The man nodded in satisfaction and asked quietly, “How much?”
Ye Qingyun quoted the price she and her master had agreed on beforehand.
“With coupons, one yuan eighty per jin. Any kind of coupon is fine. Without coupons, two yuan fifty.”
The middle-aged woman calculated silently.
Pork cost sixty-eight cents per jin with meat coupons, while buying it without coupons on the black market was about one yuan per jin. At two yuan fifty per jin without requiring coupons, the stone frogs weren’t exactly cheap.
But goods that didn’t require coupons were hard to come by.
She immediately bought three frogs.
The man produced a toilet paper coupon and also ordered three.
Only then did Ye Qingyun realize they hadn’t brought a scale.
Looks like she’d have to borrow one next time.
Still, it didn’t matter.
She trusted her own estimate.
The two customers each took out a cloth bag to pack their frogs. After weighing them in their hands, the weight felt close enough to what Ye Qingyun had quoted, so neither complained.
Being able to buy stone frogs at all was already a stroke of luck.
Even if they were a little light, it wasn’t worth arguing over.
The key was to make the transaction as quickly as possible.
Wang Tiezhu followed the two customers back toward the hospital.
Every seven or eight minutes after that, another two or three people came over.
Before noon, all twenty stone frogs they had brought were sold out.
A few more people arrived afterward hoping to buy some.
When they heard everything was gone, they slapped their thighs in frustration.
“Will you be back next time?”
Those who had missed out grabbed Wang Tiezhu and pressed him for an answer.
Ye Qingyun exchanged a glance with her master before speaking.
“We’ll be here again in three days. Same place.”
“All right! We’ll be waiting. You have to come! My wife just gave birth, and I can’t even find crucian carp to help her recover. We’re counting on your stone frogs to nourish her. This is a matter of life and death!”
Afraid they wouldn’t return, the man had practically resorted to emotional blackmail.
Master and disciple repeatedly promised they would come back on time before everyone finally dispersed.
To avoid attracting attention, they deliberately moved to another secluded spot before counting their earnings.
“Hurry, hurry!”
Wang Tiezhu urged excitedly.
He had been broke for half a year.
Now that his little disciple had finally arrived, he could at last make some real money.
He was practically beside himself with excitement.
Calmly, Ye Qingyun retrieved the cash and coupons from her storage space and spread them out on the cloth covering their basket.
The twenty stone frogs weighed a total of eighteen jin.
In return, they had received one toilet paper coupon, two jin worth of meat coupons, one non-staple food coupon, and 38 yuan and 13 fen in cash.
Wang Tiezhu immediately reached for the money.
Ye Qingyun was faster.
With one swift motion, she swept everything back into her storage space.
He stared at her in disbelief.
“Sixth! For a mere thirty-eight yuan and thirteen fen, you’re willing to throw away our master-disciple bond?”
Picking up the empty basket, Ye Qingyun headed toward the supply and marketing cooperative.
“You misunderstand, Master. I’m merely keeping your share safe for you.”
Wang Tiezhu refused.
“I don’t need anyone to keep it safe!”
“I told you where to find them, and I was the one who sold them. Isn’t taking half perfectly reasonable?”
Ye Qingyun looked back.
“Half is fine. But before Eldest Senior Sister ascended, she specifically instructed me never to let you have money in your hands. So… you’ll just have to bear with it.”
“Of course, if there’s anything you want to eat or drink, just tell me. I’ll do my best to satisfy your requests.”
Wang Tiezhu answered immediately,
“Then I want Moutai! And two jin of pork belly. When we get back, make me braised pork to go with the liquor.”
The smile vanished from Ye Qingyun’s face.
“Request denied.”
Feeling the overwhelming pressure radiating from his little disciple, Wang Tiezhu nearly died of anger on the spot.
He had always believed Sixth was the most obedient and respectful of all his disciples.
How badly mistaken he had been!
Ye Qingyun simply shrugged.
What could she do?
They had drawn the short straw by ending up with such an unreliable master.
If she handed him the money, the old man would spend every last coin before the day was over.
Times were different now.
She still had four little money-eaters to raise.
She couldn’t afford to let him squander everything.
Patting her master reassuringly as he teetered on the verge of fainting from anger, she gestured for him to wait outside.
