Shen Yu was so happy that if there weren't people waiting in line outside, he would have hugged Meng Tao and kissed her a few times.

As more and more people were queuing, she had to make her conversation brief. After hanging up the phone in Beijing, Meng Tao dialed the number given by Ma Fengnian. Four or five minutes later, Ma Fengnian came running over breathlessly to answer the call. Meng Tao then told her about the tea and didn't say anything else. She felt bad being urged to make a phone call.

We must tell Grandpa Liu and his family about the engagement. Let's call them tomorrow or the day after tomorrow when we are ready to go back to the commune. Not many people make long-distance calls at the commune post office. Grandpa Xu just said that he would also call Liu Yongsheng.

In that era, communication was so difficult that we had to wait another ten years before mobile phones appeared. The first batch of mobile phones were said to be as heavy as bricks. It took a brick to make a phone call. It took a brick to make a phone call... It's so funny to think about it!

Coming out of the post office, Meng Tao had a mysterious smile on her face, and Shen Yu smiled even brighter. He held Meng Tao's hand and crossed the road, and never let go. He lowered his head and stared at his fiancée with eyes that could drown people.

If someone who knew him saw Shen Yu now, they probably wouldn't recognize him and would suspect that they had met a pervert who looked very similar to Shen Yu.

It was rare for a man and a woman to openly hold hands while shopping in this small city. Passersby looked at her sideways. Even though Meng Tao came from the future, she did not have as strong a mentality as Shen Yu, but she could not pull her hand away. At this moment, Shen Yu was like a fool, holding her tightly and refusing to let go.

Meng Tao had no choice but to take out two masks from the bag she was carrying, and gave one to Shen Yu and wore one herself, covering half of her face so that she would not feel embarrassed when being watched. Then she led Shen Yu into the black market.

There were many people in the black market and the order was no better than on the street, so Xiao Wangcai was put in a cloth bag.

Just after the Chinese New Year, there were a lot of people visiting the black market and a lot of things for sale. Everyone was focused on doing business and had no time to care about what others were doing.

Shen Yu held Meng Tao in one hand and held Xiao Wangcai in the other. Meng Tao wanted to hug Xiao Wangcai, but Shen Yu didn't let her - his fiancée didn't even hug him, so why should Xiao Wangcai get that treatment?

Walking from the beginning to the end of the street, most of the goods are grains, cloth, clothes, and homemade pastries and foods. There are also stalls selling medicinal herbs and antiques, but there are no dried goods or mountain products.

Meng Tao stopped by an antique stall and picked up the small plum bottles, blue and white covered bowls, and jade seals that were being sold and looked at them carefully.

Grandpa Shen Yu had a lot of old items at home. He had been exposed to them since he was a child. Even though he had not learned how to identify them, he could basically tell the real from the fake just by his eyesight. Seeing that Meng Tao was interested in these, he gave her some pointers:

"The seal is a replica. The plum vase from the Qing Dynasty has a very fine crack here. It may break at any time. The blue and white bowl has a gap that has been patched up. It has lost its collection value... There is nothing to see on this stall."

The stall owner was a short man who was courteous at first, but when he heard what Shen Yu said, his face darkened and he snatched the small plum vase from Meng Tao's hand: "Give me a way out. If you don't want to buy, please go somewhere else. I'm counting on this stall to exchange for a few kilograms of rice."

Meng Tao also looked at Shen Yu speechlessly: It’s enough for you to know, and tell me later, there’s no need to point it all out to others.

Shen Yu touched Meng Tao's hair, glanced at the stall owner and his stall, leaned over and picked out two copper coins from a pile of copper coins on the left side of the stall, and handed them to Meng Tao: "You can string these together with a rope to play with."

Meng Tao asked the stall owner, "How much are these two copper coins?"

The stall owner was so shocked by Shen Yu that he didn't even bother to look at him. He said weakly, "Give me one dollar, take it, take it!"

The other one was "Da Song Tong Bao", with clear characters and beautiful calligraphy. It must be very valuable since it is so old, but she was not sure, so she asked Shen Yu: "Is this Da Song copper coin worth collecting?"

Shen Yu took the "Da Song Tong Bao" coin, rubbed it in his palm, tossed it again, and smiled at his little money-grubber: "This is a Da Song Tong Bao coin worth ten big coins. It has been handed down to the present day, and the number is very small. It has a very high collection value. A few years ago, one appeared in an overseas auction house and was sold for hundreds of thousands of yuan."

"Wow, it's so valuable?"

"You are lucky. Both copper coins are well preserved. This Xianfeng Baoquan is also valuable. My grandfather's relative, my aunt's father, is a collector. He also has a Da Song Tong Bao and two Xianfeng Baoquan coins. His Da Song Tong Bao is a little damaged, but he treasures it like a treasure."

"It's not my luck, it's obviously you... Oh, so you saw these two coins a long time ago?"

"Yes, you can see it when you get closer to the stall."

"Then how dare you say that? Aren't you afraid that the stall owner will chase us away and not sell to us?"

"The purpose of opening a business is to make money. The stall owner is just a middleman. He doesn't know the true value of these two copper coins, but as a businessman, he must know that the older the items are, the more valuable they are. If we want to buy the copper coins from the beginning, the stall owner will definitely notice it and take the opportunity to increase the price and refuse to let go. We have to distract his attention first and make him feel that the copper coins are not worth anything, so that you can buy them for one dollar."

Meng Tao: “…”

I thought you were just honest, but I didn't expect you to be so sinister and cruel when it comes to cheating people.

However, Meng Tao didn't care about that. She was very happy to get two ancient copper coins worth hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Mengzhou City is not big, and they finished touring the city in half a day. Neither of them wanted to eat in the restaurant, so they went home and started cooking together.

Meng Tao once asked Aunt Wang about the use of gas. Aunt Wang had never heard of a gas tank, but knew about liquefied gas stoves. She said that those were only available in the families of cadres in the unit, and that residents in their street basically didn't have them.

It seems that this liquefied gas stove also needs to be based on indicators, and the indicators are very tight. By the time it is the turn of street residents to use liquefied gas, it will probably be the 1980s.

So Meng Tao stopped hoping and just slowly burned firewood and charcoal. There are still many people in later generations who dream of eating meals cooked in an iron pot with firewood. She has been eating it for so long and it is indeed delicious. Anyway, she has nothing to do now and has plenty of time.

After dinner, they did not go out in the afternoon. They rested in the house. Xiao Wangcai was dissatisfied with Shen Yu occupying his mistress. He hugged her tightly and refused to let go. That was fine, but the grown man was like a greedy cat. He nibbled her cheeks and bit her lips when he had time. It was too much! Xiao Wangcai barked at Shen Yu righteously. Unfortunately, he was driven out by the bad guy and the door was ruthlessly closed. He lay down unhappily by the stove in the corridor. The fragrant tea overflowed from the teapot on the stove, which soon healed him. He squinted his eyes and looked intoxicated.

(End of this chapter)