“I don’t know—I didn’t ask. I was in a hurry to get back since the kids were waiting. Maybe I’ll go again in a couple of days and ask?” Lin Xia shook her head.
Cai Juhua was beaming from ear to ear. “Good, good. If we can trade for some grain, we’ll live a little easier and won’t have to pinch every penny.”
“Go check on the kids. I’ll make you a brown sugar egg tea. You’re nursing two babies—you need to eat well.”
Her daughter-in-law had been married for years without having kids, and Cai Juhua had secretly held some resentment.
But life had to go on, so she’d kept quiet—at most, she’d grumble to her husband under the covers at night, just to avoid daily arguments at home.
Other women who’d married later had two or three kids already, while hers had no news at all—she was worried!
Then, unexpectedly, she’d given birth to two big, healthy boys at once.
What more could she say? Of course she had to take good care of her daughter-in-law—she was the family’s great contributor!
…
At the ancestral hall
Lin Xiaohe moved quickly to cook. Still steaming white rice, she braised a fish in soy sauce.
She also stir-fried some mushrooms.
These were the ones that weren’t fresh enough to sell—they’d set them aside to eat themselves, not wanting to waste food.
They weren’t spoiled, just not pretty enough to sell.
Eating them at home didn’t matter.
She also told the family everything she’d done that day.
“We’re not short on food anymore. I’m thinking we’ll use half the money to stock up on grain and the other half to buy other things.
We need new bowls and clothes too.”
No one had any objections—the couple felt their daughter thought of everything better than they did.
Liu Yuexiu said, “You’ve thought it through, dear. We’ll do whatever you say.”
“Right, right.”
Lin Xiaohe smiled. “Then let’s eat quickly and get to bed early. Early to bed, early to rise.”
It was just getting dark, and the dishes weren’t washed yet.
Xiaogu immediately pulled out the flashlight.
“Use this! Use this! We haven’t used it since we bought it.”
“Alright, let’s use it.” In the past, they’d have done everything in the dark when it was this dim. But now that they had it, why not use it?
The small flashlight wasn’t exceptionally bright—just a little brighter than a candle—but it was enough.
From the bed, Liu Yuexiu could vaguely make out the light.
“What’s that—so bright?”
“I don’t know. Ask your daughter when she comes over.”
Lin Cai was also craning his neck to look.
What was that? It didn’t look like a candle—candlelight flickered, but this didn’t flicker at all.
“Hehe, it’s a flashlight. My sister and I bought it from the place decades later, and it was super cheap—one jin of wild greens could trade for one.”
Xiaogu hopped into the room. “Now we don’t have to stumble around in the dark anymore.”
“Now, now—that thing runs on batteries. Buying batteries isn’t easy, you know.”
Liu Yuexiu was frugal—back then, if anyone had a flashlight, they treasured it like a family heirloom and only used it when absolutely necessary.
You couldn’t just use it freely—batteries were hard to come by.
“Mom, it’s not like that! Everything over there is easy to buy. We can use it as much as we want—when it runs out, we’ll just buy more. It’s really convenient.”
“There’s a little shop stuffed full of everything you could want—you can pick whatever you like, buy as much as you want, no ration coupons, no proof of identity, no purchase limits.”
Xiaogu waved her arms around, enthusiastically describing how easy it was to shop over there. Her parents listened, completely captivated.
“Alright, time for bed! We’ve got to get up early tomorrow.”
Lin Xiaohe shook the water off her hands. “We’ve only got these two ragged outfits to wear. Tomorrow, let’s see if we can buy some fabric and make our own clothes.”
“Great! Will I get new clothes too?” Xiaogu sat cross-legged on the bed, eyes sparkling.
“Of course. We all will. Tomorrow, we’ll check out fabric prices and save up for some. We should also look at cotton—when winter comes, we’ll need to pad our clothes. Our old ones are as thin as paper—they won’t keep us warm. Now that we’ve got the means, let’s dress better.”
Lin Xiaohe pulled the bedsheet tighter around herself. It was still a bit chilly at night now—blankets were too warm, so they used sheets.
“Yay! If it’s expensive, we’ll sell more greens and make thick winter clothes for everyone.”
Xiaogu was already dreaming of cozy winters, her eyes curved in a smile.
Her parents couldn’t do much to help, so they focused on not causing trouble—eating more, drinking more, and getting well sooner so they could lend a hand.
…
The sisters got up early, the sky still gray outside.
Lin Xiaohe made congee again, tossing in a few washed potatoes cut into chunks.
“Let’s go, let’s go—they might already be waiting.”
They’d eat the congee when they got back. Best to head over first.
When they arrived, sure enough, Yuya and her father were already there.
Two large baskets sat in front of them.
“Xiaohe Jie, you’re finally here! I thought you weren’t coming.”
Yuya waved warmly. “We got everything ready early—take a look and see if it’s okay?”
Lin Xiaohe crouched down. She didn’t even need to look closely to be satisfied—the greens were neatly arranged, and the wild shiitake mushrooms hadn’t opened their caps at all.
“Great! Perfect!”
“Did you weigh them yourselves?” She didn’t have a scale on hand.
“We weighed them at home. 15 jin of wild greens and 6 jin of mushrooms. Since we didn’t know how much you wanted, we had the family gather about what you usually dig up. If you need more tomorrow, we can add more.”
Lin Xiaohe nodded approvingly. “Alright. What do you think is a fair trade? Tell me what you want, and I’ll see if it works—we can always negotiate.”
Shen Shan paused for a moment. “Would a jin of salt be alright?”
“Deal—one jin of salt.” Hahaha, those goods would sell for a few hundred yuan over there. Asking for just a jin of salt was practically free—they were doing all the work for almost nothing!
Seeing her agree so readily, Shen Shan breathed a sigh of relief. He’d worried he was asking for too much. He’d expected some haggling—maybe getting half a jin at best—but she’d agreed without a second thought.
“Tomorrow, we’ll need 20 jin of wild greens. For mushrooms, just bring whatever you can gather.
For 20 jin of greens or 5 jin of mushrooms, I’ll trade you 2 jin of white rice or white flour, or 1 jin of salt, or 1 jin of sugar, or 1 jin of fatty pork.”
After all, they wouldn’t need salt every day—a pack of salt lasted a long time. Better to set the rates now.
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