My Courtyard Refuge

: Food Exchange

In the following week, Xu Dong received thousands of Xia Qiao in total.

Among them are the big bosses who have returned to their hometowns in fine clothes, and the “losers” who are down and out, and there are even several shining local tyrants.

These niggas are certainly not expatriates.

They are distinguished guests invited by the country. After all, the Philippine state cannot continue to be chaotic, and there will always be a day when they return.

On March 2, after handing over the work, Xu Dong was finally able to go home. Section Chief Li granted him two days off, plus four days off on weekends.

“Dongzi, you’re back.”

Xu Dong, who originally wanted to surprise his family, was taken aback by the sudden appearance of his elder sister.

“Uh, sister, when did you arrive?”

“Just arrived yesterday afternoon.”

Xu Ting just came out of the vegetable garden, holding a handful of freshly picked beans.

Xu Dong went into the house and looked around. Except for his wife who was taking a nap with the triplets, there was no one else at home, so he asked curiously:

“Where’s Mom? What about my brother-in-law and Lingling?”, Why didn’t you see anyone? ”

“Ma Jie took Mom and Lingling to Langfang to look at the house.” Xu Ting replied.

“When did you hand over the house? Did you get the real estate certificate?”

“The real estate certificate came down yesterday, and the house was handed over this morning. The seller was in a hurry, and the intermediary speeded up.”

Xu Dong nodded. With the development of the evacuation work, normal flights will definitely be affected. No wonder the seller is so impatient.

“How are you handling the matter in Luyang?”

Xu Ting frowned: “Your brother-in-law found a moving company, and the family has moved here, and everything else is going well, except that I may not be able to keep my job.”

“what’s the situation?”

“There is no job suitable for me here for the time being. If I can’t find an accepting unit, I can only choose to retreat.” Xu Ting said and poured a glass of water for her brother.

Xu Dong took a sip and asked, “Then what are your plans here?”

“Mom has already asked Aunt Wang to help me ask, whether it can be achieved depends on God’s will.”

“Sister, don’t worry, Aunt Wang has a wide range of ways, she will be fine.” Xu Dong comforted.

“Thank you for your good words. At worst, I will find a job again. Your sister is not someone who easily admits defeat.”

Xu Dong saw that the elder sister was in a good mood, so he didn’t ask any more questions.

…

In the evening, Ma Jie and his party finally came back, and everyone was smiling.

“Uncle, I’m coming to your house again.” Ma Xu ran over and shouted.

“Okay, I won’t go back to Luyang this time.” Xu Dong patted his nephew’s scalp.

“Yeah, it’s much more fun here than back home.”

Mama Xu laughed and scolded, “Just know how to play.”

“Mom, are you finally relieved now?” Xu Dong joked while hugging Xiaobao.

Seeing that her youngest son came back from a business trip, Mama Xu said happily, “Your sister’s affairs are settled, and Mama’s heart that is tightly hanging can finally breathe a sigh of relief!”

“There was nothing to worry about.”

“Give me Xiaobao, your brother-in-law has something to tell you.” Mama Xu took Xiaobao, and brought Lingling and Xiaoxu into the house together.

Xu Dong pulled Ma Jie into the restaurant, and then said, “Brother-in-law, what’s the matter?”

“Dongzi, I want to exchange rice with you for some cornflour.” Ma Jie said slowly.

“Brother-in-law, what is the relationship between our two families? Why do you want to change it? You can just carry a bag home tomorrow!”

“No, I asked for a little too much this time.”

Xu Dong asked strangely, “Brother-in-law, what do you want these corn flour for?”

It stands to reason that the old sister’s family has hoarded several hundred catties of rice, so there should be no shortage of food in the family.

“Brother-in-law, I won’t hide it from you. I’m going to send these cornmeal back to my hometown in Dianzhou. My parents’ life is very difficult right now.” Ma Jie sighed.

===Section 101===

Ma Jie’s hometown is Kunming, the capital of Dianzhou. Strictly speaking, before the drought, it was already a city that was seriously short of water.

Xu Dong nodded: “Does my sister know about this?”

“I know, your sister means that you can only send back two hundred catties of rice at most, so I thought it would be better to replace it with cornmeal, so that at least I can exchange a little more.”

“In that case, I’ll exchange the two hundred catties of rice for you with five hundred catties of corn flour!” Xu Dong lowered his head and thought about it.

“No, this is too different from the official conversion ratio.” Ma Jie shook his head quickly.

Xu Dong explained with a smile: “Brother-in-law, Panjiayuan’s change is all like this, so don’t worry about the official ones, they can’t be counted.”

“Thank you, brother-in-law.”

After hesitating for a while, Ma Jie finally agreed, knowing without asking, it would definitely be a disadvantage to change his brother-in-law like this.

“Brother-in-law, when do you want cornflour?” Xu Dong asked again. The cornflour at home must not be enough, so he must go to Panjiayuan.

“This weekend, I’ll go back tomorrow and bring the rice over.”

Xu Dong handed over the car keys: “Drive my car, you have to hire a car for free, it’s too troublesome.”

Ma Jie was not polite and accepted it directly.

The next day, Xu Dong drove a pickup truck to Panjiayuan. There were 5 bags of rice in the truck, which added up to 250 kilograms.

In fact, on Panjiayuan’s side, one catty of hybrid rice can only be exchanged for two catties of cornmeal, and the extra one hundred catties is mainly due to his own wishes.

In addition, Xu Dong also brought a box of cigarettes, wanting to try his luck.

For the first time to exchange food, Xu Dong didn’t have any good resources at hand, so he could only ask one by one.

“Boss, how do you sell the cornmeal?”

The boss waved his hand: “Brother, are you kidding me? Now that food is so scarce, isn’t it blind to sell money?”

“Then you…”

“You can trade things in.”

“Cigarettes are okay? I’ll exchange Fuxing cigarettes with you.” Xu Dong said softly.

“How much do you want to change?” The boss was obviously moved.

Xu Dong extended a slap.

“Fifty catties? It’s a bit difficult!” The boss muttered, frowning.”It’s five hundred catties.” Xu Dong quickly corrected.

The boss immediately waved his hand: “You’re making fun of me, aren’t you? Five hundred catties, you’ve wrapped up Panjiayuan, and I’m afraid you won’t be able to get the five hundred catties together.”

The boss is really not joking. After the consumption of the whole year last year, in fact, most of the people in the urban area have no surplus food for a long time.

The grain that appeared on Panjiayuan’s side was collected bit by bit by second-hand dealers going from house to house.

Although the amount is not much, it is better to have it every day, and it is no problem to save an emergency once in a while.

After turning around, Xu Dong felt that he had come to the wrong place, so he quickly gave up his plan to exchange rice for cornmeal.

After leaving Panjiayuan, he approached Zhao Jian directly. Through the introduction of the other party, he finally exchanged a box of cigarettes for a total of more than 700 catties of corn flour.

Zhao Jian also got three sticks of cigarettes as an intermediary fee, and all parties were happy.