Shen Yao got up early the next morning. After packing up, she pushed the old bicycle from the main room into the yard.
Because she had never ridden this old-fashioned 28-bar bicycle, she practiced in the yard first, and only after she felt there was no problem did she lock the door and set off for the county town.
As it was still early, the white frost outside had not yet dissipated, and Shen Yao felt the cold wind penetrating into her bones as soon as she stepped out of the door.
Fortunately, she was wearing warm clothes, thermal pants, sweaters, woolen pants inside, a new cotton jacket and cotton pants of the same color outside, wool socks and shoes with cowhide upper and sheepskin lining on her feet. She was really fully armed from head to toe, so she dared to go out.
Shen Yao rode her bicycle out of the village and headed towards the county town according to her memory. She didn't meet anyone along the way. She guessed that everyone was still dreaming at that time.
She used her wind abilities to travel much faster than usual, and it took her forty minutes to reach the edge of An County. She first stored the car into the space, and then headed into the county town.
Shen Yao was dumbfounded when she saw the buildings in the county town. They were too backward. The houses on the streets were like ancient buildings, mostly brick and tile houses, with very few two-story buildings. Even the roads were bumpy with potholes here and there.
Shen Yao felt that not only were the houses here backward, but even the passers-by on the streets were pale and thin, and they seemed to have little strength when walking. The only difference was their clothes, which were better than in the countryside.
Looking at this poor and backward county town really made her realize the hardships of that era.
Shen Yao put away her complicated thoughts and realized that it was just past six in the morning and the department stores were closed at this time, so she decided to find a place to stay first.
After walking around the streets for a while, she finally saw a pretty good guesthouse. She took the letter of introduction and registered for accommodation.
Shen Yao chose a better single room because she didn't want to sleep in the same room with strangers.
She checked the room thoroughly and found it was relatively clean overall, so she could stay there with peace of mind. Shen Yao saw that it was still early, so she used her clone to enter the space to sort out supplies.
"Master, how did you get in using your clone?" Xiao Ling was quite surprised to see that his master came in instead of his real body.
"We are currently in a guesthouse in the county, so we should be careful. Xiao Ling, I will go and sort out the supplies so that we can trade them in the next few days."
Outside, even if it was a single room where one lived alone, Shen Yao did not dare to enter the space at will, so using a clone to enter was the most convenient and safest way.
Xiao Ling followed Shen Yao and said, "Okay, Master, I'll go help too."
Shen Yao went to the warehouse and put the rice, flour and millet into cloth bags. These cloth bags were specially customized in her previous life. She made a large batch of them at that time. She also went to the bag factory to wholesale a large number of old-fashioned sacks, which could be used now.
She prepared a lot of fine grains and coarse grains, and then cut the pork into pieces of about one or two kilograms. She also took some eggs and soybean oil and prepared all the things to be traded in the next few days. Then her clone returned to her original body.
After Shen Yao came out of the guesthouse, she first found a remote place to change her clothes, painted her face to look like a woman in her thirties, and even specially painted a big black mole at the corner of her mouth.
She put on a dog-head hat before going out, and walked on the road with a backpack on her back. She looked around as she walked, used her mental power to find out where there was a black market or factory, and then went straight to her destination.
Arriving near the black market, Shen Yao did not rush in, but first took a white flour steamed bun and nibbled on it. After taking a few bites, she saw a woman in her thirties walking quickly towards her.
Zhang Xiuhe lowered her voice and said, "Sister, is there food in your backpack?"
Her intuition told her that since this girl could eat white flour steamed buns, she must have no shortage of food. However, food was becoming increasingly scarce, and there were many people in her family. If they couldn't buy food, the family would almost run out of food.
Shen Yao was happy in her heart. She knew that taking out the white flour steamed bun would be the right thing to do, so she nodded to the elder sister in front of her.
Zhang Xiuhe's eyes lit up and she quickly asked, "What are you getting? I want them all."
Shen Yao saw the elder sister's expression and knew that she was really short of food, so she lowered her voice and said, "We have rice, flour, and eggs."
Although Zhang Xiuhe was extremely excited, she did not dare to show it and just pulled Shen Yao aside.
While saying loudly: "Hey, sister, why haven't I seen you come home for so long? It turns out that I found the wrong place. Come on, go home with your cousin. You have to stay at your sister's house for a few more days this time."
"Cousin, I was wondering why I couldn't find your house after searching for so long. It turns out I went to the wrong place." Shen Yao thought this elder sister was really dramatic, but she didn't feel any ill will towards her. So she decided to go with her. Maybe there would be an unexpected surprise.
"Sister, my last name is Zhang, Zhang Xiuhe. I work in a textile factory. My husband is the deputy director of the textile factory. You can just call me Sister Zhang, so don't worry." Zhang Xiuhe said as she enthusiastically pulled Shen Yao to the family compound in the factory.
Shen Yao didn't expect this elder sister to be so honest, but she would wait and see the situation. If she could develop a long-term supply, it would be good. After all, there are quite a few workers in the textile factory.
"Sister Zhang, don't people in your city have food supplies? Why are you so short of food?" Shen Yao asked back.
"Well, as the saying goes, the grown-up kids eat their parents poor. Several of my children are well-fed, but the food supply now consists of 70 percent coarse food and 30 percent fine grains. Meat and eggs are even scarcer. How can there be enough to eat?" Zhang Xiuhe sighed.
Zhang Xiuhe led Shen Yao into a small courtyard and closed the door before asking, "Sister, how much food do you have in your backpack? Don't worry, I won't let you get a bad price. Now coarse grains on the black market are two yuan, fine grains are five yuan per pound, eggs are three cents each, and pork is six yuan per pound."
"Sister Zhang, I have 10 kilograms of rice and flour, 20 eggs, and 5 kilograms of black pork. Are you sure you want them all?"
Shen Yao remembered that in her previous life, her grandmother told her about their times. Her grandmother was born into a scholarly family, and during difficult times, they had to buy food on the black market in order to survive.
During those three years, the price of grain on the black market skyrocketed. By the second half of the 1960s, grain coupons on the black market cost five yuan per pound, and the price of grain soared to six or seven yuan.
Although rice was only 1.8 yuan, standard flour was 2 yuan, and coarse grains were only a few cents at the grain supply station and the supply and marketing cooperative, in difficult times, even if you had money and coupons, there was no grain to sell to you.
Moreover, tickets were very scarce, and you couldn’t get one just because you wanted one. Therefore, even though everyone knew that the black market price was high, they had no choice but to go to the black market to make a living.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
