Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 570 569 Improvement
By the time Tang Zhitong got off work, it was already dark.

I rode my bike to the Flower Market Street with the help of the weak street lights. The light bulbs at the door of the vegetable store were particularly eye-catching, and the residents queuing were also very eye-catching.

At this time, it was almost Zhang Guifang and Auntie Ma's turn. They were both looking forward to it, craning their necks to look at the vegetable stall, wondering what vegetables to buy later.

There were a lot of people here, so Tang Zhitong had to avoid them. The New Year was coming soon, and to avoid any collisions, which would be annoying for both sides, he didn't look into the crowd.

The mother and daughter just passed each other by.

When Tang Zhitong came home from get off work, the door was closed and Fengzhi was the only one at home.

"Where's our mother?" Tang Zhitong asked Fengzhi who was playing with Beibei with a cat toy.

"I went to queue up to buy vegetables. I was very diligent today. I did my homework, looked after the house, fed the chickens, and let Beibei pee." Fengzhi threw down the cat toy and asked Tang Zhitong for credit.

"Well, that's good. I'll make you something delicious later." Although she had promised her sister before that as long as she saw Zhang Guifang eat lunch on time, she would have a candy every week, she didn't give it to her recently and Fengzhi didn't ask for it.

Tang Zhitong put down his luggage and went out again. Fengzhi had fed the chickens but didn't know to block the door of the chicken coop.

If this is forgotten, the weasel will have a hard time.

When Beibei saw Tang Zhitong go out, he didn't care about the cat toy anymore and hurriedly ran out. There was a little silver fish waiting for him outside.

Tang Zhitong blocked the door of the chicken coop, and then told Fengzhi, who was standing at the door calling Beibei, "Take out the basin for washing vegetables. I'll make you some roasted sweet potatoes today."

"Oh~ there are sweet potatoes to eat!" With the delicious food in front of her, Fengzhi dropped the cat toy and ran into the house.

Tang Zhitong smiled and pulled out a few small silver fish to feed the cat. Beibei then turned around and ran with the fish in his mouth, finding a secluded place to eat.

After going down to the cellar, Tang Zhitong looked around. He was a little tired of eating cabbage and carrots every day, but there were only a few pumpkins in the cellar besides these two things.

Fengzhi found the basin, ran out again, knelt at the entrance of the cellar, and shouted down: "Brother, do you need my help?"

"You'll be helping me if you move back a little and make some space for me." Tang Zhitong looked up. Fortunately, after the last lesson, the child did not bend down and stick his head down.

With Fengzhi present, Tang Zhitong divided into two groups. He first went upstairs to deliver a batch of pumpkins, and then went downstairs to get four long and thin sweet potatoes.

Fengzhen will be staying in Chunshu Hutong tonight, so she can roast one less sweet potato.

"You go pick some onions, I'll go check the stove in the wing room." After Tang Zhitong came up from the cellar, he closed the lid, patted himself, put the pumpkin at the door of the main house, and turned to go to the wing room.

Because Zhang Guifang was queuing to buy vegetables, the stove in the side room was not lit. Tang Zhitong quickly lit it and went back to pick the pumpkins.

Pumpkins are not difficult to clean. Cut a circle, put the big piece aside and eat it later, and take out the seeds of the small piece, wash it and peel it.

The skin won’t be wasted and can be fed to the chickens tomorrow.

Cut the green onion into slices diagonally and cut the pumpkin into cubes. Heat the oil in a pan, add the chopped green onion and stir-fry until fragrant, then add the winter melon and stir-fry.

After sending Fengzhi away, Tang Zhitong put a spoonful of oyster sauce and half a spoonful of salt in it, stir-fried it for a few times, added water, covered the pot and simmered it.

The first to come back was Xiao Wang, who had the same question as he entered the room: "Did Mom go shopping for groceries?"

"Well, how did you know? Did you see her?" Tang Zhitong asked while tidying up the chopping board, kitchen knife and other things on the table.

