It seemed to be around June, close to the New Year season. She remembered that day clearly—it was right after she finished her third-year middle school entrance exams.
At the time, the government was cracking down on speculation and shutting down black markets. Fifth Master had been arrested, paraded through the streets, and reportedly sentenced very heavily. She had even gone to watch.
So when she saw Fifth Master earlier, she recognized him immediately—and that’s why she hadn’t tried to bargain.
Fifth Master chuckled. This little girl was refreshingly straightforward.
It was still not fully daylight. Today, Lin Yuxi had arrived even earlier than last time.
She led them to a dead-end alley nearby and asked them to wait outside for a moment.
Then she walked to the innermost part, released the wild boar, and scattered the dry grass she had prepared over it, making it look like it had been hidden there for a while.
After that, she called them in.
Fifth Master’s men pulled aside the grass and saw a large wild boar lying there, its grunts already faint.
“Fifth Master, we need to hurry. This thing won’t last long,” one of his subordinates urged.
Fifth Master stepped forward and examined the boar carefully.
“Girl, I’d say this boar weighs a bit over 310 pounds, but less than 320. I’ll count it as 320 pounds for you.”
His subordinate quickly added, “Our Fifth Master’s eyes are as good as a scale—famous far and wide. Don’t worry, you won’t lose out.”
Lin Yuxi smiled. “I trust Fifth Master. But I’d like 340 yuan in cash. For the rest, can you give me ration coupons? Grain coupons, meat coupons, sugar coupons, cloth coupons—anything is fine.”
“Alright, no problem.”
Since he had come prepared to buy the boar, Fifth Master immediately handed her 340 yuan.
Then he turned to one of his men.
“Skinny Monkey, give the girl 44 yuan worth of coupons. A mix of whatever she mentioned.”
The man called Skinny Monkey stepped forward—he specialized in trading all kinds of ration coupons—and handed Lin Yuxi a variety of them.
With the deal complete, Fifth Master hurried off to have the boar processed.
It was still early before the supply-and-marketing cooperative opened, so Lin Yuxi went back to the black market.
As luck would have it, Skinny Monkey was guarding the entrance. When he heard she wanted to buy rice, he didn’t even charge her entry fee and let her in directly.
She bought 20 pounds of rice and 10 pounds of white flour—enough to last her quite a while, since she didn’t eat every meal in her space.
As for coarse grains? She didn’t bother. Didn’t she already eat enough of those at the Lin household every day?
Checking the time, she figured it was about right to go queue for meat at the supply-and-marketing cooperative. She’d heard that if you were late, you might not get any at all.
When she arrived, the place hadn’t opened yet, but people were already waiting outside.
The moment the doors opened, the crowd surged toward their respective counters.
Luckily, Lin Yuxi managed to secure third place at the meat counter. In front of her were two middle-aged women—absolute powerhouses in a crowd.
She bought five pounds of pork belly, a nice balance of fat and lean. She used up all her meat coupons in one go—after all, stored in her space, it wouldn’t spoil. Who knew if she’d get another chance to buy this much next time?
The looks others gave her were full of envy. In these times, how many families could afford to buy that much meat at once?
She quickly found a secluded spot to stash the meat into her space, then went to buy bowls, chopsticks, and plates for use inside it.
Noticing she still had a few industrial coupons left, she bought a thermos, a cup, a vegetable basin, and a washbasin.
After another round outside to stash everything in her space, she went back in to buy seasonings, sugar cubes, soap, matches—anything she thought might come in handy.
Looking at her remaining coupons, only cloth coupons were left.
But buying fabric was pointless—she didn’t know how to sew.
The ready-made clothes at the cooperative didn’t suit her taste, and even if they did, she had nowhere to wear them. She couldn’t help but feel she’d made a miscalculation—why had she asked for cloth coupons?
Still, she didn’t dwell on it. She had somewhere else to go—buy meat buns.
At the state-run restaurant, she found quite a crowd already.
After waiting for a while, it was finally her turn.
“Master, give me thirty meat buns,” Lin Yuxi said.
The cook skillfully packed thirty buns into a bag and handed them over. She paid with cash and grain coupons, then carefully stored the buns in her space.
Originally, she had thought that once she had money, she’d come here and enjoy a proper feast—braised pork, sweet-and-sour ribs, soy-sauce beef, stir-fried intestines—she wanted to try them all.
But now that she actually had money, she found herself hesitating.
There were too many people in town who might recognize her—teachers, classmates, villagers, even that nominal father of hers, who occasionally came to town to improve his meals.
She didn’t even want to imagine the storm that would follow if the Lin family found out she was eating at a state-run restaurant.
Better to just buy meat coupons, eat meat secretly—wasn’t that just as satisfying?
After leaving the restaurant, she saw it was still early and decided to wander around a bit more—maybe she’d find something good.
As she walked, she spotted a scrap collection station—the must-visit location for anyone reborn.
Naturally, she went in.
Seeing the old man guarding the entrance, she took out a few candies and handed them to him.
“Grandpa, I’m from the town middle school. I wanted to see if there are any useful books.”
By now, she had taken off her scarf. Seeing she was just a young girl, the old man didn’t think much of it.
“Go on, go on. Just bring them to me when you’re done picking.”
To protect them from rain, many items were piled inside a large warehouse.
As soon as she entered, she saw heaps of old newspapers and books.
Squatting down, she rummaged through them—and sure enough, she found several thread-bound ancient books.
She didn’t really understand them, but they looked old and valuable, so she casually stored them in her space.
Books like these were considered part of the “Four Olds” and couldn’t be openly kept nowadays.
If she didn’t take them now, they’d likely be sent to the paper mill for destruction in a few days.
She kept searching.
A bundle of tied books caught her attention.
Pulling them out, she saw: Self-Study Series in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry.
She knew these well—once the restoration of the college entrance exam was announced in 1977, this set would be snapped up like crazy.
She counted them—17 volumes published in 1963, all present, and still in good condition.
She quickly set them aside and continued searching, collecting more sets like this, as well as ancient books and medical texts into her space.
As for middle and high school exercise books, she set those aside—after all, she needed to buy something legitimately.
After a while, she felt it was enough and brought the selected books to the old man.
She didn’t bother searching furniture for gold bars or digging through scrap for antiques. That kind of luck was unreliable.
If such treasures really existed, would they still be waiting for her?
Maybe at the beginning of the movement—but now it was 1975, and things were nearing the end. Anything valuable had long since been taken.
The old man weighed the books and charged her fifty cents.
She carried them for a short distance before putting them into her space when no one was around.
On her way back, she passed by the supply-and-marketing cooperative again.
For some reason, she drifted inside once more.
At the meat counter, the meat was already sold out.
But there were still four large bones available—no coupons required.
She spent eighty cents and bought all of them.
As she walked out, she muttered to the bones,
“Big bones, were you calling me just now? Otherwise, why would I come back again?”
She walked along, grinning to herself.
Today had truly been a day of abundant harvest.