Chapter 20 Buying Food
The days passed one by one, and Jiang Xinbai followed his fifth sister and wandered around the area, looking at houses here and there, which made Li Huifen very jealous.
"Mom, my third sister-in-law has an easier life than you do. She just hangs around all day long, and doesn't even help with the housework. She just keeps running outside. I don't know what's attracting her outside."
Sun Erni didn't even raise her head, her hands kept moving, "If you are willing to give her a share of the work of gluing matchboxes, I will ask her to stay at home and work with us."
Li Huifen quickly refused when she heard this, "No, that won't work. There isn't much work to do already, what's the point of having more people? But mom, I mean my third brother and sister-in-law are free anyway, so why not cook and do laundry at home!"
"You're dreaming. You earn money while others work for free. Anyway, one day per person, no one loses out." Sun Erni assigned tasks to her three daughters-in-law early on. Each of them cooked for a day, and each room was responsible for clothes. Sweeping the floor was done by her, an old woman, and she was fair in her duties.
Su Qiuyan didn't understand why the eldest sister-in-law couldn't stand the third brother's wife? Isn't it better for everyone to do their own thing?
Jiang Xinbai, who was being criticized, suddenly sneezed, "A-choo, who is talking about me behind my back?" Then he rubbed his nose, wondering if he had a cold.
"Okay, let's go. Haven't we found a way? Let's hurry up. But is what you said reliable?" Jiang Xinlan touched her sister. Wasn't she coming out early in the morning just for this matter?
Jiang Xinbai calmed himself down and whispered, "I also accidentally saw someone go in with an empty basket, and when he came out, the basket was obviously heavy. Do you think it's unreliable?"
"Okay, let's go. I hope we can get some food. Those of us who don't have food supplies are the most troubled."
Jiang Xinbai led her fifth sister towards the place in her memory. In fact, she had just lied. She did not see it, but she had been there. However, it should be that she had been there in her previous life.
She didn't know what was going on recently, but things that hadn't happened yet kept popping up in her mind, intermittently. After so many times, she finally figured it out. This might be what people call the previous life.
"We're here. Let's cover our faces and go in." Jiang Xinbai led Jiang Xinlan to the entrance of a small alley and stood on tiptoe to look inside. "Here, just go further inside."
Jiang Xinlan glanced at the deep alley and hesitated, "Xiaobai, you won't be unable to come out after you go in, right?"
"What are you thinking? How is that possible? Follow me." Jiang Xinbai walked in with familiarity. When she turned the corner, she saw a hunched old man in a gray shirt squatting on the ground. She pursed her lips, took out a dollar from her pocket and handed it over, "Two people."
The old man took the money without even looking up and said, "Go in, be careful, and run away if you hear any noise. We are not responsible if you get caught."
"Yes, I understand."
Jiang Xinlan held her sister's hand and said fearfully, "Xiaobai, why don't we go back? It looks dangerous."
"Don't call me by my name here, just call me sister. Let's hurry up, it's okay." In Jiang Xinbai's dream, this black market has existed for a long time and nothing has happened. It seems that the people behind it have strong backing, or the higher-ups are turning a blind eye.
Jiang Xinlan's heart was pounding, and a strong sense of guilt swept over her. She was afraid of running into someone she knew, and even more afraid of being raided by the police. But when she turned around and saw her younger sister's calm look, she felt a little more at ease. It's okay, it's okay, I'll just buy it and leave, it's okay. Just like this, she comforted herself and followed Jiang Xinbai inside. After turning several corners, she finally saw the appearance of the black market - there were many people squatting on the ground on both sides, and the things were also placed on the ground. The buyers and sellers were all quiet.
I also saw several people squatting in front of some stalls, whispering something, probably discussing how to make changes.
Jiang Xinbai looked around, and suddenly her eyes lit up. She saw a dark and thin man. She hurriedly walked up to him, squatted down, and asked in a low voice: "Is there any food?"
Heizi looked at the two sisters in front of him, thought for a moment and replied: "Yes, but I don't want money or other tickets, I just want candy tickets, do you have any?"
Jiang Xinbai did not answer his question, but asked: "What kind of food do you have? Let's take a look first."
Heizi understood what she said. He reached out and pulled out the cloth bag hidden behind him. He carefully untied it, revealing the golden cornmeal inside. He smiled and said, "I have five pounds of cornmeal here. It's all made from good corn. It smells delicious."
Jiang Xinbai was a little disappointed, "That's all? Is there anything else?"
Heizi pursed his lips and stretched out a finger, "I want a pound of sugar tickets, brown sugar tickets, I will give them to you only if you have them." The meaning was very clear, if you have them, then exchange them, if not, don't waste time.
Jiang Xinbai did nothing more and pulled out a sewn cloth bag from his waistband, and took out a candy ticket from it, with the words "sugar ticket" clearly written on it.
"Look, you can see that I have a ticket, but I told you in advance that I can only buy white sugar here, not brown sugar. You need a doctor's order to get it. There's nothing we can do about it."
Heizi was a little disappointed, but this was the only one who brought a candy ticket today, and he didn't want to miss it.
"Okay, I'll switch with you."
"Hey, wait a minute, you're not going to trick us with these five pounds of cornmeal, are you?" Jiang Xinlan looked at Heizi warily. You know, white flour is only 1.7 cents per pound, and cornmeal at the grain station is only 8 cents per pound. Five pounds is only 40 cents at most, which is not worth a pound of sugar ticket.
Heizi was a little embarrassed and explained hurriedly, "Of course not, I'm not here to steal. I still have three pounds of vermicelli, eight pounds of dried sweet potatoes, and five pounds of taro. Do you want any?"
Jiang Xinbai thought for a moment and added two more yuan to the candy ticket. "I want all of these. I'll give you a candy ticket and two yuan. What do you think?"
"Hey, why give so much?" Jiang Xinlan pulled her sister. How many things can you buy with two dollars? What a waste of money.
"Sister, don't talk first." Jiang Xinbai handed the money and tickets to Heizi, "Is it okay?" She knew in her heart that no matter how valuable the sugar tickets were, they were not as valuable as food. Although a pound of sugar ticket could be sold for 2 yuan on the black market, plus cash it would be four yuan, but the opportunity was rare and she felt it was worth it.
Heizi agreed reluctantly for the sake of the sugar ticket, "Forget it, I just want a sugar ticket. You don't know, but before, it took 8 yuan to buy two one-pound food tickets. I'm at a big loss this time." After saying that, he asked Jiang Xinbai and her sister to wait there for a while, and when he came back, he brought over several woven bags.
"Look, it's all here, how are you going to take it back? We already made a loss at this price, so I can't leave my bag to you."
Jiang Xinbai nodded, "We brought our own cloth bags, sister, we can put them in two baskets."
The transaction was completed quickly after the money was exchanged for the goods. Heizi got the money and the ticket and ran away in a hurry.
Jiang Xinlan opened her mouth to say something, but she saw something out of the corner of her eye and her face turned pale instantly, her nails digging tightly into the back of Jiang Xinbai's hand.
"Hiss, sister, what are you doing? It hurts." Jiang Xinbai looked at her in confusion, but when he followed his sister's gaze, he soon discovered something unusual, so he quickly pulled his sister towards the exit.
The so-called dried sweet potatoes are the sweet potato shreds that were cut into thin strips using tools when we were young. They are usually used to feed pigs. Anyway, when I was a child, I saw my grandmother cooking it for pigs and they wanted to eat it. My grandmother specially put some next to the rice for me to eat, and the taste was so terrible.
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