“Excuse me, how much is your rice?”
Before Yun Zhen could decide to buy rice, an older woman nearby came over to ask for the price.
She was leading a young child with one hand and carrying a cloth bag with the other.
The owner quoted her a price, “Regular loose rice is one yuan a catty, and there’s also the two-yuan kind.
Long-grain rice is three-and-a-half a catty, premium Wuchang rice is seven a catty, and organic rice is ten.
We also have bagged rice for twenty-nine ninety, fifty-nine ninety, and even over a hundred.
“It just depends on what you need.”
The older woman immediately said, “I’ll take a bag of the fifty-nine ninety one.
If it’s good, I’ll come back for more next time.”
“Sure thing.” The owner took down a ten-catty bag of rice from the shelf and handed it to her.
The woman pulled out a glowing rectangular device and tapped it against a small piece of cardboard on the table.
BEEP.
A mechanical voice announced, “Payment received: fifty-nine yuan and ninety cents!”
“Take care!” the owner waved to the woman.
He then turned to Yun Zhen and asked, “Miss, which kind of brown rice do you want?”
Yun Zhen took a deep breath.
“Sir, is there really rice for one yuan a catty?” Hearing the older woman address him as ‘sir’ earlier, Yun Zhen had quickly corrected herself, no longer using ‘shopkeeper’ for fear of being laughed at.
“It’s right in here,” the owner said, pointing to a bag right in front of her.
The bag was open, revealing gleaming white, polished rice.
The grains were round and plump; they looked incredibly fragrant.
“I’ll take twenty catties!”
Yun Zhen was struck by an overwhelming sense of joy.
She had thought buying brown rice at four yuan a catty would be a huge bargain, but she never expected an even bigger surprise.
She wondered, “Why is polished rice cheaper than brown rice?
Are prices in this world the exact opposite of mine?” Regardless of why polished rice was so much cheaper, Yun Zhen only knew one thing—she would never have to worry about food again!
Her whole family would never go hungry!
She was working two jobs, earning a total of one hundred and ten yuan a day, which could buy a hundred and ten catties of polished rice.
That meant over three thousand catties a month.
Such a staggering amount gave her a shock.
“Miss, it’s all packed.” While Yun Zhen was lost in thought, the owner had packed twenty catties of rice into a sturdy bag.
Polished rice!
She carried the heavy bag, feeling dizzy with happiness.
It was real.
This twenty catties of rice could feed them for over ten days.
“Sir, how much is the salt?” she asked.
She vaguely recognized a white bag in the back.
It was about the same size as the rice bag, but while the rice bag was covered in colorful, novel patterns, this bag was pure white with only a single character on it—likely the word for “salt.”
“There are one-yuan packs and two-yuan packs.
Which one do you want?”
Yun Zhen said, “I want ten of the one-yuan packs!” Heavy snow had sealed off the mountains back home, making it impossible to go to town to buy salt, and they had run out a few days ago.
Salt was just as important as grain; without it, they wouldn’t have any strength.
“How much is the vinegar?” She didn’t see any vinegar, but salt and vinegar always went hand-in-hand.
Where there was salt, there had to be vinegar.
The owner replied, “One yuan a pouch.
There are also two-yuan and three-yuan ones.
Should I get you the one-yuan pouches too?”
“I’ll take ten pouches of vinegar.”
“Alright, need anything else?” he asked.
“Do you want some soy sauce?
There happens to be a discount on it—five yuan for a large bottle.”
Yun Zhen mentally calculated her money.
After buying the rice, salt, and vinegar, she had spent forty yuan in total and had twenty yuan left.
“I’ll take a bottle of soy sauce.” There went another five yuan.
The owner packed everything into a bag for her.
“That’ll be forty-five yuan in total.”
Such a massive pile of goods—it was incredibly worth it!
Yun Zhen wasn’t very familiar with the currency, so she handed all her bills to him.
The owner took a fifty-yuan bill and handed her back five.
“Here’s five yuan in change.”
Yun Zhen took the remaining money and wandered over to other sections.
Her eyes landed on the glistening pork, though she figured she probably couldn’t afford it right now.
“Fresh pork leaf lard on clearance!
Five yuan a catty, five yuan a catty!” At the pork stall, a small red megaphone blared loudly.
“Lard on clearance!
Fresh leaf lard from home-raised rural pigs!
It makes the most fragrant rendered fat!” the butcher chimed in from time to time.
Leaf lard!
