The train driver in the courtyard

Pain belongs to others, happiness belongs to yourself.

Xiao Ma changed into spare work clothes in the tender, but there was no place to take a shower. During the rest of the journey, he could only endure the fishy smell.

Li Aiguo can enjoy the wild camel meat grilled on the iron plate.

After the wild camel was brought to the driver's building, Lao Zhou found an iron plate, used a guillotine to cut the wild camel meat into small pieces, and placed them on the iron plate.

Sprinkle some salt on it, then grab the iron plate with tongs and throw it into the furnace.

In less than a moment, the wild camel meat was cooked under the high temperature.

Although the wild camel meat roasted in this way does not taste good due to the lack of seasoning, it still has a primitive flavor.

In particular, the meat of wild camels is delicious, which cannot be compared with the farmed camels in later generations.

Along the way, Li Aiguo even disdained to eat the first-class lunch boxes, and concentrated on dealing with the wild camel meat.

Five days later.

When the train arrived at Beijing Railway Station, Li Aiguo rubbed his stomach, said goodbye to Zhang Dache, Master Zhou and Xiao Ma, and jumped off the train.

"Aiguo, why do you seem to have gained weight?"

Liu Guozhang walked out of the private room with the comrades of the delegation. He was a little surprised to see Li Aiguo's appearance.

Li Aiguo loosened his belt and said with a smile, "Zhang Dache and his men hunted and killed a wild camel."

As someone from the railway system, Liu Guozhang naturally knew what hunting meant, and couldn't help but say, "You are lucky enough."

Even if the food in the private room is good, it is impossible to provide meat for every meal, let alone the delicious wild camel.

At this time, the depressed voice of the passenger car workshop director came from behind.

"Old Zhang, didn't we agree that it was a whole wild camel? Why are there only a few bits and pieces left now?"

“It was damaged along the way.”

"Lose? You guys are big eaters, can you eat a wild camel?!"

"Director, you don't know how big a appetite Driver Li has."

"Teacher, let's go back quickly." Li Aiguo tightened his collar and quickly left the platform before the director of the passenger car workshop started cursing.

Li Aiguo turned around many times and finally found a train that was returning to Qianmen Locomotive Depot for maintenance.

The train whirred along the tracks. Li Aiguo ran a few steps to catch up, grabbed the guardrail at the back and climbed onto the train.

"Hey, it's our national advanced train driver and advanced crew member who is back." The conductor on duty at the rear of the car came out of the car and saw Li Aiguo. He smiled and stretched out his arm.

Li Aiguo grabbed his arm and climbed onto the train.

"Old Chen, what's going on with the advanced crew members?"

Li Aiguo sat down on the iron plate at the rear of the vehicle with his legs hanging down. He took out a pack of Iraqi spice cigarettes from his pocket and handed them to the operator.

"It's a foreign cigarette. You have to try it."

The train operator took the cigarette and lit it, then said with a smile, "At the end of last year, your 131 crew was awarded the title of National Advanced Crew. By the way, you seemed to be on a business trip at that time."

"Captain Bai and his team have completed the mission." Li Aiguo was also very happy.

With the title comes a prize. Li Aiguo still remembers the high "reward" offered by Duanchang Xing at that time.

After returning to the locomotive depot, Li Aiguo first went to cancel his vacation, and then knocked on the door of Section Chief Xing's office.

"Patriotism is back. Come, come, sit down."

Director Xing seemed very happy. He stood up and poured tea for Li Aiguo and brought it over.

"The batch of dates you brought back before the New Year helped our colleagues in the supply and marketing system solve a big problem. The supply and marketing system sent us a letter of praise."

"Captain Duan, there's only a letter of praise and nothing practical?" Li Aiguo asked with a smile.

"I knew you were a guy who loved to take advantage. The leader of the supply and marketing system specially approved two sets of woolen clothes for you."

"And your crew has once again won the title of National Advanced Crew. According to the regulations of our locomotive section, you can now go and collect 100 kilograms of Fuqiang flour and 20 kilograms of beef leg bones."

As Director Xing was speaking, he picked up a pen and wrote a note.

Li Aiguo did not refuse. This was the reward he deserved. Besides, Chen Xueru was pregnant and needed nutritional supplements.

Li Aiguo left the section chief's office and took the two-foot-wide note to the supplies department to exchange for supplies.

