Chapter 59

Teacher He had a hearty meal, and before leaving, he sighed deeply, pounding his chest and stamping his feet. “Why didn’t I think of bringing my whole family to help little Su with the work? My mother is excellent at housework, she can clean up and leave not a speck of dust. My brother, well, he was born to do heavy labor, moving houses…”

Su Ye couldn’t help but lower her head and smile. She had never noticed how funny Teacher He was before.

She went back, wrapped a piece of pig’s trotters in oil paper, and stuffed it into Teacher He’s arms. “Alright, alright, don’t be stingy, is one pig’s trotter enough to fill your mouth?”

Teacher He instantly fell silent, and even when he was drunk, he didn’t forget to stuff the pig’s trotter into his pocket.

Su Ye cleared her throat and said, “Earlier, when you all helped the kids with the ‘green factory,’ I didn’t have a chance to thank you. Please enjoy the meal, don’t stand on ceremony.”

Zhou Yi and He Meimei responded, “It was nothing.”

“It’s fine, it didn’t take up any time anyway.”

Before leaving, the other teachers secretly left behind a few food coupons. They had planned to have a meal at Su Ye’s home, and before going out, they stuffed half a pound or a pound of food coupons into their pockets. None of them had expected there would actually be meat to eat, so they worried that leaving only half a pound of food coupons would be too much of a burden. But since pork was so expensive, they figured that food coupons wouldn’t be enough anyway.

So, the teachers added some coal coupons and soap coupons… When Su Ye returned and saw the colorful variety of coupons on the table, her eyes lit up as she flipped through a few of them.

Candy coupons, malted milk powder coupons, and even fabric coupons!

Su Ye could easily get food, like malted milk powder, through the live stream, but industrially processed products like fabric were another story. She had to spend a lot of money on the black market to exchange for them each time.

Su Ye loved things like malted milk powder, and every time she went to the black market, she made sure to get several. Fabric coupons were also something Su Ye lacked. Together, she and Gu Xiangqian’s fabric coupons could only make three sets of clothes. Gu Xiangqian was fine with wearing old clothes and didn’t need new ones. Even if all the fabric coupons were saved for Su Ye, it still wouldn’t be enough for her own needs.

The next day, Su Ye happily bought two cans of malted milk powder and a roll of seven-foot fabric with her coupons. She took the new fabric to a tailor and had an identical outfit made. In these days, fabric colors and styles were rather dull, so making an identical one was visually more pleasing.

Su Ye could wear the new clothes occasionally, and no one would notice that she had made them from fabric she had just acquired.

After leaving the department store, Su Ye went to the black market to sell some of the coupons she didn’t need, such as extra food coupons, circulating meat coupons (which she couldn’t use), and egg coupons.

All the coupons were sold out except for the meat coupons, which were unsellable. The food coupons were the most popular. Su Ye left the black market with a warm, big black ten, feeling completely satisfied.

She cautiously left the black market, not wanting to run into an old customer she hadn’t seen in a long time—Ms. Fang.

Su Ye lowered her hat, turned sideways, and slowly made her way out of the alley.

She then heard Ms. Fang’s soft voice asking, “Uncle, you really don’t have any grain for sale?”

“Refined grain is five yuan per jin. If you have some, I’ll take it all.”

The rural uncle, who was taking the grain coupons, paused for a moment, his breath tightening. “Girl, don’t even talk about five yuan per jin, I don’t have any, not even at ten yuan a jin. There’s such a shortage of refined grain, you know that.”

Su Ye’s legs immediately felt like they were stuck to the ground.

She had plenty of rice and flour in her warehouse—white and abundant, more than enough for two people to eat.

Su Ye didn’t feel guilty about “speculating” with food. Others might hoard and inflate grain prices, but when she sold grain, it was for the benefit of the people.

The reason she hadn’t sold any grain in the black market recently was because Su Ye thought her supply was insufficient. But after getting into the tea business, she had surplus grain. Once she had extra, she planned to exchange it for things she needed.

