Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 444 "Recognition"

Judging from the handwriting, it looks like it was written by a woman. Could it be Qian Zhongping?
Tang Zhitong opened the letter as he walked home. He first looked at the signature and it was indeed Qian Zhongping.

Looking at the content again, Qian Zhongping said that her husband helped the commune transport cabbage two days ago, and the commune gave him "some" cabbage to express their gratitude.

But they were all frozen. Ask Tang Zhitong if she minds. If she doesn't, go to the transfer office dormitory to find her and move some back.

After entering the room, Xiao Wang glanced at Tang Zhitong, glanced at the opened letter, placed a plate of dumplings just out of the pot in front of him, and asked, "Whose letter is it?"

Tang Zhitong looked at her little expression and smiled.

It's a bit like the era of popular smart phones. When you're curious about your lover's phone that keeps ringing, you want to check it out, but out of respect, you resist the urge to look.

"You'll know if you take a look at it yourself," said Tang Zhitong as he handed the letter to Xiao Wang.

"Humph, I'm not looking at it." Student Xiao Wang wrinkled his nose, turned his head slightly, and concentrated on the dumplings in front of him.

Tang Zhitong placed the letter on the table and sat next to Xiao Wang. While eating dumplings, he said, "Sister Qian from the Hujialou Branch, do you still remember her?"

"Well, the letter from her?" Of course Xiao Wang remembered Sister Qian, and it was she who "inadvertently" revealed to him that Tang Zhitong had only "tried on" her new cotton coat.

"Well, Sister Qian's husband works at the transportation department. He helped the commune transport cabbage a few days ago. They gave him some frozen cabbage, but we couldn't finish it at home and were afraid it would be wasted. They said that if I didn't mind, I could go and get some back." Tang Zhitong dictated the general content of the letter.

"Then are you going?"

"Go ahead. Sister Qian has said so much. If I don't go, wouldn't that be considered as disrespectful?" Tang Zhitong had a very good reason.

"Then don't go empty-handed."

"Well, I'll bring two pounds of pine nuts." Tang Zhitong knew that cabbage was two cents a pound. Even if he carried back thirty pounds, it would only be sixty cents. Two pounds of pine nuts would be at least eighty cents, so Sister Qian would not suffer any loss.

Zhang Guifang listened from the side without any intention of interrupting, while Fengzhen and Fengzhi were busy eating and had no intention of listening to these things at all.

Even though Zhang Guifang was there to help the two younger sisters eat less, the two sisters still ate a little too much. Each of them occupied a chair and sat back in it contentedly, with a happy smile on her face.

"Hey, Wenwen, help our mom scrub the newly bought vat. It's best to use boiling water or boiled water. Don't leave these two stoves idle. Boil water and let it cool down. I'll need it to make sauerkraut when I come back." After giving the instructions, Tang Zhitong went back to the house, packed two kilograms of pine nuts and put them in his pocket, then took a sack and set off.

They had worked together for more than half a year, but if Qian Zhongping hadn't told her, Tang Zhitong would never have known that she lived in the transfer office dormitory.

Tang Zhitong was very familiar with the transfer office. When he was working on delivery, he had to get up early every few days to carry letters and newspapers, so he was familiar with the route here.

In the era of developed Internet, Tang Zhitong once saw a question on the Internet: In the era without navigation, how did drivers accurately locate their vehicles with the help of a map?
The answer is simple, the road is right at your fingertips.

But this question is very interesting, which shows that young people are unfamiliar with this era.

Tang Zhitong asked along the way and arrived at Qian Zhongping's house.

This is also a row of houses, with a similar layout to the house where Mark Jian lives, but it looks a little bigger and each family has two rooms.

"Sister Qian?" Tang Zhitong parked her bicycle outside the door. After walking through the gate, the first thing that caught her eye was the cabbage. There was a huge pile of it, almost taking up half of the yard. However, it didn't look very good. The outer layer was wilted, obviously having been frozen.

"Hey! Xiao Tang is here?" Qian Zhongping heard the noise and came out from the house to greet him warmly, along with two little ones.

