Chapter 10

Imagining the beautiful life she’d have after becoming single again, Jiang Manyue took a sweet and peaceful afternoon nap.

But when she woke up, a sudden thought struck her.

She had to make a delivery in three days—over a hundred pairs of leather shoes. Shouldn’t she find a place to serve as a front-facing warehouse and also as the transaction site?

Otherwise, it’d be hard to show up at the black market with a hundred-plus pairs of leather shoes out of nowhere. If anything went wrong, it could be a huge hassle.

Sitting on her bed, Jiang Manyue thought it over and decided to look around the county for a vacant courtyard. Ideally, it would be easy to transport goods to and from and not have too many nosy neighbors.

She was free that afternoon anyway, so she figured she might as well make another trip to the county and see if she could find a courtyard that fit her needs.

After getting herself ready to head out, she bumped into a few of her nephews who had come to play with Lu Jun’an.

“Auntie! We came to play with Jun’an!”

Jiang Hong’s voice was loud enough that Lu Jun’an heard it from inside and came running out excitedly.

“Brother Jiang Hong! I’m coming!”

Li Guifen came rushing out of the house just in time to see her grandson happily standing with a few of the Jiang kids.

“Don’t take Jun’an to the river, alright? Just play by the bank, catch some grasshoppers or something. Be careful, you hear me?”

Jiang Manyue gave a few warnings. Jiang Hong patted his chest, promising to be careful, and the kids ran off with Lu Jun’an.

They disappeared around the corner in no time, and Jiang Manyue headed off on her own.

After two trips to the county in one day, Jiang Manyue was feeling a bit tired. Thinking that she’d need to travel back and forth to the county more often in the future, she started considering buying a means of transportation.

Owning a car in this era was simply out of the question. Ordinary people barely got a chance to ride in a car, let alone drive one. In their production team, most people rarely even saw vehicles, and tractors were considered luxury items.

Her only option was a bicycle. But most of the bikes on the streets were the large 28-inch men’s models, which were a bit of a struggle for Jiang Manyue to handle, even though she wasn’t short.

She wondered if there were any women’s bikes for sale in the county. If there were, she’d go to the black market and try to trade for a bicycle ticket to buy one.

It wouldn’t be convenient to bring the bike back home directly, but she could store it in her personal space and take it out when she traveled to the county alone.

With that thought in mind, Jiang Manyue headed into the county.

Following her idea for a suitable courtyard, she wandered the outskirts of the county.

Most of the houses on the outskirts were single-story homes with courtyards. After circling around several times, Jiang Manyue finally spotted a courtyard with a paper notice stuck to the gate.

The paper had an address on it and explained that if someone wanted to rent or buy the house with the courtyard, they could go to that address to inquire.

Jiang Manyue tore down the paper and followed the address to find the owner.

She spent 20 yuan to rent the entire courtyard for one year.

Because the courtyard was remote and the notice had been up for a while with no inquiries, the owner didn’t haggle much over the price and was happy someone was finally willing to rent it.

After paying, they signed a rental agreement, wrote their names, and left handprints as signatures. The rental deal was sealed.

After securing the place, Jiang Manyue moved all the leather shoes into the house on the property.

It had doors and windows that could be locked up securely, so she wasn’t worried about theft.

Besides, the courtyard had been abandoned for so long that no thief would be foolish enough to target a place like that.

Before leaving, she even put the rental notice back on the gate, so if any neighbors passed by, they’d assume the place was still unoccupied and wouldn’t suspect that valuable goods were inside.

With the warehouse arranged, Jiang Manyue headed to the state-run store.

She wanted to check if there were any women’s bicycles for sale. If there were, she’d plan to get a bicycle ticket during her next black market deal.

When she reached the store, she went straight to the bicycle counter—and there it was, the very type she’d hoped for.

A Phoenix-brand women’s bicycle with a 26-inch slanted frame—perfect for her height, and it looked sleeker than the standard men’s model.

“Hello, comrade. Can I ask how much this Phoenix women’s bicycle costs?”

“One hundred fifty yuan, plus a bicycle ticket!”

Jiang Manyue asked about the men’s model as well. It was 160 yuan—ten yuan more than the women’s version.

Just as she was about to leave after getting the prices, the clerk called out to her again.

“Comrade, if you’re really interested in that women’s bike, you can take it for 140 yuan.”

Jiang Manyue turned back in surprise. “You guys do discounts?”

The clerk glanced around and shook her head, looking a bit helpless. “Women’s bikes are just hard to sell. Everyone wants the men’s model. That one’s been sitting here for half a year with no buyers. Our supervisor said if someone’s willing to buy it, we can let it go for 140 yuan.”

Jiang Manyue was indeed interested. Saving ten yuan was a good deal.

After thinking for a second, she smiled and said, “Then hold it for me, will you? I’m still short on cash. I’ll go home and gather what I need and come back to buy it in a few days.”

The clerk nodded eagerly. “Of course! I’ll hold it for you, don’t worry.”

Honestly, it didn’t matter if she held it or not—no one was coming to buy it anyway.

Jiang Manyue and the clerk agreed: when she came back in a few days, she could buy it for 140 yuan with a bicycle ticket.

Seeing that it was getting late, Jiang Manyue didn’t make any more stops and headed home straight away.

She wanted to get home before Li Guifen started cooking, so she could cook first.

Li Guifen’s cooking was pretty hard to stomach. Jiang Manyue figured cooking wasn’t that difficult, so she might as well do it herself and enjoy a decent meal.

When she got home, the house was quiet—no one was there.

Perfect, thought Jiang Manyue. She went to the backyard garden and picked a few eggplants and cut some fresh chives.

As she passed the chicken coop, she grabbed two eggs.

She planned to make braised eggplant and scrambled eggs with chives for dinner.

At the well, she washed the vegetables, then brought them into the kitchen to start cooking.

Before she began, she took out a small bottle of rapeseed oil from her supermarket space and poured a generous amount into the oil container.

There wasn’t much oil left in the container to begin with. With rationing so tight every month and eggplant being notoriously oil-hungry, she knew if she didn’t add more oil, Li Guifen might lose sleep over it.

Just as she lit the fire and started frying the eggplant, Li Guifen came back. Hearing the sounds of cooking in the kitchen, she hurried in to check what was going on.

When she saw Jiang Manyue standing there cooking, her expression turned blank.

Was she seeing things?

The very person who’d never stepped into the kitchen and only ever waited for meals while complaining about how bad they tasted—was now actually cooking?