The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 102 A Problem of This Era

An income of more than 100 yuan a month and being able to get scarce materials, what does it mean to people in this era? The income of the eighth-level workers in some factories is the same, but what kind of existence is the eighth-level worker? There are very few eighth-level workers in large factories with 10,000 people.

In some large steel mills, there are tens of thousands of workers, but the number of level 8 workers may not exceed three digits. And level 8 workers are just skilled workers, and they may be respected in the factory. But except for the high salary, they can't compare with drivers in other aspects.

Anyway, Liu Xiaofang calculated that Jiang Cheng's salary alone was equal to the salary of three people in her family.

Fortunately, Liu Xiaofang just asked casually, and the topic immediately turned to her son's blind date. Speaking of which, Xie Xiuyun is pretty and has a job.

Wang Huimei knew Liu Xiaofang's family conditions, and the person she introduced was a good match. Knowing that her son was good-looking, she naturally brought a girl who was also good-looking.

At the beginning of the meeting in the living room, the parents of both parties briefly introduced the situation. Neither Zhou Xingcai nor Xie Xiuyun spoke. When the introduction was almost over, the matchmaker Wang Huimei pulled the woman's family members to the door and asked Xie Xiuyun how she felt.

It doesn't mean that Xie Xiuyun has to confirm that she is dating Zhou Xingcai right now. If they are attracted to each other, she and Zhou Xingcai can sit in the room alone and chat with each other.

Outside the room, Xie Xiuyun's parents nodded and thought it was good. Xie Xiuyun thought for a while before nodding. In her heart, she actually wanted to find someone like Jiang Cheng, who could at least talk and laugh in front of everyone.

When entertaining guests, Jiang Cheng delivered drinks to Xie Xiuyun outside the door. He asked her very carefully what flavor she wanted, and Jiang Cheng opened the bottle cap for her.

To be honest, when Xie Xiuyun came with the matchmaker and her parents, she talked about the man. She thought Jiang Cheng, who was sitting at the door, was Zhou Xingcai, wearing a military green suit and handsome. Unfortunately, he was not Zhou Xingcai, and he was married.

But Xie Xiuyun also knew how difficult it was to find a driver as a partner. If she really found a driver as a partner, the female colleagues at the factory would be envious. Zhou Xingcai was also good-looking, but he didn't look as "clean" as Jiang Cheng.

Xie Xiuyun is also pragmatic and knows that she can't fantasize about anything. Zhou Xingcai's parents are both employees, so they don't have any burden and can take care of their children.

Therefore, Xie Xiuyun agreed to talk to Zhou Xingcai alone. Zhou Xingcai had no objection, and the two of them accomplished their goal quickly.

If she agrees to go into the room and talk, you can treat her to a home-cooked meal before she leaves.

After the water boiled, Liu Xiaofang also offered a gift to everyone by letting them taste the lotus root starch that Jiang Cheng brought. Each person had a bowl of it, which was directly brewed with boiling water.

After just a simple brew, you can smell the rich aroma of lotus root, which is very fragrant. However, the appearance of things brewed from powder is not very good.

But after tasting it, Jiang Cheng thought it was really good, with a smooth texture, melting in the mouth, no graininess, and very delicate.

The taste is a bit sweet, and compared with black sesame paste, it may be a little lighter and less fragrant. But the price-performance ratio is definitely better than black sesame paste, which is hard to buy and expensive.

While everyone was tasting lotus root starch, Zhou Dongming also came back from get off work. Before he came up, he was stopped by a neighbor who told him that his son-in-law had come. Anyway, the news of Jiang Cheng's appearance spread quickly, mainly because Jiang Cheng was a driver.

When Zhou Dongming returned home and saw Jiang Cheng, he was also a little confused by his daughter calling him "Dad". The main reason was that it had not been long since he received his daughter's letter last time, which only said that they were dating. Now a man who was already married to his daughter appeared directly, and he had to adapt to it.

Fortunately, there are not so many daughter slaves these days, and the thoughts are not so dirty. When they see a son-in-law suddenly appear, they will think about how this man sleeps with their daughter. Then the situation that often occurs is that the mother-in-law likes the son-in-law, and the father-in-law looks at the son-in-law like a thief.

The cigarettes given by his brother-in-law were delicious, and Zhou Dongming was not shy about the filial gifts. When he heard that the lotus root starch was bought specially from Hangzhou, he immediately ordered a bowl to try.

As for white wine, I must have a couple of sips today.

