Siheyuan's Journey Through the Ages

Chapter 15: A System That Arrives Late But Still Arrives

On the Sunday after May Day, Ma Qing went to the post office near Nanluoguxiang, Di'anmen Post Office, early in the morning. He first asked the staff of the post office to find three newspapers, People's Daily, Workers' Daily, and China Youth Daily, and found the submission addresses of the three newspapers in the newspapers. He bought three envelopes and three 4-cent stamps, spending a total of 1 cents, and mailed the letter. Then he waited for the harvest season.

When Ma Qing was leaving the post office, he found a group of people gathered together. When he got closer, he found that they were a group of philatelic enthusiasts who were exchanging experiences and stamps. This is great, as philately not only helps to increase knowledge and broaden horizons, but also cultivates sentiments, makes friends, and even brings economic benefits and health benefits.

Of course, Ma Qing did not plan to collect stamps for the purpose of getting rich. Everyone knew that the world would develop in the next sixty years, and it would be too low to rely on collecting stamps and antiques to make money. Ma Qing just felt that since he had come to this era, he had to find something for himself to do, and collecting these products of the times was a good way to do it.

Ma Qing went back to the post office and spent 5 cents to buy a small stamp album, and spent more than 1 yuan to buy some beautiful stamps. If the clerk hadn't said that he was not afraid of being beaten when he got home if he bought so many, he really wanted to buy a whole sheet of every stamp in the store. His wallet is now very bulging, and he always has 10 yuan with him. The annual interest on his family's savings alone is more than yuan, which is equivalent to having a sixth-level worker living in his bank account, working without food or drink to help him make money. Don't worry, come here every week, and the time will be wasted.

Ma Qing took his fresh stamp album and joined the stamp collectors outside the post office. He did nothing but listen to the bragging of these people and get to know them. He didn't go home until almost noon, took his bowl and chopsticks and rushed to the Red Star Factory cafeteria. While waiting in line for food in the cafeteria, Ma Qing looked at the meal ticket in his hand and felt quite emotional. It was not easy to exchange this meal ticket.

Yesterday, Saturday, when Ma Qing went to work, he thought that he could go to the Life Support Section of the Logistics Department with his food coupons to exchange them for meal coupons. However, it was not so easy. The staff who exchanged the meal coupons said that his name was not on the roster and they could not exchange them for his. So Ma Qing had to go find Section Chief Zhao of the Labor and Personnel Section who had done the deal before. Section Chief Zhao then took him to find the chairman of the trade union. The chairman of the trade union wrote a note, and Section Chief Zhao got another document and took him to the Life Support Section, where he was put on the roster before exchanging his name for the meal coupons.

Ma Qing used his 28 jin of food coupons, 4 liang of oil, 4 liang of meat, and other vegetable coupons, soy sauce coupons and a bunch of other tickets, and spent less than 1 yuan to exchange for a month's meal ticket for the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill canteen, at the price of 0.012 yuan for 0.1 liang of meal ticket, 0.02 yuan for a meat ticket (one liang of meat), and 5 yuan for a vegetable ticket. The staff also reminded him that the meat ticket was valid for the month, while the meal and vegetable tickets were valid for the quarter and would expire.

Yesterday, Ma Qing carefully sorted the meal tickets, meat and vegetable tickets, tied them up with rubber bands, and put them in an iron box in a hidden corner of the house. Although these things only cost 5 yuan in total, they seem worthless, but in fact they are human lives. Some classmates must have said that Ma Qing had so much money, so at worst he could buy them on the black market, and how much more money he could spend.

Although Ma Qing was born in the 60s, he had some knowledge of the commodity prices during the three difficult years, because his grandmother always said that his aunt was very precious, because his grandmother gave birth to his aunt in 5. At that time, his grandmother was in poor health and lacked nutrition. His grandfather bought rice at 18 yuan per catty and pork at 25 yuan per catty on the black market. A hen weighing less than three catties cost 1 yuan. His grandfather's monthly salary was just enough to buy one catty of pork and a chicken. This was in Wuhan. Ma Qing had no idea what the prices in BJ were now.

Not to mention how much money it would cost, it would be a real problem if an entire month's food rations were lost.

Ma Qing was queuing when there was a commotion in front of the line. After asking around, he found out that a section chief came to get some meat dishes, and the spoon guy might have given a little too much. The worker behind him was also a troublemaker and he couldn't stand it right away and started making a commotion. Soon the security department came and took away the section chief, the spoon guy, and the workers who were making trouble. Ma Qing was also eye-opening. A group of people were eating and chatting, and they all felt that the section chief was probably in trouble.

Ma Qing finished his meal, washed the dishes, and went home to lie down, but an emotionless electronic synthesized voice appeared in his mind.

"Ding, the system is starting up, 10.9.8..."

"Brother Tongzi, you are finally here. Do you know how I have been through these days? Do you know how confused, helpless, and pitiful I am? Please help me a lot." After Ma Qing accepted the absurd fact that he had traveled through time, as a tomato old freeloader who had read hundreds of articles about traveling through time, Ma Qing had imagined countless times when his Tongzi would come to him, and from then on he would be strong and healthy, both civil and military, accompanied by space, and reach the peak of his life. It would be even better if he could cultivate an immortal, refine his body, and grow a life. Unfortunately, in the past two months, whether it was calling "system, plug-in, golden finger, grandpa, dad, deep blue...", in short, he had tried everything he could, but unfortunately there was no response at all. When Ma Qing had accepted that he was a white body, he was given a yellow robe.

Ma Qing accepted the fact that he had an extra system very smoothly, and said in the tone of a conversation with Xiao Ai: "Please introduce yourself to the system, and please give me my novice gift pack immediately. Don't say you don't have it."

"..."

"Please allow me to call you Xiu'er. Please stay calm. I regret using "System Startup" as my opening statement. I am not the system you think I am. I just found a name that you can accept the fastest to describe myself in your language and thinking logic. I have nothing to do with the system you think of in your mind. Let's get to know each other again. Interstellar Pioneer Scout Version 7.0. I am Xiaoqi, the intelligent life. Of course, the above introduction is mainly for your understanding. The actual situation may be slightly different. Also, please don't talk, just think in your mind. I'm afraid that if others hear it, they will think you are crazy."

"Are you a creation of technology? Are you an alien civilization? Why are you in my mind? Why did I travel through time? Is it you who did this? Why are you treating me like this? Big brother, please let me go." Ma Qing couldn't explain what his mentality was at the moment, but he was still able to act funny.

"You can understand it this way. I come from a cosmic civilization with technology far superior to Earth's. I came to Earth four hundred years ago. My true form is the stone you stepped on in the river. Of course, it only looks like a stone."

"Then why am I here? Can I go back?" Ma Qing asked with a burning heart and full of hope.

"That's impossible, my dear Xiu'er. To be exact, your hometown no longer exists, so there's no question of going back."

"What the hell is going on? What does it mean that my hometown is gone?"

"How can I explain it to you? I can only say it was a coincidence. When you stepped on me in the river and I bled, my underlying logic was not to harm other intelligent creatures. Although this was an accident, I immediately activated the event avoidance mode - I planned to run away.

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(End of this chapter)