The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 45 Oil and Furniture
"Master Jiang, don't fool me. You asked me to help you exchange this half bag of kelp?" Zhang Yang asked in disbelief.

"I'm a truck driver, why should I fool you? I'll sell you 60 cents for a pound of kelp here, and you don't have to pay for the rice." Jiang Cheng said with a smile, he still had a lot in his space. He was lucky to face Zhang Yang. If someone else had come to show his goodwill to him in advance, he might have found someone else.

Jiang Cheng didn't want to find too many people in the yard to handle things for the time being. He would try to ask Sister Zhu Lan to help him get some high-end goods in the future. For example, radios, bicycles, sewing machines, and other four big items. As for food, it was mainly cooking oil. It would be nice to get some meat coupons so that he could buy fat meat to make lard.

As for exchanging food, I'm afraid it's really not as convenient as some workers working in hundreds or thousands of factories. Just find some people to exchange one pound of food for him, and he will have enough fine food to eat.

And when everyone heard that Jiang Cheng was a driver, they thought his things were safer than those bought in Pigeon City, so they were not afraid of being checked.

As for the other small bag, it was prepared by Jiang Cheng for Zhu Lan. It was dried sea fish, which was also sold to him by the villagers on the coast. This sea fish has fewer bones than freshwater fish, and its meat contains a certain amount of salt and marine-specific flavor substances.

Sea fish are harder to find inland than kelp. Jiang Cheng plans to exchange the sea fish for fat or cooking oil from Zhu Lan.

Jiang Cheng caught a lot of birds at Qingcao Lake a few days ago, and there were also wild ducks and pheasants in the space. These things are delicious only when they are braised or stir-fried. Even if they are stewed in soup, they need some oil to be fragrant.

"Brother Zhang, I'm going to the backyard to ask Sister Zhu to come over. Let her take over the kelp later and make sure there's just enough. You can come get it later." After chatting with Zhang Yang for a while, Jiang Cheng changed the subject directly. His meaning was very simple, asking him to step aside for the time being.

"Master Jiang, you are busy. I have to go back too." Zhang Yang said very politely. He could guess that Jiang Cheng might have something to give to Zhu Lan.

But today, Zhang Yang just saw Jiang Cheng coming back and inadvertently went up to say hello, and then he encountered such a good thing. He was actually very excited and wanted to go home immediately to tell his family about this good news.

Let's not talk about how many favors you can get from him if you give him help to deal with dozens of kilograms of kelp. Just the truck driver Jiang Cheng, many people are willing to ask him to do things without any benefits. This shows that he is familiar with others. Why ask him for help instead of you? Others will look up to you if they know that you are familiar with a truck driver.

After Zhang Yang finished speaking, he immediately went to Jiang Cheng's house, and Jiang Cheng also went to the backyard to find Zhu Lan. He shouted "Sister Zhu" loudly in the backyard, and called Zhu Lan out.

"Jiang Cheng, I haven't seen you for many days. You must have gone out of town to deliver goods." After Zhu Lan was called out by Jiang Cheng, she said happily to Jiang Cheng.

"Sister Zhu, please come to my house and take a look at some things. There are too many people in your family, so it's not convenient for me to talk about things there." Jiang Cheng said.

It was already July 6th, and the school had already been closed. They might not stay in their rooms to do their homework at night. When Jiang Cheng called Zhu Lan, he saw her child playing outside the door.

"Wait a moment, I'll go back to the house and give you your things." Zhu Lan said.

"My stuff, my stuff." Jiang Cheng became curious when he heard that Zhu Lan had something to give him.

"You were not at home a few days ago, so the people from the street office brought you a book. The people from the street office are familiar with me, so they left it with me." Zhu Lan said with a smile, then went back to the room to get the book for Jiang Cheng.

Soon Zhu Lan came out and handed several small notebooks to Jiang Cheng.

These days, several books are particularly important for urban residents' lives, namely the household registration book, grain book, non-staple food book and coal purchase receipt.

