Wang Ying had never seen a radio box. Seeing that she was interested, Xu Shuang weighed the matter and felt that the young man opposite could not possibly defeat her in terms of martial arts, so she agreed to go over and take a look at the so-called radio box.
Wang Ying followed the people to a small alley not far from the supply and marketing cooperative, where two boys about fourteen or fifteen were guarding a large box very vigilantly.
The person leading the way put his hand on the box and said, "Look, this is the radio box I mentioned. One of my brothers is very capable. He can assemble it himself with parts. This is the box he assembled. Just press this place and the sound will come out."
Wang Ying had never seen a radio like this before. It was called a radio, but in fact it looked more like a wooden box. Even the edges of the wood could be seen with rough edges. It looked like it was made by temporarily putting together pieces of wood that had been sawed off from something else. The outer layer was also bare, without even a coat of paint. There were two small round knobs on the outside that could be turned to adjust the frequency band.
Xu Shuang: "Is this the electric box you made? Is it a copy of the old one?"
The young man slapped his thigh and said, "Brother, you are knowledgeable! Isn't it just an old-fashioned box? My brother is smart and put the box together by himself. The outer wood board was cut by an old furniture manufacturer we found. Don't be fooled by its appearance, it won't affect your listening at all! If it breaks, you can come to the city to find me. My name is Zhang San!"
Wang Ying smiled: "So one of them is surnamed Li and the other is surnamed Wang?"
Zhang San: "That's not true. They are Zhang Si and Zhang Wu. We are three brothers!"
Wang Ying didn't dwell on the name. As soon as she made eye contact with Xu Shuang, both of them knew each other's thoughts. They wanted to buy this box!
Wang Ying was thinking that this radio was small, and it was fine for her and Xu Shuang to listen to it in the room, but it was too small and not loud enough to be taken out. Most importantly, if they were listening in the room, what would happen to Old Lady Xu
It is already September, and the houses for the educated youth will be built soon. Wang Ying also needs to repair the two houses next door. By then, it will depend on whether the courtyard wall will be demolished.
It seemed that Old Mrs. Xu was unwilling to live with them, but Wang Ying was still concerned about her and thought that she should prepare a radio for her as well.
Tickets for the radio were hard to get, and Wang Ying felt lucky to have run into someone selling radio boxes.
Zhang San was still trying to trick her into selling the new radio: "This box is worth forty or fifty yuan. If you take it, you'll get a box for free. What a great deal!"
Wang Ying was not fooled by him: "Yes, the money is even, and I got a box for free, but where is the ticket?"
Chen Dong didn't say anything, but Wang Ying knew that this ticket would cost a lot, and she even used her connections. Zhang San thought that exchanging a box for her ticket was not that easy.
Seeing that Wang Ying was not easy to fool, Zhang San was a little discouraged: "Then name a price, don't be too high, we are also pretending to be lucky to buy for others. We just make a few dollars in the middle."
Wang Ying didn't believe it: "Just to make a few bucks, is it worth it for you to go to such lengths to keep an eye on me?"
Zhang San: "Don't we still have the box? To put it bluntly, we are selling the box and making some extra money. The girl said she wanted a new model of the radio, and she offered us a price that was fifty or sixty percent higher than the selling price. After deducting the money we gave for the box, the rest is ours. It's just like selling it."
Wang Ying was really speechless: "You just tell me what I'm asking? You're so gullible."
It’s silly to even state the cost clearly.
Zhang Si slapped Zhang San, and Zhang Wu also had an indescribable look on his face.
Wang Ying: "Okay, how much is your box? I'll take it. Let me make it clear first, I just asked, I know the price of one in the supply and marketing cooperative, if you want to pay more than that, don't ask."
Zhang San was annoyed. He was not stupid. Just now, he saw that Wang Ying seemed to be a little moved, as if she wanted to buy his box. That's why he deliberately pretended to be honest and bargained down the price of the box to fifty or sixty. He just wanted to make ends meet. If he couldn't get a new radio, selling a box would be good.
