Restarting life by going to the countryside to support medical work

Chapter 4 The way home
At 5:10 in the morning of the next day, Li Yancheng set off noisily, hissing from the cold.

Fortunately, he was wearing the cotton coat, cotton hat, cotton gloves and big cotton shoes issued by the army, otherwise he would have been frozen to death riding a bicycle in such a temperature several degrees below zero.

Riding a bicycle on a dirt road is a real test for the butt, and because of the limited time, he dared not slow down.

I could only grit my teeth and hold on while staring closely at the light of the flashlight shining on the road, trying my best to avoid some larger potholes.

He rode huffing and puffing for more than an hour, and it was half past six. The sky in the east was beginning to brighten. He looked at the conspicuous signs on the road and compared them with the route Zhou Guotao had told him last night. He was already halfway there when he suddenly realized that something seemed to be wrong.

What was wrong was not that he took the wrong road, but his body.

He found that he had been riding the bicycle at full speed for more than an hour, but he didn't feel tired at all. His breathing was just a little heavy and he was sweating a little.

Is this guy in such good physical condition?
While pedaling the bicycle, Li Yancheng searched his memory.

Not really. As far as I remember, when the original owner first arrived at the army and was training in a grassroots company, his physical fitness and strength were average. When throwing a wooden-handled grenade without a running start, he was just struggling on the passing line.

But this guy's shooting accuracy is really good. When shooting in prone, kneeling and standing positions at a distance of 100 meters, his five bullets basically hit more than 48 rings. Even at night, he can guarantee that each shot will not be less than 8 rings.

There was even one time at the shooting range where he shot down two flying birds with just three bullets. This was already very impressive. If he hadn't been a medical student and a professional, the company commander at the time would have wanted to keep him in the company and not let him leave.

Tsk tsk... Li Yancheng's face was full of envy, but then it turned into gnashing of teeth, and he secretly cursed the original owner for being a typical idiot.

How nice it would be to stay in the army, and be a cadre there. I don't know what career to change to. If it were him, he would just stay in the army until retirement.

If he had stayed in the army, he wouldn't be left with this mess to deal with.

He didn't taste anything like that woman, although he had some memories of her, but it was never as refreshing as the actual experience.

I didn't get to eat mutton but ended up smelling like mutton.

After cursing the original owner for a few words, he felt as if his strength had increased a lot, and he immediately sped up his pace.

Just like that, before half past seven, he had already arrived at Yishun County.

After riding for more than 20 kilometers early in the morning, I was extremely hungry. I hurried to a breakfast restaurant in the city and ate two fried dough sticks and a bowl of soy milk, which I emptied into my stomach in one gulp.

A fried dough stick cost four cents, and a bowl of unsweetened soy milk cost two cents, for a total of ten cents plus two taels of food coupons. If the soy milk was sweetened, a bowl would cost five cents.

If you want to eat out these days, even if you have money but no food coupons, no one will sell food to you.

In the memories inherited by Li Yancheng, the original owner had also visited the ghost market, where the price of a pound of Beijing food coupons was two yuan, while the price of the national food coupons was four yuan. Food coupons were also the easiest to sell there.

The other tickets also had different prices. The expensive ones, such as watch tickets, bicycle tickets, blanket tickets, sewing tickets, and radio tickets, were all 70 or 80 yuan each, or even more. As for industrial coupons, basically no one bought or sold them, because everyone received them with their salary every month, one for every 20 yuan. For example, Li Yancheng currently had a salary of 79.5 yuan, and he could receive four industrial coupons every month.

If you plan to buy something, you can save up enough by just a little bit, and if that doesn’t work, you can borrow from others.

However, special tickets for large items are not issued. Instead, they are given as rewards to employees who have made meritorious services and received awards. They are rare in the market and there is a great demand for them, so they can be sold at a good price.

From the 15th year after the founding of the People's Republic of China to the 29th year after the founding of the People's Republic of China, a period of 14 years, except for one adjustment of the salary grades of some "old second-level" employees, the salaries of other employees had no adjustment.

For example, in the past two years, even if both you and your spouse are level 8 workers and can earn a combined salary of 200 yuan per month, you still can't buy whatever you want. This is the fundamental situation.

The current policy of "wide employment and low wages" has indeed ensured that many people have jobs.

As long as you have a job, you can earn money. Even if you are a temporary worker who only earns more than 20 yuan a month, it is enough to support a family of four.

Li Yancheng is quite satisfied with coming to this era.

He has never had any ambitions. He has never thought about becoming a high-ranking official, nor has he thought about becoming the richest man. As long as he can have meat to eat, clothes to wear, and a place to live, it doesn't matter whether he has a wife or not.

Alas, he had no hope of participating in that entertainment activity that was so popular among male compatriots in his lifetime. Considering his age, when that industry developed into the club stage, he would only be able to shed tears in vain.

When he thought of this, his original desire to make more money after the reform and opening up suddenly became even weaker.

By the way, now that I’ve come through, what should I do with my son?

After coming out of the restaurant and just getting on his bicycle, Li Yancheng thought of this question, but then he shook his head.

The boy is already working and has a house and a car. If he really encounters any problems, he can turn to his grandparents and uncle and aunt.

He is already here, why do you still worry about that? My children and grandchildren will have their own blessings. If I don’t have any, I will enjoy my own happiness.

Following the directions he had just asked the hotel staff, he lifted his long legs, sat on the bicycle seat, and rode towards the bus station.

I had just ridden three or four hundred meters when I saw a vegetable market on the side of the road. I glanced at the "May 1st" all-steel watch on my wrist. This was the watch the original owner bought for 75 yuan after returning from the army. It was only 7:35 and there was still time, so I turned in.

He wanted to try his luck and see if he could buy some meat.

The meat stall is the first one you enter the market. It turns out that buying meat at this time is wishful thinking, but...

(End of this chapter)