Chapter 238 – Xu Xiangbei’s Request

Xu Xiangbei ate to his heart’s content, thinking to himself that it would be wonderful if his own children could enjoy food like this too.

But nowadays, goose meat wasn’t something you could easily get your hands on. In fact, it wasn’t just goose—all types of meat were difficult to obtain, even for someone like him, an engineer.

After all, monthly ration tickets were fixed. At most, because he was an engineer, he got slightly more tickets than the average person—but not by much.

On top of that, he had many children, and his wife didn’t work because she had to take care of them. If not for his high salary, they’d probably have trouble even getting enough to eat.

Thankfully, his wife had a Beijing household registration, so she received a fixed grain quota.

Otherwise, if they had to rely on buying high-priced grain from the market, most of his monthly salary would go straight to that. And besides, even if you had the money, food wasn’t readily available. It wasn’t something you could just buy at will.

Take his assistant, for instance. His wife didn’t have an urban household registration, and their child’s registration followed the mother, so neither had access to grain rations. They could only buy at black-market prices.

They only had one child for now—if there were more, the assistant’s meager salary wouldn’t be nearly enough to cover food expenses.

If he could bring home some meat, his kids would definitely be thrilled. But he didn’t know how to ask.

Seeing Xu Xiangbei’s expression, Zhou Yimin instantly understood—he clearly had something to ask but didn’t know how to bring it up. And whatever it was, it probably had to do with food—either grain or meat.

Everyone ate heartily at that meal. Though Zhou Yimin’s grandmother’s cooking skills were average, she didn’t skimp on oil, so the food was rich and flavorful.

These days, the old lady was no longer as stingy as she used to be.

A whole 10-jin goose disappeared in just one meal. Even the potatoes and cornbread that had been stewed with it were gone. In modern times, this would’ve been enough for seven or eight people—but here, four people had polished it off.

After eating, Xu Xiangbei slumped into a chair, completely immobile from how full he was.

Seeing him eat so much, Zhou Yimin’s grandmother was delighted.

For someone who cooked, having their food appreciated like that was very satisfying.

In other households, eating that much as a guest would be seen as impolite—after all, everyone’s rations were limited. If you ate more, the host’s family ate less.

But in Zhou Yimin’s home, there was no need to worry about such things.

Afterward, Grandma began cleaning up. Since the food had a lot of oil, if the dishes weren’t washed immediately, they’d be much harder to clean once the grease dried.

Zhou Yimin tried to help, but she pushed him away, saying, “My dear grandson, Grandma can handle this. Go get some rest.”

Her eldest grandson was someone doing big things—how could she let him do chores?

After resting a bit, Xu Xiangbei got ready to say his goodbyes. After all, he still had things to do in the afternoon.

“Yimin, I’ll head out now,” he said.

“Brother Xu, what’s the rush? Why not stay for dinner before you go?” Zhou Yimin tried to persuade him.

He still needed Xu Xiangbei’s help with the reservoir construction and small generator installation. Building a good relationship would ensure that when help was needed, it would come with genuine effort.

He absolutely didn’t want to end up with some shoddy, slapdash project. The village had poured in so much labor and resources—failure would be disastrous. It would not only break morale but also jeopardize future plans. After one failure, it would be much harder to rally everyone together again.

But Xu Xiangbei explained, “I’d love to stay, truly, but there’s something I need to handle at the institute this afternoon—I really can’t stay.”

Knowing how busy engineers were, Zhou Yimin didn’t press him. “Alright then, Brother Xu, travel safe.”

Just as Xu Xiangbei was about to leave, Zhou Yimin came out of the house carrying three jin of pork and a large rooster. “Brother Xu, take these with you—don’t turn them down.”

Xu Xiangbei was about to politely refuse when he suddenly thought of his assistant. He hesitated, then said, “Yimin, could I exchange this meat for grain instead? My assistant’s family is almost out of food.”

His own family didn’t have much grain either—he couldn’t spare any to help others.

Even if he were willing to go hungry for someone else, his wife wouldn’t be.

And besides, this kind of thing—a short-term handout—wasn’t going to solve the real problem.

Zhou Yimin didn’t mind. “Brother Xu, don’t be so polite. Just tell me how much your assistant needs. I can’t promise a huge amount, but a hundred-something jin? That’s doable.”

Of course, he wouldn’t say it outright, but as long as he had the money, he could buy as much as needed. The only concern was how to explain the source—if too much changed hands and someone started asking questions, that would be trouble.

“Yimin, thank you so much. Do you know how much the grain costs?” Xu Xiangbei asked eagerly.

If it was expensive, he could lend his assistant some money, but he couldn’t help with the grain itself.

Zhou Yimin replied, “Coarse grains are cheaper—forty cents per jin. Corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes. Want those?”

He had considered offering finer grains, but those were better kept close.

Xu Xiangbei was in disbelief. “Yimin, did you just say forty cents per jin?”

On the black market, prices were already close to one yuan per jin—and even then, you weren’t guaranteed to find anything. Everyone could see that the food shortage was only going to get worse.

Grain output across the country was in decline.

“That’s right. But Brother Xu, you can’t tell anyone,” Zhou Yimin warned.

“Don’t worry, Yimin. Not a soul beyond us will hear about it,” Xu Xiangbei promised.

He had expected to pay one yuan per jin and had planned to lend his assistant a bit of money. But at forty cents per jin, he could afford to pay out of his own salary without any problem.

If he didn’t have to lend money, all the better.

People like Shazhu, who helped entire widowed families, were rare. Everyone had their own big family to support—survival came first.

Xu Xiangbei asked, “Yimin, when can the grain be ready?”

“Earliest? Tonight,” Zhou Yimin thought for a moment. “Brother Xu, where do you live? I’ll have someone deliver it.”

He didn’t know Xu Xiangbei’s assistant personally, so he wasn’t going to risk delivering directly to the man’s home. It was safer to send it to Xu Xiangbei’s house.

Xu Xiangbei understood the reasoning and replied, “I live at No. 85 Dongjiaomin Lane.”

Zhou Yimin recognized the address right away—Dongjiaomin Lane was right next to Nanluoguxiang, where he lived. Luckily, it wasn’t far. If it had been too distant, transporting it at night would’ve been troublesome. Nowadays, there were regular security patrols, and getting caught could lead to real trouble. If someone started digging and traced it back to him, that would be a serious problem.

(End of this chapter)