Chapter 226 The Era of Tickets and Certificates

The tavern owner originally came from a brewing background, and his parents worked at the distillery. Every month, the distillery would give out some welfare wine or wine coupons to its employees. Many time-traveling women would hoard the wine to collect, hoping it would fetch a good price at auction in the future.

Even ordinary wine, if accumulated over many years, can become aged wine and thus a fine wine.

When it's opened in the future, it will be even better than various famous brands of wine. After all, in an era without counterfeit wine, the quality of the wine is guaranteed.

But nobody at the small tavern cares about wine; if they want to drink it, they can brew their own, so there's no need to hoard it, and she doesn't have enough tickets to hoard it either.

Too little is unnecessary, and too much is not enough due to lack of ration coupons. After thinking it over, it's more practical to get some grain.

My parents' distillery produces local wines. Most of the wines we bring home as welfare gifts are given away as gifts. The family drinks rice wine made by my grandmother or sorghum wine brewed by my grandfather.

When selling vegetables and fruits, you would ask for grain coupons if you could, otherwise you would ask for money. Other colorful and miscellaneous coupons, such as sugar coupons and chemical coupons, were not as valuable as grain coupons in those days. Only cloth coupons and meat coupons were worth a second glance.

Unfortunately, during the planned economy era, not only she was short of food, but everyone else was too. Meat coupons weren't enough to feed the whole family, and only grain coupons had time limits; they would expire if used outside of the expiration date. That's why she had the opportunity to exchange for some.

Otherwise, no matter how good your food is, it's not certain that anyone will be willing to use food coupons to exchange for vegetables.

She would secretly give any extra grain coupons to her younger brother. Her older siblings lived in other places and used their local coupons. National grain coupons needed local coupons to be exchanged. Three catties of national grain coupons could be exchanged for one tael of oil. You have to know that these were difficult times. Regular employees only received three taels of oil coupons per month. It can be seen that oil coupons were more valuable than grain coupons.

Grain coupons were divided into two types: those valid nationwide and those valid locally. Only grain coupons valid nationwide could be used anywhere in the country, while grain coupons valid locally could only be used in designated areas.

Nationally valid grain coupons were not only widely used, but could also be used to purchase cooking oil, accommodation, and meals in addition to grain, while local grain coupons could only be used to purchase grain.

In this era, when cadres and employees went on business trips to other places, in addition to obtaining a certificate from their work unit or village committee, they also had to exchange for nationally valid grain coupons at the local grain department.

Business travelers could only buy train tickets and stay in guesthouses with a certificate of proof, and could only eat in local canteens with nationally valid food coupons.

Therefore, the first thing college students do before leaving their hometown is to go to the public security bureau to transfer their household registration and grain supply relationship; otherwise, they will not be able to receive grain coupons because they do not have grain certificates.

At that time, her older brother and sister's food rations were handled by their parents and eldest sister. However, she didn't pay much attention to it then. It was only when she came to the county town and experienced the pain of needing ration coupons for everything that she truly understood the hardships of that era.

So if you happen to meet someone with a lot of tickets, you should exchange them for tickets even if it's free.

In an era when eggs required ration coupons, and even candles, matches, and condiments needed coupons, having a mobile warehouse like her was incredibly convenient.

Take grains and oils, for example. You could cook whatever you wanted, fry it, and that was so different from the poor people of today who had to use chopsticks dipped in oil to stir-fry vegetables, or even eat boiled vegetables directly. But compared to the days when we ate grass roots and tree bark, what are boiled vegetables? They're already a delicacy.

On Monday morning, she didn't do morning exercises but went back to the dormitory after morning self-study. This is a special privilege for day students, especially girls. Ever since Zhang Cui's incident, people have started to consider the safety of girls.

Grandma steamed a pot of dried vegetable cornbread and a pot of coarse grain steamed buns at home over the weekend. The steamed buns didn't have any vegetables in them, they were all grains. Although they were coarse, at least they were grains. She packed ten for her and my brother each and told us that if we couldn't chew them, we could just soak them in boiling water and eat them with the pickled vegetables she had made.

When Xiaojiu was walking with the young man, she stuffed five more boys who could eat a lot into her hands, and also gave them a dollar and three catties of grain coupons. This really surprised the young man. However, Xiaojiu was a liar.

“Brother, I’m not starving. People treat me to meals, I tutor others, and they bring me food. I help teachers grade homework and papers, and I get to eat some of the food too. All of this is what I earned. You keep it for yourself. Do I look like someone who’s starving?”

Tao An absolutely refused to take it, so Xiao Jiu threw it to him through the window while she was getting into the car. She didn't know if it was her imagination, but she actually saw the usually carefree young man raise his hand to wipe the corner of his eye.

Because everyone is poor and struggling these days, Xiao Jiu first had a bowl of millet porridge in her online space this morning, fried an egg, and sandwiched it with a steamed bun. She ate it with great comfort.

After eating my fill, I went back to the dorm to unpack. I put the pickled vegetables and steamed buns I brought from home into the locker, and when I turned around, I saw a listless-looking senior from junior high.

Lying in bed, his face was not only sallow and thin, but also frighteningly pale; it was obvious what had happened.

She thought for a moment, then took out brown sugar from the cabinet—actually, from a storage space—and poured her a cup of hot brown sugar water.

"Sister, have some water. Haven't you had breakfast yet? I'll go buy you some cornbread. Just wait here."

She was reluctant to give away the steamed buns her grandmother made, so without waiting for her response, she spent a dime to buy four large cornbreads and gave her a grain coupon. Since there wasn't much flour, most of the buns were made from a mixture of dried vegetables or wheat bran. There was no more free soup that could reflect a person's image, so she carried two kettles of hot water back to the dormitory.

By this time, most of the students had returned and greeted Xiaojiu warmly. Because of her, everyone was able to enjoy delicious pickled vegetables, so who wouldn't say a few words to her?

"Cui Cao'er, wake up! Oh dear, why is your head so hot? Could you have a fever?"

Sister Cui Cao'er is the same sister she just helped. She hasn't drunk the brown sugar water that Cui Cao'er poured for her, which shows that she is really not feeling well.

"Should we take him to the hospital?"

Someone said something that startled Cui Cao'er, who refused in a hoarse voice.

"It's okay, it's okay. I'm always like this when I come here. It's just constant pain, either I have a fever or the pain is really bad. I'll feel better after I eat something."

Xiao Jiu quickly stepped forward, "Then drink up, this is tea I just brewed for you, and there's also some cornbread here, eat it while it's still warm."

Cui Cao'er picked up her cup and looked inside, then exclaimed in astonishment, "This, this is...?"

So she didn't hear Xiaojiu talking to her at all? Oh dear, she must be in so much pain. She's so pitiful.

"Go ahead and drink it. It'll make your stomach feel better. There are also four steamed buns; they'll be soft when they're hot."

Perhaps she was starving and thirsty, Cui Cao'er gave Xiao Jiu a grateful look, then stopped being polite, took a sip of water, bit into the dry, tasteless cornbread, swallowed it with a stiff neck, took another sip of water, bit again, and began to chew with great effort...