Pei Manning knew that things were not that simple: "You tell me, I will help you if I can."

"It's like this. Aunt Xu and Sister Xiao are also in Nanjing. They asked me to send her some fashionable fabrics from Shanghai. I thought you would be going back in two days, so I asked you to bring them over."

Not only does it take a long time to send things nowadays, but sometimes they get lost. Her sister has worked so hard to collect the cloth coupons, it would be a shame to lose them. After thinking about it, she decided to ask Comrade Xiao Pei to help her to make things more stable.

Besides, the fabric she sent was only enough to make two sets of clothes, and it wasn't very heavy.

Pei Manning hesitated for a moment.

Because she had heard about Yuan Weicheng's incident, she subconsciously had some resistance to bringing things on the train, but after thinking about it, such things were rare after all, so she carefully checked the things inside when she didn't.

Besides, Aunt Xu was very caring towards her. All other comrades in the editorial department were men, so whenever she had something she didn't understand, she would go to Aunt Xu for help, and Aunt Xu would teach her very kindly and patiently.

Pei Manning thought: "That's possible, but how can I give things to her when I'm gone?"

Aunt Xu: "How about this, I'll ask Sister 꺶 to wait for you at the train station. Her home is close to the train station, so you can just give it to her at the train station."

After the discussion, Aunt Zhongxu went back to her family's building and brought the military green cool fabric to her.

"That's it. I spent a lot of effort to buy it for her. Xiao Pei, I'm going to trouble you with this."

Pei Manning took it back and checked it to make sure it was just a roll of cloth before she put it away with confidence.

It was past three in the afternoon, and after finishing work at the publishing house, Pei Manning did not dare to go to the black market again.

She went directly to the Shanghai scrap collection station.

There are many more things in the waste collection station in Shanghai, from old newspapers and old fans to broken copperware, bronze statues and ancient coins, old furniture and old beehive coal stoves.

Pei Manning was very experienced in this task. She picked out many damaged books and torn calligraphy and paintings from the waste paper pile. After being collected by the recycling station, these would be sent back to the paper mill to be pulped for making new paper.

She picked and chose among them. Many of the paintings had been soaked in water, which had corroded them and made them stick to each other, almost turning them into a brick.

The picture is mottled and faded, with many places missing, and its original appearance cannot be seen clearly.

But Pei Manning could recognize the material of these papers. It was the famous "curtain paper". When this kind of paper is held up to the light, you can see the transparent lines or patterns in the middle of the curtain.

However, the papers were now rotten to pieces, soft and rotten. She had only a superficial knowledge of the art of restoring ancient paintings, and was afraid that she could not do it at all.

If a painter skilled in restoration comes along in the future, perhaps they can be restored.

In addition, there were some damaged books in the waste paper pile. They should be the ancient books that were torn out when the old things were destroyed. While no one saw them, she secretly put these banned books into the Sumi Realm and hid them.

As for the destroyed bronze objects, many were buried in a pile of broken copper and iron that were about to be melted down. Pei Manning searched for a long time before he found a piece of metal that was in disarray and unrecognizable. Judging from its shape and patterns, it resembled a bronze bird-lid gourd jar from the Warring States Period.

While searching for the other half, she found a rusty bronze short spear with a circle of seal characters engraved on the handle. Because it was severely corroded, it looked no different from other scraps of copper and iron.

This scrap station has a lot of bronze artifacts, and Pei Manning is lucky. Now countless items are shipped to Shanghai from metal smelters and scrap recycling stations across the country every day. If you know these things, you can always pick out one or two.

Pei Manning tried her best to pick out the things she could recognize, as her knowledge was limited. As for those she could not recognize, she could only let them return to the smelter and paper mill.

Pei Manning selected several books that she had never read before taking them to the staff for weighing.

Carrying a bunch of things out of the waste station, Pei Manning found a remote and deserted place, put all the books that he could not carry into the Xumi world, and then went out from the other end.

There are so many valuable things in Shanghai's junk recycling stations, so there should be no shortage of second-hand shops.

She followed the route on the map and took the bus to the nearest second-hand store. After wandering around for a while, she found that most of the stores were defective daily necessities.

The flea market stretches from Fuxing East Road to Dongmen Road. It is a mixed bag with different shops having their own characteristics. Some sections mainly sell bicycle parts, while others sell machinery and electronic parts. It is bustling with people every day.

Pei Manning was staring at an unprepossessing pottery eagle tripod. The eagle's beak and face were lifelike, and the eagle's back was hollowed out to form a bowl. It had three legs and was unglazed, looking gray and dirty. It was used as a cat bowl and was casually thrown under the steps.

She was struggling when she was stopped by someone.

"Little sister, no, sister!" The thin man looked at her and was almost overjoyed.

