Chapter 15 Chapter 15 Black Market: Poor
After all, it was a late-night train, and after the excitement of squeezing onto the train wore off, sleepiness set in. After two o'clock, the sound of snoring gradually filled the train.
It was Lin Xinghuo's first time on a train, so he didn't dare to relax. He stuck to the wall of the train like a gecko, silently observing the surroundings. As the train grew quieter, the sounds of two young men in tattered jackets frequently going to the toilet became more noticeable.
"I have diarrhea! I can't stand it!" The young man bumped into someone without even apologizing.
Lin Xinghuo watched for a moment and realized something was going on: the two of them would dash back and forth across the train car. When one of them banged on the restroom door, the other would be inside, forcing them to cross the entire train car to the other end. This happened repeatedly, and at first everyone would open their eyes and take a look, but eventually, only complaints and grumbling remained.
At three or four in the morning, when people were most tired, the two people with diarrhea also calmed down. They began to squeeze purposefully from the middle of the carriage to other places. Lin Xinghuo could see clearly that the two people were clearly going after those who had no patches on their clothes and had more gifts.
One of them went straight to the elder sister who had warned her to be careful earlier.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
A crisp sound woke Sister Jin up. When she opened her eyes, she saw an unfamiliar man rummaging through their baskets and shouted, "Thief!"
The man was in rags, had an unshaven beard, and droopy eyelids, but he wasn't scared away. "Is there another busybody?"
"We didn't mean to scare anyone, sister. If you want to blame someone, blame that ignorant idiot outside!" She pulled out a boning knife from her bosom and said, "Wake up, everyone! Hand me your money and valuable mountain goods!"
Another came over to help, holding the knife and spitting: "You watch them, I will deal with that busybody outside!"
Pushing aside the auntie sitting in the innermost part, the young man stuck his head and arms out of the window lattice, wielding a foot-long boning knife, stabbing and sweeping it: "I'll teach you a lesson!" The knife chopped the iron sheet with a clang.
This ruthless move single-handedly stopped the old man who had tried to resist. Selangor residents were known for their toughness, but this young man was truly daring enough to stab and kill. Sister Jin hurriedly grabbed her husband, while the other passengers seemed oblivious to the commotion, simply glancing inwardly.
Lin Xinghuo dodged twice and heard the person inside say smugly, "Don't hide your intentions from me! We've asked around, and everyone in this carriage has tickets purchased through connections. So? You all have connections at the station, so if you don't have money, give some to your brothers? Hurry up!"
Lin Xinghuo clamped the knife-wielding hand with one hand and yanked the man halfway out, getting him stuck in the iron lattice. The man groaned, "Fifth Brother—she's pulling me! Go to the back window!"
"Damn it, I don't believe I can't kill her!"
Sister Jin was frightened and anxious. She just heard a voice that sounded like a girl: "Hey, young man, let him go for once. Kid, kid, why don't you jump out of the car?"
Lin Xinghuo grabbed the knife from the man in front of him, turned around and slashed the wrist of the man behind him. Dirty Beard screamed and was kicked into the car by Lin Xinghuo.
There was blood on Dirty Beard's nose and mouth, and he was clutching his right wrist and screaming.
Brother-in-law Jin quickly stood up and pushed him to the ground. Seeing this, the other passengers also hurriedly pulled the stuck one out: "Let's go! Find the train police!"
Sister Jin stuck her head out and said, "Thank you, kid. Are you okay?"
Lin Xinghuo lowered his voice: "It's okay."
Sister Jin took out an egg from her bag and handed it to her with a stretched out hand: "It'll be a cushion for you when you go downstairs later."
"Auntie, what's wrong with you? Did that short-lived beast hurt you just now?" Sister Jin retracted her head and saw the aunt opposite her huddled in her seat with her head down and not saying a word.
The aunt heard the question, but she didn't even look up. She just whispered, "Sister, sit down quickly too. Don't bring trouble upon yourself!"
Just as Sister Jin was about to ask, she heard a commotion at the junction of the carriages. A moment later, Brother-in-law Jin came back with his head hung low: "He ran away!"