But the other party didn't take the bait at all, and his words implied that he was not honest in asking the price.
Zhang San secretly cursed his bad luck. The young couple he met was not easy to cheat, so he had no choice but to obediently show four fingers.
Wang Ying bargained without hesitation: "Thirty!"
Zhang San was really worried now: "Big sister, you can't cut it like this. Who would cut it to ten yuan at once? If you raise it to thirty at once, I can't negotiate with you."
Wang Ying had formed a habit of bargaining in her previous life, but she didn't know that everyone was offering realistic prices this time, and bargaining was done in increments of a few cents.
Xu Shuang pulled Wang Ying's hand and continued, "Thirty-five. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, forget it."
Zhang San said aggrievedly: "You two are indeed a couple."
Bargaining is so fierce!
Xu Shuang: "You didn't spend much money to assemble the box. The wood is not valuable, and the things inside won't be expensive as long as you have connections. Thirty-five, you've made a lot of money."
Zhang San gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, thirty-five is thirty-five."
Xu Shuang was indeed right. He bought the goods from the young man for 20 yuan each. He could make 15 yuan by reselling them, which was not bad.
Wang Ying took the big box. Actually, it was not very heavy to hold. It only looked heavy because the wooden box outside was too big.
Zhang San took the money, and at least the business was done, so he became much more enthusiastic.
"This box is a wooden box we added after we bought it. If you think it's too big, you can change it. If it breaks in the middle, come to this place to find me. I will be here within three days. Or you can find someone to repair it. It's not complicated. You can find a place that repairs radios to fix it."
Xu Shuang nodded. He had just tried the box and could indeed hear the sound coming from inside, which showed that there was nothing wrong with the box.
Zhang San sold a box, whistled, and left with his two brothers.
Wang Ying and Xu Shuang were at a loss as to how to get the big box back.
It was big, so Wang Ying could carry it, but she couldn't move it in the back seat, and she couldn't hold it if it hit a bumpy place. But if she tied the box to the back seat, Wang Ying would have to take the bus. It was already late, and she didn't know if she could catch the bus.
Xu Shuang found a hemp rope from a roadside repair stall and tied the box to the back seat, leaving the space in front of the car seat free.
"Come, sit here."
Wang Ying was a little embarrassed: "Sit on the front beam?"
Xu Shuang raised her eyebrows. Wang Ying said, "Okay then."
Wang Ying jumped lightly onto the front beam and sat sideways on the horizontal bar. Xu Shuang stepped over from behind with her long legs and held Wang Ying steadily in her arms.
Wang Ying felt her face burning: "Let's go!"
If the patrol team sees it, I won’t be able to explain myself.
Xu Shuang chuckled in her ear and set off on her bike.
The Xu family bought another big item.
Because Wang Ying was waiting to return to the team with Xu Shuang the day before, others didn't know that the couple had already bought the "Yi Xiang".
It was not until the next day when Old Lady Xu showed off to the old ladies who came to visit that people in the Seventh Brigade knew that Xu Shuang and Wang Ying had bought a radio.
Although it looks ugly, it is still a simple old-fashioned box.
But it's a radio!
For a while, Old Mrs. Xu didn't even have time to eat. People came to see the novelty in waves, and every time they came, they wanted to listen to the sound of the radio and touch this ringing treasure.
"What is this saying? Why does the voice sound weird to me?"
"This is a script being broadcasted, and it's about this year's grain production."
"Oh my goodness, will they mention our team? Listen."
"What are you talking about? How big is our country? We are not a major grain producing area. It's not our place!"
"Hey, why did it change again?"
"This is to change the channel. Mrs. Xu said that we can change to several channels and even receive the channels from the capital!"
"It's incredible! Our sister-in-law Xu is living such a happy life! Her daughter-in-law even asked us to put the radio in her room. She is so blessed."
…
Wang Ying herself had not expected that yesterday, when Old Lady Xu heard that she had bought two radios, she was so happy but also felt sad. She also told Wang Ying to tell others that she had only bought one, which was the box.
