The golden age began in 1977

Chapter 14: Cigarette Sparks Enter the Mall

In the middle of the morning, all the sugar pills were finally distributed.

A group of people hid under the eaves of the corridor to avoid the autumn rain.

It was drizzling and the city in 77 was hazy.

Xu Weidong made small talk: "This candy pill is so milky and sweet, it makes me drool."

"Giving it away for free to those bastards and still acting so arrogantly is like turning a coffin into a donkey trough—a waste of talent!"

"That thing contains viruses, so you can't eat it casually." said a young man named Zhu Tao.

Zhou Yaozu quickly winked, "Don't talk nonsense! If those old feudalists find out that there's a virus inside, we won't let their children eat candy pills anymore."

Polio vaccine requires multiple booster shots, and newborns need to take three sugar pills in their first year.

Zhu Tao muttered, "What's there to be afraid of? It's just an attenuated vaccine, and the virus inside isn't pathogenic..."

"You still have something to say?" Zhou Yaozu frowned.

Zhu Tao was not convinced and threw his hat and glared.

Qian Jin opened the box and began to distribute popsicles: "It's still quite hot in autumn, which makes people feel angry."

"Come on, Captain, Brother Zhu, have some popsicles."

Zhou Yaozu went down and Zhu Tao took a popsicle and started eating it.

Seeing this, Xu Weidong took action immediately, with his left hand and right hand making quick movements, and then his right hand and left hand making quick movements again.

He distributed popsicles to everyone, took one in each hand, and then asked others: "Do I look like an old lady with two guns?"

"You are the old man with three guns." Zhu Tao gave him the monkey stealing peaches.

Xu Weidong sneered: "Then he is also a good soldier with two guns and one cannon."

After enjoying his meal, he rushed to Qian Jinle and said, "Hey, Old Qian, you're really good. Your brain is really like a belly button fart - what are you thinking (noise)?"

"How did you come up with the brilliant idea of ​​letting the comrades eat popsicles? This has never happened before."

The other team members smiled at Qian Jin and praised him for his smart mind.

Qian Jin said, "Old Xu is amazing. He predicted that we could have popsicles today. Didn't he tell me that this morning? Not only are we delivering vaccines, we're also selling popsicles along the way."

He asked what to do after eating the popsicle.

Xu Weidong said hurriedly: "What? Take a rest."

Zhou Yaozu frowned: "It's only a little after nine o'clock. Two hours' break? That's unacceptable. We should go back at ten o'clock."

"Why go back? Just take a rest," a young man named Feng Guangyuan said unhappily.

"Captain, don't be so naive right now. The autumn harvest is just around the corner. We might have to go to the countryside to support the harvest someday."

The autumn rain continues.

It rained lightly all morning.

When they returned, the sea fog filled the city, and their Liberation rubber shoes made a squeaking sound as they waded through the water.

It was already late for Qian Jin to get home, and the four little ones were even later than him.

Liu Eryi was shirtless and used his clothes to wrap wine labels, cigarette labels and sparklers.

Seeing this, Qian Jin hurriedly said, "Be careful not to catch a cold. This is autumn, not summer. Light the stove and warm yourself."

The four kids didn't care at all, they were only concerned about what to eat for lunch.

Qian Jin said, "It's raining and cold outside, let's eat something to warm ourselves up."

Cook noodles.

But use mushroom soup bags to cook it.

Concentrated chicken and mushroom soup packets for 15 yuan a pack.

Put the packaging bag into the stove to light the fire, pour a packet of soup into the pot, the temperature rises, and the whole house is filled with delicious aroma.

"What is this?" Liu Dajia asked in surprise and joy.

Qian Jin was tidying up the wine labels when he said casually, "It's a soup made with mushrooms."

"Oh, you haven't seen this kind of mushroom before, have you? My friend from the educated youth in southern Yunnan gave it to me. It's delicious when cooked."

"Why does it smell like chicken noodle soup from a state-owned restaurant?" Liu Sanbing asked, swallowing his saliva.

Qian Jin lied and said, "Because this mushroom is called Coprinus comatus."

The four kids looked at each other: A knife pierced their buttocks—they opened their eyes!

The wine labels are all wet, so you have to use tweezers to carefully stick them on dry newspaper to dry.

The four little ones worked very hard and none of them slacked off, making them very high-quality child laborers.

They peeled off more than a hundred wine labels of various colors in the morning.

The wheat ears of Wuliangye, the green bamboos of Zhuyeqing, the sailboats of Yanghe Daqu, the red ribbons wrapped with gold thread of Moutai, the gilded wave patterns of Haibin Special Liquor...

The numerous colorful patterns look like a rainbow scattered on the ground under the light.

Of course, the most common one is the green beer label.

Liu Dajia came over and muttered, "Master Song asked me to tell you that they charge two cents a bottle for the wine at the purchasing station."

"If you can get the neighborhood committee to issue a certificate and deliver the bottles to the people, we can give you 2 cents and 2 cents each."

Qian Jin was delighted: "Isn't this just speculation?"

Obviously, in Old Song's opinion, the half pound of Dahongpao he gave away was too expensive, and the old man would feel uneasy if he didn't help with some risky measures.

But I won’t do anything that involves risk as long as it doesn’t make any money.

He cleaned up the sparks again.

Sparks are the stickers on the matchbox.

The four little ones found more sparks than wine labels. After all, wine labels are difficult to peel off and it is a waste of time.

Most sparks have no patterns, only the word "match" and the manufacturer's mark.

These items will be sent to the gold box, and the mall will identify them as 'worthless items' after putting them on the shelves, and will not be accepted.

