415. Chapter 399 Letter from Master Liu


Local food stamps will expire, but national food stamps will not. It is still very easy to exchange food for food stamps.

If that doesn't work, you can find someone who is a speculator and exchange grain from the other party for some national food stamps.

Of course, this is Uncle Guan, Li Le would not do this, and there was nothing he could do about it, because he had too much food in his hands.

After leaving Uncle Guan's house, Li Le rode a tricycle on the streets of the imperial capital.

When passing by a forest, Li Le stopped the tricycle and felt the temperature. It was very cool.

Li Le had no intention of leaving, so he pushed the tricycle into the woods and found a more secluded place.

Lock the tricycle, take out the bottle bag, put it on the tricycle, and lie directly on the tricycle.

Not to mention, this forest is really comfortable, at least it feels very cool.

Li Le put the straw hat on his face and soon fell asleep. When he woke up, it was almost half past two.

This is just Li Le. I don't know why, but he seems to be insulated from mosquitoes. No matter where he is, mosquitoes don't bite him.

I don’t know whether it’s because of his Kung Fu training or other reasons, but Li Le has never been found.

If an ordinary person were to take a nap in this weather, at this time, and in this place, I don’t know if he would be able to get up again.

Because there is a high possibility of excessive blood loss.

After waking up, Li Le stretched and immediately felt refreshed.

The weather was too hot, and Li Le had no intention of continuing to collect scraps, so he planned to go to the grain station to buy grain and then go home.

Li Le's home is not far from the grain station. By the time he arrived at the grain station, it was already past three in the afternoon.

Parked the tricycle outside and went in with the bag of grain.

"Comrade, I'm buying food."

"Bring me the grain book." The staff at the grain station stretched out his hand and said.

Li Le quickly handed over the grain book. The staff took a look at it and said, "In your grain book, one is forty-two pounds, and two are thirty-six pounds. The total is one hundred and fourteen pounds."

"Yes!" Li Le nodded quickly.

"Twenty percent fine grains, a total of 22.8 kilograms. You can buy white flour or rice."

"Then make noodles!"

In the imperial capital, many more people eat white flour than rice. Let’s put it this way, if you buy ten kilograms of flour, you may not necessarily buy one kilogram of rice.

Although Li Le is the same when eating white noodles or rice, others are not! So Li Le could only buy white noodles.

If you don’t eat this stuff yourself, you can sell it to others or exchange it for others.

"You can buy whole grains for the rest." The staff said to Li Le.

"Comrade, I would like to ask, what kind of coarse grains are there?"

To be honest, Li Le never knew much about coarse grains, but fine grains were simple, such as rice or white flour.

"There are bean noodles, sorghum noodles, sweet potato noodles, corn noodles and cob noodles."

"Uh! Comrade, aren't cornmeal and cornmeal the same thing?"

The staff member shook his head and said, "It's different. Cornmeal is made from pure corn, while cornmeal is made directly from cobs."

In fact, cornmeal is made with corn cobs. Li Le took a look and saw that the cornmeal was yellow, while the cornmeal was white and looked gray.

"Comrade, how much are the prices of cornmeal and cornmeal?" Li Le asked now without shame!

"Corn flour costs 700 yuan per catty, and cornmeal costs 500 yuan per catty. There is a difference of 200 yuan."

Using the second set of RMB, cornmeal is seven cents and corn flour is five cents, a difference of two cents per kilogram.

Don’t underestimate these two cents. If a family of five or six people buys them all, the difference will be at least three yuan.

This is why it is said that five yuan per month is enough for everyone's living expenses.

For example, Li Le's monthly ration of forty-two kilograms consists of 20 percent of fine grains, which is eight kilograms and four taels.

If these eight pounds and forty ounces are calculated as white flour, and one pound of white flour is one and four cents, that is one dollar and nineteen cents.

The remaining noodles cost 33.6 kilograms and cost 5 cents per kilogram, which is one dollar and sixty-eight cents.

Of course, if you buy cornmeal, it's two dollars and thirty-five cents.

In other words, if you buy food according to the ration, you will spend at most three yuan and fifty-four cents a month and at least two yuan and eighty-seven cents.

Then with the remaining money, you can buy four taels of meat according to the ration, and the rest can be used to buy vegetables.

