Chapter 19 A noble person helps me buy milk powder

There are not many families in the village who own bicycles, and few are willing to lend them out.

Only the team leader Jiang Guoping was generous enough to lend out his bicycle as long as it was unused.

However, Jiang Guoping's daughter-in-law is not easy to talk to.

Come to think of it, anyone who borrows too much will not be in a good mood. The bicycles in their home did not fall from the sky. If they break down, they have to pay for the repair themselves.

But the bicycle still had to be borrowed. It was six or seven miles to the town, and it would be dark by the time they walked back and forth. Liu Xihua asked Jiang Daguo to take four large potatoes and send them to Jiang Guoping's family.

He also told Jiang Daguo how to talk to the captain and his wife about borrowing the car.

Jiang Daguo found an old cloth bag, put four potatoes in it, and came to Jiang Guoping's house.

Sure enough, when he asked about the bicycle, Jiang Guoping's wife immediately turned cold and said teasingly, "Daguo, I have lent you my bicycle three times this month. How about just leaving it at your house?"

Jiang Daguo could hear the sarcasm in her words, but in order to borrow the car, he could only smile awkwardly, "Sister-in-law, you are joking." He put four big potatoes on the table, "Xihua just returned to her parents' home, and her eldest brother dug some from the field and asked her to bring them. He brought a little too much, so I picked out a few big ones for your sister-in-law's family."

In 1980, even the team leader's family was not rich, and they could barely eat enough to fill their stomachs but not porridge.

Potatoes are both staple food and vegetables. For people who are just barely getting enough to eat, potatoes are a rare commodity. In some village teams, the land is not good and the potatoes planted there do not grow large.

Some families missed the season, did not buy potato seeds, and did not plant potatoes.

Jiang Guoping's family bought the potato seedlings late this year, and the seedlings have just grown out. They have to wait two or three months before they can eat the potatoes.

"Oh, potatoes. Mom, are we having potatoes for lunch?" Jiang Guoping's youngest son held up a potato and said with a greedy look on his face.

"Put it down, put it down. The potatoes are all covered in mud." Jiang Guoping's wife opened her son's hand and softened her expression towards Jiang Daguo. "Okay, push the bike over there. Go early and come back early. My eldest son is learning to ride a bike and he has to ride it after school in the evening."

Jiang Daguo understood that this meant he agreed to lend it to her, "Okay, I'll go to the pharmacy and be back soon."

After borrowing a bicycle, Jiang Daguo went home, hung the basket of herbs on the bicycle, and rode to the town.

It was also a coincidence that when Jiang Daguo locked his bicycle and entered the drugstore, he saw the young driver who had taken the family of three back to town that day was also in the drugstore.

Jiang Daguo recognized him first, but was too embarrassed to step forward and say hello because the young man was well-dressed and carrying a briefcase.

He had his trouser legs rolled up and were covered in mud. He was barefoot and wearing a pair of old rubber shoes. His Zhongshan suit was also tattered and worn.

He had just come back from the fields and had not changed his clothes.

Jiang Daguo subconsciously hid behind the crowd.

But the young man had sharp eyes and recognized Jiang Daguo with just a casual glance when he turned around.

The young man smiled and greeted Jiang Daguo, "Is that you? Are you in town for business?"

Jiang Daguo was recognized and had to come out to answer, "Yes, yes, my family picked some Ganoderma lucidum, I sent it to the pharmacy to ask for the price."

As soon as they heard about the Ganoderma lucidum, several people who were buying and selling medicinal herbs all gathered around.

"What a big Ganoderma lucidum."

"Where did you dig it?"

"Brother is awesome."

"Oh, that's great. I was looking for some Ganoderma lucidum to buy." The young man pulled Jiang Daguo's arm with a look of surprise. "Give me the Ganoderma lucidum. I'll pay you at the pharmacy price."

Jiang Daguo stammered, "How can this be so embarrassing?"

