The man nodded. “I’ll take it all. Trouble you to come along with me and deliver it to the agricultural science institute.”
The corners of Shen Jiaqi’s mouth stretched almost to her ears.
She didn’t expect her very first order on opening for business to be such a big deal.
She quickly gave Lu Zheng a look. “Comrade Lu, what are you standing there for? Hurry and help big brother weigh it…”
Only then did Lu Zheng come to himself, and he got it on the scale briskly.
The two full sacks of wild ginger came to about two hundred and two catties.
After knocking off the odd amount, they counted it as two hundred catties, and sold it for eight yuan.
The man was a straightforward sort too, and pulled out the money right away.
Looking at the eight yuan in her hand, Shen Jiaqi seemed to hear the sound effect of a rain of gold coins clattering down.
This was her first pot of gold earned in the seventies!
She felt it over and over like a treasure, then counted out four yuan and handed it to Lu Zheng.
“Yours.”
Lu Zheng looked at those bright, glaring four yuan and felt it was too unreal.
Cultivated ginger on the market only sold for three fen a catty, and Shen Jiaqi had actually asked four fen for this wild ginger scavenged from the mountains, higher than the market price.
And this big brother from the agricultural science institute hadn’t even haggled, and had bought the lot in one go.
Truly beyond expectation!!
Lu Zheng took the money without standing on ceremony, rolled it up and put it in his jacket pocket, and without another word hoisted the two sacks of ginger and followed the man.
Shen Jiaqi carried only a fish in her hand, and chatted with the man on and off.
“Big brother, you bought so much ginger, can you finish eating it all?”
The man laughed in embarrassment, and meeting Lu Zheng’s icy gaze he shivered abruptly.
“You’d better call me Zhang Tao, or your man is going to get angry.”
Her man…
Shen Jiaqi looked over at Lu Zheng. “He isn’t. Don’t go saying that…”
Zhang Tao wore an “I understand” expression. Young people courting, being shy was perfectly normal.
He saw through it but didn’t say so, and steered the conversation back to those two sacks of ginger.
“I’m not buying this ginger to eat. It’s for research, to plant in the experimental fields.”
Zhang Tao and his colleagues had been running wild ginger trials, collecting different varieties of wild ginger all over the county.
This was the first time he’d seen ones this plump and large.
“It seems this wild ginger has very strong survivability and very strong reproductive ability. If we can grow it successfully in trials, or cross it with existing ginger to improve the variety, we can raise ginger yields substantially.”
In this era, ginger was basically used for cooking, or for boiling ginger soup.
But people didn’t know that ginger’s applications were very broad, covering medicinal use, dietary therapy, external treatment, health cultivation, and many areas of special therapies.
Never mind the distant future, in the coming cold wave and pneumonia outbreak, ginger would play a great role.
If the researchers at the agricultural science institute could grow it successfully and raise the yield, that would be a great thing for the country and the people!
“Then… is this bit of wild ginger enough?” Shen Jiaqi asked.
Zhang Tao was surprised. “Do you mean… you have more?”
Shen Jiaqi smiled. “I do.”
He slapped his thigh in excitement. “Wonderful! Then… however much you have, I’ll buy it all…”
Shen Jiaqi blinked at Lu Zheng excitedly, waiting for his answer.
He was the man who’d saved her life, and besides, he’d been the one who dug up and hauled that wild ginger. How could she not bring him along to get rich with her?
Besides, she’d certainly be going into the mountains to dig treasure often from now on, and Lu Zheng knew that mountain best and was a first-rate hand at work. Bringing him in as a partner was sure profit and no loss!
Lu Zheng was startled for a moment, he clearly didn’t expect such a good thing to include him.
After all, she was the one who had found that patch of wild ginger.
If she wanted to earn the money alone, he’d have no objection at all.
Seeing that she kept waiting, Lu Zheng hesitated a moment, then pushed one word out through his teeth. “All right!”
At that, Shen Jiaqi’s eyes narrowed into crescent moons.
“Comrade Zhang Tao, then it’s settled. We’ll bring the wild ginger over tomorrow.”
