As the year drew to a close, not only did the impact of price increases become more pronounced, but the temperature also plummeted. The local minimum temperature even reached around minus twenty degrees Celsius, a level unprecedented in the memory of many. In previous years, their area rarely dipped below minus three to five degrees, with minus twelve to thirteen degrees being a rarity seen only once in over a decade. Minus twenty was unimaginable.
Crucially, the concept of underfloor heating was virtually nonexistent in their locale. This winter was proving to be exceptionally harsh for the local residents. Countless people suffered from chilblains, or resorted to relying on electric blankets and air conditioners, choosing to stay in bed and avoid going out unless absolutely necessary for work or school. In such cases, they could only bundle up in layers and use warming patches.
Take Ding Yun's class as an example: out of forty-three students, over thirty had developed chilblains, affecting their faces, hands, or both. Some children's hands were swollen like radishes. While chilblains might have occurred in previous years, never to such an extent. The primary reasons were twofold: firstly, after entering the final year of high school, students' physical activity significantly decreased, potentially leading to reduced blood circulation and a greater susceptibility to chilblains. Secondly, while homes and classrooms were heated by air conditioners, the journey to and from school offered no such comfort. Not all parents could pick up their children by car daily. The stark contrast between warmth and cold not only made them prone to illness but also to chilblains.
Given the persistently low temperatures, which even showed signs of further descent, and the numerous complaints from parents about their children being unbearably cold during their commute or suffering injuries from falls, the county education bureau made a decision. All students were to return home a month earlier, not for a holiday, but to continue their studies online. They would only return to school for the final exams. While some rejoiced and others grumbled, the majority were generally pleased. After all, if students dreaded the daily commute in multiple layers of clothing, so did the teachers. Moreover, attending classes from home meant fewer meetings and less hassle from school administration. It was a win-win situation.
Thus, from December 12th, Ding Yun and her younger brother began their home-based online classes. Her elder sister, however, was already on winter break. The university her sister attended was in the north, a region already frigid, with temperatures currently dropping to minus forty degrees Celsius. Consequently, her sister had started her winter break in November, with a vacation period comparable to the local summer break, though her summer vacation was considerably shorter. In essence, it was a matter of adapting to local conditions. The lengths of winter and summer breaks varied across regions, some longer, some shorter, some starting earlier, others later.
...
December 14th, 11:00 AM, the kitchen.
With all three children at home and no school cafeteria, Ding Ding and Gao Yi had to forgo their company cafeteria meals temporarily, opting for meal allowances instead. They would then buy groceries after work each day to cook for their three children.
"Why is it beef brisket again?" Ding Ding asked, looking at the potatoes and frozen beef brisket his wife had brought from the supermarket with a hint of dejection. Frozen beef brisket, inherently more gamey and harder to handle than fresh, coupled with his wife's less-than-stellar culinary skills, meant their potato and beef brisket stew was merely edible, a far cry from delicious. Moreover, even if his wife were a skilled cook, eating potato and beef brisket stew for half a month straight would be tiresome.
"What else would we eat? Pork is thirty-eight yuan per jin, and frozen beef brisket is twenty-five yuan per jin. It's more cost-effective than pork, and I even find the supermarket pork too fatty!" Gao Yi retorted, rolling her eyes impatiently at Ding Ding. Since late October, prices in their area had been skyrocketing, while their salaries remained stagnant. With three children, their existing income was barely enough to cover expenses, leaving little for savings. Even though their second daughter's grades had improved, potentially leading to free tuition, they couldn't solely rely on that possibility. They needed to save some money as a contingency. Therefore, they had to be frugal with their food expenses. Although cheaper options like frozen chicken were available, the family wasn't fond of chicken. Frozen beef brisket offered the best value: good texture, nutritious, and with less fat content than pork.
"Um, dear, do we really need to be this thrifty? We should at least buy some fruits and vegetables. We haven't had any fruit in half a month. The children can't possibly get their essential vitamins just by eating potatoes and beef brisket! Even if fruits and vegetables are a bit more expensive, we can just buy less!" Ding Ding whispered his plea to Gao Yi in the kitchen. He had developed mouth ulcers recently and couldn't bear it any longer. He hadn't thought cucumbers and tomatoes were particularly delicious before, but now, after a long absence, he truly missed them.