She knew she had only made three sets of clothes this year and hadn’t had any malted milk powder for a long time—not because frugality was a virtue, but because she was too poor!

Su Ye felt a fire of determination in her chest. She took out a pen from her pocket and wrote a small note. When Ms. Fang wasn’t paying attention, she quietly slipped it into her pocket.

When Ms. Fang got home, she was about to take a bath when she rummaged through her pockets and noticed the small note.

The note had a crookedly written message: “From the Nicai Village Production Team, 3 a.m. tomorrow, same place, 50 jin of high-quality rice, 3 yuan per jin. Put the money in the usual place by 6 p.m. today and press it down with green bricks. After reading, burn this with fire.”

Nicai Village Production Team! Ms. Fang looked up in surprise after reading the note!

This was the same elderly person who had sold her 50 jin of grain last time—she had returned!

Two yuan per jin for high-quality rice, which was half the market price, large quantity, low price. Ms. Fang read the note three times, memorizing every word before throwing it into the fire to burn.

She quickly gathered ten large black tens, waited patiently until 5:30, and excitedly ran to the same location where they had met last time.

At exactly 6:00, she quickly looked around, and the alley was empty. Looking down, she saw a few inconspicuous green bricks on the ground. She knew someone from Nicai Village was watching her. She quickly pressed the money under the bricks, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and left the alley swiftly.

After Su Ye and the others left, she went back to the green bricks and took the ten large black tens.

As for delivering the grain at 3 a.m.? At 3 a.m., she would be sound asleep in her quarters, wondering why she would deliver grain in the middle of the night. In case something went wrong in the future, Su Ye could still protect herself.

At 3 a.m., Ms. Fang indeed arrived at the agreed old alley. Being alone in the dead of night made her nervous, so she had brought her husband along for company.

Even though it was midsummer, the temperature was still quite low in the early hours. The alley was empty, and after waiting for a long time, Ms. Fang’s husband, Guo Aiguo, suspiciously said, “Why are you so foolish? You gave them all the money—what if they take the money and turn around to deceive you?”

Ms. Fang, holding a flashlight, kept shining it around and replied, “They won’t deceive us! It’s not easy to find 50 jin of rice like this, tell me, could you refuse?”

“Why don’t you think about how delicious the rice is when we eat? How envious others are?”

And it’s only two yuan per jin for rice, which is of better quality than what’s sold in the market, but it’s half the price. Who wouldn’t be tempted?

Guo Aiguo thought about it and admitted that he couldn’t resist the temptation. The rice was so fragrant, soft, and sweet. Recently, they hadn’t had enough rice, and he’d been mixing in a few jin of coarse grain—he couldn’t stand it. Not to mention his picky wife?

Ms. Fang looked at her watch—it was already 3 a.m., but the rice hadn’t arrived yet. As time passed, her impatience grew.

“Aiguo, do you think they’re afraid to come out because they saw us here? Or should we close our eyes and wait?” Ms. Fang suddenly had an idea.

Guo Aiguo gave her a speechless look, then closed his eyes.

Do you think if I just throw the rice right under their noses, they’ll be scared? a comment from a fan named “Pork Belly” popped up in the live stream.

The comments exploded… Throw it in the broken water tank nearby, they won’t see it in that corner. Oh, they’ve closed their eyes! Quick, throw it!

The live streamer was openly getting fans to help—someone report her!

With the help of the fans in the live stream, a 50-jin bag of rice was safely placed in the broken water tank.

After a while, Guo Aiguo and Ms. Fang opened their eyes. Guo Aiguo said, “We closed our eyes, but the person still hasn’t come?”

Just as he finished speaking, he turned around and looked around. Suddenly, he noticed a bulging bag in the discarded water tank that had a crack in it. Ms. Fang pulled out a pair of scissors and cut open a slit, and a few grains of white rice spilled out.

