Chronicle of the 70s
Chapter 60 - 060 The wind direction has changed; the update is a 4,000-character post. See you tomorrow.

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.

The bus was not slow, rocking and swaying it reached the county city in half an hour. Surprisingly, the bus station was right at the entrance of the county middle school. Mr. Lan was indeed wise, having bought a house right next to the bus stop—previous-life’s subway and school district houses were high-priced real estate areas. They had not perceived Mr. Lan to be an investment expert.

After getting off the bus, Li Xianglu twisted her arms to get her blood moving, then pouted and acted coquettishly, "Grandpa, I’ve been squeezed into a pancake!"

Mr. Lan burst out laughing. Qin Xi, standing beside them, also cracked a smile and shook his head, while carrying the wooden bucket, having already agreed to help deliver the fish and then help store the grain at the rest office before heading back together in the evening.

Food tickets and various coupons were easy to collect, almost immediately available, but the grain was really difficult to get—it was practically a fight.

When Qin Xi and Li Xianglu emerged from different queues, both had their clothes all crumpled, and Li Xianglu was even worse off—her usually disobedient blonde hair had turned into a bird’s nest.

But they were in high spirits since they managed to purchase grain. They were supplied with 75 Flour, a type of flour that is much inferior compared to Fuqiang Flour, a little darker, but still considered a type of fine grain. Using the grain booklet to purchase it cost two mao per jin.

Mr. Lan took 75 Flour for all of the forty-three jin, while Li Xianglu’s fine grain supply amounted to fourteen jin seven taels, cornmeal four jin two taels, and dried sweet potatoes two jin one tael.

However, most people exchanged all of their fine grain supply for cornmeal—exchange one jin of fine grain for two jin two taels of cornmeal, which would allow them to eat heartily for a month, while fine grains were consumed less.

After buying all the grain, the total cost of oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and matches combined was no more than twenty-one yuan.

Without any transportation, Qin Xi carried a big sack of grain on his back, holding the wooden bucket in his hand, while Li Xianglu and Mr. Lan carried bottles and cans of oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar in baskets. These were brought from home because the supply was in bulk, requiring one to bring their own bottles.

Fortunately, the county city wasn’t large, and it was just a twenty minutes walk to the rest office.

As soon as they reached the rest office, Li Xianglu noticed that the little soldier who usually stood guard was gone, and she let out a puzzled "Huh".

At the same time, both Qin Xi and Mr. Lan noticed this unusual situation and quickly walked toward the courtyard with a change of expression.

As they approached Mr. Lan’s courtyard, they became more anxious because there were sounds of quarreling.