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Chapter 346: Chapter 336: Grabbing New Year Goods
The next morning, Li Hongjun straightened his military uniform and said to his wife on the kang bed, "You get some good sleep, don’t bother making lunch at noon, I’ll just bring something back from the canteen."
Seeing his wife about to protest, he quickly said, "I heard yesterday when I came back that today the canteen has beef."
Shen Yunfang closed her mouth; beef, ah, she wanted it. The beef she stored in her space was the least, and even trying to save it, she had long since run out.
The canteen Li Hongjun mentioned was not an ordinary one; it was a small canteen, which from time to time would have some good stuff.
After arriving at the office, Li Hongjun first went to see the leader, admitted his mistakes, and made a profound self-criticism about the disharmony at home over the past few months.
Commander Wang, looking at the expressionless Li Hongjun below, who was endlessly criticizing himself, felt that he had nowhere to vent his full anger. He had been called by his superiors several times to learn about those messy issues at Li’s home. He had been waiting for the person responsible to come back so he could scold him properly, but this response left him unable to hit or scold, feeling quite stifled.
In the end, all he could do was wave his hand and tell Li Hongjun to get lost, while he continued to fume in his office.
Once Li Hongjun left the commander’s office, the corners of his mouth slightly turned up, he straightened his hat, and strode out.
The drama stirred up by Qiu Shuping in the military dependents’ courtyard had gradually faded away with Shen Yunfang’s decisiveness and Li Hongjun’s prompt self-criticism upon his return.
The young couple spent their days happily at home, watching over Pangpang every day, and at night when free, they would listen together to the little Pangpang in the belly, letting the days pass by like flowing water.
In a blink, it was already February of ’77, with the New Year fast approaching. Shen Yunfang was more than seven months pregnant, with a noticeably big belly, looking at just two more months until the birth. So, the young couple decided not to go back to their hometown this year but to spend it at the military base instead.
Li Hongjun sent a letter to his parents back home, mainly explaining that since Yunfang was seven months pregnant and going back would be too inconvenient, they would not be returning for the New Year. Although they would not be going back, they wouldn’t give any less to their parents; he would immediately wire the hundred yuan for elderly care and told his father to keep an eye on it.
Shen Yunfang, on the other hand, busied herself indoors and outdoors with a big belly. Before she and Li Hongjun got married, she had also spent a New Year at the military base during a family visit. At that time, it was mainly eating at the canteen, spending New Year’s Eve making dumplings and watching shows together. Now that she was married and living a proper life, the New Year could not be spent casually; both the indoors and outdoors needed to be cleaned, and the New Year goods had to be thoroughly prepared.
Cleaning was easy to handle—Li Hongjun took charge of that duty at home. As for the New Year’s goods, even if Shen Yunfang had them in her space, she couldn’t just conjure them out of thin air, so she had to go to the city to buy them.
She had seen the madness of people scrambling for New Year’s goods, and with her current petite body, she really didn’t have much fighting power, so she had no choice but to drag Li Hongjun with her.
On the twenty-second day of the twelfth lunar month, Li Hongjun had a day off. He entrusted Pangpang to Aunt Wu to look after for one day and he was dragged by Shen Yunfang into the city to scramble for New Year’s goods.
Once they got to the supply and marketing cooperative, the place was packed with people.
Li Hongjun looked seriously at the doorway and then turned to his wife, "Wait here, tell me what you need to buy, and I’ll go in and get it."
Shen Yunfang nodded, her body wasn’t suited for such strenuous exercise, which was exactly why she had dragged him along. She took out the list she had written beforehand and circled the items that could be bought at the supply and marketing cooperative, "Just these, I’ve marked the names and quantities."
Li Hongjun glanced at the list briefly, then took a deep breath and charged in.
Shen Yunfang was getting tired from standing, so she picked out a stone to sit on. Her cotton trousers were thick enough to not poke her behind. Settling down, she took a handful of sunflower seeds from her pocket and started cracking them while waiting for Li Hongjun.
After more than an hour, Shen Yunfang finally saw Li Hongjun emerge from the supply and marketing cooperative, drenched in sweat.
She quickly stood up, straightened Li Hongjun’s clothes, "It’s good I didn’t let you wear your military uniform, right? Otherwise, how embarrassing would it be for you to be dressed in green, fighting over goods with a bunch of old ladies?" She felt increasingly wise for having insisted he dress in civilian clothes, thus avoiding the need to ’make a good impression’.
Li Hongjun rotated his shoulders, still shaken by the melee–these old ladies shopped as if they were going to war, tugging at clothes, pulling on arms, and several of them even came to blows over fighting for goods.
"Wife, take a look, are we missing anything?" He was thankful for his quick eyes and agile hands, spotting wherever the crowd thinned out a little and using his height advantage to get the salespeople to write up the tickets. He had finished getting all the items ticketed before going to pay and then fighting for the goods. Oh, it was a total mess.
Shen Yunfang rummaged through the basket, salt, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, Sichuan peppercorns... the condiments were pretty much all there.
"Let’s go, we’ll buy meat next." Shen Yunfang straightened up and had Li Hongjun carry the basket while she confidently led the way to the non-staple food station.
That day, Li Hongjun fought his way in and out several times before finally satisfying his wife, and the two of them headed home.
That evening, Shen Yunfang organized their spoils while Li Hongjun lay on the kang (a traditional Chinese heated bed) to rest. The condiments were all bought in full, they had pretty much purchased a bit of everything available in the market, and as for chili peppers and such, there were plenty dried from autumn harvest, so they didn’t need to buy any–what they had at home was enough.
They didn’t skimp on meat either, as Li Hongjun had meat coupons every month that they had saved up, and this time she had spent them all: five pounds of pork, two pounds of fatback, a pig’s head (which Shen Yunfang had managed to get by giving the pork vendor a little something extra), ten pounds of beef, three pounds of lamb, a chicken, a goose, and four fish. Li Hongjun had carried all these items back in a sack, not daring to let others see, otherwise it would’ve caused a stir. Nowadays, who else could afford to buy thirty to forty pounds of meat for the New Year’s feast?
As for vegetables, at this time of year, besides radishes, cabbage, and potatoes, there was not much else. Shen Yunfang saw the radishes were all chaff, so she only bought two big cabbages, and they still had some vegetables at home. She’d been secretly adding things in the space, making do was enough to get by.
Then there were the candies, a must-have for the New Year’s festivities. She bought two pounds of White Rabbit Creamy Candies, two pounds of fruit candies, two pounds of biscuits, two pounds of zhangbai cake, and two pounds of stove candies.
There was no need to buy seeds; her space was full of them. Furthermore, just a few days ago, Dashuan’s wife had sent over two big sacks of New Year’s goods by mail, including seeds, pumpkin seeds, and dried vegetables. That old stock was surely enough to last through the New Year.
Of course, today she had also mailed a package back to Dashuan’s wife. Although it wasn’t as extravagant, she had picked out candies and biscuits that Xiaojuan loved and sent over more than ten pounds in return.