"Hello, Sister Qian. These are the two little nephews, right?" Tang Zhitong hooked his finger at the two children and said teasingly, "Come on, call me uncle."

When the two children first saw a stranger, especially a tall one, they instinctively hid behind their mother. The older one looked puzzled and asked, "Mom, uncle doesn't look like this."

"Hey, little guy can quite distinguish things. Just call uncle and you'll have snacks." Tang Zhitong happily took out the pine nuts from his pocket.

Both the big and small ones saw Songzi. The big one looked up at Qian Zhongping, waiting for instructions, while the small one grabbed Qian Zhongping's trouser legs and stared at Songzi.

"Do you remember the bag of longicorn seeds? It was given to you by this uncle." Qian Zhongping said, touching the eldest brother's head.

"Uncle!" When the word was associated with food, the child's impression became vivid and he called out timidly.

"Hey! Good boy, come and share with your brother." Tang Zhitong agreed crisply, squatted down, grabbed a handful of pine nuts and put them in the child's hand, and stood up to hand the rest to Qian Zhongping.

"You are the one who comes, so why bring any food?" Qian Zhongping felt a little embarrassed.

Although they had not worked together for a long time, Tang Zhitong gave Qian Zhongping both Chinese toon and longicorn, so Qian Zhongping wanted to share some of the cabbage with Tang Zhitong.

"Hey, let's satisfy the child's craving. Brother-in-law is not at home?" The door was not closed. Seeing that no man came out of the house, Tang Zhitong didn't even plan to enter the main room.

"There's a mission, the car is dispatched. Come in, sit down and have a drink of water." Qian Zhongping didn't care about that. He invited the person himself and brought snacks, so he naturally didn't want to be impolite.

"I'll just smoke a cigarette outside the door. The cabbage is waiting to be cooked at home." Tang Zhitong told a lame lie.

"Tsk, you're young but you're very thoughtful. I'm not afraid, so why are you afraid?" Qian Zhongping was also stunned and stretched out his arm as if to grab.

"Okay, okay, I can go in. When my brother-in-law comes back to beat me, you have to hold him back." Tang Zhitong dodged to the side and walked forward.

"That won't do. I have to hold you down and beat you together." Tang Zhitong joked, and Qian Zhongping also responded jokingly.

"Wow, could it be that you two are the reincarnations of Zhang Qing from the vegetable garden and Sun Erniang, the female demon?" Tang Zhitong asked pretending to be scared.

"Bah, if I were really Sun Erniang, I would chop you up first. You're so short of meat now." Qian Zhongping spat and chuckled.

The child didn't understand what the uncle was talking about with his mother. When he heard about meat, he looked up, but didn't see any meat. Then he concentrated on the pine nuts in his hand.

"Then it's a waste for you to work in the post and telecommunications industry. You should go to a slaughterhouse." Tang Zhitong didn't let the words fall on the floor.

"Do you think that's a good company? This year, there are fewer pigs and sheep than in previous years. They are the first to persuade people to quit. They are not as good as our Post and Telecommunications." Qian Zhongping took out the cigarettes and matches that the man left at home and handed them to Tang Zhitong: "Light them yourself and smoke them yourself."

"Okay!" Tang Zhitong took the cigarette and lit it up without hesitation.

Nowadays, most families, whether there is a smoker or not, will always put a box of cigarettes out for the children to use, which is considered a courtesy.

Of course, families with good economic conditions will still make a pot of tea, but since last year, tea was first adjusted to the first-class commodity, and this year it was adjusted to the second-class commodity, but the supply volume has been stable with a slight decline. The tea in Sijiu City is different from that in other places. Many tea shop owners sell blended tea.

The so-called blended tea means that the tea shop purchases different teas according to the seasons, and then a specialized tea artist tastes the tea, determines the proportion, issues a blended tea list, and then mixes the finished product according to the list.

