Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space novel Chapter 259

Chapter 259: Chapter 193: Father-in-Law and Son-in-Law (Part 1)

Zhang Guoqing came up to Zhou Xiaozheng and noticed that the two bamboo baskets full of crabs were empty, surprised he looked around at the several other baskets of various sizes.

Zhou Xiaozheng smiled and reassured him, "No worries, if it’s gone, I’ll go buy more in a few days. Next time, you and Jiao Jiao can have your fill. Our family isn’t short of money, these live crabs are only fourteen cents a pound, as much as you want."

Zhang Guoqing felt both touched and amused, "Dad, you should go one more time before returning to Beijing, buy some to eat back there, they’d even make great gifts. Over in the provincial city, such big and fat ones cost forty cents a pound."

"Rare things are valuable. The fishing village buys rice privately from other villages at sixteen cents; to them, fourteen cents is still a high price. They don’t care to eat these without meat. All these good things are wasted. In the dining hall at the fishery, people eat shrimp bodies directly, tossing the heads and tails. The large yellow croaker heads and tails are thrown into the trash too."

Zhou Xiaozheng sighed and shook his head, looking at the opposite side not noticing them, and whispered, "Look at these sacks of fish, all good stuff just broke out of the boxes in the cold storage and piled at the entrance labeled as waste. I secretly gave the storekeeper five yuan to buy 400 pounds, and my share of this bag only cost two and a half yuan. That mixed bamboo basket only cost one yuan; it’s really unbelievable. Rice and flour in the nearby village are only sixteen cents a pound, all top grade. I bought 400 pounds and they also gave 50 pounds of sweet potato slices. Spend four yuan on noodles to buy a heap; with nowhere to store them, I had to tie everything on top of the car. Unfortunately, the car was too small. Their management is too loose; it’s best to buy early. Even passing drivers know where to get food. Seeing them mess around like this, they’re bound to get into trouble sooner or later."

After listening, Zhang Guoqing also shook his head, "Is their village very remote? Here we don’t have enough grain to eat, but that village has a surplus. I guess it’s because they have a small population and lots of land."

"I didn’t look into the village details, but the area is quite remote. After buying, I hurried back to the fishing village with people, hard to find without a local guide. Today I just happened to meet a driver from the aquatic company; he’s not short of money and loves good food. Today he bought 200 pounds of rice and flour, the same as us with other things. He found a connection to buy the live crabs – it’s said that others mix in male crabs and don’t size them properly. He was the one who remembered those red roe dumplings."

As they talked, the father-in-law and son-in-law laughed heartily. Zhang Guoqing kept saying he was a foodie. Zhou Xiaozheng saw that they’d tidied up almost everything and took Zhang Guoqing to the main living room, planning to discuss some matters with him while they came to mind.

After the two sat down and drank some water, Zhou Xiaozheng spoke to him after a while, "Aside from Uncle Dashan and Zuo Lin in the county, is there anyone else you need to give gifts to? Send them early, and the leftovers will freeze in the cold weather, so you can eat them slowly."

Zhang Guoqing shook his head, "No need to give the rest; you worked hard to buy them from another province. It’s not my place to give them away. Keep them to give to Uncle Guang tomorrow. Last time Mom brought back quite a few tickets from Aunt Xiao Fei’s place; if there are extras, give some to her in exchange for a favor, what do you think? As for Fang Jianmei from the Fang family in Beijing, Grandpa’s advice was to let nature take its course. Dad, speaking of which, I need your help thinking about this. Last time, Grandpa took me to the provincial city and I met some people. I’ve filtered out some peers I didn’t vibe with, but there are still three families left. Should I send them some gifts by the end of the year to keep in touch?"

"Are they all from the military district?"

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