The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 27 Please Eat Fish and Shrimp
After receiving the delivery note, the dispatcher at the transport station in Macheng called the cargo company, who said that there was no problem with loading the goods, so Jiang Cheng set off again.

It doesn't matter to Jiang Cheng whether the order is good or bad. He made more than 60 yuan today just by selling fish, and his monthly salary as a level 3 driver is only 58 yuan.

What is a good order? It means transporting coal, fruits, canned goods and various daily necessities. For drivers, these are all good orders. If they go, people will show some appreciation and give them some "specialties".

When we arrived at the factory, it seemed that it was customary to give the drivers a whole pack of cigarettes. It was a matter of quality, but the worst was mid-range cigarettes of this era, less than 20 cents a pack, which was a slap in the face of the drivers.

This time, it was past four o'clock when the goods were loaded, and there was no need to go back to Changcheng. Drivers rarely drive at night these days, especially when the road is bad on rainy days. If the road is bad, there may be no street lights outside the city, and if an accident occurs, it may be serious.

Even when driving long distances, sometimes when it gets dark and we can’t get into the city, we just stop the car on the road to rest. Many times we just sleep wherever we drive to.

So, people envy the job of driver, but sometimes it is hard work. Especially in a month, when the real summer comes, it will be like being in a steamer even if you stay in the car, not to mention the hard work of driving.

Jiang Cheng had a meal at a restaurant in Macheng, then drove the car out of the city and parked it on the side of the road. There were large barrels of water in the car, so it was no problem to wash. After a quick wash, he got on the car. The front of the car was 2.4 meters wide, and the inner diameter was at least 2 meters. If you lay in the second row of the car, you don't have to worry about not being able to stretch your legs straight.

At this time today, Zhou Lingying had already moved into Jiang Cheng's room in his hometown, Kaiyang Village, Jinhe Commune.

At the youth educated center, the female youth educated also elected a team leader to replace Zhou Lingying, so she no longer had to worry about the new youth educated. She moved to Jiang Cheng's house and gave up her position as team leader. In the female youth educated dormitory, Zhou Lingying also moved out and ate with the people in the same dormitory.

The newly arrived female educated youth simply handed over some food and ate with the people in the same dormitory. The work points earned by the newly arrived educated youth would actually be accumulated until the next harvest season before they would be distributed. The food they eat now is all supplied by the state.

The state would give a fixed amount of food every month to the educated youth who had just arrived in the countryside. If the state did not give them food, they would have no work points at the beginning and would starve to death.

Li Mingjun was as enthusiastic as ever towards the new educated youth, male or female, and liked to take care of the newcomers. Then the newcomers also helped each other and lent out some of their rations.

Zhou Lingying remembered that it was the same when she first became an educated youth, and she borrowed some of her food rations. But when the grain was harvested and distributed, she did return them.

But after about half a year, the newly arrived educated youth no longer received the fixed food subsidy from the state, and had to borrow food again. If they expected to wait until others distributed food before paying it back, they would never make it through that day.

There is nothing wrong with helping each other, but the amount of food everyone gets is actually about the same. Logically, everyone plans to save food. It is impossible for some people to have no food before the time for food distribution. The most likely reason is that someone did not save their rations in normal times.

But from now on, all this has nothing to do with Zhou Lingying. She did not eat at the educated youth camp at noon today, and went to Jiang Cheng's house with the remaining food. The food might not be as good as when Jiang Cheng was there, but at least there was salted fish to eat. In this day and age, having a piece of salted fish for a meal is very satisfying.

Now Zhou Lingying has made up her mind. When Jiang Cheng comes back, she will pick a date to marry him. Feelings can be cultivated slowly in the future. Many people do this. Now, even if Jiang Cheng doesn't want her, it won't work. If he doesn't want her, he will play with the feelings of the educated youth, and she will definitely make a fuss.

Zhou Lingying lay in bed, wondering when Jiang Cheng would come back. It rained for most of the day, and the educated youth didn't go to work. If they didn't work, they wouldn't earn work points. It was good to have a partner with a job. At least they could get a guaranteed income regardless of drought or flood, and they didn't have to worry about the weather. They could collect their wages on the day.

At night, Zhou Lingying slept very peacefully. The change in a woman's thinking is indeed great when she has a partner or not. When she was an educated youth, she shouted slogans so loudly every day, but she had no one to rely on. Now that Zhou Lingying has figured it out, she has no worries at all. She doesn't have to think about anything every day. She gets up in the morning and goes to the educated youth point to gather. She does whatever she is assigned to do and goes home after finishing the work. The next morning, the weather was clear. It rained yesterday, and Zhou Lingying's clothes were covered with mud. But now she only needs to make breakfast with her sister-in-law Li Xianglan and then go to work. The future mother-in-law will help wash the clothes at home.

Zhao Yuxia now only takes care of the family and does some housework and laundry. If she really has to go out for something and doesn't have time to wash clothes, Li Xianglan will do it when she comes back at noon. Anyway, the family's life is supported by Jiang Cheng, so it doesn't matter if Lingying's work points earned last week are not enough to cover the food rations.

As long as there is no worry about food, the attitude towards work is good, and it doesn't matter whether you earn one more work point or one less.

As for Jiang Cheng, he had a sound sleep in the car. When he was out, he didn't need to report to the unit on time. As long as he could sleep, it didn't matter even if he slept until 10 o'clock before leaving.

But if you don't stay up late, it was still drizzling last night, and you couldn't even see the stars. Except for those who can take sleeping as a hobby, an energetic young man like Jiang Cheng can't fall asleep even if he wants to.

After a quick check of the car's condition, Jiang Cheng set off. He should definitely buy some food and put it in his personal space in the future. This way, if he is outside in the morning, he can have something to eat.

On the way back, we passed by the river where we fished yesterday. Although there was still a lot of fish in the space, we just kept fishing. As long as the space could hold it, we would fish once we got the chance.

This time, he was lucky. There was a wild duck by the river that didn't fly away when Jiang Cheng approached it. Jiang Cheng caught it and put it into his personal space. After fishing for fish and shrimps by the river for more than half an hour, Jiang Cheng returned to the car and continued on his way.

After returning to Changcheng and unloading the goods, Jiang Cheng drove the car back to the transport station. He was a driver at the Changcheng transport station. The feeling of returning to the transport station in Changcheng was completely different from that in Macheng. At least it felt like this was his territory. He could discuss how to accept orders and where to go.

There was a clock in the transport station. Jiang Cheng looked at the time and it was almost eleven o'clock. It would soon be time for dinner.

The canteen at the transportation station is a small one. Although the bus station covers a large area, there are few drivers at work at noon. The number of people eating in the canteen of the transportation department is not as many as that of the passenger department.

Jiang Cheng planned to have a meal in the cafeteria. In addition, he liked to eat shrimp. There were river shrimps in the space, but he had never sold them. The price of river shrimps was about the same as fish in this era, so Jiang Cheng naturally gave priority to keeping the ones he liked to eat. So Jiang Cheng wanted to see if the cafeteria at their transportation station could process them for him.

First take the form to the dispatch room to register. Even if you don't drive in the afternoon, Jiang Cheng will be considered to have made two days of short-distance driving in the city and receive a subsidy of 1.2 yuan.

"Master Jiang, Stationmaster Xu said yesterday afternoon that you should go to his place when you return."

"Oh, I see. Thanks."

In the dispatch room, the dispatcher saw Jiang Cheng coming back and immediately told him about what Station Master Xu had asked him to do yesterday. After Jiang Cheng handed in the list of goods he had brought back from Macheng and Macheng, he thanked the dispatcher for the information.

(End of this chapter)