Early the next morning, Feng Qingxue rode her bicycle into the city by herself to exchange Grain Tickets with Old Mrs. Cao.
A ten-kilo and a five-kilo flour Grain Tickets were exchanged for a bundle of local Grain Tickets, the smallest of which was a half-kilo and the largest was five-kilo. As she expected, they were exclusive to this city and couldn’t be used outside of it. Since they were not all for refined grain, the summed total was thirty kilos.
Ten kilos of refined grain, twenty kilos of coarse grain.
According to national standards, twenty kilos of coarse grain can be equivalent to five to six kilos of refined grain.
"I’m sorry, comrade. These were the only grain tickets left in our house. Yesterday when we exchanged for national Grain Tickets, the other party insisted on having refined Grain Tickets to be willing to make the exchange." Feng Qingxue didn’t mind, rather it was Old Mrs. Cao who felt embarrassed. Because refined grain was scarce, at the grain shop, one could easily use refined Grain Tickets to buy coarse grain, but it was difficult to use coarse Grain Tickets to buy refined grain.
"It’s okay, whether it’s coarse grain or refined grain, they can both satisfy hunger." Many people, due to their large household sizes, made do with less refined grain and substituted it with coarse grain because it was more filling.
However, Old Mrs.Cao was not someone to have a close relationship with.
After Feng Qingxue got the Grain Tickets, she carefully examined them and found that almost all had a time limit. They must be used before December 31st of the solar calendar, otherwise, they would be invalid.
After completing the exchange, Feng Qingxue chatted with Mrs. Wu in the main room for a while, gifted them with the vegetables she had brought, and left the household compound.
The fresh vegetables she had picked early in the morning were sent to Old Mr. Xu and Mrs. Xu.
She had promised to deliver vegetables to the old couple when she visited them previously. Mrs. Xu was looking forward to it. But then, Feng Qingxue had received a telegram from Ouyang Zijin. Because of Lu Jiang’s injuries, they were delayed for two or three months. When they came back, they were busy getting married. It was not until the past month that they had the chance. Each time she went into the city, she would take some fresh vegetables for the old couple and Dr. Wu’s family.
Mrs. Xu couldn’t help but say, "Now that you’re married, you’ve a big family to take care of. Don’t bother bringing us things like before unless we are really in trouble."
"Mrs. Xu, I understand." Feng Qingxue smiled.
The Lu family had many members, and they also had many parcels of land allocated to them for personal usage which were fragmented. These patches of land were scattered around the front and back of their house and by the river. They couldn’t secretly grow coarse grains like sweet potatoes and corn like how the average citizens could. As a result, they could only grow vegetables, yielding a large amount that they couldn’t finish.
The vegetables that couldn’t be finished were all turned into dried and pickled vegetables by Feng Qingxue.
Dried gourds, eggplants, beans, red chilies, etc. The vegetables she usually gave to Old Mr. Xu, Mrs. Xu, and the Wu Zheng couple were those that could not be made into dried or pickled vegetables. Some mature beans, eggplants, etc. were picked and stir-fried for consumption. Although the taste was good and the flavor of oil and salt could easily permeate them, they were not good choices for making dried vegetables.
"As long as you know." Feng Qingxue sincerely treated them well. In response, Mrs. Xu naturally didn’t want to take advantage of her for free.
Feng Qingxue curled her lips in a smile.
Honesty for honesty. If Mr. Xu and Mrs. Xu didn’t know their boundaries, only seeking her help when they were in urgent need of food and seldom asking for anything else, she wouldn’t keep treating them like family members.
Mrs. Xu took out a handkerchief bundle from her bosom, unfurled it to reveal rolls of money and some tickets. After flipping through them, she took out three tickets and handed them to Feng Qingxue. "The vegetables you sent before, your grandfather and I didn’t finish and so I secretly exchanged them with someone for a few rolls of toilet paper tickets and a sanitary belt ticket. I’m old and I don’t need these, you can use them."