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

Li Zhengang left satisfied, not forgetting to make promises to Wang Xingning, saying he would bring them delicious food next time.

Wang Xingguo agreed to help him contact someone to get 100-200 catties of fish. The price certainly wouldn't be too high, but the requirements weren't too demanding either!

They don't mind selling those small, miscellaneous fish that are particularly hard to sell, such as whitebait, minnows, gudgeon, and bitterling!

Anyway, the price is only 80 cents per pound, so getting a hundred or so pounds isn't a difficult task.

After agreeing to deliver the fish to his house the next day at noon and imparting his shameless tips, Li Zhengang left satisfied.

Speaking of Li Zhengang's job, it was probably arranged by his family.

Because Li Zhengang has two older brothers and one older sister, he is the youngest.

However, his eldest brother was in the military, and his sister-in-law followed him to the military. After his second sister got married, she went to Dalian with her brother-in-law. After his third brother started working, he was assigned to work in a key unit in Harbin, the kind of unit that only came back once a year.

So, of his four children, only he could stay by his side. Naturally, they were reluctant to let him work too far away and have him move out on his own. That would leave the two of them alone at home, which would feel so lonely.

Compared to ordinary people, Li Zhengang is truly lucky, and he is one of the few classmates of Wang Xingguo whose family background is relatively good.

Seeing Wang Xingguo return with someone, Wang Xingning couldn't help but ask, "Second Brother, what's Zhengang thinking? They're offering those small whitebait for 80 cents a pound, will their workplace agree to that?"

Wang Xingguo shook his head and explained, "Girl, you don't understand. These small fish are a waste of oil and time for us, and they're not good for us. But for the company, the time spent is for the workers, and the oil wastage is a company matter, so they don't care about that at all. The most important thing is that the workers are happy as long as they have fish to eat. Once these small fish are fried, they're not bad at all. This way, the purchasing agent can complete his task, the workers are happy, the leaders are satisfied, and I can also make some profit. It's a win-win situation."

In reality, companies don't experience the same shortage of hair oil as ordinary people. Many companies include hair oil as a perk during holidays.

Last year, my older brother's company even gave him a pound of soybean oil as a year-end bonus.

So frying some small fish to supplement the workers' meals is not a difficult task for the company at all.

Wang Xingning shook his head and said, "It's impossible for us to eat fried small fish; that's too extravagant."

Wang Xingguo laughed and said, "That's the difference. You feel bad using your own things, but who feels bad using public property?"

It was still early, so Wang Xingguo helped them paste matchboxes, but he was clumsy and couldn't even work as fast as the fourth brother.

However, the siblings already knew about this, so they didn't find it strange.

After all, my second brother is just not suited for this kind of meticulous work, but that doesn't mean he can't do other jobs.

In Wang Xingning's view, his eldest brother was a master of manual labor, while his second brother was the kind of person who used his brain.

Otherwise, out of so many people, how come it was Second Brother who made it big and even got the police station and the neighborhood committee to speak on his behalf?

How could someone do something like this without some real skill?

It's important to know that the joint defense teams that conduct voluntary patrols now are led by police officers, not the elderly men and women wearing red armbands that we'll see in the future.

Around 5 p.m., Wang Xingguo slowly strolled out of the house.

He bought a lot of fish yesterday, so he plans to sell more tonight and maybe even get a free meal at the casino.

They'll just sell them any fish; besides, they're reluctant to eat the best fish, because they can only make more money with the best fish.

This wasn't the first time he'd done this; even Boss Niu welcomed him to come and freeload.

After all, Wang Xingguo is a man of principle; he never eats or drinks for free, and he always brings out a fish or something when he comes.

It's somewhat similar to sharing food; other people who resell goods sometimes don't have time to go home for meals, so they'll come here to gather some ingredients for a meal.

So when Wang Xingguo arrived at the gambling den carrying two buckets of fish, he immediately told people to pick out fish to add to the dishes, as he planned to have a free meal there that night.

Even Uncle Niu couldn't resist picking out several fish to buy. It was truly rare to find fish that Wang Xingguo brought that were all live and could be kept in a water tank.

This brings us to the current meat supply!

Fish are not available every day. Due to the Great Production Movement, many fish ponds in the capital were filled in to grow grain!

Previously, local fish accounted for 30% of the supply, while 70% was transported from other places by train.

Currently, local fish only account for 10%, while fish from other regions account for 90%.

Therefore, the fish supplied to the seafood market are always frozen fish, never any live fish.

Even local live fish are first frozen in cold storage, and then taken out of the cold storage and taken to the seafood counters of major food and beverage markets for sale when it is time to sell.

The only way to get live fish is to buy fish that others have caught. Since ordinary people don't have freezing equipment to store fish, live fish are extremely precious.

So don't ask why people in Beijing love braised fish and fish stewed in soy sauce!

If you could only eat frozen fish, you would have to braise it with seasonings to suppress the fishy smell, instead of steaming it.

Come on!

If you've been eating fish like this since you were a child, you'll get used to it, and even if you can buy live fish now, it won't change your eating habits.

Of course, some sea fish, even when frozen, don't have much of a fishy smell and can indeed be steamed.

Wang Xingguo got busy because his fish was very popular with the locals. Several people who were still asleep were woken up and rushed over to buy fish.

Wang Xingguo still used some of the money from selling fish to buy cigarettes, alcohol, and brown sugar.

Tea is also available, but it's ridiculously expensive. This stuff has always been expensive, so Wang Xingguo didn't stockpile too much of it.

Honestly, while a bag of tea looks nice as a gift, it's more economical to give a bag of brown sugar and two bottles of wine.

I've really struck gold tonight. I didn't expect to find half a braised pig's head here. This stuff is perfect as a snack with drinks.

Wang Xingguo shared a drink with everyone, picked up a piece of pig's ear, and couldn't help but ask, "Uncle Niu, do you have any connections to get your hands on this braised pig's head?"

Old Niu chuckled and said, "Little Wang, isn't that obvious? Everyone here has connections to get good stuff, right? Take you, for example, you're the best one. You can always get live fish. For others, getting a few live fish is a real hassle. Even those who secretly go fishing with nets don't have many fish they can keep alive."

Wang Xingguo nodded and said, "That's true. I went through a lot of trouble to find these connections. But I'd like to get a few piglets and ask a friend in the countryside to raise them. Do you have any connections to help me with that?"