Chapter 24: So Much Food!
Director Hu was a bit annoyed.
He felt he had been too trusting of Lu Qiaoge.
He should have waited until the vegetables arrived before notifying.
But Lu Qiaoge said that with the hot weather these days, leafy greens couldn’t be kept, so it was best to exchange them right away to avoid loss.
He believed her.
“…Nothing much, aren’t you heading back to your work unit? Hurry up and go.”
The union secretary was inexplicably chased away, but he didn’t want to delay, and just as he was about to leave, he heard someone shout: “They’re back, the truck with vegetables is back, my goodness, a whole truck of green…”
Director Hu and Huang Juan exchanged a glance, both instantly beaming with smiles.
As they walked out of the neighborhood committee, they saw a military-green big truck steadily parked at the doorway.
And at the military factory main door, Lu Qiaoling and Lu Xiaosi had already gotten off.
The sister and brother were responsible for meeting Brigade Leader Zhao from Guzi Village here.
At that moment, Lu Qiaoge jumped down from the cab, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Director Hu, smiling brightly: “Mission accomplished, leafy greens exchanged back, please have the two leaders inspect and receive them.”
Director Hu smiled until his eyes narrowed into slits.
Did they even need to inspect? Because right after, Gu Wenbo from the transportation team drawled leisurely: “I watched them load it, the members from Guzi Village were so honest, they quickly picked off any bad leaves.”
Director Hu craned his neck to look.
Both sides were secured with crisscrossing ropes.
Even piled high, no vegetables fell off, and they were all in bundles.
Fresh and crisp, clearly just picked not long ago.
Satisfied, very satisfied!
Lu Qiaoge said: “Director Hu, give the guard a call, Brigade Leader from Guzi Village’s horse-drawn cart will arrive soon, he said the truck uses too much fuel, he’ll use the cart to take back the daily necessities.”
Old Hu quickly had Ren Xiaocui make the call, and here they had already set out a row of tables.
Old Hu shouted: “See it? These are all vegetables, so everyone don’t crowd or grab, everyone will get a share, see the detailed list posted on the wall? Exchange according to that, and don’t try to get extra, these are leafy greens, they don’t keep, if you take too much you can’t finish and it’ll rot, a pity, and others who want it won’t get any…”
“Director Hu, you’re too long-winded.”
“Keep dragging on and the cucumber vegetables will get cold.”
“Hurry and start, I’m the first one here, I want five jin chives, five jin spinach, five jin cabbage, five jin scallion, I bought tofu, at noon scallion mixed with tofu, refreshing and light, hahaha…”
“You’re asking like a lion, five jin of everything, do you have enough stuff to exchange, can you even carry it back?”
The neighborhood committee was always lively, now even more so, but everyone was smiling brightly.
The apartment building had no vegetable garden, vegetables all relied on buying, getting leafy greens really wasn’t that easy.
Lu Qiaoge saw Ren Xiaocui smiling and nodding at her, knowing the call was done, so Lu Qiaoge picked up a few pre-bundled leafy greens and brought them to Director Hu, telling him directly that these were for Director He.
Huang Juan beside her smiled and said: “You go deliver them first, when you come back we have lots to ask you.”
Lu Qiaoge hadn’t expected to run into Sun Qin coming to pick her up halfway, Lu Qiaoge handed her the vegetables: “Don’t be frugal eating them, I’ll go exchange more another day.”
Lu Qiaoge saw time was still enough, so she ran to the main door again.
Lu Qiaoling was talking with the just-arrived brigade leader, while Lu Xiaosi was holding the calico cat standing in the shade.
The guard had just gotten the call, Brigade Leader Lin had a letter of introduction, he let them through readily.
Lu Qiaoge said to Lu Qiaoling: “You and Xiao Si walk slowly behind.”
Lu Qiaoling nodded obediently.
Brigade Leader Lin said: “No problem, the cart can pull it, why walk, come sit in the cart.”
Lu Qiaoling and Lu Xiaosi happily climbed onto the horse-drawn cart.
Lu Qiaoge glanced at the cart, had Brigade Leader Lin drive first toward the Lu Family direction.
The grain was all covered with grass bags, couldn’t see what was there, but bulging, seemed like quite a lot.
When unloading, Lu Qiaoge realized it was even more than imagined.
Meng Xia and Old Mrs. Lu hadn’t gone anywhere, just waited at home obediently as Lu Qiaoge said.
But actually they couldn’t really relax.
What if they couldn’t exchange back, not only wasted effort, but would they lose face?
But since everyone had left, thinking about it was pointless.
Who would have thought a big horse-drawn cart actually arrived at the home doorway.
Lu Qiaoge jumped off the cart, scanned left and right, neighbors were all dual-income households, at this time all at work.
It was very quiet here now.
Lu Qiaoge and the others along with Brigade Leader Lin unloaded the grain.
Meng Xia stared shocked at the grain bags placed under the tree.
This was nearly over five hundred jin, right.
Exchanged for so much?
Fifty jin white flour, two hundred jin crushed corn, two hundred jin cornmeal, twenty jin rice, plus soybeans and mung beans, the flour bag had fifty jin millet.
Beside it a big bamboo basket, full of leafy greens.
Meng Xia was dumbfounded, her voice a bit floaty: “…This… this is too much, right, won’t… cause trouble for you, Brigade Leader?”
Brigade Leader Lin waved it off: “No trouble, besides, the stuff you gave is all needed by the brigade, some can’t even be bought without industrial coupons… This is exchanged at the grain handover price for you.”
Meng Xia still felt uneasy and insisted on giving Brigade Leader Lin a pair of rain boots.
Those were the ones Old Lu had just been allocated but hadn’t been willing to wear.
Brigade Leader Lin jumped, this pair of black men’s rain boots was too precious, how could he accept?
But Lu Qiaoge didn’t give Brigade Leader Lin a chance to refuse, pulled him out of the Lu house, put the boots in the canvas bag and tossed it into the cart, had him keep driving, said warmly: “Uncle Lin, no need to calculate so precisely, I didn’t even expect you could exchange for so much grain, I’ll remember it, in the future if there’s anything, whatever I can help with, you must speak up.”
Brigade Leader Lin wasn’t one to dither, hearing Lu Qiaoge call him Uncle Lin, he readily agreed.
Just this pair of rain boots was different from rubber shoes, really hard to get, Comrade Lu’s family was too honest.
He noted this favor in his heart.
But he couldn’t wear these rain boots himself, he planned to give them to Director Zhu on behalf of Comrade Lu.
Smoothly drove the horse-drawn cart all the way back to the neighborhood committee.
Because organized well, the family members originally wanted to grab, but with neighborhood committee cadres and union secretaries and others helping, it quickly became orderly.
Mainly, too much noise would attract more people, then there’d be more wolves than meat, not enough to go around.
Loss of leafy greens was inevitable, but since everyone cherished them and they were bundled tightly, basically not much loss.
Most convenient was counting bundle by bundle.
Didn’t let them pick and choose, just took layer by layer.
Just like salespeople in this era selling goods, no picking and choosing.
Whatever they give you is what you get, basically no choice.
So, the big truck of vegetables, except the reserved ones, were basically all exchanged.
Lots of notebooks filled, and the big baskets at the doorway also had many things.
As said before, neighborhood committee left vegetables for the transportation team, all put in the truck.
Lu Qiaoge proactively took a broom onto the truck, swept out the vegetable leaves that fell in the cart.
Then neatly arranged a big pile of leafy greens and eggs before nimbly jumping down, smiling at Brother Gu and thanking him…
