novelraw Chapter 326 - 323: You Can Only Buy It with Coupons
Chapter 326 - 323: You Can Only Buy It with Coupons
Lin Li looked at Lin Lan’s fair, rosy cheeks and said with envy, "You’re right. So many years have passed in a flash, but Little Lan’s skin is still as good as ever. It’s so fair and rosy, just like when she was a teenager."
Lin Lan felt her face flush. "Not at all. My face is red because I had a big bowl of sweet wine at lunch."
Gou Haiyan said with a grin, "Drinking sweet wine won’t get rid of age spots. Little Li and I both have them, but you don’t have a single one on your face. Fess up, what kind of face cream are you using?"
The face cream Lin Lan used was all from Li Xiangyang, so she just casually named a brand. "I use Pechoin."
Gou Haiyan didn’t believe her but said, "I’ll go buy a jar of Pechoin to try, too."
Zhao Xiaohui finished tidying up, came into the main room, and turned on the TV. She smiled and showed it off to the two women. "My brother-in-law bought this for the old folks to pass the time. It’s a fourteen-inch. You can only get one at the department store with coupons."
Gou Haiyan chimed in, "That’s right. Industrial coupons are hard to come by. My mother-in-law has wanted to buy a TV for the house for ages, so she can pass the time at home when it’s cold and there’s no farm work."
Lin Li looked at Lin Lan enthusiastically. "Little Lan, your fiancé is really well-connected, huh! He got a TV and a sewing machine so easily."
Hearing this, Lin Lan immediately understood why they had come to see her. She thought about how Uncle Da was in this line of business and figured she could do them a favor. It would also repay Gou Haiyan for the guidance she had given the original owner of this body.
She smiled. "He doesn’t have that many connections himself. It’s one of his father’s friends who has the connections."
Gou Haiyan’s eyes lit up. She looked at Lin Lan eagerly. "Little Lan, my old lady watched TV for a few days while visiting relatives in East Market, and she hasn’t stopped talking about it since she got back.
"And my husband is a filial son, so I was hoping you could do me a favor. Could you ask your fiancé’s father if he could help me buy a TV?"
Lin Li sat down next to Lin Lan and took her hand warmly. "Little Lan, I’d like to ask you for help, too."
Lin Lan hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I’ll ask for you when I get back."
"Thank you, Little Lan! Thank you so much," Gou Haiyan and Lin Li said one after another.
Lin Lan smiled. "Don’t thank me yet. It’s not a sure thing!"
The two women looked at Lin Lan with grins. "As long as you keep it in mind, that’s enough."
Li Xiangyang and the others went to take a look at the pig farm. All the piglets in the pens had been sold, and a few breeding pigs had been claimed by Captain Wan.
Lin Changyou looked at the still-unfinished expansion of the pig farm and sighed. "I was originally planning to double the size of the farm by the end of the year. By then, we would’ve been able to produce two hundred pigs at a time. Now that we’ve stopped, I really can’t bear to let it go."
Li Xiangyang said, "Dad, at the end of the year, I had Zhigang check out a few communes near East Market. He found that more and more families in every commune are getting approval to build pig farms."
"With more pig farmers, the price of breeding pigs will go up. And with a large number of pigs ready for market at the end of the year, the price of live hogs will fall. When you factor in labor, feed, and other costs, we might even lose money."
"My plan for next year is to close two of the pig farms. I’ll use the money saved on labor and stockpiled feed to buy live hogs directly from other pig farmers."
After hearing Li Xiangyang’s words, Lin Changyou and his sons thought about how several families in their own Shilian Brigade had already built pig farms, ready to go all in after seeing the money their family had made in the last two years. And what about all the brigades they hadn’t seen?
Lin Guozhu looked at Lin Changyou. "Xiangyang has a point. When everyone is rushing in, that’s when we should get out."
Lin Guodong also chimed in to persuade him. "Dad, the pig farm is still ours. When it gets harder to make money in the city, it won’t be too late to come back home and run it again."
Lin Changyou understood, but the thought of leaving still made him feel a little wistful.
The men were all a little tipsy from the alcohol. After looking around the pig farm, they returned home to find that Gou Haiyan and Lin Li had already left.
