“I’m planning to go again this afternoon. After I exchange for some more tickets, I’ll stop. Also, I heard cotton is pretty expensive now—it seems to be going for sixty or seventy cents a jin.
On the black market, without tickets, it can sell for eighty or ninety cents.
I’m planning to take two hundred jin of cotton out to sell, and use the remaining few dozen jin to make clothes. Anyway, there’s still half an acre planted in the Dimensional Space, so when it’s harvested, we can make whatever we want with it,” Deng Minghao said to Li Ruolan.
“That works. Best to exchange for as many tickets as possible. Of course, it would be even better if you could get all-purpose tickets,” Li Ruolan said.
Deng Minghao nodded while eating: “I’ll do my best.”
After eating, the two rested in the Dimensional Space for a while before heading out separately. Li Ruolan took the bus to a tailor shop quite far away.
Nowadays, fabric was sold by the chi—three chi made one meter. Li Ruolan didn’t know how much fabric was needed to make clothes, so she just told the tailor she wanted four sets of padded winter clothes custom-made.
Two sets each for Deng Minghao and Li Ruolan—one medium-thick set and one extra-thick set each—plus three pairs of thick cotton shoes for each of them.
The tailor knew her trade and immediately quoted Li Ruolan a price. Li Ruolan first went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy the fabric, then handed both the cotton and the fabric over to the tailor.
After giving the measurements, paying the deposit, and agreeing to pick everything up in seven days, Li Ruolan got her receipt and left the tailor shop, heading once again to the supply and marketing cooperative next door.
She used up her soap coupons, sugar coupons, and cigarette coupons, buying two bars of laundry soap, two bars of toilet soap, a jin of fruit candies, and two packs of cigarettes.
Finding a secluded spot, she stored all these items in the Dimensional Space, then got back on the bus and returned to the Li family home.
After returning, she made dinner as usual, waiting for the three of them to come back and eat together.
Throughout, Li Ruolan kept her head down and didn’t say a single word to her family. Naturally, Li Hongjun and his wife, as well as Li Baozong, paid no attention to Li Ruolan either.
After dinner, she washed the dishes, doing the same chores as the day before, then returned to her own room and locked the door.
Her obedient demeanor made Li Hongjun and his wife lower their guard, believing that this daughter was still the same as before and couldn’t escape their grasp.
When Li Ruolan entered the Dimensional Space, she found no sign that Deng Minghao had returned. Thinking he was still busy, she cooked a meal for him.
But after the food was ready, no matter how long she waited, Deng Minghao never showed up. She went out to take a look and found that the sky outside had already gone completely dark.
“Why isn’t he back yet? Could something have happened?” Li Ruolan’s heart was in her throat, and she kept waiting for Deng Minghao in the Dimensional Space.
On Deng Minghao’s side, some trouble had indeed occurred.
That afternoon, Deng Minghao had taken some more flour and cotton out to sell, but perhaps he had sold too much that morning, or perhaps he had alerted someone.
The moment Deng Minghao appeared that afternoon, he was surrounded by several men.
These men were big and burly. They immediately went to rummage through the goods on the small cart Deng Minghao had borrowed. Seeing the white flour and cotton, their eyes lit up.
Deng Minghao glanced at the men and noticed they weren’t wearing red armbands, so he realized he had probably run into people from the black market.
“Kid, with this many good things on you, why are you selling them retail here? Why not hand everything over to us instead? We can give you an even better price,” one of them said, leaning close to Deng Minghao’s ear.
Deng Minghao glanced at the group again. With so many of them around, running wasn’t an option—and besides, if he fled, all these goods would end up in someone else’s hands.
“Fine, I’ll come with you to meet your boss. I’ve got plenty more goods here too. As long as the price is fair, I’ll sell it all to you,” Deng Minghao said with a smile.
Hearing that Deng Minghao actually had more good stuff, the men exchanged looks and hustled him toward a secluded spot.
They must have been near the black market, because Deng Minghao could hear crowds in the small alleys. But these men didn’t take him to the black market itself—they just wound back and forth through the little lanes.
After twisting and turning, they brought Deng Minghao to a rather run-down courtyard house.
“Wait here. I’ll have the boss come out to see you.” With that, the man even pushed Deng Minghao’s goods away.
The so-called black market boss came out quickly. Deng Minghao sized him up carefully: a man around forty, dark-skinned, of medium height.
His build clearly radiated strength, and a pair of small eyes fixed on Deng Minghao.
“Are all those goods yours?” the black market boss asked.
Deng Minghao nodded. “Of course they’re mine. Well? Pretty good stuff, right? Want it? If you do, I’ve got more.”
The black market boss’s eyes lit up. Deng Minghao’s goods were all top quality—flour, eggs, things that were scarce even in the black market.
The moment they were put out, they’d fetch a great price.
“How much more do you have?” the boss asked.
Deng Minghao thought for a moment. “As for flour, I can bring out another five hundred jin. The eggs are mostly gone, but I’ve still got two hundred jin of cotton.”
The black market boss hadn’t expected Deng Minghao to have so much on hand, and his face immediately broke into a beaming smile. “Little brother, with this much goods, that’s a big business deal.
Don’t worry—as long as you bring everything here, the price is all negotiable. I’ll absolutely give you a price you’ll be satisfied with.”
Deng Minghao smiled too. “Since you put it that way, I’ll definitely bring everything here. Selling to scattered buyers on my own is a hassle anyway.
So, name a price and let’s hear it. If it’s right, I’ll go back and deliver the goods later.”
The moment talk turned to haggling over the price, the smile on the black market boss’s face lost its sincerity. He led Deng Minghao inside to sit down.
Not a single one of his underlings left—they all stood around the room, seemingly trying to put some pressure on Deng Minghao.
Deng Minghao raised his eyebrows almost imperceptibly, said nothing, and simply looked steadily at the black market boss.
The boss pondered for a long while, then said, “I genuinely want your goods, so I’ll give it to you straight.
Flour at thirteen cents a jin, cotton at fifty cents a jin. How about it?”
How about it? Hardly. Selling on his own, Deng Minghao could get twenty cents a jin for flour, and that was with some ration coupons thrown in. Cotton was even more expensive these days—with cotton coupons it went for sixty or seventy cents a jin, and even at eighty or ninety cents without coupons, there were still buyers.
The black market boss was clearly not interested in doing honest business with Deng Minghao—he was just scheming to take his goods.
Deng Minghao frowned, a hint of displeasure on his face. “Boss, that price is way too low. Give me a straight answer.”
The black market boss chuckled and gave Deng Minghao two heavy pats on the shoulder. “Not low at all. The price I’m offering is very fair.
In business, it’s all about give and take. Don’t worry—do this deal with me, and you’re guaranteed to make money.
Otherwise, you’d never be able to sell this stuff. And if you tried selling it piecemeal and the wrong person saw you, well, that wouldn’t be good.”