Old Lady Xu: "Just say there is a box. Whoever wants to listen to it can come to me. I have someone to keep me company. If I say you have one too, I'm afraid you won't be at peace."
Old Lady Xu arranged it immediately. She knew what would happen if she had something that only her family had. The radio was not like a bicycle. The bicycle was mainly used by Xu Shuang and Wang Ying. Normally, no one would borrow it from Xu Shuang unless there was an emergency. But the radio, this thing can be listened to by several people, and it still has sound.
If Wang Ying said that there are two TVs at home, there will definitely be people who will come to listen to it. Anyway, if you have two TVs at home, it’s okay to give one to everyone to listen to.
It’s not that Old Lady Xu didn’t want others to hear it, she was just afraid that others would make a lot of noise and disturb Wang Ying from working.
Now it's all right. The box is with her, and she and a group of old ladies are listening to it to relieve their boredom. Whoever wants to go can go. Anyway, they don't mind being delayed.
Old Mrs. Xu sat in the main room, watching the people coming and going, feeling proud.
A year ago, people in the brigade avoided her family. A year later, her family became prosperous, and they had three turns and one ring.
A second letter from the eldest son also arrived, saying that he was doing well.
Old Mrs. Xu was so happy to hear the compliments from others.
Farm work became sparse in September, and after a few days, the houses for the educated youth were repaired.
Foreseeing that there would be more educated youth coming in the future, the team leader Tian Youfu directly arranged for people to build all nine houses of the educated youth site. Although they were not made of blue bricks, they were still very solid.
After the house was dried, all the educated youth, both men and women, moved out of the homes of the commune members where they were staying.
Everyone's mentality was different. Most people were relieved, but the few who had developed feelings for the members' families were a little reluctant.
People like Zhang Ping and Jiang Li who live comfortably are even more reluctant to leave.
Before Zhang Ping and Jiang Li moved out, they cleaned Xu's house inside and out. Zhang Ping even asked her family to prepare a few rare industrial invoices in advance and send them to Old Mrs. Xu to thank her for letting her live in their home.
Old Mrs. Xu also had a good impression of Zhang Ping. Although she was a little spoiled, it was nothing for a girl from the city to be a little spoiled.
As soon as Zhang Ping and Jiang Li moved out, Old Mrs. Xu returned to her own home.
Although it is convenient to have a wall between them, Old Mrs. Xu is still used to having her own yard and house.
Old Mrs. Xu insisted on moving out, so Wang Ying and Xu Shuang discussed it and decided to start renovating the house.
The house next door was now also under Wang Ying's name, so there was no need for the high walls on both sides. Xu Shuang asked someone to tear down the middle wall and then counted the bricks.
Although Wang Yongshun and his wife's house is also a brick house, the bricks are very old and are no longer used nowadays.
Wang Ying and Xu Shuang discussed it and decided to replace them all with today's blue bricks.
However, if you calculate it this way, the cost is quite a lot.
Wang Ying closed the white paper in her hand and sighed for the first time since her time travel: "It's really hard to make money."
In the past, Xu Shuang and her savings seemed sufficient, but after a few calculations, they were actually a little stretched.
The two of them had previously earned 650 yuan from selling ginseng, and the family had a savings of more than 300 yuan. With the addition of Wang Ying's purchase of medicinal materials and Xu Shuang's salary and extra income, the couple's savings had previously reached a maximum of more than 1,000 yuan.
But at the same time, they have also spent a lot this year.
Although the sewing machine and radio didn't require tickets, they were not cheap. The sewing machine cost 160 yuan, the radio cost 120 yuan, and the box cost 35 yuan. I sent things to Xu Ming several times, which cost me nearly 100 yuan. In addition, their family didn't save much on food and clothing. They lived near the mountain, but they also spent a lot of extra money. I bought milk before, and meat several times, including when Wang Ying went to the restaurant in town to eat.
