Chapter 21: Black Market (Part 2)

The man’s appearance clearly marked him as a city worker, the kind of person who generally had money and coupons!

Zhao Xiulan hurried over to the man and, when she reached him, lowered her voice and asked, “Comrade, do you need grain?”

The man looked at Zhao Xiulan with excitement and surprise, asking, “Girl, do you… do you have grain?”

Zhao Xiulan nodded.

The man’s name was Guo Aidang. He had just wandered around the black market looking to buy some grain. But luck wasn’t on his side, as he hadn’t encountered anyone selling grain until now. Unexpectedly, someone had approached him to sell grain.

“Yes, yes!” Guo Aidang nodded eagerly and asked, “Girl, what kind of grain do you have? And how much?”

Zhao Xiulan listed the contents of the basket, “Ten jins of rice, ten jins of flour, and ten jins of noodles.”

Upon hearing this, Guo Aidang’s eyes widened.

What? Ten jins of rice, ten jins of flour, and ten jins of noodles?

Guo Aidang looked at Zhao Xiulan’s attire and thought that she was just a country girl. Even if she came to sell grain, she would only have coarse grains like sweet potatoes and sorghum.

But what did Zhao Xiulan just say? She had rice, flour, and noodles!

These were all fine grains!

Even in the black market, it wasn’t easy to buy fine grains, even at several times the normal price.

Zhao Xiulan not only had fine grains, but she also had so much!

Guo Aidang thought for a moment and then realized that perhaps she was intentionally disguising herself to sell grain in the black market!

Many people who came to trade in the black market were disguised to avoid drawing attention. Guo Aidang had encountered such situations before when he often came to buy grain in the black market.

Of course, Guo Aidang didn’t care about these things. He only cared about the grain in Zhao Xiulan’s hands!

He had forgotten how long it had been since he last ate fine grains. Now that Zhao Xiulan said she had rice, flour, and even noodles, how could he not be excited!

Guo Aidang hurriedly asked Zhao Xiulan, “Girl, how much for your rice, flour, and noodles? I’ll take them all!”

Zhao Xiulan didn’t know the specific prices on the black market, but based on the information she had checked in her storage space, during this era, if you used grain tickets to collect, rice would cost around twenty to thirty cents per jin, and flour would be about the same as rice. Noodles were slightly more expensive, around fifty cents per jin.

On the black market, prices were roughly ten times higher, and some rare fine grains could be even more expensive.

Thinking about this, Zhao Xiulan tentatively quoted a price, “Three yuan per jin for rice and flour, and four yuan per jin for noodles.

“But if you have coupons, rice and flour are two yuan fifty cents per jin, plus half a jin of grain coupons. Noodles are three yuan per jin, also with half a jin of grain coupons!

“If you don’t have grain coupons, it’s fine. We can figure something out. Cloth coupons, sugar coupons, oil coupons, and even industrial coupons are all acceptable!”

Zhao Xiulan needed money and coupons now. Although she had plenty of goods in her storage space, she couldn’t take them out casually. If she had various coupons, she could explain the legal source of the things she could bring out in the future.

Upon hearing Zhao Xiulan’s quoted prices, Guo Aidang was somewhat stunned. For a moment, he thought he was hearing things or that he had misheard.

How could the prices be so cheap?

He bought grain from the night market every month and knew the prices. The prices quoted by Zhao Xiulan were at least thirty percent cheaper than what others sold for in the black market!

(End of Chapter 21)