“Sister, I’m looking for a family with the surname Tian. The man’s name is Tian Youde, big and burly, about this tall.
A message was sent from the village saying his wife just gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
I’m a distant relative from the mountains, here specially to visit him.”
Tian Baozhu lowered her voice gruffly, taking the initiative to ask the middle-aged woman.
Hearing this, the woman’s wary expression softened noticeably. She stepped closer, and her sharp eyes caught a glimpse of what was in the basket through the gap in the loosely covered towel. She gasped sharply.
Was that… pork and refined rice?
Glancing around furtively, the woman quickly grabbed Tian Baozhu’s sleeve and pulled her into her courtyard.
“Hey hey… Sister, what are you doing?”
Tian Baozhu pretended to resist half-heartedly as she was led into the yard.
“Brother, there’s no one by that name here.
But since the things in your basket were meant as a gift and you can’t find the person, how about selling them to me instead?”
“That won’t do. My family told me we can’t trade goods like that nowadays.”
Tian Baozhu shook her head firmly and refused outright.
“Oh dear, I misspoke.
How about this, brother? You give me these items, and I’ll exchange them for cash and food coupons.”
Hearing this, Tian Baozhu feigned hesitation.
“Well… I’m not sure that’s allowed. Besides, these were meant to help my niece-in-law recover after childbirth.”
Seeing Tian Baozhu’s demeanor, the woman sensed an opportunity. If not for the difference in gender, she would have grabbed her hand and chatted to build rapport.
In the end, after much persuasion and effort, the woman managed to acquire all the pork and refined rice in Tian Baozhu’s basket.
She even told Tian Baozhu to bring more good items like these directly to her house in the future, offering to exchange them for money.
Tian Baozhu pocketed the cash and made a quick exit.
Only after walking a considerable distance and losing sight of the woman did she return to her space. She counted the money: selling four catties of pork and ten catties of rice had earned her only six yuan and fifty cents.
At the supply and marketing cooperative, rice cost seventeen cents per catty plus food coupons. On the black market, it went for twenty-five cents without coupons. Pork was seventy cents per catty plus meat coupons, often unavailable, while on the black market it was about one yuan, sometimes higher.
Clutching the money in her hand, Tian Baozhu sighed helplessly. Whether in the future or now, making money was truly difficult!
After venting, she changed into a different set of clothes, this time disguising herself as an elderly woman, and went to another area to try her luck.
This time, her basket contained chicken and duck meat, two bundles of noodles, and ten catties of flour.
She alternated through her parents’ clothes and changed her disguise several times before finally calling it quits.
There was no helping it—the town was too small. If she kept selling, she’d risk blowing her cover.
Fortunately, because the chicken, duck, fish, meat, rice, and flour from her fridge were of good quality, she managed to get decent prices for them.
Back in her space, she counted her earnings multiple times. Even after selling all the meat in her fridge, she had only made a little over sixty yuan.
Just as she was lamenting how hard it was to make money, a wave of dizziness hit her, and she was suddenly ejected from the space.
Luckily, she had chosen a secluded spot to enter the space. Otherwise, someone suddenly appearing out of nowhere might have given onlookers a heart attack.
Tian Baozhu was utterly bewildered. Why had the space kicked her out?
She glanced down—thankfully, the money she’d earned was still clutched in her hand.
Letting out a sigh of relief, she immediately tried to enter the space again.
But a sharp pain shot through her head, and she couldn’t get in at all.
However, she could still see the items inside the space.
Tian Baozhu tried to take something out from the space, and she succeeded. She could also put it back. Only then did she heave a massive sigh of relief.
It had scared her to death. For a moment, she thought she’d only had the space temporarily and that it had abandoned her because she’d taken too much advantage of it.
Now that she could still take things out of and put them back into the space, she decided not to worry for now.
She would slowly explore and understand it once she returned.
Looking at the over sixty yuan in her hand, even adding her original three yuan and twenty cents, it still didn’t reach seventy yuan.
However, this single haul earned her more than what urban workers made in two months.
If she still wasn’t satisfied, that would truly be greed.
Afraid the space might act up again, Tian Baozhu didn’t dare put the money inside. Instead, she tucked it into her clothes, hiding it close to her body.
By the time she walked back to the village, the already overcast sky had started to darken.
Tian Baozhu went to the house first. She saw that the leaky thatched roof had been covered with a layer of oilcloth, topped with another layer of straw, and finally sealed with yellow mud on the outermost layer to prevent the straw from being blown away by the wind.
Once the yellow mud dried, the roof would be mostly waterproof.
“Educated Youth Tian, I had someone fix up the doors and windows for you.
As for the kang inside, the ash has been cleared out. We also lit a fire earlier, and it’s working fine. You can sleep on it tonight.
As for the rest, we’ll need to schedule with people to buy the materials, so that won’t happen as quickly.”
It was almost past dinner time, so the helpers Branch Secretary Liu had found had already gone home.
Only Branch Secretary Liu remained, walking around the property, waiting to update Educated Youth Tian.
Seeing how attentive Branch Secretary Liu was to her matters, and thinking about the sixty yuan tucked against her chest, Tian Baozhu gritted her teeth, pulled out fifty yuan, and handed it to him.
“Uncle Liu, I’m worried that with a straw roof, when it rains heavily outside, it’ll still drizzle inside.
Since we have to schedule with people for the other materials anyway, could you do me another favor? Buy two cartloads of tiles to cover the roof.
Also, get two cartloads of bricks. We can build the lower part of the walls, about one meter high, with bricks, and use adobe for the upper part.
That way, whether it rains or snows, I can sleep soundly.”
Branch Secretary Liu looked at the fifty yuan Tian Baozhu was holding out to him with a complicated expression. Just at noon, Educated Youth Tian had said she wouldn’t be able to pay for a few days.
Who would have thought that before the sky even darkened, she was handing him the money?
And fifty yuan at that. For repairing the walls and rebuilding two of the collapsed rooms, there was no need for so much money.
As if understanding the disapproval in Branch Secretary Liu’s eyes, Tian Baozhu smiled and said,
“Uncle Liu, I don’t know much about these things, so I’ll have to trouble you to manage it all.
If the money isn’t enough, just let me know. If there’s extra, consider it as my rent. We can settle any difference later. What do you think?”
Branch Secretary Liu wasn’t one to make a fuss. Hearing Tian Baozhu say this, he thought for a moment, took the money, and nodded.
“Alright, since you’ve called me Uncle, I’ll make sure this gets done properly.
Oh, here are the keys to the door. Take them.”
Branch Secretary Liu handed over the keys. Since the house had fallen into disrepair, there hadn’t been any locks on the doors.