There are many tea shops in the old city, including Zhang Yiyuan, Wu Yutai, Zheng Xingde, Yuan Changhou, Qiyuan, Sentai, Qinglinchun, and Yongan in Niujie, each with its own unique tea-blending skills.

Unfortunately, after the tea shortage, the tea blending business is in name only and will be cancelled next year. The business will not be restarted until the difficult period is over.

But before it was upgraded to first-class material, the tea shops in the old city were doing a booming business.

Very few people can customize the tea according to their personal taste, and change the order while tasting it until they are satisfied.

Of course, most people don’t have this treatment, and most of them go to tea shops to buy pre-blended scented tea.

Those who are a little poorer will buy high-quality cigarettes, while the consumers of high-quality cigarettes are basically low-income earners.

Many people think that high breakage and high foam are similar, but in fact, there is a big difference between the two.

Since tea leaves are inevitably bumped and squeezed during transportation, they will be sieved before blending.

The tea with the largest size and the best shape is normal tea, which is more expensive.

The sieved crumbs will be sieved again to filter out the larger ones, such as scented tea tips and fragments. They will also be blended according to the proportions on the tea blending list. The finished product is highly broken and can barely take shape after brewing, and the taste will not be much different from normal tea.

After two screenings, the tea foam is left. Add the tea base, tea soil, etc. in the tea basket, and mix them in proportion. However, it will inevitably float up after brewing, which is similar to the tea soup made by drinking tea in ancient times. At the same time, the taste is not very good, and there will be a fishy smell.

Therefore, even if the words "high-quality tea leaves" are written on the flyer in the picture, rich people will not even look at it.

There is also the tea can in the picture, which is both a package and a retail product. Given its durability, an average person can use it for most of their lifetime.

"Mom, I can't open it." After many unsuccessful attempts, the eldest child in Qian Zhongping's family asked his mother for help, while the youngest child grabbed her trouser legs and kept muttering: Eat, eat, eat.

"Eat, eat, I'll pick pine nuts for you." After Qian Zhongping poured a glass of water for Tang Zhitong, he sat on a stool and helped the two children pick pine nuts.

"Sister Qian, I remember you said your brother-in-law works in the machine repair department, didn't he? Did he change his job?" Tang Zhitong smoked a cigarette while watching Qian Zhongping peeling pine nuts. The reason he didn't help was that he wanted to keep a distance. The child was grown up and could not only imitate but also see things. He wanted to avoid causing trouble to Sister Qian with his irregular movements.

"He was originally a driver, but later he went to work as a mechanic to take care of his family. Now he has this fixed salary. In order to earn more, he has to go out more often." Qian Zhongping picked pine nuts, gave one to the eldest brother, and then gave the next one to the second brother, being very fair.

"This is good. There are drivers in the transfer department who often go to the escort department. According to him, although the drivers go out often, they have many opportunities outside and can get a lot of things." Tang Zhitong said rather obscurely.

Driver is indeed a popular job these days, especially those who travel to other places. Although the safety is a little lower, they are equipped with guns.

What’s more important is that you can use money to buy some things that should have been sold to the recycling station. For ordinary people, it doesn’t matter who they sell to, and the price given by the driver is even higher.

In addition, all the fuel consumed by the car will be reimbursed, and you can also pick up something along the way, right? This is not something I should explain in detail.

"Well, if it's not for this, I won't transfer." Qian Zhongping nodded in agreement and then asked, "I just heard you say that the Escort Department has been approved?"

"Well, what happened two days ago has been announced." Tang Zhitong had read the document. The level of the Transfer Office remained unchanged during the upgrade, so it was normal that we didn't hear the news.

"I heard from others a while ago that Fang Yuan was promoted back to Director Fang. He loves you so much, so what do you think? Has he made any moves for you?" Qian Zhongping asked curiously.

"Haha, I gave it a little boost." Tang Zhitong admitted happily.

"Not bad, not bad. It was worth it for you to follow him. You must be a team leader now, right? Is the escort work tiring?"

"It's about the same. The work is okay. Not too tiring." Tang Zhitong said vaguely.