I rode my bike back to the courtyard.

When Miss Chen saw that Li Aiguo had brought back so many good things, her eyes lit up.

She didn't bother to be intimate with Li Aiguo. With her big belly, she wanted to hide the Fuqiang flour and beef leg bones in the secret room.

"No need. This is a reward from Duan. It comes from a legitimate source. No one dares to say anything behind my back."

Li Aiguo stopped Miss Chen.

"That's right." Miss Chen thought about it carefully and realized that it was indeed the case.

The Fuqiang flour is kept in the cupboard. One hundred kilograms are enough for a year.

Beef leg bones are really good stuff! They can be used to make beef bone soup.

Li Aiguo took out three beef leg bones and put them in the pot, and also added some white radish, ginger slices and scallion segments.

Everything was ready. Chen Xueru turned on the stove and the fire started to burn. The flames licked the bottom of the pot and the water in the pot soon began to boil.

After a while, some foam appeared on the water surface. Li Aiguo skillfully skimmed off the foam with a spoon, then turned to low heat and simmered it.

This stew took a full three hours.

When he finally lifted the lid of the pot, a rich aroma hit him in the face, and the soup became thick and took on an attractive milky white color.

Pour a bowl of beef bone soup, break off some steamed bread and throw it in, drink up the thick soup in one gulp, and you will feel warm and comfortable all over.

Inside the Jia family's house, Jia Zhang was sewing shoe soles when her nose suddenly twitched twice.

She stood at the door and looked outside, squinting in the direction of Li Aiguo's house. "Li Aiguo, this grandson, just came back and cooked beef bones. He didn't even bother to send a bowl to me, an old woman. He must have taken advantage of the business trip to take advantage of the government. Dongxu, go tell Yi Zhonghai to deal with Li Aiguo."

Upon hearing this, Jia Dongxu walked out of the house with his hands behind his back and went straight to Yi Zhonghai's house.

He left quickly and came back quickly, returning from Yi Zhonghai's house in less than five minutes.

"Dongxu, what's wrong?" Jia Zhang was surprised.

Jia Dongxu was helpless: "Master Yi scolded me. He thought I was harming him. He also said that Li Aiguo was a cautious guy. Since he was gnawing on the bone in front of everyone, the origin of the bone must be correct."

Jia Zhang's face turned pale and she cursed, "I think Yi Zhonghai has been frightened by Li Aiguo!"

Although Jia Zhang was tough in words, she did not dare to cause trouble and could only sit in the house in frustration and rage.

Qin Huairu came out from the inner room, looked at Jia Dongxu and said, "Dongxu, we have no food at home, and I'm pregnant. You have to think of a way."

When talking about this, Qin Huairu felt full of grievances.

Now the Jia family only has food stamps for Jia Dongxu. In addition, the supply of materials is tight and the food rations of residents on the street have been reduced. The Jia family has even less food to eat.

The Jia family's situation is not uncommon, but wealthy families can go to the pigeon market to exchange for food; poor families will be more frugal, and when they eat corn flour, they will add a little wheat bran and wild vegetables to it, and they can still fill their stomachs.

But the Jia family had some grain, and Jia Zhang wanted to eat white flour buns.

Now one pound of white flour can be exchanged for five pounds of corn flour.

Even though Yi Zhonghai sent them corn flour every month, it was still not enough to eat. Before the end of the month, the flour jar was empty.

While Chen Xueru can drink delicious bone soup, she can’t even get enough from eating cornmeal.

Qin Huairu regretted it so much.

"What can I do?" Jia Dongxu was not in a hurry. He could have a full meal at the steel rolling mill at noon, so he could hold on.

Jia Zhang hadn't eaten enough in the past few days and her body was already swollen. She felt she couldn't go on.

She looked at Qin Huairu: "Huairu, you should go home and borrow some food."

"Mom, don't you know that people in the countryside now eat from a big pot and the food is all public? How can you lend it to our family?" Qin Huairu's face suddenly changed when she heard this.

"How could mother not know? But mother also knows that although those members look honest, they are actually very cunning. They secretly hid the food. Don't worry, as long as our family survives the famine, we will definitely return the food."

Since Qin Huairu married and moved to the city, her relationship with her natal family has become distant.

