In several batches, Song Yueying put the purchased items into the space experiment vehicle, leaving only eggs and noodles in her hands.
Back where Wang Qianqian was, Song Yueying saw her packing mushrooms for an older woman.
"Young lady, are you here to buy mushrooms too?" The older woman glanced at Song Yueying and the eggs and noodles she was carrying, assuming she was also there to buy mushrooms.
He smiled and said to her, "You're late. I've already bought all these mushrooms."
"You bought them all?" Song Yueying blinked and glanced at Wang Qianqian, who was packing mushrooms. In the short time it took her to buy something, Qianqian had sold all the mushrooms.
Who knew Sisi had such a talent for sales!
Wang Qianqian, who was busy packing mushrooms for the older woman, looked up when she heard the sound. Seeing Song Yueying return, she was about to say something when Song Yueying winked at her.
Wang Qianqian immediately understood what she meant and lowered her head to continue packing the mushrooms.
Seeing that Song Yueying didn't speak, the older woman handed her a mushroom she was holding and showed it to her, saying proudly, "Little girl, look how nice this mushroom is, isn't it?"
"Good-looking and tall, really great."
“I liked them at first sight, so I bought them all for her.”
"They are very good." Song Yueying took the mushrooms from the aunt and looked at them. Her gaze fell on the aunt, who was simply dressed and had a kind face.
Out of curiosity, I asked, "Auntie, will you be able to finish all these mushrooms?"
The aunt shook her head and said, "We can't finish them all! If we can't finish them, we'll dry them and eat them when we're short of vegetables in winter. They'll taste just as good."
"These mushrooms are so big, they must be hard to dry in the sun." Song Yueying didn't know much about these things, but she did know that mushrooms from decades later were rarely dried in the sun.
Most of them are dried by machine.
The woman laughed and said, "It definitely won't be dry in just one or two days; it needs to be dried for several more days. The temperature is high now, and the sun is strong; even grains can be dried, let alone mushrooms."
Song Yueying thought the aunt's words made a lot of sense; she was a thrifty person.
She could tell that the older sister was straightforward and willing to share life tips with strangers. She was a kind-hearted person, and she developed a good impression of her sister-in-law.
"Oh my, there are mushrooms and wood ear fungus here!" a delighted voice exclaimed.
Before Song Yueying and the auntie could turn around to look, the man had already come over and taken the mushrooms from Song Yueying's hand. He said as he looked at them, "Good, good, really good."
This is also an older woman, wearing a Dacron shirt and black Dacron pants; she's clearly someone who's not short of money.
She looked to be about the same age as an older woman, and she was holding the mushroom with great affection, looking at it from left to right.
Song Yueying frowned slightly, disliking the middle-aged woman dressed in polyester. Taking the mushrooms from her hand without even asking was incredibly rude.
"Young lady..." The older woman was about to speak to the woman wearing Dacron, but she was impatiently interrupted, "I'm busy, don't talk to me first."
The middle-aged woman in the polyester dress saw Wang Qianqian packing up the mushrooms and taking out a scale to weigh them. She quickly asked, "Young lady, how much are these mushrooms? How much per pound?"
Wang Qianqian looked up at the middle-aged woman dressed in Dacron and froze.
When the older woman saw that someone was trying to compete with her for the mushrooms, she quickly said, "I'm sorry, young lady, I've already bought all of your mushrooms."
"I bought them all!" The middle-aged woman in the polyester dress looked at the other woman with disbelief and said, "Why are you buying so many mushrooms? Can you even finish them all?"
"It's a waste to buy so much food when you can't finish it."
That was quite a blunt remark.
The aunt wasn't angry. Instead, she said kindly, "It's true that we can't finish it all, but I can dry the leftovers and eat them when we run out of vegetables in winter."
The middle-aged woman wearing Dacron frowned upon hearing this. Wang Qianqian glanced at her and then looked at her, saying, "Girl, how much do you sell it to her per pound? I'll add a dollar, and you sell it to me."
"Hey, hey, hey! Young lady, you're going too far!" The aunt immediately objected upon hearing this. "Everything should be done in order of arrival. I was here first."
"I was the one who wanted to buy the mushrooms from you first, and you've already packed and weighed them for me. What do you mean by jumping out now to raise the price?"
"I don't mean it." The woman in the polyester dress looked at the older woman with disdain. "What do you mean by first come, first served? You didn't pay. If you didn't pay, it doesn't count as a purchase."
"The mushrooms belong to the girl, and she can sell them to whomever she wants. It's none of your business."
After saying that, she turned to look at Wang Qianqian and said, "Young lady, my surname is Luo, you can call me Aunt Luo. I work at the supply and marketing cooperative. If you have any more mushrooms like this in the future..."