Needless to say, you had to take the grain book with you to buy a fixed amount of grain every month. If you didn't want to buy grain, you could go to the grain store and get grain coupons according to the corresponding quantity.

With the non-staple food certificate, you can buy sesame paste, peanuts, melon seeds, soy products, vermicelli, etc. at the supply and marketing cooperative.

As for the coal purchase voucher, it is used to buy coal for daily use. You don’t need to buy it every month, you can buy a quarter of it at a time. In winter, you can also buy extra coal for the winter.

Jiang Cheng took a few notebooks, and from then on he was considered a city dweller who truly ate commercial grain. However, these notebooks were issued when he was out transporting goods. Even if they were issued on the last day of last month, Jiang Cheng could buy a month's worth of food.

It is already July, and Jiang Cheng has not yet collected his June rations, nor has he exchanged them for food coupons.

According to the grain store's regulations, grain certificates can only be used to collect the monthly quota. But regulations are dead, people are alive, and many departments are now truly serving the people, and will not be one-size-fits-all.

As long as Jiang Cheng goes back to his unit to get a certificate stating that he was unable to receive food due to work reasons, he will be able to buy last month's rationed food.

Jiang Cheng took Zhu Lan back to the room. There was no furniture in the house, not even a place to sit, which was a bit awkward.

"Sister Zhu, I went to Yancheng to deliver some goods and brought back some dried sea fish. Can you get me some fat or oil?" Since there was no stool for her to sit on, Jiang Cheng simply opened the bag of sea fish and said.

There was no hairtail in the bag, only ordinary sea fish, which cost only about 35 cents. As for the hairtail, Jiang Cheng would keep it for later processing, or he could eat it himself. As for the sea fish, Jiang Cheng had fresh ones in his space, so there was no need to eat the dried ones.

After hearing what Jiang Cheng said, Zhu Lan immediately walked over to the bag of sea fish, then squatted down and turned the sea fish over to check the quality. The villagers who sold Jiang Cheng's sea fish were also honest, and those who didn't look good would not take out the fish at all.

The fat of this sea fish is not as valuable. If you exchange it at an equivalent price, for example, a little more than one kilogram of fat for two kilograms of sea fish, you can find some people to do the exchange.

The monthly meat ration for ordinary people may be two taels, but some leaders have extra subsidies. Although sea fish has more fat than meat, it can provide more oil and water, but for leaders in inland cities, it is also a rare food.

Zhu Lan was confident that she could get some fat meat for Jiang Cheng, but from what Jiang Cheng said, his purpose was not meat, but oil. He wanted fat meat to make oil, not because he needed meat.

If you need oil, it's actually easy. The supply and marketing cooperatives don't actually sell meat. To buy meat in the city, you have to go to state-owned grocery stores or farmers' markets.

As for buying cooking oil, you can actually go to the supply and marketing cooperative. The price of rapeseed oil and sea fish is the same. Zhu Lan put down the sea fish in his hand and said, "It's no problem to help you exchange meat or cooking oil, but you have to give me some time."

"No problem, but I still need a favor from you, Sister Zhu. This bag contains kelp. I asked Zhang Yang across the street to help me go to his factory to exchange food with the employees, but I am not necessarily at home usually, and I don't have any weights or anything. If you have time, please take care of it for me, and I will give you a pound to try." Jiang Cheng requested again.

A pound of kelp, after soaking, can weigh six or seven pounds. Jiang Cheng gave a lot, which meant he asked Zhu Lan to help sell it. He asked her to connect with Zhang Yang, and he would only need to take the money and food.

Zhu Lan agreed without any hesitation, but she felt a little bit sorry that Jiang Cheng didn't let her deal with all of it. If Jiang Cheng wanted fine grain, she could find someone to exchange it for her, but it was not as fast and convenient as finding more factory workers to deal with it.

