Chapter 36 Selling Supplies on the Black Market

Master Bai also put the Gastrodia elata on the scale, nodded and said, “48 pounds, little comrade, not bad! You carried such heavy Gastrodia elata.” Then he was about to write a receipt and told Lin Yuexi to go to the window to get the money. Lin Yuexi quickly took out the three ginseng roots from the bottom of her backpack. Master Bai was startled when he saw them. Ginseng! Wild ginseng, and three roots! Although they weren’t very big, wild ginseng like this was very rare.

Master Bai looked at the three ginseng roots and said, “Comrade, you have a good eye. This ginseng, if it were over a hundred years old, would be priceless. But although yours is small, it’s not cheap. How about I give you six yuan per gram according to the market price?” Lin Yuexi thought for a moment. Except for the one she dug up, the other two were grown in her space with spiritual spring water. This price was about right. So she nodded and said, “Okay!” Seeing that Lin Yuexi agreed, Master Bai took another small scale and weighed the ginseng, “A total of 285 grams. Go to the window to get the money…”

 Then he took out a pen and paper, wrote a note, and gave it to her to get the money. Lin Yuexi was excited. If she wasn’t afraid of people suspecting her, she would have taken all the ginseng from her space and sold it. That way, she could buy a house immediately. But she didn’t need to rush. She would go to the black market later in the afternoon and try selling some of her supplies.

Lin Yuexi left “Bencao Yiyuntang” and wandered around the county again. Then she went to a state-run restaurant and had a meal, of course, only ordering dishes that didn’t require tickets. Lin Yuexi thought, I need to go to the black market and buy some food coupons and meat coupons to cover my tracks. I also need to take a bicycle out of my space. It’s so inconvenient to carry my backpack and wait for the bus every day.

She said what she would do, and she did it. Lin Yuexi found a secluded place with no people around, and like magic, she conjured up a Flying Pigeon bicycle. She hung her backpack on the back seat and rode back to town.

When she arrived in town, she went for another walk, then went back to the state-run store where she had bought her backpack and bought another one. She then added twenty cents and asked the salesperson for two iron hooks. She hung one hook on each side of the two backpacks, so that when she loaded things, they would be balanced on both sides. After leaving the state-run store, she asked someone where the black market in town was.

They told her that it usually opened from seven to eight in the evening or from four to five in the morning. Lin Yuexi rode her bicycle back to Qinghe Village. She couldn’t get home too late with her two children at home.

When she got home, her two children surrounded her. Seeing their mother’s new bicycle, they immediately cheered and jumped up and down, wanting to take a ride. Lin Yuexi pinched their two rosy cheeks. She felt that they had finally gained some weight. It seemed that her careful feeding for the past two months had not been in vain. “Okay, Mom will take you for a few laps around the yard today.”

 After saying that, she put her two children in the two backpacks behind her and rode around the yard a few times, making Lu Ziyan and Lu Xiyun giggle with laughter. Then she went to cook. After cooking, she coaxed her two children to finish their meal and then put them to bed. Lin Yuexi then rode her bicycle to town.

 She found a secluded place, took out a set of men’s work clothes from her space, put them on, found a hat, tucked all her hair inside the hat, then took out fifty pounds of rice, fifty pounds of meat, and a few buckets of oil, put them in the backpack behind the bicycle, and pushed it towards the black market.

Lin Yuexi carefully pushed her bicycle towards the black market. The black market was already bustling with activity. Some people were whispering in a dark alley, their eyes alert, watching their surroundings. Lin Yuexi found a relatively hidden spot, parked her bicycle, and quietly started to sell, “Rice, pork, cooking oil, selling cheap!”

In a short while, several figures gathered around. A middle-aged woman spoke first, “How much is the meat?” Lin Yuexi lowered her voice and replied, “Fresh pork, the price is slightly higher than the supply and marketing cooperative, 0.68 yuan per pound, guaranteed fresh.” The middle-aged woman hesitated for a moment, then looked at the quality of the meat and began to haggle with Lin Yuexi. After some negotiation, they finally reached a deal at 0.66 yuan per pound. The middle-aged woman was satisfied and left with the meat in a hurry.

Then, an old man approached and expressed great interest in the rice. Lin Yuexi said, “Fragrant and sweet rice, plump grains. For you, old man, it’s only 0.2 yuan per pound…” The old man carefully inspected the rice and found that the quality was very good. He immediately paid and bought all fifty pounds. Lin Yuexi tried her hand at this, and unexpectedly, the rice sold so well. One person bought it all.

Then, a young man came over and asked about her oil. Lin Yuexi said, “Pure peanut oil, one yuan per pound…” The young man saw that the oil in the buckets was bright yellow and clear. He wanted it all. Lin Yuexi was stunned. This business was too easy.

Now, only forty pounds of meat remained. Lin Yuexi was thinking about whether to take out some more grain from her space when the woman who had bought the meat before came back. “Girl, do you have any more meat?” “Yes, I do…” “How many pounds are left?” “About forty pounds…” “Okay, I’ll take it all…” Lin Yuexi was a little stunned. The woman didn’t hesitate. She directly took out 26.4 yuan from her pocket and handed it to Lin Yuexi. Then she took out a bag from her backpack and started putting the meat from Lin Yuexi’s basket into the bag. Seeing this, Lin Yuexi helped her pack it. In a short while, the meat was packed, and the middle-aged woman carried the forty pounds of meat away from the black market.

Lin Yuexi looked at the money in her hand, her heart filled with joy. She hadn’t expected her first transaction in the black market to be so smooth. She counted the money. Although it was much less than the money she earned from selling ginseng and Gastrodia elata, the supplies in her space were growing so fast. She was sure she would make a lot of money. She stayed in the black market for a while longer. She saw some ticket scalpers selling tickets, so she bought a few of each kind, but she bought more industrial coupons. She bought these just to make it look like she was buying them. She had everything in her space and didn’t need them.

After doing all this, Lin Yuexi pushed her bicycle carefully, avoiding the crowd, and left the black market. Not far from home, Lin Yuexi went to her space and changed back into her own clothes. She pushed her bicycle into her yard, tiptoed into the house, afraid of waking her two sleeping children. She sat by the bed, looked at their peaceful sleeping faces, and felt a sense of contentment.

Meanwhile, Liu Cuifang began to put her plan into action. According to Liu Cuifang’s instructions, Lu Jian Guo started to spread rumors intentionally and unintentionally in places where villagers gathered. He vividly described the scene of supposedly seeing a man enter Lin Yuexi’s house at night. Some villagers who didn’t know the truth began to whisper, and the rumors spread quickly throughout the village like wings.

Lin Yuexi was completely unaware of this. She continued to go about her daily business.