Chapter 49 Buying Winter Vegetables
After buying the coal, Li Shengli was no longer so anxious. This bicycle was still inconvenient. It would be better if he had a cart.

A few days later, Li Shengli was riding his bike home after work. When he passed the entrance of the alley, he saw a sign hanging in front of the open space outside the alley, which read "Winter Vegetable Sales Point".

As the saying goes, "Winter is long, summer is not short, spring and autumn are just a blink of an eye." The winter in BJ is very long. The main vegetables are winter stored cabbage and radish. The winter stored cabbage is also supplied by capital, and one person consumes about 200 kilograms.

When cabbage was being sold last year, outside the grocery store and on the roadside, there was a bustling crowd of people unloading vegetables from trucks, queuing up to pay, weighing the vegetables, and loading them onto trucks for transportation. It was lively for several days.

This year should be more lively than last year. After all, there was a disaster last year and there was nothing to eat.

Li Shengli was not too anxious because the winter storage of vegetables would not end so early.

After returning to the courtyard, Li Shengli had just sat down to rest for a while when the third uncle Yan Bugui from the opposite door came to visit him.

"Dong dong dong."

"Victory, are you home?"

"Uncle, do you have something to say? Come in quickly." Li Shengli opened the door and let Yan Bugui into the house.

"I won't go in." Yan Bugui didn't go into Li Shengli's house. It was not a big deal for him to look for Li Shengli.

"Shengli, when are you going to buy your winter vegetables?" Yan Bugui asked, rubbing his fingers.

"This Sunday." Li Shengli calculated the date. He had to go to work on weekdays and no one would line up at home. But when it came to buying winter vegetables, there would definitely be a lot of people coming and going.

"I say Shengli, how about we go together on that day?" Yan Bugui discussed with Li Shengli with a smile, "Then let your third aunt look after the food, and we will bring the food back?"

Li Shengli then realized that Yan Bugui wanted to borrow his bicycle.

"Sure, then our two families can go together." Li Shengli agreed.

There are so many people lining up to buy winter vegetables, and I can't pull them all in one trip. It would be nice to ask the three aunties to help watch over them. It's just borrowing her bicycle.

"Okay, as long as you agree." Yan Bugui's face immediately showed joy. There are six people in the Yan family. Even if they save money, this will require several hundred kilograms of cabbage. What's more, it would be a waste if the total amount is not bought. The cabbage will not be wasted.

After seeing off the third uncle, Li Shengli cooked some food and ate a meal. Eating alone at home is always simple.

On Sunday, before dawn, Yan Bugui came early and knocked on the door of Li Shengli's house.

"Uncle, you're here so early." Li Shengli rubbed his eyes and opened the door.

"It's getting late. If we don't go now, there will be more people coming." Yan Bugui couldn't help yawning when he saw Li Shengli's appearance.

"Okay, then please wait for a moment, I'll wash my face." Li Shengli was shocked and shivered after hearing this.

Go early and come back early. If there are so many people waiting, I don’t know how long I will have to wait in line.

After washing his face and eating something, Li Shengli took his laptop and pushed his bicycle out the door.

At this time, in order to ensure the planned supply of "one pound of vegetables per person per day", starting from 1959, the BJ Municipal Government mobilized various resources every year for social sales and storage of Chinese cabbage. This is the origin of the saying "winter storage Chinese cabbage", which is what people usually call "winter storage Chinese cabbage" now. In order to coordinate and command the centralized listing of winter storage Chinese cabbage, the city and district levels set up "Autumn Vegetable Command Center", with the deputy mayor in charge at the city level, and the "specifications" were extraordinary. Winter storage cabbage was divided into one, two, and three levels for citizens to purchase in different areas, with their own books, in fixed quantities, and in different grades.

Li Shengli pushed the cart out with Yan Bugui and came to the sales point of winter-stored vegetables. The cabbages in front of the vegetable station at the entrance of the alley were piled up like a small mountain, and many people were already queuing up.

After taking a look, I realized that I was one of the first to come out. There was a long line of people in front of me. Two of them were at the end of the line waiting for the sale to start.

As time went by, more and more people started to gather. There was a long line of people behind Li Shengli. People also came to the sales point. It seemed that the sale was about to start. Li Shengli glanced around and saw that the police had started patrolling at the entrance of the alley, and the people from the street office also started to maintain order.

There were many people at that time and the security was not as good as in later times. Just as Li Shengli was queuing, he heard the sound of fighting behind him.

Li Shengli turned his head and looked at the line. He saw that an old lady was about to cut in line, which immediately caused dissatisfaction among the people in the queue behind him.

"Hey, why are you cutting in line, old woman?" An old lady at the back of the line became unhappy when she saw someone cutting in line. "Your knowledge is not good. Everyone has gotten up early to line up. What if you can't buy good cabbage because of someone cutting in line?"

"What's wrong with me cutting in line? What's it to you?" The person who cut in line was not vague and spoke without hesitation.

"Hey, you old woman, I think you deserve to be punished." The two men stopped filming and started swearing.

The people in front are not in a hurry to move forward. You can get in this line at any time. These old women quarreling is much more fun than waiting in line.

The two women's words became more and more unpleasant. Finally, the aunt who cut in line couldn't bear it anymore and started pulling the other person's hair. The other aunt was not ambiguous either. She protected her hair with one hand and reached out to grab the other person's face with the other hand.

No one in the queue went up to try to stop the fight. They were already in a queue, and if they went out to try to stop the fight, the queue would still be closed, with so many people behind them.

"You two, let go and stop fighting." The street office staff who were maintaining order heard the noise and rushed over and shouted at the two people who were fighting.

Neither of them paid any attention to the staff from the street office.

The people in the street office are also anxious. They have been busy preparing the vegetables for the winter and are very tired now.

"Stop arguing. If you continue to argue, go to the police station." The staff at the street office were also a little angry.

The two aunties saw that the staff of the street office got angry, and the police patrolling not far away seemed to have heard the noise and were rushing over here.

The two aunts stopped arguing instantly. They were arguing just about buying winter vegetables as soon as possible. They let go of each other and lined up with their bags in hand.

The people nearby sighed quietly, there was nothing exciting to watch.

After waiting for a while, the station started selling. People who were watching the scales, moving the vegetables, and loading the trucks were all busy. The ground was full of fallen vegetable leaves and stalks.

Soon it was Li Shengli's turn. Li Shengli took out his notebook and handed it over. Li Shengli was not short of money, but the purchase of cabbage of the first and second grades was limited.
Li Shengli bought 100 kilograms of first-grade cabbage, 50 kilograms of second-grade cabbage, and 50 kilograms of third-grade cabbage.

These third-grade cabbages can be used to pickle pickles. After buying the cabbages, Li Shengli put them on the roadside and started loading them onto his bicycle. At this time, the third uncle Yan Bugui had also bought cabbages, but most of the cabbages Yan Bugui bought were second-grade and third-grade cabbages. He was indeed the most calculating person in the yard.

(End of this chapter)