"On the way back, there were long queues in front of several vegetable shops, so I figured it was because they were supplying vegetables." Xiao Wang put down his cotton hand muffler and scarf, rubbed his face with his hands, then put his hands on Tang Zhitong's face and asked mischievously, "Is it cold?"

"A little bit. I'll pour you a glass of water to warm you up." Tang Zhitong covered Xiao Wang's hands with his hands and rubbed them, then stood up to pour water.

The enameled pot is sturdy and durable, but its heat insulation effect is not good. If you pour boiling water into it and use it to cover your hands directly, it will be very hot. So Tang Zhitong used two enameled pots to pour water back and forth several times until the water was not so hot before handing it to Xiao Wang.

When Xiao Wang took the enamel jar, the dimples on his face became more obvious, his hands felt warm, and his heart felt even warmer.

"Sister-in-law, isn't my sister coming back today?" Fengzhi scratched her nose at her brother, then turned to ask Xiao Wang.

"Well, you haven't been back for the past two days. What's wrong? Do you miss your sister?" Student Xiao Wang held the enamel cup in one hand and freed up another hand to touch Fengzhi's head.

"A little bit." Fengzhi has rarely been separated from her sister since she was a child. Apart from her mother, her sister was the one who took care of her the most when she was a child. As for the brother in front of her... they have only become closer in the past two years.

"How about you follow me tomorrow to find your sister?" Xiao Wang asked with a smile.

When Fengzhi heard her sister-in-law ask this, she didn't know how to answer for a moment and subconsciously looked up at Tang Zhitong.

"Then who agreed?" Tang Zhitong was stunned for a moment and looked at Xiao Wang.

Student Xiao Wang nodded and said, "She was very eager. As soon as she got to work this afternoon, Qingqing called me. Then she came over to get acquainted with the place in the afternoon."

"That's good, another matter has been resolved." Tang Zhitong was also very happy after hearing this. It is not obvious at the moment, but according to the development of history, Jingmin will be a disciple of the emperor in the future. By the way, his little sister is also a disciple of the emperor.

"My mother picked up your share of the postage and asked me to give it to you." Xiao Wang remembered this and took money out of his pocket.

"Give me five dollars. I've been smoking less recently, so I still have some money." The money for the envelope and stamps was fixed. Xiao Wang knew how much money was spent. Tang Zhitong couldn't lie, so she could only "save" this money from other aspects to subsidize her.

"Here you go, spend it slowly." Xiao Wang took out the ten yuan, counted the change, and found that there were only five yuan left. He stuffed it all into Tang Zhitong.

"Brother, should I go?" Fengzhi didn't understand her brother and sister-in-law's riddle and asked.

"Go ahead, come with us tomorrow. You can stay there at night. Tell your sister-in-law if you want to come back." This was a rare opportunity, and Tang Zhitong didn't want his sister to miss it.

"Where are you going?" Zhang Guifang asked after she came back from buying groceries and pushed open the door.

"Mom, this is what happened..." When Xiao Wang saw his mother-in-law coming back, he put down the enamel pot, stood up and took the dish from her hand. Although he had mentioned this matter before, there was no set date after all, so he explained it clearly this time.

"I'm sorry to trouble my mother-in-law. Anzi, please bring more cornmeal tomorrow... Forget it, I'll steam some tonight and you can deliver it directly to her tomorrow." Seeing that the matter had been finalized, Zhang Guifang made arrangements.

"Okay, Mom. How about this? I'll go to the side room and grind some chestnuts, and you can make some chestnut flour steamed bread tonight. He's a top student at Tsinghua University, so we should try our best to treat him well with food." Tang Zhitong agreed readily and suggested.

"Okay!" Zhang Guifang did not hesitate. Her son still had some chestnuts brought back from the Northeast. Although those things were precious, how could they be as important as her children's studies?

Now they are called private tutors, but in the past they were called Xixi, and their status is higher than that of private school teachers. According to the family's previous financial situation, the Tang family could not afford either of them. Zhang Guifang is no worse than those mothers who send their children to music school in a car. She also wants to give her children a good education. She did not have the family conditions to do so before, but now she is willing to spend a little money thanks to her in-laws.

