Chapter 8: Black Market

Whether it was her or Han Guobin, they didn’t have many clothes—only two sets each. Who knew how many times they had been washed? They were all faded white by now.

Those were summer clothes, but what about winter?

There were even fewer for winter. She had checked—Han Guobin only had one winter outfit, and especially that outer cotton-padded jacket… who knew how many years it had been worn? The cotton inside was all clumped together. It couldn’t keep anyone warm at all.

This was also why Chen Rou had unceremoniously scolded her mother-in-law earlier today.

With her husband’s personality, he was surely the one doing the hardest labor in the family to earn work points. But even a cow needs to be fed from time to time—what were they treating her man as?

Protective as she was, Chen Rou had silently taken note of this grievance. She had been looking for a place to vent her anger, and now that it had come to her door, how could she hold back?

Han Guobin didn’t say anything when he heard her complaints, only said, “Let’s wait until it’s completely dark before we go.”

It had only just turned dark outside, and there were still quite a few people out. Dealing with things like cotton and cotton fabric—better to wait until deep in the night when everything was quiet.

He lay down on the kang (heated bed), and Chen Rou lay down too, mentally calculating that no matter what, she had to make her man a new outfit this year. The clothes she brought from her maiden home weren’t new either, but the key thing was—she still had some stock in her space. Thermal clothing and such—she had plenty, so she wouldn’t be cold.

Therefore, priority had to go to Han Guobin.

But Han Guobin’s mind wasn’t on clothes at all. That rascal scooted closer, and Chen Rou instantly understood what he was up to.

“I’m telling you, aren’t you tired?” Chen Rou said.

“Not tired,” Han Guobin replied.

What a joke—he was full of energy, how could he be tired?

By the time they finished, the moon was already high in the sky. Whether or not that rascal was tired, Chen Rou didn’t know, but she herself was exhausted and ready to sleep.

Han Guobin didn’t sleep. He went to his mother-in-law’s house, brought back the cotton and fabric, stored them properly at home, and only then climbed back onto the kang to cuddle his soft, fragrant wife to sleep.

In the dead of night, he was woken up by Han Laosan knocking on the door. After brushing his teeth, he went into the kitchen and ate the breakfast his wife had prepared, yawning as he headed out.

As for Chen Rou, she slept all the way until Zhou Zhen came knocking and called out, “If I hadn’t come to wake you, you’d have overslept for sure.”

Chen Rou thought to herself that it was all because of that rascal last night who went wild the moment he got some meat.

After kneading the dough, she went to brush her teeth.

It wasn’t just breakfast she needed to make now—there had to be food for lunch too. Thinking about how her man had drained his energy last night, she steamed some buns.

There wasn’t anything fancy in the filling—just greens and eggs. Nothing else.

But when she brought them to the fields, she still gave him two buns first. This earned her a smiling gaze from Han Guobin.

“You should just drop dead from exhaustion,” Chen Rou rolled her eyes at him. Seeing that he was in good spirits, she shoved a milk candy into his hand and then ignored him, arming herself and heading straight to the cotton fields.

Picking cotton really wasn’t an easy job, but Chen Rou always managed to do it quickly and cleanly. Even compared to the most efficient women, she wasn’t lacking.

At noon, they ate the vegetable and egg buns. They were delicious, but it didn’t change the fact that the work was tiring.

This autumn harvest started in the latter part of the month and continued until the end of October. Everyone in the village had visibly lost weight.

But it wasn’t over yet. They still had to turn in their grain, and then there was winter wheat to plant.

In short, the work was far from finished.

But Chen Rou couldn’t go on any longer. She considered herself strong and capable of enduring hardship, but this autumn harvest had worn her out.

And that was even with their family’s food being better than the average household’s. It was hard to imagine how tough it was for the local village women.

However, when she saw Han Guobin carry home a load of grain, Chen Rou still felt it was all worth it.

Not only did they get grain, but they also got paid.

Their share of money wasn’t much—just over twenty yuan. After all, she hadn’t done much work before. Although she had performed excellently during this autumn harvest and earned six work points whenever she went to work, it still couldn’t make up for her earlier slacking.

So being able to get over twenty yuan was already a reason to secretly smile.

Aside from that, every household also received a little cotton. But there was so little—her family only got half a jin. Honestly, that wasn’t even enough to make a single thick cotton-padded coat.

It was far too cold here in winter. A proper padded coat needed at least a jin and a half of cotton.

Thankfully, she had asked her mother to buy some for her in advance.

Lately, she had already started making a new set of clothes for Han Guobin. As for his old cotton coat, she removed the old cotton inside—which was completely unusable after so many years—and replaced it with new cotton.

Fluffing cotton was no small task.

But when she finally finished refurbishing that old coat, Chen Rou felt a real sense of accomplishment.

On the outside, it still looked like the same old cotton coat. But inside was a freshly fluffed cotton lining weighing one and a half jin. Wearing something like that in the deep of winter would keep anyone warm.

For the cotton pants, she only used six liang (300g) of cotton.

There was no helping it—cotton was really scarce. Even the cotton from her mother only totaled five jin.

She used the leftover fabric to make herself a pair of cotton pants, using half a jin of cotton. With the remaining roughly three jin, she planned to make a cotton quilt.

But if they had to rely solely on this one cotton quilt that weighed less than three jin (1.5 kg) to get through the winter, they would definitely freeze to death.