"Don't try to sell it here, go directly to the supply and marketing cooperative to find me."
"You...you..." The aunt was so angry that she couldn't speak. Stealing her business right in front of her was infuriating.
Aunt Luo gave an arrogant snort and looked at Wang Qianqian, "Girl, have you weighed it yet? Hurry up, I'll buy the wood ear mushrooms on the ground too."
Wang Qianqian said, "Auntie, you can buy wood ear mushrooms, but this auntie bought these mushrooms."
The sister-in-law was surprised that Wang Qianqian would say such a thing and looked at her with astonishment.
Aunt Luo frowned and said, "What do you mean 'bought'? She didn't pay you, so it doesn't count as buying. I'll give you an extra dollar if you sell me the mushrooms."
“No way.” Wang Qianqian said decisively, insisting, “The mushrooms were bought by this lady.”
"Why can't you be more flexible, girl?" Aunt Luo couldn't help but say something to Wang Qianqian, seeing how stubborn she was. "I've already told you, if she hasn't paid, it doesn't count as a purchase."
“If you sell me the mushrooms, I’ll give you an extra dollar.”
"This way I get the mushrooms, and you earn an extra dollar. It's a win-win situation!"
"What do you mean 'everyone's happy'? I think only you are happy," the aunt said. "You're so old, yet you're here instigating a young woman to break her contract."
"What are you up to?!"
“This mushroom girl sold it to me, so it’s mine. You can’t take it from me.”
"You're talking nonsense," Aunt Luo retorted, not to be outdone. "When did I ever instigate that girl to break her contract? Stop spouting nonsense here."
"If you didn't pay the girl, then you didn't actually buy the mushrooms."
“The girl said I bought it, so I bought it.” The aunt insisted on her opinion, then pulled over Song Yueying who was standing next to her, “This young girl came before you.”
"She was also going to buy mushrooms, but when she heard that I had bought some, she didn't say anything."
"You're so old, yet you're not as sensible as a young girl. It's shameful."
“You…” This time, it was Aunt Luo’s turn to be so angry that she couldn’t speak.
Seeing two middle-aged women arguing was something Song Yueying had never encountered before, and she found it quite strange. Before her transmigration, she had only ever encountered assassinations with real guns and ammunition.
Wang Qianqian frowned. The black market wasn't a place to be conducted openly. Everyone was speaking in hushed tones, and now that two middle-aged women were arguing over there, it would easily attract attention.
This situation is very unfavorable to them.
Wang Qianqian looked at Song Yueying, intending to ask for her opinion, but instead saw her watching the two middle-aged women arguing with great interest.
With the teacher out of reach, Wang Qianqian had to find her own solution. "Aunties, aunties, please stop arguing and let me say something..."
"Don't say anything yet. I'm going to have a serious talk with her today." The aunt interrupted Wang Qianqian and reached out to snatch the mushrooms from Aunt Luo's hand.
Sister-in-law Luo nimbly dodged her hand, glaring at the older woman with displeasure. She said sarcastically, "What are you doing? Trying to steal something?"
“Who cares about your stuff? What you’re holding are the mushrooms I bought,” the aunt retorted.
"If you haven't paid, it doesn't count as you buying it." Aunt Luo repeated the same thing over and over again: "I've said this so many times, can't you understand human language?"
“You’re the one who can’t understand human language,” the aunt said. “I’ve said it many times: everything should be done in order of arrival. I was the one who wanted to buy mushrooms first, and the girl is already packing them for me.”
"The girl already said that the mushrooms were sold to me."
Seeing the two arguing more and more heatedly, repeating the same thing over and over again, Song Yueying suddenly felt it was pointless. "If you two keep arguing, I'm not selling these mushrooms."
Upon hearing that the mushrooms were no longer for sale, the two women both looked at Song Yueying, who had spoken.
"Young lady, what did you say?" The older woman thought she had misheard, because she knew that Song Yueying had also come to buy mushrooms.
Aunt Luo snorted, "Young lady, what a big mouth you have! You say you won't sell them? These mushrooms aren't yours, so what gives you the right to say you won't sell them?"
“These mushrooms really are mine, and I said I wouldn’t sell them, so I won’t,” Song Yueying stated the facts.
"These mushrooms are yours?" The woman looked at Song Yueying in surprise. When Song Yueying nodded, she looked at Wang Qianqian and asked, "Young lady, aren't you the one selling these mushrooms?"
“We came together,” Wang Qianqian said, spreading her hands. “Besides, these mushrooms were picked by her mother in the mountains, so she has the right to refuse to sell them.”