Tang Zhitong rummaged through the pot again before taking the pressure cooker and chestnuts to the west wing.

While cracking the chestnuts, Tang Zhitong made full use of the heat from the stove and put a piece of sweet potato in the drawer on the stove to roast it.

After dinner, Fengzhi excitedly packed up her winter vacation homework. This was her first time to live away from home. At first, she felt a little repulsed when she thought of the annoying Jingmin, but she had her sister over there, so she was a little excited.

Student Xiao Wang did not return to his room. He cleaned the table, washed the dishes, and peeled chestnuts with his mother-in-law, intending to learn how to make chestnut steamed bread.

When the situation was not as tense as it is now, Xiao Wang had eaten the chestnut steamed bread made by his mother-in-law, which tasted good.

Tang Zhitong went back to the room and took the roasted sweet potatoes. He acted as a peeling tool and distributed the peeled sweet potatoes to everyone. He put the sweet potato skins and pumpkin skins together and fed them to the chickens together tomorrow.

After eating the sweet potatoes, Tang Zhitong did not get involved in the pastry-making project of the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, but went to the side room to write a letter.

The first letter was written to Zhang Ruojian. We had known each other for more than half a year and had met several times, but this was the first time we wrote to each other.

Tang Zhitong has Zhang Ruojian's phone number, but this kind of thing cannot be explained in a few words, and it is not appropriate to talk about it on the phone because the sound leakage is too great. It is best to write a letter.

In the letter, Tang Zhitong first asked whether there had been any progress on the traditional Chinese medicine discussed last time, and then mentioned that there was an opportunity to earn foreign exchange and asked if the pharmaceutical company was interested in participating.

Tang Zhitong did not write about the specific background in the letter. He only said that if they were interested, they could call him or have a face-to-face interview. He also left the phone number and address of the Finance Department in the letter.

The second letter was written to Mark Jian. It was not a big deal. It just told him that the jam project had been started and asked him to pay attention to it. The rest was just idle chat and a lot of rambling.

As the saying goes, "Three years of drought will not starve a cook to death."

He won’t starve to death, but he won’t necessarily survive hunger either. However, Tang Zhitong isn’t too worried about Ma Kejian.

When the two brothers were chatting before, Ma Kejian said that he had found a master, his cooking skills had improved, he had participated in external receptions, and his unit would regularly organize the development of new dishes.

Whether it is learning or developing new dishes, it is inevitable that there will be situations where the dishes are not suitable for serving. At this time, the chefs usually digest the dishes.

Even if things get difficult later on, the waiters, cooks and others can get a share of the profits from the unfinished dishes removed from the table.

The third letter was written to Wu Haiyang.

I don’t know whether the self-heating hot pot has been successfully developed, and I don’t know whether he has become a father.

The former cannot be taken literally, but the latter can be asked.

It's also a lot of rambling.

The fourth letter was written to Gu Yong, telling him about his recent situation, asking him if everything was going well recently, and telling him that he had met Cai Feng and already knew that Cai Feng had a girlfriend. He also asked Gu Yong to let her know if Cai Feng got married so that they could go over and have a chat together.

After filling the envelope, affixing the stamp and sealing it, Tang Zhitong boiled water to prepare for foot washing.

I wrote a lot today and my hands hurt, so I'll put off simplifying characters for now.

At the same time, the vegetable company was brightly lit, and all the team members who had already gone off work were called back, neatly arranged, without missing a single one.

Just as Xiao Wang saw on his way home from get off work, the situation in the flower market and vegetable store has also been happening in other parts of Beijing since this afternoon. The situation varies, with the inner city having the lighter situation and the outer city having the more serious situation.

There were long queues in front of every vegetable store, and a large number of people gathered. Some journalists stationed in China heard the news and walked around the city with cameras hanging around their necks, choosing the right angle and taking pictures.

