Li Xiangdong quickly flipped through the "Compendium of Chinese Herbal Medicines," becoming increasingly excited as he read. He realized that common weeds and wild vegetables were actually Chinese herbal medicines, and he might soon be able to earn his first pot of gold.

"Come on, little sister! Your second brother will buy you something delicious." Li Xiangdong turned around to look at the adorable little girl.

"Delicious, delicious." Li Xiaomei smiled, her eyes crinkling, and clapped her hands, mimicking Li Xiangdong's speech.

Li Xiangdong went straight to the supply and marketing cooperative and began a large-scale purchase.

"Saleswoman, I'd like one bottle of malted milk powder, four bottles of orange soda, half a pound of white sugar, half a pound of brown sugar, half a pound of hard fruit candy, three ounces of White Rabbit milk candy, and two bottles of Niulanshan liquor."

The sales clerk was a young girl with two braids. "Young man, you need sugar coupons to buy candy and malted milk powder. Do you have any?"

"I brought them." Li Xiangdong pulled out a handful of coupons from his pocket. He had stolen them from his mother last night. His mother had given him sugar coupons, and he had been saving them up. He had already saved up seven or eight jin (3.5-4 catties) of them. He didn't have any spare money, and the sugar coupons were about to expire.

"Malted milk powder is 5 yuan a bottle, orange soda is 1 mao a bottle, four bottles are 4 mao a bottle, half a jin of white sugar is 4 mao, half a jin of brown sugar is 35 mao, half a jin of hard fruit candy is 45 mao, three liang of White Rabbit milk candy is 1 yuan 2 mao, two bottles of Niulanshan candy is 2 yuan 4 mao, and three jin of sugar coupons." The saleswoman deftly placed the items on the counter, announcing the prices as she did so. The abacus clattered, and the saleswoman crisply quoted, "That's 10 yuan and 2 mao in total."

Li Xiangdong handed the money to the sales clerk, thinking to himself, "Wow, malted milk powder is so expensive at this time of year! I've never bought it in my past life. I never knew that the price of one bottle of malted milk powder could buy more than a dozen boxes of Hongtashan cigarettes." But he still had to buy it. His little sister didn't have enough breast milk. Although the family had used all the rice they had saved to make rice porridge for her, now that he had money, he had to make sure his little sister ate the most nutritious food.

Without any food or meat coupons, Li Xiangdong could only buy two jin of expensive pork belly and two jin of expensive refined white flour, which cost him another five yuan. He carefully placed the sugar, meat, flour, and malted milk powder into his wicker basket, then picked a large bundle of wild grass from the roadside to cover it. Only after making sure that no one could see what was in the basket did he finally carry the basket on his back, pick up his sister, and head home.

Li Xiangdong, with a green apple-flavored hard fruit candy in his mouth, put half a White Rabbit milk candy in his sister's mouth. The two of them strode back to Lijiapo Village, bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun.

Li Guoqing, Li Xiangjie, and Zhao Xiaojun were squatting in front of Li Xiangdong's house playing marbles. The Li family's big yellow dog, which had been lying there listlessly, suddenly jumped up and rushed over when it heard its young master's footsteps, circling around Li Xiangdong's feet.

"Guoqing, Xiaodouzi (Li Xiangjie), Xiaojun, go and call Erhu and Yuxi, and tell them to wait for me at the usual place," Li Xiangdong said quietly as he approached.

"Okay, let's go right away!" The three of them jumped for joy.

Li Xiangdong walked into the house and saw his mother, Zhao Sufang, cooking. He peeked over and saw it was just boiled eggplant and potatoes in plain water, along with sorghum pancakes. His stomach churned. He put his little sister on the kang (a heated brick bed) to play by herself and quickly took the meat out of the wicker basket for his mother.

"Mom, make some meat. I've been eating potatoes so much these past few days, my brain is practically turning into a potato."

"Where did you get this meat from!" Zhao Sufang's expression changed when she saw that the meat hadn't been taken.

"Don't worry, Mom, I bought them all with my own money. I didn't steal them or rob them." Li Xiangdong knew his mother's character; she would rather starve than accept charity, and die of thirst than drink from a stolen spring.

"Where did you get the money to buy meat?" Zhao Sufang pressed.

"The money I made selling traditional Chinese medicine."

"Where did this Chinese medicine come from?" Zhao Sufang still didn't believe it.

"Little Erzi, although our family is poor, you can't do petty theft. You have to be an upright person. Do you really think you'll end up in jail sooner or later, like those gossipy people say?" Zhao Sufang's tone was stern, but tears were about to well up in her eyes.

"I know, I know. The cicada shells we catch are the shells of cicada nymphs, which we sell to pharmaceutical factories for money. Mother, don't you know me? No matter how naughty I am, I wouldn't dare to steal or rob!" Li Xiangdong said helplessly.

"Really? Cicada shells can be exchanged for money?" Zhao Sufang was skeptical.

"Really, really! I'll tell you the details when I get back tonight. I need to divide up Xiaodouzi's money first. Hurry up and cook the meat, I'm so hungry for it."

Zhao Sufang watched Li Xiangdong disappear in a moment, sighed, and put the meat in a bowl in the cupboard. She knew she couldn't eat the meat until she understood what had happened.

"Your money for National Day."

"Little Bean, take this."

"Xiaojun, Yuxi, these are for you two."

"This is yours, Erhu, you get the most."

Li Xiangdong handed over the corresponding amount of money to the children, who had never seen so much money before, and their mouths were practically stretched to their ears with smiles.

"Second brother, will they still accept it?"

"Of course we'll catch them! We should hurry up and catch them while many cicada nymphs are emerging from the ground and molting in the next ten days or so. Once we miss this opportunity, it'll be gone forever."

"Okay, I'm going now. I need to go somewhere far today, the people in the neighborhood have almost all been caught."

"Be careful, don't go too far, and be safe."

Fortunately, this was the era when child abduction was rare. Families had many children, and playmates often stayed overnight at each other's homes, so parents wouldn't worry too much if they couldn't see a child while sleeping.

Four or five people ran home for dinner, planning to call a few more trusted children to go catch more. Li Xiangdong didn't leave immediately, carefully observing each wild grass and flower on the riverbank slope.

This is pig stalks, a wild vegetable fed to pigs, and also the pig feed that villagers love to cut. Luckily, there are not many pigs in the village, so it hasn't all been cut down.

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