Zhao Xiaohui and Zhang Xiuqing had put on the woolen coats and sweaters Lin Lan gave them. The women were chattering away in the main room, making for a lively scene.
Lin Changyou took his pipe and went to the brigade captain’s house.
Lin Lan told Li Xiangyang about Gou Haiyan and Lin Li’s request.
Li Xiangyang said, "Okay, when I get back, I’ll find some time to visit Uncle Da and see if he has any in stock."
Hearing this, Lin Guoliang reminded them, "Even if he has some, delay giving it to them. If it’s too fast, they’ll think it’s easy for you to get, and then all their relatives and their mothers’ cousins will come asking you for help."
Li Xiangyang nodded with a smile. "Big Brother is right."
Lin Lan and the other three stayed at her parents’ house for one night, returning to Lexing the next day at noon.
Zhigang told Lin Lan that Yang Liying and Yang Liqun had come by to pay their New Year’s respects. They each brought a strip of cured pork, a cured chicken, two packs of brown sugar, two bundles of dried noodles, and two bottles of liquor.
Lin Lan looked at the New Year’s gifts on the table and said to Li Xiangyang, "I’m going to make a trip to Sister Liying’s house and ask them to come over for dinner this afternoon."
Li Xiangyang nodded. "We have meat and vegetables, we’re just missing a fish. I’ll go back and see if the old man has any of the fish he caught left."
"Mhm!" Lin Lan gathered some New Year’s gifts, got on her bike, and took Little Douzi to Yang Liying’s house.
When she arrived, the courtyard gate was locked, so she had to go to Yang Liqun’s house instead. As they got to the entrance, Little Douzi hopped off the bike, ran to the main gate, pushed it open, and found Yang Liying’s whole family there.
"Auntie, we’re here!" Little Douzi shouted as he ran inside, only to be scooped up and lifted high by Wang Zhilin, who had come out to greet them.
Yang Liying said with a smile, "We didn’t think you’d make it back today. We just finished cooking. Zhilin, go get Xiangyang to come eat with us."
"Xiangyang went home. I went to your place but no one was there, so I came here," Lin Lan said, taking the carrier basket off the back of her bike. "Come to my place for dinner later."
Yang Liqun politely declined. "Oh, no need. As you can see, we’ve just sat down to eat."
Lin Lan smiled. "That won’t do. My sister-in-law comes back for a New Year’s visit and doesn’t even have a meal at my house? If word got out, people would gossip."
Hearing this, Yang Liying readily agreed. "Alright, I’ll head over later. And don’t bother with chicken or duck. We’ve gotten tired of eating that these past few days. Just make a pot of broth with some vegetables, and we can have hot pot."
As she spoke, she couldn’t help but laugh. "Hah! I never would have dreamed there’d come a day when I’d get sick of eating chicken and duck."
Lin Lan nodded with a smile. "Okay, hot pot it is."
****
「Early on the fourth day of the New Year」 Xu Dong pulled up outside Lin Lan’s courtyard in a jeep.
Lin Lan came out and saw it was just Yao Xiuyun and Xu Dong. "Where are the two kids?"
Yao Xiuyun shrugged. "My mom said the Jin family’s village in Ping Mountain is too far and the mountain roads are bad, so she wouldn’t let us bring the kids. She took them to the countryside to play yesterday. Ding Bang took Dandan and Yang Xiaoman to pay a New Year’s visit to his aunt’s house."
Lin Lan looked at Little Douzi. "How about you stay home and keep Grandpa Li company?"
Little Douzi shook his head. "I’m not scared! I want to go with you."
Li Xiangyang came out carrying a backpack and smiled. "Let him go. Once the business reopens on the sixth, we won’t have time to take him out to play."
Little Douzi’s eyes crinkled into a smile. He happily climbed into the vehicle, waiting for the others to get in.
Lin Lan leaned out and called to Qiaohui, who was standing at the courtyard gate, "Make yourself whatever you want to eat at home. Sister Liying will come keep you company tonight."
Qiaohui smiled and waved. "Got it! You all go have fun for a couple of days and come back safe."
The group drove out of West City, heading toward Ping Mountain.