That was a precious commodity.
Yun Zhen’s family had never bought leaf lard—not because they didn’t want to, but because they couldn’t afford it.
A catty of leaf lard cost forty to fifty cents, which was nearly equal to three days of her wages from weaving cloth.
Her in-laws had once raised a pig, but most of the meat was sold for money to fund Chen Tong’s studies.
Since leaf lard was absurdly expensive, her mother-in-law would only save a palm-sized piece for her son to eat.
When Yun Zhen had rendered the fat, she managed to sneak a taste of the cracklings.
The cracklings had been sprinkled with coarse salt.
Rich, crispy, and salty—the three flavors blended perfectly together.
It had been so delicious that she nearly swallowed her own tongue.
She would never forget that aroma for the rest of her life.
The small megaphone at the pork stall was still shouting about the five-yuan-per-catty price.
An idea sparked in her mind.
She thought, “Five yuan for a catty of leaf lard?
Isn’t that equal to just five packs of salt or five pouches of vinegar?” She looked down at the money in her hand.
Earlier, the owner at the rice stall had mentioned that the purple bill was five yuan.
Yun Zhen walked up to the pork stall.
“Sir, how much leaf lard can I buy with this money?”
“Miss, exactly three catties.” The butcher took the bills, seeing that it was fifteen yuan.
“Do you want to spend it all on leaf lard?”
Three catties?
“Yes, all on leaf lard.”
The butcher pulled out a black plastic bag and packed three catties of leaf lard into it.
“Here you go, miss.
This is leaf lard from a rural home-raised pig; it renders down beautifully.
If you like it, come back again next time.”
Yun Zhen gripped the black bag tightly, treating it like a precious treasure.
The prices in this world were incredibly cheap.
Leaf lard cost forty to fifty cents a catty back in her world, but here, it only cost five yuan.
With all sixty yuan spent, she carried her various bags back to her dorm room.
RING RING RING.
The alarm rang for quite a while.
It was the dinner reminder Brother Zhao had set for her.
With her hands full, she couldn’t turn it off right away.
Only after returning to her room and setting down her bags did she finally have a moment to take the phone out and turn off the alarm.
She didn’t know how to read the characters that displayed the time.
She realized she needed to learn how to read as quickly as possible.
She went to the cafeteria.
Today, there was still plenty of white rice, though no braised pork.
Instead, they served fish with pickled mustard greens and stir-fried vegetables.
The fruit selection included apples and two other things: one was yellow with a very strong fragrance, and the other consisted of plump, purple fruits hanging in clusters.
They looked just like the grapes she had read about in books—exotic delicacies meant only for royalty and nobles.
Seeing her staring blankly at the pile of fruit, the cafeteria lady at the fruit station said, “We switched to sugar mandarins and grapes today.
The sugar mandarins are super sweet, and the grapes are really juicy.
Go ahead and grab a few more.”
Were they really grapes?
Books said that grapes were tribute goods!
Only the Emperor could eat them.
The other one was probably a small tangerine.
Her father used to carry cargo at the county pier and frequently saw southern merchants selling tangerines; he said a single one cost fifty cents.
She never imagined that one day, she too would be able to eat such expensive fruit.
She took five sugar mandarins, an apple, and a bunch of grapes.
At first, she felt a bit greedy, but after seeing others taking even more than she did, she felt at ease.
The cafeteria lady at the fruit station shoved another handful of sugar mandarins into her hands—probably around a dozen.
“Take more.
Big bosses often donate fruit to our organization, mostly mandarins.
If we don’t finish them, they’ll just go bad.” She even grabbed a clear plastic bag to pack them up for Yun Zhen, tossing in two more apples and a large, heavy cluster of grapes.
Yun Zhen had a great appetite.
She would eat every last grain of rice, savor her fatty braised pork until her plate was spotless, and even swallow the cores when she ate fruit.
Because of this, she had already left a strong impression on the cafeteria ladies as a big eater.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Yun Zhen said, holding the bag.
She planned to take the fruit back home for her parents and daughter to eat.
Today had truly been fulfilling.
She had scavenged a bunch of useful treasures, found a place to live and a way to make a living, used her wages to buy rice, salt, vinegar, soy sauce, and leaf lard, and even received a bag of fruit from the cafeteria lady.
What a massive haul!
By the time she finished her meal and returned to her dorm, the sky had already grown dark.
The floor of her room was completely packed with all the things she needed to take home.
“Time to go back.”