She often doesn't go back home once a year, and now if she is asked to go home to borrow food, she really can't do it.

Seeing Qin Huairu's hesitation, Jia Zhang immediately got angry: "Qin Huairu, you are a country girl, and you are lucky to marry my Dongxu. With such a small amount of food, don't even think about lending it to me, even if you want to give it to me, you have to give it to me!"

Qin Huairu felt so aggrieved that she almost cried.

She still wanted to use the stick as a threat to force Jia Zhang to give in, but the Jia family was about to go bankrupt, so how could Jia Zhang change her mind?

Qin Huairu could only look to Jia Dongxu for help.

"Wife, our family is indeed having a hard time. Your parents' family eats from a big pot anyway, and even if there is no food, the people in the commune will not watch them starve to death." Jia Dongxu turned his head away, not daring to look her in the face.

Qin Huairu felt as if all the blood in her body had solidified, and the chill spread from her heart to her entire body, making her feel cold.

She knew that if she didn't go back to her parents' home to borrow food this time, Jia Zhang and Jia Dongxu would never let her go.

There was no choice but to eat half a steamed bun with difficulty, then he carried a tattered bag and walked out of the house with heavy steps.

Jia Dongxu planned to send her back to her parents' home to borrow food.

At this time, Li Aiguo came out of the backyard on his bicycle.

There was a canvas bag hanging on the left handlebar of the bicycle. The bag was bulging with stuff inside. It was not difficult to guess from the shape that it was refined white flour.

There were two huge cow bones hanging on the right handlebar, and the cow leg bones were very thick.

There was still a lot of beef on the bones, and the beef had a dark red luster under the sunlight.

Looking at the back seat of the bicycle, Chen Xueru, with a big belly, was sitting steadily on it.

Her face was filled with a happy smile, and her hands were tightly around Li Aiguo's waist, and the two were talking and laughing.

Although it was unclear what they were saying, the cheerful atmosphere was like a sharp awl that pierced Qin Huairu's heart. Li Aiguo also saw Qin Huairu, and their eyes met in the air. Qin Huairu lowered her head as if she was burned, not daring to look again.

Jia Dongxu was hurrying along with his head down, and he almost bumped into Qin Huairu. He immediately became annoyed: "Don't you want to go home and borrow food?"

Qin Huairu's lips trembled slightly. She wanted to explain but couldn't make a sound. She just lowered her head, stared at her worn-out shoes, and subconsciously grasped the bag with both hands.

Li Aiguo continued riding his bicycle. When he reached the front yard, the old man came up to him with his eyes blinking and stopped the bicycle.

"Patriotic, who are these beef bones for?"

"The section gave out some rewards, and I thought of giving some to my father-in-law." Li Aiguo knew that the third uncle was up to something.

Sure enough, after hearing this, the third uncle turned around and took out three small fishes: "This cow bone is too hard, your father-in-law will definitely not be able to chew it. It is better to change it to fish. Although this fish is small, it is very nutritious when stewed into fish soup. Today, the third uncle is going to let you take advantage of it. Three big fish in exchange for two bones of yours, how about it?"

"not so good."

As soon as the third uncle finished speaking, Li Aiguo immediately left on his bicycle.

The third uncle stretched out his hand towards Li Aiguo and waved: "Why is this child so ignorant? I mean well!"

The three aunts: “.”

She turned her head away.

The tailor shop was very busy at this time, as both Chen Xingjia and Chen Xingyi's families had come.

Chen Fangxuan listened to Chen Xueru's advice and bought a batch of grain in advance and stored it in the cellar, so he lived better than ordinary people.

The two families often came to ask for money.

Nowadays, even if a family is divided, they are still one family, not to mention that the Chen family has not divided, so there are not so many rules to follow, and Chen Fangxuan would not have any objections.

When Li Aiguo and Chen Xueru arrived, things naturally became even more lively.

This time Li Aiguo brought a lot of things, and his eldest and second sisters-in-law were all very happy.

Unlike before, this time the sister-in-law didn't dare to shout loudly when she saw the refined white flour and beef bones. Instead, she quietly helped carry them into the house.

Chen Fangxuan looked at Li Aiguo with some concern: "Aiguo, this is refined white flour and beef bones, you didn't make a mistake, did you?"