Even though the heated brick bed (kang) was fired up, it still got cold in the latter half of the night. The cotton quilt was the only thing to keep warm.

So now that the cloth coupons had been distributed, Chen Rou wanted to go into town and brought Zhou Zhen along with her.

But they weren’t the only young women or housewives planning to go. Now that everyone had finished their chores and received their cloth coupons, they all wanted to get a good piece of fabric to make a nice outfit.

However, Chen Rou had no idea where Han Mother (her mother-in-law) got the audacity, but before she could leave for town, the woman actually came over to borrow her cloth coupons.

Chen Rou knew exactly what she wanted them for—to make new clothes for her youngest daughter-in-law, who was about to marry into the family.

She said she just wanted to borrow them, but everyone knew that was like throwing a meat bun at a dog—there’d be no getting it back. You’d have to be a fool to hand them over.

Chen Rou had some clothes stored in her space, but they were all for herself. There wasn’t a single item for men. Her husband Guobin had very few clothes, and they still needed clothes for next summer too. All of that would depend on the cloth coupons.

Buying on the black market was too expensive—they couldn’t afford it. The two yuan she gave her mother to buy cloth and so much cotton were actually from the capital she had taken from her uncle. Her mother hadn’t made a single cent of profit from it.

So there was no way Chen Rou was going to give Han Mother the coupons—she rejected her outright, leaving Han Mother furious.

But Chen Rou didn’t care. That morning, she went into town early with Zhou Zhen and a group of other young women and housewives.

Ever since the autumn harvest, even though Chen Rou still didn’t talk much to others, she was no longer slacking off. She worked hard, so no one thought it shameful to associate with her anymore. Quite a few even initiated conversations with her.

As soon as they got into town, Zhou Zhen said, “Let’s hurry over to the supply and marketing cooperative. I’m afraid the fabric will be sold out soon.”

The others all nodded in agreement.

So the group headed over, and sure enough, there was already a long line. By the time it was Chen Rou’s turn, she didn’t have much to choose from. She handed over her cloth coupon and a few coins, and got a medium-grade piece of fabric.

Holding the fabric, she thought to herself that she’d use it to make two sets of winter underwear for Han Guobin. As for the clothes for next spring, she’d figure it out then.

The supply store had a variety of other goods—malted milk, White Rabbit candies, canned fruit, and the like—but they were too expensive, and Chen Rou couldn’t bring herself to spend the money, so she didn’t buy any of them.

However, she had something else in mind. She still had some supplies in her space that she wanted to discreetly sell. Among them were bundles of fine noodles, which were considered high-quality grain. Even if she just exchanged them for some money, it would be worthwhile.

“I’m going to look around a bit. I’ll wait for you all in front of the supply store before noon,” Chen Rou said to Zhou Zhen and the others.

“I’m heading to the department store. You want to come?” Zhou Zhen asked quickly.

“I’ll pass. I’m going this way,” Chen Rou replied, and left first.

She made her way to a familiar household and gave a discreet signal. The old woman squinted and looked her over before quietly giving her a new location.

Chen Rou immediately understood. The black market had changed locations again.

The black market didn’t have a fixed location. It moved around from time to time, but she knew this old woman was a regular and would always be able to give her directions.

Chen Rou carried a basket on her arm. Inside it was the rolled-up piece of fabric. As soon as she arrived, someone glanced around and asked in a low voice, “Sis, are you trading that fabric?”

“I’m not trading the fabric,” Chen Rou replied with a shake of her head. Seeing the young man’s disappointed face as he turned to leave, she lowered her voice and asked, “But I’ve got white flour. Interested?”

The young man froze, then quickly said, “White flour?”

Chen Rou motioned him over to a corner to trade and whispered, “Take a look.”

She lifted the fabric at the bottom of her basket, revealing three bundles of the noodles she had separated. She handed him one to taste. After trying it, his eyes lit up. He couldn’t help but glance at her again and said, “I don’t have any grain coupons.”

“Other coupons work too,” Chen Rou replied, knowing that city folks were short on all types of coupons during this period, so she didn’t press him. She also wasn’t surprised he wanted her noodles—they were precious commodities.

“I’ve got two cloth coupons. Do you want them?” the young man asked softly.

“I do!” Chen Rou nodded, gave him a price, and after a little haggling, they quickly reached a deal.

With the money and coupons in hand, Chen Rou didn’t hesitate. She immediately went and bought three jin of fluffed cotton, which was outrageously expensive, then left.

The black market wasn’t safe.

If it hadn’t been on the way, she wouldn’t have come at all.

She wrapped the cotton in the fabric and then used the remaining two coupons to get another piece of cloth. This one was definitely going to be saved for next year’s clothes.

She also bought a few other necessities, like brown sugar and some bowls and basins. By noon, the group set off to return. They had brought shoulder poles to carry their goods back, but when they saw some familiar faces riding a donkey cart, they hitched a ride on the neighboring village’s cart, each paying one fen.

Back home, Chen Rou first poured herself a big bowl of water and let out a long breath. Taking advantage of Han Guobin not being home yet, she turned into a little house fairy and began quietly moving all the things she had brought back into the house.

Even though it looked like she’d brought back a lot—fabric, cooking ware, and three jin of fluffed cotton—because she had sold three bundles of noodles and made a tidy sum, she hadn’t actually spent much at all.