital director. After running around for a few days, we can probably get this matter resolved, right?”

Forty pounds of grain coupons was the kind of treatment only a heavy manual laborer would receive.

The young office clerk swallowed, suddenly becoming alert. He quickly covered the grain coupons and stood up to grab the letter.

“Comrade, don’t worry! I’ll make sure this matter is settled for you today!”

Doctor Liu wasn’t being wronged by someone else uncovering his shady dealings. People might be afraid to offend Doctor Liu, but he wasn’t. Forty pounds of grain coupons were real, tangible food, worth far more.

Su Ye stayed in the office drinking tea, took a book from her bag, and began reading it with interest. After two hours, the young personnel clerk, drenched in sweat, brought over a new document with an official seal.

He smiled broadly and said, “Comrade, don’t worry. Our hospital leaders are in a meeting right now. If the materials are legitimate, the penalty results will be announced by tomorrow at the latest.”

Su Ye closed the book and nodded. “Thank you. I hope you don’t mind if I borrow this temporarily. I’ll return it in three days.”

The young clerk thought for a moment, then quickly nodded, “That’s fine. Just make sure to return it next week, and leave me your contact details.”

Su Ye left her contact information.

—

After leaving the hospital, Su Ye went to Lu Siyuan’s house. It was the weekend, and Lu Siyuan’s parents were both at home. The family was gloomy, given the trouble their son was in.

Yang Chenxing and two or three other brothers were comforting them. “Don’t worry, Uncle and Aunt, Brother Lu will be fine. You have to believe in him, he didn’t hit Yu Fuda.”

Another person weakly said, “Yu Fuda is still in the hospital, and he’s really making it look convincing…”

This made them less confident, not sure whether they had really not hurt the person.

Yu Fuda and Father Lu worked at the same factory. Father Lu was the factory director, and Yu Fuda was the deputy director. Although they had worked together for more than ten years, their ideas were completely incompatible.

As the sun set, the lights in the room were still off.

In the darkness, Father Lu pinched the bridge of his nose and silently moved his lips, “Forget it, I’ll agree to it.”

Mother Lu grabbed him, her face flushed with anger, “No! How can you do this to the workers in the factory?”

At this moment, Su Ye knocked on the door, smiling as she said, “I’m Lu Siyuan’s teacher, Su Ye. I hope I’m not disturbing you at this hour?”

She tossed a document to Yang Chenxing. “Take this to the police station to get the case canceled. I’ve already hired a specialist to re-examine Yu Fuda. I’m sure he’ll be grateful to me.”

Yang Chenxing quickly opened the brown envelope, which contained several thin documents. The documents listed multiple wrongdoings committed by Doctor Liu, including privately prescribing nutritional formulas, misappropriating hospital materials, accepting bribes, and fabricating medical cases. Doctor Liu was to be suspended and investigated, with the case referred to the police.

Yang Chenxing suddenly felt a sense of calm. Lu Siyuan’s parents took the document and stared at it, reading it over and over. This Doctor Liu was the very same doctor who had been treating Yu Fuda!

In just two days, they had gone to the hospital several times, said everything they could, contacted everyone they knew, and tried every connection. Yet, there had been no progress. To their surprise, Teacher Su had quietly solved the problem.

Father and mother Lu looked at Su Ye in astonishment. Father Lu asked, “Will this doctor be dismissed after being investigated?”

Su Ye nodded, “Yes, it’s all based on solid evidence.”

Mother Lu’s eyes reddened slightly. “Teacher Su, I really don’t know how to thank you. We’re so grateful! Without you, we don’t know what would have happened to our family… Teacher Su, may we treat you to a meal? I’ll have Siyuan bow to you.”

Su Ye shook her head, smiling as she replied, “It was just a small favor, no need for such formality.”

Yang Chenxing was now thoroughly impressed with Su Ye. He gave her a thumbs-up and praised, “Teacher Su, you’re amazing!”

Su Ye smiled slightly, remaining silent.

The quiet young men around them excitedly said, “I’ll go find Brother Lu right now and tell him to stop hiding. He’ll be back at school tomorrow!”

Another excited young man jumped up and shouted, “Teacher Su, you’re the best! I promise I’ll study hard for the rest of my life and strive to improve every day!”

Su Ye smiled faintly, “Just remember, I’ll act as if you’ve all forgotten.”

Yang Chenxing patted his chest and teased, “No way, we can forget everything, but not that. Who could live with being poor and ugly for life?”