"Dad, don't worry. This is a reward given by the locomotive depot to the crew that Brother Aiguo is in, which won the title of National Advanced Crew Team." Chen Xueru gave a brief introduction to the situation.

Only then did Chen Fangxuan feel relieved.

With so much refined white flour and beef bones, it would be troublesome if someone caught us by the braids.

Afterwards, Li Aiguo distributed the small gifts he brought back from Bulgaria to everyone.

There are no famous special gifts from Bulgaria, and the most famous essential oils definitely cannot be brought back.

Fortunately, when the Iron Group held the meeting, the organizing committee prepared a lot of souvenirs for the participants.

Among them is an iron badge with the Iron Group's logo, a red flag and the words 1959, which looks pretty good.

The eldest brother and the second brother received two badges and looked particularly happy. Wearing these badges on their bodies made them look very proud when walking on the street.

The eldest and second sister-in-law's gifts were a kind of handmade ornament called "March Flower".

It is made of red and white woolen threads, representing blessings to the family. Legend has it that it can drive away winter and welcome spring.

The two coins that Li Aiguo took out were given to him by Slavchev's wife, a kind Bulgarian woman, when he attended the birthday party of Slavchev's son.

It is said that it was woven by her herself and has a special Bulgarian style.

The eldest and second sisters-in-law also seemed very happy.

“This little gadget is really exquisite.”

The eldest sister-in-law carefully hid the March Flower in her pocket and said, "When I get to work, I will show it to the sisters in our team. This is something I brought back from abroad."

Li Aiguo knew his sister-in-law's temper, and since all these things had passed the appraisal of the foreign affairs department, he didn't say much.

He winked at Chen Xueru, and Chen Xueru took out a bottle of wine from her canvas bag and handed it to Chen Fangxuan.

"Dad, this is the wine Aiguo gave you."

Looking at the Bulgarian words on the wine bottle, Chen Fangxuan said angrily, "I'm so old, what kind of gifts do I need? You just like to spend money recklessly."

Although he complained, he held the bottle tightly.

No matter how this wine tastes, putting it at home as a decoration is enough to make those old friends envious.

After a few chats, Chen Xueru went with her eldest and second sisters-in-law to tease Xiao Jiujin, while Li Aiguo started chatting with Chen Xingjia and Chen Xingyi.

Chen Xingjia works at the timber factory. Although he has been promoted to researcher, his food rations have been cut a lot.

My eldest sister-in-law has to help her parents' family frequently, so life is quite difficult for her family.

Chen Xingyi worked at the Changxindian Locomotive Factory. Because there was a plan to export locomotives and the Changxindian Locomotive Factory was responsible for manufacturing train carriages, the higher-ups allocated a large amount of food to the factory, and the situation at home became slightly better.

Chen Xingjia lit a cigarette and said, "I don't know what will happen next year. The factory cafeteria has also started to limit the amount of food, with a daily ration of two taels. We technicians are fine, but the workers in the workshop have to do heavier work and can't stand it any more."

"The situation next year won't be very good either." Li Aiguo took a puff of his cigarette and said, "But don't worry, we have enough food and drink at home, just don't let others know."

Chen Xingjia and Chen Xingyi are not fools. In fact, they had already seen the clues from Chen Fangxuan.

Who can eat three consecutive meals of dumplings during the Chinese New Year?
They were all white bread dumplings with meat inside.

They originally thought that hiding the grain was Chen Fangxuan's idea, but now they think that this brother-in-law also contributed a lot.

Chen Xingjia and Chen Xingyi looked at each other and nodded.

"We have to be careful and try to eat here and not take anything out."

"Brother, it's enough for us to know about this. Don't tell sister-in-law. I'm also keeping it a secret from my wife."

"understood."

Chen Fangxuan hid the food and came over: "Aiguo, how is the situation in your compound?"

"Basically, we're OK. We're in the capital, and we have food support from other places. As long as we eat sparingly, we won't starve to death." Li Aiguo said, "Now it's just a shortage of planned supplies. Once we purchase food from outside, the situation will be better. But it will take some time, so we still have to be more careful."

Li Aiguo didn't mean to comfort Chen Fangxuan.

Now Hextech has begun to use its own advantages to contact several families in Hong Kong City, including the Kangaroo Family and the Maple Leaf Family.

As long as the transportation channels are opened, grain ships can deliver the grain.

