Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 844 Chapter 843 Arrangement
"Try some cherries, I just bought them today." Ms. Wang figured her husband would be home around today, so she saw a cherry stand on her way home from get off work and bought some. She didn't eat them all when she got home, but deliberately saved some.

"You can't get any cherries at your workplace?" Tang Zhitong picked up a cherry and examined it in his hand.

"Don't even mention it, they were picked before they even turned red. What are you looking at? Still picking the place of origin?" Little Wang urged.

"Hehe, it's okay." The little cherries are soft and tender, pink and delicate, and even cute in appearance. They taste great when you put them in your mouth and suck on them.

“Anzi, I don’t know what’s been going on these past few days, the grain store isn’t selling any coarse grains. Now we can use coarse grain coupons to buy fine grains. What do you think, should we buy some?” Zhang Guifang asked from the side.

"Buy it, you can't buy it even if you want to on ordinary days. Use up the coarse grain coupons first, and save some fine grain coupons, you never know when you might need them." Tang Zhitong replied without hesitation.

All the grains I brought home from Northeast China were corn. The fine grain coupons issued by the neighborhood were distributed according to a set ratio, so I had to carefully calculate how much white flour I could eat. Now that I had the opportunity, I was determined to seize it.

"Alright. Although there's more and more bran, at least it's edible and better than cornmeal." With her son making the decision, Zhang Guifang turned to look for her ration book and food coupons, planning to queue up at the grain store tomorrow.

Listening to his mother's nagging, Tang Zhitong smiled at Xiao Wang but didn't respond.

This year's flour definitely has more bran; it almost feels like whole wheat flour. The steamed buns have spots of bran on them and are grayish-brown in color, looking like they've gone moldy.

Since last year, the flour supplied by grain stores has become 90 flour. During holidays, they will provide some enriched flour for residents to choose from. Enriched flour costs a little over 20 cents per pound, and there is a purchase limit. It's not like you can buy as much as you want.

Although grain stores don't usually provide enriched flour, it's not difficult for residents to occasionally eat some. They can simply use a flour sieve to sift the 90-pound flour, removing the bran bit by bit, and what's left is enriched flour.

This is not only laborious, but also requires eating a meal with a higher gluten content for the next meal, so it is not often done on a regular basis, except for making dumplings.

Joking aside, Tang Zhitong doesn't mind any kind of food. The fact that they can have this kind of flour this year is thanks to the city's prestige. In other cities, they probably wouldn't even have flour to eat.

After carrying the five or six half-packets back to his room, Xiao Wang recounted the gossip he had overheard at work and asked, "Do you think there's really a food shortage in Beijing?"

“There’s definitely a shortage. I heard that the higher-ups are going to cut the urban population again, so the ration quotas will probably have to be reduced as well. But don’t worry, with me here, you won’t go hungry. I’ll go look for food again when we have the holiday.” Tang Zhitong put the five or six half-packs against the corner and started taking off his clothes.

"Fengzhen took a shower after she came back today. I filled the tub with cold water, so it's probably not hot now. Why don't you take a basin of water and wipe yourself down in the room?" Xiao Wang, seeing her husband's behavior, knew he was going to take a shower and quickly stopped him.

When Fengzhen returned from the countryside, her tangled hair was covered in wheat awns, her clothes were not only dirty but also infested with fleas, and she reeked of a sour stench.

In this situation, she definitely needed to take a shower first. Both Xiao Wang and Zhang Guifang urged her to take a shower.

"It's alright, young people have a lot of energy. We worked on the farm all day and got very dirty. Many of us took showers with well water, which was quite a thrill. We were screaming and howling every night," Tang Zhitong said cheerfully.

This is no exaggeration. The older folks will just rub their hands with a towel, while the younger ones will fill a bucket with water and pour it over their heads and feet. Anyway, the moon comes out late these days, so nobody can see anyone at night.

It was tough on the women, who had to wash themselves in a basin in their rooms, but thankfully they had hot water.

While her husband was taking a shower, Ms. Wang soaked his dirty clothes, then sat down at the table to read a book. Tomorrow is Sunday, so there's no rush to wash the clothes tonight.

Tang Zhitong enjoyed a relaxing hot spring bath in the bathroom to relieve her fatigue.

However, I didn't dare soak for too long. What if Xiao Wang, worried that I had been washing with cold water for too long, barged in? Then I wouldn't be able to explain this whole basin of hot spring water.

To go all out of the act, Tang Zhitong not only drained the water from the bathtub after getting out, but also scooped some water out of the bucket.

Tomorrow morning, I'll carry a few more buckets of water to fill the water tank and buckets at home. Perfect.

Tang Zhitong carried a basin of water back to the room. There would probably be a big battle tonight, and Xiao Wang would have to wash up later too.

"What are you looking at?" Tang Zhitong asked as he returned to the room and saw Xiao Wang holding a thick book, putting down the basin, and draping a towel over the sink.