Yes, each person in the imperial capital is rationed four taels of meat per month, and the price of four taels of meat is just over 20 cents.

After calculating this, I still have at least one yuan left to buy groceries. If I buy stick noodles, I have nearly two yuan left to buy groceries.

The vegetables at this time are very cheap, the cheap ones cost only one or two cents per catty, and the expensive ones only cost three to five cents per catty.

On average, it costs three cents per catty, which is nearly two yuan more. You can buy at least five to sixty catties of vegetables.

It can be said that it is enough to last for a month, and it is still meaty. Not only that, but there are also fine grains to eat.

If I save a little more, exchange fine grains for coarse grains, and sell meat stamps, I think four yuan will be enough for this month.

In terms of money at this time, it is 40,000 yuan, which is why some people can support a family of five or six people with a salary of more than 200,000 yuan a month.

"Forget the cornmeal, give me the cornmeal!"

"Okay, wait a minute."

"Um!"

Li Le nodded, paid the money first, then handed over the flour bag containing the grain, and then waited aside.

Li Le brought over three flour bags in total, one containing white flour and the other two containing cornmeal.

Nowadays, the bags used to hold grain are all cloth bags, and each bag can only hold fifty kilograms at most.

In about five or six minutes, the grain Li Le bought was packed and weighed.

Li Le took the grain book and took a look at it, and found that this month's ration had been stamped with a purchased stamp.

Yes, this kind of seal only has two words, purchased, which means it has been purchased.

If you want to buy it again, you can only wait until next month. This food book has a date, month, and year.

The grain book in Li Le's hand was from December 1953 to November 1963, which means it can be used for ten years.

When all the stamps above are stamped, it will be time to replace the grain book with a new one.

After packing up the grain book, Li Le carried the grain and left the grain station.

By the time Li Le got home, it was not yet four o'clock, and at this time, there were still several hours before dark.

"Brother Le, why did you come back so early today?" Seeing Li Le coming back, Zhao Yanran quickly came out of the house and asked.

"It was too hot outside, so I came back early."

"oh!"

The two sisters Zhao Yanran didn't care at all whether Li Le made money or not, because they knew better than anyone else that the family was not short of money at all.

Don't say that Li Le just came back early. Even if he stayed at home for ten or twenty years, the two of them wouldn't say anything.

Because the family's money will never be spent even if it takes several lifetimes. In this case, why bother making money?

"I'll carry the food in first, and then take a shower."

"Brother Le, let me carry the food! You go and take a shower."

"No, just let me come. You can carry it all over again." After speaking, Li Le took the grain off the tricycle and carried it directly into the house. After putting away the food, Li Le went into the house to get a change of clothes, and then went to the bathroom.

It's summer now, and Li Le takes a shower at least twice a day, so he's not dirty, just a little sweaty.

In less than ten minutes, Li Le finished taking a shower.

After putting on his clothes, Li Le returned to the main room, and by this time, Zhao Yanhan had already made tea.

Seeing Li Le come in, Zhao Yanhan said quickly: "Brother Le, sit down and take a rest. I will pour you tea."

Li Le smiled, rubbed Zhao Yanhan's head, and sat down directly.

"Brother Le, you messed up my hair again."

"I'm happy to." After Li Le said, he picked up a cup of tea and took a sip.

"Huh, I'm ignoring you."

To be honest, it’s still comfortable at home! The fan is blowing and you can drink tea, it will be as comfortable as you want.

A day like this would not change even for a minister!

"By the way, Brother Le, it's getting hotter and hotter today. I think you won't go out for a while. Our family is not short of money." Zhao Yanran said.

"Yeah! But it's not okay not to go out. You can go out less, or come back early."

Li Le and the others are in the business of collecting waste. If they stay at home and don't go out, it will look like there is something wrong with them.

Li Le didn't want anything to go wrong, so he had to go out anyway.

The worst case scenario is just like today, sleeping outside and coming back early.

For the next week, Li Le went out late and came back early every day, let’s put it that way! He would never spend more than two hours every day collecting scraps.

The rest of the time, he was either working at home or sleeping outside. Anyway, others didn't know it, but they knew that he was busy collecting waste every day.

This morning, Li Le was chattering at home when someone knocked on the door.

Zhao Yanhan quickly ran over to open the door, and quickly ran back.

"Brother Le, I have your letter."

"My letter?" Li Le pointed to his nose in surprise.

