For a Toyota auto engineer, 100 foreign exchange coupons are just a small amount of money, that is, the cost of a colleague dinner.

However, for the Chinese at that time, 100 yuan of foreign exchange coupons was a lot of money, and if you went to the door of the friendship store to find a vendor who was pounding foreign exchange coupons, you could exchange it for 330 yuan, which was equivalent to ten months' wages of ordinary workers.

In China in the 80s, there was a big gap between the official exchange rate and the private exchange rate, for example, the official exchange rate of one dollar was 1 to 3, and the exchange rate was 1 to 10 in the private black market.

According to this exchange rate, the black market is exchanged for more, and if the people have dollars in their hands, they will definitely go to the black market to exchange, who will go to the official?

However, the actual situation is that most people still exchange foreign exchange through the government, and the reason is that there is such a magical thing as foreign exchange coupons.

Ordinary people exchange dollars on the black market in exchange for RMB, and if they go to official institutions to exchange, they get foreign exchange coupons.

Foreign exchange coupons can go to foreign-related stores to buy imported goods, but the renminbi can not be used in foreign-related stores, people at that time had foreign exchange, they must have wanted to buy some imported goods that the renminbi could not buy, rather than domestic goods that could be bought with just money.

Therefore, as long as there is no particular shortage of money, ordinary people will go to official institutions to exchange foreign exchange coupons and then buy imported goods after they have foreign exchange.

100 yuan foreign exchange coupons, you can't buy any large items in the friendship store, at best, you can only buy non-staple foods such as Hershey chocolates and Marlboro cigarettes, or buy imported clothes and the like, and it is not enough for buyers to use electrical appliances, so Li Weidong temporarily put away the 100 yuan foreign exchange coupons.

After sending Kato Masayuki away, Li Weidong's translation work officially ended.

Zhou Fulai was still very interesting and applied for a translation subsidy for Li Weidong.

Zhou Fulai personally handed an envelope to Li Weidong and said, "Teacher Li, you have really worked hard these days. There's 50 bucks in it, which is a translation allowance for you. ”

"Then thank you Zhou Bureau. Li Weidong was not polite and accepted it directly.

The foreign trade department must have a special fund for foreign affairs reception, and squeezing 50 yuan from it for the translator is also a normal expenditure.

Zhou Fulai then asked: "Teacher Xiao Li, do you want to play in Jinmen for a few more days? Walk around, or buy something to take back? After the foreign guests leave, although I can't arrange for you to continue to live in Li Shunde, we can stay as long as you want in the guest house of the Foreign Trade Bureau." ”

Zhou Fulai also understands people, he knows that people from small cities come to Tianjin on a business trip, which is equivalent to traveling at public expense, visiting scenic spots, buying some goods that are not available in small cities, and even someone carrying a refrigerator back.

Li Weidong thought for a while and said: "I have already visited the interesting places in Jinmen, and I plan to go to Wuhe Shopping Mall tomorrow to watch TV." The TV set in Jinmen should be cheaper than ours. In our kind of small place, we don't have a department store. ”

"You want to buy a TV?" Zhou Fulai then asked, "Do you have enough money?" A color TV costs 1,000 yuan!"

"If you don't buy a color TV, it's too expensive, just buy a black and white TV. Li Weidong replied.

"The black-and-white TV also costs five hundred yuan, right?" Zhou Fulai said.

"Maybe a 12-inch one is cheaper, right?" Li Weidong continued: "I still have 100 foreign exchange coupons in my hand, counting what I carry, it should be enough." ”

"Foreign exchange coupons?" Zhou Fulai's eyes lit up. However, he did not ask Li Weidong where he got the foreign exchange coupons, and it was common for foreign guests to be used as interpreters these days, and foreign guests would give 180 yuan of foreign exchange coupons.

"Mr. Xiao Li, if you want to buy a TV, I have some solutions, our state-owned 712 factory in Jinmen, and our Foreign Trade Bureau is a related unit, if I take a TV from their factory, it is the factory price, 14-inch black and white TV, about 100 foreign exchange coupons are enough. Zhou Fulai said.

Li Weidong instantly understood that Zhou Fulai had taken a fancy to the 100 yuan foreign exchange coupon.

The state-owned 712 factory, which originally produced radios, later switched to the production of televisions, although the televisions they produced were not as famous as the Panda TV, but in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the sales were still very good.

