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

Wang Xingguo came prepared; he had a bucket on his tricycle with four or five kilograms of eels, which he said he would give to the factory so they could try cooking them and see if they liked them. If they did, they were welcome to increase their purchases.

To be honest, everyone was quite interested. Some of them had actually eaten eel before, but that was in fancy restaurants. They didn't know if the chefs in their own cafeteria could make it well, so they decided to arrange for someone to cook a few dishes to try it out.

Under the guidance of two workers who knew how to prepare eels, the chef successfully cooked the eels. After tasting them, several factory leaders praised them as delicious, so they increased the purchase quantity to 1,500 catties.

Wang Xingguo instructed, "Leaders, there are a few things I need to remind you of. First, you can't eat too much eel, because it's very nourishing. People with weak constitutions may not be able to handle it, and might experience symptoms like excessive internal heat or sudden nosebleeds. Second, the eels must be killed alive; dead eels must never be kept. Eels contain some unknown substances that, within an hour or two after death, will transform into toxins due to bacterial growth. Therefore, eels that have been dead for more than an hour must not be eaten. However, if you freeze them immediately after killing them, there's absolutely no problem. But when you take them out to thaw and cook them, you can't leave them at room temperature for too long after thawing, otherwise the eel meat will rot and produce toxins..."

Wang Xingguo was very worried about this. In the past, people didn't know that dead eels were poisonous. They were poisoned by eating dead eels, and that's why the saying has been passed down to this day. Eels are still considered poisonous by the people of Beijing.

The group nodded in agreement. The secretary wrote down all the precautions and was instructed to strictly adhere to them.

The rest was simple. There was no need for the factory leaders to hand over the work to Wang Xingguo. He would bring over as many eels as he wanted, and they would deliver the same amount of grain to him.

Once outside the brewery gates, the factory denied that the grain belonged to them, and said Wang Xingguo would be responsible for any problems that arose.

Wang Xingguo readily agreed, since all he needed to do was pull it away from the brewery, and as long as no one was around, he could store it in his spatial storage; there was no transportation issue with the grain at all.

Wang Xingguo asked the factory for four large barrels, hauled them away on a tricycle, then went back to the transportation company to rent a transport tricycle, and handed over his monthly income of fifty yuan.

When he returned to the brewery, he was already carrying 150 pounds of eels.

He couldn't haul too much, because it would crush the eels. Each trip carried 150 jin of eels, and he was hauling out 750 jin of grain at the same time. He finished one trip every half hour. He started hauling the first load at 10 a.m. and continued until 5 p.m. He had hauled 1,500 jin of eels in ten trips.

The brewery canteen staff looked at Wang Xingguo with resentment in their eyes. They didn't know when they would be able to clean the eels.

Wang Xingguo was in a very awkward situation, but having secured the grain and a large quantity of eels, he simply made his escape.

Wang Xingguo returned the three vehicles to the transportation company. After leaving, he went to a secluded spot and entered his personal space. There, he took a shower and changed into clean clothes.

Wang Xingguo hummed a song as he rode his tricycle to the grocery store to pick up his wife from get off work.

He had originally hoped that his elder brother could get married soon so that he could marry Li Xiuping and bring her home, but with this incident, he would have to wait.

At 7:15, Li Xiuping finally got off work and saw Wang Xingguo as she came out, so she quickly walked over to him.

Wang Xingguo smiled and handed her a cream popsicle, which he had specially gone out to buy earlier.

Li Xiuping happily ate her cream popsicle, while Wang Xingguo rode his tricycle back to Mao'er Hutong.

"Honey, how about coming over for dinner tonight? You haven't tried our bed yet, have you? Want to give it a try tonight?"

"Get lost... I dare to go tonight, but do you dare let me stay overnight? Believe me, my older brother will break your legs!"

"Tch, so you're the only one with an older brother? I have an older brother too. At worst, you can have my older brother's legs beaten by him."

Wang Xingguo's words made Li Xiuping laugh heartily. This guy always said some nonsensical things, but she could inexplicably feel happy when she was with him.

Although I really want to eat meat, I really can't right now. What I hate most is that I don't have many holidays. If I had a holiday, I could drag Li Xiuping home for a day.

However, only two days off a month is far too few, and I end up using up my vacation time whenever something comes up.

So the key is to quickly resolve the marriage issue for the eldest brother, so that he can marry Li Xiuping and then he won't have to sleep with a blanket anymore.

After dropping Li Xiuping off at the entrance of No. 36 Courtyard, Wang Xingguo hurriedly left Mao'er Hutong because he needed to rush to the entrance of the General Hospital of Liberation to deliver fish.

The fish exchange went very smoothly, but Wang Xingguo informed the people who came to exchange their fish that the next fish would arrive in three days, and asked them to pass this message on to each other.

After finishing his business here, Wang Xingguo didn't go straight home. Instead, he took most of the things he had recently acquired, put them on his tricycle, and took them to Uncle Niu's place to clear out the stock and recoup some funds.

When Shi Tou opened the door and saw what was on Wang Xingguo's tricycle, he exclaimed in surprise, "Fishmonger, which store's warehouse did you raid?"

Wang Xingguo said irritably, "Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and call some people to help me move my things. Anyone who doesn't help is not allowed to buy my goods tonight."

Stone chuckled and ran inside to call for help.

With many hands making light work, the pile of goods was quickly moved into the house. Everyone began to divide the goods, first dividing the goods themselves and then calculating the money for Wang Xingguo.

Master Niu also took a fancy to several wines from other provinces. Regardless of whether the wine was good or not, anything rare in the capital was considered a good thing, and there were always people willing to pay a high price to try it.

After a long day of work, Wang Xingguo finally settled the accounts, earning a total of 432 yuan, which brought his pockets back to 520 yuan.

While Niu Ye and the others were drinking, Wang Xingguo didn't stand on ceremony. He took a bowl and chopsticks, sat down, ate a steamed bun, and then drank a cup of wine with them.

Old Niu asked with a smile, "Wang Er, what's your opinion on what we discussed last time?"

Wang Xingguo nodded and said, "Master Niu, I've thought this through. I'll go talk to my Wang family tomorrow, but I have one condition: you have to agree to it."

Master Niu nodded and said, "No problem, we're all on the same side. Just tell me what your conditions are, and I'll do whatever I can."

Wang Xingguo didn't stand on ceremony and said directly, "Brother Niu, I want a batch of grain. How about exchanging one pound of live pig for eight pounds of cornmeal?"

Upon hearing this, Old Niu frowned, remained silent for a moment, and then shook his head, saying, "Wang Er, I can't agree to your conditions. Based on what I've told you, do you think cornmeal will still be priced like it is now?"