It takes five or six hours to walk from Qingshan Brigade to Hongqi Town, and Chen Shuning can't walk that far.
So the night before, she went to see Feng Baoguo and told him that she might need to leave before dawn, but she was embarrassed to trouble Feng Baoguo to get up early in the morning to open the door for her.
So they discussed it and got the front door key so she could open the door and go out herself.
Feng Baoguo was already worried about helping Yang Wanqiu haul charcoal from town the next day when he heard Chen Shuning say that she was too embarrassed to bother him even to open the door early in the morning, and that she had to get up and open the door herself and leave quietly.
In comparison, Yang Wanqiu's empty promises of making him run all that way to help pull the cart were really annoying.
So Feng Baoguo treated Chen Shuning even better. If Chen Shuning hadn't been so adamant about not wanting to trouble him to get up before dawn to open the door for her, and hadn't repeatedly assured him that she wasn't afraid to walk at night, Feng Baoguo would have wanted to accompany Chen Shuning to town early in the morning.
However, he eventually gave up after being persuaded by Chen Shuning. After all, unlike Chen Shuning, he could not simply walk on his own; he had to pull a cart to get around, and it was indeed difficult to walk before dawn.
Another thing is that traveling early in the morning in this weather, without even the sun, is really tough, it's too cold, so Feng Baoguo gave up following Chen Shuning's advice.
However, Feng Baoguo was quite pleased with Chen Shuning's thoughtfulness and understanding. But when he thought of Yang Wanqiu, who had made him agree to help her haul charcoal in front of everyone yesterday, and for free no less, he felt even more unhappy.
Little did he know that Chen Shuning's decision not to let him follow wasn't out of consideration, but simply because it would be inconvenient for him to come along. She was planning to drive to town, so why would she let him come along?
Therefore, Chen Shuning naturally rejected Feng Baoguo's enthusiasm.
At 1:30 a.m., Chen Shuning was woken up by her phone alarm. She got up groggily, dressed, and without washing up, listened at the door and found the educated youth settlement to be quiet. She figured everyone must be asleep, so she quietly went out, locked the door, and sneaked out.
The cold air outside instantly cleared Chen Shuning's mind, which had been somewhat drowsy.
She deliberately moved quietly and left the educated youth settlement without alerting anyone. Otherwise, it would be strange for a young woman to go out in the middle of the night to travel to town, even if she said she wasn't afraid.
Chen Shuning set off so early because he thought there would be no one around at this time.
Because she has free access to electricity within her space, she has quite a few new energy vehicles in her space.
Even though new energy vehicles are very quiet, they are still motor vehicles and will still make noise.
So while in the village, Chen Shuning could only walk with night vision goggles he found in an outdoor store, and could only drive after leaving the village.
Walking through the dark village, Chen Shuning was genuinely a little scared.
He quickened his pace without realizing it. Fortunately, food was scarce in those days, and not many families kept dogs. Otherwise, Chen Shuning's hurried pace would have startled the chickens and dogs in the village.
Even in the few yards where dogs are kept, the sound of barking can still be heard.
Terrified, Chen Shuning practically ran out of the village. It was just then that the night temperature dropped so low that many people didn't come out to check after hearing the dog bark twice.
Otherwise, Chen Shuning might have been discovered before even leaving the village.
After finally running some distance out of the village, Chen Shuning looked around and, seeing no one, quickly took out a black two-seater car from his spatial storage.
With a car, the rest of the journey was much more comfortable. The car was not cold at all with the air conditioning on, so Chen Shuning parked the car on the side of the road, took off his heavy cotton-padded coat, and listened to music and hummed a little tune all the way, quite carefree.
Although the road conditions were not good at the moment, Chen Shuning drove slowly, but still arrived at Hongqi Town at around 3 a.m.
Since it was the middle of the night, Chen Shuning wasn't worried about being seen while driving, so he drove directly to the outside of an abandoned courtyard not far from the black market.
Then he went into the space with his car, glanced at his watch and saw it was only 3:40, so he parked the car and went back to the villa to catch up on sleep.
When Chen Shuning opened her eyes again, it was already past seven in the morning.
After washing up and having a quick breakfast, Chen Shuning first went to the supply and marketing cooperative to mail the things he had prepared for his family, and also bought a few sheets of stamps.
Then, finding a secluded spot, she entered the space through her nose, transformed herself into Aunt Ning, slung the small basket containing the watch and charcoal samples she had prepared the night before over her shoulder, and left the space, heading straight for the alley where the black market was located.
This time, the guard at the door was a short man he didn't recognize. When Chen Shuning came over, he greeted her warily and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Having long been accustomed to the black market's procedures, Chen Shuning remained calm and lowered her voice, saying, "I'm here to see Hei Zi. Could you please tell him that Aunt Ning is looking for him?"
The short man's nonchalant expression changed instantly upon hearing the name "Aunt Ning," transforming from arrogance to humility.
"So you're Aunt Ning. Brother Hei told me a long time ago that you can just go straight in. Brother Hei is inside. I'll take you there now."
Actually, Chen Shuning could find Hei Zi's room without anyone leading her, since she had been there several times already. She just thought that the black market might have its own rules, so she readily followed the man into the black market.
Before even entering the courtyard, Chen Shuning heard Hei Zi's loud voice cursing inside the house. He wondered which unlucky guy had offended him.
The man leading the way shrank back when he heard Hei Zi cursing. He stood in the courtyard, looking at Chen Shuning with a helpless expression, unsure whether he should go in or not.
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