Since it hasn't snowed, I'll have to go to the city alone to see if I can sell some grain or something.

So he spent two cents to get to the city and went straight to the area behind the military hospital. He saw people standing guard at the intersection and thought to himself, "This is definitely a black market spot."

He turned and went into the hospital's public restroom, changed his clothes, put on makeup, and then went to the black market with his basket on his back. The two people standing at the door let him in without even asking any questions. Once inside, he found it was a completely different world. They sold everything, including a full range of grains, but he didn't intend to take such a risk.

But after looking around, I found that everything was three times more expensive than at the purchasing station. First-grade pork was 0.7 yuan per jin (500g) on ​​the black market, but 2.1 yuan per jin; third-grade pork was 0.58 yuan per jin, but 1.74 yuan per jin on the black market; an egg was 3 to 5 fen, but 0.09 to 0.12 fen per egg on the black market; rice was 0.13 yuan per jin, but 0.39 yuan per jin on the black market; wheat flour was 0.16 yuan per jin, but 0.48 yuan per jin on the black market; and coarse corn stubble was 0.09 yuan per jin, but 0.27 yuan per jin on the black market. One jin; five jin of sweet potato is equivalent to one jin; coarse grains are 0.02 per jin, 0.06 fen per jin on the black market; japonica rice is 0.147, 0.441 per jin on the black market; indica rice is 0.126, 0.378 per jin on the black market; flour is 0.163, 0.489 per jin on the black market; soybean oil is 0.78, 2.34 per jin on the black market; matches are 0.02, 0.06 fen per box on the black market; salt is 0.14, 0.42 per jin on the black market.

After looking around, I found that sweet potatoes were less than a cent per pound, which means that even 10,000 pounds of sweet potatoes in my space wouldn't sell for more than 100 yuan. Damn, I'm not selling them anymore, this is outrageous!

Now that we're out here, we can't go back empty-handed, right? If we don't sell sweet potatoes, we can sell eggs first. We can tidy up the space tonight and sell all the grains inside, leaving only rice, wheat flour, and cornmeal.

After leaving the black market, he didn't rush to the factory. Instead, he walked along an alley and approached a kind-looking old woman, asking, "Auntie, do you want some eggs?"

"Girl, tell me, the egg?" the old lady asked excitedly, grabbing my arm.

Yes, eggs.

"This isn't the place to talk, come with me," the old woman said, glancing back first.

"Oh," I said, and then I followed the old lady. On the way, someone asked her, "Aunt Cao, who is that little girl next to you?"

"You know, Xiaofang, she's my cousin's youngest daughter who married into the family in the countryside. She just came to the city to bring me some vegetables."

"Oh, I see. Well then, you're busy."

Soon they arrived at a small, detached courtyard. The old woman said, “Girl, my surname is Cao. You can call me Grandma Cao. You said you had eggs, and I won’t lie to you. I desperately need these eggs. My daughter just gave birth to my grandson, but these days everything is scarce. My daughter’s body was damaged during childbirth, and the doctor said she needs to take good care of herself, otherwise she might not survive her next pregnancy.”

"Grandma Cao, I..."

"Why are you telling this to an old woman like me, a young girl? Oh, by the way, daughter, how many eggs do you have?" She then wiped away tears from the corner of her eyes.

"Grandma Cao, I have 200 eggs in my basket."

"So many, what are you doing?"

Seeing Grandma Cao's questioning look, I quickly said, "Grandma Cao, my surname is Zhu, and my name is Zhu Cuicui. My family lives in the mountains. These eggs are from the last week. My father came with me. Now that the grain has been harvested, we were thinking of exchanging these eggs for some money so that my brother can get a wife."

"What kind of ticket do you need? How much is an egg?"

"Tickets, any kind of ticket will do, but if you're paying in cash, my dad said that since an egg is currently worth 0.09 to 0.12 yuan on the black market, and everyone's struggling financially, we'll only charge 0.1 yuan per ticket."

"Okay, then I'll take them all. It's getting cooler now, so I'll give half to my daughter and pickle the rest."

"Alright, come on, you count them."

As she spoke, Grandma Cao picked up the basket at the door and started counting. After a while, she said, "Exactly 200. I'll go get you the money and the tickets."

"These 200 eggs cost about 20 yuan per jin (500g). I'll give you 20 yuan. Here are five jin of grain coupons, two jin of meat coupons, three jin of snack coupons, two jin of sugar coupons, ten feet of cloth coupons, and two industrial vouchers. These industrial vouchers are very useful."

"Sigh, I'll listen to you."

At the end of 1961, the state issued industrial coupons. These coupons were issued to employed workers according to their wage income, with one coupon allocated for every 20 yuan of wages.

Industrial coupons could be used to purchase a wide range of goods, including towels, blankets, yarn, handkerchiefs, batteries, yarn, iron pots, aluminum basins, aluminum lunch boxes, enamel basins, enamel mugs, enamel chamber pots, cotton gloves, metal thermos flasks, bamboo thermos bottles, sports shoes, umbrellas, cotton-polyester shoes, sewing needles, sewing thread, oilcloth raincoats, laminated raincoats, artificial cotton products, nylon underwear, leather shoes, alarm clocks, radios, belts, knives and scissors, imported blades, various bags, chocolate bars, and cigarettes, tea, and liquor beyond the ration limit.

So, in this way, I went to several places throughout the day, such as steel mills, coking plants, textile mills, and flour mills. These big factories not only had money but also a lot of tickets, so I didn't dare to sell too many. I sold 200 eggs at each place. By the time I got home, it was already past 5 p.m. I quickly cooked dinner and waited for my parents to come home for dinner.

He went into the space and counted his earnings. He had made 100 yuan in one day. He had 25 jin of grain coupons, 10 jin of meat coupons, 12 jin of snack coupons, 5 jin of sugar coupons, 40 feet of cloth coupons, 6 industrial coupons, two cotton coupons (each for one jin), three soap coupons, two kerosene coupons, and some other coupons, but many of them were about to expire. He would have to go to the city next Sunday to use them all up.

Seeing that it was still early, I started calculating how much grain I still had from the purchase:

In the living room: There were originally 2000 jin of rice, now there are still 1800 jin left; there were originally 2000 jin of wheat flour, now there are still 1700 jin left; there were originally 500 jin each of cornmeal, corn grits, sweet potato flour, sorghum flour, and buckwheat flour, now there are still 200 jin left; there were originally 200 jin each of red beans, mung beans, soybeans, kidney beans, black beans, broad beans, peas, and millet, now there are still 50 jin left; there were originally 100 jin each of black rice, japonica rice, sorghum rice, buckwheat, and red rice, now there are still 30 jin left; there were originally 200 jin of noodles, now there are still 180 jin left; there are still 100 jin of glutinous rice and glutinous rice flour that have not been touched.

The various seasonings that were originally placed in the living room have also been...