OBS Chapter 553: Discussing Brewing and Buying Coal
Chapter 553: Discussing Brewing and Buying Coal
Liu Jingxue used a borrowed cart to transport all the allocated food back to her yard in two batches, and then put all the food into the space the next second.
She had worked a full year this year and the amount of food she was allocated was more than double that of last year, so she did not buy any extra food.
The four people in the cowshed also worked a full year today. Although the food they received was less than that of the villagers, if they wanted to have enough food every day, the food they received would definitely not be enough. But they still had the food Liu Jingxue received.
The grain distributed to the production team was mainly coarse grains, with fine grains accounting for only a small part.
But Liu Jingxue is someone who is used to eating rice. She is happy with trying coarse grains occasionally. She can't stand eating them every meal.
What's more, this is Northeast China, and the staple food is pasta. The food she was given was mostly cornmeal, sorghum rice, and grits, which she was not used to. It is estimated that most of these things were eventually eaten by a few people in the cowshed and Old Lady Guo in the town.
She herself still eats the food produced in the space.
However, because she wanted to make wine, this time she asked for 300 kilograms of sorghum rice, and planned to send it all to make wine.
But in this case, the food she distributed might not be enough for the people in the cowshed and for Old Lady Guo to eat.
However, Liu Jingxue was not worried at all. With her insistence, the people in the cowshed had been eating a mixture of coarse and fine grains over the past year. With so much coarse grains and the fine grains produced in the space, they didn't have to worry about going hungry at all.
As for Old Lady Guo, although she would send some fine grains every time, it was never half the amount. The main reason was that fine grains were hard to come by in the Northeast. If there were too much, people would wonder where she got it from.
After returning the cart, Liu Jingxue began to think about buying coal.
At this time last year, she had already asked Uncle Liu's family to buy the coal. But this year, because the production team was selling vegetables, the villagers who had free time were busy going up the mountain to collect mountain products, so she didn't feel comfortable disturbing them.
But the first snow is about to come. If we don’t buy the coal now, the roads will become difficult to travel on if it continues to snow.
Liu Jingxue planned to find Zhou Mingxuan and Zhao Junhao in the evening to discuss the purchase of coal with them.
The coal stove that the two wanted was obtained by Liu Jingxue when she went to the town to pick up the package in September. She had already negotiated with Sister Jin and exchanged the coal stove tickets and industrial coupons for the two.
As for the coal tickets that the three families would use, they had also been prepared early in the morning. There were a total of 1200 kilograms of coal tickets, and Liu Jingxue planned to get some as a sample, and give the rest to the other two families.
However, before Liu Jingxue went to find the two people in the evening, Zhou Mingxuan and Zhao Junhao came to the house in the afternoon.
After welcoming the two in, Liu Jingxue asked, "Why are you two here? I was planning to visit you tonight to discuss the coal purchase."
"We have divided up the grain, so I came to ask you when we can go find the winemaker to make some wine."
The three of them had discussed beforehand that each of them would get 300 kilograms of sorghum to make wine. According to last year's yield, they could get about 450 kilograms of wine.
I plan to use all of these 450 kilograms of wine to make ginseng wine.
As for where the 450 kilograms of ginseng wine would go, the three of them had already discussed it. 150 kilograms would go to the cowshed, and the rest would be divided equally among the three of them.
Zhou Mingxuan and Zhao Junhao planned to keep 5 kilograms for themselves to try, and take the rest home to share with their elders at home.
Why not leave some for yourself? Because Liu Jingxue reminded me that the ginseng she prepared was more than 500 years old and very nutritious. They were both young and strong now, so they couldn't drink too much. Overdoing it would be harmful to the body.
Just make a little and taste it. It is best to save it for drinking during the autumn harvest next year to avoid overwork and damage to the body.
She had already decided where to put the 100 kilograms of ginseng wine left by Liu Jingxue.
