Chapter 16 Snatch
She hurried back to the house and got a basket to put them in.
In fact, the cherry trees in the Lu family were the ones she had been longing to eat when she was pregnant with her baby. Unfortunately, it was the wrong season, and in the 1970s, when preservation technology was limited, she could not eat them. When Lu Yunchen came back from visiting his relatives and learned about this, he planted this cherry tree on his own mountain.
Fortunately, this private mountain is full of rocks, so no one said anything.
The cherry trees had few fruits last year, but this year the weather was favorable and the branches were densely covered with fruits, and the growth was gratifying. As a result, the branches were filled with cherries that Huang Xinran had hastened to turn red.
Huang picked the fruits in a hurry. After picking all the ripe cherries, he found that he had picked two large baskets full.
Such beautiful cherries will surely fetch a good price!
Taking advantage of the night, she secretly brought the cherries home. She was afraid of being discovered, so she carefully opened the door and hid in the woodshed. Few people came to the woodshed, so as long as she got up early and left, no one would find her.
But soon, Huang Xinran found that he took it for granted too much.
Although no one came to the woodshed, the cherries she picked gave off a rich fragrance. Even though she tried to cover it up carefully, the rich, unique fragrance of cherries still permeated every pore and spread quickly.
She quickly closed the door, looked around, and saw that the two children were already asleep, so she quickly lay down to rest. She had to go sell cherries early the next morning!
What she didn't know was that just as she walked out of the woodshed, a pair of sharp eyes in the darkness stared at her back and watched her enter the room.
Soon, the black shadow quietly entered the woodshed and quickly found the cherries hidden by Huang Xinran.
I was stunned.
As if he couldn't believe his eyes, he carefully took out a few cherries, looked at them in the faint light outside, sniffed them, and finally took two carefully, put the basket back to its original state, and left.
Huang Xinran naturally didn't know about this.
She quickly fell into a dream. She vaguely felt as if she had forgotten something, but she couldn't remember what it was.
She was in a daze all night, dreaming about her past life and the incident that changed her life. There was a bloody dagger in her hand, blood splashing on her face, and endless darkness in her terrified eyes, which gradually swallowed her up...
“Ah!~”
She sat up from her dream, breathing rapidly, and realized that she was sweating profusely.
Only then did she realize that she had felt something was wrong before going to bed last night, but Lu Yunchen did not go back to his room to rest? She had not been in the same room with a man for so long that she had forgotten about it.
Seeing that it was almost three o'clock and she couldn't sleep, she simply got up and went out, carrying the load from the firewood room and hurriedly left the village.
As a result, the rabbit that was previously "waiting for the rabbit" was also caught.
After crossing the ridge behind the village, you will reach a steel factory area.
There is a flat cement road outside the factory gate. On weekdays, anyone with extra vegetables from their own plots would bring them to the road outside the factory and set up stalls to sell them. Usually, the market is open from 4 or 5 in the morning to around 8:30 in the morning. Over time, it has become a fixed morning market.
Huang Xinran had heard about it all her life, but she had never set up a stall to sell things before. This was her first time here, and everything looked very unfamiliar to her. But soon, the desire to make money drove her urgently, and she finally came here.
The sky was gradually getting brighter, and people who had gotten up early to buy groceries were starting to go out one after another.
Huang Xinran also found a spot in the corner and put down the bag.
She didn't take all the cherries out. Instead, she filled a bamboo basket with half the cherries and placed it side by side with the rabbit.
Almost as soon as she put the rabbit away, someone came over in the dark and asked for the price.
“How much do you sell rabbits?”
In the 1980s, people in the countryside tightened their belts and rarely saw meat. The steel mill also turned a blind eye to the nearby farmers who took fruits and vegetables grown in their own fields to sell outside the factory area. The officials did not intervene and the people did not investigate. Of course, if someone exposed this matter and reported it, the relevant authorities would still take action and arrest those who should be arrested.
Someone was selling rabbits openly. Everyone was surprised, and soon someone came over to ask the price.
"Look, big brother! This rabbit is big enough and has a lot of meat, more than 8 kilograms, so fat! I don't want more from you, 6 yuan, if you want it, just take it! I'll also draw a picture for good luck, what do you think?"
Pork is now about 1.35 yuan per pound, and you can't choose fat or lean meat when selling it in state-owned butcher shops. The point is that meat is now sold with coupons, and meat is not available every day.
"Six yuan?! This is too expensive. It's enough for my family's living expenses for more than half a month. No, no! The rabbit meat has to be skinned and there won't be much meat left after removing the internal organs. Please make it cheaper. Four yuan, I'll take it!"
The other party shook his head and bargained.
Not only is pork delicious, but the fat can also be used to make oil, which can be eaten for a long time if stored well. Rabbit meat is woody and requires a lot of oil, so it is not worth it. The more the other party thought about it, the more he felt that it was impossible to make a deal, and his hand stopped turning the rabbit.
"Brother, look carefully. This rabbit is so fat that even if you peel it and remove the internal organs, you can still get a lot of rabbit meat. It is reasonable to sell it to you for 6 pieces. You can buy it back to entertain guests. In addition to the common pork, you can also add an extra dish to the table. How face-saving is that? I wonder how happy the family will be."
"That's not worth 6 bucks. In my opinion, it's 4.5 bucks at most..."
In these days, one month of hard work in the revolution only earned about 40 yuan. It seems like a lot, but 40 yuan is not enough to support a large family. A rabbit costs 6 yuan?
It’s expensive. It’s really too expensive!
"Brother, you can't say that, and you can't calculate the account like that."
Huang Xinran was not in a hurry, and his laughter was attractive. "There are not many chances to encounter rabbits in this morning market, you must seize it. If you miss this opportunity, you will never see this shop again. So, I will sell it to you at a lower price, 5.5 yuan, you can take it!"
Huang Xinran actually had no idea how much the hare was worth.
She just extrapolated the price based on pork prices, and five dollars for the rabbit was her bottom line.
The other party shook his head like a rattle, "No, no! It's too expensive. I can't afford it. I'll buy it for 4.5 yuan. How about it?"
"No, that won't work. It's 5.5 yuan, fixed price..."
Seeing that the other party was about to leave, Huang Xinran quickly stated the bottom price, "How about this, we each take a step, and you take the 5 yuan!"
"It's expensive, too expensive!"
The man was obviously interested.
But for some reason he hesitated and withdrew his hand.
But just as he put the rabbit down, a hand reached out from the side and snatched the rabbit away: "5 dollars, right? I'll buy this rabbit!"
Also handed over was 5 yuan.
Huang Xinran smiled apologetically at the big brother who had spoken to him before, "Big brother, you can see that my price is really not expensive!"
She doesn't know whether it is expensive or not.
But since someone is willing to spend 5 dollars to buy it, it means that there are people willing to pay at this price.