Chapter 22: First Visit to the Black Market
Daybreak soon arrived.
Xia Juanjuan woke up and saw the three little kids were still sleeping soundly, their heads touching each other. Their fair and tender little faces were curled up in the quilt, looking so adorable.
She resisted the urge to reach out and rub their little faces and got out of bed quietly.
For breakfast, she cooked preserved egg and lean meat porridge, of course, using the rice cooker in the space. After a while, it started bubbling and emitting a fresh and fragrant aroma.
In addition to the porridge, there are also steaming big meat buns. They are taken out of the space and are still in the state of being just out of the cage.
Then she went to the dairy and squeezed four cups of milk, also warm, in enamel cups, and placed them on the table one by one.
She bought milk powder yesterday. If someone sees her, she can just say it was milk mixed with milk powder.
When everything was almost ready, the three kids woke up in a daze.
Li Wu and Li Beibei looked at the table full of delicious food, their eyes were full of stars and their mouths were watering!
"Big meat buns! We have big meat buns in the morning too!"
Xia Juanjuan shared the meat buns with the two greedy cats, and they soon ate them with their mouths full of delicious food and happy faces.
Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Eat slowly, don't burn your mouth! And the porridge and milk, finish them all, no leftovers."
Seeing that Li Wen didn't move, she sighed inwardly. What was this kid doing?
"Xiao Wen, eat. Aren't you hungry?"
Li Wen looked up at Xia Juanjuan, then lowered his head and hesitated for a while before taking out the two yuan Xia Juanjuan had given her from his pocket, handed it to her, and said, "From now on... I don't want the two yuan per month. Just think of it as... the food expenses for the three of us brothers and sisters..."
Although he was still young, he knew that this table full of white flour steamed buns, rice porridge, and milk must be expensive!
Two dollars a month is probably not enough!
Xia Juanjuan said, "I gave you two yuan. I have already deducted your food expenses from the money I should give you. What? Are you afraid that I don't have enough money to feed you?"
Li Wen looked at Xia Juanjuan seriously and said with a worried look on his face: "If you keep squandering money like this, you will definitely run out of money later! Then everyone will be hungry again..."
Xia Juanjuan looked at Li Wen's expression like a little adult and found him cuter the more she looked at him. She couldn't help but pinch Li Wen's little face and said with a smile, "You are worried, little brat! Don't worry, I promise I won't let you go hungry."
Unfortunately, Li Wen still looked at her with a look of disdain for a spoiled woman, then he took a bite of the meat bun and whispered, "After dinner, I will go to the mountain to collect firewood. There are so many people eating at home, and there will definitely not be enough firewood in winter..."
"Brother, I'm going too!"
"Brother, Beibei also wants to pick up... um... pick up pig grass..."
When Xiaowu and Beibei heard their brother say this, they immediately responded positively.
Xiao Wu rolled his eyes at Bei Bei and corrected him, "Stupid, it's not picking pig grass, it's cutting pig grass and collecting firewood!"
Beibei was not convinced after being corrected, and pouted her lips and said, "Beibei was not wrong! It was picking pig grass... eh?"
Xia Juanjuan saw the three kids arguing, then glanced at Li Wen. She knew that when he said "there are so many people at home to eat", it meant that he had gradually accepted this new home, and she felt very relieved.
Collecting firewood was not a hard job, so Xia Juanjuan did not stop her.
She can't spoil the little ones to the point that they become lazy and ignorant just because she has supplies in her space. That's not pampering them, it's harming them.
"Well, that's fine. But you have to do it within your ability and come back on time for lunch. Do you hear me?"
I have had breakfast.
As expected, Li Jie, the third brother of the Li family, came to help build the stove.
Li Jie is tall and taciturn, but he looks like a very honest and stable person.
When the three kids saw him, they immediately gathered around him and called him affectionately, "Third Uncle."
Since he was able to capture these three kids, he must be a good person.
Sure enough, when Li Jie saw the three little guys coming over, he took out a wo wo head from his pocket and cut it into three pieces for them to eat.
This is Li Jie's breakfast. He didn't eat it because he was worried that the three kids from his eldest brother's family would have nothing to eat.
Although his wife Zhou Qiuhe came back last night and said that the three little ones were doing well at the home of his fourth brother's new wife, he didn't quite believe it.
He also suspected that Xia Juanjuan adopted these three kids just for the two houses in her eldest brother's family.
When Li Wen, Li Wu and Li Bei Bei saw Wo Wo's head, they all shook their heads and said, "Uncle San, we're full! We're not hungry!"
Li Jie was a little surprised. He looked up at Xia Juanjuan unconsciously, then lowered his head awkwardly and said with a smile: "Are you full? That's fine! Only when you are full can you grow taller!"
Xia Juanjuan saw that Li Jie was worried that these three brats would be bullied by her, so she didn't blame Li Jie. She walked up to him and said with a smile, "Third brother, I'm going to trouble you to build the stove!"
Li Jie still looked at Xia Juanjuan with suspicion and said, "Don't worry. My wife will definitely build it for you as promised!"
Xia Juanjuan didn't say anything. She asked Li Jie to help look after the three kids, and then she went out with a bamboo basket.
When she went to the town's supply and marketing cooperative yesterday, she had already roughly found the dark alley that might be the black market.
The town is not far from the county seat, so many factory workers in the county seat would bring money and various tickets to the black market to buy supplies.
Therefore, Xia Juanjuan went straight to the dark alley today.
There were already quite a few people waiting in a quiet corner of the dark alley. Those who came here often were probably old patrons they knew, so no one came up to talk to them.
In the 1970s, whether in the countryside or in the city, everyone ate from a big pot, and only state-owned stores sold it.
If an individual privately resells things, that is speculation and profiteering. At the very least, he will be criticized by the public, and at worst, he will be arrested and sentenced to jail!
Xia Juanjuan deliberately disguised herself to make sure no one recognized her before she dared to walk into the dark alley.
She found a secluded place to sit down, then took out fifty eggs, fifty duck eggs, twenty wild duck eggs, and two wild quails from the space, put them in a bamboo basket and covered it with a cloth.
It was her first time selling something, so she didn’t dare to show off too much.
Chicken eggs, duck eggs and wild duck eggs are nutritious. They are sold for five cents each in the store, but can be doubled, tripled or even trebled in price on the black market. They are hot commodities and sell out quickly.
On the contrary, rice, flour, sweet potatoes, corn and the like are sold at low prices, and the buyers are generally poor. Not only can they not afford to pay, but they may also try to lower the price. If you don't sell to them, they will probably pester you, which is too much trouble.
Xia Juanjuan rejected the offer outright and planned to sell something more expensive instead.
As for those cheap food, once you become familiar with the black market, if you have a big customer, you can buy a lot at one time and sell it later.
Most of the vendors would use stones to draw some symbols in front of themselves, such as a circle for eggs, noodles for flour, steamed buns, and so on.
Xia Juanjuan followed suit and also drew a circle and a bird pattern.
Sure enough, after a while, a tall man came up and asked, "Do you have eggs? How much is one?"