Chapter 38

Perhaps Liu Yu’s physique was so conspicuous that she became a living advertisement. Everyone immediately assumed that such a tall and plump young woman must be well-fed!

Before Liu Yu could even start advertising her business, people were already seeking her out to buy grain.

In those times, grain was a hot commodity. One person bought ten pounds, another bought ten pounds, and the most generous buyer was a middle-aged man in a grayish-white uniform who looked like a worker. He insisted on purchasing fifty pounds of grain in one go.

In less than an hour, the grain Liu Yu brought was reduced to only ten pounds. She had sold the rest, earning ten yuan and fifty cents!

Liu Yu was elated as she held the ten yuan, happily wandering through the streets. Ten yuan was truly a large sum in those days. Even if Nie Xiaocui emptied her pockets, she might not come up with that much.

With money in hand, Liu Yu’s first priority was to buy something.

The eldest family was so poor that aside from a wash basin, a teapot, and a few blankets, each person had only two or three sets of patched clothes. They really didn’t have anything else.

Since food is the foundation of life, Liu Yu went straight to the butcher!

At that time, beef and mutton were cheaper than pork. Beef was seventy-five cents per pound, mutton was seventy cents, and pork was the most expensive—reaching a full yuan per pound!

The meat stall wasn’t crowded, with only a few people buying.

Liu Yu approached and said, “Give me two pounds of meat!”

The butcher slammed his knife down on the cutting board. “Two yuan, two pounds of meat tickets!”

Liu Yu’s mouth twitched. “I forgot my meat tickets… Brother, please make an exception just this once…”

The butcher thought for a moment. “Fine, you can buy two dimes’ worth of meat. No need for tickets.”

Two taels of meat…

Better than nothing, Liu Yu took the money and left with a piece of meat about the size of a palm. She sighed. To live a decent life in this era, it wasn’t enough to just have money—you needed tickets too!

Everything required a ticket—meat tickets, grain tickets, cloth tickets… so many types of tickets, it was enough to give anyone a headache!

Shaking her head, Liu Yu planned to put the meat in her basket, but when she bent down, she noticed a scruffy, half-grown, bald boy.

This boy was dressed in short clothes and had a dirty face, but his big, round eyes stood out. He was shorter than Liu Yu by half, about the same age as Liu Ye, but he was skinny, with no flesh on him—just bones, looking like a little beggar.

Seeing the boy staring fixedly at the meat in her hand, Liu Yu was startled and quickly hid the meat behind her. “I’m bigger and stronger than you, so don’t get any ideas!”

But when the boy spoke, Liu Yu was shocked again. It wasn’t a boy’s voice—it was clearly a girl’s voice!

And when she heard the girl speak again, Liu Yu almost lost her composure.

The half-grown girl spoke clearly, “Sister, I saw you selling grain just now!”

She was Liu Yu’s nemesis, startling Liu Yu three times in a row. Let’s just call it a “triple shock.”

Liu Yu, feeling guilty, turned pale and hurriedly covered the girl’s mouth with her hand.

Seeing that no one was around, Liu Yu pulled the girl to a secluded spot and asked, “Have you been watching me the whole time? Little girl, we’ve never met, and I haven’t wronged you. Why would you want to harm me?”

The half-grown girl blinked her big eyes, then started crying, blinking as she sobbed, “Sister, I’m not trying to harm you! But sister, you must help me! You have grain, right?”

Liu Yu was most annoyed by people crying and whining. She wiped away the girl’s tears with her sleeve and frowned. “I can help you, but you need to explain yourself first. What do you need the grain for?”

The girl’s round eyes glistened as she replied, “Save me!”