Pei Manning turned around and saw the man who had spent eighteen yuan to buy ten kilograms of flour from her. He was holding an old radio and walking towards her happily with his clothes open.

When they went out, Pei Manning, with brown-yellow pearl powder on her face and a scarf covering half of her face, looked at him in surprise.

"Sister, do you still recognize me? The one at the Triangle Market..." The man winked at her and reminded her.

Pei Manning certainly remembered: "No."

Man: "...Sister, I understand what you mean."

When doing this, we move to another place after each shot, so as to avoid disaster for those we know.

"How about this, sister, you can just call me Anzi from now on. Um... do you have any more of that?" He regretted not buying more flour from her last time. The flour was very popular when he took it to the vicinity of the hospital. It was sold at one kilogram per block from now on.

There are many dual-worker families in Shanghai, and many of them buy bargain-priced grains secretly, especially when a family member is sick. They want to get some fine grains and nutritional supplements for the family to replenish their bodies. Fine grains, brown sugar, eggs and maltose are all bought privately.

Pei Manning said, "No, where can there be so many things?"

Knowing that Han Jingchen was in Shanghai, Pei Manning didn't dare to do these things.

She went to the scrapyard to buy old books, and the person who was in charge of weighing them can testify to that. She went to the flea market to buy some daily necessities, and the stall owner can testify to that. But she could not resell food.

An Zi was a little disappointed, but it was not good to get involved, so he lowered his voice and said, "Okay, sister, if you have anything good, just come to find me at the old place."

After saying this, he looked around and walked away with his head down.

Pei Manning breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, she was about to leave Shanghai.

For the next two days, she didn't dare go anywhere else. She lived between the publishing house, the cafeteria and the guesthouse.

On March 10th, the first five volumes of Doraemon's 3,000 Questions passed review, the front and back covers were finalized, and the publishing house paid her the royalties.

Considering that this series was her original creation, the editorial department of the publishing house discussed and decided not to pay her according to the adapted picture book fee. In order to encourage her creative enthusiasm, the fee for each book of illustrations was increased to 18 yuan, giving her a total of 10 yuan.

Including the 10 yuan fee she received before, Pei Manning now has 180 yuan in royalties.

However, she bought some things in Shanghai and only had about 160 yuan left.

This money was hard-earned. Before her hand was injured, she basically stayed at home every day either reading or painting. The penniless situation made her so anxious that she dared not stop. Fortunately, the result was good.

Comrades from the editorial department sent them off warmly.

"Comrade Xiao Pei, remember to send the rest of the manuscripts on time after you go back. The secondment time is limited, so we won't keep you here. If you have any questions, you can call or send a letter to our editorial department."

"This is a gift from our editorial department for Shanghai specialties, Babao square cake, and two cans of canned fruit. Keep them for when you take the train."

"Xiao Pei, remember to give the fabric to my sister. I'll leave this matter to you."

…

On the morning of March 11, the weather was very good, and the temperature in Shanghai had risen a little over the past two days.

Pei Manning changed into thinner clothes.

The train station was no less crowded than the last time. Pei Manning was waiting in the waiting area with her luggage and train ticket.

She stared at the train ticket in her hand with some hesitation.

In fact, she wanted to take this opportunity to go to Qingshan. The ancestral home of the Pei family in the Zhou Dynasty was in Wuye Town, Chongshan County, Yanzhou. The ancestral hall and ancestral temple were both there, Peijia Village, with Qingshan behind it.

When she was a child, she went back to her hometown and visited the village. The whole place was full of green mountains and steep cliffs, with a line of sky in the middle, as if it was split by nature with an axe, and there was a strange rock cave leading to the valley.

At that time, she was the eldest daughter of Pei's family, and her uncle was a general. Even though her mother could no longer conceive, her father promised her uncle that he would find a son for her in the future and take her back to worship their ancestors every year. Therefore, her uncle helped her father a lot.

Because of her existence, her cousins ​​could not adopt the child, so they were urged by their own family to take her to the mountains to play.

She was left on the mountain for a day and a night before being found by the people below.

But because of this incident, I have a very deep memory of that place.

She found that the map here was very similar to the maps she had occasionally seen in her uncle's study, except that some rivers had changed their courses, but the topography and mountain features had not changed. Therefore, the green mountains that existed in the Zhou Dynasty were likely to exist here as well.

Just probably not by that name.

If she could fake some traces there that she had lived with her parents for more than ten years... Thinking of this, Pei Manning frowned slightly and gave up the idea. Anyway, Han Jingchen was staring at her now, and doing so would only backfire.

At the train station, she boarded the train with her things in her hand and found a seat by the window. There was a wooden slat nailed to the seat, so she put her things underneath.

The train will leave soon.

"Xiao Ning!" A familiar voice came from the car window.