The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 123 Buying Work Points in Exchange for Food
Now Wang Yuzhen really feels like she is in a difficult situation. She feels like she was the one who spread the news about Zhou Lingying throwing feces.

Wang Yuzhen had told Zhang Qing in the backyard about this. When Zhou Lingying was not here, Wang Yuzhen and Zhang Qing in the backyard had a good relationship. Even when Zhou Lingying came, Wang Yuzhen still liked to chat with Zhang Qing the most. Because Zhang Qing's husband was the same as Wang Yuzhen's husband, both were porters in the factory, but they were not in the same factory.

Moreover, the two of them are about the same age and do not live with their parents-in-law, so naturally they have a lot of topics to talk about.

Wang Yuzhen privately told Zhang Qing about the incident of feces being thrown at Li Meihong's house, and asked her not to tell anyone else. But she didn't expect that the next day the news that Zhou Lingying hired someone to throw feces spread.

Wang Yuzhen went to Zhang Qing to ask if she had told anyone about it, but she said she had not told anyone else about it and asked Wang Yuzhen if she had told anyone about it.

This made Wang Yuzhen ask her husband last night whether he had told anyone about this. On the night when feces was thrown at Li Meihong's house, she couldn't help but tell her husband that it was Zhou Lingying who called people to take revenge on Li Meihong's family.

The current situation is that no one Wang Yuzhen has told admits that they were the ones who spread the news. When asked how they knew who spread the news, the result is that they only heard it from others.

Now Wang Yuzhen doesn’t know whether she should admit to Zhou Lingying that she had told Zhang Qing about this, or deny it. The key point is that Zhou Lingying didn’t come to ask her about this.

What made Wang Yuzhen a little painful was that Zhou Lingying didn't ask, but she didn't dare to admit it actively. She thought that if Zhou Lingying didn't ask, the matter would just pass.

But it was like a bomb that could explode with me, and I was worried that she would ask. Then, thinking that she would ask, I told Zhang Qing frankly, and Zhang Qing promised not to tell anyone else.

At around noon, Jiang Chengjia prepared the food and started eating.

Today's dishes were also very rich. They didn't finish yesterday's dishes. Zhou Lingying's mother cooked a lunch box full of pickled mustard greens and braised pork for her. In addition, Jiang Cheng also brought out a lot of braised pork. In the past, I couldn't even think of eating a piece of meat a day, and now I can't eat as much as I want even if I have meat.

But the weather was hot and we couldn't keep it, so we had already eaten a lot yesterday. Especially Jiang Changhe needed to recover, so we gave him a lot.

So I stewed a wild duck for lunch and added the leftover meat from yesterday. It was another rich day.

"Chengzi, according to the date, the village production team should be planting new crops and rice seedlings. The commune production team is also going to distribute grain. Your father and I have discussed it and plan to go back to take a look. If the work points we have insufficient can be supplemented with money and we can buy some food." Zhao Yuxia said while eating.

"If food is distributed, I also want to go back to the educated youth team to take a look. Several of the educated youth there lent me food coupons and said they would return them to me according to the amount of food when the food is distributed." When Zhou Lingying heard Zhao Yuxia say that she was going to go back, she also wanted to go back.

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng nodded. In fact, he had asked about his father's treatment yesterday. It would take a long time to fully recover, but it would not be difficult to return to normal life. It was just that he could not go out to work hard until he was fully recovered.

Jiang Cheng's parents don't live in Changcheng for long. Now it might be troublesome to go to the hospital every three days. But if they go to the hospital once every five days or once a week in the future, they can go back to their hometown in Jinhe Commune.

Zhao Yuxia and Jiang Changhe were not used to living in the city. They could not talk to the people because the topics of conversation were different from those of the rural people.

There are grandchildren at home, and the old couple miss them too.

Of course, Zhao Yuxia and Jiang Changhe could see that their son Jiang Cheng was rich, although they didn't know where he got so much money. He hired someone to make furniture, and every time he drove back, he would bring back so many things.

But they believed that their son Jiang Cheng would not have any problems with money, and it was probably because being a driver made too much money.

Since there is money, if the team distributes grain this time, outsiders are not allowed to buy grain. However, if the work points of the production team are insufficient, they can spend money to buy work points to make up for it and then get their own grain.

The current system of distributing grain in the commune is to pay the public grain first, which is also called "patriotic grain" in this era. The remaining grain should be kept for planting, and the remaining 30% should be kept in the commune collective.

If the commune does not reserve grain, it will be the end of us. If a family is too poor to have food to eat, where can they get grain from when they ask the brigade to borrow it?

