The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 71 Cloth Coupons Are Difficult to Exchange

The human brain is a supercomputer. Jiang Cheng thought about a lot of things he shouldn't have thought about, but in reality he was just stunned for a few seconds. After coming to his senses, Jiang Cheng replied to the female educated youth outside the car: "Comrades, what can I do for you?"

"Comrade driver, are you also watching a movie here? If you don't want to leave, can we watch the movie in the back carriage?"

"No problem, go ahead, just be careful when you climb up."

Jiang Cheng had no objection to just climbing on the car to watch a movie. However, the caring words at the end were a bit redundant. In the future, those fairies who couldn't open the bottle cap would definitely say they couldn't climb up.

But in those days, there was no such thing as delicate girls in the city, let alone the educated youth who couldn't be fair after working in the countryside. In a short while, several of them climbed up and sat directly on the guardrail of the rear carriage.

When a male educated youth saw the female educated youth getting on Jiang Cheng's car, he also wanted to climb in. But he was blocked by the female educated youth. The car only had one direction for watching movies, so it was not possible to squeeze in one row, and he had to be careful about the difference between men and women.

Soon the movie started playing, and Jiang Cheng was watching with great interest while chewing a cucumber. Moreover, the atmosphere was very good as it was watching a movie in the open air where there were people everywhere.

When "Liu Sanjie" was played, it turned out that many people had watched it and could even sing along.

Even the brave female educated youth invited Jiang Cheng to the back of the carriage to sing with them.

Jiang Cheng quickly said he couldn't sing and declined the female educated youth's kindness. But in his heart, he didn't know whether to say something or not. There were so many people under the bus, but they chose him. Even though he said he couldn't sing, the female educated youth still wanted to teach him to sing.

Fortunately, Jiang Cheng is determined. If he really goes, he feels that he can develop a good relationship with her. It's not that he can withstand the test. To make him break his defense, at least there must be someone prettier than Zhou Lingying.

The movie didn't end until after nine o'clock, and everyone started to leave. Many people from far away places carried kerosene lamps and the stools they brought back home. Some children were asleep, so the older ones were woken up and the younger ones were carried back or held in their arms.

The projectionist Zhang Tong was packing up, and there were people helping him, probably people arranged by the commune. But Jiang Cheng also saw a woman helping him, which was normal, but the key point was that Jiang Cheng seemed to see Zhang Tong touching the woman's butt.

Unfortunately, it was dark and Jiang Cheng couldn’t see what the woman looked like in the morning.

After all the movie projection equipment was packed up, Zhang Tong came to Jiang Cheng again, handed him a cigarette, chatted with him briefly, and then left.

It was only a short while, and there were so many people there before the movie started, but now it was pitch black all around, without a single ghost in sight.

Of course, if a beautiful female ghost came at this time, Jiang Cheng said that he would not need to invite a Taoist priest, and the other party would not report to the police, but it was not impossible to communicate with them.

After lying in the car for a while, Jiang Cheng got off and found a secluded place to take off his clothes. He had sweated a lot today, so he took a shower before going to bed.

After taking a shower, Jiang Cheng went back to the car to clean up the mosquitoes, then closed the door and went to sleep. He forgot to buy an extra mosquito net when he bought it in Changcheng, so it was still a little hot to sleep in the cab.

Jiang Cheng has made up his mind to go to Yu Xincheng early tomorrow morning to see if he can exchange the fish for some cloth coupons so that he can buy a mosquito net.

The next day, Jiang Cheng got up early in the morning, loaded the car with diesel, and drove to Yu Xincheng's transportation station in half an hour.

These are the goods to be sent to the warehouse, half of which are from Pingcheng Township.

They arrived too early and the porters at the warehouse had not arrived yet, so Jiang Cheng directly took a sack filled with some fish and went to have breakfast.

There is a breakfast place near the station, and Jiang Cheng saw a place selling fried dough sticks. This is not sold in every breakfast shop, after all, it needs to be fried in oil, and some small breakfast places do not provide this. And this early in the morning, many people lined up to buy fried dough sticks.

Jiang Cheng put the sack containing the fish aside and deliberately left the opening a little open so that the fish inside could be exposed.

Then Jiang Cheng also lined up to buy fried dough sticks. He planned to buy a little more and put it in the space. But he would not buy too much, mainly because if he bought too much, people might ask again.

The fish in the sack on the ground quickly attracted the attention of people who came to buy breakfast. Nowadays, even for workers, most people cannot come to the breakfast shop every day to buy breakfast. Not only do they need money, but they also need tickets.

So most of those who can come to buy breakfast are in good condition. Seeing a lot of fish in the sacks on the ground, some people asked Jiang Cheng where the fish came from, and mainly asked whether the fish were his own.

Jiang Cheng knew this would happen, he had sold fish in front of the restaurant so many times before. Many times, passers-by passed by and knew that Jiang Cheng did not supply the restaurant specifically, but just got some fish to process for the restaurant, and they all begged Jiang Cheng to sell them one.

But Jiang Cheng didn't buy too much each time, only about 50 kilograms. How could the restaurant let passers-by buy the fish it had bought? Basically, they would just chase them away.

Jiang Cheng took out his work ID and said directly that he was a truck driver and the fish was given to him as a favor to someone else's company.

"Master, you have so many fish, can you give me one?"

Someone learned that the fish in the sack belonged to Jiang Cheng personally and he was also the driver, so they became interested.

The person asking was a middle-aged man in a vest, who looked quite gentle. His question was also skillful, asking Jiang Cheng to give him a fish, not to sell it. Although the meaning was the same, in this era it was better to use the word "let".

Jiang Cheng showed an awkward look, and then said reluctantly: "I am going back to Changcheng to exchange some cloth coupons to buy mosquito nets. If you have cloth coupons, we can exchange them."

Hearing Jiang Cheng's words, the man who was asking shook his head. Fish is good, but it will be gone once you eat it. As for cloth coupons, although everyone has them, they have to save them to make clothes during the New Year.

In those days, everyone's cloth coupons were issued based on the number of people, and the same was true in the countryside. Rural people did not have food coupons, but they did have cloth coupons, but the quota of cloth coupons for rural people was less than that for urban people.

But whether in the city or in the countryside, most people did not have enough cloth coupons, and one person could not save enough to buy a set of clothes even in a year.

There are several people in a family, and they can only buy new clothes for one or two people during the Chinese New Year.

Three years for new, three years for old, and three years for mending. This is not only true in the countryside, but also in the city. It is not a problem of poverty, but a lack of cloth coupons.

Jiang Cheng was a bit naive to ask people to exchange cloth coupons for fish.

Jiang Chengcheng soon came to the line to buy fried dough sticks, and he ordered ten. This was a lot, but not an exaggeration. Some cadres' family members came to buy fried dough sticks to take back home, and it was normal to buy ten at a time.

A fried dough stick cost three cents, plus two taels of food coupons, so ten dough sticks cost thirty cents and two jin of food coupons.

After buying the fried dough sticks, Jiang Cheng ordered a bowl of porridge and sat here to eat breakfast. No one was willing to exchange the cloth coupons for the fish, so Jiang Cheng was considering whether to just sell it for money, unload the goods at the warehouse, find a restaurant to sell the fish once, and then leave here.

(End of this chapter)