Chapter 132

As Wang An walked onto the main street, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't bought a fountain pen for his younger brother, Wang Yi!

Arriving at the supply and marketing cooperative again and walking to the counter, there were very few fountain pen brands at this time, only three or four types: cheap ones for 50 cents, slightly more expensive ones for over a yuan or two, and the most expensive ones for 6 yuan.

Wang An wasn't short of money, so he bought two of the most expensive ones, which were also the best fountain pens at the time.

Hero brand fountain pens, 6 yuan each, the favorite of many heroic veterans!

Along with them, he bought two bottles of ink. This stuff was a consumable; children who loved to study used it up very quickly, and it just so happened that Wang Yi loved to study and his grades were quite good!

At this time, bottled ink was considered a high-end item; normally, people bought pigments and dissolved them in water to make their own fountain pen ink.

This kind of pigment was also called "ink powder," wrapped in paper, 2 cents a pack. The fountain pen ink made from it was very faint when written on paper and was very difficult to use!

After thinking about it, he bought 20 sheets of bright red paper, as well as brushes, ink sticks, and an inkstone, to keep for writing couplets during the New Year.

Although Wang An hadn't even graduated from junior high, before he was locked up in his past life, he had also pretended to be cultured for a while and had seriously practiced brush calligraphy for a period!

Besides, at this time, it was still a period when a large part of the country was illiterate, so a cultural level of not having graduated from junior high was actually not low!

Fortunately, in order to eliminate illiteracy, all stationery supplies in China didn't require coupons; as long as you had money, you could buy them, otherwise, he really wouldn't have been able to buy these things!

He also bought two bundles of thin wire and one bundle of thick wire, as well as 200 springs specifically for making traps. These things were rarely bought unless one was a hunter, because for those who didn't know how to set snares or traps, this stuff wasn't very useful and was quite expensive!

Calculated by weight on a scale, wire was 1.2 yuan per jin at this time, and a regular worker's daily wage could only buy one jin.

Springs were one cent each, and there were also ready-made traps that cost 10 cents each, so most people chose to make them themselves.

Even at this price, ordinary people couldn't afford them because they really had no money!

Because these items had low demand and low inventory, they were considered hard-to-sell items, so they didn't require coupons either.

As he walked out of the supply and marketing cooperative, Wang An saw a young mother leading a four- or five-year-old child, which reminded Wang An of his younger sisters and Little Laizi!

However, neither his younger sisters nor his sister-in-law were lacking in meat or nutrition now; they drank malted milk extract every day, which made them belong to the happiest small group of children in this era!

It was just Little Laizi, that little girl who was like an angel; although she was very likable, it was indeed a bit heart-wrenching to look at her.

Therefore, Wang An turned around and returned to the counter, buying four bottles of malted milk extract and four cans of canned food, as well as 5 jin of biscuits that didn't require coupons.

There were quite a few items, so Wang An bought two more cloth bags and a sack before turning and walking out of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Placing the sack on the horse's back, without any delay along the way, Wang An returned to Kaoshan Village.

This trip was truly freezing; actually, Wang An was mainly worried about the canned food freezing and shattering. Driving a sled would have been better, as it would be covered with grass mats and old sacks, so it would have been fine.

This time, riding a horse, there was only one layer of sack, and the insulation of one layer of sack was just so-so; he figured it didn't have much effect.

After returning to the village, Wang An first went to Shen Wei's house. Seeing Wang An arrive, both Shen Wei and Little Laizi were very happy. Shen Wei even wanted to let Little Laizi go to the east room, but was stopped by Wang An.

Day after day, even a donkey couldn't be used as a stud donkey! Besides, who are you taking for a donkey?

When Wang An took out the malted milk extract, Little Laizi had no reaction because she didn't know what it was! But when Wang An took out the biscuits and canned food, Little Laizi suddenly became happy!

Because she was already quite familiar with Wang An, Little Laizi affectionately hugged Wang An's thigh and said in a milky voice, "Uncle, is this for me?"

"Yes, because Little Laizi listens to her mother, so it's a reward for Little Laizi," Wang An replied to Little Laizi's question while looking at the canned food in front of him.

