“Do you have that many ration coupons?”
The supply-and-marketing cooperative clerk eyed Chen Xiaolin suspiciously when she asked for so many pairs of shoes. Without coupons, wouldn’t this just be messing with him?
“So how many coupons are needed? I have four shoe coupons—are those enough?”
Although Chen Xiaolin remembered that handmade cloth shoes didn’t require coupons, she was still a little worried she might not have enough.
“That’s enough. Cloth shoes don’t need coupons—one yuan a pair. Are you sure you want to buy so many?”
These cloth shoes were all hand-stitched. The cooperative bought them at forty cents a pair and sold them for one yuan. Many people would rather make their own shoes than buy them here.
“Yes, I want them. Just get them for me.”
Chen Xiaolin knew buying handmade cloth shoes wasn’t cost-effective, but in the countryside, wearing this kind of shoe wouldn’t draw attention. Most importantly—she didn’t know how to make shoes herself.
“Five yuan for the cloth shoes, three yuan for the rubber shoes, ten yuan for the rain boots, five yuan for the work gloves. That’s a total of twenty-three yuan and four shoe coupons.”
Chen Xiaolin took out twenty-three yuan and four shoe coupons from her pocket and handed them to the clerk.
Looking at the limited selection of goods in the cooperative, Chen Xiaolin honestly didn’t know what else to buy. She still had plenty of local grain coupons, industrial coupons, meat coupons, and cloth coupons on hand.
After thinking for a moment, she decided to make a trip to the black market. She planned to exchange all her local coupons for national ones.
Chen Xiaolin only knew of one black market location—an alley near the hospital. A classmate had told her about it.
But the original owner of this body had never lacked coupons, so she rarely went to the black market.
Following her memories, Chen Xiaolin arrived at the entrance and saw two middle-aged men standing guard.
“Buying or selling?”
“Buying.”
“One mao. Leave immediately after you’re done—don’t linger inside.”
Chen Xiaolin handed over one cent, and the two men stepped aside. Once inside, she saw that the black market was quite busy, everyone moving quickly and trading in hushed voices.
She found a coupon dealer and exchanged everything she wanted. In total, she traded for fifty pounds of national grain coupons, ten pounds of national meat coupons, and twenty industrial coupons. In the end, her coupons weren’t quite enough, so she paid an additional fifteen yuan or so.
After finishing the exchange, Chen Xiaolin left the black market. She had originally planned to sell a batch of goods in Beijing, but after seeing the grain being sold there—and how inferior it was compared to what she had in her spatial storage—she abandoned the idea. For safety’s sake, it wasn’t worth the risk. Besides, she wasn’t short on money anyway.
Back home, Chen Xiaolin looked at the empty room and decided she’d sleep in her space again tonight.
Dinner was noodles as usual, and luckily she still had some braised beef in her space. Braised beef with noodles—absolute perfection.
After dinner, she went back into the space to continue practicing her boxing. She had grown quite interested in this manual. She wondered if, once she mastered it, she’d be able to leap over rooftops and run along walls. And if the Chaos Fist was already this powerful, wouldn’t Lingbo Weibu (a martials technique)be even more amazing?
After practicing the fist technique twice, she began studying Lingbo Weibu. She planned to practice intensively and master both manuals before returning to her hometown.
Lingbo Weibu was a movement technique. For Chen Xiaolin, it wasn’t particularly difficult. Both she and the original owner had a foundation in martial arts. After an hour, she grasped the essentials. Before dawn, she had fully mastered the technique. It seemed she truly had a talent for martial arts.
She practiced until after two in the morning before collapsing into bed inside the space villa.
The next day, Chen Xiaolin ran more than ten laps around the villa in her space. After finishing, she felt noticeably more energized. She practiced the boxing and Lingbo Weibu once more before leaving the space.
Today, she planned to bring some things to the military district to visit her father’s superior and, while she was at it, return the two thousand yuan given by her father’s comrades-in-arms. She wasn’t short on money and could get by just fine—there was no need to accept such a large sum. Her father’s comrades weren’t well-off either; many of them were supporting large families on their own.
After more than an hour on the bus, Chen Xiaolin arrived at the gate of the military district. She remembered living here for a time when she was young. It wasn’t until she entered middle school that her family bought a house and moved out.
“Hello, I’m here to see Division Commander Liu. I’m Chen Dazhu’s daughter, Chen Xiaolin.”
“Please wait a moment. I’ll make a call to ask the commander.”
After quite a while, Liu’s orderly came hurrying out.
“Hello, I’m Xu Dong, Division Commander Liu’s orderly. The commander asked me to take you inside.”
Xu Dong recognized Chen Xiaolin—he had been there when the compensation money was delivered.
After receiving the call saying Chen Xiaolin had come to see him, Division Commander Liu waited for her at home.
In truth, Liu didn’t know how to face her. Originally, Chen Dazhu wasn’t the one assigned to protect Chen Xiaolin’s mother—it was Liu who decided to send him. He had meant well, thinking that while on the mission, Chen Dazhu could also keep his wife company. Who could have known that this single decision would cost Chen Xiaolin both her parents? Of the two thousand yuan given to her, more than five hundred had come from Liu himself.
When Chen Xiaolin arrived at Liu’s home, his wife had already prepared tea.
“Uncle, Auntie, hello. I’m sorry to trouble you today.”
Chen Xiaolin rarely came to the military family compound and had never met Liu’s wife before.
“You’re Linlin, right? You haven’t come to the compound since you grew up—this is my first time meeting you!”
Liu’s wife had been quite close with Chen Xiaolin’s mother, Cheng Xin, so she had always been curious about what her daughter looked like.
“It’s my first time meeting you too, Auntie.”
Chen Xiaolin felt a little overwhelmed by her warmth.
“Xiaolin, did you come to see me today because you ran into some trouble? If anything’s wrong, you must tell me. I won’t let anyone bully you.”
Liu knew Chen Xiaolin was shy and worried his wife might scare her.
“I mainly came to see you today, and also to thank you for helping handle my parents’ funeral arrangements back then.”
She truly was grateful. Without Liu’s help, given how lost and muddled the original owner had been, she probably wouldn’t have managed anything properly.
“Your parents were heroes. Helping with their funeral arrangements was only right. And Xiaolin… do you blame me? If I hadn’t arranged for your father to protect your mother, maybe you wouldn’t have lost both parents at once.”
Division Commander Liu was deeply remorseful—he lived with that guilt every single day.