Volume 1 Chapter 0001 1977, Train to Spring
Woo woo woo...besides, besides, besides...
In 1977, on a train from Babi Nezha City to Bao'an, the second carriage was filled with young people. This carriage was specially opened for educated youth, sending a group of unlucky people to Bao'an and Dongguan.
Amidst the crowd of bereaved people, there was a young couple chatting and laughing.
"Nan Yi, are you hungry? I have steamed bread and scrambled eggs." Liu Zhen opened an aluminum lunch box and said, "Smell it. Does it smell good? My mother put two spoonfuls of oil in it this time, and there are even oil spots on it."
Nan Yi picked up a small piece with his hands and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it twice. "It tastes okay, but there's too much salt. Your mother is really calculating. She wants you to eat it until the train arrives."
"Here are ten eggs. Eat them sparingly. You won't need to order food on the train."
Liu Zhen also picked up a piece, put it in his mouth, chewed it carefully, his eyes narrowed into a line, and he looked very satisfied.
Finally, she sucked her fingers and rubbed them on her head. As her fingers rubbed, the dry and split hair on her head became more conspicuous against the background of a few oil spots.
"Liu Zhen, don't put it on your head." Nan Yi took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped it on Liu Zhen's head. "Putting oil on your head can only fool yourself."
After wiping, Nan Yi put the handkerchief away, took out a piece of White Rabbit milk candy from his pocket, peeled off the outer candy paper, and carefully wiped off the floating sugar coating.
"ah!"
"Mmm! So sweet!"
Liu Zhen narrowed his eyes again.
After being intoxicated for a long time, Liu Zhen opened her eyes again. Seeing Nan Yi just sitting there without any puffiness in his cheeks, she asked, "Why don't you eat? There's only one piece, right? How about we each have half?"
Nan Yi waved his hand, "No, I have a toothache and can't eat sweets."
He took out a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket, flicked the bottom of the cigarette shell with his index finger, and a cigarette flew out of . He opened his mouth and took a cigarette in it. With a click, he lit the cigarette with the Sunflower brand kerosene lighter produced by the Shanghai Guangming Lighter Factory.
In the carriage, several boys looked over and when they saw the red-shelled Huazi in Nan Yi's hand, they immediately showed envy, admiration, and flattery.
Nan Yi was pretending to be cool. Nowadays, ordinary people can't even see Huazi cigarettes, let alone smoke them. This is the legendary special cigarette for high-ranking officials, and it can only be bought in special stores for high-ranking officials.
Most smokers smoke the eight-cent Economy cigarettes, which are the same price across the country and do not require a ticket in most areas. There are also cigarettes like Youyong and Hongtashan, which have different prices and are all mid-range cigarettes. Mudan and Daqianmen are both mid-range and above, and also require a ticket in most areas.
"Hold!"
Suddenly, Nan Yi slapped himself.
What the hell is that? It's been 1977. Not to mention the children of high-ranking officials, even ordinary cadres' families can't go to the countryside to work in the fields. How many families don't send their children to the army?
Feeling bored, Nan Yi put out the cigarette in his hand, took out a pack of 26-cent cigarettes from his pocket, and satisfied his craving for a cigarette, while thinking about what to do when he got to Baoan.
Last December, when Nan Yi first crossed over, he was neither panicked nor excited. He just spent a day sorting out his current identity and era, and then began to prepare.
Every morning he would go to the Red Star Middle School to sign in, then sneak to the production team in the nearby countryside and secretly exchange various grains, chickens, ducks and geese from the members. In the morning he would take the grains to the black market to exchange for money and various tickets.
In the afternoon, I would hang around the entrance of the state-owned cultural relics store. If I saw someone going to the store to sell antiques, I would pull him into the alley on the side and buy him at a "high price".
Then, I continued to wander around the entrances of shops, and when I saw wealthy people or overseas Chinese walking around stealthily with a bag in hand, I would approach them and talk to them, then sell them the fine antiques I had bought at high prices, adding a small markup of a few dozen or a hundred dollars to the price.
Just like this, after half a year, Nan Yi had saved up a fortune of 20,000 yuan, and also had industrial coupons, cloth coupons, national grain coupons, bicycle coupons, soap coupons, fried dough stick coupons and many other miscellaneous items.
"Nan Yi, are you hungry?"
"You are hungry?"
"A little bit. Let's have lunch."
"How many steamed bread did you bring?"
"It's a package, enough for us to eat until we get off the bus. When we get off the bus, the Youth League Office will come to pick us up, and we'll have a hot meal then."
"Why? Your family didn't give you money or food coupons?"
"My mother said that the educated youth received subsidies and food every month, and they didn't have to spend any money at all. She only gave them five yuan, a soap ticket, and food coupons... nothing."
Nan Yi frowned and said, "No cloth coupons either?"
"No...no, my family is short of cloth coupons."
There was a trace of embarrassment on Liu Zhen's face.
Nan Yi thought about what he had inquired about - Liu Zhen's family was not well off to begin with, and she had three older brothers. One got married and moved out, and two were still teenagers, at an age where they would bankrupt their father.
It is normal that Liu Zhen has a hard life due to the difficult situation and the preference for boys over girls. Otherwise, her hair would not be dry and split, which is a sign of malnutrition.
"It takes three to make a hero. To accomplish great things, you need help. The little girl is okay." Nan Yi muttered in his mind, reached out and grabbed Liu Zhen's skinny and dry hand and comforted her: "It's okay, I'll take care of everything."
"Um!"
Liu Zhen's cheeks blushed!
"Boiling water, boiling water, who wants more boiling water?"
A conductor came over carrying a large kettle, shouting as he walked.
Nan Yi stood up, took out two German military lunch boxes from the net bag on the luggage rack, opened the lids, and when the conductor came to him, he filled two cans of six-tenths full with boiling water.
Then he took out two packs of egg instant noodles produced by Yimin No. 4 Factory from his Shanghai travel bag, tore open the oil paper packaging, put a noodle cake in each lunch box, sprinkled the seasoning in it, and covered the lunch box lid.
Liu Zhen stared at the lunch box. When she saw Nan Yi close the lid, she sniffed sharply and inhaled all the overflowing aroma into her stomach, fearing that it would be shared by others.
Nan Yi casually crumpled up the wax paper and was about to throw it aside, when a chicken claw grabbed Nan Yi's hand, took the paper ball, carefully spread it out on the table, and smoothed it out bit by bit with his hand.
"It's okay to throw away such beautiful paper. I want to keep it for steamed buns."
"We don't want these two. There are more in the bag. Eat them with the next meal. I won't tear them. Use scissors to cut them ." Nan Yi stroked Liu Zhen's head with a gentle look on his face, and said with a doting tone.
"Um."
Nan Yi stood up again and took down two large enamel teacups from the luggage rack. The teacups were tied tightly with a net bag. He opened the net bag, took out the teacups from it, opened the lids, and found a piece of oil paper covering the cups.
When the oil paper is removed, the aroma of pork with fermented black bean sauce and pork with preserved vegetables wafts out.
Whoosh...whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Liu Zhen's nose twitched again at a high frequency...
Nan Yi looked at her with both pity and amusement. He picked up chopsticks and scooped some fermented black bean paste and pork into Liu Zhen's lunch box. Then he put the oil paper back on, covered the teacups, and tied up the net bag.
He opened the lid of the German lunch box and used his chopsticks to stir inside. "Okay, we can eat now."
…
There is no love or hate without reason in the world. Everything has a reason.
