Li Qingxiu first went to send a telegram to the Li family. Only when sending it did she learn that telegrams were charged by the word—twelve cents per character, with a minimum of ten characters, and even punctuation marks cost money.
"Do spaces cost money?"
"Yes," the staff member replied with an impatience.
Li Qingxiu pondered for a long time before deciding what to send.
Sick relapse, brother and sister-in-law fighting, money insufficient, send some, Xiù'er
She had originally planned to pour out her grievances in detail, but now she had to keep it concise. Li Qingxiu sighed again—she simply couldn’t keep it under ten characters, so she reluctantly paid two yuan and twenty-eight cents.
After sending the telegram, she went to choose stamps to mail her letter. Suzhou truly lived up to being a big city—the post office had quite a variety of stamp designs, which Li Qingxiu found quite novel.
She looked through them one by one: landscapes, skiing, Peking opera masks, kites, monkeys…
Monkeys? On a red background?
The Monkey Stamp!!
Li Qingxiu widened her eyes and asked the staff to hand her the Monkey Stamp.
"Young lady, you have good taste," the staff member said with a smile, taking out the stamp and handing it to her. "This is newly issued this year—the first Zodiac Stamp, the Monkey Stamp."
Li Qingxiu took the stamp and held it in her palm, not daring to grip it too tightly. During her university days, she had once binge-watched videos from antique appraisal bloggers, and among them, she had come across this Monkey Stamp.
It was said that a whole sheet of Monkey Stamps could be exchanged for a house! Moreover, that blogger mentioned that the price of this stamp rose quickly, breaking ten thousand yuan in just seven or eight years.
"How many of these Monkey Stamps do you have left?"
Hearing her question, the staff member’s attitude became even friendlier. "I didn’t expect a young girl like you to have a stamp-collecting hobby," she said, taking out a whole sheet of stamps from under the counter.
"Is this enough?"
"Do you have more?"
"More?" For most stamp collectors, one sheet was enough.
The staff member searched underneath and found a total of four whole sheets of Monkey Stamps, plus one sheet from which seven stamps had already been torn off, making a total of 393 stamps. Each stamp had a face value of eight cents, totaling thirty-one yuan and forty-four cents.
"Do you want a stamp album?"
"How much?"
"One yuan and forty cents."
"Yes."
Li Qingxiu didn’t hesitate. These stamps were meant to be kept for many years, so they needed to be well-protected.
After carefully placing the stamps into the stamp album, Li Qingxiu didn’t forget that she still needed to mail her letter. She asked the staff for five other stamps and sent the letter off.
In reality, there were likely many other stamps that would appreciate in value, but her limited funds had other uses, so she could only buy the ones with the fastest appreciation.
After leaving the post office, Li Qingxiu went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. The bus back to the cotton mill was at 4:30 p.m., so she still had plenty of time and planned to explore thoroughly.
The Supply and Marketing Cooperative was fairly busy that day. Li Qingxiu wandered around for a long time, carefully observing what people were buying and which items were in highest demand. It wasn’t until the salesclerk openly rolled her eyes at her that Li Qingxiu left the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to eat.
Aside from the state-run restaurant, there were a few small eateries on the street. Li Qingxiu chose a noodle shop that looked relatively clean and ordered a bowl of soup noodles.
It wasn’t mealtime yet, so the noodle shop was empty except for her. The noodles were chewy and the portion was generous—Li Qingxiu liked them—but she ate slowly, with a look of reluctance on her face.
The noodle shop was run by a couple in their forties. Seeing the young girl eating with such a troubled expression, the husband nudged his wife and asked her to check on her.
"Miss, what's wrong? Is the noodle not to your liking?"
Li Qingxiu, who had nearly buried her head in her bowl, gave an almost imperceptible curl of her lips.
People of this era had a great virtue—they were simple and warm-hearted.
She bit her lip and forced a strained smile. "Auntie, I'm fine. The noodles are delicious. It's just that…" As she spoke, Li Qingxiu lowered her head again, looking as if she were about to burst into tears.
"Miss, tell me what's troubling you. Don't keep it bottled up—it'll only make you feel worse."
Li Qingxiu felt it was about time; any more acting would be overdoing it. She looked up and said, "Auntie, I finally saved enough money to buy a wristwatch, but…"
"But what?" The proprietress grew anxious.
"But…" Li Qingxiu choked up appropriately. "But I lost the purchase ticket."
"Oh dear, how could you be so careless? Did you go back to look for it?" The proprietor also came over, looking even more anxious than his wife.
"I did, but I couldn't find it." Unable to cry, Li Qingxiu covered her face with her hands.
"Oh no, what should we do? Maybe…"
Li Qingxiu's eyes lit up. "Maybe what?"
The proprietor glanced left and right, making sure there were only the three of them in the noodle shop, then gave his wife a meaningful look. Taking the hint, the proprietress leaned close to Li Qingxiu's ear and whispered.
Having obtained the information she wanted, Li Qingxiu quickly finished her noodles, paid the bill, thanked the proprietress again, and left the shop.
She wound her way through the streets of Suzhou for over half an hour before finally arriving at the "black market" the proprietress had mentioned.
The so-called "black market" was nothing more than a secluded alley. Inside, there were quite a few buyers and sellers, but it wasn't noisy. Everyone quietly browsed the goods and haggled in hushed tones.
Li Qingxiu stepped inside.
The black market sold everything imaginable: common items like rice, flour, sugar, eggs, vegetables, and fruit; more precious goods like milk powder and various fabrics; and enamel basins and thermos flasks.
Most of the vegetables in the black market were homegrown—not the prettiest, but fresh and cheap. Li Qingxiu bought some spinach and chives. At one stall, she even spotted strawberries.
The strawberries were of a variety not yet improved by later generations, with a slightly sour taste. Still, she bought half a basket. After all, they were fresh fruit, and any leftovers could be made into strawberry jam.
Li Qingxiu also noticed some people leaning against the wall, not selling anything. When someone approached them, the two would exchange a few whispers. Afterward, some would simply leave, while others would follow the person deeper into the alley.
Li Qingxiu discreetly followed and saw them trading a radio. She understood—this kind of resale of scarce goods was the real "speculation and profiteering," carrying greater risks and requiring more secrecy.
Just as the two in the alley were about to exchange money for goods, Li Qingxiu turned to leave. Suddenly, the burly buyer snatched back the money he had just paid, grabbed the wristwatch, and bolted toward the alley entrance.
"Thief! Thie—"
The thin, small seller only managed to shout twice before falling silent. The burly man had already been kicked to the ground by Li Qingxiu, who now pinned him face-down under her foot. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get up.
The skinny man stared wide-eyed at the scene, as several more people rushed in from the other end of the alley, equally stunned by what they saw.
"You bitch, let go… ah!"
Li Qingxiu stepped on the man's fingers and ground her foot down. Even in this state, he still dared to talk big—clearly asking for a beating.
Seeing those people standing motionless in the alley, Li Qingxiu frowned. "What are you still standing around for? Don't you want the money?"