Chapter 66: The Eldest Sister-in-Law’s Schemes

“There should only be this much goods before the New Year. You don’t need to give a deposit, as long as your price is fair, I’ll find you when I have goods.”

Shen Chuning replied.

Chen Tao was a little disappointed to hear this.

This amount of grain wasn’t enough to distribute to those influential people he had contacted in the big city.

Selling grain to those people, he couldn’t charge a high price, he even had to lower the price and add some gifts.

He had originally thought that if Shen Chuning could provide another batch of goods before the New Year, he could sell them at a high price during the New Year and make a lot of money.

But even if Shen Chuning didn’t have any goods before the New Year, it was worth it to open up the market in the big city with this batch of grain.

With this batch of grain, he would deal with the scoundrel who dared to attack him!

“Okay, little sister, when you have goods, remember your brother. Rest assured, brother will give you a fair price.”

After selling the grain, Shen Chuning went back to the black market with Chen Tao.

It was autumn now, and the weather was getting colder.

She had seen her father wearing a single garment a few days ago, and she remembered that her father and two brothers didn’t have any decent thick cotton-padded clothes.

For winter, they each only had a military coat brought back by her third brother. The three military coats had been worn for many years, and the cotton inside was as hard as iron and not warm at all.

They couldn’t resist the cold and dampness of their winter.

And the quilts at home.

In her memory, the quilts her father and brothers had used since childhood were the same, and they were also not warm anymore.

Shen Chuning planned to buy some cloth and cotton and have Auntie He and He Hui make cotton-padded jackets for her father and two brothers before winter, and sew three quilt covers.

As for the cotton batting, she planned to buy finished products.

Because taking the cotton to the commune to be processed into cotton batting required cotton purchase vouchers, she didn’t have vouchers for the cotton she bought on the black market.

Going to the commune to have it processed would be like throwing herself into a trap.

Things bought on the black market didn’t require coupons.

In addition, Chen Tao took her to buy them, and she got a lot of discounts. In the end, she bought thirty chi of cloth for clothes, thirty chi of pure cotton cloth for quilt covers, six jin of cotton, and three eight-jin quilts, totaling fifty-eight kuai and six mao.

After buying these things, she found someone selling cloth coupons in the black market.

Cloth coupons cost fifty fen per chi, and she spent another twenty-five kuai to buy all fifty chi of cloth coupons the person was selling.

Zhou Yubai, besides depositing money, also gave her a lot of coupons.

But those coupons were what he had saved from what the army had given him.

In the army, from quilts and military coats to undershirts and underwear, they were directly issued, not coupons.

So although Zhou Yubai gave her many coupons, he didn’t have cloth coupons.

She happened to meet them today, so she bought some to save.

After all, she couldn’t always come to the black market.

The country’s leadership would experience many major events, it could be said to be earth-shattering.

There would be a wave of chaos and crackdowns.

At that time, the black market would be full of dangers and absolutely couldn’t be visited.

Shen Chuning tied these things to her bicycle and rode away from the black market.

Not long after leaving the black market, she found a hidden place and put everything into the space.

Three quilts, plus sixty chi of cloth and six jin of cotton, were quite bulky.

If she rode back to the village like this, it would be hard not to attract attention.

She put them in the space first, and then put them at home when her father and brothers went to work.

She also went into the space to wash off her disguise and changed back to her usual clothes.

After coming out of the space, she rode her bicycle to the commune supply and marketing cooperative.

She was lucky enough to find that the supply and marketing cooperative had tofu and pork today.

Generally, the town’s supply and marketing cooperative supplied tofu every other day and a pig every two or three days.

This small supply and marketing cooperative in the commune supplied tofu every two or three days, and pork might not be available once a week.

So every time they wanted to buy tofu and pork, if they didn’t have connections, they had to get up early to queue up and grab them.

But today, perhaps because of the busy farming season, even at this time, there was still half of the tofu and pork left.

She directly bought two pieces of tofu and two jin of pork.

It cost one kuai and eight mao, plus two jin of grain coupons and two jin of meat coupons.

