Dividing Up the Eggs

"Aunt He, you can have as many jin as you want."

"It's just that I don't know what to do with the few jin I'll have left. I can't eat them all myself, can I?"

"So, could you help me ask the other people in the courtyard whether any of their families need eggs?"

Liang Xin said a little sheepishly, "After all, I just got here and don't know everyone well."

"Sure, no problem. With something this good, there's no need to worry about finding buyers!"

"Here's what we'll do. Go home and wait, and I'll ask around for you!"

Aunt He was warmhearted to begin with, and on top of that, the organization had given her the task of helping take good care of Comrade Xiao Liang.

In those days, people considered the tasks assigned by the organization more important than the heavens themselves!

Seeing that Aunt He had agreed to ask around, Liang Xin went home.

He immediately bought ten jin of eggs from the system store. Each jin came in a simple cardboard carton, and he lined the ten cartons of eggs up on the floor.

Before long, Aunt He arrived with several women from the courtyard.

Liang Xin hadn't expected Aunt He to be so efficient. It had only been a few minutes!

"Liang Xin, weigh out three jin of eggs for Grandma Zhou first."

Liang Xin had lived in the compound for some time, and thanks to the memories he had dug up,

all these people looked familiar to him.

He might not have been able to name every last one of them, but when others called them by name or title, Liang Xin could generally recognize who they meant.

Grandma Zhou was the oldest person in the courtyard.

Only her husband, Grandpa Zhou, was a little older than her.

"Grandma Zhou, here are your eggs."

There was no need to weigh them. The eggs provided by the system were always exactly the standard weight.

Whether a jin contained ten, eleven, or twelve eggs, each little carton was exactly one jin.

You wouldn't get a gram less, and you wouldn't gain a gram at their expense, either.

So Liang Xin picked up three cartons of eggs at random and gave them to Grandma Zhou.

Grandma Zhou looked at them and asked with a smile, "Are all these cartons the same weight? One jin each?"

Oh, asking that meant she wasn't convinced.

Liang Xin smiled and said, "The fellow villagers weighed them out. They're definitely a full jin each. If you're worried, take your pick."

"All right, then I'll pick a few cartons. Xiao Liang, don't take it the wrong way."

You're already doing this, so how am I supposed not to take it the wrong way?

Still, he understood. Supplies were scarce these days, and while other things could be discussed, it wasn't unreasonable for people to be careful when it came to food.

It was just that Grandma Zhou's actions made it seem as though she didn't quite trust Liang Xin.

The others also looked as though they wanted to say something but hesitated.

After all, eggs were counted individually, and there was no way to break them up, so it was normal for the weight to be a little off.

Everyone was also afraid that Grandma Zhou, with her age and sharp eye, would pick out all the heavier ones.

Liang Xin saw that, after all, this was his first time selling things to his neighbors.

He might continue selling to them in the future.

He had to establish himself as someone everyone could trust.

So he went over to He Ting and said quietly, "Aunt He, I don't have a scale here. Do you have one at home? Could you bring it over for us to use?"

"I do. Wait here, I'll go get it."

He Ting also felt that weighing them was the only way to put everyone at ease.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Liang Xin.

After all, eggs were counted by the piece, with a dozen or so to a jin, and there was no way to break one up to make up the weight, so it was perfectly normal for the weight to be off.

She was going to take three jin herself, and without weighing them, she wasn't entirely at ease either.

They all lived in the same courtyard, so how long could it take?

He Ting soon went home and brought the scale back.

At the time, a scale was standard equipment in every household.

Only Liang Xin, who had just moved in, didn't have one at home.

Meanwhile, Grandma Zhou had been picking for quite a while.

Then she took the three cartons she had carefully selected, the ones with the most eggs-twelve small eggs in each of the three jin—and put them on the scale.

Hey, the scale was perfectly balanced!

Not a bit over, but not a bit under, either!

A flash of disappointment clearly crossed Grandma Zhou's face.

So all that time, she had been busy for nothing!

She had spent so long picking that the others were a little unhappy with her, and in the end she hadn't gained a thing!

How infuriating!

When the others saw it, they all breathed a sigh of relief and put on "friendly" smiles.

Seeing that Grandma Zhou hadn't gotten the better of anyone, He Ting also breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, watching someone else gain an advantage was even harder to bear than taking a loss yourself!

It had nothing to do with anything else. That was simply human nature!

So she said with a smile:

"Xiao Liang, three jin for Grandma Zhou, three for me, two for Aunt Song, and then weigh out one jin for Sister Xiao Zhu."

Liang Xin had said he had ten jin of eggs and could keep one jin for himself, so He Ting had helped him sell exactly nine jin.

Chinese people had always valued respect for the elderly and care for the young, and this was reflected in every aspect of life.

For example, in this egg sale, Grandma Zhou, the oldest, had been given priority. She got hers first and was even allowed to pick first.

But there was a limit to everything.

There were eight households in the courtyard altogether. He Ting had brought people from these three, and Liang Xin thought she was probably somewhat closer to them.

But Liang Xin guessed that what Grandma Zhou had just done might have displeased He Ting. If something like this happened again, He Ting might look for other people instead.

These days, there was no worry that eggs wouldn't sell!

The only worry was not being able to buy them!

After all, the people living in this courtyard were all workers with jobs and wages.

Who couldn't afford a few eggs?