northernbook Chapter 77 End of the One-Day Trip to the County
Chapter 77 End of the One-Day Trip to the County
I bought some yarn on the first floor to knit a sweater when I got home.
My family isn't well-off, so I can't openly wear new clothes. Is it okay to wear them underneath?
It's almost Chinese New Year, we can't be without any new clothes to wear!
By the time we finished shopping and came out, it was almost 1 p.m.
Even after eating a lot of snacks like cookies and candies, my stomach was still growling.
"I'm hungry! Let's go eat!" Lu Yuanqing said.
The state-run restaurants in the county were better than those in the commune; at least meat and vegetables were available every day, and there wasn't just one type of meat dish!
"Let's go out to eat! Let's go out to eat!" The little ones jumped up excitedly.
The state-run restaurants in the county were truly different from those in the commune.
In the commune, the daily menu was written on a small blackboard. You could buy whatever you wanted from the window, and even if the food was prepared in the kitchen, you had to go to the food pick-up point to get it yourself.
In the county, as soon as Lu Yuanqing and his group entered, a waitress with braided pigtails came over with a smile and asked, "Comrade, what would you like to order?"
"What dishes are served?" Lu Yuanqing asked.
After the waiter fluently recited the names of the dishes, Lu Yuanqing asked Lu Yuanbo what they wanted to eat.
After asking for a long time, no one got an answer. Only Lu Mingdong casually said "braised pork ribs". The others hesitated, either not daring to speak or having this or that concern.
Lu Yuanqing smiled and ruffled Lu Mingdong's hair, saying, "Then let's have one braised pork rib, one braised pork belly, one spicy blood curd, one stir-fried sausage, and one boiled fish! Also, one chicken stew with mushrooms, seven bowls of rice, and one empty bowl. Okay, that's all, thank you!"
The waiter smiled and noted it down, then said with a smile, "Okay, please pay and give me your food coupons first. Seven bowls of rice are seven cents plus three catties of food coupons, braised pork is one dollar, spare ribs are eight cents, spicy blood curd is one dollar and fifty cents, stir-fried sausage is one cent per piece, cut into three pieces per plate, totaling three cents, boiled fish is nine cents, and chicken stew with mushrooms is six cents. No meat coupons needed."
Lu Yuanqing calculated that the six meat dishes only cost five yuan and eight mao and three jin of grain coupons.
These prices are amazing!
Lu Yuanqing deftly took out his money and food coupons and handed them to the waiter. After receiving them, the waiter turned around and went to the kitchen to order food.
Perhaps because Lu Yuanqing had spent a large sum of money at the department store, Lu Yuanhuan felt that the nearly six yuan was not that much.
Moreover, they all ordered meat dishes.
She thought to herself again that her third brother was a big spender. She wondered when Baoxia would marry into her family so she could keep an eye on him. Otherwise, he would spend every penny he earned each year, and she would never be able to save any money.
"They're all meat!" Lu Mingnan exclaimed happily.
Lu Yuanqing laughed and said, "Yes, it's all meat. Xiao Nan, eat more later!"
"I want to eat more!" Lu Mingnan nodded firmly.
"We want to eat meat!" The two little ones also knew that meat was a good thing!
It's not that Lu Yuanqing doesn't want to order vegetables, it's just that he's finally able to eat so much meat, how could he be in the mood to eat grass!
Besides, he's had enough of eating grass for more than six months straight.
If you're going to eat meat, then you should eat meat.
Besides, there are side dishes in Mao Xue Wang!
Hey!
The dishes were served one after another, filling the table with a rich aroma. Lu Yuanqing took the lead and divided one half of a bowl of rice into an empty bowl that he had specially requested.
The two little ones don't have big bellies. After finishing a whole bowl of white rice, they probably won't be able to eat any more vegetables. Besides, people these days are very generous, and the rice they're given is piled high.
"Alright, let's eat!" Lu Yuanqing was the first to pick up his chopsticks.
One bite of the braised pork and Lu Yuanqing almost cried with emotion; it was so delicious.
The braised pork belly is fatty but not greasy, and it's seasoned perfectly—it's really delicious.
That explains why the head chef works at a state-run restaurant in the county, not the commune! His culinary skills are definitely the main reason.
"Eat up, it's so delicious!"
All six meat dishes were devoured in one go.
Even the soup from the spicy blood curd was used by Lu Yuanbo and his friends to soak rice and eat.
Lu Yuanqing himself can eat spicy food, but compared to them, he is still a bit lacking. At least he can't eat the spicy soup in Maoxuewang.
After eating, Lu Yuanqing didn't wander around this time. Instead, he asked passersby for directions to the movie theater and then led his group of kids straight there.
There was no other way; he had spent so much money today that not only Lu Yuanhuan, but even Lu Mingxi and the others didn't want to stay overnight in the county. After watching the movie, they were going to take the bus home.
Lu Yuanqing was initially unwilling.
The buses in town start departing at four o'clock in the afternoon.
The county bus returns to the town at 4:30 PM.
It was almost seven o'clock when they finally got back to town after a two-hour journey.
It was getting dark, and Lu Yuanqing was unwilling to go back to the village.
But the kids insisted that they didn't want to spend money on a hotel and wanted to go back.
Ok!
Their family is also democratic. Except for the two younger children who do not have the right to vote for the time being, Lu Yuanqing lost one vote to the other five.
Therefore, after watching the movie, Lu Yuanqing took him to the department store again to buy a flashlight.
Not only do you need flashlight tickets, but you also need industrial coupons. Luckily, the system gave me a hundred coupons of various kinds the first time, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to buy them.
However, after buying the flashlight, Lu Mingdong stared at him suspiciously for a long time.
Lu Yuanqing told them to wait outside while he quickly went in and bought the items himself.
He was also taking a gamble. If Lu Yuanbo and the others didn't know that buying flashlights required tickets and industrial coupons, he wouldn't need to explain. If they did know, he would just make up an excuse and say that he met someone inside who had industrial coupons and exchanged them with him.
But in the end, they were all curiously looking at it with flashlights, and no one cared.
The only kid who seemed to know the answer just looked at him with a suspicious gaze, showing no intention of asking any questions!
Lu Yuanqing tapped him on the head and returned a knowing look!
Lu Mingdong curled his lip, snorted, and turned away from him.
"Let's go to the station! Let's wait for the bus home!" Lu Yuanhuan reminded him.
The bus that came to the county picked up many people along the way.
Few people got on or off the bus on its way back to town.
So the bus arrived in town before 6:30.
This was the first time Lu Yuanqing had gotten off the car so quickly to alleviate his motion sickness.
Once the little ones had all come down, he didn't linger to rest. Instead, he waved and urged, "Hurry up, let's go home!"
In winter, it always gets dark earlier; it's almost dark now.
But they still have to walk for more than an hour to get back to the village.
The group, some carrying things, some carrying children on their backs, hurried home.
Lu Yuanqing had the foresight to buy the flashlight at just the right time.
On the way back to the village, it was already completely dark by the time we were halfway there!
For the second half of the journey, we relied entirely on flashlights for light to safely return to the village!