In the blink of an eye, more than two months had passed since Lin Yuxi was reborn. Today marked the end of her second year of middle school exams, and with that, summer vacation was about to begin.
The corn in her space had already ripened—she’d been waiting for the exams to finish so she could harvest it.
After the exam, Jiang Xiuli looked a little uneasy, unsure how she had done.
There were forty-nine students in their class. She used to rank around 40th, but in the last monthly exam, she had risen to 32nd.
She still remembered how happy her mother had been, saying that improving so much after only a short time of tutoring was already impressive. If she kept it up, she’d definitely get into high school.
This time, she hoped to improve even more—not to waste her friend’s effort, and not to disappoint her mother.
“Now that the exams are over, stop thinking about it. We’ll know the results in a few days. Don’t worry—you won’t do badly,” Lin Yuxi comforted her.
Jiang Xiuli took a deep breath and smiled. “Alright, I won’t think about it anymore. Let’s start enjoying our vacation!”
Since it was the last day of exams and only a half-day schedule, school ended at noon.
Lin Yuxi didn’t go straight home. Instead, she went to the state-run restaurant and bought both meat buns and vegetable buns.
It wasn’t that she particularly wanted buns—it was just that the Lin family was too good at making things unpleasant.
They would always, intentionally or not, serve her less food, or give her portions that were thinner and smaller than everyone else’s.
She couldn’t argue with them every day, so she had to find her own way. Whenever she got hungry, she would sneak into her space to eat something. Cooking from scratch every time was too troublesome, so buns were the most convenient.
After buying the buns, she stored them in her space and then leisurely made her way home.
That night, after everyone in the house had fallen asleep, she entered her space again. Using her mind, she directly shelled all the corn, packed it into sacks, and stored it in the warehouse.
At this time, corn yields were quite low—about 600 to 700 pounds per mu. Unlike in later generations, where yields were typically 1,500 to 1,600 pounds per mu, and even over 2,000 for better harvests.
But the corn in her space had large, full ears. She estimated that each mu could yield at least 2,000 pounds.
That meant her five mu of land would produce around 10,000 pounds of corn—equivalent to fifteen mu by current standards. Even she hadn’t expected that.
The state purchase price was only 0.1 yuan per pound, but her “untraceable” supply obviously couldn’t be sold to the state.
On the black market, the price would likely reach 0.3 to 0.4 yuan per pound. Thinking about earning three to four thousand yuan from this batch of corn, Lin Yuxi felt a surge of excitement.
Next, she used some of the corn as seeds and replanted the fields. It wasn’t the usual planting season, but without this, she had no other way to get seeds.
Still, she believed that anything produced by her space would be reliable.
She didn’t rush to sell the corn right away. She needed to carefully plan how to do it without exposing herself.
After all, the amount was too large—she had to be cautious.
A few days later, it was time to go back to school to check results and collect summer assignments.
Lin Yuxi arrived early in town and first went to the black market. After thinking it over, she decided to find Fifth Master. She wasn’t familiar with others, and they felt less reliable.
At the entrance, the same skinny guard spotted her and grinned. “Hey, little girl, what are you here to buy this time?”
Lin Yuxi nodded. “I’m here to see Fifth Master. I have something to discuss with him.”
The guard led her into a house in the alley. Fifth Master was sitting there drinking tea. When he saw her, he smiled. “Little girl, got something good again?”
Lin Yuxi got straight to the point. “Fifth Master, there’s a batch of corn—excellent quality. They want to sell it, and I’m acting as the middleman. Are you interested?”
She wasn’t sure if he would believe her, but no matter what, she would never admit it was hers.
Fifth Master became interested. “Oh? Corn? How much? And what’s the quality like?”
Lin Yuxi took out a sack from her basket and handed it to him. “About ten thousand pounds.”
Fifth Master opened the bag. “Ten thousand pounds isn’t a small amount.”
The kernels inside were plump and well-formed—rarely seen in such quality. He picked one up, bit into it, and a faint sweetness mixed with rich grain aroma spread in his mouth.
His eyes lit up. “Good. This is excellent corn. If all of it is this quality, we can talk price.”
Lin Yuxi nodded. “Don’t worry, it’s all the same quality. As long as the price is fair.”
Fifth Master patted his chest. “You can trust me.”
“Right now, black market corn sells for 0.3 to 0.4 yuan per pound. The buying price has to be lower, of course.”
“But your corn is high quality, so I can offer 0.35 yuan per jin. What do you think? We need to make a profit too.”
Lin Yuxi thought for a moment and nodded. “Alright. That’s close to what they’re asking. When would it be convenient to trade? I’ll let them arrange it.”
“Tonight. It’s safer at night. Decide on a time and place, then let Skinny Monkey know.” He pointed to a nearby house. “That’s where he lives.”
Lin Yuxi nodded and left the black market.
After she was gone, Skinny Monkey asked, “Fifth Master, do you think that corn belongs to the girl or someone else?”
Fifth Master shook his head. “Hard to say. But in the black market, we don’t ask about sources. Just be careful when picking up the goods—don’t get followed.”
In his mind, he leaned toward the idea that Lin Yuxi was just acting as a middleman. For big deals, sellers often didn’t show themselves.
From what he saw when she sold the wild boar before, her family didn’t seem well-off. It was unlikely she could produce so much corn on her own. Most likely, she was just earning a commission.
Lin Yuxi grabbed some breakfast and then headed to school when the time was right.
From a distance, she saw Jiang Xiuli looking around anxiously.
When she spotted her, Jiang Xiuli ran over excitedly. “Yuxi, I think I did pretty well this time! But I’m still nervous.”
Lin Yuxi smiled and patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry—you’ll be fine.”
They entered the classroom, and the teacher began announcing the results. When Jiang Xiuli’s name was called, the whole class erupted—she had placed 12th!
Tears welled up in her eyes as she tightly held Lin Yuxi’s hand.
Lin Yuxi was genuinely happy for her. As for herself, she had always been in the top ten of the grade—but this time, she ranked first.
After collecting their summer assignments, the two parted ways at the school gate.
On the way home, Lin Yuxi planned out the corn sale.
There was too much corn to store in the busy town, so she began scouting the road between her village and the town for a suitable location.
Finally, not far outside the town, she found a stretch of road with a grassy area beside it. The rest of the road had ditches on both sides.
This was the spot. The truck could pull up and load directly from the roadside—convenient.
It would be safer farther from the road, but she had no way to explain how so much corn got there. There would at least need to be cart tracks—and she couldn’t fake those.
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