Chapter 319: Buying Coal

Zhou Dazhong wondered if he should buy some coal as well. The weather was turning colder, and the coal was being consumed quite quickly.

Not just for him, but also for his sister.

Zhou Yimin took out ten yuan and handed it over. “This is for buying coal.”

“Sixteenth Uncle, no need, I have money,” Zhou Dazhong quickly said.

Usually, Zhou Yimin had helped him a lot, and coal wasn’t expensive. It wouldn’t even cost ten yuan to buy coal, at most one or two yuan. Coal was priced at one cent per ten kilograms, so buying one yuan’s worth could get him a hundred kilograms, which would last a long time. Ten yuan wouldn’t even buy that much.

However, Zhou Yimin didn’t listen. He just pushed the money and ticket into Zhou Dazhong’s hand and pushed him out. “I’m tired, I want to sleep, I’m not talking with you anymore.”

Helpless, Zhou Dazhong took the coal ticket and went home.

In the afternoon, Huang Shi was preparing dinner but was stopped by Zhou Dazhong. “Mom, let’s go eat roast duck.”

“Dazhong, did you ask Sixteenth Uncle for a roast duck ticket?” Huang Shi looked at him seriously.

She was holding a rattan switch in her hand, and it seemed that if the answer didn’t satisfy her, the switch would come down.

Zhou Daguo was bold and immediately admitted, “Mom, I asked Sixteenth Uncle for it. If you want to hit me, go ahead!”

“Mom, this roast duck ticket is a thank-you gift from Sixteenth Uncle. He asked me to help buy coal, so he gave me the roast duck ticket as a gift,” Zhou Dazhong quickly added.

His mom had come to the city with difficulty, so he thought he’d let her try something good.

Huang Shi sighed. “This will be the last time. Dazhong, make sure to do the things Sixteenth Uncle asked you to properly.”

After a quick clean-up, the three of them went to Quanjude.

However, Zhou Dazhong didn’t mention that a roast duck cost eight yuan, or else Huang Shi definitely wouldn’t have gone.

Once they sat down at Quanjude, they ordered a roast duck.

When they saw the price, Huang Shi was shocked.

A roast duck actually costs eight yuan? A duck itself only costs one or two yuan, but just roasting it made it so expensive. She thought about leaving but was stopped by Zhou Daguo and Zhou Dazhong.

The roast duck was quickly served, and when it was sliced, Zhou Daguo couldn’t resist and immediately wrapped some slices of duck in a lotus leaf pancake, took a bite, and exclaimed, “So delicious!”

Huang Shi felt it was a bit exaggerated, but she wanted to see for herself. After a bite, she couldn’t help but praise, “It really is quite delicious!”

The three of them shared one duck, and since there were two adults, one duck wasn’t quite enough. They were all a bit unsatisfied but had no more tickets, so they had to leave.

“When I get back to the village, I’ll tell everyone I’ve had roast duck!” Zhou Daguo said smugly.

The next day, Huang Shi took Zhou Daguo back to the village as there were still many things to do there.

Zhou Dazhong originally wanted his mom to stay a few more days, but she refused. Seeing her strong attitude, he knew it was pointless to insist, so he didn’t try to keep her.

“Take some vegetables to your sister,” Huang Shi reminded Zhou Dazhong.

“Got it,” he nodded.

After sending off his mom, he had to go queue up to buy coal. He had already promised Sixteenth Uncle, and there wasn’t much coal left at home, so it was a good chance to buy more.

Zhou Dazhong went early, so he didn’t have to wait too long. But when he arrived, he found that there was still a queue, fortunately, there weren’t too many people ahead of him.

If it weren’t for the residents also queuing for cabbage, there would probably be even more people.

In the whole northern region, two essential things for the winter were enough cabbage and enough coal to get through the season.

Coal prices were not fixed and fluctuated, so it was better to buy it earlier before winter to avoid the higher prices.

So many people bought enough coal all at once, which was more economical in the long run.

Less than an hour later, it was Zhou Dazhong’s turn.

He handed the coal ticket over, and the staff member looked at it and said, “That’ll be five yuan. Do you need help carrying it? If so, there’s an extra fifty cents.”

“I’ll need help!” Zhou Dazhong quickly responded.

He handed the prepared money over to the staff.

After receiving the money, the staff gave him a small receipt.

Once Zhou Dazhong had the receipt, he went to the side to pick up the coal. There was also a rickshaw driver waiting to help him.

The rickshaw driver loaded all the coal onto the cart and had Zhou Dazhong lead the way.

Zhou Dazhong rode his bike in front, careful not to ride too fast in case the rickshaw couldn’t keep up.

The rickshaw driver looked at Zhou Dazhong on the bike, with a face full of envy. Bikes were a luxury item.

After riding for more than half an hour, Zhou Dazhong asked, “Do you want to take a break, master?”

The rickshaw driver had been hauling hundreds of pounds of coal for a while.

“No need, this is nothing,” the rickshaw driver said, looking relaxed.

This was just a warm-up. Sometimes, he had to haul even heavier loads, but he still did it.

“Master, you’re amazing!” Zhou Dazhong gave him a thumbs-up.

After riding for another ten minutes or so, they finally returned to the courtyard.

They first unloaded the coal at Zhou Dazhong’s home. Since the space inside was limited, there wasn’t much room to move if all the coal was piled up. So, most people would leave it by the door.

Unless someone was paranoid about others taking their coal, they would move it inside, but most people just left it outside.

Old Man Niu asked, “Dazhong, why did you buy so much coal?”

He looked at the rickshaw outside the door, which still had a lot of coal. There was at least several hundred pounds of it.

“Some of it is Sixteenth Uncle’s. I happened to go buy some, so I bought some more,” Zhou Dazhong explained.

“Master, the rest should be moved to another place.”

He also knew how to do things right, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offering one to the rickshaw driver.

When the rickshaw driver saw it was Da Qianmen (a high-quality cigarette), he immediately lost any complaints. Da Qianmen was the best cigarette an ordinary person could afford.

They then moved the remaining coal to Zhou Yimin’s house, working together for about ten minutes until they finished.

Zhou Dazhong wasn’t stingy, so he directly handed the pack of Da Qianmen to the rickshaw driver. The driver was a little stunned. He didn’t expect Zhou Dazhong to be so generous.

“Thank you. If there’s any work like this again, just let me know.”

“Sure, I’ll find you next time!” Zhou Dazhong nodded.

Finally, the work was done, and they could rest.

After an unknown amount of time, there was a knock on the door. Zhou Dazhong, who had been sleeping well, was suddenly woken up. “Who is it?”

“Dazhong, has your mother returned to Zhoujia Village?” Zhou Yimin’s voice came from outside.

(End of Chapter)