The next day, Shiyue and He Lixuan both got up very early.
They did go and call Liang Yueming, but unfortunately Liang Yueming had no interest in going to the market, so they didn't force her and the couple went alone.
The market is very close to the camp; you can see it just a few steps after leaving the camp gate.
However, compared to the kind of rural market that Shiyue had imagined, it was far inferior.
There were only five or six people scattered around the open space, some squatting and some standing, all quite far apart from each other.
If Shiyue hadn't known beforehand that they were all from the same village, she would have thought they were complete strangers!
The two looked at each other and then walked over.
Upon seeing them arrive, the eyes of those who had previously looked indifferent lit up.
Those who were squatting stood up, and those who were standing looked at them expectantly.
Interestingly, not a single person stepped forward to solicit business.
They all stood in their original positions, staring at Shiyue and her companion, without even greeting them.
"I guess they had some problems while competing for business," He Lixuan whispered.
Shiyue herself had also thought of it.
Judging from their obedient appearance, they must have been dealt with by someone.
Either the rules were set by the Sixth Iron Battalion, or their fishing village had drawn up the rules in advance.
It's a good thing as long as someone is in charge; at least that way, there won't be any problems with the things they sell.
Shiyue felt relieved.
After all, she really knew nothing about seafood.
I have absolutely no idea about either the quality or the price.
Although there's space to help her choose, we still need to buy the items first and take them home to try them out, which also costs money.
It would be a good thing for her to be more standardized.
The two chatted quietly as they walked up to the group of people.
As Shiyue got closer, she became more and more convinced that what she thought was correct.
Because all these people are selling the exact same seafood!
In each person's basket, or on a tattered fishing net, were a few fish, some shellfish whose names she didn't recognize, some shrimp, and some particularly plump-looking seaweed.
Now that Shiyue knew seaweed was a good thing, she immediately and generously bought out all of it from one person's stall.
Because none of these people have scales, their items are priced by the pile.
The pile of seaweed that Shiyue bought looked to weigh at least five or six pounds, and that person only charged her one cent!
This time, Shiyue's eyes lit up.
It was very early, and there were hardly any people around. With such good seaweed, Shiyue felt she could definitely harvest more.
What's more, they're so cheap!
So she looked at a few other stalls, and except for one stall where the seaweed looked a bit thin, she didn't buy it, and just bought all the others' seaweed!
The people who bought directly were all beaming with joy, but one person was almost in tears.
The man was a boy who looked only sixteen or seventeen years old. He grabbed He Lixuan and started chattering away anxiously.
Shi Yue didn't understand a word, but He Lixuan managed to say a few words to him in a few babbling.
"Can you understand what they're saying?" Shiyue asked curiously.
"Yeah, a little bit."
He Lixuan explained, “We used to have an old professor from Nanping at our university. He would occasionally speak a few words of his hometown dialect to amuse us, and the three of us could understand a few words. My eldest brother has the best talent for languages; he can speak it very fluently.”
After He Lixuan finished speaking, he pointed to the shrimp in the little boy's basket and said to Shiyue, "I think his shrimp looks good, let's buy some. He told me that his seaweed is not good because that's all the amount the team assigned to him. He didn't bring bad stuff to sell on purpose."
“Okay.” Shiyue nodded.
Since the goods were distributed by the production team, there were bound to be both good and bad items, which was unavoidable.
She was going to buy shrimp anyway, so she decided to buy them from the boy.
Shrimp is a bit more expensive than kelp; that basket, which weighed about three or four pounds, cost Shi Yue one yuan.
Besides shrimp and seaweed, Shiyue also bought two yellow croakers. The yellow croakers weren't very big, each weighing only about a pound.
The seller charged 18 cents for the two fish.
Shi Yue wanted to visit other shops, but the fishmonger knew that He Lixuan understood their language, so he pulled him aside and launched into a long explanation.
He Lixuan translated helplessly: "He said that their village has a rule that the people who come here to sell things each day take turns, and today it's just these few people."
The prices of the goods they sell are all set uniformly in the village beforehand. So you can just pick and choose what you like; they wouldn't dare to arbitrarily set prices.
So Shiyue promptly paid the money.
On her first day, Shiyue couldn't buy too many things; these three items were enough.
Because they bought too much seaweed, the first seller offered to help them return it, and the two didn't refuse.
Knowing that his wife wanted to buy dried goods, He Lixuan started chatting with that man on the way back.
Then they realized that although every household had a lot of seafood drying in the sun, most of it actually didn't belong to their own family.
They were helping the production team with the drying of clothes.
Because the village is short-handed and cannot assign dedicated personnel to form a drying team, the fish, shrimp, and other items caught in the village that need to be dried are distributed among individual households.
These tasks are done by the elderly and children in the family.
Those items were all counted, and after they were dried, they had to be handed over in full; no one dared to keep any for themselves.
Seeing that Shiyue and the others genuinely wanted to buy, the man was very excited and kept telling them to go to the village to pick one out.
The documents they are supposed to submit this year haven't been sent to the county yet; we can let them select some from them first.
Since that's the case, Shiyue simply arranged to meet the man in the afternoon, and he nodded repeatedly.
They said they would tell the village chief as soon as they got back, and then they could just go.
“I’ll go with you this afternoon,” He Lixuan said after the man left.
"No need, I can go by myself," Shiyue refused.
She has space, and this place is secluded; not many people would wander around outside casually.
All she needs to do is take the things she buys a little further away from the fishing village and store them directly in her space; it won't be much of a hassle.
Her husband was someone who was destined for great things, and Shiyue didn't want to waste his time.
But He Lixuan was clearly very persistent about this matter.
He immediately said, "I'm not busy this afternoon, I'll go with you. If you dare to sneak off on your own, you can forget about ever going again!"
Faced with the man's rare assertiveness, Shiyue couldn't help but smile wryly.
But she wasn't ungrateful, and immediately nodded: "Okay, let's go and see what's going on."
While the two were talking, Liang Yueming had already arrived at the gate of their courtyard.
He started laughing even before he entered the room.
She pointed to the pile of seaweed on the ground and asked, "Shiyue, why did you buy so much seaweed? There's plenty of it here, aren't you afraid you won't have enough to eat?"
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