"Journey to the West." Upon seeing the water, Xiao Wang casually pulled out a bookmark, closed the book, and stood up.

"Wow, what a great book! Don't touch it." Tang Zhitong held "Journey to the West" in one hand, and reached down to Xiao Wang's shoulder with the other, asking, "Do you know what this is called?"

"what?"

"This is called 'one hand on breasts, one hand on scriptures, neither betraying Buddha nor the beloved.' Hehe."

"Pah, all you do is cause trouble, are you some kind of frivolous monk?" Little Wang didn't understand the joke, so she pushed her husband's arm away, went over to close the door and draw the curtains, and prepared to finish her personal cleaning.

"Hey, I'm not a frivolous monk. What kind of monk am I with you around?" Tang Zhitong put "Journey to the West" back on the desk.

On the surface, this book tells the story of a monkey's struggle and success, but in reality, it's all darkness. Even after the eighty tribulations, Tang Sanzang had to make offerings before he could obtain the scriptures, and his golden alms bowl was gone.

It's better not to be a monk like that.

After the conversation, Xiao Wang didn't go to sleep right away. She propped up her pillow, nestled in her husband's arms, and started talking about the big event of the day: "Did you know? We Chinese have successfully summited Mount Everest."

"Oh? Really? I haven't seen any newspapers at the farm these past two days. That's a good thing." Tang Zhitong was taken aback. He had been so focused on the food supply that he had forgotten about this.

This summit attempt came at a tremendous cost; supplies were only one aspect, but many people also died or suffered frostbite.

The reason for this intense effort is related to the ownership of Mount Everest and how the national border will be demarcated.

Meanwhile, the Indian side was also actively preparing to summit, but unsurprisingly, they failed.

"You know, Mount Everest is so high, it must be very cold up there, right?"

"Of course! I've heard that Mount Everest is covered in ice and snow all year round, and the temperature is at least minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius." Climbing Mount Everest is very difficult now, but in a few decades it will become a game for the rich. As long as the money is right, Sherpas can carry their employers up, and when the employers come down, they might be specially recruited.

"I read in the newspaper that it took several days to reach the summit. What should I do if my butt feels nauseous during these days?" At this moment, Xiao Wang's posture was a bit strange, and his thought process was also different from usual.

"Huh?? What is that?" Tang Zhitong was quite surprised that Xiao Wang would ask such a question.

"Turn your face away." A little embarrassed by her husband's gaze, Ms. Wang gently turned his face away before saying, "It's so cold, water freezes instantly, we can't just keep holding it in, can we?" "That really stumps me," Mr. Wang replied. "I don't know either. There are no public toilets up there. I guess we'll have to follow the old saying, 'Poop against the wind, pee with the wind.'" These days, there are no adult diapers. In such cold weather, you certainly can't hold it in for days. There are no roads up there, and you can't possibly walk three or five miles to find a secluded spot to relieve yourself. Most likely, you'll just have to relieve yourself where you are.

Following this line of thought, Tang Zhitong became curious about how astronauts solved this problem, since there is no gravity in space and the expelled contents would just make a mess.

This is a question worth discussing, but Ms. Wang felt that the image was too disturbing. She reached out and placed her hand over her husband's eyes, gently making him close them: "Stop thinking about it, go to sleep. If you keep thinking about it, you'll feel nauseous and won't be able to sleep."

May 29th, Sunday, Dragon Boat Festival.

Even Tang Zhitong, who has cheat codes, couldn't get to eat zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), so it's likely that Lao Ma (Old Ma) will also miss out on zongzi today.

Tang Zhitong filled the water vat and buckets first thing in the morning before washing his hands and preparing to eat breakfast.

In the morning, when the light was good, Tang Zhitong noticed that Fengzhen's neck, wrists, and other uncovered areas were already peeling from the sun. There was no effective medicine available at the moment, so he could only advise her not to peel the skin off manually and to wait for her skin to heal naturally.

Although they got sunburned, there were some advantages. At least the brother and sister were able to eat their fill during their work trip, and it saved the family several days' worth of rations.

Zhang Guifang made hand-pulled noodles this morning; the portion was quite generous.

With the added benefit of fried cicada nymphs, Fengzhen ate with great relish.

"How do you eat in the production team? Do you have vegetables?" Tang Zhitong asked, watching her younger sister shoveling rice into her mouth.

"No, just steamed buns and pickled vegetables." Fengzhen shook her head and continued eating.

"Alright, at least we can eat our fill." Tang Zhitong had seen the lunches of the commune members at the farm before. They were indeed steamed buns, but judging from the color, they were basically made from whole wheat flour, which was much worse than what the city bureau had allocated. He guessed that what Fengzhen ate wouldn't be much better either. However, these days, it wasn't easy to have such an opportunity, so he couldn't be picky.

