The chickens were indeed plump—at least three jin each.
Lin Xiaohe priced them at 50 yuan per jin.
The two chickens totaled 7 jin, plus the eggs—Lin Xiaohe collected 400 yuan total.
“Granny, why are you buying so much? What about the rest of us?” The people behind started to get anxious. “There’s not much left—you take two, she takes two—then there’s nothing for us!”
“What are you saying? I’m not buying everything—two chickens is perfectly reasonable. If you’re worried about not getting any, come earlier next time. I was here at 6 a.m. today!”
The old lady gave a haughty roll of her eyes, lifted her two chickens, and strutted off triumphantly.
Lin Xiaohe didn’t dare promise anyone tomorrow’s stock—there were just too many people.
Good thing she’d already set aside Aunt Fang’s share at the shop—otherwise, with business this good, nothing would’ve been saved.
The crowd surged forward—everyone wanting a little bit.
Before Lin Xiaohe could even react, everything was sold out.
A bunch of old ladies and grandpas were left slapping their chests in regret.
Free-range farm chickens with such good quality were rare—how could they have missed out?
“Little girl, you’ll be back tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, kid—you’re coming tomorrow, right?”
“Yes, yes—same time tomorrow, more or less.”
Lin Xiaohe answered everyone while grinning from ear to ear. She’d brought 200 eggs and 10 chickens today.
Aunt Fang had taken 50 eggs and 3 chickens—the rest all sold out.
Altogether, she’d made about 2,500 yuan.
That was an astronomical fortune!
Hehe—time to go shopping. Whatever the house needed, she’d buy it all.
Hearing she’d be back tomorrow, the crowd dispersed.
The sisters packed up quickly and ran.
“Hehe, Sis—we made so much money today!” Xiaogu’s eyes were glowing like little bulbs.
“Right! Let’s go buy what Yuya and the others want first, then see what else we need.”
Lin Xiaohe patted her bulging money pocket, her joy barely contained.
They headed straight to the supermarket.
“Sis, do you remember exactly what Yuya Jie said she wanted to trade for today? I can’t quite remember.”
Lin Xiaohe scratched her head. “Hmm—I don’t remember clearly either. Let’s just buy the maximum amount of everything—it won’t be too little. We’ll also buy a notebook and pen so we can write it down next time.
When we had small quantities, it was easy to remember. But now that it’s larger, it’s easy to mix things up or forget.”
“Okay!” Xiaogu agreed readily, but then hesitated. “But we don’t know many characters.”
“It’s okay—the educated youth at the compound teach reading. We can go learn too.
We’ll sell in the morning, buy what we need, deliver to Yuya at noon, and in the afternoon and evening, go learn a few characters. Not being able to read really won’t do.”
“Okay. Let’s buy them at the 2-yuan store—I remember they have lots of notebooks there, and they’re cheap.”
“Alright.”
Lin Xiaohe bought 10 jin of pork leaf lard, and for her own family, 2 jin of half-fat, half-lean meat.
Meat really was cheap—all together, it didn’t even cost a hundred yuan.
“Sis, this is so cheap! One chicken can trade for twenty jin of meat.”
“Right? Now we’ll never have to worry about eating meat again.” Lin Xiaohe’s eyes curved into happy crescents, full of joy.
“Hehe~” Just thinking about having meat every meal made Xiaogu break into a grin too.
They went to the general store across from the grain and oil shop and bought 20 packs of salt.
That should be enough—they called it a day, since they couldn’t carry any more anyway.
Just then, an old lady rode by on a small tricycle, and Xiaogu’s eyes followed it.
“Sis, that cart is great—it’d be so much easier to carry things if we had one.”
Lin Xiaohe rolled her eyes and burst her bubble. “What are you thinking? We’re too short to ride one even if we could afford it.
I think that one in Aunt Fang’s shop is more practical.”
She was referring to the folding cart Chen Fang used for picking up packages—four sides with a handle you could pull along, with wheels underneath so it wasn’t heavy.
“Maybe we can ask Aunt Fang where she got it and get one.”
“Alright—if we remember tomorrow.”
“Oh—when we get home later, let’s go to the river and dig up some roots. If anyone asks, we’ll say we went a bit farther out.
We can’t let anyone catch on that we’ve been skipping the root-digging.”
One thing at a time—they still had to keep up appearances.
“Okay.”
But plans didn’t always keep up with change.
They’d barely been home a minute when their Second Aunt rode up on her bicycle.
“Xiaohe, Xiaogu, are you home?”
“Yes, yes—Second Aunt, what brings you here?” Lin Xiaohe hurried to open the door.
“Came to check on your parents—how are they doing?”
“Much better. The barefoot doctor came by and said they’re recovering well.”
“That’s good, that’s good.” Lin Xia hesitated a moment, then said, “Actually—I heard your dad has some connections in the black market. I was wondering if he could help us get some grain?”
“The harvest was bad this year, and grain doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. The city says it’s rationed, but who knows where it actually goes.”
Lin Xiaohe scratched her head. “Sure—how much do you need, Second Aunt?”
“As much as you can get. There are a lot of adults in the family—grain is really a necessity.”
“Okay. Come back in a couple days, and I’ll have some grain ready for you to take.”
“Alright—sorry to trouble you.” Lin Xia felt awkward. She hadn’t been able to help much when the family was in crisis, and now they had to help her instead.
“It’s nothing—we’re family.”
“I’ll go talk to your parents for a bit.”
“Okay.”
The conversation hadn’t been quiet—the couple inside had heard every word.
“Second Sister, perfect timing—I wanted to talk to you about something too.
You know how I’ve got some black market connections—I was thinking I’d get some goods and you could help move them through your housing compound. You’d take a cut, and I’d have some cash on hand.
Once I’m better, I’m planning to build a house. We can’t stay in the ancestral hall forever—it’s not right. We’ll tell people we borrowed from you, since the money’s not exactly traceable.”
Lin Xia sat down by the bed. “Of course—I’m your sister, how could I not help? I even brought money for the house.”
She pulled a wad of cash from her inner pocket.
“You know we’re fairly well off—I’ve got some savings. I brought 150 yuan.
I can’t do more than that—my mother-in-law’s still in charge of the household finances.”
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