Chapter 12: Dark and Windy Night

Watching Wu Qiulan’s back disappear, Qian Xiaolan curled her lips in mockery. The intellectual youth point had been a mess for years. A group of intellectuals who claimed to have come to the countryside to build the nation, seeking freedom in marriage and boldly pursuing love, had actually done little in terms of real work. All they did was mope around or put on a show, like “you love me, I love her, she loves him, he loves her.” Tsk tsk tsk, what a mess! Even the opera wouldn’t dare to be this dramatic. Wu Qiulan thought she was hiding it well, but the original owner had already witnessed her infatuation with Gu Yanqing. Qian Xiaolan sneered, playing tricks on her, she was really asking for trouble!  Oh well, it was a pity that no matter how hard she tried to remember, she couldn’t recall Gu Yanqing’s face. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t remember, she would know when she saw him again. If he was the one, she would live a good life with him.

 If he wasn’t… well, she was not ready to die, so she would break off her engagement, work hard to make money, and search every corner of the world. This was what she owed Gu Yanqing.  Back home, she went to the mountain for a round. There was no catch in her trap today. She wasn’t disappointed because she had already picked a bundle of bamboo shoots in the morning. She also had a wild chicken she picked up that morning in her space. Although it died after being put into the space, the time in the warehouse was static, so the chicken was still warm. Thinking about the people she saw in the mule shed yesterday, all of them were thin and pale, Qian Xiaolan wanted to send them some good food. But one wild chicken was too little, so she went to the trading room, opened the big screen, clicked on the lonely name, and contacted Wenxuan. Wenxuan was very excited to learn that she had a pure wild chicken, and he quickly asked her what she needed.

The chicken weighed at least three kilograms. According to the prices in the future, Qian Xiaolan asked for five plates of eggs, five kilograms of lard, two kilograms of pork belly, and two kilograms of brown sugar. Wenxuan agreed, and in a blink of an eye, his figure disappeared into the space. Not long after, he returned, panting, carrying the goods. After the transaction, Wenxuan looked at the clothes Qian Xiaolan was wearing and asked tentatively, “Miss Qian, what year is it there? Do you need tickets to buy things?” Seeing Qian Xiaolan nod, he was overjoyed and asked again, “Do you have any extra tickets? Food tickets, cloth tickets, bicycle tickets, or stamps, like the “Mountain River is One Red” stamp and the Monkey stamp? Also…” Under Qian Xiaolan’s calm gaze, Wenxuan shut his mouth awkwardly. Qian Xiaolan chuckled and pulled out a handful of tickets from her pocket.

“These are all the tickets I have, take them all. Whatever tickets you take, just send me three times the amount.” These tickets were all taken from Sun Honghua, including two cloth tickets for two feet, two ounces of oil tickets, one pound of cotton tickets, five pounds of food tickets, and one pound of sugar tickets. Wenxuan took the tickets and looked at the date, 1976. He was a little disappointed. These tickets reflected the social landscape of an era and had some collection value, but they were not worth much. However, he still took them all, not for anything else, but to help the girl in front of him who looked malnourished.

Qian Xiaolan told him to put the things on the shelf in the trading mall when they were ready, and then she left the space to prepare dinner. She cooked a pot of rice, stir-fried a large pot of bamboo shoots with pork belly, and made a loofah and egg soup. That was it. Qian Xiaolan had a full meal, and put the leftovers in the space to eat tomorrow. She didn’t send food to the mule shed today. In her opinion, no matter how good the relationship was, you couldn’t send food to people every day. Otherwise, if she didn’t send it one day, others would easily feel a psychological gap, and if they were ungrateful, they would blame her. That wouldn’t be worth it. After finishing her meal, Qian Xiaolan took out two kilograms of brown sugar from the space, crushed it, wrapped half a kilogram in oil paper, put it in a wicker basket, and then took out twelve eggs and put them in the basket. When it was completely dark, she carried the basket to the mule shed.

Rong Qian and the others had already eaten, and they were all sitting at the door enjoying the cool breeze. Seeing Qian Xiaolan coming again, Rong Qian said to her, “Xiaolan, why are you here again? We’re fine here, don’t come here every day. It’s not good for you if people see you.” Qian Xiaolan smiled and said, “It’s okay, the nearest house to us is still over a hundred meters away. Besides, even if they see you, they won’t say anything.” That was true, but everyone still told her to come less often, just in case someone saw her and it affected her. Qian Xiaolan nodded in agreement, handed the brown sugar and eggs to Xu Wanting, “Grandma Xu, take these, have one brown sugar egg every morning to replenish your bodies.” Xu Wanting refused to take them, and the two of them pushed back and forth for a while. Finally, Qian Xiaolan looked at Rong Qian helplessly, “Auntie Rong, if you don’t persuade Grandma Xu to take them, I won’t come again.

” Seeing her serious expression, Rong Qian panicked and quickly said, “Auntie Xu, just take them. When we have the chance, we’ll repay Xiaolan’s kindness.” Qian Lao Ye and Rong Lao Ye also joined in the persuasion, and Xu Wanting finally took the things. After chatting with everyone for a while, Qian Xiaolan glanced at Qian Rongsheng, who had been silent all night, and said goodbye. Qian Rongsheng silently got up to see her off, and even followed her from a distance, watching her all the way to her doorstep. Qian Xiaolan had long noticed that Qian Rongsheng was acting strange tonight, but she was not a nosy person, and since he didn’t say anything, she wouldn’t pry. She even stood at the door for a while, but Qian Rongsheng didn’t say anything, so she pushed the door open and went inside. Before going to sleep that night, she flashed into the space. First, she took out the things Wenxuan had exchanged for her. Second, there was a new message prompt.

 This time a new customer came. Compared to Wenxuan’s endless chatter, the other party was concise, with only one line of ten words: “Can I exchange a Type 56 assault rifle for some antibiotics, wound medicine, fever medicine, cold medicine, and some dry food?” Wow! This was a big deal! But she liked it. In this era, gun control was not strict, and many people had guns in their hands, so Qian Xiaolan was not afraid of what would happen if she exchanged for one. Without hesitation, she typed in the chat and asked, “How much medicine and dry food do you need?” The other party seemed to have been waiting, and immediately replied when they saw the message, “One gun for ten people’s five-day supply.” Qian Xiaolan agreed and told him to wait.

 She turned around and left a message for Wenxuan to prepare some various wound medicine, antibiotics, fever medicine, and easy-to-carry dry food, and then she left the space. She didn’t have anything on hand to exchange, so she moved her previous plan forward. It was a dark and windy night, perfect for doing bad things, hehehe. Qian Xiaolan changed into a set of Qian Changfu’s old clothes, put on a hat, and went around the back of the village to Qian Changcai’s house.