Shen Chengyi did not respond, but took two quick steps and took the basket from Li Yumei, “Sister-in-law, there are eggs in the basket, let me take it.”
“Okay.” Li Yumei was relieved and gave the basket directly to Shen Chengyi, then pulled Su Yuehua towards the village entrance.
At this time, there were already quite a few people sitting on the ox cart parked at the entrance of the village. When they saw Li Yumei and Su Yuehua coming over, they greeted them warmly.
"Yumei, come on, we've been waiting for you." The middle-aged woman with a green scarf on her head moved her body to make a small space for the two of them.
The driver of the ox cart was an old man wearing a fur hat. He put the money he had just collected into the pocket of his sheepskin jacket and said with a smile, "There are a lot of people here today. It's warmer to squeeze in. Let's get on the cart and set off now."
Su Yuehua was pulled by Li Yumei to sit on the ox cart, followed by Shen Chengyi.
As the old man waved the whip, the ox cart slowly drove away from the village entrance.
The ox cart had just gone a short distance when they heard a woman's breathless voice coming from the direction of the village entrance, "Old Horse Head, wait for us."
The old horse driver pulled the rope and the ox cart stopped instantly.
Shen Lili pulled a young woman in a red flowered cotton jacket, her cheeks flushed as she ran, and white mist came out of her mouth, "Old Matou, Yanhong and I also want to go to town, you can ask my second brother for our car fare."
After saying that, he squeezed forward regardless of the looks from the others on the ox cart.
Shen Chengyi's dark eyes flashed with displeasure, but because there were so many people, he could only pay the taxi fare.
It was really cold in Heilongjiang Province at the end of January. Even Su Yuehua, a northerner, couldn't stand the cold, let alone the original owner, a delicate lady who grew up in the capital!
Without the shelter of tall buildings of later generations, when the carriage started moving, the wind blew and it felt like a knife cutting on the face.
Su Yuehua reached out and pulled the white scarf around her neck, trying to shrink her entire face into it.
Shen Chengyi looked over with a deep, inquiring look in his dark eyes and asked, "If you are cold, I will give you my coat."
"No need." Su Yuehua saw Shen Chengyi looking at her, and added in the original owner's tone: "I'm not cold, you should dress yourself quickly. Don't catch a cold, and if you keep blaming me, I won't have money to treat you."
After saying that, she no longer dared to look at Shen Chengyi any more, she retracted her neck again, curled up as much as possible and hid behind Shen Chengyi.
It had just snowed, so the road was not easy to walk on. A journey that usually took more than half an hour by oxcart took us an hour.
After getting off the ox cart, no one knew where Shen Lili and Wang Yanhong ran away to.
Su Yuehua learned from Li Yumei's conversation that the town where Shen Chengyi's hometown, Kaoshantun, was located was called Tuanjie Town.
Tuanjie Town is not very big, and you can see the entire town almost at a glance.
Because Chinese New Year is tomorrow and there are a lot of people on the street because of the big market.
In the 1970s, individual transactions were not allowed, so the products sold at the market were very simple. Most of them were chickens and ducks raised by farmers, as well as mushrooms and fungus picked from the mountains in autumn.
Tuanjie Town is a forest area, so the most popular items sold at the market are mountain products.
Now that there are limits on the amount of vegetables available for purchase in the city, she could collect these dried black fungus and dried mushrooms and bring them back to the capital to sell. However, she quickly dismissed this idea. Not to mention that individuals were not allowed to do business in the 1970s, the original owner's stupid head that only knew how to spend money could easily arouse suspicion with a sudden change.
Li Yumei came to the market mainly to sell the eggs at home in exchange for some New Year's goods for the family.
Seeing that Su Yuehua was looking at everything new, she took the basket from Shen Chengyi's hand and said with a smile, "Chengyi, Sister Zhang and I will sell the eggs first. You take Yuehua to go shopping first, and we will meet in front of the supply and marketing cooperative after we finish shopping."
"Okay." Shen Chengyi responded, and seeing Su Yuehua was thoughtful, he reminded her, "Let's go."
Su Yuehua nodded, and just after taking two steps with Shen Chengyi, she remembered that she had bent Li Yumei's sweater needle yesterday to save Uncle Shen, so she asked: "Shen Chengyi, do you know where to sell sweater needles? I bent my sister-in-law's sweater needle yesterday, and I want to buy a pair to give back to her."
When Shen Chengyi heard that Su Yuehua wanted to buy knitting needles to return to Li Yumei, he was obviously surprised. He stopped, looked around, hesitated for a second and said, "There are none at the market. I'll go to the supply and marketing cooperative later."
The market was not big, and the two of them finished their tour quickly.
Su Yuehua saw several big men selling mutton around a small stall at the end of the market. From the way they were dressed, it was obvious that they were local farmers.
In the middle of winter, it’s a wonderful thing to think about sitting on the kang and eating mutton hotpot while looking at the snow outside.
“Chen Chengyi, let’s buy some mutton.”
Su Yuehua walked quickly to the mutton stall and asked, "Big..."
She was about to call him "Big Brother", but then she remembered that this was the 1970s and everyone was called "Comrade", so she immediately changed her words and said, "Comrade, how are you selling this mutton?"
Several men standing in front of the stall were a little shy when they saw a pretty girl like Su Yuehua. Finally, an older man spoke up and said, "Girl, our mutton is raised by the commune. We kill it at the end of the year to increase the villagers' income. If you want to buy it, we'll give you a discount. How about 50 cents a pound? If you want to buy 10 pounds, we'll give you 45 cents a pound."
Su Yuehua was not very clear about the prices in the 1970s, but simply compared them with modern society, she felt that they were very cheap.
Seeing her hesitation, the old man quickly added, "Girl, pork is still 75 cents a pound. Although mutton has a mutton smell, it is cheaper than pork!"
“Hey, how come mutton is cheaper than pork now!” Su Yuehua couldn’t help but blurt out the question in her mind, not noticing Shen Chengyi following behind her.
Beef and mutton were ridiculously expensive in later generations. How could such fresh mutton without being drenched be sold so cheaply?
"Don't you dislike the smell of mutton and never eat it?" Shen Chengyi's dark eyes flashed with doubt and he looked straight at Su Yuehua.
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