Damn it, the four cans of food were now all frozen lumps, and two had even shattered. Fortunately, the shattered glass bottles didn't have glass shards, so the canned food could still be eaten.

Wang An said to Shen Wei, who was looking at him with happiness on her face, "What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and find a basin."

Shen Wei was stunned for a moment when she heard this, then ran to the outer room in a panic, and soon returned with a large ceramic basin.

When Wang An saw the basin, which was a circle larger than a washbasin, he was stunned for a moment. There were only two shattered cans; what was the point of getting such a huge basin?

However, Wang An looked at Shen Wei, whose intelligence wasn't online at the moment, and didn't say anything. Having a basin was enough; he would just make do!

Wang An carefully picked off the shattered glass and then put the frozen lumps into the basin. In a moment, he saw two cylindrical frozen lumps sitting at the bottom of the huge basin. These frozen lumps contained yellow peach flesh and actually looked quite good!

Giving the biscuits to Little Laizi to eat and teasing her for a while, Wang An ignored Shen Wei, who had been gazing at him with affection, and turned to leave!

After returning home, Wang An first put the fountain pens and ink aside. Fortunately, the ink had been kept in his cotton coat pocket, otherwise, it would have frozen into a lump too!

When he took out the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, the whole family was stunned!

Liu Guilan asked with great surprise, "What are you buying these things for? Can you even write your own name clearly?"

Wang An said with a smile, "Look at what you're saying; I'm a cultured person, writing a few characters is a piece of cake."

Liu Guilan said with disdain, "Yeah, a cultured person, a cultured person who was kicked back by the school!"

Wang Dazhu, also puffing on a Bingcheng cigarette, suddenly added, "A toad with a pen in its mouth, it's just like a shit-stirring stick!"

After hearing this, Wang An couldn't laugh anymore. He clicked his tongue and blinked his eyes, directly rendered speechless by the couple!

Then, Mu Xueqing, Liu Guilan, and Wang Dazhu all burst into laughter!

The three of them laughed while talking about the various embarrassing things that had happened to Wang An before. The more they talked, the more excited they became, and the laughter just wouldn't stop!

Only Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli didn't understand what was going on; they looked at this one, then at that one, and lowered their heads to continue playing with the yellow sheep's anklebones!

Anklebones were one of the main toys for children at this time.

Whether boys or girls, they all liked to play with it; the main reason was actually that there were no other toys to play with!

And this thing required a high degree of coordination between hands and eyes. Basically, everyone knew how to play, but wanting to play it extremely well was genuinely quite difficult!

Wang An listened to his family making fun of him and didn't get angry at all; instead, he felt it was genuinely quite good. This feeling of the whole family sitting together in a lively manner was truly quite happy!

After pondering for a while, Wang An decided to show off his skills. He spread out the yellow straw paper he had bought earlier on the table, poured a little water on the inkstone, ground the ink, and got everything ready.

After thinking, Wang An wrote an ancient poem on the yellow paper that every student would know how to recite:

Goose, goose, goose,

With curved neck singing to the sky,

White feathers floating on green water,

Red webs paddling clear waves.

The reason he wrote this poem was that when Wang An was learning it, he had a strong feeling.

If you took such a big white goose, plucked its feathers, chopped it up, stewed it with potatoes, made the goose stew soft and the potatoes stewed until they were mushy, and then had a pot of wine, that feeling would be genuinely awesome!

After writing it, Wang An examined it and felt that what he had written was genuinely quite good-looking!

Although he didn't understand this charm or that nuance, nor did he write out the hidden meanings that those true great calligraphers wrote, nor did he display this or that!

But no matter what, as long as the characters were written well and looked beautiful, that was enough!

Just like what his old man said, even if he held a pen, it was like a shit-stirring stick, so what else was there to be picky about? What was there to be picky about?

Dear subscribers and big bosses, opening a Q-reading membership is quite cost-effective; reading books is completely free! And for me, I only ask for your continued reading; if you have tickets, please reward me with a few. Thank you, thank you!

(End of chapter)