The golden age began in 1977

Chapter 5 There is Gold

Qian Jin looked carefully. The brick wall was painted white, and the mottled slogans "Grasp the revolution, promote production, promote work, and promote war preparations" glowed reddish-brown in the moonlight.

The alley is full of twists and turns, like a winding valley road.

The environment here is even worse than their community.

The narrow road was uneven, and the dark sewers on both sides emitted a foul smell, which also made it look like a valley road.

The moonlight shines through the doors of the rooms.

A coal stove, chopping board, chest of drawers, coal balls, stools, washbasins, shoes and other sundries are placed in front of the door.

Some people get up early to empty the toilet, while others light the coal stove while coughing.

The foul smell and the pungent smell of smoke met bravely, and Qian Jin was killed and his face turned pale.

As they were walking, someone suddenly appeared from the shadows and approached them: "Buy or sell? Eat or use?"

Qian Jin was startled and the flashlight almost stuck into his mouth.

The figure immediately retreated into the shadows and cursed, "Damn you, newbie!"

Liu Dajia signaled Qian Jin to put away the flashlight.

Soon, another man in a peaked cap came up to him and said, "Do you have any cloth coupons? I can exchange industrial coupons for cloth coupons. One foot and two feet for one."

"I have cloth coupons," a woman said, coming over. "But I don't want industrial coupons. I want food coupons and grain."

Liu Dajia said nothing.

He pulled the money into the corner of his clothes and went deeper into the cave. His rubber soles crushed over the clam shells on the ground. At a corner he found an old man wearing thick glasses and holding a pipe.

This old man is a know-it-all in the black market.

But when he learned that Qian Jin was here to buy gold, he was still surprised and grinned: "Fuck, you want to get gold? This is a very difficult business!"

"The young comrade must be starving to death." There were rustling laughter all around.

A man in a Dacron shirt spat, "The bank vault is all yellow, do you dare to go in there?"

The old man knew Liu Dajia and finally gave Liu Dajia face: "We don't have the big yellow croaker or small yellow croaker you want here."

"But there's a gold-plated badge of a great man. It's something that goes well with gold. Do you want it?"

He felt around in the cupboard and pulled out a small box.

Inside was a golden badge the size of a lens.

Inexpensive.

The asking price was beyond Qian Jin's expectations—two yuan.

What was even more beyond Qian Jin's expectations was that Liu Dajia was very good at bargaining - he bought the golden badge for one dollar.

Even then he complained that the price was too high, muttering, "I have dozens of them at home."

"Is it gilded?" the old man laughed.

Liu Dajia shook his head.

The old man said, "What's the use? There are billions of things in the world that aren't gold-plated!"

In fact, this gold-plated badge is probably of no use to Qian Jin.

He guessed that the certificate required not a gold-plated item but a solid gold item.

But you can give it a try after all.

It only costs one dollar.

However, Qian Jin was not satisfied with the small gains from his trip to the black market.

He thought about his situation and took out another dollar and gave it to the old man: "Master, there is something I don't understand. You have eaten more salt than I have eaten rice. I would like to ask you for your advice."

"What's the matter?" The old man was not in a hurry to take the money.

Seeing this, Qian Jin felt much more relieved.

This old man is more reliable.

He first explained his identity as an educated youth, his household registration, and his work situation, and asked, "Has my job been taken over by someone else?"

The old man hesitated for a moment, but still didn't take the money:
"It's hard to say. There's nothing wrong with the policies your neighborhood committee director mentioned, but policies are policies and reality is reality."

"I personally think you're probably being covered. You said your father works in the factory's logistics department? It's a good job, sheltered from the elements. He just sits in the office and brings home food and money."

"Have your neighbors ever heard your father say that you could become a car blocker when you come back?"

"Then I think half of what your neighborhood committee director said is worth believing: Your father wanted you to come back and take over, but your household registration didn't meet the requirements, so he made a deal with his superiors. He gave the logistics replacement position to someone else and gave you a job as a car blocker instead."

"But the job of a car blocker is also something people envy, so someone else got involved. He took over the car blocker job and gave the neighborhood committee some benefits, so they asked them to give him a position in a small collective enterprise..."

Qian Jin immediately realized: "The neighborhood committee is making a profit from the price difference!"

The old man thought about it and smiled: "Yes, that's the case. It's probably the case."

Qian Jin explained his housing situation and asked, "How can I keep my current house?"

The old man thought about it and took the dollar:

"If your neighborhood committee wants the house back, you won't be able to keep it."

Qian Jin's heart tightened: "Why?"

The old man said, "Given your current situation, you must report to the construction team at the street office, otherwise you won't be able to get a household registration."

"But if you register your household registration, you will have to accept the supervision of the neighborhood committee."

"What can you do if the neighborhood committee assigns you a smaller apartment on the grounds that you don't need two rooms because you live alone?"

"You have no choice but to obey and move out of this house. If you don't, the neighborhood committee has plenty of ways to punish you."

"In other words, if I want to keep this house, I can only ask the neighborhood committee to not want to take it back?" Qian Jin asked.

The old man nodded and said, "You are quite clever, young man."

"According to what you said, your neighbor wants your house, so he must have put in a lot of effort and given gifts at the neighborhood committee."

