Su Ye's lips were swollen, and Gu Xiangqian's lips were also broken. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell what happened.
The atmosphere in those days was still conservative, and even couples were not allowed to be intimate in public places. Su Ye took out the lipstick that Fang Xiulian gave her and used it to cover the swollen lips, while Gu Xiangqian went to the sink to wash his face. The two of them went home one after the other tacitly.
Su Ye arrived home first, and she found Yao Chunyu and a few others waiting for someone at her door. When Yao Chunyu saw her, he greeted her warmly: "Comrade Su, you are finally here."
"I heard you have tea leaves in your shop. I want to buy some."
Su Ye then opened the door and invited Yao Chunyu and the others in.
After a while, Gu Xiangqian came over, holding an old hen in his left hand and a bag of mountain products in his right hand, as if he had just come from the market. He took out Chinese yam and red dates from the bag slowly and leisurely.
Su Ye took out the tea gift box but it didn't attract anyone's attention.
Three pairs of eyes fell on the old hen in Gu Xiangqian's hand, and they didn't move for a long time. Even Yao Chunyu couldn't help but be surprised: Where did Gu Xiangqian buy the chicken
The store hadn't sold chicken for a long time. When there was news of meat supply, citizens would line up in the early morning. Each household could only buy one pound at most. If you wanted to buy a whole chicken, you had to go to the countryside to find it, but the price was not much cheaper. If you put it on the black market, the price was unimaginable.
Yao Chunyu is rich, but he would not consider any extravagant consumption.
A sister-in-law jokingly asked: "This hen is really fat, where did Gu Lian buy it?"
Gu Xiangqian was about to say something when Su Ye said with a smile, "Where can you buy chicken during a festival? It was given to you by some fellow villagers."
Gu Xiangqian mistakenly thought that Su Ye wanted to keep the matter low-key and eat the meat in silence, so he did not correct her.
When he killed a wild boar, the troops would inevitably make fun of him. Su Ye always caught fish, picked up rabbits, wild boars, and pheasants. If he didn't keep a low profile, he would probably have trouble living in peace for the rest of his life.
"A gift from a fellow villager." Gu Xiangqian said calmly, picking up the old hen and going to the kitchen to prepare it, with no intention of entertaining guests.
The other three people heard this sentence and understood it to have another meaning!
Going to the black market to buy things is not a shameful thing. The couple was like a gourd with a sawed mouth. A sister-in-law secretly thought that Su Ye was angry and refused to share any information. The chicken was bought by Gu Xiangqian on the black market!
How much money does such a fat chicken cost! While my sister-in-law was envious, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the money.
Yao Chunyu looked around the room and saw a bag of flour on the ground, three bundles of noodles hanging on the wall, a big red double happiness character still on the wardrobe, colorful fruit candies scattered on the table, and all kinds of high-end snacks placed casually as if they were not cherished.
Hidden deep in the corner were malted milk, imported milk powder cans, and clean leather shoes. These were undoubtedly things for Su Ye to eat and use.
Yao Chunyu really had a big misunderstanding—
Gu Xiangqian lived a very frugal life. Apart from malted milk and eggs, which were gifts from the army, most of the other things were bought by Su Ye. She had a habit of hoarding food. Fortunately, Gu Xiangqian had already given his salary card to Su Ye. The total salary of the two people was quite considerable. Although Su Ye was a bit extravagant, she did not express any doubts.
Su Ye made a pot of tea for them. She thought it would be a waste not to do business that came to her door. She remembered that the original heroine had a lot of money.
The tea handed to her by Su Ye was sweet and refreshing, with an endless flavor that lingered on the lips and teeth, but everyone's attention was almost entirely on Gu Xiangqian, who was killing and plucking chickens in the kitchen.
It was as if the chicken was the star of the day, and no matter how delicious the tea was, it couldn't compare to the chicken's charm. Indeed, for people who didn't have a single drop of fat in their stomachs, the fat meat was a fatal temptation.
Gu Xiangqian asked Su Ye: "Do you want to keep the chicken buttocks? I won't eat them."
Su Ye shook her head and she didn't want to eat it either. Gu Xiangqian threw a piece of rotten meat into the trash can without blinking.
During the one-month vacation at home, Gu Xiangqian didn't make much progress in other areas, but his cooking skills improved by leaps and bounds.