Ms. Fang quickly and heartbrokenly picked up every grain of rice from the ground, smiling as she said, “Aiguo, how about it? I wasn’t deceived, right?”

After a while, Ms. Fang mumbled, “Their footsteps were too quiet. Did you hear any noise just now?”

It was like a ghost, there was no sound at all. Guo Aiguo shuddered when he realized this. The chilly wind in the alley made him feel strangely scared.

After mumbling, Ms. Fang happily placed the rice on her husband’s back and urged, “Are you so happy you’re stunned? Stop dawdling and hurry up and carry the rice home. It won’t be good if people see it when it’s daylight.”

Her husband seemed so clueless and silly.

Next time, I’ll make sure there’s some noise, a fan named “Pork Belly” commented.

On the other side, Su Ye had completely fallen into a deep, sweet sleep. The mattress in her new home was big and soft, unlike the old hard wooden board that made her body ache when she woke up. She slept soundly and deeply.

Su Ye turned over and snuggled into Gu Xianqian’s arms. His body suddenly stiffened as a faint fragrance lingered near his nose. Su Ye was no longer the skinny, bony figure she used to be. Over the past period, she’d been drinking soups and eating pork ribs, fatty meat, and chicken, gaining 20 pounds.

Now she had a more rounded figure, with the right places slim and others fuller, her soft body pressed against the man’s.

He took a deep breath, calmed himself, and got up to take a cold shower.

—

The next day, Su Ye woke up and checked her backend, finding that the grain transaction had been successfully completed. Holding the ten bills in her pocket, she felt even more energized. In the future, she could continue using this method to exchange money.

In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Su Ye placed all the money earned from the black market in her backend warehouse.

This time, she made 100 yuan from selling grain, and with the previous 175 yuan, she now had a total of 275 yuan. That was enough to buy a bicycle, which would make her the envy of everyone in this era. However, Su Ye didn’t plan to be so flashy just yet. Recently, He Meimei had been diligently driving her to school every day. Buying a big-coupon item like a bicycle would attract too much attention. She’d wait until she’d worked for a year before buying one.

Su Ye spent ten yuan on three pounds of fruit candy and went to school.

When Su Ye arrived at Class 1 of the third year, the kids were all very happy. Yang Xue pouted and said, “Teacher Su is almost forgetting about our class. How could she remember us?”

Su Ye shook the bag in her hand. “You must be tired from all the reviewing! I specifically bought candies to sweeten your mouths, and everyone gets a share.”

The candies Su Ye brought were just three flavors—mint, orange, and apple—very simple, but to the children, they were precious treasures.

They had almost forgotten the taste of plain steamed buns, let alone rare fruit candies.

As soon as Su Ye mentioned handing out the candy, the students couldn’t stop salivating.

“Is there enough for everyone?” The students’ eyes gleamed with longing, shock, and disbelief.

“But candy is really expensive, Teacher Su, you should keep it for yourself.”

Su Ye nodded and began handing out the candies one by one. “Yes, everyone gets one. Don’t worry, Teacher Su has a lot of candy. This time, each person gets one piece. After eating, you need to study hard and do your best in the exams.”

A small piece of candy, with no packaging, seemed so simple in Su Ye’s eyes.

But to the children, it was as precious as a gem. The white mint candy, yellow apple candy, and orange orange-flavored candy were round, hard, with a fragrant and tempting smell. When placed in their mouths, the candy melted, and their taste buds burst with sweetness, warming their hearts.

Many of the children didn’t want to waste the candy, licking it a few times before carefully putting it in their pockets to savor later.

At fourteen or fifteen, the children were no longer very young. They had already started thinking about what jobs they would do after graduation. Not many people treated them like children, but only Teacher Su still saw them as such.

Qian Xiaohe ate her candy so quickly that she nearly shed tears. This was the first time in her life she had tasted high-quality fruit hard candy. So this was what candy tastes like…

“Teacher Su, I will study hard and improve every day!” she silently vowed in her heart.