Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 490 489 Postage Paid
After the train left Sijiu City, the escorts began to take turns to rest.

Tang Zhitong pretended to take out carving tools and drum boards from his bag, squatted in the corner of the carriage and began to level it bit by bit.

The carving knife is really sharp, and it is not difficult to carve sandalwood. You just have to control the strength well, otherwise it will easily leave bumps.

Whenever people arrived at the station to pick up or unload parcels, Tang Zhitong would collect them and help.

But when it comes to sorting the letters, I can't help.

After a period of familiarization, the escort has memorized the postal codes of various places, but Tang Zhitong is lacking in this area.

If you don’t know the postal code, you naturally cannot sort it.

"It's strange, there are quite a lot of returned letters recently." Kong Yiqun muttered as he sorted them.

"There is no such person?" Upon hearing this, Tang Zhitong stood up from the corner of the carriage and walked over.

"That's about it, dead letter." Kong Yiqun handed a returned letter to Tang Zhitong, and then continued to sort out the other letters.

Tang Zhitong took the letter and looked at it carefully.

The receiving address, sending address and zip code are all complete, but the return postmark is also very conspicuous.

If you look closely, you will see that this letter is different from the others.

The other letters had stamps on them, but this one was stamped "Postage Paid."

As a former postman, Tang Zhitong is no stranger to this kind of postmark.

There are several types of "Postage Paid" postmarks, but the patterns are all octagonal, with only the text and color inside being different.

Domestic civil, confidential, and Hong Kong and Macao documents are all in Chinese characters, while international documents are in English.

Generally speaking, this kind of postmark is only used for civilian items that are large and inconvenient to affix stamps. But the one in front of me is just a thin letter, which makes it interesting.

"Brother Kong, are there any more letters like this?" Tang Zhitong asked as he placed the letter on the sorting table.

"There's only this one at this stop. There will definitely be more later. I'll pick them all out later." Kong Yiqun replied.

"Okay, thank you Brother Kong." Tang Zhitong stretched his arms and continued to squat in the corner to repair his wood.

It was dark outside, but the lights were turned on in the private carriage, which did not affect the wood carving.

"You've been busy all the way, what are you doing?" After Kong Yiqin finished his work, he came over to chat with Tang Zhitong.

"Hey, let me carve a little thing." Tang Zhitong put the things on the floor of the carriage, took out cigarettes from his pocket, and scattered them one by one, even including the two new guys.

If you say he is a young man, he might be older than you.

"Hey, you seem quite interested." Kong Yiqin lit up a cigarette and took a puff, then briefly introduced the few people, mainly Tang Zhitong: "Chief Tang from the Finance Department, you have seen him when you received your salary a few days ago, right? Second-class individual merit, college students, you must study hard and strive for progress."

"Hey, Brother Kong, please don't talk about me. How many of those who can come to escort us don't have any contributions? I'm just luckier, it's not worth mentioning." Tang Zhitong is very humble and doesn't want to show off in front of his colleagues.

"You are so low-key. It's time to eat while there is still a long time before the next stop." Kong Yiqin laughed, patted his butt, stood up and added coal to the stove, then took out his lunch box and called to the others, "Take out your lunch boxes and heat them on the stove."

"Brother Kong, I brought some pickled toon sprouts today. Let's have a try later." Tang Zhitong, holding a cigarette in his mouth, took out two steamed buns and a lunch box of pickles from his bag. After more than half a year of consumption, there was only some toon sprouts left at the bottom of the jar.

"Then we are in for a treat today. Your pickles are delicious! Let me try some first. I've been craving for them for a long time." Kong Yiqun couldn't wait to open Tang Zhitong's lunch box, picked up a piece and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it with a sweet crunch.

"Oh, I'm thirsty just looking at this." Tang Zhitong picked up Kong Yiqun's cup, poured him a glass of water, and placed it beside the bed.

The bed was really just a bed, with only a bed board and not even a mattress.

"Hey, I'm used to it. I used to eat more, but now I don't dare to eat like that. The more I eat, the hungrier I get." After eating a pickle, Kong Yiqun said with a look of enjoyment on his face, but with a hint of regret in his heart.

"Look forward, I believe everything will be fine." Tang Zhitong responded indifferently.

"We're all looking forward to it. Come, come, sit down and eat together." Kong Yiqun took the lead in picking up his own steamed bread and took a bite, then greeted the other two escorts.

Tang Zhitong picked up his steamed bread, sat next to Kong Yiqin, and made room for the other two escorts. He said, "I don't have much dry food, but there are plenty of pickles. Please don't be polite."

"Thank you, Section Chief Tang." With Kong Yiqun taking the lead, the other two people became less restrained.