"Why did he run away? What happened?" With so many people around, how could he run away?
Brother-in-law Jin whispered, "There was an accomplice of theirs among the people who were pressed down. They scattered when they passed the narrow passage in front of the toilet... The carriage in front was even more crowded, and those few people rushed into the crowd like monkeys and disappeared." In fact, no one dared to look for them. Who knew where else the other group of people might be hiding?
The auntie across from her shrank even tighter. Seeing this, Sister Jin stood up and changed her position, stuffing a two-grain bun into her arms: "Auntie, I see you know the inside story, can you tell us?"
The aunt was so frightened that she quickly pushed her hand away: "Don't hurt me!"
"Auntie, please don't push me. It will make more noise. Talk to me quietly so no one else can hear."
The aunt hesitated, looked up and around, then shrank her neck and said: "Don't think that there are only two or three people coming out. There is actually a gang behind them. These people often commit crimes in trains with sleeper berths, and occasionally on our train..." So some people speculated that there might be a small leader who was from a nearby village.
"Then why aren't they catching them?" Sister Jin wondered. "They're just guarding the sleeper car or our train. Are you afraid we won't catch them?"
"Who said we won't catch them? These guys are so cunning! And do you know how many trains run north and south at the provincial capital's railway station? They're so hard to catch! They don't hurt people much, but when they do, they're brutal. No one dares to mess with them, no one dares to ask them. Don't ask!" They change their clothes and disappear into the crowd, revealing a different person. Who knows, it could be one of our honest fellow villagers? There are also many people from various communes and brigades who work as temporary workers in the city. People's hearts are hidden, and this group of people is so vicious and they hold grudges!
Sister Jin was so frightened that she dared not say a word. When the train was about to arrive at the station at around five o'clock, she secretly stretched her hand out of the window and waved. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw out of the corner of her eye that the girl hanging outside had disappeared.
Lin Xinghuo heard everything the woman said. As the saying goes, "A skilled person is bold," he simply took note and didn't dwell on it. Instead, the caracal sniffed Lin Xinghuo's hand as it snatched the knife. "Does it smell like a mink?"
Lin Xinghuo stroked the manul's furry head and stuffed it into his bag. "How do we get there?"
There is more than one black market in the provincial capital, but the one not far from the station is the largest one.
Lin Xinghuo found a place sheltered from the wind and covered his head and face tightly. While it was still dark, he quickly ran through the streets and alleys, avoided the sentries at the alley entrances and entered the black market.
It's called an alley, but in reality it's no different from a narrow street. Compared to the quiet outside, you can occasionally see people in here. The alley has a small entrance and a large belly. It's winding and densely packed with houses on both sides. Surprisingly, many families can afford to keep dogs.
Lin Xinghuo knocked on a door, but there was no response at first. Then, annoyed, he yelled, "Get lost! Do you understand the rules? We'll talk about this in the morning."
The caracal laughed at her: "Other people knocking on the door can enter because of an agreed sign..."
Lin Xinghuo reached into his bag and pinched the cat's furry ears.
Fortunately, people got up early at this time, and the smoke from the chimneys soon increased.
Before seven o'clock, the alley was bustling with activity. Some people squatted down to drink porridge with their dinner, while others visited each other to light the stove. Lin Xinghuo, carrying a basket and a load on his back, seemed like an alien, ignored by everyone.
Lin Xinghuo casually pushed open the door of a larger house in the alley: "Auntie, I came to see you."
A woman in her thirties stopped her and asked, "Hey, who are you from? Who are you to my mother-in-law?"
"Auntie, you haven't seen me. I'm from Huo Miaozi Village. My grandma said my aunt is sick and we can't afford to eat, so she asked me to bring some mountain products to help out."
"Oh, what an honest kid! Come in quickly!" The woman cursed in her heart, who is your aunt! Your mother is the only one who can barely make ends meet, and she's bringing bad luck so early in the morning.
If I hadn't seen some golden monkey mushrooms sticking out of her basket, I would have swept them away with a broom.
"Mom, your eldest niece from Huo Miao Zi Village is here to see you."
When the door opened, there was no mother-in-law inside, but a skinny old man.