"Well, if you are not tired, then learn more. You are still young and you have to make progress and strive to become a cadre instead of doing hard labor. I heard from the child's father that there is a young man in our Municipal Bureau who is only in his early twenties. Not only did he go to university on a commissioned basis, he is also preparing to be promoted to deputy section chief this time. You have to learn from him." Qian Zhongping advised sincerely.

"Emm... so famous?" Tang Zhitong was a little surprised. Is the news spread so quickly in the system? How can I learn from myself? It's quite worrying.

"How can such a thing go unnoticed? He's only in his early twenties and he's already a deputy section chief. What will happen when he's thirty or forty?" Qian Zhongping replied subconsciously. Only then did she come to her senses and stop picking pine nuts. She looked at Tang Zhitong with wide eyes and asked in disbelief, "Could this young man be you?"

"Emm... they all match. I just don't know if there are any students in previous years who are eligible for commissioned training or promoted to deputy section chief." Tang Zhitong nodded. In the Municipal Bureau, only himself and Luo Zhiping were on commissioned training this year. Luo Zhiping stayed in school all day, and it didn't seem like he was included in the promotion this time. As for previous years, Tang Zhitong was not sure.

"Oh my~ There are not so many young talents. Come, come, Tian Wang, Tian Feng, call me uncle." Qian Zhongping didn't bother to pick pine nuts. He slapped his thigh, pulled his two sons over, and prepared to do as Tang Zhitong wanted.

"Tian Wang, Tian Feng? These are famous names, right? Very well named." Tang Zhitong praised. It was also the first time she knew that Qian Zhongping's husband's surname was Tian.

The child was very confused. He was an uncle just now, so how come he became an uncle after eating two pine nuts?
"The name was given by the child's father." Seeing that the child was not very smart, Qian Zhongping was anxious and urged him again: "Call it quickly."

"Oh, Sister Qian, please don't force the child." Tang Zhitong was at a loss whether to laugh or cry as he watched Qian Zhongping make such a fuss.

"This idiot has no sense at all." Qian Zhongping knocked on his eldest son who refused to speak, and then said to Tang Zhitong openly: "If you don't recognize a relative like you, you must be mentally ill. You said you wanted to be the child's uncle, you can't go back on your word."

"Okay, I said it myself, you have to admit it, hahaha." Tang Zhitong laughed heartily.

"I don't usually ask you for anything. If the child becomes incapable in the future, you just need to give him a hand." Qian Zhongping touched the child's head and looked at the child with eyes full of love for the child.

"Sister Qian, what are you talking about? These two children have full foreheads and square chins. They are obviously blessed." Although Qian Zhongping acted out of love for her children, for Tang Zhitong, their relationship was not that serious and was far from the relationship between herself and Ma Kejian.

"You're trying to fool me with words, right?" Qian Zhongping liked to hear the nice words, but she also understood that Tang Zhitong didn't promise anything.

"How could I be fooling you? Even if I become capable by then and find you a formal job, an apprentice can earn about 48 yuan a year, and even if I become a regular employee, it will only be about yuan a month. A truck driver's salary is yuan a month. Sister Qian, you are too concerned and are looking for something far away." Tang Zhitong spread his hands and began to calculate the financial accounts for Qian Zhongping.

"Alas, this child's brain is like a block of wood. I'm afraid he can't learn it." Qian Zhongping had a look of worry on his face as he spoke.

"Hey, let's not talk about the fact that the child is still young. It's too early for you to think about these things. Brother Tian is educated and has the skills to repair cars. He should come back and take the child to learn more. After a dozen years, even a dumb kid will become smart. By then, maybe he won't need to be an apprentice and can go straight to the job." Tang Zhitong persuaded while saying what Qian Zhongping liked to hear.

There is a skill to rejecting people. Simply saying no is the worst option. Putting forward difficulties and striving for understanding is the middle option at best. The best option is to say what the other person wants to hear and give them better choices.

"Now that you mention it, it really is the case. I'll ask his dad to take me to the mechanics shop later."

(End of this chapter)