The vegetable company from top to bottom was in a state of emergency. One or two vegetable stores could be dealt with and they could be transferred, but this wave is too many!

In addition to supplying vegetables for daily consumption by residents of the city, the vegetable company is also responsible for supplying canteens for all factories, restaurants, schools, hospitals, scientific research institutions, administrative agencies, and the military in the city except for those with special needs, as well as supplying raw materials for the pickle company.

Depending on the season, how much vegetables are produced locally each month, how much vegetables are transferred from other places, how much is distributed to each unit, and how much is coordinated with transportation vehicles and train cars, etc. It is a very complicated matter.

The foreign dishes this time were not easy to come by, and took a while to coordinate. I wanted to give the residents of this city a good New Year, but I didn’t expect the people to be so enthusiastic!

In desperation, the leader of the vegetable company reported the current situation to the leader of the Second Commercial Bureau.

With the advancement of the two unifications and public-private partnership, all kinds of civilian supplies have corresponding units to carry out corresponding management.

The First Commercial Bureau is responsible for daily necessities; the Second Commercial Bureau is responsible for non-staple food; and the Third Commercial Bureau is responsible for grain and oil.

In the past, the First Commercial Bureau was the most confident, but as time went on, grain and oil became more and more important, and the status of the Third Commercial Bureau rose sharply.

In the next few years, with the promotion of vegetable and algae balls, the importance of the Second Commercial Bureau will be strengthened, until No. 34 is also under the management of the Second Commercial Bureau.

The person in charge of the Second Commercial Bureau realized the seriousness of the problem and instructed the vegetable company to temporarily freeze all vegetables prepared for the canteens and pickle factories of various units, and then allocate them to the vegetable stores most in need based on priority according to the severity of the situation.

At the same time, they asked the vegetable company to leave one phone number for emergency contact and use all other phones to call each vegetable store one by one, requiring them to maintain order, slow down the pace of selling vegetables, and do a good job of ideological work for the people who were unable to buy vegetables. At the same time, they promised that more outside vegetables would be delivered to the store before tomorrow afternoon.

The person in charge of the Second Commercial Bureau hung up the phone, reported the situation to the top leader, and immediately rushed to the vegetable company to take command.

After understanding the specific situation, the leader in charge asked all leaders of the vegetable company to be in charge of a certain area, with each person being in charge of several vegetable stores. They would inspect each store one by one, provide sales guidance, and calm the emotions of the masses. They also made it clear that today is a battle and they must go all out and win!
After sending the people out, the leaders in charge were not idle either. They made phone calls one after another to coordinate the emergency delivery of foreign food to Beijing. They had to deal with this wave of demand first.

At that time, most of those who could hold leadership positions in the Second Commercial Bureau or the Vegetable Company had experienced battles or worked in logistics support, and had strong execution capabilities.

By ten o'clock in the evening, the vegetable sale was almost over. Some of the people in the queue could not wait any longer and left first. The few who did not buy vegetables also received a promise from the vegetable company and the store manager that their vegetables would be kept aside when they arrived at the store the next day, and the rest would be sold later.

"Comrades, we were lucky to have a safe outcome. To prevent similar incidents from happening again, let's discuss how to improve the situation. Please feel free to speak your mind." After everyone had gathered and listened to the situations of each vegetable store, the person in charge of the Second Commercial Bureau presided over a meeting.

"How about...implementing food coupons?" Everyone looked at each other, and finally someone spoke up.

Everyone present is well aware of the situation of the vegetable company. Vegetables are different from grain. Grain can be directly requisitioned from various regions, but vegetables cannot. Vegetables have to be connected with the commune.

Vegetables have a short shelf life, and during the peak season off the market, we have to compete for transportation capacity and time. During the off-season, we can only beg for help from everyone we know. But in the current situation, we are afraid that even if we beg, we will get nothing.

Once the food coupons are implemented, it is equivalent to promising residents and units that a certain amount of food will be supplied during the off-season. If the supply is insufficient, what should be done? Will the situation we are facing today occur? No one is sure.

(End of this chapter)