Chapter 23: Black Market Deals

The chicken coop next to the wooden house was finished. The bamboo fence leaves were still green, unlike those outside that would turn yellow and withered after wind and rain.

She hadn’t found anyone selling chickens or ducks in town last time. Some families in the village raised chicks, but buying them and not raising them outside would arouse suspicion, so Wang Shuning still wanted to buy them elsewhere.

A fried breadstick, a fried egg, and a steamed sweet potato were enough for a filling breakfast.

No one in Dafeng Village made fried breadsticks, and even in Yihe Town, they were hard to find. Fried breadsticks were oil-intensive, and even if there was wheat flour, it was more economical to use it for pancakes.

Carrying an empty bamboo basket, she walked along the dirt road to Yihe Town. Four-wheeled vehicles were rare in this era; there wasn’t a single one in Yihe Town. Otherwise, with the road conditions, it would have kicked up a lot of dust.

Guo Jingyi, after washing her face, saw Zhang Meili still in bed and frowned. “Aren’t you going to town to buy meat? Why aren’t you getting up?”

Guo Jingyi was going to the educated youth center to cook this afternoon. Liu Sicun had invited her to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms with the village aunties this morning, so she wasn’t going to town.

Zhang Meili turned over and continued to sleep. They only got one day off every two weeks, and she really didn’t want to open her eyes. “Shuning is going to town to buy things today, so I’ll ask her to bring it back for me. It’s only half a catty of pork; it’s not heavy.”

“Are you going up the mountain to pick mushrooms?”

“No.”

It was still early when she arrived in town. Wang Shuning went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy salt and pork, then put them into her space to avoid wasting energy carrying several pounds of goods.

Approaching the black market, Wang Shuning went to a corner, took out a small mirror – a piece she had salvaged from a broken full-length mirror when she left the Wang family home.

She smeared several handfuls of soot on her face in front of the mirror. Her originally fair face was now black, with several large moles added, making her look like a hardworking village girl. She didn’t have any cosmetics, so she had to use soot as a substitute; otherwise, she could have changed her entire face.

She put the bamboo basket on the ground, lifted a corner of the gray cloth, reached in, and transferred ten catties of brown sugar, five catties of rice, and five catties of wheat flour from the wooden house into the basket.

The wooden house contained more than that, but Wang Shuning couldn’t carry more; she would only transfer some and sell it gradually.

It was morning, and there were more people at the black market than last time.

“What are you selling?” A forty-year-old woman with a dark blue and white headscarf carrying a basket stopped to inquire when she saw that Wang Shuning’s bamboo basket seemed to contain many things.

Wang Shuning replied, “Rice, wheat flour, and brown sugar.”

The woman’s eyes lit up, and she immediately squatted down to lift the gray cloth from the basket.

The brown sugar was wrapped in newspaper, so its quality couldn’t be seen. Wang Shuning picked up a piece and opened it for the woman to see.

The reddish-brown block of brown sugar still showed tiny air bubbles inside. “It was made just the other day, very fresh, very high concentration, and very sweet.”

“How much does this piece weigh?”

“I haven’t weighed it, but it’s definitely at least two ounces. There are some broken pieces here; you can try them first, auntie.”

Wang Shuning hadn’t thrown away the broken pieces that fell off after solidifying and cutting; she had kept them specifically for buyers to sample.

The woman took the largest piece from the broken pieces and put it in her mouth. The high concentration made it very sweet, almost overwhelming, but that made it worthwhile.

The woman asked, “How much is one piece?”

Wang Shuning replied, “Fifteen cents a piece, seven pieces for one yuan.”

Thinking of her pregnant daughter-in-law, the woman didn’t hesitate to order. “Give me fourteen pieces. How much is the wheat flour per catty?”

Wang Shuning blurted out, “Fifty cents a catty. The rice and wheat flour I sell are of better quality than others; no haggling.”

“Two catties of wheat flour.”

After putting the brown sugar and wheat flour into the other woman’s bamboo basket, she pocketed three yuan. Her first sale was a success.

Several more people stopped to ask, and the brown sugar sold the fastest, mostly to women.

When the basket was empty, she covered it with the gray cloth and transferred another ten to twenty pieces from her space to continue selling. After an hour, Wang Shuning carried her empty basket and moved to another black market location.

She replenished her supplies, and the basket was full again.

When no one was around, Wang Shuning focused her attention on the old woman squatting to her right. Judging by her clothes and the eggs in her basket, she seemed to be from a nearby village.

“Grandma, do you sell eggs, and do you hatch chicks at home?”

The old woman, whose face was full of wrinkles, also noticed Wang Shuning squatting to her left. She looked young, but her complexion was as black as coal. “Yes, they hatched less than half a month ago.”

“These eggs are from other hens.”

She added this specifically because the old woman was afraid that Wang Shuning would misunderstand that she was selling eggs that failed to hatch.

“Grandma, do you sell your chicks and hens?” Newly hatched chicks needed to be with their mother hen. There were no weasels in her space, nor would any other animals steal them, so Wang Shuning planned to buy more to avoid having to buy more after finishing them.

The old woman didn’t expect Wang Shuning to have this idea. “Yes, the weather is starting to get cold, and another hatching might not be possible, so the price is higher. The chicks are too young to tell the sex yet. If you pick a rooster, it’s not my fault.”

Wang Shuning nodded. Roosters were fine too; braised rooster was delicious.

After selling the eggs in her basket, the old woman took Wang Shuning to her home.

The old woman lived in Hongtaiyang Village, next to Dafeng Village, a half-hour walk away.

It was already noon, so Wang Shuning bought two steamed buns at the state-run restaurant to eat on the way.

She chose ten chicks, one rooster and one hen, and two adult chickens, putting them in a bamboo cage in her bamboo basket, for a total of eight yuan.

After leaving Hongtaiyang Village, Wang Shuning moved the bamboo cage into her space and then carried her bamboo basket back to the black market in town.

A tall and strong man directly bought all the brown sugar in Wang Shuning’s basket, a total of thirty-two pieces. “If you have more brown sugar next time, send it to the yard with the big stone in front of the northwest corner gate.”

Wang Shuning nodded. She still had brown sugar in the wooden house, but the basket couldn’t hold it all. This man seemed well-off, and she also sold him the remaining three catties of rice and two catties of wheat flour, hoping to develop him as a regular customer.

The sun was about fifty degrees from the horizon; it was probably around three in the afternoon. Wang Shuning bought a dozen clear plastic bottles to store rapeseed oil and soybean oil.

Her bamboo basket contained two catties of meat, a bag of salt, and some snacks she had bought from the supply and marketing cooperative.

She quickened her pace to go back, otherwise she would miss dinner at the educated youth center.

“Get out of the way, get out of the way!” A sharp female voice came closer and closer.

Wang Shuning instinctively looked up. A bicycle rushed down the slope. The rider was a girl in a white shirt, who had a loud voice and a panicked, somewhat ferocious expression.

Seeing that the bicycle was about to hit her, Wang Shuning reacted quickly and moved in the opposite direction. The bicycle, unable to brake, whizzed past her, crashing into the ditch by the roadside, flipping over with the rider.