After returning to the village, she went straight to Shen’s house.

She calculated the time, her second brother should have returned, and she had originally thought that she might not be able to take those things out today.

Maybe she would have to make several more trips to move those things home in batches.

But when she got home, no one was there.

She was a little puzzled, but didn’t think much of it, quickly taking the things she had bought from the space and piling them in the main hall.

Guessing that her father and brother would be off work soon, she went into the kitchen to cook.

She had been craving tofu buns these two days, and she had just bought tofu and meat.

She minced the meat and made tofu buns, then picked some scallions from the vegetable garden in the courtyard.

She heated the oil, added scallions, ginger, and fermented soybean paste, added water, cooked the tofu buns, thickened the soup with water starch, and served.

She put most of them in an enamel basin, and the rest in a small bowl.

She would eat the enamel basin with her father and brother, and the small bowl was for Father Zhou and Mother Zhou.

She was now the daughter-in-law of the Zhou family, and her husband wasn’t home, so she naturally had to be filial to her husband’s parents.

After making the tofu buns, she fried four poached eggs and cooked a bowl of cabbage and poached egg soup.

When Father Shen and Shen Zhengxu returned from work and reached the gate, they smelled the enticing aroma of tofu, meat, and fried eggs.

The father and son looked at each other, both seeing confusion in each other’s eyes.

Could it be that Second Brother had returned from the hospital and was cooking?

But where did Second Brother get the money and coupons to buy meat and tofu?

Father Shen and Shen Zhengxu were puzzled when Shen Chuning came out of the house with a bowl of food.

“Dad, Big Brother, you’re back. The food is on the table, eat first, I’ll take this bowl of tofu buns to my mother-in-law and come back.”

Shen Chuning said, and rode her bicycle away.

Father Shen could only enter the house with Shen Zhengxu.

Attracted by the aroma outside, they were shocked by the pile of cotton batting, cotton, and cloth in the main hall.

When Shen Chuning arrived at Zhou’s house with the tofu buns, Lin Shulan had just washed the mud off her hands and was about to cook.

“Mother, I made tofu buns at my father’s place today, I brought some for you, try them.”

Shen Chuning said, putting the bowl of tofu buns on the octagonal table in the main room.

Lin Shulan swallowed her saliva just smelling the aroma from the bowl, feeling comfortable.

Her third son’s vision was sharp, marrying this delicate girl from the Shen family, he hadn’t made a mistake.

Not only was she beautiful, but she was also sensible and filial.

“This child, why did you bring food from your parents’ house to your husband’s house?”

Shen Chuning smiled, “What’s wrong with that, anyway, I bought them, my father has some to eat, you and Dad should also eat some.”

Shen Chuning said and got back on her bicycle, “Mother, I’ll go first!”

“Okay, ride slowly.” Lin Shulan responded.

Sun Fengjiao watched Shen Chuning ride her bicycle out of the courtyard, her heart filled with resentment.

They were all daughters-in-law of the Zhou family, why didn’t Shen Chuning have to work and had a lot of money.

Eggs, tofu, meat, she bought whatever she wanted to eat every day.

Even her father and brothers benefited, and she casually gave some to her parents-in-law, and her parents-in-law cherished her like a treasure.

Thinking of her parents’ house…

Her parents’ house was also poor, her mother had asked her several times to help her family, but…

Before the family was divided, the family’s money and grain weren’t in her hands, and she couldn’t help her parents’ house.

Now that the family was divided, she managed her own family’s money and grain, and found that everything was tight, if she gave her parents’ house a grain of rice, she had to pinch it from her husband and children’s mouths.

It was hard to choose between the two, she couldn’t let her husband and children suffer in order to help her parents’ house.

Thinking this, she felt even more unhappy.

She rolled her eyes and went to Lin Shulan to complain, “Mother, the third son’s wife bought good things and ate them at Shen’s house directly.

You really trust the money your third son sent back and let her manage it! Look at her, the money your third son earned with his life, even if it’s not all spent on food and drink, it will be used to subsidize her parents’ house.”