The matches sold in the mall either have designs or quotes. The most common matchbox with designs is a product produced by the Yingkou Match Factory, which features a girl in a khaki picking cotton.

In addition, there are a small number of patterns of Ice City Ice Lanterns, Huangshan Welcoming Pine, Huangguoshu Waterfall, etc., totaling more than 20 pictures.

"We can find a few hundred sparks in the afternoon," Liu Dajia estimated.

Qian Jin asked, "Why aren't there too many cigarette labels?"

Liu Dajia took out a list from his pocket and handed it to him. It was a "Waste Classification Price List" with the 1975 revised edition marked below.

He said: "The purchasing station buys cigarette labels, and the minimum price is one cent per label."

Qian Jin looked at the price list and saw a line of big words on it: It is strictly forbidden to privately possess items of historical value.

The wine labels need to be dried, and then Huo Hua sells them directly on the shelves.

The value was beyond his expectation, totaling to $1,825.

The most expensive one is worth 1,400 yuan. It is a big spark, as big as two ordinary matchboxes put together.

The mall named it "Xinhai Revolution·Flag Fox as a Memorial·Five-Colored Flag Large Label".

Apart from that, the rest are from a few yuan to more than ten yuan, but the overall income is good.

This must be a snack for the four little ones.

The noodles were boiling in the pot. Qian Jin took out two boxes of luncheon meat and gave them to Liu Eryi:

"Open it and separate it, then burn the iron box."

Liu Eryi's execution ability is beyond doubt.

Never ask why, just do what he tells you to do.

Qian Jin asked the four children to do the work, while he himself took the gold box and the material purchase and sales certificate to search for the calendar and study it.

The last time he was searching for old magazines in the mall, he saw the product logo of the calendar.

This time he entered calendar into the search bar, and immediately a list of products appeared.

He read the product descriptions, some of which introduced the origins of calendar posters:

In the last century, Shanghai was forced to be opened as an international trading port, and then a large amount of European and American capital was poured into China. Many foreign capitalists opened factories and stores in Shanghai and dumped goods.

In order to sell their products, they needed advertising, and calendar posters came into being.

This type of promotional material draws on and utilizes the "calendar painting" style of China's most popular folk New Year paintings, which are equipped with lunar calendars and solar terms, and incorporates it into product advertisements.

In simple terms, it is a miniature calendar with a product image in the middle.

It also had collection value in the 27s, but it was not as good as cigarette labels, wine labels, and sparks. Among the products sold in the mall, the most expensive one cost tens of thousands of yuan.

However, most calendar posters from the Republic of China period can be worth at least several thousand yuan as long as they are in good condition.

Qian Jin began to ponder.

Jiang Meilan said that her father has been collecting calendar posters all his life. Judging from his age, his family probably has some from the Republic of China period.

I have to find an opportunity to visit them.

The large aluminum steamer has good thermal conductivity. The soup in the pot is still boiling under the flames, sizzling around the aluminum pot.

There were bubbles rolling in the thick white soup, and the aroma was fragrant. Before they started eating, the four children were already wiping their saliva.

Qian Jin took down the aluminum pot and began to divide the noodles.

Liu Sanbing said confidently: "This chicken leg mushroom must have grown from a chicken leg."

The hot soup and noodles were poured into the porcelain jar, and the sliced ​​cold luncheon meat became boiling hot.

After a busy morning and being exposed to the wind and rain, Si Xiao's belly was already deflated.

They were not afraid of the heat. After receiving the noodles and soup from the porcelain jar, they quickly picked up a spoon and stuffed it into their mouths.

Qian Jin blew on it and took a puff.

The handmade noodles brought back by my predecessor were very good, soft, smooth and chewy, and the fresh and fragrant soup could not cover up the original wheat aroma inside.

Paired with a mouthful of meaty luncheon meat, this bowl of steaming hot noodles becomes the most soothing thing in the heavy autumn rain.

After lunch, everyone went about their own business.

The rain stopped in the afternoon.

The labor commandos went to dig drainage ditches.

The elderly citizens dumped all kinds of garbage in there for convenience, which made the group suffer a lot.

Qian Jin waded through the puddles in his Liberation shoes. The tape wrapped around the shovel handle had become sticky from being soaked with sweat.

Seeing his eyes red from sweat, Xu Weidong said righteously, "Take a break. Give me this part."

He spat into his palm and used the grappling hook to lift the manhole cover.

The rotten smell that had been fermenting for who knows how long gushed out, making people's heads swell.

Xu Weidong cursed, "There must be a lot of people dumping shit buckets in here."

Qian Jin asked, "Do you smell it?"

Xu Weidong shook his head. "No, I do this all the time, and I'm sure others do it too."

Qian Jin rolled his eyes.

There was everything in the ditch: rotten vegetable leaves wrapped around broken bowls, and bloated dead rats floating in the dirty black water.

Xu Weidong cursed "spicy neighbor", and the iron hook actually hooked up a semiconductor radio with green rust on it, with half a piece of "Industry Learns from Daqing" slogan tape hanging on the knob.

He muttered, "Who would waste such a good thing?" and then asked:
"Old Qian, do you think that if we repair this radio we fished out of the gutter, we can hear the waves of the South China Sea and the sound of wind and snow in the Greater Khingan Mountains?"

Qian Jin smiled.

These words actually have a poetic atmosphere.

The two were chatting when a team leader, Wang Dong, suddenly appeared and shouted, "All members of the labor assault team, assemble!"

"There's an emergency, everyone gather for a mobilization meeting!"

(End of this chapter)