Chapter 16, Small Opening
It was just past ten o'clock when I came out of the supply and marketing cooperative. Looking around the hundred-meter-long commune, there was nowhere to go.
Chen Yun had only been standing at the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative for a few minutes when he was choked by the stench wafting through the air and began to gag repeatedly.
"Next time, let's borrow a bicycle to come to the commune to buy meat, and then head back."
"It's only 10 o'clock now, and we still have to wait four hours for a car."
After the initial novelty wore off, Ruanqiu disliked the commune environment even more than Chen Yun, and would immediately retreat to stand on the threshold of the supply and marketing cooperative whenever chickens or ducks passed by.
Chen Yun even went out of his way to exchange a fish ticket yesterday, intending to treat Ruan Qiu to a meal at a state-run restaurant at noon.
Looking at the state-run restaurant diagonally across the street, he quickly dismissed the idea.
A middle-aged man sat on a low bamboo stool at the entrance of the restaurant, his legs crossed. He was wearing a blue apron and sleeves, and judging from his attire, he was probably the restaurant's head chef.
If Chen Yun wasn't mistaken, the knife he was using to vigorously scrape his feet was a kitchen knife that had just been used to cut vegetables, with a few vegetable leaves stuck to the blade.
"How about we... go inside and take a look, and if we come across a pancake vendor, we can buy a couple for lunch?" Chen Yun suggested.
At Chen Yun's prompting, Ruanqiu also saw the chef at the restaurant entrance. Despite feeling nauseous, she waved her hands repeatedly, saying, "Let's go back to the factory and eat noodles. I'm not hungry!"
Chen Yun looked around, then her gaze suddenly stopped at the alley entrance not far away.
Behind the commune was a residential area, and it was perfectly normal for people to come and go. What was strange was that some of the people coming and going were wearing the uniforms of the machine factory.
Several of them had come in the same car as Chen Yun and his group, and their bags were bulging when they came out of the alley.
"Let's go take a look." Chen Yun pointed to the alley entrance.
"Look at my memory." Ruanqiu glanced over there and immediately remembered what Li Huguo had said before she left: "Li Huguo said that the supply and marketing cooperative... has a small opening."
"Small opening" is a code word; it actually means the black market.
"Big market" refers to a huge black market where you can buy anything as long as you have money, including foreign gadgets.
Small openings allow for bartering, mainly involving the exchange of goods such as rice, grains, and oil.
A large opening is illegal, a small opening is only a violation.
Therefore, most communes and county towns have small loopholes, and as long as they don't involve huge transactions, they are generally ignored.
"Go check it out, I'm worried we won't have enough food for tonight!" Chen Yun said.
Gao Ming is single, and Huang Lian's family has a total of six people. Adding Ruan Qiu and her husband, a total of ten people can sit at a large table.
Just now, Chen Yun was worried that beef alone wouldn't be enough for the meat and vegetable dishes, and was thinking of going back to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a fish later.
The two didn't know where the small opening was, but they happened to see two women carrying baskets turning into it, so they quickly jogged after them.
The alley was pitch black.
The eaves of the brick and tile houses on both sides were almost touching, the bluestone road was narrow and damp, and the surface of the ditch seemed to be completely covered by flies.
The two people in front didn't notice that someone was following them. Their conversation grew louder and louder, and eventually it turned into an argument.
"I'll pay for it. I'll definitely take Dad to the hospital for a proper check-up next week," the woman said.
"They're all old problems, what's there to see? With that spare money, you'd be better off buying some grain for the kids. Your eldest sister's daughter, Shufang, hasn't had meat in ages..."
An older woman's voice rambled on about the family's difficulties, her back bent under the weight of the basket on her back, making each step extremely difficult.
Chen Yun pursed her lips.
"Dad is the pillar of our family. What would we do if something happened to him?" The young woman's voice was already trembling with tears.
"Don't worry about things at home. Take care of your own little family first. And don't sneak tickets home anymore. If the student affairs office finds out, your dad and I won't be able to explain ourselves no matter what."
"The student work group asked me to take the ticket home, and he also gave me the money to take my dad to the county hospital for treatment."
"Wei Hong".
The middle-aged woman stopped walking, and the young woman next to her also stopped and wiped away her tears.
Li Weihong?
The young woman crying revealed her profile; it was Li Weihong, who had left a deep impression on Chen Yun with her overly enthusiastic attitude in the store.
"Xiao Chen, it's that saleswoman from the store!" Ruanqiu recognized her quickly as well.
Chen Yun gently shook her head.
The two slowed their pace, and Li Weihong quickly noticed the people coming from behind. She quickly turned around and pulled the middle-aged woman to continue walking deeper into the alley.
"Li Weihong wants you to help her father get medical treatment, right?"
"It should be."
Medical care in the county town is entirely out-of-pocket, and even for families of officials, most cannot afford treatment for serious illnesses.
The middle-aged woman was simply worried that Li Weihong would spend all her money and still not get better, ultimately losing both her money and her health.
After following Li Weihong and her daughter for a few minutes, Chen Yun soon saw an abandoned ancestral hall.
The mud in front of the ancestral hall was covered with countless footprints, and many people were wandering around the mud. Occasionally, you could hear them whispering something.
Those waiting nearby would hear this and go over to whisper a few words, after which the two would go to the side, put down their baskets, and make the transaction.
Li Weihong asked the middle-aged woman to put her basket aside, and she herself joined the lingering group.
"Chen Yun, if Li Weihong asked you to help her father with his medical treatment privately, would you help her?"
Ruanqiu hadn't spoken since meeting Li Weihong, but suddenly asked Chen Yun a question when she saw Xiaokouzi.
