After the meal, Li Ruolan intended to clean up the plates and bowls and take them to the kitchen to wash, just like she always had before. However, this time, just as she stood up, Li Hongjun suddenly spoke.
“Ruolan, I’ve already accepted the bride price from Director Zhang’s family. One hundred yuan as the bride price, plus a formal worker position.
The wedding date has also been set for the tenth day of next month. You’ll be getting married very soon. Be obedient. When you marry out, I’ll prepare a generous dowry for you.”
Li Ruolan still did not lift her head and only replied calmly, “I understand.”
Li Hongjun glanced at Li Ruolan a couple more times. Seeing that she was not making a fuss today, he nodded in satisfaction, stood up, and returned to his room.
Watching Li Hongjun’s retreating back, Li Ruolan really wanted to smash all the plates and bowls in her hands over his head. She took a few deep breaths before barely managing to restrain herself.
After quickly washing the dishes clean, Li Ruolan also returned to her room. She took out a small lock and locked the door before entering the space.
Inside the space, Deng Minghao had already returned. Somehow, he had gotten hold of some burlap sacks and bamboo baskets from this era and was transferring flour into the sacks.
Li Ruolan took a bamboo basket and went to collect the eggs laid by the hens over this period, placing them into the basket.
Back then, Li Ruolan had bought twenty chicks. Eighteen of them were hens, and two were roosters.
Perhaps because they ate well in space and the temperature was suitable, these chicks started laying eggs after just two months. Later, within another month, three of the hens began brooding.
Each of the three hens hatched ten chicks, so the original twenty chickens became fifty.
After that, more hens began brooding one after another, but Li Ruolan did not allow it anymore. Each time, she collected the eggs, keeping the total number of chickens, ducks, and geese controlled at fifty.
Because of this, they had accumulated a large number of chicken eggs, duck eggs, and goose eggs during this time. Taking them out to sell would definitely bring in quite a bit of money.
After packing the flour, Deng Minghao went into the chicken coop again, caught ten hens, and slaughtered them, planning to sell these ten hens as well.
The two of them worked in the space until late into the night. After each drinking a large cup of spiritual spring water, they left the space separately and returned to their respective residences to sleep.
The next day, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, Li Ruolan opened her eyes. This was a habit left behind by the original owner. She would wake up at this time every day and start making breakfast.
In order not to arouse suspicion, Li Ruolan dragged herself up and went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
After breakfast, the Li family members who needed to go to school went to school, and those who needed to go to work went to work. Once again, only Li Ruolan was left at home.
After thinking it over, Li Ruolan went out to a supply and marketing cooperative that was quite far away. One of her classmates worked there as a sales clerk, and the two of them were on fairly good terms.
When she arrived at the cooperative, Li Ruolan spotted her classmate at a glance, Zhao Xiaomei.
“Zhao Xiaomei? You really became a sales clerk here? That’s amazing. How is it? Is the work tiring?” Li Ruolan went up and lavished her with praise.
Zhao Xiaomei was genuinely happy to see Li Ruolan, her eyes full of smiles. “My parents arranged this job for me. It’s not tiring at all. It’s very easy.”
Li Ruolan said enviously, “That’s really nice. I’ve been graduating for more than two months already, and I still haven’t found a job. Oh right, help me get two boxes of snow cream.”
“Okay. Two boxes of snow cream come to forty cents in total,” Zhao Xiaomei quoted the price. Li Ruolan immediately handed over the forty cents.
After buying the items, Li Ruolan chatted with Zhao Xiaomei for a bit more, then began to hesitate, looking like she did not quite know how to bring something up.
Zhao Xiaomei noticed and gave her a push. “Do you have something to say? Don’t be shy. As long as I can help, I will.”
Li Ruolan looked around, making sure there was no one nearby, then lowered her voice and said, “I heard that the supply and marketing cooperative sometimes has defective goods. The kind that don’t need tickets. Is that true?”
As soon as Li Ruolan said this, Zhao Xiaomei understood immediately. She replied at once, “Oh, that. Yes, that’s possible. Internally, employees are allowed to sell these defective goods to their family and friends. What do you want? I’ll go get them for you.”
“I want quite a few things. Can you let me go in and take a look?” Li Ruolan asked softly, as if afraid Zhao Xiaomei might refuse.
Seeing her like this, Zhao Xiaomei immediately patted her chest. “Of course you can. Come on, I’ll take you to the warehouse. You can take your time choosing.”
“Xiaomei, thank you so much,” Li Ruolan said right away, then followed Zhao Xiaomei into the warehouse.
There were many things stored inside, a real mix of odds and ends. Some of the defective items were actually not a problem at all.
There were yellow canvas shoes with uneven dyeing, the kind of labor-protection liberation shoes. Aside from the uneven color looking a bit ugly, everything else was perfectly fine.
Li Ruolan picked out six pairs that did not look too bad, three for herself and three for Deng Minghao.
She also bought two large and two small ceramic teacups with chipped paint, two enamel washbasins, and two military canteens with some dents.
There were also towels with very unattractive colors, and some misprinted fabric. However, the flaws on the fabric were too obvious, so Li Ruolan did not take a liking to them and did not buy any.
After buying a variety of other miscellaneous items, Li Ruolan finally paid and took everything with her.
Before leaving, Li Ruolan gave the two boxes of snow cream she had bought earlier to Zhao Xiaomei as a thank-you gift.
Finding a secluded spot, Li Ruolan put all the items she was carrying into the space before returning to the Li household.
At noon, none of the three family members would come back to eat, so Li Ruolan did not cook in the kitchen. She returned to her room, locked the door, and entered the space.
After putting away the items she had bought, Li Ruolan began cooking. She steamed a pot of rice, stir-fried shredded potatoes, made garlic scape stir-fried pork, and prepared a portion of seaweed egg drop soup.
Li Ruolan’s appetite was reasonable, but Deng Minghao ate a lot, so two dishes and one soup were not excessive at all.
After the meal was ready, Li Ruolan waited for a while before Deng Minghao finally came in. He was wearing a set of dull gray clothes and had disguised himself, making him look several years older.
“Today I went to the steel factory family compound. The people there are really well-off. I sold over a hundred jin of flour, two baskets of chicken eggs, one basket of duck eggs, and one basket of goose eggs.
The flour was sold at twenty-one cents per jin, and it had to be matched with tickets. Any kind of ticket would do, so it sold very quickly. The flour brought in twenty-five yuan. The two baskets of chicken eggs sold for ten yuan. One basket of duck eggs and one basket of goose eggs sold for another ten yuan.
I also sold three hens, five yuan each. Just today, I made over sixty yuan. I also got some cloth tickets, cigarette tickets, sugar tickets, and soap tickets.”
As Deng Minghao spoke, he handed a stack of money and tickets to Li Ruolan.
Li Ruolan sorted through them and took out the cloth tickets separately, planning to go buy some fabric tomorrow and then send it to a tailor shop to have several sets of cotton-padded clothes made.
Winters in the Northeast were extremely cold. Cotton clothes had to be prepared in advance.