After a while, the sound of boiling water came from the kitchen, and a faint aroma of chicken soup wafted out. Gu Xiangqian used half of the chicken to make soup and the other half to stew and stir-fry. He patiently peeled the chestnuts, cut the chicken into small pieces, used wine to remove the fishy smell, and cooked the chestnut stewed chicken with skillful movements.
After a series of smooth movements, a whole fat old hen was used up. If someone else had wasted the meat in this way, I'm sure they would have been heartbroken.
But Gu Xiangqian would not do that. Firstly, he picked up the chicken for free. Secondly, the weather was hot and there was no refrigerator at home to store the chicken. If he didn't finish cooking the chicken, it would go bad the next day.
As for Su Ye, she would not feel sad at all, because the hen was the fruit of her labor, she did not steal or rob, nor did she buy it with other people's money, and she worked hard just to eat a bite of meat. How could she be wronged to follow the unified food standard with everyone just because others could not eat meat
This scene made the women feel complicated, with envy, surprise, heartache, jealousy and other emotions intertwined in their eyes...
The gap is like having the same script of the famine years, tightening your belt and living a hard life, but then you look back and see that some people not only have malted milk to drink, but also old hens to eat, and they eat and throw away fruit candies one by one. Can you still maintain a peaceful mentality
Yao Chunyu smelled the aroma of food and saw Gu Xiangqian busy in the kitchen. She vaguely thought that if she had not gone to the Soviet Union and paid more attention to Gu Xiangqian, she might be the one she would marry now. Gu Xiangqian would buy her a room full of milk powder, candy, and snacks. She would not have gone to the countryside to endure ten years of hardship and wasted the most precious period of her youth.
Marry an ordinary man.
Yao Chunyu never knew that Gu Xiangqian was such a loving man to his wife. In her impression, he was always cold and serious, and it was stressful to get along with him. Who would have thought that he would be a different person in private
She glanced at Su Ye, who was counting money skillfully, with red lipstick on her slightly pursed lips, looking like a materialist.
Unsuitable people will always break up, and it doesn't matter if it's early or late. Yao Chunyu looked at the tea box that Su Ye handed over, and a trace of contemplation flashed in his eyes.
After finishing a pot of tea, Yao Chunyu paid six yuan to buy a box of tea.
Su Ye thought she had earned some money from the original heroine, but she didn't expect her to be so cautious. She saved a huge sum of money but only bought one box, wasting the pot of tea she brewed.
Su Ye smiled and said, "My dear sisters-in-law and Comrade Yao, I'm sorry. We're done eating and won't keep you here."
The sister-in-law suddenly woke up from her dream and stood up to say goodbye to Su Ye.
After several people walked down the family building, a sister-in-law stared at the tea box in Yao Chunyu's hand and felt upset: "No wonder she sells tea. She eats a chicken for a meal. How can she afford such sales if she doesn't make money?"
Yao Chunyu shook his head. "Don't make assumptions about others. Wasn't the old hen given by a fellow villager?"
A thought slowly arose in his mind: Although the old hen was given as a gift, the milk powder, eggs, malted milk, and candy should not be given as a gift, right
Yao Chunyu couldn't help but shake his head and said, "Luckily I came here today, otherwise I wouldn't be able to drink such good tea. Six yuan a box of tea is worth it."
She guessed that Su Ye bought large quantities of tea from tea farmers and resold it to make a profit from the difference.
Although the system was vague for a period of time in the 1960s and was not as strict as it was later, but if we calculate the time, the first speculator in China will be executed. In the following period of time, speculators will be pushed to the forefront, and the days of speculators will be over.
If the amount of profit from reselling reaches a certain amount, it will meet the standard of speculation. How can Su Ye not make money from doing business? A box of tea sells for six yuan, and I'm afraid she will get cramps in her hands from counting the money.
Yao Chunyu didn't know what method Gu Xiangqian used to save her back then, but if this incident got out of hand, they might as well just get a divorce.
However, the premise for all the above assumptions to be true is that Su Ye makes huge profits from it.
Yao Chunyu probably would never have guessed that this was such a strange thing: she didn't spend a penny and devoted herself to serving the people! Not only did she not spend a penny, she also paid for several kilograms of pork, several cigarette tickets for Gu Xiangqian, and cigarette money out of her own pocket.
What a touching spirit!