Before a reply could be heard, a heavy sigh faded into the distance.
"Yes," Chen Yun replied softly.
As soon as the two stood at the edge of the muddy ground, a simple-looking man walked up to them and said in a low voice, "Chickens, our own chickens."
"Need tickets?" Chen Yun heard the woman next door ask, and she followed up with, "How do I exchange them?"
"No tickets needed, just money."
The older sister pouted and waved her hand. Chen Yun then asked, "How much are you planning to sell it for?"
The man stretched out his palm and said, "Five cents a pound, and this chicken of mine weighs four and a half pounds." Seeing Chen Yun frown slightly, he immediately changed his mind and said, "Two yuan."
"Let me take a look at the [illegible] first," Chen Yun said.
The man walked to the side, put down his basket, lifted the cloth, and casually grabbed a hen whose wings and beak were tied up.
“It’s not easy to raise chickens that are secretly released into the mountains to this size.”
People are struggling to get enough to eat, so raising speckled chickens to have shiny feathers must have taken a lot of effort.
Chen Yun took the chicken, tossed it around, and readily nodded: "Two yuan for you."
The man wrapped the two yuan tightly in a handkerchief, layer upon layer, while Chen Yun overheard him muttering things like how he finally had money to take his child to the county town for medical treatment.
"What's wrong with your child, brother?"
Based on his professional habits from his previous life, his mouth reacted before his brain, and by the time Chen Yun realized what was happening, he had already asked the question.
The man sighed bitterly, "The child keeps complaining of stomach aches. We've taken him to the village clinic several times, but nothing's helped. I don't know what kind of life-threatening illness he has..."
"Is your older brother planning to take the child to the county town for medical treatment?"
The older brother nodded.
“But…” Chen Yun looked down at his older brother’s worn-out canvas shoes with countless patches: “Two yuan is enough for the bus fare to the county town.”
The honest man was taken aback, and his hands began to tremble slightly: "The fare to the county town is two yuan?"
Having lived for decades, the farthest man had ever been was the commune. If it weren't for the need to get medical treatment for his child, he wouldn't even dare to think about going to the county town.
Chen Yun said the fare would be two yuan, but that was money he had saved by secretly raising chickens at great risk.
"The round-trip transportation costs, as well as accommodation and food..." Chen Yun couldn't bear to continue.
The man's tall frame gradually hunched over after Chen Yun's kind reminder, his face contorted with pain and struggle.
For the poor, seeing a doctor means... going bankrupt.
Chen Yun sighed, thought for a moment, and then spoke again: "Why don't you take the child to the Hongri Machinery Factory Clinic? See Dr. Chen Yun."
"Hongri Machinery Factory?"
"I am Dr. Chen Yun. Just come to the health center to find me." Chen Yun explained more clearly.
Chen Yun is a professional when it comes to treating children; she is confident that she is no worse than any doctor in the county hospital.
Seeing that the man still didn't understand, she smiled and didn't say anything more. She picked up the chicken and walked back to Ruanqiu's side.
"What's wrong?"
"nothing!"
Ruanqiu withdrew her bright gaze, saying it was nothing, but the next second she covered her mouth with both hands and chuckled.
This left Chen Yun even more confused.
"Dr. Chen?"
After circling around for a while without making any trades, Li Weihong quickly turned to Chen Yun and Ruan Qiu.
"Comrade Li." Chen Yun tossed the tied-up chicken to the ground, stood on tiptoe to look into the basket on his back, and asked, "What are you selling?"
"I just went into the mountains to pick mushrooms this morning." After saying that, Li Weihong seemed embarrassed and quickly coughed twice: "The brigade allows us to go into the mountains to pick mushrooms to sell."
First, factory workers were criticized for picking mushrooms, but then they picked mushrooms to sell. Li Weihong was afraid that Chen Yun would misunderstand.
Chen Yun obviously didn't think much of it, and the next moment her eyes lit up as she quickly asked, "What kinds of mushrooms are there?"
The pine mushrooms I bought in Gaoming last month tasted amazing even with just a simple stir-fry in lard. If I can find some good mushrooms again today, I'll immediately change my dinner to mushroom hot pot.
"Let's go over there and watch it slowly."
Li Weihong turned around and gave the middle-aged woman a wink, then followed Chen Yun to squat down at the foot of the ancestral hall wall.
"Dr. Chen, take your time choosing. Just give me some money."
"The mushrooms are huge."
The green-headed mushroom was almost the size of Chen Yun's palm. Even when covered in red mud, the freshness of Chen Yun's favorite termite mushroom could not be concealed.
Chen Yun didn't expect that the opportunity to improve her meals would come so soon.
She was enthusiastically selecting bacteria, while Ruanqiu and Li Weihong started chatting as well.
Pat pat—
The sound of straw sandals crunching in the mud stopped in front of them, and the three of them looked up at the same time.
He was the man who had just sold chickens and was planning to take his child to the county town for medical treatment.
"Doctor... your surname is Chen, right?"
"Yes! Just remember Dr. Chen from the health center, brother."
It took the man a long time to calm down before he finally understood what Chen Yun meant. He walked on and then turned back to ask her again, still feeling uneasy.
"Can you help my child get medical treatment?" the man asked.
"We need to see the child first, and I can't guarantee that I can take good care of him."
"As long as it's viewable! As long as it's viewable!"
"I'll do my best." Chen Yun smiled and continued, "Prepare three cents for the registration fee first, and we'll talk about the rest after I've seen the child."
The man's eyes burned with intensity, as if they had been ignited by the sun.
"Thank you, Dr. Chen."
After bowing deeply to Chen Yun, the man happily ran off.
The pattering sound faded into the distance...
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