Sensing He Jinshan's slightly cold gaze, Wang Daqiang rubbed the corners of his mouth and added tactfully, "I don't mean anything else. I can't break the rules."
He pointed at the backpack behind Jiang Henian, and the arrogance in his tone subsided a little.
"Are there any small items you want to take out? Just sit in my place, nothing will happen."
Curious baby Jiang Henian was unable to follow into the yard of the suspected black market den and was left outside.
She glanced at the chair where the mole-faced man had just sat like Ge You, curled her lips in disgust, and walked to the opposite side and squatted down.
The girl held the bamboo basket in her arms, her chin resting on her knees. Her posture was very reserved, but her big eyes looked around dishonestly.
There are eight people quietly selling things in the alley now, and in just a short while, more than a dozen people have come in and out to buy things.
Soap, flour, grain, salt, cloth shoes... there are many types of things for sale.
The buyer and the seller just whisper something, and after one hand pays the other hand hands over the goods, the transaction is done. The buyer comes in from the left and can exit through any fork on the right.
There was an air of sophisticated stealth about each of them.
Jiang Henian couldn't help but laugh. She had thought about making a lot of money by trading things in the black market like in novels a long time ago. Now looking at the situation, she estimated that it would take a lot of effort to find the way in.
Fortunately, every time I travel through time, I am given a golden thigh!
The girl's gaze shifted to the tightly closed courtyard gate, her big eyes crescent-shaped when she smiled, full of curiosity.
“…Is there?”
Suddenly, a mosquito-like sound came from above her head.
Jiang Henian came back to her senses and looked up to see a middle-aged woman who was dressed quite decently, slightly bent over and looking at her with a somewhat unnatural expression.
What?
Jiang Henian blinked in confusion.
Perhaps it was because her eyes were too clear, even though her face was wrapped tightly in a headscarf, it still revealed a childishness, and the woman's expression relaxed a little.
He carefully looked around, half-knelt down, and asked in a low voice: "Little girl, do you have any food?"
Her eyes fell on the corn cob that Jiang Henian had bitten into with his right hand, only a bite left.
Jiang Henian was a little surprised. He thought, "Is this how business comes just by me squatting there?"
If you don't make money when you have it, you're a bastard.
She half-raised the corn cob in her hand and nodded decisively.
Corn, I have plenty of it.
The woman's face was slightly happy. "How much?"
Jiang Henian thought for a while, then tentatively said, "15 cents."
She has been here for quite some time, so she knows the price of food. Corn is 1.4 cents per pound. Is it a little more expensive on the black market?
The other party asked again: "Do you want a ticket?"
People usually come to the black market to buy, either for the scarce goods that are hard to buy even with money or for those who have money but lack tickets. Some people also use money to buy food and meat tickets directly, and various industrial coupons are also in high demand.
For example, people in rural areas were not given food coupons or meat coupons. If they wanted to eat in town, they had to bring food to the grain store to exchange for food coupons, or buy coupons on the black market, otherwise they would go hungry.
The woman looked like a local. She must have come to ask because her monthly supply of tickets was not enough.
He looked like a novice, just like her.
Jiang Henian instantly gained confidence. She felt around and made the number six with her fingers.
"No ticket, 16 cents a pound."
In this way, Jiang Henian used the cover of white cloth to smuggle eight kilograms of fresh corn from the space into a bamboo basket and earned his first money, one yuan and twenty-eight cents.
She happily took the banknotes. Just as the woman stood up with the full cloth bag, an old lady squeezed over.
"Girl, do you have any more? Auntie wants five pounds!"
"have!"
Jiang Henian's eyes sparkled with a light of "Money is coming!", and his little hands reached into the bamboo basket and rummaged through it quickly.
She kept the small basket and made several sales in a row.
It was not until an uncle who wanted to buy 20 kilograms of corn casually said, "This small basket can hold quite a lot" that Jiang Henian hurriedly braked the car and lifted the white cloth with a wry smile.
"Only three left..."
The uncle didn't think it was too little and paid 1.6 cents to buy it.
In just a few minutes, he earned a total of six yuan and twenty-four cents. Jiang Henian squatted on the ground, counting the small coins of a few yuan in his hand, feeling very happy.
She hadn't intended to sell corn before she came, but now that business had come her way, it would be nice to sell some for some cash. They mainly ate rice anyway, so they couldn't consume that much corn.
I'm free anyway, so I might as well earn some money and take He to a restaurant down the mountain later, hehe.
I wonder if herbal medicine can be sold this way? I've been to town twice and haven't seen any herbal medicine shops yet.
As I was distracted, a sour smell like socks that had been rotting for three days suddenly came over me.
Jiang Henian raised his eyes with a start and saw a man with messy hair and unshaven beard squatting in front of him.
"Do you have food coupons?"
A beggar man in ragged clothes and covered in dirt came over, holding a dime that looked like pickled cabbage tightly in his hand, and said in a hoarse and rude voice:
"Food coupons, give me ten food coupons!"
As he swayed, the hair that was blocking his face fell apart, and Jiang Henian saw his face clearly.
Extremely dirty, pale and skinny with cow eyes and a beard.
This person!!!
Jiang Henian's head seemed to be hit hard, and many messy and terrifying images flashed through his mind.
In the barren mountains, vicious refugees, rusty sickles, and hot blood spraying onto faces...
Plop.
The frightened girl fell to the ground, and the bamboo basket was knocked over by the man.
She stared in horror at the bearded man in front of her who had appeared there out of nowhere. The extreme confusion and fear made her throat tight and she was completely speechless.
Seeing this, the other people in the alley all moved away. No one wanted to get into trouble here.
"Food coupons!! You bitch! I said give me food coupons!"
A dirty black hand suddenly reached out and accidentally pulled off the headscarf around Jiang Henian's face, revealing a delicate and fair beautiful face.
Looks very sweet and fragile.
The man, who had been fleeing from famine for a long time and was so hungry that he wanted to eat people, had red eyes, his breathing was turbid, and he pounced forward with his teeth bared.
His face was hit hard by the rough bamboo basket and was twisted.
Jiang Henian sat on the ground, trembling all over, and used his hands and feet to back away and get up.
Still clutching the deformed bamboo basket, she stared at the bearded man warily, her eyes glancing at the closed gate behind him.
“Congratulations… Congratulations…”
The girl's face was pale, her lips slightly open, and after a few difficult breaths, she finally made a sound due to the blockage in her throat.
“Little uncle——!!!”
The bearded man was irritated by her sharp cry.
Even a person who is so hungry that he has lost his mind knows to pick on the weak, just like when he wanted to buy ten food coupons with his only remaining ten cents, his target was Jiang Henian, a small man squatting by the wall selling corn.
His face was distorted, his hair was disheveled, and he rushed forward without any hesitation.
A pair of bloodshot cow eyes protruded from the sunken eye sockets, looking hideous and ferocious, exactly the same as the illusion Jiang Henian had seen before.
Her breathing was trembling violently, and she threw the bamboo basket out with all her strength. There was no way to avoid it, so she could only turn around and run to the other end of the alley.
"Uncle, come and save me!!!"
The girl's terrified screams pierced the entire alley.
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