She asked, "Grandpa, how much is your fabric?" "One yuan per foot, minor flaws, no receipt required," the old man replied. Unexpectedly, Xia Liang turned to leave, saying, "No, it's too expensive!" "Hey, wait, wait, what's the rush, girl?" the old man hurriedly stopped her, "I have another bolt here, one hundred yuan for you." Xia Liang continued walking forward, and the old man, impatient, shouted, "Name your price!" Xia Liang: "Seventy." The old man gasped and angrily said, "Are you serious about doing business?" Xia Liang didn't even turn her head, "Sell it or not, I don't need it anyway." She then prepared to walk forward. The old man, exasperated, said, "Fine, fine, here you go." Just as she was about to pay, Xia Liang remembered she had nowhere to put the sweet potatoes, so she arranged a meeting place with the old man to make the transaction.
Actually, the old man didn't spend any money on this cloth, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to sell it to Xia Liang so cheaply. He used to be a warehouse guard at a textile factory, and his nephew was a minor leader in the factory. He often piled up cloth with slight flaws as defective products in the warehouse. The father and son colluded to undermine socialism and secretly transferred cloth. When the old man had nothing to do, he would come to the black market to do business. The old man whispered to Xia Liang, "I live at No. 147 Xinghua Lane. Come to my house directly later." After saying that, he ran away in a flash.
Xia Liang delivered the sweet potatoes to her aunt's house, ate two flatbreads there, and then left. She went to the old man's house, knocked on the door, and the old man opened it, looking around furtively. Seeing no one was home, he handed over the cloth to Xia Liang. After the transaction was completed, Xia Liang, seeing it was still early, decided to go to the village closest to the county town to sell the cloth. As soon as she entered Fengqing Village, Xia Liang noticed the difference between it and Dahe Village. Dahe Village, apart from the village chief's house, only had one brick house; the rest were mud and thatched huts. In Fengqing Village, brick houses made up a quarter of the houses. Perhaps it was because it was closer to the county town, making it easier for villagers to find odd jobs, Xia Liang thought.
Upon entering the village, Xia Liang saw an old woman washing clothes by the river. She quietly approached and asked, "Auntie, do you need fabric? No coupons required." The old woman was startled and about to yell at her, but stopped herself at her words. She grabbed Xia Liang and pulled her behind a tree where no one was around. The old woman asked, "How much do you have? How much per foot?" Xia Liang replied, "One yuan fifty per foot. How many feet do you want?" The old woman bargained, "Make it cheaper, I'll take more." "No, Auntie, I don't need coupons. You know how hard it is to get fabric," the old woman said after a moment's thought. "Then I'll introduce you to a few people, and you can give me a discount." "Okay," Xia Liang readily agreed. "Wait here, I'll go get some people," she said, and ran towards the village center. Xia Liang hid in the bushes near the village entrance, thinking that if the old woman reported her, she could escape from there.
A moment later, the old woman arrived in a hurry with about twenty middle-aged women. One of the old women asked, "Where is the person you mentioned, Defu's wife?" Liu Huihong, the old woman who had just been haggling with Xia Liang, scratched her head and said, "I told her to wait here." The old woman next to her asked, "Does she really have the fabric?" Liu Huihong replied, "Yes, I saw it." Hearing this, Xia Liang finally felt relieved and came out from behind the bushes, calling out, "Auntie!" Everyone gathered around her when they saw her. Xia Liang quickly took out the fabric. Liu Huihong had already told them the price, and everyone had no objections before they came.
In less than half an hour, apart from the fabric Xia Liang intended to save for Old Lady Xia, the rest was all gone. Everyone asked Xia Liang when she would come next, and Xia Liang replied, "Three days later." Then, thinking for a moment, she asked, "Do you have any extra eggs? I'll take as many as you have, three cents and five cents each." Some were to be delivered to Aunt Liu's house in three days. Having learned about Liu Huihong's situation during their initial meeting, and having initially agreed to give her a discount, Xia Liang decided to continue working for her from now on. Reaching this agreement, Xia Liang left. On the bus back to town, Xia Liang mentally calculated her earnings for the day. After a while, Xia Liang was overjoyed; she had earned over a hundred yuan that day.
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