She spread out her palms and looked at them.
She’d made up her mind.
“Xiaogu, lock the door and come with me again. Oh, and is that little silver bangle Dad gave you still around? Bring it along too.”
Lin Xiaohe gathered everything she could take from home—the grain sack with barely anything left at the bottom, the freshly picked wild vegetables, and her little sister’s silver bangle.
“Okay!” Xiaogu didn’t waste any time either. She quickly went to find the bangle, caressing it fondly again and again. “Good thing it didn’t get crushed, or nobody would want it.”
Once they were ready, Lin Xiaohe took her sister’s hand with one hand, clenched her other fist, and silently chanted to go over there.
From that brief glimpse she’d caught last time, she already had a suspicion.
This place was very likely many years into the future!
That meant buying medicine here would probably be easier than back in their time.
If it didn’t work, there was no other option anyway. At this point, she had to try everything—even if it meant grasping at straws. Her sister’s silver bangle wouldn’t fetch much money; gold wasn’t even worth much these days, let alone silver.
Xiaogu flinched at the bustling traffic down below, her voice starting to waver as she gripped her sister’s hand tightly. “Sis! Where is this?”
“I don’t know either, but since my left hand gave us a way to survive, my right hand probably won’t do us harm, right? Let’s go down and take a look.”
The two followed a path trampled by others, making their way downhill.
They stood across from the wide road, not daring to step forward, unsure of how to cross.
Back on the commune road, you didn’t need to wait for traffic—you could just cross when there was a gap. You’d only occasionally see a bicycle, and large vehicles were almost unheard of.
Neither of them had ever even been to the county.
“Sis, I’m scared~” Xiaogu held her sister’s hand tightly, terrified of the cars on the road.
“Don’t be scared! Let’s watch how other people cross and follow them.”
Lin Xiaohe was nervous herself, her palms sweaty. Her eyes darted left and right, hoping someone else would need to cross so she could follow along.
“Sis! Over there! Someone’s crossing over there!” Xiaogu’s eyes were darting around too, and she spotted it quickly.
The two hurried in that direction.
It was an intersection.
There were lights of several different colors, but they couldn’t make sense of them—they didn’t know which color meant you could go and which meant you couldn’t.
They watched the person beside them nervously, afraid they’d move without them noticing.
When the red light above turned green, the person next to them immediately stepped forward, and the two scrambled to keep up.
They didn’t dare walk too fast, only following closely right behind the other person.
Once they were safely across the road, both of them let out a sigh of relief.
The auntie they’d been closely trailing finally couldn’t hold back and struck up a conversation with them.
“Kids, you’re so young—how can your family let you go out alone?”
She also wanted to ask why these two children were so skinny and small, but it felt like they weren’t familiar enough yet, and asking that seemed a bit inappropriate.
“Mom and Dad are sick with a fever, and we want to buy some medicine.”
Lin Xiaohe answered matter-of-factly. She thought for a moment about what to call her. The educated youth in the village had said that in the city, people didn’t say “auntie” or “granny”—they called everyone “auntie” (阿姨).
[Note: Lin Xiaohe uses “阿姨” (āyí) instead of rural terms like “婶子” or “大娘” because the educated youth told her city people speak differently. She’s consciously choosing the urban, polite form to fit in.]
“Auntie, do you know where we can buy medicine? We don’t have money, but we brought a silver bangle. We want to sell it for cash.”
Chen Fang looked at the two children, then at the baskets they were carrying.
She glanced at the silver bangle too.
“Instead of selling that silver bangle, you’d be better off selling your wild vegetables. These greens actually look pretty good. Walk a little further ahead—there’s a market. You can set up a stall right at the entrance, and there’s no fee.”
“If you trust me, you can sell them to me. Inside the market, they usually go for ten yuan per catty. I’ll give you the same price—ten yuan.
Sell them all to me. My shop is just ahead. If you’re willing, you can come with me to the store.”
Lin Xiaohe’s eyes lit up, but she also felt a bit scared.
Her eyes lit up because ten yuan per catty! Back home, wild vegetables probably wouldn’t sell for even one cent per catty.
But she was scared because the price was so high—was this really not a scam?
“Oh, little girl, don’t be afraid. If you don’t believe me, you can go to the market yourself and ask about our grain and oil shop. Nobody has anything bad to say about us.”
Chen Fang nodded with certainty. This kid was quite cautious.
Lin Xiaohe hesitated for a moment, then decided to follow her. What could they possibly scam her out of anyway?
The grain and oil shop wasn’t big—just two storefronts wide.
The first floor was for selling goods, the second floor was for living quarters, and there was a small warehouse out back.
“I weighed your wild vegetables—they come to 4 catties and 8 taels. I’ll round it up to 5 catties for you.
Here, that’s 50 yuan. Take it.”
Holding a crisp new green bill in her hand, Lin Xiaohe was baffled. The money looked completely unfamiliar.
Could it be fake?
She remembered she still had a 1-cent coin somewhere in her pocket. She fished around for a while and pulled out two bills. Comparing them side by side, they looked even more different.
One said “Hua Nation,” the other said “Dragon Nation.”
“Oh, you’ve got old money there! That must be from decades ago.” Chen Fang smiled and glanced at it. Seeing the different inscription, she figured it out—probably toy money someone had given the kids.
“This is play money, isn’t it? It’s pretty well-made. The technology keeps getting better.”
She remembered that when she was little, this kind of toy money was obviously fake at first glance.
Lin Xiaohe opened her mouth, but didn’t know what to say. So this place was decades into the future?
“Oh, right, weren’t you going to buy medicine? Walk straight down this road, turn right at the end.
You’ll see a pharmacy soon. For a fever, ibuprofen works best.”
Chen Fang remembered and quickly gave the kids directions.
“Thank you, Auntie. My sister and I will be going now.” Lin Xiaohe thanked her profusely again.
“Alright, alright, go on. Be careful on the road and stay safe.”
Lin Xiaohe had only taken a few steps when she heard a loud voice from behind.
“Oh dear, I didn’t even notice when this bag got torn. It doesn’t feel like it’s gotten damp though. I’ll take it out front and sell it cheap—see if anyone wants it.
If nobody buys it, we’ll just make do and eat it ourselves. We’ve been running this grain and oil shop, and we still haven’t had any good rice or oil ourselves—either it won’t sell, or the bag’s torn.”
Curious, she turned back and saw a slightly chubby middle-aged man carrying a large bag outside.
The bag was colorful and patterned, but there was a round transparent window showing the gleaming white rice inside.
“Special sale—cheap rice! One yuan per catty!”
“Sis, should we buy some?” Xiaogu’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “Rice! We don’t even get to eat rice during New Year’s!”
Lin Xiaohe clutched the crisp 50-yuan bill in her hand. “We still need to buy medicine first. Let’s get the medicine, and if there’s anything left, we’ll buy some rice.”
“Okay, then let’s hurry and get the medicine!”
Leave a Reply