Grandpa Zhang had to send 30 kilograms. Last year, she got less wine, so she sent him less. Later, Grandpa Zhang drank it well and asked her if she had any more. She had nothing left except for the ones left for the people in the cowshed.
I have to get 50 kilograms for my eldest brother, after all, he has to take care of his father-in-law and mother-in-law.
Since the Xie family found out about the whereabouts of their uncle, although it was difficult to contact us directly, they sent things here several times through their eldest brother, and also communicated with their uncle and aunt.
Every time Liu Jingxue sent something to her eldest brother, she also prepared a copy for the Xie family.
Now that I have ginseng wine, I must prepare some for them. As for how my eldest brother divides it with them, that is their own business, and Liu Jingxue will not interfere.
Liu Jingxue plans to keep the remaining 20 kilograms for emergency use.
It was said before that there would be no news from the second brother for a year or two. It will be two years next year, so he should have returned from the mission.
Liu Jingxue had to keep these 20 kilograms of wine for him.
If something unexpected happens later and the mission time is extended, and he doesn't come back, if Grandpa Zhang and eldest brother want it again, he will send it to them himself.
When the two asked when they would go to the winemaker to make wine, Liu Jingxue said, "Last time it was after the grain was distributed, I went to Grandpa Chen Er to talk about making wine.
Let's go to Grandpa Chen's house later and talk to him about brewing wine."
"no problem."
Since the two of them came here, Liu Jingxue must talk to them about buying coal to save them from having to make another trip.
"Have you bought the coal stove?"
"I went to town every day these days and bought it back." Zhao Junhao came back.
"It's about to snow, so we need to buy some coal.
I bought 500 kilograms last year and asked Uncle Liu, the cart driver, to buy it for me. I used an ox cart to pull it back and forth twice.
Buying coal is hard work. In order to help me buy large pieces of coal, Uncle Liu's two sons went to the commune coal yard in the middle of the night to wait. They also had acquaintances there. The coal yard was not open, so they went in early to buy coal.
If someone else goes there and doesn't have any acquaintances, even if you go to queue up in the middle of the night, you have to wait until the coal yard opens before you can go in to buy coal, and you can't even choose. You might buy broken coal, and after you come back you have to find clay to process it into coal blocks before you can burn it.
In my opinion, we should not buy coal ourselves, but ask Uncle Liu to buy it for us, and we can pay them more for their labor." Liu Jingxue suggested.
When Zhou Mingxuan and Zhao Junhao heard that there were so many procedures to buy coal in the countryside, they naturally would not object.
"Xiaoxue, we will listen to you. It's up to you to decide."
"Last year, the price of coal was 100 yuan per 7 catties. I bought 2 catties and gave them 500 yuan, including 4 yuan for labor. It took a long time for them to accept the labor fee.
I estimate that the price of coal should be about the same this year. I have 1200 kilograms of coal coupons, so I might as well exchange them all for coal to avoid the coal coupons expiring.
When we get there, you should ask about the price of coal first, calculate the money, and give them more labor fees. After all, to move so much coal, it will probably take five ox cart trips back and forth.
I'm worried that if I come forward, they won't accept the labor fee." Liu Jingxue said, taking the coal ticket and handing it to the two.
After Zhou Mingxuan took it, he said to Liu Jingxue, "Don't worry, we will give them more labor fees later and they will definitely accept it."
"Give it to me first, and I'll give you the money when I come back."
"Xiaoxue, you got the coal tickets, and you also gave us the coal stove tickets and industrial coupons. We didn't give you any money.
We paid for the coal, so don't mention the money anymore.
If you insist on giving it to us, you will embarrass us." Zhao Junhao said.
Zhou Mingxuan also said, "Yes, Xiaoxue, we will pay for the coal.
You are just one person, you don't use much coal, most of it is used by us and a few elders, you should at least give us some opportunities to show filial piety to our elders."
Seeing the two of them say this, Liu Jingxue did not insist and agreed.
"Let's go now. First we'll go to Uncle Liu's house, and then to Grandpa Chen's house."