The weather over in the Soviet Union was bitterly cold, so people there liked high-calorie, sugary foods.
And when winter froze the whole world over, vegetables and fruit were the scarcest things of all.
Canned yellow peaches were sweet and delicious. There wasn’t an old person or child who didn’t like them.
Most importantly, Zhou Shengnan liked them too.
Ever since she was little, she’d envied people who got canned yellow peaches when they were sick.
The god of canned yellow peaches would bless every Northeastern child away from home!
Besides the cans, another twenty pounds of candy should just about do it.
With that in mind, Zhou Shengnan headed to the state-run food factory.
When she reached the factory gate, she didn’t hurry inside. Instead, she looked over the surroundings.
Her gaze settled on the old man in the gatehouse, drinking tea and reading the newspaper.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
The three soft taps caught Li Shengguo’s attention.
He looked up and saw a pretty young woman with a sweet face smiling brightly at him.
“Hello, sir!”
People couldn’t bring themselves to turn away someone wearing a smile—especially a pretty young woman with a sweet tongue. Li Shengguo couldn’t help smiling back.
“Young lady, what brings you here? Are you looking for someone, or do you have business to take care of?”
“Sir, I’m here to visit relatives. I can’t show up empty-handed, so I thought I’d come buy some canned goods wholesale.”
As she spoke, Zhou Shengnan handed him two cartons of Changbai ginseng cigarettes. A pleasant manner, a sweet tongue, and a well-timed gift—few people could resist that combination.
Li Shengguo looked at the cigarettes, feeling even more pleased. This girl was generous and straightforward, the enterprising sort.
He accepted the cigarettes with a broad smile and invited Zhou Shengnan into the gatehouse.
It was freezing out. He didn’t want the girl catching cold.
“What do you need? I’ll ask for you!”
Seeing that there was a chance, Zhou Shengnan quickly told him she wanted ten cases of canned yellow peaches, twenty pounds of milk candies, and ten pounds of fruit candies.
Li Shengguo nodded. It wasn’t too much or too little; it was enough to qualify for wholesale prices.
So he called the factory directly. Before long, two men came over pushing a cart.
“Uncle Li, we’ve brought the goods.”
Both were in work clothes. One let Li Shengguo check the order while the other handed over the invoice.
Zhou Shengnan glanced at it. The canned yellow peaches came in one-pound cans, twenty-four to a case, at a wholesale price of twenty yuan per case.
That was probably the standard wholesale price; if she bought more, she might get an even better deal.
Milk candies were 1.2 yuan per pound, and fruit candies were one yuan per pound.
Zhou Shengnan paid 234 yuan, then cheerfully gave each of the two workers a pack of cigarettes.
The workers glanced at Zhou, smiling. These were nice cigarettes; usually, they smoked ones that cost only three or five mao.
A two-yuan pack was real luxury.
“Little Sis, if you ever need anything, just tell Big Brother. Big Brother will help you carry it again!”
Having received their reward, the two were particularly thoughtful. They packed up the cans and fruit candies so they’d be easy to carry on her back or take away on a cart.
“Sure thing, Big Brother! I could tell right away you were both good-hearted.
And Uncle Li’s something else—he can find such high-caliber people whenever he needs help.”
With a single sentence, Zhou Shengnan praised all three of them, leaving them grinning from ear to ear.
Before long, she’d gotten most of the information she needed about the factory. Li Shengguo even promised that next time she came, he’d take her to meet with the sales department.
“Thank you, Uncle Li! When I first came over, I thought you were one of the factory’s big bosses.
I was thinking, ‘This food factory’s great—the big boss is right there at the gate, mingling with the people.’ Tsk, tsk, Uncle Li, you’ve got the face of a real official!”
Li Shengguo was so pleased by the flattery that he showed all his teeth. In his good mood, he let slip that he was the factory director’s uncle.
Zhou Shengnan smiled to herself. She’d guessed as much when she’d looked in from the gate.
First, he was reading a newspaper, which showed he was educated. Second, he sat there at ease, and many workers greeted him as they passed.
Third, his clothes and belongings were too nice for an ordinary gatekeeper.
Sure enough, he was either related to one of the factory’s leaders or a retired cadre who couldn’t sit still.
“Shengnan, how are you going to get all this home? Did you bring a bicycle?”
