“Sis, time to get up.”
Xiaogu had gotten up at first light and gotten herself ready, clumsily tying her hair into two little pigtails with the hair ties. Her hair wasn’t long enough—half of it stayed up, half fell down.
But she thought she looked great. Too bad there was no mirror—otherwise, she’d have been admiring herself for ages.
“I’m up!” Lin Xiaohe yawned and sat up in bed. It was getting cool at night now—they’d have to sleep under the quilt.
They got ready quickly and were about to head over when someone knocked on the door.
“Xiaohe, are you home?” Wu Lingling had gotten up early specially and come straight over as soon as she opened her eyes.
She’d finally caught them.
She’d come by twice before and no one was home. Today, she’d come at the crack of dawn.
“We’re here, Sister Wu Zhiqing.” Lin Xiaohe quickly opened the door and invited her in.
“I came to see your parents—here, take this canned fruit.”
Though she’d come to visit the sick, Wu Lingling only took one glance at them and went back to talking with Lin Xiaohe. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about the patients—she just wasn’t close with them.
It felt a bit awkward staying in the same room.
Her eyes wandered and landed on Xiaogu’s hair ties. “Oh, Xiaogu, those hair ties are really pretty!”
“Hehe, they’re nice, aren’t they~” Xiaogu had no idea what modesty was—she twirled around happily.
“They’re lovely! Really cute!” Wu Lingling gave a thumbs-up. “Where did you get them? I’d like to buy some for my niece. I’ve never seen anything this nice at the supply store.”
Xiaogu was stumped—what was she supposed to say?
Lin Xiaohe jumped in quickly. “Ahem, Sister Wu, that’s actually hard to say. If you want some, I could pick one up for you?”
Wu Lingling understood—it must have come from the black market.
She hadn’t expected them to have such solid connections there!
“That would be great! Hehe, could you also get me a bar of soap? I have a coupon, but the supply store’s been out of stock forever.” She rubbed her fingers together slyly, looking hopeful.
The brigade gave them a day off occasionally, and that was the only time she could go to the supply store—but she always seemed to miss the deliveries.
Living at the educated youth compound, she had no news source and never knew when shipments came in.
Back home, the neighbors would spread the word and she’d know everything.
“That’s hard to say. I’ll keep an eye out for you. If I find some, I’ll bring it to the educated youth compound—sound good?”
“Yes, yes! That would be wonderful!” Wu Lingling beamed. She hadn’t expected an extra bonus today.
“I’ve got to go now—I need to get back to the compound, or they’ll eat without me.”
The four educated youth at the compound had a so-so relationship—cordial but not close. No conflicts, but no tight bonds either.
“Okay, I’ll come find you if I get it!”
“Great!”
After seeing her off, Lin Xiaohe looked at the canned yellow peaches in her hand. This stuff was expensive and hard to get—Sister Wu was really generous.
“Shoot! We’re running late—let’s hurry.”
She grabbed the basket, scale, and plastic bags from the cellar.
They rushed to the pool, where Yuya had been waiting for a while.
“You’re finally here! I thought something had happened—you were so late.”
“Someone dropped by this morning and held us up.”
As they spoke, Lin Xiaohe had already done a quick check of the goods—no issues at all.
“Tell me what you want now, and I’ll bring it over this afternoon.”
“Xiaohe Jie, I still want salt! My dad got a few of the village uncles to go up the mountain to look for beehives. We’d like to trade as much of it as possible for salt—is that okay?”
“Of course! Absolutely!” Lin Xiaohe was more than happy for them to trade for salt—it was cheap.
“That’s great! I’ll go home and tell everyone the good news.”
“Is there anything else you want? If not, I’ll head off.”
Time waited for no one.
“Oh, Xiaohe Jie—I also wanted to ask, is there anything else you want from us? You can only take so many mushrooms and greens, and the villagers don’t know what else to trade.”
Lin Xiaohe scratched her head. “Hmm, that’s a good question. I don’t know off the top of my head either. Let me ask around and I’ll tell you this afternoon.”
After selling the greens, she’d go ask Aunt Chen what other mountain goods people liked.
Why hadn’t she thought of that earlier?!
Thank goodness Yuya reminded her!
Today’s haul was 40 jin of wild greens and 15 jin of mushrooms. If all traded for salt, that’d be 5 jin of salt.
“Xiaohe Jie, the villagers haven’t finished offering their trade goods yet—the rest depend on what you want.”
Lin Xiaohe nodded. “Got it. I’ll come by this afternoon and let you know.”
With that, the sisters hurried back.
They didn’t linger at home either—they rushed over to sell the greens and mushrooms.
Before they’d even reached their usual spot, someone was already calling out!
“Little girl, over here!”
An old lady was sitting on a little stool right at their stall spot. When she saw them, she waved them over.
She handed the stool back to the vendor at the neighboring stall.
“I saved the spot for you. What goodies do you have today?”
Lin Xiaohe set down her basket. “Grandma, same as before—nothing new. What would you like?”
“Give me two jin of shepherd’s purse. Oh, and do you have any local eggs? Or even local chickens? My nephew’s wife just had a baby, and I wanted to bring some local eggs to visit.
I even made a special trip to the countryside a couple days ago but couldn’t find any.
Local eggs go for 1.50 to 2 yuan each these days. I won’t shortchange you—how about 2 yuan each?”
Lin Xiaohe thought for a moment. No one in their village raised chickens anymore, but maybe Yuya’s village did.
“Grandma, I can’t promise anything. We don’t have chickens. I’ll have to ask around in the village and see if anyone’s willing to sell.”
“How about this—come back tomorrow, Grandma. If I can get some local eggs, I’ll save them for you.”
Two yuan each!
That meant three or four eggs could buy a jin of meat?!
What a deal!
“That’s wonderful! Thank you so much, little girl!” The old lady’s smile was so wide her gums showed. “If you could find some local chickens too, that’d be even better.
Please ask around for me. Price isn’t an issue—two or three hundred yuan a chicken is doable.
The most important thing is that they’re real local chickens—raised on leftovers, vegetable scraps, and greens. Absolutely no feed.”
“Okay, I’ll ask around for you too.” She agreed, though she didn’t fully understand. Besides those things, what else would a chicken eat?
What was “feed”?
Luckily, she didn’t have to ask—the old lady was already venting.
“Chickens raised on feed grow super fast—they’re full-grown in three or four months. But the meat has no flavor at all.
When you make soup, there’s no chicken taste. I used to raise my own chickens—fed them vegetable scraps and greens.
Those chickens were delicious. The meat after making soup was so flavorful and tender—no gamey taste at all.
Even after the soup, we’d eat every bit of meat. But the chickens now? The boiled meat is dry, pale, and stringy—even my dog won’t eat it.
The longer I go without good-tasting meat, the more I crave it.
Best if I can get two or three—one to bring to relatives, and the rest to keep for myself.”
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