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Chapter 48
Although Ning Shu felt that it would be more reliable to inquire about buying a house from Meng Jie, she didn’t go to him today.
After all, Meng Jie’s favors were not easy to come by, and it was better to use them sparingly.
If she went to him for everything, it would be difficult to ask for help when there were really important matters in the future.
Therefore, Ning Shu decided to ask Li Fei. But even when asking Li Fei, she couldn’t go empty-handed.
Ning Shu looked around on the app and found five good products for today:
Ning Shu bought one of each of the five products today, thinking that Li Fei had mentioned wanting fruit before, so she directly bought two boxes of apples. Then she bought two servings of belt fish.
Since pork was difficult to buy, she bought all 16 servings. Even though it would spoil easily after taking it out, she planned to make it into preserved meat.
When there was no fresh meat to eat later, she would eat the preserved meat.
Then she bought four kilograms of strawberries and 10 glutinous rice balls, which could be steamed for breakfast.
After buying everything, she found a secluded place with no one around and took out the two boxes of apples, placing them in the basket at the back of her bicycle.
Two bags of apples, totaling 20 kilograms. Although not light, for her bicycle, this weight wasn’t much.
There weren’t many people at the cooperative today. When Ning Shu arrived, the salesperson inside was chatting. In fact, there were usually few people there.
Ning Shu stood at the entrance of the cooperative. Since she had to watch over the apples on her bicycle, she didn’t go in. “Li Jie…” she shouted into the store.
Li Fei was chatting with her colleague. When she heard Ning Shu’s voice, she looked up. “Ning Meizi is here.”
Ning Shu waved at her. “Jie, could you come out for a moment?”
“Sure, coming.” Li Fei walked out of the cooperative and warmly said, “I heard about the clothing factory from the director. Meizi, you’ve got guts. Can those fabrics really solve the problem?”
After hearing about the matter from the director, she was truly shocked.
She hadn’t expected Ning Shu to get involved in such a big issue.
Ning Shu teased, “You’ll know when the time comes. By the way, Li Jie, I brought 20 kilograms of apples today, on my bike. Do you want them?”
“Of course, let’s take a look,” Li Fei responded without hesitation.
The two approached the bicycle, and Ning Shu opened the sack in the basket. The large Crystal Heart apples were bright red, making Li Fei’s mouth water. “If they’re all this quality, I’ll take them all.”
Twenty kilograms weren’t too much for her; she could share them with her in-laws and her own family.
“They’re all the same. Li Jie, take a look,” Ning Shu lifted the sack out and placed it on the ground for her to inspect.
“I trust you, no need to check,” Li Fei said, although her eyes were fixed on the apples.
Ning Shu didn’t mind. After all, it was a transaction between them. It’s better to see the goods clearly to ensure transparency.
She liked things to be clear and straightforward.
“I insist on checking. Li Jie, you trust me, but I don’t even trust myself. What if there’s a mistake?” Ning Shu joked.
“You…” Li Fei shook her head with a smile. After confirming that the apples were all of the same quality, Li Fei didn’t bother weighing them.
“How much per kilogram for these apples?”
Ning Shu wasn’t familiar with the prices of this era.
She didn’t have the nerve to engage in black market business, so she didn’t inquire about black market prices either. “You must be familiar with the price, Li Jie. Just quote a price that you think is fair.”
As a cooperative employee, Li Fei was indeed familiar with these prices.
She said, “Apples in the market are around 40 cents per kilogram. For good quality ones like yours, it’s 45 cents. Since these are of excellent quality and from outside, I’ll give you 55 cents per kilogram. 20 kilograms will be 11 yuan. How does that sound?”
“No need, I’ll take 9 yuan,” Ning Shu said.
She had just made 85 yuan, so she wasn’t too concerned about how much she would get.
“You can’t do that; I can’t let you lose money,” Li Fei objected. She wasn’t someone to take advantage of others.
Ning Shu chuckled, “I won’t lose money. Li Jie, you’re so polite; I feel embarrassed to ask for your help.”
Li Fei understood that Ning Shu must have something to ask for her help with.
She smiled and said, “Don’t praise me too much. I don’t handle compliments well; they make me lose my bearings. But we’re on the same side. If I can help, I will.”
Ning Shu understood Li Fei’s intention. She said, “It’s not a big deal. It’s just that the quality of education in our rural school isn’t very good. I want to send my child to school in the county town, so I’m thinking of buying a house there. Do you have any recommended houses in the county town?”
Li Fei initially thought it was something serious, but this matter wasn’t significant at all. She replied, “Houses are easy to find now. There are many vacant houses in the county town.”
Pausing for a moment, she explained further, “Many people have been relocated or for other reasons, so there are plenty of empty houses in the county town. However, you need to be careful when buying such houses. Let me inquire for you first. When I have some information, I’ll come to you. By the way, which brigade are you from?”
