There were no tricycles at the construction site, but Deng Guoqiang had agreed to find her one at the second-hand Market, on the condition that she could pass the three-day probation period.
Without a vehicle, Gong Mingxia led Xiao Xiao out of the construction site and slowly headed towards the Market, following the directions of her coworkers.
This was Gong Mingxia's first time seeing the Capital in 1997. It was truly vast, and consumers' spending levels had risen by the 1990s. Although not comparable to twenty years later, it was much better than in the 1980s.
After 1995, inflation was severe. For instance, the wages in 1993 were 105 yuan a month, 150 yuan in 1995, but by 1997, it had risen to five hundred yuan, and in 1998 it crazily jumped to 1000 yuan a month.
Of course, people's spending levels also increased; the most direct example was pork. In the early 1990s, it might have been two yuan per half kilogram, but by 1997, it could have reached five to six yuan per half kilogram.
Because the Third Ring now also belonged to the outskirts of the Capital, the infrastructure wasn't fully developed yet, so it wasn't as prohibitively expensive as she had imagined.
The Market was hidden within a residential area, with uneven, puddle-filled ground, and muddy at the entrance—it was very dirty. Inside were erected shacks, with storefronts on both sides, and stalls in the middle. Vegetables and fruits, grains and oils, seafood, and meat were all neatly categorized, not much different from Markets of the future.
Smelling the fragrant baked flatbread, Gong Mingxia saw her daughter eagerly looking at it, so she bought one for her, a skewer of tofu for just 50 cents. Adding an egg made it US$ 1.5 for two. After some thought, she bought the ones with eggs. Each of them had one, eating blissfully.
In her former life of thirty years, she was either studying or working, seldom having such peaceful moments to accompany her family. Unexpectedly, she didn't wait to accompany her parents but was gifted this well-behaved daughter from heaven. Her daughter never actively asked for delicious food, and if not for Gong Mingxia herself being appetitive, it would be hard to remember that now was when her child loved to eat.
Perhaps because she was a doctor, she adapted well; even with a daughter, she still thoroughly enjoyed her life now.
Because this was an experience she never had in her previous life, she was very attentive and cherished each day here deeply.
Compared to health, other hardships truly were insignificant.
The Market offered a plethora of vegetables, so she first checked the prices of rice and oils.
The rice ranged from 90 cents to US$ 1.3, flour was one yuan, cornmeal a bit cheaper at 50 to 60 cents, and soybeans cost 89 cents.
Soybean oil and rapeseed oil prices were fairly similar, three to four yuan per half kilogram, with good quality ones at five to six yuan, all graded accordingly.
Pork was five yuan, beef eight yuan, mutton seven yuan, all priced per half kilogram.
Considering that a breakfast of flatbread with tofu skewer cost 50 cents, a worker's daily living expense of four yuan was actually quite decent.
Potatoes cost twenty to thirty cents per half kilogram at the Market, tomatoes thirty to forty cents, tofu fifty cents per half kilogram, and various leafy vegetables about ten to twenty cents. Xiaolongbao was US$ 1.2 for a basket of ten. The mother and daughter sat in front of a small stall, devouring two baskets, grease running down their chins, indulging themselves in a lavish dinner.
Gong Mingxia seriously took out a notebook and wrote down the prices she had just learned, including some seasonings, excluding utility bills from consideration, so she could calculate the cost.