After Zhou Dongming came back, Liu Xiaofang didn't have to entertain Xie Xiuyun's parents, so she hurried to the kitchen to prepare food to entertain her brother-in-law.

Jiang Cheng didn't want to stay in the room either, mainly because there was a blind date here today, and Jiang Cheng would be a bit of a nuisance if he stayed in the room. Zhou Dongming had to have a good talk with the girl's parents, so Jiang Cheng went to the kitchen to please his mother-in-law. After arriving in the kitchen, Jiang Cheng found that there was actually a stove in the kitchen, and he could cook with firewood. But there was no pot on the stove. Liu Xiaofang told Jiang Cheng that they used to cook with firewood more than ten years ago, and at that time there were people who came to the city to sell firewood.

Those who sell firewood are very pitiful. They can't just chop some firewood and sell it in the city. They have to chop and sort the firewood well, and dry it in the sun. Firewood that is not dry will produce a lot of smoke when burned.

When a firewood seller comes to the city, he may have to go out early in the morning and walk a long way. Once in the city, it depends on luck. If he can't sell it in the morning, he may sell it at a lower price in the afternoon when it is almost dark.

Some people who like to get a bargain like to buy firewood from others at that time, at half the price. If the firewood seller sells out in the afternoon, he will basically go hungry for the whole day.

I would use the firewood I sold to buy some daily necessities, as life was very difficult anyway.

Later, the towns and villages established communes, and except for some remote urban areas where people might still sell firewood, or in the county towns below, most large cities burned coal.

"Mom, what was Yingying like when she was little? I'm curious." Jiang Cheng couldn't help much in the kitchen, so he could only chat with his mother-in-law. Jiang Cheng had always called Zhou Lingying "Lingying" before, but now he followed the others and called her by her nickname Yingying.

"Haha, Yingying was a tomboy when she was young. Jiang Cheng, wait a minute, I'll go get you her childhood photos." When Liu Xiaofang heard Jiang Cheng asking what his daughter looked like when she was a child, she became excited. She put down the things in her hands and went back to the residence to get the photos.

Soon Liu Xiaofang returned to the kitchen and showed Jiang Cheng some photos of Zhou Lingying when she was between the ages of six and twelve.

When Zhou Lingying was six years old, she had short hair. This photo was taken more than ten years ago. She was willing to spend money to take photos at that time, which shows that her family was well-off.

Although I was a tomboy when I was young, I looked very cool. My mother-in-law was also very young and beautiful more than ten years ago.

If some old drivers in the 21st century saw such a photo and could comment on it, Jiang Cheng would not have to guess that someone would definitely comment, "The child is so cute. If you let me hold her, I would be willing to wash her feet with her mother."

'The child is so cute, I really want to hug her mother.'

"How cute! Can you let your uncle kiss your mother?"

~~
Zhou Lingying started growing her hair long when she was ten years old. By the age of twelve, she had grown from a tomboy to a graceful young lady.

While Jiang Cheng was looking at the photos, his mother-in-law kept telling him about her embarrassing moments. She wet her bed when she was eight years old, and she was a big eater when she was growing up. When she was very hungry, she could put raw rice into her mouth and chew it slowly.

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng actually wanted to interrupt. He wanted to ask Zhou Lingying if she could only eat when she was growing up. Wasn't she always a big eater?
Jiang Cheng was with Zhou Lingying, and he remembered that Zhou Lingying was responsible for clearing the dishes every night. He had never heard her say that she couldn't eat. A person who could eat cornmeal steamed bread so deliciously was definitely not an ordinary eater.

However, Jiang Cheng did not ask this question, fearing that his mother-in-law would misunderstand that he disliked Zhou Lingying's ability to eat. In this era, being able to eat was not a good thing, not as later generations said that being able to eat was a blessing.

Food is rationed, and if they eat too much, I don’t know how to feed them.

Jiang Cheng didn't say how much Zhou Lingying could eat now, but as someone who was not born and raised in this era, he asked his mother-in-law a question. Zhou Lingying had been in the countryside for a year and a half, and she had no way to go back to Nanjing to visit her parents.

But Jiang Cheng was curious about whether the parents, as parents, didn't miss their children and why they didn't go to visit Zhou Lingying.

　Go to sleep. I don't have any drafts saved. I want to write more, but if I write too fast, it will become sloppy. There are some things I feel I should write about.

　　Some people like some content while others think it’s mediocre. There are a lot of subscription jumps, but I accept all of that.

　　Let’s work harder tomorrow. It seems that the monthly tickets will be doubled. If you have any, I hope you won’t be stingy.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)