They had met because of shopping, but Ning Shu didn’t know where exactly she lived, and Li Fei didn’t know either.
“I’m from the Qinglin Bay Production Brigade. If you ask for me, anyone in the village would know.” Both Ning Shu and Lin Guodong were quite famous. Even a three-year-old child would probably know her.
Li Fei nodded, “Got it. Just wait for me. I’ll go get the money.” With that, she picked up the two bags of apples, one in each hand.
After a while, Li Fei came out and handed Ning Shu eleven yuan. “Don’t be polite with me.”
Ning Shu pretended to be helpless and accepted the money.
After taking the money, Li Fei whispered, “Do you still have apples? When I brought them in earlier, my colleagues wanted to see. I felt awkward not showing them. I just said they were brought from your relatives’ orchard in another province. I’m not sure if you have any left.”
Ning Shu shook her head, “I only have one bag left. We need them for ourselves. Sorry.”
When she had nothing, she might have considered trading with Li Fei’s colleagues. But now, she didn’t need to. She wouldn’t engage in such transactions anymore.
In this era, self-preservation was the most important.
Trading with Li Fei and Zhang Min was just a small exchange, mainly to maintain their relationship.
Moreover, it wasn’t significant enough to be considered profiteering. But if the number of transactions increased, it would be a different story.
Li Fei didn’t doubt her words, especially since Ning Shu’s basket was indeed empty now. “Okay, I’ll let them know. Meizi, I’ll go in first.”
Ning Shu waved goodbye, then rode away on her bicycle.
She sold the two boxes of apples to Li Fei. She also bought another box on the app to keep at home.
When she neared the brigade, she found a secluded spot as usual, then retrieved the box of apples, two servings of belt fish (four fish), 16 servings of meat (16 kilograms), and finally, 10 glutinous rice balls.
Today, she could afford to take more things since she had money from her work. However, she didn’t flaunt it.
Since the contents of her basket weren’t visible, she covered them with the sack after taking them out of the app.
No one would know what she bought.
When Ning Shu entered the village, she didn’t encounter many people as it was still working hours for most.
What surprised her even more was that when she returned home, her three children were not there.
Usually, she would see them waiting for her when she returned home.
Ning Shu didn’t pay much attention to it. She pushed her bicycle into the kitchen and then unloaded the things from it. Thinking that Lin Erbao wanted to eat braised pork, she decided to cook two kilograms of braised pork for lunch today.
With fresh meat available, she could also make bamboo tube meat porridge for her San Bao.
“Mom, are you back?” While Ning Shu was cooking braised pork, she heard Lin Erbao’s voice.
“I’m back,” Ning Shu replied from the kitchen.
Hearing her mother’s voice, Lin Erbao ran into the kitchen.
Unfortunately, he didn’t pester her about what she was cooking today when he saw his mother cooking. He just stood by the stove and watched.
Seeing this, Ning Shu couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong, Erbao?”
Since she didn’t see Lin Yibao and Lin Sanbao’s figures, she didn’t even hear their voices. She asked again, “Where are Yibao and Sanbao?”
Lin Erbao, without much spirit, said, “They are at the old house. Mom, Haicai is sick and vomiting.”
Ning Shu was startled. Was it that serious? “Didn’t you take him to the hospital?”
Lin Erbao shook his little head, “Mom, what’s a hospital?”
“A hospital is a place for treating illnesses. Since Haicai is sick, don’t disturb him at the old house. Go and call Yibao and Sanbao. We’ll have dinner later. Today, I made braised pork that you all like.”
With this, Lin Erbao regained his spirit. He sniffed vigorously, “No wonder it smells so good. It turns out to be braised pork. Mom, I’ll go and call brother and Sanbao.”
He then quickly ran out. Despite his short legs, he ran quite fast.
Lin Erbao ran to the old house and saw Lin Yibao and Lin Sanbao sitting on the doorstep.
He loudly exclaimed, “Brother, Sanbao, Mom’s back, and she made braised pork. She asked us to come back for dinner.”
Lin Yibao and Lin Sanbao immediately stood up when they heard their mother was back. “Mom… meat…” they exclaimed.
Lin Yibao quickly overturned the basket. “Sanbao, come in quickly. Let’s go home.” Although Sanbao could walk now, it was limited to the courtyard at home, and he still needed his brothers’ help to walk. Walking outside was out of the question.
Sanbao agilely climbed into the basket, and then the two brothers carried him home.
Qian Aifen didn’t go to work today because Haicai was sick. She had a runny nose and coughed, and he even vomited and had diarrhea last night.
How could she have the mood to go to work today? However, when she heard from Lin Erbao that Ning Shu had returned and bought meat, she thought of asking Ning Shu to buy some meat to nourish Haicai.
Haicai hadn’t had much of an appetite these past few days and had lost weight. However, he did manage to eat two meat buns at dinner last night.
Thinking of this, Qian Aifen went to the field, planning to ask Lin Mother for some money.