“Let’s not go to the black market yet!” Huang Qiaoyu smiled mysteriously.
Su Yiyi was a little surprised, but still asked tentatively, “Sister-in-law, do you have another connection?”
“Yes, that’s exactly why I wanted to go with you. I can introduce someone to you—if you want to buy meat in the future, just go to him.”
Huang Qiaoyu smiled proudly. After all, in this era, anyone who could get good goods through connections was truly capable.
Su Yiyi was of course happy, but still a little worried. She was about to get divorced soon and didn’t want any trouble before that.
“Sister-in-law, is this person reliable?”
Huang Qiaoyu understood her concern. “Don’t worry, I know what you mean. I’m also a military wife. If he wasn’t absolutely reliable, I wouldn’t introduce him to you. Honestly, he’s my cousin. He just happens to work at the meat processing plant here. His position is decent, and he doesn’t sell things casually—only to trusted people.”
Only then did Su Yiyi relax. In that case, there wasn’t much to worry about. She could take a look first before deciding whether to buy.
Huang Qiaoyu led Su Yiyi quickly to the entrance of a small courtyard. Su Yiyi stood a couple of steps behind her and didn’t stand side by side.
The gate soon opened, revealing a man bundled up tightly.
“Sis, why are you here?” The man—Zheng Qi—looked pleasantly surprised when he saw Huang Qiaoyu.
“Brother, do you still have any?” Huang Qiaoyu asked mysteriously.
“Yes!” Zheng Qi laughed. “I just brought some back last night, but there isn’t much. Go pick for yourselves.”
Huang Qiaoyu then turned to Su Yiyi. “Sister, let’s go pick.”
Su Yiyi nodded. This Zheng Qi seemed quite honest.
Inside the courtyard, Su Yiyi was surprised to find that Zheng Qi’s way of storing meat was almost identical to hers—just that his box was even larger. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Noticing her expression, Huang Qiaoyu said proudly, “Sister, isn’t my cousin smart? He said it’s better to store meat in a box than throw it in the snow—it looks nicer.”
“That’s true,” Su Yiyi nodded.
Honestly, whether it looked nice or not didn’t matter. As long as there was meat to buy, people wouldn’t mind digging it out of the snow. She had even prepared herself for that.
But Zheng Qi was indeed quite clever.
Inside the box were several cuts of pork and some offal—far more variety than what was available at the supply store. At the cooperative, you had to queue for a long time, and by the time it was your turn, there might not even be any meat left, let alone choices. Being able to buy anything at all was already good enough.
“These were brought back last night. You two are the first customers,” Zheng Qi said with a smile.
Su Yiyi looked at the meat and almost wanted to buy everything, but that clearly wasn’t possible since Huang Qiaoyu was still there.
“Sister, you pick first,” Huang Qiaoyu said.
There were two large slabs of fatty pork belly—each about three to four catties, good for rendering lard. Su Yiyi didn’t hesitate and took one.
Honestly, she didn’t need it—she could just take pork fat from her space—but with Zhao Yunzhi around, it wasn’t convenient to keep pulling things out.
She also chose three catties of pork belly, a pair of pig trotters, a set of intestines, and a pig liver.
Clearly, Zheng Qi was not an ordinary person. At the very least, his position in the meat processing plant was not low.
Huang Qiaoyu took the rest without hesitation.
“I was planning to split some with close acquaintances, but you two cleaned it out in one go,” Zheng Qi laughed helplessly.
“Isn’t our relationship close enough already?” Huang Qiaoyu joked.
“Close, of course close. I don’t want my aunt pulling my ears later,” Zheng Qi laughed.
After paying, the two of them left happily satisfied.
“Sister-in-law, you’re amazing!” Su Yiyi gave her a thumbs-up without hesitation.
“It’s nothing…” Huang Qiaoyu blushed. “My cousin just happens to work there, so it’s convenient.”
With meat secured, the next step was the black market.
Although vegetables didn’t grow in this freezing northern winter, some clever households still managed to grow greens in indoor spaces and sell them at high prices.
Su Yiyi couldn’t use her space openly right now, so she could only try her luck at the black market. If she found something, she could explain it later as occasional purchases.
Thinking this, she quickened her steps.
“Sister, why are you walking so fast?” Huang Qiaoyu laughed.
“My mother-in-law just arrived. I want to buy something good for her. She suffered a lot on the train and probably didn’t eat well.”
Hearing this, Huang Qiaoyu was stunned. Su Yiyi and Gu Zhanyang used to argue every time they met—yet now she cared so much about her mother-in-law?
Seeing her confusion, Su Yiyi smiled. “You’ll understand when you meet her. She’s a very good person.”
Huang Qiaoyu laughed. “Then I really should visit her someday.”
Before long, they reached the entrance of the black market alley.
“Why are there so many people today?” Huang Qiaoyu was puzzled.
Su Yiyi glanced around and noticed several familiar faces—some even seemed to be looking for someone.
Luckily, she had disguised herself before coming last time.
This reminded her that she could no longer use her real appearance here again.
They managed to buy quite a lot of vegetables from people selling them secretly. Some were grown indoors and brought out in hopes of exchanging for money or ration tickets.
Today’s haul was indeed abundant.
As for other supplies, Su Yiyi wasn’t lacking. She could always take dried goods from her storage space. After all, she had already “bought” plenty before, and Gu Zhanyang had no idea what she actually had at home.