The Ministry of Railways also made contact through Deutsche Bahn and French Railways.

Compared with previous lives, the amount of food that can be imported will increase significantly.

Li Aiguo reminded: "Also, you should avoid going to the pigeon market. It is said that someone swallowed the food and planned to sell it at a high price in the pigeon market. The street office has stepped up patrol work."

Chen Fangxuan nodded: "Aiguo is right. People are being arrested all the time in Pigeon City. We must be careful."

In this time, the eldest and second sisters-in-law had prepared the meal.

The staple food was white rice, served with beef bone soup, and the family had a delicious meal at noon.

******
In the courtyard, when the aunt learned that Qin Huairu was forced by Jia Zhangshi and Qin Huairu to go home to borrow food, she muttered in Yi Zhonghai's ear: "The Jia family is too unreasonable. How much food can there be in the countryside?"

"The Jia family really can't make ends meet this time. If Qin Huairu doesn't go home to borrow money, she will have to borrow from our family. We don't even have enough food to eat."

Yi Zhonghai had known about Qin Huairu's return to her hometown for a long time. The reason why he didn't stop her this time was because he was worried that she would get into trouble.

Now the deaf old lady’s low-income household qualification has been revoked.

Without extra food, her food ration was not enough for her to produce herself, so she had to rely entirely on Yi Zhonghai's family.

If Yi Zhonghai continues to take care of the Jia family, they will definitely not be able to survive.

Maybe we will have to ask the deaf old lady to sell some small yellow croaker and exchange it for food at the pigeon market.

"But if the Qin family gave the grain to the Jia family, how will they survive?" The aunt was kind-hearted.

Yi Zhonghai picked up the enamel pot and narrowed his eyes: "Don't worry, Qin Huairu will definitely be able to borrow food. The reason why Qin Huairu left the Li family and married into the Jia family was mainly because of Old Qin's idea.

In order to let Qin Huairu continue to stay in the Jia family, he had to help the Jia family even if it meant biting his tongue. "

Things developed just as Yi Zhonghai expected.

In the evening, Qin Huairu brought back thirty kilograms of corn flour and more than ten kilograms of dried wild vegetables from her mother's home.

Although the corn flour was not much, it was enough to support the Jia family for a while. It was rare for Jia Zhang to praise Qin Huairu's family in front of the residents.

"Old Qin looks like a relative."

The residents were all aware of the situation in the countryside. Looking at Qin Huairu's red and swollen eyes, they could not help but imagine what had happened after Qin Huairu returned to her hometown.

They looked at each other and neither responded to Jia Zhang's words.

It was already evening when Li Aiguo brought Chen Xueru back home.

After having a full meal at Chen's house at noon, Li Aiguo just made two bowls of cornmeal porridge in the evening and took out the pickles given by his sister-in-law and had a simple meal.

After dinner, Li Aiguo took a book and sat in front of the door to read.

A lot of time was wasted in Bulgaria, so I have to race against time to earn more points.

Xu Damao walked in from outside humming a little tune and carrying a canvas bag.

"Aiguo, are you reading a book?!" Xu Damao greeted Li Aiguo.

"Brother Damao, are you going to the countryside today?" Li Aiguo took a look at Xu Damao's beaming face and knew that he had gotten something good in the countryside again.

"We went to the Red Star Commune in the suburbs of Beijing to show a movie. The villagers were so enthusiastic that they gave us some mountain products."

In the past, Xu Damao would always take out a handful of red dates and give them to people, but today he was a little abnormal. He had a smile on his face but did not make any movement.

This attracted Li Aiguo's attention. Xu Damao made an excuse that he was going home to cook for Liu Lan, turned around and ran away.

"What's wrong with Xu Damao today?" Even He Yushui could see that something was wrong with Xu Damao. He put down his pen and looked at Li Aiguo.

Li Aiguo put down his book and asked with a smile: "I guess he got something good, don't worry about him. Yushui, you are going to take the high school entrance exam soon, how is your review going?"

There was no such thing as the "middle school entrance exam" in those days. The entrance exam from junior high school to high school was organized by the Education Department (Section) of the Education Bureau. It was a unified exam that tested six subjects: politics, Chinese, mathematics, foreign languages, physics, and chemistry. It was called the "high school entrance exam." (End of this chapter)