Li Shengguo leaned out to look, but didn’t see a handcart or anything parked outside.
“Oh, I can carry this little bit myself!”
Zhou Shengnan tied the bags of candy together with a rope and hung them around her neck.
Then she slung all ten cases of canned yellow peaches onto her back.
Li Shengguo: Σ(дlll)
Zhou Shengnan: (=′ω｀=)
“Uncle Li, I’m off! See you next time!”
Li Shengguo watched, dumbfounded, as Zhou Shengnan walked away briskly carrying nearly 280 pounds of goods. His jaw almost hit the floor.
“Good heavens, that girl’s strong! What a tough woman!”
As she carried the goods along, Zhou Shengnan calculated how much money she had left.
The cost of the goods, transportation, her passport, and the five hundred yuan she’d left for her family came to 2,296 yuan.
She’d already found out that a train ticket from Huole to Moscow cost 370 yuan, so a round trip would be 740.
She had 4,200 yuan in all—not counting the 120 yuan from Chen Weiguo. After deducting those expenses, she’d still need money for lodging and other things over there, in case of emergencies.
She really couldn’t spend any more.
Thinking about it, Zhou Shengnan wished she could hurry up and get to the Soviet Union to make money.
“Zhou Shengnan? Is that really you?”
As Zhou Shengnan trudged along with her head down, the sight of her carrying so much attracted everyone’s attention.
Of all the rotten luck—Chen Weihua spotted her. He stared at her in disbelief, thinking he must have mistaken her for someone else.
Zhou Shengnan looked up and saw Chen Weiguo’s face. She immediately rolled her eyes in disgust.
“It’s your daddy, all right. Get down on your knees and kowtow, now!”
“Zhou Shengnan, why are you so vulgar? Thank goodness I broke things off with you. Otherwise, you’d be such an embarrassment.”
Zhou Shengnan was carrying more than two hundred pounds of goods. She was bundled up in a drab, bulky padded coat, and the gale had blown her hair into a bird’s nest.
To put it this way, she could go build the Great Wall for Qin Shi Huang without even needing makeup.
She was a complete mess.
Looking at Zhou Shengnan like this and thinking of Zhao Hongying, so composed and dignified, Chen Weihua was suddenly filled with superiority.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to the Soviet Union to be a shuttle trader too?
Someone like you would just get played for a fool over there. Besides, what kind of look is it for a woman to go around showing herself in public?”
The more Chen Weihua spoke, the more righteous he sounded, as though he’d rediscovered the old feeling of putting Zhou Shengnan down.
He could hardly wait to see Zhou with tearful eyes, apologizing to him again.
But he was wrong. Zhou Shengnan rolled her eyes impatiently, then stuck a finger straight into Chen Weihua’s throat.
“Ugh… Zhou Shengnan, are you crazy?!”
Chen Weihua gagged repeatedly as she poked the back of his throat. When he finally recovered, he flew into a furious stream of abuse.
Zhou Shengnan only shrugged with a grin.
“I’m crazy? You got any medicine?
The Qing Dynasty died ages ago, for fuck’s sake. What foot-binding cloth did you hang yourself with to make you talk such crap?
Come on, come on—your daddy’ll brush your teeth for you!”
Zhou Shengnan grabbed Chen Weihua by the hair and pried the corners of his mouth apart.
Damn it, she hated pretty boys like this most of all—no ability of their own, yet looking down on women. She’d show him what happened when she tore his mouth open.
Chen Weihua was clearly taller than Zhou Shengnan, but he couldn’t break free.
The corners of his mouth hurt terribly, and Chen Weihua was genuinely afraid now. If she disfigured him, his whole life would be over.
“Rumble!”
Just then, a low rumble of thunder suddenly sounded in the sky.
That feeling of being watched came over her again.
As Zhou Shengnan looked up at the sky, Chen Weihua seized the chance to wrench himself free. Clutching his bleeding mouth, he backed away.
The moment Chen Weihua had moved two steps away from Zhou Shengnan, there was a sharp crack. A bolt of lightning shot straight down and struck her.
“Cough, cough!”
The lightning sent Zhou Shengnan’s hair standing on end. Her little face blackened, she crashed to the ground, and the cans on her back tumbled down around her.
The tremendous electric current made her body convulse.
【Ding! A powerful host has been detected. System activation available. Forced binding in progress!】