A pound of dried kelp can last for a long time if you save it, while most people only eat a pound of refined grains. The main reason is that kelp is a nutritious product, and basically everyone is willing to exchange it.

If these dried kelp were given to Zhu Lan to handle, she could do more favors. But she didn't dare to be greedy, it was good enough to have these sea fish for her to handle.

After reaching the cooperation requirements, Jiang Cheng took all the kelp and hairtail to Zhu Lan's house. There was no place to sit in his house, and no water to serve, so there was no need to stay there all the time.

"Jiang Cheng, you need to buy some furniture at home, it's too empty." This time when Jiang Cheng came to Zhu Lan's house, he went into the house. After Jiang Cheng put down the kelp and hairtail, Zhu Lan spoke.

"Brother Wang, you smoke." Jiang Cheng did not reply to Zhu Lan immediately, but handed a cigarette to Zhu Lan's husband who was sitting in the living room, and then asked Zhu Lan: "Sister Zhu, do you have better tables and chairs at the supply and marketing cooperative?"

Zhu Lan shook her head. It has been many years since the liberation. If it were more than ten years ago, the supply and marketing cooperatives would still sell relatively good old furniture. But now they are all leftovers from countless people, but people still buy them from time to time.

When many people didn't have furniture tickets and couldn't buy wood, they had no choice but to find a carpenter to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to pick out some old furniture, and then dismantle it to use as wood for new furniture.

Nowadays, when people in the city get married, it is not yet the time to require 36 legs, but they must have some new furniture. If 36 legs become popular in the city in ten years, some people will not be able to find wood for their wedding and will even dismantle the door panels as materials.

"Jiang Cheng, I know a good carpenter. If you can get the wood, I can help you contact him. If you buy old furniture and refurbish it, it will cost more." Zhu Lan said. As a salesperson in the supply and marketing cooperative, she knew a lot of people. Carpenters often went to the supply and marketing cooperative to help people pick out furniture. Naturally, after a long time, the salesperson would also know a few carpenters.

Needing wood, Jiang Cheng thought about it and seemed to have seen other drivers in the company transporting orders to the lumber mill. He had to get some benefits for the company anyway, so he planned to ask the logistics director or stationmaster tomorrow if he had any connections with the lumber mill.

Jiang Cheng is rich now. He made more than 500 yuan from selling fish during this long-distance transport. In addition, he made more than 150 yuan when he was not on the long-distance trip. He plans to go to Chang City First People's Hospital to ask if his father Jiang Changhe can be treated.

If his father Jiang Changhe's weakness in the lower body and occasional labor pains could be cured, he would have no more worries in the future. Jiang Cheng was worried that the condition would continue to deteriorate and he would become completely paralyzed and incontinent.

"Sister Zhu, how about this? You can help me contact the carpenter first. Ask him to go to your supply and marketing cooperative to pick out some tables and chairs as wood and make a set for me first. Anyway, I have two rooms in my house, and I will also try to see if I can get some wood. If I can, I will make a set of furniture." Jiang Cheng replied. He wanted to marry Zhou Lingying and then bring her to live in the city. It would not be possible to do without a set of tables and chairs.

When Zhu Lan heard Jiang Cheng say this, she smiled and told Jiang Cheng not to worry, and that she would go find a carpenter tomorrow.

Don't think that Jiang Cheng asked Zhu Lan for help twice. Last time he asked her to help sell fish, and this time it was sea fish. In fact, Zhu Lan owed Jiang Cheng a favor. If she had good things, she would sell them, and the people who bought her things would remember her favor.

　Thanks to the brothers who gave me monthly tickets and rewards yesterday. There were eleven monthly tickets and a total of 200 Qidian coins. Although it’s not much, at least it kept my ranking on the new book list from falling so fast. So this chapter is actually a chapter of words.

　　In addition, I am a new author, please don't keep saying that I am a eunuch, I don't understand what you mean~. Don't slander me without evidence, I will sue you for defamation~~.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)