The remaining food at the end is actually calculated based on the number of people counted, not based on the work points of everyone in the production team.

In fact, the food distribution is the same for those with more work points and those with less work points. When some production teams get food, everyone will be calculated according to the full work points. For example, a person can get 100 kilograms of food per day with full work points. If you don’t have enough work points and want 100 kilograms of food, you have to spend money to buy work points. If you have more than the work points, you can get money. If those who don’t have enough work points and haven’t bought food, the extra food can also be bought with work points. But only those who have more work points can use work points to buy, and can’t buy with money.

Some people in later generations said that in this era, rural areas could use money to buy grain, but this was actually wrong. You could only buy your own work points when the grain was distributed. It was not without restrictions. Otherwise, people living in the city, who had relatives in the countryside, could buy grain with money.

In rural areas, people who often spend money to buy food are called "old families in need". This is the case with Jiang Changhe's family. Their eldest son Jiang Quan is gone. What's the difference between this and a family in need?

The grain must be bought, but not much can be bought. Jiang Cheng's three nephews and nieces, as well as people like Jiang Changhe who have no labor force and cannot engage in production, are old, weak, sick and disabled, and may not be able to buy even half of the grain that a normal person would.

Now, Jiang Cheng can buy whatever he can, and he can exchange work points for grain. Not only does he not need grain coupons, but the price is also cheaper than grain in the city.

If there is not enough food in the future, Jiang Cheng can just get some food for his parents.

"Okay, buy as much food as you can, and I'll give you some money later. Take the drinks and watermelons I brought back for my sister-in-law and the children to try. Remember to make lard from the fat meat I brought yesterday, and bring some of the oil back. Dad is old enough to walk with support, so I may not have time to send him off." Jiang Cheng said.

"Jiang Cheng, I'm so rich. I still have more than 30 yuan from the money I was given last time, and I made 17 or 18 yuan from selling lotus root powder today." Zhou Lingying said.

"Then give it all to Dad. I'll put some more money in for you in the evening." Jiang Cheng replied. He originally wanted Zhou Lingying to give it to his mother Zhao Yuxia, but now that Jiang Changhe's illness can be cured, he will still be the head of the family in the countryside at night.

Zhao Yuxia didn't say anything about who Jiang Cheng gave the money to, but Jiang Changhe understood what he meant. Whoever manages the money is a reflection of status, and Jiang Changhe also wanted to be a useful person, so he smiled.

Zhou Lingying also wanted to go back, which was no problem, but she had to go and come back the same day. There were chickens to feed at home, so she fed them in the morning and sprinkled more rice bran on them. She took the morning bus back and had to take the afternoon bus back.

If Jiang Cheng wants to go back, he will basically have to spend a day. If he just wants to send them back and come back, it would be better to take the bus.

It was difficult to ask for leave for the driver, and when Jiang Cheng handed in the delivery note, he would definitely see the problem immediately. After delivering the goods in Shanghai, he did not come back directly, but went to Nanjing to pick up fertilizer.

When I arrived at the state-owned Deshengguan Comprehensive Reclamation Farm, I didn't pick up any goods on the way back from there. Logically, even if I didn't report to the unit yesterday afternoon, I should have gone this morning.

That is to say, Jiang Cheng is going to take a wild boar today, so that people in the unit can be polite. It would be a bit too much to ask for leave just to send someone back.

After dinner, Jiang Cheng went back to his room to lie down for a while, and asked Zhou Lingying to cut some watermelon and bring it over.

Zhou Lingying responded normally, saying that she was just cutting a watermelon for the man and she would not say that he was so lazy that he had to ask others to cut a watermelon for him.

But after she cleaned up the dishes and cut the watermelon and brought it into the room, it was a hot afternoon and she closed the door in a short while.

After a long time, the watermelon was finished and Zhou Lingying opened the door and came out.

The two of them fed each other imported watermelon in the room. They didn't go out after eating the watermelon because Zhou Lingying was afraid she couldn't control herself.

Jiang Cheng didn't want to go out at noon, and many people were resting at work. It was past one o'clock, and the weather was still very hot, but Jiang Cheng had to go to work.

Jiang Cheng took a few packets of lotus root starch and drove out. He also took out the toothpaste and toothbrush he promised to bring to his colleagues. When the car reached a bend, a big wild boar appeared in the trunk.

　Many people have commented that you can buy grain at will in the countryside. I checked and found that there are great restrictions. You can't just buy it at will. The so-called buying grain means that if you don't have many work points, you can pay money to make up for the work points, and then you can exchange them. I haven't found that you can simply buy it with money in the countryside.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)