955 Buying Meat
Qiao Yu was not an official employee when she was working in the factory. Everyone received meat coupons and food stamps together with their salary at the end of every month. However, Qiao Yu only had a card.
Unlike the others who could use their food stamps and money to buy the food they wanted to eat, Qiao Yu needed to bring her card to the canteen and have it signed. At the end of the month, the food expenses would be deducted from her salary before she was paid.
This was something which Xia Wen had instructed Director Tan to do. His goal was to prevent Qiao Yu from saving money by not spending it on food. If she was able to save money, she would go looking for trouble with Qiao Mei once she had some spare cash.
No one expected Qiao Yu to be such a disappointment and that her weekly performance was the worst in the entire factory. Even if Director Tan wanted to take special care of her, she had nowhere to start. Qiao Yu made it difficult for herself to move up the ranks in the factory.
In the end, Qiao Yu bought two cabbages and some potatoes before going home. Along the way, she kept looking at the meat and eggs on display. As she already knew, every shop would only take meat coupons as payment.
When she passed by the last butcher shop on the stretch, Qiao Yu stopped at the door and stared inside for a long time, almost drooling as she stood there. The meat in a butcher shop was sold by weight and the butcher would make sure that there was no more or no less. Therefore, there would usually be a lot of meat scraps in the butcher shop to make up the exact weight during weighing.
Sometimes, fatty meat or pig skins that were not cleaned properly would be sold at a low price. If one was lucky, one could even buy them using money.
The lady boss of the butcher shop had long noticed Qiao Yu loitering at the door of her shop, but she did not know what Qiao Yu was up to. It was so cold outside, yet Qiao Yu just stood there and stared fixedly at the meat at the counter. If not for the glass door, she reckoned Qiao Yu would have just rushed in and pounced on that piece of meat.
"Hubby! Look at the woman at the door. Is she the woman Su Yang brought back a few days ago?" The lady boss gestured in Qiao Yu's direction with her eyes.
The boss was so busy with the work at the butcher shop every day that he did not have time to take notice of any women. The shrew he had at home was already enough for him to deal with, so there was no way he could get entangled with other shrews outside.
The boss did not even look up and replied impatiently, "Ah… I think so… I don't know. I don't know Su Yang well."
The lady boss angrily pulled the boss's ear and said, "You don't even want to listen to me now? Help me take a look! I'm not sure!"
"It hurts! Let go! Yes, yes, yes! You didn't see wrongly. That person is Su Yang's girlfriend!" After the boss said that, the lady boss let go happily.
She noted that Qiao Yu did not dress nicely. The material of her clothes was not even comparable to the clothes worn by any ordinary person. Moreover, how could a woman be wearing a man's clothes? It was obvious that Qiao Yu was wearing clothes that she had picked up from the streets. It was likely that Qiao Yu was facing some financial difficulties.
Although Su Yang had a shrewish mother and a beastly brother, he had a job and was earning money. Not only did he work in the factory, but he also went out to work part-time when he had time. He always dressed flamboyantly and paid more attention to his clothes than some women did! Therefore, the clothes that Qiao Yu was wearing definitely did not belong to Su Yang.
Her son was the one who told her all this. Otherwise, she would really think that Su Yang's money came from illegitimate sources!
Their family did not have any conflicts with Old Madam Fan, but Su Yang always took advantage of them when he bought meat from them. He would either ask for an extra piece of meat or steal some fatty meat. Su Yang would never miss out on any chance to take advantage of others.
"Why would such a good girl fall for Su Yang? What a pity…" One second, the lady boss was still lamenting Qiao Yu's pitiful fate, but in the next second, her opinion had completely changed.
Qiao Yu finally mustered her courage and strode into the shop, asking, "How much for the meat?"
"We take meat coupons for the meat. Let me know how much you want and I'll weigh it out," the boss said respectfully.
"Is there… meat that I don't need coupons to buy… using money…" Qiao Yu stammered.
The boss turned around and glanced at the lady boss. He could not make the decision on this matter. The lady boss was the one who took care of the family's finances.
Their family had always helped the poor people in private and kept aside all the scraps for them. They just needed to make sure that they gathered enough meat coupons to submit to the government every month.
