A doctor who travels through two eras

Chapter 15: Recovering the Grain Book to Buy Rice

Before going to Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital, Jin Caifeng took her son to the street office to settle his household registration.

Lin Sanqi's predecessor had a formal household registration in Sijiu City. Even though he was lost 10 years ago, his household registration had never been cancelled at the insistence of the Lin family.

However, household registration is related to food supply. If you can’t find your person, the street office cannot give you a quota of food based on the number of people, so we finally made a compromise.

The household registration will be retained and the person will be treated as a missing person. The issuance of food coupons and food certificates will be suspended.

Now that Lin Sanqi and his men have been found, the first thing to do is of course to restore the food supply. Eating, drinking, defecating and urinating are the most important things in life.

The mother and son of the Lin family came to the Jingshan Street Office, which is a low bungalow that also houses the director's office. If ordinary people want to find someone, they can just knock on the door and go in. There is no security guard to scan the face or register the ID card.

Aunt Qian, the street director, also smiled when she saw Jin Caifeng: "Mrs. Lin, are you here to register your youngest son's household registration?"

Jin Caifeng was also very polite:
"Yes, Director Qian, you also know that the food supply is tight now. If Sanqi of my family doesn't have food, he will starve. Qizi, quickly call Aunt Qian."

"Hello, Aunt Qian."

Aunt Qian looked at Lin Sanqi and laughed, saying jokingly:
"With your father, Doctor Lin's medical skills, so many people are vying for him to see patients. How could he let your precious son starve? Don't worry."

Lin Sanqi was secretly surprised when he heard this. He thought that everyone knew that his father made extra money. No wonder there was 4000 yuan in cash at home.

The big yellow croaker can be explained by the sale of Huadu’s property, but this amount of cash can only be said to be the salary + extra income earned in the past 10 years.

Isn’t he afraid that the government will invite him for tea?
Aunt Qian took the household register from Lin's mother, pulled out the population registration card belonging to Lin Sanqi, and stamped "invalid" on the word "missing".

Then he wrote another line of words under the relocation column: "Food supply will be resumed from July 1959, 7" and stamped it with the official seal of the street.

"Okay, take this household registration booklet to the grain station to exchange it for a grain booklet."

Coming out of the street, Lin Sanqi saw that there was no one around and asked quietly:

"Mom, how much does my dad earn a month now? Can he make extra money?"

As Jin Caifeng walked, she explained nonchalantly:
"Because your father is a special talent supporting the capital, and now he is also the director of the outpatient department, he didn't get a technical position, but an administrative level 13 salary, 159 yuan a month, and in addition..."

Jin Caifeng lowered her voice:

"Also, there are often people who are not convenient to come to the hospital, and those whose families are rich and powerful need your father to make a visit. You can usually get 10 yuan for a visit, or give some food coupons, meat coupons, oil coupons, etc. as consultation fees, so your father is not short of money.

It's a pity that your father is aloof and doesn't visit patients very often. Otherwise, with his skills, this extra income would be much higher than his salary.

But your father also said that having a lot of money is not a good thing. If someone targets you, it can easily bring disaster to your family. Nowadays, people emphasize egalitarianism. The poorer you are, the more glorious you are."

Lin Sanqi completely cannot understand the thinking of people of this era.

Of course the more money the better.

Haven’t you seen that in later hospitals, those doctors prescribe drugs and use medical devices crazily in order to get more kickbacks? As long as you pay the surgery fee, they are willing to send doctors to your door even at the ends of the earth.

As a result, in this era, seeing more doctors, saving more lives, and making more money have become a sin?
Lin Sanqi knew that times were different and logic was different. Even if he didn't understand it, he had to first accept it and integrate into the thinking of this era, otherwise he would definitely suffer the consequences.

The grain station is not far from the street office. After walking through two alleys, you will arrive at a small courtyard. There is a storefront facing south, and the store is crowded with people. The food rations of tens of thousands of people in the nearby communities must be purchased from here, so the business is of course busy.

Jin Caifeng took a look and said, "There are too many people inside. It's not convenient for a grown man like you to squeeze in. I'll go get the food certificate. You just wait here."

Lin Sanqi nodded: "I know."

After Lin's mother left, Lin Sanqi felt bored and wanted to see what the famous grain station looked like, so he stood at the door and tiptoed to look inside the store.

I found that there were sacks filled with food piled there.

After the clerk got the food coupons and money, he weighed the food and handed it to the people. There were no plastic bags, so everyone had to bring their own bag and leave with the food in it.

Don't expect the clerk to have a good service attitude, of course, he is not as ferocious as Zhu the Butcher.

The eight most popular occupations in the 8s and s were the eight major types of workers: salesperson, driver, postman, childcare worker, barber, projectionist, cook, and art troupe member.

Being a salesperson in a grain store is one of the most popular jobs.

There are dozens or hundreds of tons of grain there. Who can tell that some money is being taken?
Even if you have pure thoughts and are incorruptible, when grain arrives, you know which batch of rice and flour is of the best quality, or which scarce grain has been secretly bought up by your inner circle. How would the common people know?

Just like in “The Story of Siheyuan”, Shazhu is a good and honest guy, right?

But people still pack up the leftovers from the cafeteria and take them away. This is taking advantage of the situation.

When he prepares banquets for private individuals, he will still secretly take away some of the ingredients. This is the convenience of being a chef, and it is also an unspoken rule of society.

Those who were selling rice all had rosy faces, while those who were buying rice all had gloomy faces, and there was no sign of the joy of shopping at all.

Lin Sanqi stopped an old lady like a curious baby and asked:
"Auntie, I noticed you were discussing something with the people at the grain station. What kind of rice did you buy?"

"Rice? Rice? Humph, where can we get rice nowadays?"

Seeing that Lin Sanqi was a handsome guy, the lady said a few more words and opened the bag for Lin Sanqi to see for himself:
"Look, now we can't even buy flour, let alone rice. Our family doesn't have enough to eat. I'm wondering how many kilograms of coarse grains can be exchanged for one kilogram of fine grains? Last month, one kilogram of fine grains could be exchanged for five kilograms of coarse grains, but this month it can only be exchanged for four kilograms. Sigh."

Lin Sanqi's family runs a rice shop after all, so he knows a little about grains, but now he finds this brown powder a little strange:
"Auntie, what kind of powder is this? Why haven't I seen it before?"

"This? Cornmeal."

"Corn noodles?"

Lin Sanqi looked suspicious, thinking to himself, "I'm well educated, you can't fool me."

"Isn't cornmeal the powder made from corn kernels? It should be yellow, but yours is brown and looks so rough. It doesn't look like cornmeal."

Lin Sanqi's words attracted the laughter of a group of uncles and aunts nearby. One of the old men explained:

"Young man, you are from the south, right? No wonder you don't recognize corn noodles, they are really good stuff."

(End of this chapter)