Li Weidong thought about it carefully, if 100 foreign exchange coupons are exchanged for RMB, that is, 330 yuan, and they can't buy a domestic black-and-white TV, so it is better to bless these 100 foreign exchange coupons and directly exchange them for a TV. It's also a matter of taking what you need.

Thinking of this, Li Weidong took out the 100 foreign exchange coupons and handed them to Zhou Fulai: "Director Zhou, I have to trouble you about the TV!"

"Okay, I'll contact Factory 712 for you right away!" Zhou Fulai's expression was as bright as a flower.

......

Li Weidong sewed a 25 million yen cashier's check onto the innermost layer of his clothes, then carried the TV and boarded the train back to Qinghe.

On the green train, there are not a few people carrying large bags and small bags, and all kinds of snakeskin sacks are the most mainstream luggage.

Li Weidong's cardboard box on the TV is obviously different, but when everyone looks at the pattern of the TV on the cardboard box, they all show envious expressions.

Being able to afford a TV set in 85 years is definitely a symbol of being a rich man, and in the eyes of the people around him, Li Weidong has already achieved four modernizations ahead of schedule.

"The wealth is not exposed, this TV set seems to be a little dazzling!" Li Weidong said secretly in his heart.

The fourteen-inch black-and-white TV set, although the screen is not large, but it is very heavy, and others can't move it quickly, Li Weidong is not afraid of others' concerns, what he is worried about is the 25 million yen cashier's check hidden in his clothes.

The social order in the 80s was not as good as in later generations, and in places like trains, where there were many people and police, although no one openly robbed, pickpockets were always indispensable.

Li Weidong trembled along the way, and finally arrived at Qinghe smoothly.

......

In the family courtyard of the transportation company, next to the stone pier at the gate, Wang Lei is showing a square box in his hand, surrounded by a group of friends watching.

"See, this is Sanyo's tape recorder, put the tape in, and then press the switch, and it can make a sound!" Wang Lei said to the people around him.

In the eighteen-fifth year, although the tape recorder had already appeared, it was not popular, and the tape recorders were all imported at that time, and the better two-channel tape recorders cost more than 300 yuan, and the cheap ones had to be more than 100 fast.

Ordinary people are reluctant to spend one or two hundred yuan to buy a tape recorder to listen to songs, so nine times out of ten people who buy a tape recorder are people who want to learn foreign languages.

Wang Lei didn't know where to get a second-hand Sanyo tape recorder, this tape recorder is like a big black turner, mono, can only put a box of tapes, no radio function, can not be charged, with two No. 1 batteries. However, this did not affect Wang Haibin to show off to everyone.

"Brother Wang, let us go, let's listen to it!" someone next to him said.

"Okay, I'll listen to a song for you! This thing costs batteries!" Wang Lei said, pressing the tape recorder switch.

"The Yangtze River, the Great Wall, the Yellow Mountain, and the Yellow River weigh a thousand pounds in my heart, no matter when, no matter where, my heart is as close ......"

"My Chinese Heart" sounded in the tape recorder, and as the song sounded, the surrounding friends suddenly quieted down, as if immersed in Zhang Mingmin's singing.

Wang Lei looked triumphant, he enjoyed this feeling of swaggering through the market.

At this moment, Li Weidong passed by here with a TV set.

Wang Lei saw Li Weidong from afar, and he deliberately turned up the volume of the tape recorder, as if he was demonstrating against Li Weidong.

However, the box of the TV in Li Weidong's hand is very conspicuous, and you can see the TV pattern painted on the box from afar.

"Isn't that Li Weidong? What is he holding in his hand?"

"It looks like a TV!"

"Li Weidong bought a TV!"

The people who were originally around Wang Lei immediately ran to Li Weidong's side.

"Li Weidong, is this a TV?" someone asked.

"Yes, I went to Jinmen on a business trip, and I came back with a TV by the way. Li Weidong replied with a smile.

I saw that the friends followed behind Li Weidong and walked into the family home, they wanted to witness the unpacking of the TV with their own eyes.

A television is much more fragrant than a tape recorder, and with a television set, who will listen to a tape recorder.

In the blink of an eye, everyone is gone.

Only Wang Lei stood alone, holding a big black brick in his hand, looking bleak.