“Good, I’ll be waiting for you…”
On the way back from the agricultural science institute, Shen Jiaqi counted the money in her hand over and over.
In the seventies, a worker’s monthly wage was only thirty-some yuan.
And in this one turnover she’d earned four yuan, and that wasn’t all.
Just now at the agricultural science institute, Zhang Tao had also introduced her to the canteen manager, who bought the grass carp she was holding.
In these times, buying fish or meat required coupons, and in the middle of a famine year many people couldn’t buy fish or meat even if they had the means.
Her fish was big and fresh, as if just scooped out of the river, and the canteen manager bought it on the spot.
And at the price for live fish, too, three mao five a catty.
The fish was a full three catties four taels, and sold for one yuan one mao nine.
Together with the four yuan from the ginger, she was clutching a total of five yuan one mao nine.
Now that she had money, naturally she had to keep her promise.
She went to another black market and bought a piece of pork belly with fat and lean layers, twenty eggs, and a sack of fine grain.
Then she wandered around a couple of times and finally spotted a stall selling brown sugar, and bought two big pieces of brown sugar.
The whole way, Lu Zheng followed silently at her side.
She’d only just gotten five yuan in hand, and Shen Jiaqi had nearly blown it all.
“Aren’t you going to buy something for yourself?” Lu Zheng asked.
“Oh right…”
Shen Jiaqi looked at the scattered small change in her hand, saw someone selling baked flatbread by the roadside, and trotted over to buy two flatbreads with meat in them.
It was nearly noon and they still hadn’t eaten anything, hadn’t even had time for a mouthful of water.
“For you!” Shen Jiaqi held out the flatbread. “Thank you for helping me today, and for putting in the work.”
Lu Zheng had never liked accepting things from others, especially women.
But her smile was so sweet and the flatbread so fragrant that he had no defense at all.
He took it in silence, and as a return gift he turned to a stall and bought two bottles of soda, twisted the caps off with his bare hands, stuck in straws and held one out to her.
“Without you, my sale wouldn’t have gone so smoothly either.”
“Don’t mention it, don’t mention it… the two of us count as strength joined with strength.”
She didn’t put on airs either, took the soda and clinked it against his, then gulped down half the bottle and let out a satisfied burp.
The corner of Lu Zheng’s mouth curved slightly, and he tipped his head back for a swig too, eating the crisp, fragrant flatbread with loud crunches.
“Sorry, I don’t have much money left in hand, so I can only treat you to flatbread. Tomorrow, once we’ve closed the second deal, I’ll treat you to a good meal at the state-run restaurant.”
Shen Jiaqi had already started ordering dishes in her head when she heard the person beside her mutter something.
“The flatbread is quite good, it isn’t bad at all.”
One flatbread was enough to satisfy him. What kind of hard life had this Lu Zheng been living…
Then again, that was right, all the good things in his house had been given to Ye Zhaozhao, so of course he had to eat chaff and swallow greens.
This Lu Zheng was simply a male version of her!
The original owner had gone pushing forward to give supplies to the male lead Jiang Shiyan, and been miserably cast aside.
Lu Zheng had secretly delivered rice and meat to the female lead Ye Zhaozhao, and ended up looked down on and miserably jilted.
Why did honest people always have to be bullied?
Just because Jiang Shiyan and Ye Zhaozhao were the male and female leads, and they were only cannon fodder?
The author who wrote this book must be a pervert with both warped values and a warped personality!
The leads had crooked values and fortune riding on them besides, so the little cannon fodder had to band together to develop if they wanted a way to live.
At the thought, Shen Jiaqi took a deep breath and sat up straight with the utmost gravity.
“Lu Zheng, you saved my life, you’re the man who saved my life! From today on, as long as I, Shen Jiaqi, have a bite to eat, I definitely won’t let you go hungry.”
As she spoke, she patted the man’s broad shoulder, stars glinting in her eyes.
“Do you want to consider cooperating with us? Building up a fortune together, eating well and drinking spicy…”
And beating up the scumbag man and the scumbag woman while we’re at it.
“What do you think?” She blinked at him expectantly, waiting for Lu Zheng’s answer.