After having breakfast at home, Tang Zhitong hurriedly took Wu Liuban and rushed to the escort office.

There were fewer people on duty at the security office today, so I didn't have to handle any financial work, but I still had to go and bring some more newspapers back to the countryside.

The newspapers Tang Zhitong brought last time were well-received. With so many people and so little paper, it wasn't enough. On his way back, Tang Zhitong accepted requests from more than one colleague to bring back newspapers.

As Tang Zhitong was entering the gate, the gatekeeper called out to him: "Section Chief Tang, here is a letter and a newspaper for you."

"Okay, thank you." Tang Zhitong took the letter from the gatekeeper, looked at it first, and saw that the return address and handwriting belonged to Wu Aijun.

Upon entering, Tang Zhitong first opened the letter, intending to see what the old man had to say this time.

The letter didn't really say much; the main point, though vague, was: "Which day, the 30th or the 31st, are you free? I'd like to come to your workplace and have a chat."
After reading the letter, Tang Zhitong chuckled. "Hey, is this old guy here to see me, or is he asking me to play support for him?"

Looking at the postmark date, it's been two days since it was sent. I wonder if Wu Aijun is anxiously waiting for a reply.

Although he didn't see it, Tang Zhitong felt that Wu Aijun was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

Out of respect for An Wu's love for the army, Tang Zhitong decided to write him a letter.

The farm work has come to an end. The wheat harvest ended yesterday. The threshing ground has limited space and can't accommodate so many people. Yesterday, Su Qingxiang discussed with several leaders that some people would be withdrawn tomorrow. Tang Zhitong plans to come back with everyone.

In that case, I will be working as usual on the morning of the day after tomorrow, so let Wu Aijun come over on the morning of the day after tomorrow.

Of course, there was an element of friendship involved in inviting Wu Aijun over, as well as the fact that Ma Weitou didn't resist Wu Aijun.

Whether they will become a couple in the future depends on their interactions; Tang Zhitong has no intention of interfering.

In the end, Tang Zhitong opened the door to the finance department, hurriedly wrote a letter back to Wu Aijun, and then put it directly into the sorting department.

After rummaging through the newspapers in other departments, Tang Zhitong finally got on his bicycle and went to the food factory.

The work atmosphere today was noticeably relaxed. When Tang Zhitong arrived at the temporary residence, many colleagues were enjoying the cool air under the shade of the canopy. Seeing Tang Zhitong arrive with newspapers, many people came over to take the newspapers and read them to pass the time.

"Wow~ The mountaineering team has reached the summit of Mount Everest!" I was lucky enough to get a copy of yesterday's newspaper, and the front page announced this good news in big letters.

"Let me see, let me see!" Upon hearing this, many people gathered around, and a crowd surged forth.

Watching all this, Tang Zhitong smiled, but sighed inwardly. The country had been weak for too long, and the Chinese people desperately needed a world first.

"Brother Yuan, how was yesterday? Did Xiao Yu's matter go smoothly?" Seeing Fang Yuan organizing people to redesign the thatched shed, Tang Zhitong stepped forward, offered him a cigarette, and asked.

"Smoothly my foot! The man's mother is a real handful. She threw a tantrum and refused to agree to anything." Fang Yuan took the cigarette and lit it on the match Tang Zhitong had struck.

"With you and Sister Chen stepping in, even the leaders of this commune would have to give you face. Would the commune members still dare to act like this?" Tang Zhitong was somewhat surprised when he heard this.

"You can't see into someone's heart, and you can see the big picture from small things. I'm worried that the help I'm giving might cause trouble later on," Fang Yuan said slowly, taking a drag of his cigarette and exhaling.

“It’s a good thing that someone is sending chickens; the commune members generally won’t object. If this causes trouble, then the production team leader here has to bear the main responsibility; he hasn’t managed things well on a regular basis.” Poor and harsh conditions breed unruly people. When people are poor, they need a leader with a strong voice; otherwise, they can’t work together as a cohesive unit.

"Everyone is hoping things will get better." Fang Yuan nodded, agreeing with Tang Zhitong's statement.

"What about Xiao Yu?" Tang Zhitong was still worried about Yu Ying. Sister Chen and Fang Yuan had made this matter known to everyone. If it wasn't handled properly this time, she would lose all her prestige at work.

To avoid this situation, Tang Zhitong prepared to ask Wu Aijun or Zhang Xinping to help Yu Ying register her household.

"Old Su stepped in and temporarily settled us here to help out. Once your classmate's chicks hatch, Xiao Yu will be in charge of raising them here," Fang Yuan said, pointing to the straw shed that was being renovated.

"Okay, that's one way too." Hearing Fang Yuan say that, Tang Zhitong felt relieved. Su Qingxiang was indeed Director Su. Although he had a temper sometimes, he was still very meticulous in his work.

(End of this chapter)