As for clothes, Wang Ying didn't have many decent clothes before, so this year's clothes were all made. Old Mrs. Xu had a sewing machine, so Wang Ying bought fabric for the whole family and asked Old Mrs. Xu to make them for her. Chen Dong always had cloth coupons, so Wang Ying usually bought fabric after getting the coupons. In addition to the clothes, the family also made two extra quilts and sheets.
With this calculation, the two of them now have a savings of more than 600 yuan. In addition, there is a food shortage in the city, and the income from extra income has been cut in the past two months.
Wang Ying felt nervous no matter how she thought about it.
"It's all covered with blue bricks. If you remove the bricks for the middle courtyard wall, you'll have to buy more than 300 bricks."
Blue bricks are expensive, which is why there are so few blue brick houses in the brigade. Under normal circumstances, if you build a house with mud like the one in the Youth League, it will cost about two hundred yuan. The big expense is not even in the construction of the house, but in the beams and furniture. But if you build it with blue bricks, it will cost at least three hundred yuan just to build it, not including the furniture.
"Most of the furniture in the house is unusable, and we have to buy glass and make furniture, which will cost at least several dozen dollars."
Wang Ying planned to build a room on the original foundation. There were only two people, she and Xu Shuang, so there was no need to build two rooms. One room would be larger. She could build a small medicine cabinet to store some medicinal herbs, and Xu Shuang could put some dry goods. This would save the trouble of having to go up and down every time when the cellar was too full.
After all these were removed, Wang Ying still missed the bathroom she had wanted before. The bathroom didn't cost much bricks, but she had to buy a large bathtub and two more tubs. Bathtubs were not cheap, costing dozens of yuan.
Xu Shuang also interjected: "I want to dig a well at home."
It is too troublesome to get water in the brigade, as we always have to fetch water. Now Xu Shuang gets up early every morning to fetch water. She fills the water tank at home three times in the morning.
Wang Ying: “That’s what we need.”
It is very inconvenient not to have a well at home.
The cost of digging a well is also expensive, and it costs dozens of dollars to hire someone to do it.
With this calculation, there is not much left of the 600 yuan savings. The remaining money is used to prepare for winter shopping.
Wang Ying sighed, "I said I would buy a job when I moved to the city, but I don't know when I will be able to get the money together."
Xu Shuang hesitated: "How about I stay in a hotel this winter?"
The weather was really bad this year, and the family's grain harvest was poor. He had no extra income for about three months, and he would have no salary for another three months in winter...
Xu Shuang was also a little hesitant.
Wang Ying: "Don't even think about it. Even if you are willing to work in the hotel, your boss won't agree. Believe it or not, he will use threats and inducements to force you to come back for the winter."
Xie Yuejin got a taste of success last year, so how could he stop this year? It would be good if Xu Shuang came back obediently, but if she really told him, she would be dragged into this water by these two people.
Xu Shuang also sighed.
It was also the first time he was worried about money.
But we have to turn over the house next door. If the old house is not taken care of, it will collapse in three to five years. Besides, the brigade has given the house to Wang Ying. If Wang Ying doesn't care about it, she can just leave it there. After a few years, when Wang Yongshun and Wang Yaozong come back from their imprisonment, what's the use of making trouble
It would be better to renovate the house quickly and move in together in your own yard to avoid further hassles later.
Money is scarce, but work must be done.
Wang Ying made the decision first: "Spend it first, and we'll talk about it later."
At worst, she could search the medicinal fields on the mountain in a few days and sell all the suitable ones. As for the fish pond, as long as it is not discovered, they can sell another wave before the New Year.
So from then on, Wang Ying seemed much busier.
First, we dug a well and found a well digger. We tried several places in the yard and finally found a water hole. We successfully dug the well. After drying it for more than ten days, the well was ready for use.
The next step was to buy bricks and build the house a few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival.
A big house was built next door, the surrounding walls were connected, and the gate was sealed, leaving only one door on Wang Ying's side.
