The second watch will be delivered, and the third watch will arrive at noon! Please vote! Don't let someone PK your vote before you've even gotten started and established yourself!

Zhang Hongmei also felt sleepy. "I'm going to sleep now. I'll get off the bus at five in the morning."

"It's good enough if we get off at 5:30. There's still one stop to go in the middle of the night, and trains are delayed at almost every station. You go to sleep, I'll watch the luggage."

"What's so interesting? Go to sleep, or you won't have any energy." After saying that, Zhang Hongmei ignored Song Zigan. Sleeping was the most important thing in the world.

When Zhang Hongmei woke up, it was already three o'clock in the morning. The carriage was filled with the sounds of snoring and teeth grinding.

Song Zigan, sitting next to him, leaned straight back in his chair, and the sleeping boy looked quite well-behaved.

I closed my eyes again, but I couldn't fall asleep. The dark carriage was too dark to do anything else.

Hearing the station announcement, Song Zigan woke up, looked at Zhang Hongmei with a frown, and gently touched her.

Zhang Hongmei opened her eyes. "You're awake too. Have we arrived at our destination?"

"Yes, you're getting off at the next stop."

"That's great! It's my first time taking a train, and I'm really not used to it."

"I also took the train when I was a child, and I felt uncomfortable too. It will be more than ten days before I get off.

"You're a man, this little bit of hardship is nothing. Hang in there, I believe in you."

Many people woke up, got up to drink water, go to the toilet, and stretch their arms and legs.

Zhang Hongmei also stood up and strolled around, filling a teacup with hot water for herself and Song Zigan. Song Zigan then took out some biscuits.

"You should eat something; you'll be getting off the bus in two or three hours."

"I really don't like cookies, and besides, I can't eat them. If you want some, eat them yourself, don't call me."

When the train arrived at the station again, Zhang Hongmei took out five steamed buns and three bean buns from her bag. "These are all for you. I'm getting off the train right away. The food on the train isn't very good either. You didn't bring enough food."

"What will you eat if I give you all of this? I have plenty of food coupons, I'll give you some."

"No need, I have food coupons. You can keep them for yourself. It's better to have food on the road than to be poor. I'm getting off the train now. Maybe we'll meet again someday."

Zhang Hongmei got off the train and waved to Song Zigan, who was leaning out of the train window.

We've finally arrived. It's 5:45 now, and it's still dark. There are no pedestrians on the street, but the breakfast stalls are open. The aroma of fried dough sticks fills the air, and I'm rubbing my stomach—I'm hungry.

Walking into the breakfast stall, I saw on the small blackboard that fried dough sticks were 30 cents each and no food coupons were required, tofu pudding was 10 cents each, and soy milk was 5 cents each, also no food coupons were required.

This is pretty good, even though it's expensive. But it doesn't require food coupons, so H City seems quite wealthy.

Zhang Hongmei ordered two fried dough sticks and a bowl of soy milk.

We hadn't finished eating yet when people started arriving around 6 PM. Despite the high price, people were still queuing up to buy.

After finishing my meal, I returned the bowl of soy milk and went out.

If you want to see what people are doing, go to the food supply station. It's where the most people are, and there are long queues at this time now.

Zhang Hongmei stood at the back, listening to the people in line chatting.

"I heard there's cornmeal available today. We've been eating sweet potato noodles and sorghum rice all day long, and our mouths are getting so bland."

"It's good enough to have something to eat. I heard that people in the countryside have no food to eat."

"Yes, we still have government subsidies, but they're in a terrible situation. They can't even pay their grain taxes, and I heard they're eating grass roots instead."

Everyone sighed, realizing that they might not even be able to eat the food they grew themselves.

Honestly, we can't complain about the poor supply anymore; the government has already done its best.

"I heard that cornmeal is two yuan a pound on the black market. So if we don't have money, we'll just eat whatever we're given. It's better than starving."

"That makes sense. There's not much to it in terms of non-staple foods. I think the only thing without restrictions is salt content?"

"That's not necessarily true. If people are too hungry to move, who will refine salt?"

"It's not that scary. Watch your words and hurry up and catch up with the group."

No one dared to cut in line when buying grain, for fear of incurring public outrage.

Zhang Hongmei sneaked up to the woman in front of her and said, "Auntie, I want to buy some flour, but I don't know where I can buy it."

"The street behind the cinema and the one to the right of the train station are the two largest."

"Thank you, Auntie!" Zhang Hongmei said and left the group.

It seems that H City is relatively wealthy. Although there is no white flour in the supply, there is fried dough sticks. As long as you have money, you can still eat refined grains.

Zhang Hongmei strolled down the street and soon saw the movie theater. She went around to the back of the theater and, sure enough, there were more people there.

I saw two middle-aged men at the street corner. They didn't stop Zhang Hongmei from going in, probably because she was young.

The streets were lined with vendors, but there were no shouts or calls; even when someone asked a question, they spoke in hushed tones.

There were about thirty people selling goods, including cabbage, radishes, potatoes, vermicelli, and some mountain products, but no grains were being sold.

Zhang Hongmei squatted down in front of the vermicelli vendor. She was a middle-aged woman with a shrewd look on her face. "Auntie, how much are the vermicelli?"

"One dollar and eighty cents, no ticket required, one dollar and sixty cents for more than five pounds."

"Give me five jin, two jin of thin rice noodles and three jin of wide rice noodles," Zhang Hongmei said, handing over eight yuan. She took out a snakeskin bag from her shoulder bag, propped it open, and waited for it to be weighed before putting it in.

"Little girl, do you want anything else?"

"What else is there? If it's not good, don't take it." Zhang Hongmei deliberately acted spoiled and willful.

"Cornmeal, two yuan and fifty cents, no coupon required."

"Do you have wheat flour? What about rice?"

"No, you can't even buy rice for five yuan."

Zhang Hongmei ignored her and left with the snakeskin bag.

After leaving the street, I decided to find a place to stay first, and then go to the black market at the train station to sell my goods.

I found a hotel, booked a room, and checked in easily without being questioned.

I locked the door and walked around the room before entering the space with peace of mind.

I'm going to test the waters first and see how it goes. I've put ten pounds of rice, ten pounds of flour, and ten packets of noodles in my basket. I'll deal with the rest later.

I found a pair of black sneakers with hidden platform heels in the warehouse, put my hair up in a bun, wore a black hat, drew thick eyebrows, put on a mask, put on a blue cotton coat, looked in the mirror, and thought, "Hmm, not bad."

After finishing my makeup and eating, I left the space.

It takes about twenty minutes to get to the train station. I hardly encountered anyone along the way.

Once inside the black market, it was much larger than the movie theater, and there were even more people selling goods.

Zhang Hongmei carried a basket and wandered the entire black market. There were only two places selling grain: one selling cornmeal and the other selling sorghum.

When you reach the end, lean against the side, unload the basket, place it in front of you, and squat down like everyone else.

A very elegant old lady walked over a moment later. "Young man, what are you selling? Why aren't you displaying it?"

"Rice, wheat flour, noodles," Zhang Hongmei replied briefly in a low voice.

"What did you say? It's all refined grains?"

"Um."

"Let me see." The old lady was very cautious, squatting down to look at the bag that Zhang Hongmei had untied.

Seeing the plump, white rice, I reached out and grabbed a handful.