"So if you want to keep your house, you have to work harder and give better gifts!"

Qian Jin nodded and took Liu Dajia away.

A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. Since the black market did not have what he needed, he had to leave quickly.

A state-owned breakfast shop is open on the road.

He treated Liu Dajia to fried dough sticks.

Liu Dajia ate half of it reluctantly, and wrapped the rest in newspaper to take home.

Needless to say, he wanted to share some with his younger brothers.

Qian Jin thought that Liu Dajia could be recruited as a younger brother, so he did his best to be a good person and bought a pound of fried dough sticks for the young man.

Fried dough sticks are not expensive, only 60 cents per pound.

You need food coupons and oil coupons.

Qian Jin tried it when he got home.

really.

There was no response when the booklet was placed on the gilded seal.

After studying till the sunrise, Qian Jin could only sigh:
"Yuji, Yuji, what can I do?"

There were heavy footsteps coming to his door from behind, and there was a knock: "Knock, knock, knock."

Qian Jin quickly put away the trading card and asked, "Who is it?"

"I'm Old Liu, Liu Youniu." A rough voice responded.

This is the father of the four Liu Dajia brothers.

Qian Jin put away the trading card, put on the badge and went to open the door.

Outside the door was a tall and burly man with muscles that were as exaggerated as if he had taken Trenbolone and fertilizer.

The man was wearing a blue coarse cloth work suit with several patches on it. His collar was open, revealing his chest covered with lush black hair, as if it had been fertilized with farmyard manure.

Qian Jinrang opened the door.

Liu Youniu went to burn incense for Qian Zhongguo and put down a small bag.

There was a handful of fruit candies in the small bag.

The words "Haibin Food Factory" are printed on the light green transparent candy wrapper with a pineapple pattern on it.

This is a popular little luxury item right now, pineapple candy from the Haishi Factory.

The candy had melted a little and was sticking to the slippery paper.

Apparently, they had been stored for some time.

Qian Jin pretended to let him take the candy back: "Give it to the child. I don't like eating this stuff."

This is the truth.

Fruit candies are hard, and he has bad teeth so he can only eat soft food.

Liu Youniu firmly refused and said, "Brother, I don't mind you accepting it. I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, but my family is not well off, and this candy was given to me by a relative during the Chinese New Year."

"I just got back from my night shift and found out about my son's death. You're responsible for both dinner and breakfast. It's really embarrassing."

Qian Jin gave him a bench and said, "Don't be polite, Brother Liu. We are neighbors, and we are all family."

Liu Youniu started to grunt again. He didn't know how to find topics to talk about and could only chat awkwardly about all sorts of things.

However, Qian Jin still heard some useful things.

For example, the inside story of the Liu family moving from the countryside to the city.

It turned out that there were no bathrooms in the houses in the early years, and people had to rely on toilets built next to the unit dormitories and on the streets to go to the toilet.

Toilet hygiene was taken care of by employees and their families in turn, while feces were contracted to a nearby rural production team.

Thus, a special type of job was born: excrement exchange worker, where the excrement from a unit’s toilet was sent to a production team, and the production team exchanged it for a laborer.

The production team where the Liu family worked was responsible for the toilets in a residential compound of the Port Authority. Liu Youniu was chosen by the Port Authority to work as a dung-exchange worker because he was strong and able to endure hardships.

He worked as a laborer at the port and was willing to work hard, which won him the favor of leaders and workers.

In 74, a fire broke out in the port at night, and Liu Youniu, who was working the night shift, risked his life.

He made great contributions by putting out fires and saving people, so the Port Authority made him a regular employee and also helped him to obtain a non-agricultural household registration.

Liu Youniu was very proud when talking about this incident: "Among the thousands of people in my brigade, I was the only one who took off the hat of a farmer's grandson and brought my family to the city to eat commercial grain."

Qian Jin nodded and asked, "Then can't my sister-in-law and child's household registration be transferred here?"

Liu Youniu shook his head and said, "It can't be turned, alas."

"But our port is setting up a family self-help team this year. The child's mother will definitely be able to join. The company will provide meals and give her 50 cents a day in subsidies. Then life will be much better for our family."

Qian Jin is extremely lacking in common sense of life in today's era.

He didn't understand what the family self-rescue team was, so Liu Youniu explained it to him.

It turns out that state-owned factories, mines, ports and stations would form temporary labor teams to solve the living problems of rural household registration families.

The team members engage in low-income heavy physical labor and do not have the benefits of formal employees, but they can solve the basic problem of food.

Qian Jin asked: "Will joining the family self-help team solve the household registration problem?"

Liu Youniu shook his head: "Household registration is more valuable than gold..."

At this point he suddenly slapped his head and said, "Hey, look at my brain, I almost forgot why I came to you."

"Just now, the eldest one asked me if I had any gold at home. He said you wanted gold?"

Qian Jin also slapped his head.

Liu Dajia is a child after all, and his words are not reliable.

But it's his fault that he didn't tell Liu Dajia not to talk nonsense.

Then Liu Youniu said, "There's a member of our production team who has gold hidden at home. Do you want to buy some? I'll take you there to ask."

Qian Jin suddenly looked up.

(End of this chapter)