She walked along nearby streets, hoping for clues, but found none. She was thinking of finding suspicious individuals and following them, but people were careful. Besides, the City was massive. She really couldn’t expect to come across what she needed after half an hour.
What’s more, she hadn’t exactly recovered fully yet, so she didn’t have endless energy to walk the entire city blindly looking for clues. Her body was still sore from her injuries. Another half an hour of this and she might end up crawling.
At some point, she saw a few hoodlums hanging around. It was risky, but if anyone was willing to bend the law for some gains, then they were the most likely suspects. She was getting tired, and she didn’t have many options left, either.
After a few moments of thought, Su Qinghua eventually lifted the basket she had in her back, adding a few more things to make it look full. She then took out the tobacco she stole from Wang Dashan and approached the men.
As she approached the men, she studied them as well. They were wearing faded jackets, plain cotton shirts, and cotton trousers—like many ordinary working-class young men.
A lower-level hoodlum in this era wouldn’t be dressed too differently from others. After all, there were only so many options in clothing. They certainly couldn’t display jewelry, even if they had them.
However, other than the fact that they were grown men hanging around together, one could determine they were hoodlums because they also tended to style themselves more roughly, with added individualism.
For example, they were wearing unusually-fitted clothes instead of loose shirts, a different-colored shirt (rather than plain white), and their hairstyles were slightly different from the norm. For example, one had slightly longer hair and was made deliberately messy, another was side-parted, and another had longer sideburns.
Another, more concrete, differentiation would be the few accessories they had. They had wristwatches, good-looking belts, leather shoes, and one even had sunglasses.
Any of these things were luxury items in this area. They were either well-off, their families had a good income, or they were profiteering. Either way, the chances that they knew what the black market was high.
The three were lounging around, smoking, when they saw someone approaching them. They all turned to the newcomer with a hint of wariness and curiosity.
"Hey," she said, lowering her voice and emulating gangster talk (and failing). "I have a few questions to ask."
She then handed over a stick each to the three hoodlums. "You guys seem to be knowledgeable with the happenings in the street," she said, complimenting but not pandering.
"An elder is celebrating his birthday and we want to have a good meal for dinner later. Would you know where I can buy rice and meat without coupons? We already ran out of coupons..."
They couldn’t ask where the black market was, but any purchase without coupons was mostly done in the Black Market.
If they use this to threaten her by reporting her to the police, she would just say she didn’t mean it that way, and they’re slandering her. Anyway, if she put the things in her space, they’d find no money or goods on her body.
Rather, if they dared touch her, she could sue them for hooliganism. The punishment for that in this time period could range from years of hard labor or a direct gunshot to the head, depending on severity.
Most importantly, she had the space to hide in. Otherwise, she wouldn’t dare approach three grown men with her weakened body.
They paused at her question and looked at her up and down, as if wondering what they would do with her.
If she were a normal teenage girl, she might’ve been so scared to the point of shivering. However, the current Su Qinghua had already weathered life, and this was nothing.
Besides, her sanda, yoga, and jiujutsu classes were not for show! She might be helpless against real fighters like mercenaries or soldiers, but hoodlums should still be managable!
Two of the men looked at the man in the center, showing his position.
The leader looked to be in his mid-20s and had somewhat of a decent face, though his two companions hurt her eyes a bit.
"What’s your name, Kid?" he asked, lowering his voice to appear scary.
"Qing," was all she said.
"Show me the basket," they said, and she opened it to show the contents. The items inside weren’t particularly special, but everything was scarce right now, so there would definitely be a decent market for this.
"What if I tell you to leave it here?" he asked, looking straight at Su Qinghua. The other two chuckled a little. They crossed their arms as they watched her reaction, as if waiting for a good show.
Hoodlums like this tended to be narrow-minded. Otherwise, why would they be hoodlums?
Interestingly, she didn’t feel malice from the leader at all. That said, she did feel a lot of greed emanating from his cronies.
"Then I’ll die, and I’ll haunt you to death."
The man laughed out loud. "Okay, follow me," he said with a teasing grin, and any normal person would feel unnerved and question whether they should go with them at all.
They were partially teasing him, wondering at what point he’d just stop following.
They were surprised to see the teenager actually look impatient at them. "Are we still far?" she asked. The three looked at each other and shrugged as they walked forward.
She was led to an alley and went on several turns, leading her to places she wouldn’t have bothered going to before. Now, if she chose the wrong decision, this might very well be a trap. She wouldn’t dare do this had it not been for her space.
Fortunately, it was not a trap. Holding the basket on her back, they led her to an alley with disguised people furtively coming and going.
Her eyes sparkled in interest. This was it.
Her road to richness had officially begun~