As soon as the words fell, Su Yunyi ran back to the stall and spoke a few words to the man next to her. The man asked someone nearby to watch his stall, stood up, and led them to choose chicks.
Xiao Ze didn’t expect that in such a short time, she had not only sold all the rabbits and rabbit pelts but also found out where to get chicks.
Even the neighbor from the next stall personally led the way.
She even smiled sweetly at him.
Lost in thought, Su Yunyi had already reached him.
“Big brother, this is my man. He’s the one who caught the rabbits. He’s very capable.”
Then she introduced Xiao Ze, “This big brother is the customer who bought our last rabbit. His sister sells chicks, and he can take us there.”
Seeing her introduce herself so generously and naturally, the slight displeasure lingering in Xiao Ze’s heart instantly dissipated.
Xiao Ze said that the team had a rule that each family could not raise more than five chickens, so Su Yunyi bought five chicks, four hens and one rooster, which was enough to prove her obsession with eggs.
Su Yunyi carefully settled the chicks in Xiao Ze’s backpack and threw a handful of corn kernels at the bottom. Instantly, chirping sounds came from the backpack.
She thought they were returning to the village.
Unexpectedly, Xiao Ze led her to a low house, dark and without light inside.
Su Yunyi carefully held onto Xiao Ze’s clothes.
Xiao Ze called out into the darkness, “Old Han, I need my shoes repaired.”
After a moment, a shrewd-looking middle-aged man appeared from the darkness and sized them up: “Come in.”
Walking from the dark little house, they entered a surprisingly spacious and bright small courtyard, which immediately made people feel refreshed.
Su Yunyi watched Xiao Ze and the middle-aged man whisper for a while, exchanging money for goods. In a short while, Xiao Ze had a stack of various coupons in his hand.
After coming out of the strange house, Xiao Ze led Su Yunyi straight to the supply and marketing cooperative.
The supply and marketing cooperative in the commune was indeed much larger than the one in their team. As soon as they entered, they were greeted by the conspicuous slogan “Develop the economy, ensure supply,” and the goods were dazzlingly displayed, making even a modern person like Su Yunyi’s eyes dazzle.
They arrived at this time, and there weren’t many people.
Xiao Ze took out the coupons he had just bought from his bag and handed them to Su Yunyi.
Su Yunyi took them and saw that there were fabric coupons, grain coupons, oil coupons, sugar coupons, meat coupons, seasoning coupons, pastry coupons, thermos coupons…
Everything was there.
She couldn’t help but swallow her saliva and looked up at Xiao Ze: “Are we buying all of it?”
Xiao Ze frowned slightly: “Buy whatever you think the family needs.”
Then, he took out two “Da Tuan Jie” banknotes from his pocket and gave them to her.
“I still have money. I… I have money left from selling the rabbits…”
“Keep that money for yourself.”
Before she could finish, the man interrupted her.
Seeing that he had no intention of helping her choose things, Su Yunyi walked to the counter and politely said to the salesclerk, “Comrade, I want a thermos, two bars of soap, five catties of rice, five catties of oil, five catties of flour, one catty of sugar…”
Seeing her list so many items at once, and holding a stack of coupons, all the salesclerks in the supply and marketing cooperative gathered around.
“Comrade, why are you buying so many things?”
Su Yunyi’s psychological fortitude had improved significantly by now.
She said to the salesclerk with a hint of shyness, “We just got married, and we have nothing at home. We need to buy everything, so we need a lot of things. Please bear with us.”
The salesclerk then looked at the man standing at the door. He was tall, with a stern profile and a high nose bridge. He was handsome, but he didn’t seem very caring. It wasn’t right for a newly married man to let his wife shop alone.
The salesclerk shouted towards the door, “Comrade in the blue shirt.”
Xiao Ze glanced over.
“Yes, you. Your family is buying too many things, and your wife can’t carry them. Aren’t you going to come and help?”
When Xiao Ze approached, the few people realized that this young man looked even more spirited up close.
“Thank you, comrades. Please help me gather the items first. Our home is a bit far, and I’ve found a donkey cart. I’ll have to wait outside.”
Seeing that he was good-looking, spoke politely, and had a reasonable explanation, the salesclerks’ impression of him improved instantly.
The few of them were very efficient and quickly placed the items Su Yunyi wanted on the counter. They started calculating on an abacus: “Five catties of rice, 6 mao 2 fen 5; five catties of oil, 4 yuan 4; five catties of flour, 9 mao 2 fen 5; one catty of sugar… a total of nineteen yuan and seven mao.”
Su Yunyi handed the corresponding coupons and two “Da Tuan Jie” banknotes to the salesclerk. After the calculation, she was given three mao change.
The donkey cart Xiao Ze had arranged had already stopped outside the door. Xiao Ze loaded the goods onto the cart, said a word to the old man driving the donkey cart, and then took Su Yunyi to the non-staple food store, where they bought a few catties of meat, some ribs, some vegetables, and two sesame flatbreads.
The couple sat on the donkey cart and returned to the village, bumping along the way.
When they reached the village, they happened to encounter people returning from work. The villagers saw the white rice and white flour on the donkey cart and their eyes widened with envy.
There were no secrets in the village.
Now everyone knew that the wife Xiao Laosan had married, although raised in the city, had been switched at birth. Her biological parents lived in Pokou Village, not far from them.
The women gossiped, “Xiao Laosan’s new wife is indeed from the city. She must have a dowry. Since she arrived, Xiao Laosan’s life has changed. The city is good; you can earn twenty to thirty yuan a month without working in the sun and wind.”
Another person said, “A dowry will eventually run out. Following someone like Xiao Laosan, the couple will eat their way through their savings. When the money is gone, see if Xiao Laosan doesn’t beat her.”
The couple on the donkey cart heard nothing.
When they reached the entrance of their low-walled house at the end of the village, Xiao Ze unloaded the goods from the cart. Su Yunyi went inside and brought a bowl of well water to the old man driving the donkey cart, and invited the old man to stay for a meal.
The old man drank it down in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and praised its sweetness. He had earned one yuan and eight mao for this trip and felt embarrassed to eat at someone else’s house, so he quickly bid farewell to the young couple and drove home.
Su Yunyi placed the chicks in the yard, washed her hands, and eagerly prepared to cook the firewood meal she had been longing for.
She naturally arranged for Xiao Ze: “You move the things, I’ll cook.”
Xiao Ze didn’t expect Su Yunyi’s courage to grow, and she was so adept at directing him.
He was truly useless at cooking. In his previous life, he had only gotten some opportunities to help out in a state-run restaurant, but he was only an assistant, and it wasn’t his turn to cook. Later, with the help of a benefactor, he went out and saw the world, which led to his later success.
Hearing her mention cooking with firewood, he thought of the pot-roast soup, and his taste buds began to tingle.
He obediently moved the things into the house.
Su Yunyi’s voice rang out again, “Xiao Ze, there’s no firewood. Go chop some quickly.”
After saying that, she grinned at him.
Xiao Laosan worked hard, both with money and effort, for a meal cooked with firewood. After chopping wood, he also fetched water to fill the water Tank.
Seeing her chicks running around, she couldn’t sit still and wanted to build a chicken coop for them.