I also built a bathroom in the corner of the yard and ordered a large bathtub from the carpenter.
Everything was arranged and it was already Mid-Autumn Festival.
Wang Ying's impression of the Mid-Autumn Festival in her previous life was eating crabs, drinking rice wine, and having a mooncake with ham. It was impossible to enjoy the moon, as the light pollution in the city was so serious. If you wanted to see a bright moon and the eternal wilderness, you could only take a day off during the Mid-Autumn Festival and go to the prairie or find a high mountain.
But when she changed the place, Wang Ying no longer felt that way.
People in later times always complained about the dull festive atmosphere, a certain reason being that material conditions later became extremely abundant.
Mooncakes, which can be bought for more than 300 days throughout the year, are far less joyful than the ones you could long for and eat once every half a month or a month when you were short of material resources.
The people in the Seventh Brigade also ate mooncakes, but not the five-nut mooncakes that were later criticized as being full of sugar, red and green, and smelling of oil. Instead, they were small sesame cakes with a little sugar as the filling. Even so, they were still the children's favorite delicacies that they could only eat once a year.
Mooncake tickets were issued in the city, and there were mooncake styles similar to those that were available later, but only a few could be eaten in the countryside.
Wang Ying's sunflower pan was ready, and she asked Xu Shuang to fry a large plate of melon seeds for her. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Wang Ying kept talking about eating mooncakes.
Xu Shuang has cooked all kinds of dishes, but she is not proficient in pastries. But what Wang Ying said was too tempting.
"It is a mooncake with pine nuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and melon seeds inside, plus osmanthus as the filling. The outside is a layer of crispy skin, not sticky or hard, and the nuts are crispy and fragrant..."
"There are also ones with ham filling, with crispy crust on the outside and salty, fragrant and oily on the inside..."
Xu Shuang didn't know where Wang Ying heard so many ways of eating it, some of which he had never eaten before.
Wang Ying, a theoretical talent, took the opportunity to make a suggestion: "Don't you have that old-fashioned wall oven in your store? Can we use it after we make it?"
Seeing her eager eyes, Xu Shuang was about to reach out her hand, so she agreed: "I'll give it a try."
The two methods Wang Ying mentioned were both used in the south, so he couldn't really guarantee them.
Wang Ying cheered and took out her melon seeds: "Here, melon seeds. I'll go up the mountain to look for chestnuts and pine nuts in the next few days."
Xu Shuang: "Don't go up to pick the pine nuts. You can use any that fall on the ground."
Wang Ying nodded. She was not stupid. Picking pine nuts was a very dangerous job. Although she had a golden finger, she was not immortal. She certainly could not force herself to go up.
Within a few days, Wang Ying finally gathered all the materials. She even got some osmanthus flowers, dried them and put them in a small jar.
Xu Shuang first followed Wang Ying's instructions, made a large plate of it, then brought it to the store and baked it while making pancakes.
The five-nut filling turned out surprisingly good.
Wang Ying wanted to eat the Yuntui ham, but she had no ham on hand.
Xu Shuang thought about it and wrote a letter to his uncle in the provincial capital.
Wang Ying has mentioned ham many times this year, and Xu Shuang herself thinks that it is good to have a ham at home in winter. It is also convenient to eat meat and vegetables.
The ham was not enough to make mooncakes, so Xu Shuang took more than 30 five-nut mooncakes back home.
Wang Ying gave a thumbs up as soon as she tasted it: "Delicious!"
The five-nut filling is crispy and fragrant, the crust is neither dry nor hard, and it is sweet but not greasy.
Wang Ying asked as she ate: "No one would say anything about you using the oven in the store, right?"
Xu Shuang: "No one said anything. I just did it by chance. I was supposed to start the oven to bake wedding cakes today."
Wang Ying: "Wedding cakes?"
Xu Shuang said that the store sometimes sells wedding cakes, which are small sesame cakes that are usually made upon order from the family having a wedding.
Xu Shuang said: "Well, Xie Yuejin is getting married."