Chapter 9

“Hahaha, you’re a sharp-tongued little girl, aren’t you? Alright, how much do you want? I’ll be your friend,” the man laughed.

“How about you round it up to 20?” Lin Yun asked with a sweet smile.

The boss was easygoing and agreed right away. “Alright, 20 it is. But let’s make a deal—if you get something like this again, you’ve got to sell it to me, okay?”

“Don’t worry, of course I will.”

After successfully selling the snake, the two of them headed to the supply and marketing cooperative. Lin Yun had reached her limit with the same old dishes at home and was determined to improve their meal today.

When they arrived, Lin Yun was stunned by the scene in front of her. The meat stall was packed with people, all pushing and shouting. It was so crowded she didn’t even think she could squeeze in.

She had assumed that with over 300 yuan in hand, buying some meat would be no problem. But clearly, there were plenty of other people with money, too—and they couldn’t even get close to the stall.

The two exchanged glances, and Lin Yonggang spoke up first. “Sis, how about I try to squeeze in?” While he said he’d “try,” he was already charging into the crowd.

Lin Yun then watched as Yonggang, slippery as an eel and still not fully grown, actually managed to wiggle all the way to the front. But soon, she saw him come back out with a miserable expression.

“What happened?”

“Sis… we don’t have meat tickets,” Yonggang said, visibly disappointed. He had really been craving meat—it’d been since New Year’s, when their mom brought back a bowl of meat soup and gave him a small share. Months had passed since then, and he’d hardly touched any meat.

Lin Yun understood immediately. With how things were now, there was no way they’d be able to buy pork. “Let’s look around and see if there’s other meat for sale,” she suggested. “Even if it’s more expensive, it’s a holiday—we should eat something good for once.”

As they walked out, around 200–300 meters from the cooperative, a man stopped them.

“Miss, are you looking to buy meat? Want to come check out the pork we’re selling? No meat tickets needed—it’s all home-raised and cheaper than the cooperative,” the man said, gesturing in a certain direction.

Hearing this, Lin Yun was shaken. Could this be one of those black market sellers that pop up in historical fiction?

“Mister, is your meat clean? Don’t tell me you’re selling meat from sick or dead pigs.”

“Of course not! These pigs are home-raised, and we just slaughtered them this morning. It’s the Dragon Boat Festival soon—everyone wants something good to eat. But one pig is too much for just our family, so I came out to see if anyone else needed some.

It’s a bit pricier than the cooperative’s meat, but no tickets are needed. To be honest, we used to be professional butchers—everyone in town knows. If I dared to sell bad meat and someone got sick, how would I show my face in town again?”

The man spoke earnestly, but Lin Yun was still wary. From what she knew about this time period, people were often reluctant to waste anything and sometimes did eat meat from sick animals. Not everyone showed symptoms right away, and by the time issues arose, most thought it was just illness or coincidence. There weren’t really any autopsies for “suspicious deaths,” so many people passed away without anyone knowing why.

So Lin Yun remained cautious—but then again, they didn’t have meat tickets.

In fact, if this man had a stall in a real black market setup, she might have felt more reassured.

“Can you take us to see it, then?” Lin Yun finally asked. If the meat looked sketchy, they could always choose not to buy it.

The man eagerly led them toward his home. When Lin Yun noticed he was sticking to the main roads, her nerves eased a little. She had been worried the man might be dangerous—especially since Yonggang, while male, was still just a kid.

Generally, people back then weren’t so malicious, but Lin Yun preferred to stay cautious—better safe than sorry.

On the way, several people greeted the man. One even called out, “Yo, bringing someone to buy meat again?”

The tone of that comment sounded a bit sour, and Lin Yun realized this wasn’t the man’s first time doing this—making her trust him a little more.

The man laughed and greeted the person back, then explained to Lin Yun, “That’s an old neighbor of mine. We’ve been getting by selling pork. I think he’s a bit jealous—he actually reported us for illegal profiteering recently. Officials did come check it out, but now the policy’s changed. They called me in, then two days later sent me back with some kind of business license. I don’t really understand it myself.”

Lin Yun looked at him in surprise—so the local government was already starting to issue personal business licenses? That meant while ration tickets were still in place, higher-ups were clearly shifting direction.

“Wow, didn’t expect you were officially recognized. That’s amazing,” Lin Yun said with admiration. From their conversation so far, she could tell the man was pretty straightforward and probably wasn’t good at hiding things.

Sure enough, once she praised him, he started talking nonstop about his meat business.

“I actually wanted to set up a stall, but my wife got scared from last time, worried we’d be accused of profiteering again. So now we just sell from home.

Our place is kind of deep in, and only the neighbors know we’re selling meat, so we can’t sell it all ourselves. That’s why I go check outside the cooperative and bring in anyone who couldn’t buy meat.”

“But pulling in customers like this—how many can you manage in a day? Can you sell all the pork?” Lin Yun was curious. Their walk here had already taken over ten minutes. At this pace, how many people could they even bring in?

The man scratched his head and chuckled, “I couldn’t do it alone, of course—but there’s a few of us in the family going out to find customers.”