"When was the last time you went to the supermarket? Do you have any idea how much fruits and vegetables have inflated in price? Today alone, cucumbers are nineteen yuan eighty per jin, and salad cucumbers are twenty-eight yuan eighty per jin. Tomatoes are nineteen yuan eighty per jin, and salad tomatoes are twenty-nine yuan eighty per jin. Millet peppers are eighty-eight yuan per jin, and green peppers are twenty-four yuan eighty. Even these potatoes in the bag have risen to five yuan fifty-eight. The prices of rare vegetables not produced locally are even higher. I dare not look. Bananas, which used to be the cheapest at one yuan ninety-eight, are now selling for nine yuan eighty per jin in the supermarket. Grapes are going for forty-nine yuan ninety per jin, and these aren't even high-end varieties, just ordinary grapes. Better quality grapes are now triple-digit prices. How can we afford to buy them? We'll have to endure a little longer. It's almost Chinese New Year, and we'll have to buy some things regardless of the price then. I ordered a lot of fruit preserves and pickled cucumbers online yesterday to substitute for fruits and vegetables, and I also bought plenty of vitamin tablets. We'll supplement with vitamin tablets. Once spring arrives and prices drop, we can eat whatever we want."
As the one in charge of finances and accounting, Gao Yi was acutely aware of the extent and magnitude of the recent price hikes. Witnessing some prices triple or quintuple, she genuinely didn't want to be overcharged. After all, not eating them wouldn't kill anyone, so why insist on fresh produce in such cold weather? Didn't they survive the winters of their youth eating potatoes and pickles every day? Furthermore, with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events in recent years, she felt uneasy without savings and was unwilling to spend money frivolously.
"Are you shopping at a luxury goods supermarket?" Ding Ding, who visited the supermarket only once or twice a year, still held his impression of vegetable and fruit prices from several years prior. He assumed that even with the cold weather and price increases, cucumbers would cost at most six or seven yuan, and he couldn't fathom them skyrocketing much higher. Thus, upon hearing his wife's quotes, he couldn't help but express some disbelief.
"Do you think I'm stupid? Can't I distinguish between supermarkets? Don't you see the words on this bag? 'Discount Affordable Fresh Produce Supermarket.' I'm too lazy to argue with you. You can't help with anything. Get out, get out, I need to prepare lunch. If you don't know the prices, open a food delivery app and check the prices of dishes there, and then compare them to what's in the supermarket!" Gao Yi once again gave her husband an impatient eye-roll and then ushered him out of the kitchen. Angrily, she continued with her cooking. He understood nothing and only knew how to talk. Was it easy for her to manage the household?
There were indeed some relatively cheaper fruits and vegetables in the supermarket, but the key issue was that the family didn't like them. For instance, slightly imperfect apples were eight yuan per jin. The last time she bought three jin, no one touched them, and they were almost rotten by the time she ate them herself out of reluctance to waste them. The fruits they liked were too expensive to buy, and the cheap ones went uneaten. So, wasn't it better not to buy them at all? Could she be blamed for this? The more Gao Yi thought about it, the angrier she became. She stopped slicing the frozen beef brisket on the chopping board and instead chopped it forcefully with a cleaver.
Ding Ding obediently opened his phone, downloaded a food delivery app, and carefully browsed the prices. He discovered that the prices of almost everything on the app were indeed outrageously high. A portion of tomato and egg rice bowl was forty-eight yuan, and there wasn't even a single yuan discount. It was hard to imagine. Previously, a portion of braised pork, which he remembered costing forty-eight yuan, was now priced at ninety-nine yuan, with a note specifying it was a small portion.
With their combined monthly salary of eighteen thousand yuan, even without a mortgage, given the current prices, they truly had to be thrifty. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to make ends meet. Previously, their family's monthly daily expenses for food and drink were around six thousand yuan. If they wanted to maintain the same lifestyle now, including eating more fruits and vegetables, it would require at least triple that amount, eighteen thousand yuan. This was clearly impossible, as other expenses were also significant, such as utilities, communication fees, gas bills, children's tuition, and pocket money. If they weren't frugal with their food expenses, life would become truly unbearable.
Having understood this, Ding Ding realized that his wife had been facing a difficult time managing the household over the past month. It wasn't surprising that colleagues had been complaining about the declining quality of the company's cafeteria food. With such prices, how could the company's food quality not suffer? It was questionable if the cafeteria could even remain operational until the end of the year. He estimated that if prices didn't fall by spring, the company cafeteria would inevitably close, and they would revert to providing meal allowances.