Chapter 14 Insights from Dongan Market
Lin Sanqi is not a holy mother, so of course she can understand this:
"Mom, I understand the principle of knowing etiquette if you are born with talent, and knowing honor and disgrace if you have enough food and clothing, but I am so awesome. Everyone respects me when I give my name. This is the style of a famous doctor."
Jin Caifeng glanced at her younger son meaningfully:
"So, you will also study medicine in the future. Our family has inherited it from our ancestors. Some secret recipes are passed down from male to female. When you learn well, you can become a famous doctor like your father and be respected by thousands of people."< br>
In fact, Lin Sanqi had not thought about what route he should take in 1959.
Logically speaking, I have a father who is a famous doctor in my family, and he has secret recipes passed down from his family, so it would be good to inherit the family business and become a famous Chinese medicine doctor in 1959.
But when you become a doctor, you have to sit in the clinic to treat patients every day. This means you have no freedom. Do you really think that you are here to serve the people when you travel to 1959?
How can I make money and monetize my traffic? How to reduce the financial burden on small families in 2023?
But if I am not a Chinese medicine practitioner, what can I do in this era?
The work system these days is a distribution system. You can do whatever you are told. You have no choice. There is no self-employment, let alone business.
Therefore, Lin Sanqi was confused for a moment and had no idea what to do next.
Seeing her son thinking deeply, Jin Caifeng thought that her younger son had listened to her words, and she felt quite happy:
"Zai Zai, I bought the meat. Let's go, grandma will take you to have breakfast."
"Have breakfast?"
Lin Sanqi looked at the deserted East-West vegetable market. After searching for a long time, he didn't see any breakfast shop or anything like that.
In 1959, private individuals were not allowed to do business, but there were still public-private joint venture shops. Unfortunately, natural disasters caused a shortage of food and materials, causing the vegetable market to be very depressed, and there were really not many things to buy.
If you have something, you can only look at it. If you don’t have a ticket, you can’t do it even if you have money.
Jin Caifeng walked in front and said to her youngest son:
"You can't have breakfast in the Dongdan Vegetable Market. Let's go south. There is a Dong'an Market in Wangfujing. There is everything there. You have been staying in the black market thieves' den, you should also experience the lively scene of our capital. ”
Jin Caifeng thought that her younger son was ignorant.
Lin Sanqi heard the black line and thought to herself, Auntie, you have never been to Zhengjia Plaza in Tianhe. The shopping mall alone has an area of 300,000 square meters, with 7 floors above ground and 3 floors underground. It is really lively.
Little Dong'an is nothing to worry about.
Who would have thought that Lin Sanqi would realize that he was shallow only when he actually arrived at the Dong'an Market.
Since the late Qing Dynasty, Dong'an Market has been the busiest place in Sijiu City. It is not just a market, but a hypermarket integrating retail, leisure, entertainment, catering and tourism.
Even though it's only around 7 o'clock in the morning, Dong'an Market is packed with people at a glance.
There are a row of snack bars and small restaurants that provide breakfast, some are state-owned and some are public-private joint ventures, and every stall is crowded with diners.
Lin Sanqi became a little ruthless and asked Jin Caifeng next to her:
"Grandma, didn't you say that the natural disasters this year are so severe that people don't even have enough to eat? Why are there so many diners in Dong'an Market? I see there is a lot of food and meat."
Jin Caifeng laughed after hearing this, as if his eyes had seen everything:
"Before the liberation, our Huadu Chentang was quite lively, with lights and feasts everywhere, cars and people coming and going, and a prosperous scene. But who would have thought that outside Huadu, people were starving to death everywhere, with their wives and children scattered, and corpses strewn everywhere.
Therefore, no matter which dynasty or period, the poor are the majority. But it’s not that there are no rich people, it’s that wealth and resources are concentrated in the hands of a few people. These people are still popular and drink hot food, and the patches on their bodies are all pretending to be seen by outsiders. "Lin Sanqi nodded slightly and murmured softly:
"The wine and meat of Zhumen stink, and there are frozen bones on the road..."
Zhu Caifeng gently touched her youngest son's head and said lovingly:
"We are a medical family. As long as we take care of ourselves and can cure diseases and save people, it will be fine. If you are poor, you can be alone, and if you are talented, you can help the world. Zai Zai, you are still young. There are some things you should not say and things you should not do. It is best for us to live in peace."
Lin Sanqi is a college student after all, with an above-average IQ. He knows that this is his mother's subtle teaching of how to live in the world.
"I know Mom, we just need to be clear about some things in our hearts. I won't be fooled into doing whatever I want when my head gets hot."
"This is my good son. Let's go. Grandma will take you to drink mutton soup. It's a pity that there are no rice rolls and shrimp dumplings in Sijiucheng."
The mother and son found a mutton noodle restaurant and sat down. Jin Caifeng ordered two bowls of noodles and added two sesame seed cakes.
Because of the added meat, a bowl of noodles cost 4 taels of food stamps, plus 1 jiao and 4 cents, and a sesame seed cake cost 1 tael of food stamps, 3 cents.
Ordinary noodles are much cheaper. A bowl of vegetable noodles costs 20 taels of food stamps and 8 cents.
After Jin Caifeng paid the money, she carefully hid the ticket and money in a small bag close to her body. It would be okay if the money was lost, but someone would be killed if the ticket was lost.
After a while, the noodles were served. Public noodle restaurants are very affordable. The mutton is thick and the noodle soup is filled with attractive oil.
Maybe later generations pay attention to whether noodle soup is good because it needs to be "clear", but this era pays attention to "oil", and the oilier the better.
Lin Sanqi took a sip of soup and another bite of noodles, and her eyes lit up.
One word means "fresh" and the other means "delicious". Mutton noodles made with purely natural ingredients and without advanced technology will not be comparable in a few decades.
"Mom, this mutton noodles is delicious, and these sesame seed cakes are so fragrant. I never get tired of eating them every day~~~"
Jin Caifeng said with emotion while giving the mutton in her bowl to her son:
"How can you eat mutton noodles for breakfast every day? You'll find out when you start working. The monthly salary of an apprentice is only 18 yuan, and the food stamp ration is only 21 pounds. You're such a young man, so you can only cope with saving food. Half a month.”
Lin Sanqi calculated and thought: What if I become an intern and my one-day salary is not enough to eat a bowl of noodles?
So I looked at the other diners around me, thinking that these people should have more than 18 yuan in salary and 21 kilograms of food stamps, right? So where did their money and tickets come from?
After eating the noodles, Jin Caifeng took her son to the mall and bought two sets of ready-made clothes for Lin Sanqi.
Lin Sanqi was amazed when she looked at the dense spider web-like cashier system above her head in the mall. She felt that shopping like this was much more enjoyable than online shopping.
But what he didn't know was that he bought two shirts, two pairs of pants and a jacket, filling in all the Lin family's cloth coupons for a year.
After coming out of Dong'an Market, Jin Caifeng looked at his watch and said:
"Zai Zai, where do you want to play later? Mom will take you there."
Lin Sanqi touched the prescription in his pocket and said without hesitation:
"Mom, I want to go to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and see where Boss Lao Dou and the others work..."
(End of chapter)