"You're only going to eat two?" Kong Yiqun asked, looking at Tang Zhitong's steamed bread, which was not very big.

"There's no other way. I've reduced my fixed intake, so I can only make do with this." Tang Zhitong chewed slowly, as if eating slowly could trick his stomach into eating more.

"How much has it dropped?" Kong Yiqin asked while eating.

"More than 32 kilograms. I'm eating the ration that college students eat now, which is kilograms a month."

"Wow, that's enough! Come and eat mine. Last time I ate your food all the way, this time you eat mine." Kong Yiqin was a little surprised. He knew Tang Zhitong's appetite. The last time they were together, he ate as much as him.

"No, no, these are enough for me." Tang Zhitong raised his hand to block the steamed bread that Kong Yiqin handed to him.

"Tell me, why are you so polite? I can't starve with one steamed bun, so just consider it as my repayment to you." Kong Yiqun said. He now understood why Tang Zhitong wanted to inquire about the things in the east. The ration was reduced by more than ten kilograms every month. If this happened to him, he would have to find ways to run to the river several times.

"Hahaha, just pay me back when the situation gets better. I have no objection if Brother Kong pays me back double then." Tang Zhitong finally refused.

"Oh, it's because of this. I asked you to help with the mail, but you better stop doing it from now on. You can only eat a few ounces of rice in one meal!" Kong Yiqun shook his head and said.

"It's okay, just a side job. Even though I don't eat much, I still have plenty of strength." Tang Zhitong responded jokingly.

"We are not outsiders, you are being too self-centered. Don't do it anymore, or Lao Zhang will scold me when he finds out." Kong Yiqun insisted.

"Okay, then I quit." Tang Zhitong finally gave in.

"It will get cold if we go two stops further north. Did you bring thick clothes? If you keep wearing like this, it will be too little." Kong Yiqun reminded.

"Yes, I brought it. I'll take it out and put it on later."

"Wrap yourself in a coat, lie down on the bed and take a nap, and you'll be there when you wake up." If you eat less, you will not only feel weak but also unable to resist the cold. Lying down and not moving is a good way to maintain your strength.

"Let's take turns. We finally got a ride on this train, so we can't just sit there and do nothing." Tang Zhitong didn't agree. There were only two beds, and he was going to occupy them all night? That would have a bad impact.

After dinner, Tang Zhitong continued to perform according to the drum.

After two stops, the stubborn wood has taken shape under the carving knife, one side is thick and the other side is thin. "Chief Tang, find your coat and put it on." Kong Yiqin reminded him after sorting the letters and rubbing his hands.

Although Tang Zhitong asked him to call him Xiao Tang, this kind of thing definitely cannot be done that way.

"Okay! Now that you remind me, it's really a bit cold." Tang Zhitong stood up, brushed off the wood chips on his body, then opened his bag, shook out his coat, and put it on.

"Fuck! Double-breasted!" Kong Yiqin's eyes widened when he saw the clothes Tang Zhitong was wearing and he cursed.

Realizing his own gaffe, Kong Yiqin quickly made amends, "Chief Tang's coat is nice."

"Hey, I heard it's very cold over there in the winter, so I borrowed one from a friend for emergency use." Friend is a magical excuse, and everyone has "a friend".

Before getting married, Xiao Wang was indeed Tang Zhitong's friend. Now, their relationship has taken a step further. Not only have they become lifelong friends, but they are also "quilt" friends, the kind who share the same quilt.

When the other two escorts saw Tang Zhitong turn around and work with a gun on his back, their eyes raised a little more. One of them even saluted as a reflex.

"Don't be like that, it's just a piece of clothing, I borrowed it." Tang Zhitong waved his hands embarrassedly. Although he was secretly happy in his heart, this was inconsistent with his low-key personality and he was careless.

"Chief Tang, there are no more than 6,000 pieces of this style of clothing in the entire country. At least a senior battalion commander is qualified to wear it." Kong Yiqun sighed.

"I really don't know about that." Tang Zhitong touched his head embarrassedly. He lied.

Of course he knew the number. The reason why officers are called officers is because the lowest rank they have to be is major. In 55, when the ranks were awarded, the total number of people was less than .

"Your friend is quite generous." Kong Yiqun just sighed and didn't say anything else.

Borrowing clothes is very common these days, but Kong Yiqun didn't expect that someone would lend out clothes of this standard.

For the rest of the trip, the lights were turned off most of the time for safety reasons.

Tang Zhitong declined Kong Yiqin's suggestion to let him sleep all the way, and insisted on taking turns with everyone else, standing guard for several times in his coat.

