Chapter 8

Right now, Lin Yun and Lin Yonggang were headed to the town. According to what Lin Yun had heard, the town was nearly 20 kilometers away from Zhaojiawan, and they had to walk all the way there on foot—there was no transportation available to them now, so they had to rely solely on their legs.

At this point, Lin Yun felt a bit grateful. Thankfully, the centipedes weren’t that heavy, so she could still carry them and walk for such a long distance. If it had been something even slightly heavier, she felt like she would’ve already given up.

She glanced at Lin Yonggang beside her. She herself understood the importance of money because she knew the future, but Lin Yonggang didn’t know any of that. Still, the fact that he could persist like this really surprised her.

She had always heard Lin Yumei and Zhao Lanxiu say that Lin Yonggang always hung around with the local troublemakers, and given his attitude towards studying, Lin Yun had assumed he had been spoiled into uselessness. But it turned out he was actually quite hardworking.

Then again, maybe it was just that people from this era had no choice but to endure hardship—the times shaped them that way.

As they walked, Lin Yun saw the sky start to brighten with the pale light of dawn, and the sun slowly rose, bringing with it a rising temperature. At first, the two of them still chatted a bit as they walked, but as time went on, their mouths dried out, and they had no energy to talk. They just focused on walking with their heads down.

By the time their clothes were soaked with sweat, they had finally arrived at the town. Both of them were hot and thirsty. Lin Yun was looking around, searching for a place where they could sell the centipedes, when she noticed Lin Yonggang staring fixedly in one direction.

She followed his gaze and saw a man with a square-shaped bag wrapped in snakeskin-patterned cloth, shouting loudly, “Ice pops! Ice pops! Only six cents each!”

Several children were gathered around the man, excitedly pointing at which ice pop they wanted. Lin Yun looked at Lin Yonggang and noticed that the normally cheerful and mischievous boy had been rather quiet ever since they got to town.

She didn’t say anything more, just walked straight up to the man selling ice pops. “What flavors do you have?”

“You want an ice pop, girl? I’ve got salty sugar, sweet wine, and mung bean. Six cents each.”

Lin Yun looked back at Lin Yonggang, who was still standing there, and waved at him. “Come here. See what flavor you want.”

Lin Yonggang shuffled over slowly. “Sis, maybe let’s not… We still have stuff to do. I don’t really need one.”

“Uncle, if I buy two, could you give me a deal? Maybe five cents each?” Lin Yun looked at the man selling the popsicles with a sincere gaze.

At first, he wouldn’t agree no matter what, but eventually, under Lin Yun’s persistent persuasion, he relented and sold them both for one jiao (10 cents total).

Lin Yun didn’t want to bargain so hard either, but she had no choice—she was dirt poor right now, with only 7 jiao to her name.

The vendor pulled out two ice pops from the foam box and handed them to her. She turned around and gave one to Lin Yonggang. “Let’s eat together. Walking this far today was really tough.”

Lin Yonggang immediately beamed with joy. “Thanks, sis!”

After finishing their ice pops, the two of them headed to the purchasing station. Actually, every year around August or September, a lot of people would go to the mountains to catch centipedes, but Lin Yun couldn’t wait that long—she had to come early.

When they arrived, there was only a middle-aged man sitting on a small stool outside the station. Seeing them approach, he asked, “What do you need?”

“Is this the place that buys centipedes? We want to sell some.”

“Yes, we buy. How many do you have?”

“Over a thousand,” Lin Yonggang replied.

“Alright, let me see. Catching this many centipedes this early in the season—not bad.” The man took the snakeskin bag from Lin Yun, gave it a heft, and said, “Whoa, this is pretty heavy.”

He opened the bag and started laying out the centipedes one by one. Over a thousand centipedes laid out together made quite the visual impact.

The three of them counted them together: a total of 1,537 centipedes. Among them, 684 were large, 761 medium, and 92 small. Of the large ones, 103 were even classified as extra-large. The station’s buying prices were: 3 jiao for large ones, 1 jiao 6 fen for medium, and 8 fen for small. Maybe because of the good quality, the man offered 2 extra fen per extra-large centipede.

Lin Yun knew they were probably worth more, but since she might do more business with him in the future, she didn’t argue. Beside her, Lin Yonggang was already gripping her hand in excitement—thankfully he only showed it physically.

In the end, they earned 336.38 yuan from the sale. The station owner even rounded it up and gave them 336.50 yuan, maybe because they brought in so many.

When Lin Yun took the money, she let out a long sigh of relief. Finally, they had money. She felt more grounded—up until now, it had felt like she was floating.

Lin Yonggang stared at the money in his sister’s hand, utterly speechless. Over 300 yuan—they might become the richest family in the village!

After selling the centipedes, Lin Yun looked at the snakeskin bag that Lin Yonggang was still carrying. “Boss, do you buy snakes too?”

“Of course! You’ve got a snake?”

As soon as the boss confirmed, Lin Yonggang set the bag down and opened it to reveal the sluggish but still-alive snake inside.

The boss glanced inside. “Oh, a mother pit viper—poisonous one, too. You kids are pretty good. Since you already brought me those nice centipedes, I’ll give you 18 yuan for this snake—3 yuan per jin. That’s a really fair price. You won’t find better elsewhere.”

Lin Yun still felt a bit creeped out just looking at the snake, but thinking about money, she stepped forward and bargained. “Big brother, that price you’re offering is the rate snake collectors use when buying from villagers. I bet you pay more when buying from those collectors, right?

We brought this directly to you—saved you the trouble. And this is a big snake too. We’re just kids, and you’re a long-term businessman here. Surely you wouldn’t treat us unfairly, right? Consider it making friends. If we get more like this, we’ll bring them to you.

And to be honest, we’ve got more centipedes at home than we brought today—they’re just not dried yet, so we didn’t bring them this time. We’re hoping to build a lasting business relationship here.”