Aunt Luo finally understood; it turned out the two girls were together.
Wang Qianqian didn't want to make a scene, and besides, they had risked coming to the black market to sell mushrooms and wood ear fungus. She absolutely couldn't take the mushrooms and wood ear fungus back with them.
So he mediated, saying many kind words. He then suggested that the mushrooms and wood ear fungus be sold in equal parts to the two older women at a lower price.
The two women didn't really want to make a big deal out of it, so they agreed to Wang Qianqian's suggestion.
While Wang Qianqian and Song Yueying were sorting mushrooms and wood ear fungus, the two middle-aged women started chatting.
"Sister, can I ask you for directions?" The older woman looked at Aunt Luo with a kind smile, her expression slightly ingratiating. "I just heard you say that you work at the supply and marketing cooperative."
"Working at the supply and marketing cooperative means living in town. You must know exactly where and what they sell, right?"
“Sister, tell me,” Aunt Luo said, then added, “My sister’s family lives in this town. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I do know the area.”
The way the two middle-aged women addressed each other was switched instantly.
The older woman nodded; she thought so too. "Sister, do you know where I can buy ready-made quilts?"
"What is a ready-made quilt?" Aunt Luo didn't understand for a moment.
The woman looked a little embarrassed, unsure how to explain.
After frowning and thinking for a moment, Aunt Luo figured it out herself. "Young lady, are you talking about those pre-sewn cotton quilts, the kind you can just take home and use right away?"
"Yes, yes, that's it." The aunt nodded repeatedly, feeling relieved.
Aunt Luo glanced at the other woman and said truthfully, "Those cotton quilts are sold at the supply and marketing cooperative, but you need cloth coupons and cotton coupons. The quantity is limited and the price is very expensive."
“These days, cloth and cotton are expensive, so everyone prefers to buy their own cloth and cotton to make their own quilts. Why do you want to buy ready-made ones?”
It wasn't that she looked down on people, but that cloth coupons and cotton coupons were very hard to obtain in those days.
Without coupons, you can't buy anything at the supply and marketing cooperative. It's not worthwhile to use cloth coupons and cotton coupons to buy cotton quilts.
"I know all of this, but..." The woman didn't finish her sentence, her expression suggesting she was hesitant to speak, and finally she let out a heavy sigh.
Aunt Luo couldn't help but ask with concern, "Young lady, is there some happy occasion in your family?"
The woman paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, there is a happy occasion in my family."
"Is this about getting a daughter-in-law?" Aunt Luo asked with a look of surprise, then added, "The ready-made quilt wasn't something your daughter-in-law asked you to buy, was it?"
The woman nodded slightly, her expression one of helplessness.
"Young lady, as someone who's been through this, I'd like to offer you some advice," Aunt Luo said. "According to our local custom, the bride's family must ask a blessed elder to help make the quilt."
"The bride only helps with small tasks herself."
"Why did she ask her mother-in-law to buy the ready-made quilts?"
What was she thinking? How could she know what the educated youth woman her son was going to marry was thinking? The aunt's expression was somewhat indescribable.
Aunt Luo continued, "Young lady, the girl your son is going to marry is a sent-down youth, right? She's not from here, so she doesn't understand our customs."
"Sister, you have a good eye for people. The woman my son is going to marry is indeed a sent-down youth from the city, not from around here," the aunt said.
The two middle-aged women were chatting happily when Song Yueying and Wang Qianqian listened to their gossip while packing the mushrooms and wood ear fungus separately, weighing them, and handing them to the two women.
The women paid, and the transaction was completed smoothly.
When Song Yueying and Wang Qianqian packed up their baskets and left the black market, the sun was already high in the sky.
They left early in the morning, just as dawn was breaking, but they had to return under the blazing sun. Even though they were traveling by oxcart, Song Yueying still regretted making the trip.
After all that hard work, the mushrooms and wood ear fungus didn't sell for much money.
Back in the village, Wang Qianqian said she had left early and hadn't breastfed her child, so Song Yueying told her to go back and take care of the baby.
"You're back." Song's mother was waiting for them at the courtyard gate, but saw that only her daughter had returned. She walked up to Song Yueying and asked, "Why are you the only one back?"
"Where's Xixi? Is she still selling mushrooms and wood ear fungus at the commune?"
Song Yueying said, "No, we came back together after selling the mushrooms and wood ear fungus. Qianqian said she didn't breastfeed the baby before leaving this morning, so I told her to go back and take care of the baby."
"It's good that you're back, it's good that you're back." Hearing Song Yueying say this, Song's mother immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She was really worried that something might have happened to the two girls.
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