The young man thought that Jiang Daguo didn't believe him, and said, "You don't believe my price? You can ask the salesperson at the drugstore, the price of fresh Ganoderma lucidum they buy is thirty-one kilograms." Jiang Daguo opened his eyes wide. Thirty-one kilograms! His Ganoderma lucidum weighed half a kilogram, which was enough to buy three cans of milk powder.

Thinking that this man would send him home, Jiang Daguo did not ask the salesperson about the price, but said, "Okay, I'll give it to you."

He knew the young man's brother-in-law, Hu Qingsong, who worked at a radio station. This man would not lie to him.

The young man was overjoyed and immediately took out a brand new Great Unity banknote and a five-yuan bill from his pocket and handed them to Jiang Daguo.

"By the way, Comrade Jiang, are your wife and children okay?" The young man took out a neatly folded cloth bag from the briefcase, carefully put the Ganoderma lucidum in it, and chatted casually.

Jiang Daguo stuffed the money into the inner pocket of his coat and nodded, saying, "Everything is fine. The baby turned one month old yesterday. I sold some Ganoderma lucidum today and will buy her some milk powder."

"Oh, time flies, it's already a full month. By the way, you need your child's birth certificate to buy milk powder, do you have it with you? You can't buy milk powder without the birth certificate." The young man reminded.

Jiang Daguo blinked and said, "Oh, I forgot." The doctor didn't tell him either.

"Hahaha, this is your family's first time having a baby, right? Let me tell you, mine was also my first baby, and I was also very busy and made a lot of mistakes." The young man had a baby at the end of last year, and the baby is only half a year old now. When he thought of his own child, he started to talk a lot, telling us all the embarrassing things and experiences he had in raising a baby.

Jiang Daguo was surprised. It turns out there is so much knowledge involved in buying milk powder?

It is more cost-effective to buy bags than cans, the price difference is half.

The young man looked at the sky, said he had something to do and had to go back to the city. He waved to Jiang Daguo and left.

Jiang Daguo sold the remaining isatis root to a pharmacy and earned 80 cents.

After thinking for a while, he asked about the price of Ganoderma lucidum. The salesperson said, "Fresh Ganoderma lucidum is 31 kilograms, and dried Ganoderma lucidum is 81 kilograms."

It turns out that the price offered by the young man was fair.

Jiang Daguo rode his bike back home again, brought Jiang Xiaoxiao's baby birth certificate, and came to the milk station in the town. When he asked the price, he found out that a can of milk powder weighing one pound cost five yuan, but the ones in bags were only three yuan a bag.

He felt even more grateful to the young man and almost overpaid.

Half a pound of Ganoderma lucidum can buy five bags of milk powder.

When Jiang Daguo was queuing, he heard that milk powder was often out of stock, so he simply spent all his fifteen yuan to buy milk powder.

When the adults run out of food, they can survive by eating some grains and wild vegetables. But my daughter is still a baby and cannot eat anything other than milk powder.

If you can’t buy milk powder, won’t you be hungry?

When she returned home again, Aunt Jiang saw that Jiang Daguo was carrying a basket filled with five packets of milk powder, and she was furious again.

"You spendthrift, why did you buy so much? How much did you spend?"

"Fifteen dollars."

"Ten... fifteen?" Aunt Jiang covered her chest, "There's barely fifteen dollars in the house all year round, and you actually spent all that money on milk powder. You're such a spendthrift!"

Jiang Daguo frowned, "Mom, the people at the milk station said they were out of stock, so I bought some more."

"If you had money, would you buy ten bags?" Aunt Jiang stamped her feet.

"You can't buy it. You can only buy five packs at most," said Jiang Daguo.

Aunt Jiang: "..."

"Mom, brother, look at my test paper and guess how many points I got?" Jiang Meilan ran to the door with a test paper in her hand, jumping and skipping.

(End of this chapter)