There is no way! Others don't know, but he knows himself too well. After traveling to this era, he doesn't know anyone!
Besides, even if he knew someone, he lived nearby, so it was impossible to write to him.

"Who sent it?" Li Le asked.

"I don't know, it was delivered by the postman."

Li Le took the letter and opened it and read it.

Li Le was speechless after seeing the content of the letter.

Because the letter was from Mr. Liu, he didn't say anything. He just asked Li Le to go to his house after receiving the letter.

This Mr. Liu is too cute. With such a small distance, you still need to write a letter. Just come here directly, or find a messenger to say no.

It just so happened that Li Le thought it was too hot, so he didn't go out, so he went directly to Liu Ye's place to see what Liu Ye wanted to do with him.

He handed the letter to Zhao Yanran and said, "I'll go see what's going on."

"Well! Go quickly!"

The two sisters Zhao Yanran also knew about Mr. Liu.

Half an hour later, Li Le arrived at the door of Mr. Liu's house, parked the tricycle, locked it, and went in directly.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw Mr. Liu sitting alone at the stone table drinking tea.

Li Le went directly over, sat down, poured a cup of tea and asked, "Master Liu, why did you write to ask me to come over?"

Mr. Liu took a sip of tea first and said, "It's nothing."

"Well!"

Li Le looked at Master Liu speechlessly and said, "I thought there was something urgent and asked you to write to me."

Mr. Liu looked at Li Le helplessly and said, "If it's really an emergency, why should I write you a letter? By the time the letter arrives, the day lilies will be cold."

Li Le scratched his head and said, "That's right! If it's really urgent, you must find someone to notify me. It's much faster than writing a letter."

"You just know it!"

"Okay! Blame me."

After Li Le finished drinking a cup of tea, Mr. Liu looked at him and said, "You should have a lot of food in your hand, right?"

Li Le did not answer Mr. Liu, but asked: "What are you..."

"It's like this. Someone wants to sell some antiques, but they don't want money, but food."

"Want food?"

"Yes, to be precise, it's white flour. If you have a lot of white flour, you can trade some."

"Master Liu, it's okay if you want white noodles, but you also know that the price of white noodles is not cheap now."

The current price of the eight-five-year-old powder at the grain station is one thousand four hundred and two hundred and two, but it requires a ticket. If you don't have a ticket, the price is at least thirty-five cents.

But Li Le doesn't have eighty-five fans, he only has Fuqiang fans, which are also commonly known as fine fans.

This kind of rich and powerful fans simply don’t exist on the black market.

It can be said that since the implementation of food stamps, few Fuqiang fans can buy them.

It's not that there aren't any, but this kind of Fuqiang powder was bought by some people even before it reached the grain station.

If ordinary people want to buy Fuqiang fans, unless they are very lucky, it is impossible to buy them.

"Don't worry about this. The price is two levels higher than the black market. What do you think?"

Li Le said at this time: "Master Liu, my white noodles are simply not available on the black market."

"Can't buy it? What do you mean?" Master Liu asked confused.

"Master Liu, all the white noodles in my hand are Fuqiang powder. As you know, this Fuqiang powder is not easy to buy!"

"Are they all Fuqiang fans?" Liu Ye looked at Li Le in surprise and asked.

"Yes." Li Le nodded.

"Let's do this! You sit down for a while, I'll discuss it with the other party, and I'll be back soon."

"Okay." Li Le shrugged indifferently.

After Master Liu went out, Li Le sat down and started drinking tea. Not to mention, Master Liu's tea was pretty good.

Although it cannot compare with the tea in his hand, it is still a rare and exquisite Longjing tea.

Half an hour later, Mr. Liu came in from outside, looked at Li Le and said, "The other party agreed. Your Fuqiang fan will pay you five thousand yuan per catty."

"Okay, let's wait and see when the time comes. We'll go there then."

"Let's do this! Just this afternoon, let's go take a look first. As for the transaction, we'll wait until you confirm it."

"Yeah! Just give me some time to prepare."

When it was almost eleven o'clock, Mr. Liu took Li Le to a courtyard. This courtyard was much larger than most courtyards.

"This is it. I'll knock on the door first."

Arriving at the gate, Mr. Liu arranged for Li Le, then picked up the knocker and knocked on the door a few times. (End of chapter)

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