Chapter 60 - 060 The wind direction has changed; the update is a 4,000-character post. See you tomorrow.
Early in the morning on April 15th, Li Xianglu and her grandfather took their household registration, grain booklet, and subsidiary food supply book to the county city; today was the day to collect grain and food tickets. Li Xianglu had already read her own grain booklet several times. The supply of grain was twenty-one jin: flour, cornmeal, dried sweet potatoes in a ratio of 7:2:1, chicken eggs five taels, meat two taels, with even less oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar—overall not much, but she estimated it was barely enough to scrape by for one person for a month.
However, her grandfather’s supply was much more than her own; first of all, the grain was a high quota of forty-three jin, and it was all fine grain. Seven taels of meat, seven taels of chicken eggs, and even quotas for peanut candy snacks—all these she did not have.
They went in the production team’s mule cart, but the brigade’s cart could only reach Jigu Commune, so they had to transfer to a public bus there.
There was only one bus from Jigu Commune to the county city, running three times a day—morning, noon, and evening. If you missed the time, there was no more.
The fare was two fen, but it could squeeze the life out of you. No one cared whether you were young or elderly; getting a seat was all about scrambling for it.
However, because Qin Xi was with them, they managed to grab a seat. Mr. Lan sat down, but it wasn’t leisurely at all—he had to hold onto a wooden tub basket placed under his feet.
Inside the bucket were two of the four carp caught a few days ago. Li Xianglu had been changing the water daily, and three days later, they were still lively and kicking.
The bus was packed with people. Li Xianglu, who was just one meter fifty-four, could barely reach the handrail at the top of the bus. Yet, with every jolt of the bus, she was nearly flung out. After several times, Qin Xi resigned to letting her hold on to his arm.
Li Xianglu had a blackout after a day of drinking; she couldn’t remember anything, only knowing that her head hurt terribly the next day.
What infuriated her was that the thirty jin of fish were reduced to mere soup and half a basin of two taels rice—it was almost maddening. She had only eaten a few slices before getting drunk and lying down. Wild catfish, how rare it was.
However, for the next two days, the granddaughter and grandfather enjoyed several meals of braised carp, sweet and sour carp, and crucian carp tofu soup, and that was utterly delightful.