In 1959, what's wrong with me pedaling a tricycle?

It wasn't until after seven o'clock that Feng Chun'e told Li Xiuping to leave work, saying she could take care of the cleaning.

This older sister is a very nice person; she took good care of Li Xiuping.

The two walked side by side toward Bianyifang, which was 300 meters away.

Li Xiuping was overjoyed because she could go eat roast duck with Wang Xingguo. Roast duck was her favorite food, and people of this era generally loved plump roast duck.

Being able to go with her loved one made her feel especially good, and her steps became much lighter.

Wang Xingguo said with a grin, "I've been really busy lately. I even went to Gaobeidian today, borrowing your brother's bicycle. I rushed back as fast as I could, and I'm all smelly now, so please don't mind."

Li Xiuping tilted her delicate chin up and said with a haughty expression, "Hmph, you stinky men are all stinky anyway."

Wang Xingguo chuckled and said, "Yes, yes, my wife is right. My wife is the best."

Li Xiuping slapped him on the shoulder and said coquettishly, "Who's your wife? Don't talk nonsense, you shameless bastard!"

Wang Xingguo grinned mischievously, "Hey, who was it that called me 'husband' and I gave up last time?"

Li Xiuping's pretty face flushed red. This scoundrel blurted out anything! Those were things lovers said when they were being affectionate. How could he just say them out like that...?

In fact, Wang Xingguo had prepared this roast duck five days ago.

Because nowadays, roast duck restaurants only have a hundred or so ducks a day, which is not enough to meet demand. You have to pay in advance to reserve one.

But that's the rule for low-end restaurants!

Bianyifang is positioned as a mid-to-high-end establishment, catering to the cadre class, while Quanjude is positioned as a high-end establishment, serving senior cadres and foreign guests.

It's not like you can just go and eat there if you have money. The restaurant doesn't refuse ordinary people, but you have to make a reservation in advance.

Moreover, the number of roast ducks that can be reserved is limited. It's not that all 100 roast ducks that are roasted on a given day can be reserved. Only 20% can be reserved. And some of those 20 ducks are privately arranged by the roast duck restaurant staff for customers with connections.

In other words, there are only a few roast ducks left that can be reserved. It's a first-come, first-served situation, and ordinary people basically have no chance of reserving a roast duck.

Then we'll just have to join the queue!

But when you're queuing, you'll find that no matter how early you arrive, there are always people who arrived earlier than you!

Because of this way of supplying roast duck, some scoundrels have been given an opportunity to take advantage of the situation!

They just queue up, whether to make a reservation or to buy something. Since they don't have any jobs, they just stay at the door queuing all day!

They resell a pre-paid Peking duck reservation voucher to someone who needs it for an extra two yuan.

They would queue up to buy a whole roasted duck set meal and then immediately resell it at a higher price, thus forming a scalper team.

Wang Xingguo simply couldn't queue up himself, so he had to pay an extra two yuan to get a pre-ordered roast duck voucher.

The ten-yuan roast duck voucher includes a roast duck weighing over 2.6 jin (approximately 1.3 kg), 24 lotus leaf pancakes weighing 2 jin (approximately 1 kg each), two dishes of sweet bean sauce, two servings of scallions and cucumbers, one serving of tofu, and the duck carcass can be taken away or you can choose to have a serving of duck carcass soup.

For an extra cent, they could get a takeout meal, so as soon as the two of them went in, Wang Xingguo arranged for half a roast duck, side dishes, and duck carcass to be packed up. He also used meat coupons and grain coupons to order four sesame seed cakes, a plate of braised beef, and the four treasures of dry-braised duck, which are duck heart, duck gizzard, duck liver, duck intestines, and dry-braised with broad bean paste.

These two dishes, along with the sesame seed cakes, were enough to fill them up.

Li Xiuping frowned and tugged at Wang Xingguo's sleeve, saying, "Xingguo, half a roast duck is enough. Why waste money buying more?"

Wang Xingguo replied with a smile, "Because you love to eat. You don't need to worry about the money; that's something a grown man like me should worry about. I just want to have a good meal with you. Just be a good boy and eat your fill, and I'll handle everything else."

Although this statement was very chauvinistic, the phrase "because you love to eat it" was enough to melt Li Xiuping's heart.

Actually, she was also trying to save money. She wanted to save money to buy a bicycle for her dowry, so that after they got married, Wang Xingguo could ride a bicycle to pick her up from get off work instead of him having to walk so hard.

She never told anyone about these things, but quietly saved money. She even found out the price of bicycle tickets, so that when she had saved enough money, she would ask her older brother to buy her one. In this way, her dowry would include the radio that her family had promised, as well as the bicycle that she had worked hard to save money to buy.

Love is never a one-sided effort, but a mutual commitment.

The food started to be served. Wang Anguo washed his hands in the basin, dried them with a towel, and then began to pick up roast duck, dip it in sweet bean sauce, and roll it into spring pancakes for Li Xiuping.

The two moved in perfect unison, each rolling up a spring pancake and simultaneously reaching out to offer it to the other's mouth.

The two smiled at each other, accepted the spring pancakes the other had rolled for them, and ate them together, their faces full of happy smiles.

The richness of roast duck might be considered greasy in later generations, but in this era, it was an unparalleled delicacy.

The body is deficient in oil and water, so when eating such rich and fatty foods, the whole body sends out a signal of satisfaction.

The two chatted about what had happened in the past few days while eating roast duck. In the end, they finished everything and were both a little full.

These days, eating clean food is a virtue, while wasting food is shameful.

It's not shameful to pack up leftover food; what's shameful is wasting food.

Unlike later generations, when the atmosphere in the capital city deteriorated so much that packing food was considered stingy and a shameful thing.

Carrying the half roast duck they had packed, the two left the roast duck restaurant. On the deserted street, their hands naturally came together.

Their fingers were intertwined, and their eyes were filled with tender affection.

Wang Xingguo really wanted to have sex with Li Xiuping, but today was really not the right day. His family was there, and Li's family was also at home, so there was no space for the young couple to be alone.

As for the outside world, let's just forget about it!

Things are very different now compared to later years. In August, the mosquitoes in the capital are rampant!

Even if you can't resist, you have to hold back. You can't let a moment of impulsiveness result in a body covered in mosquito bites...

However, it's still okay to hug and kiss each other, and feel each other's body temperature and heartbeat.

After all, although there are mosquitoes in the dark alleys, there aren't many, so it's still bearable.

It was close to nine o'clock by then. Wang Xingguo escorted Li Xiuping back to the gate of their courtyard, and the two of them kissed passionately when no one was around.

Wang Xingguo only turned and left when Li Xiuping, her pretty face flushed and panting, walked into the courtyard and disappeared from sight.

Instead of going home immediately, he put the packed roast duck into his spatial dimension, and then caught two soft-shelled turtles weighing about two pounds each from the fishpond in his spatial dimension. He put them in a wooden bucket, carried it in his hand, and headed towards Master Niu's gambling den.

Since Master Niu has already gone this far, let's just give him a couple of soft-shelled turtles as a gesture of respect, so he doesn't feel uncomfortable and it affects my ability to come here to gather information. That would be a loss.