In the early morning of December 12, the train had entered LN province.

Kong Yiqin showed Tang Zhitong a stack of letters: "Chief Tang, these are all returned letters."

Tang Zhitong put five or six letters on his shoulder, took the letters, and read them carefully one by one under the light.

The handwritings were different, the destinations were different, and the places where they were sent were different, but without exception, they were all civilian items and were stamped with the "postage paid" stamp.

Tang Zhitong held up the envelopes and examined them carefully under the light. Some of the envelopes contained a thin piece of paper, while others contained nothing at all.

Tang Zhitong divided the two types of letters into two piles, and then asked, "Brother Kong, can I have a copy?"

"You can, but you can't take it away." Kong Yiqin replied.

"You definitely can't take it away. I know the rules." Tang Zhitong put down the five or six pieces of paper, found a piece of paper, and began to copy the information on the envelope in piles.

Tang Zhitong didn't believe that there was no trick involved.

Tang Zhitong has taken more than one trip with his own mail truck and has never found such problems on other trucks.

Even if there is a returned letter, it will be the kind with a stamp on it.

Tang Zhitong did not expect to be able to analyze anything from these letters, and besides, this was not within the scope of his responsibilities.

The reason for copying it was to give Hao Ren a reminder. After all, the postal code promotion was led by Hao Ren.

Tang Zhitong is worried that someone will send false letters in order to increase the proportion of postal codes filled in in order to assess the data.

For the rest of the journey, Tang Zhitong spent his time resting, standing guard, and copying the information on the envelopes.

After Tang Zhitong finished copying the letters, Kong Yiqun sorted them according to the sender's address and returned them.

In the morning, the train arrived at Andong Station.

"Let's go, let's go, don't waste time here." Kong Yiqun took Tang Zhitong's package and personally escorted him to the door of his own mail truck. The first thing he did after opening the door was to help Tang Zhitong get off the car.

"Thank you, Brother Kong. Am I really leaving now?" Tang Zhitong was so cold when he got out of the mail truck. It was so damn cold!

"Let's go, be careful!" Kong Yiqun waved to Tang Zhitong, then turned around and went back to unload the parcel.

"Team leader, who is this Section Chief Tang?" After unloading the parcel, an escort asked curiously while the three of them were taking a break.

"I don't know either. It won't hurt to be polite. Keep your mouth shut and don't tell anyone about what happened on the road when you get back." Kong Yiqun reminded.

"Well, well, don't say it, don't say it."

Tang Zhitong walked out of the station from the employee passage carrying five or six bags and a parcel. In just a few steps, he felt the coldness of Northeast China.

Fortunately, there were few pedestrians in this kind of weather. Tang Zhitong found a corner away from others, threw the package into the space, lowered the ears of his hat, put on a scarf, then took out the leather bag prepared by his classmate Xiao Wang and tied it around his legs.

After thinking about it, Tang Zhitong finally pulled out the rabbit skin.

The rabbit fur was facing up and the rabbit skin was facing down. I stepped on it with one foot. Just as the cotton shoes were pressed tightly against my feet, I was worried that the rabbit skin would fall apart, but it turned out to be frozen solid!

The rabbit skin under the other foot was so frozen that it couldn't be folded up.

At this moment, there was no time to keep the rabbit skin intact. Tang Zhitong put on gloves and used a carving knife to drill a row of holes in the rabbit skin. Then he threaded it with a thin hemp rope, just like threading shoelaces, and fixed the rabbit skin tightly on the cotton shoes.

After putting away another frozen rabbit skin, Tang Zhitong pulled out another warm one and wrapped the other foot in the same way.

Finally he stood up, put five or six and a half on his shoulders, and walked towards the road.

In the middle of winter, carrying five or six heavy loads was not a good experience. At this time, Tang Zhitong remembered what his classmate Xiao Wang said the night before: With this set of clothes, it would be more suitable if he also had a small gun.

Although Xiao Wang did not consider convenience when he said this, convenience is really good!
The snow on the road had been compacted, and Tang Zhitong walked along the side of the road, taking one deep step and one shallow step. The snow on the side of the road was still a little soft, so it was not easy to slip.

There are no carts waiting for passengers on the roadside in such weather. Occasionally, a truck passes by, and there are iron chains tied to the tires, so the driver has to drive very carefully.

It is easier to handle the sled. With the clatter of horse hooves, the sled moves forward steadily. Its speed is not slower than that of a truck per hour, but it just has to endure a lot more wind.

In the end, Tang Zhitong did not choose to stop a car to go to the forest farm. Instead, he walked east along the main road, found the post office, and sent a telegram to Xiao Wang to let him know he was safe.

(End of this chapter)