Restarting life by going to the countryside to support medical work

Chapter 40 Old Classmates

The exchange of grain is very fast, one pound for two pounds, this is the common practice.

In the past, the price of flour would increase a little when the Chinese New Year was approaching, and one pound of flour could be exchanged for two and a half to three pounds of coarse grains. But this has not been the case since last year.

The reason for the price increase in the past was that during the Chinese New Year, even the poorest families would grit their teeth and make dumplings for a meal, even if they were vegetarian dumplings. This required flour, and as the demand increased, the price would naturally go up.

But since last year, people have stopped celebrating the New Year, and some of the New Year traditions have been cancelled. What they emphasize is the new society and new atmosphere.

Since we’re not making dumplings, the price naturally won’t go up.

The one cloth bag in his hand turned into two cloth bags, each containing seven or eight kilograms of rice and more than ten kilograms of flour. Li Yancheng then turned his attention to other stalls.

Hmm? Oil? Damn, life is so unbearable, why are they even selling oil?
When Li Yancheng saw the oil bottle used for oil at home placed in front of the man, his eyes fixed and he walked over with surprise on his face.

“What kind of oil is this?”

"Peanut oil, two pounds, five dollars including the pot."

The person selling the things was wrapped very tightly, with only a pair of eyes showing. When he heard Li Yancheng's question, he spoke very straightforwardly.

No wonder, it turns out that what they were selling was peanut oil, which was only available in small quantities before the Chinese New Year.

Peanut oil is expensive to begin with. It's sold at 80 or 90 cents per pound in grain and oil stores, and you need a specially subsidized oil coupon. This price can buy about two pounds of ordinary cottonseed oil.

This guy is selling a two-jin gas can for five yuan, which is quite reasonable.

"Give"

Li Yancheng was even more straightforward. He just took out five dollars from his pocket and handed it over.

He was so quick that the seller was stunned for a moment. It took him a second or two to react and take the money.

After he took the money, Li Yancheng bent down, picked up the oil bottle, turned around and left without saying a word.

The seller looked at the departing figure, then looked at the money in his hand, a smile clearly revealed in his eyes, and he raised his foot to chase after it.

After leaving with the oil bottle, Li Yancheng was wondering whether he should find a place away from people to put the oil bottle into the warehouse. Suddenly, he felt someone patted his shoulder. He turned around and saw that the person who patted him was the tightly wrapped man who had just sold oil.

Seeing this person coming over again, he was slightly startled and asked in a puzzled voice: "What's the matter?"

"Dacheng?"

"Ok?"

"Haha, I didn't recognize the wrong person. It's really you. It's me, Xiao Yuan."

When the oil seller saw Li Yancheng's reaction, he knew he had not recognized the wrong person. He chuckled and raised his hand to pull down the scarf around his face.

Although it was pitch black, there were many flashlights on in the market. With the help of the light, as long as you looked closely from a close distance, you could still see the appearance clearly.

When Li Yancheng saw the face under the scarf, he was stunned for a moment, and his brain was already working at full speed to search for memories.

I found him, his junior high school classmate. We used to have a pretty good relationship, but I heard that he went out of town.

"Xiao Yuan, why is it you? I remember you were assigned to work on the Third Front construction, right?"

After graduating from junior high school, Xiao Yuan took over his grandfather's job and went to work at the Beijing Heavy Machinery Factory.

The year before last, when Li Yancheng returned from demobilization, he heard from other classmates that the Beijing Heavy Machinery Factory had aided in building a factory in a western province, which was a key project of the country's third-line construction, and Xiao Yuan had also been sent there by the factory.

Li Yancheng was very familiar with the Third Line Construction. His parents in his previous life had worked in a Third Line factory, which was located in the mountains at that time. He was still in the factory when he was born. He only moved to the city with his parents when he was in elementary school due to job transfers.

"I just got back after New Year's Day." Xiao Yuan replied, turned his head to look at the people coming and going, raised his hand and patted Li Yancheng's arm and said, "Let's go outside and talk. It's not convenient here." Yes, standing here and talking is like being a thief, and the voice has to be lowered. It is indeed inconvenient.

"Row"

Li Yancheng nodded, motioned Xiao Yuan to go ahead, and he followed.

The two of them walked out of the big shed of the vegetable market, one after the other, went straight to a street lamp on the side of the road, and then sat on the curb together.

"I was just asking you, weren't you a cadre when you joined the army? Why did you get demobilized? I ran into Mingxia once after I came back on New Year's Day, and she told me that you came back just after I left the year before last."

"I can't stay any longer."

How could Li Yancheng explain it? He searched through all the inherited memories but couldn't find out why the original owner wanted to leave the army.

He put the cloth bag and oil bottle on the ground, took out a cigarette from his coat pocket and handed it over.

Xiao Yuan waved his hand and didn't take it: "You forgot, I never smoke."

"Oh, I really forgot about this."

After taking back the cigarette and lighting it for himself, Li Yancheng raised his chin and gestured towards the oil bottle on the ground.

"What's going on? Why are you here selling peanut oil?"

Beijing Heavy Machinery Factory is a key national enterprise. Xiao Yuan's family all work in the factory and their family conditions are quite good. He really couldn't understand how this guy could have fallen to the point of selling oil for money.

"Haha, I'm just selling it for fun."

As he said this, he handed over the five dollars he had been holding in his hand.

"What are you doing?" Li Yancheng glanced at the money, then turned his head to look at Xiao Yuan who was sitting next to him.

Maybe it was because they were sitting under a street light and it was a little dark. Even though Xiao Yuan had pulled down his scarf, Li Yancheng still felt it was a little blurry. It seemed that it was not as clear as when he saw it in the market with the little light just now.

"Are you going to take the oil back, or are you going to give it to me for free?"

"Okay, buy it and leave it, okay, then I won't say anything."

Xiao Yuan smiled and took his hand back, putting the five yuan note into his pocket.

Seeing that he had put the money away, Li Yancheng said, "Didn't you go to support the construction of the Third Front? Why are you back? Where is the factory that your factory helped build?"

"It's not far west of Chang'an. Like you, I couldn't stay there any longer, so I begged my father to find a way to bring me back."

Xiao Yuan's father is a workshop director in a heavy machinery factory, so he has the ability to bring his son back from there.

But Li Yancheng could tell there was something fishy about this guy's words. There must be other reasons, but he didn't want to say it, so he didn't ask any more questions and changed the topic to something else.

The two of them sat on the side of the road and chatted for about 10 to 20 minutes. They couldn't stand the cold anymore, so they prepared to go home.

"That's right, Dacheng."

The two of them were going in two different directions. After saying goodbye to each other, Li Yancheng picked up the cloth bag and oil bottle and prepared to leave, but was stopped again.

"what happened?"

"Did the Zhu brothers stop you when you came here just now?"

"The Zhu brothers?" Li Yancheng was confused. He didn't even know any Zhu brothers.

(End of this chapter)