The old man looked Lin Xinghuo up and down and said cautiously, "Qiao'er, did this kid come to the wrong door?"
The woman named Qiao closed the door, wiped her face, and spat, "Look at those two sneakers at the corner of the alley, they're dozing off. Why did you let this fool in? You're lucky you had some sense. Otherwise, if you keep hanging around, I'd drag you out to the street and arrest you!"
As he spoke, he pointed to the main wall of the hall, where there were two certificates of merit for being "good citizens who actively reported speculation and profiteering."
Lin Xinghuo took this tactic of intimidation seriously. This person meant that he had someone higher up.
Pulling aside the straw of a basket, Lin Xinghuo revealed the golden, round Hericium erinaceus. "Want to exchange?"
The old man picked up one. The fur was long, fine, thick, and not even scratched. The pile in the basket was of uniform size. "It's in good condition."
"What are you changing for?"
"Change for some old stuff."
"An old thing?" The old man chuckled and threw the monkey mushroom back into the basket: "We don't have any."
Qiao'er said with a smile: "From the sound of her voice, she is still a girl. I say, big sister, if you want to exchange some money to buy flowers to wear, this is quite a bit."
"What about exchanging it for meat?" Lin Xinghuo asked.
"Meat?" These days, the more city dwellers live, the more they lack meat. Their Snow Province is vast and sparsely populated, and even in the countryside, they can still sneakily harvest pheasants and rabbits. In the city, there are only a few meat coupons issued monthly, and even then, each restaurant only provides a small amount each day. Even those who don't need meat coupons have to queue up in the middle of the night to get one.
"How many?"
Lin Xinghuo raised his shoulders and gestured for them to look at the big basket on his back.
The woman swallowed and looked at the old man. The old man pondered and said, "Take her to find Daliangzi."
Qiao'er led Lin Xinghuo out the back door and, after twisting and turning, entered a cramped courtyard at the end of the alley. She told Lin Xinghuo to wait outside while she went in first.
"Come in." Qiao'er opened the door and saw four or five men inside, slurping rice porridge from bowls.
A well-mannered middle-aged man came out from the inner room and said: "Let me take a look at your mountain products first and calculate the price. Don't be afraid, if you don't like what you see, you can just take the money, it's all the same." Anyway, once you enter this door, you have to make a deal, and the seller who speculates and profiteers will be charged with a more serious crime.
Lin Xinghuo put down the basket on his back and poured things out one by one.
Hericium erinaceus, hazel mushrooms, and red pine nuts were nothing special; there was also codonopsis, hare, cockroach, pit viper, and even half a venison that filled the basket. Lin Xinghuo held up a piece for them to examine and then placed it back on the basket.
A man put down his bowl and picked up the basket, his face changed: "My goodness, this must weigh more than 200 kilograms?" How could this girl have such strength, and how come the basket didn't leak?
The middle-aged man carefully examined the codonopsis and the pit viper, then turned back and asked, "Well, they're well prepared. Did you use the snake gallbladder as medicine? Is there a finished medicine?"
Lin Xinghuo pulled out a small jar from the bottom of the basket. The middle-aged man opened it, sniffed it, and then scooped out a little ointment and smeared it on his hand: "Frostbite ointment."
"This is a business!" he asked. "What old thing do you want to exchange for?"
"Ancient books, manuscripts, or silk, cloth, bamboo, or wood with inscriptions, a good old knife, or utensils..."
"You don't want gold and silver items, antique porcelain? You don't want famous paintings or calligraphy?" The middle-aged man said in amusement, "That's quite interesting."
"I want to take a look first." Lin Xinghuo said.
The eyes of several others lit up. They had a warehouse full of old books and papers, and those things were worthless.
But then the middle-aged man said, "Sure, you can choose whatever you want. But it depends on the quality and age. There are books that cost five yuan a copy, and there are books that cost fifty yuan a copy. You can't afford many of these books. As for the old artifacts, thirty yuan is the price for entering the house to take a look. If you like them, you can negotiate the price."
Lin Xinghuo, who only had thirty yuan in assets: "..."
There is only one word: poor.
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