Then she walked into the cooperative store and began shopping.
The adults and children at home had been using leaves and bamboo strips as toilet paper for over half a month.
Everyone’s backside was sore.
Toilet paper was an absolute necessity.
The walnut pastries were already sold out.
Only fried glutinous rice sticks remained.
They were considered a special double-coupon item.
Besides a non-staple food coupon, one jin also required seventy cents and half a jin of grain coupons.
Ye Qingyun bought two jin.
They had also run out of cooking oil at home, so she purchased another jin of vegetable oil for eighty-five cents.
She glanced toward the no-coupon synthetic fabric.
It had already been picked clean.
Only one small piece remained—barely enough to make a pair of shorts.
Looking back at her master waiting outside, his clothes patched upon patches, with the sleeves and pant legs frayed into strips where the fabric rubbed the most…
She clicked her tongue.
Who would believe this shabby old man had once been the elegant and carefree Sect Master Xiaoyaozi of the Hehuan Sect?
Ye Qingyun spent two yuan on the last piece of gray synthetic fabric.
She and the children had brought enough clothes with them for now.
She might as well make her master a pair of pants to preserve a little dignity.
True, her master was unreliable.
He had never really fulfilled his responsibilities as a teacher.
His disciples had practically raised themselves, surviving or dying by luck.
But in the end…
He had been the one who brought her into the sect.
He had given her a place to belong.
Although she insisted on keeping the money away from him, she had never intended to treat him poorly.
After leaving the cooperative, the pair went to their regular butcher.
They had arrived late.
All the best cuts were already gone.
Ye Qingyun managed to buy a pig’s tail and half a jin of pork leg, spending sixty-eight cents and one jin worth of meat coupons.
By noon, both of them were hungry.
At Wang Tiezhu’s persistent insistence, they each bought a bowl of rice noodles topped with minced meat from the snack stall they frequented.
A bowl cost forty cents.
The two bowls came to eighty cents plus one jin of grain coupons.
After filling their stomachs, master and disciple rubbed their bellies contentedly before beginning the journey home.
Passing the state-run restaurant, they also bought a jin of baijiu.
Their total spending for the day came to 6 yuan and 23 cents.
They still had 31.90 yuan left from selling the stone frogs.
That was equivalent to a full month’s salary for a regular city worker.
Of course…
There weren’t many stone frogs left in Ghost Creek.
But when they thought about the things hidden deeper within the stream…
And the endless treasure-filled mountains surrounding Qiling Village…
Master and disciple exchanged another glance, both filled with anticipation for the days ahead.
Even though Wang Tiezhu still technically had no money in his pocket, he now had liquor to drink, meat to eat, and crispy fried glutinous rice sticks to snack on.
His mood couldn’t have been better.
With their basket filled to the brim, the two of them practically walked with a spring in their step.
Completely occupied with thoughts of braised pork for dinner, neither noticed the pair of eyes silently watching them leave Hongyan Commune…
Their pace quickened unconsciously on the way back.
After an hour and a half of trekking through the mountains, master and disciple returned to the production team at two-thirty in the afternoon.
The moment she entered the village, Ye Qingyun hurried home.
Pushing open the half-closed wooden door, she saw the clean, upside-down bowls drying on the dining table.
She guessed her elder brother and sister-in-law had already come by.
The four siblings were sprawled across the bed in every imaginable sleeping position.
The tension she had been carrying finally melted away.
With no adults in the house, the children hadn’t been sleeping deeply.
Hearing the door, they opened their eyes.
The instant they saw it was their mother, all four leaped up and rushed toward her.
“Mommy!”
Fu Xiangdong hugged her leg, pouting as he complained that Eldest Sister had hit him again today.
He even held up the back of his hand for her to inspect.
It was bright red.
Fu Min immediately defended herself.
“I told him the bamboo grove was dangerous and not to go, but he insisted. I only smacked the back of his hand once.”
She stood up straight, convinced she had done nothing wrong.
Ye Qingyun had long felt she needed to talk to her eldest daughter about always solving problems with her hands.
Otherwise, what if she started hitting classmates whenever she got upset after going to school?
At the same time…
She also knew that Fu Xiangdong really had been asking for it.
Faced with the hopeful eyes of both siblings waiting for her judgment, Ye Qingyun resigned herself to acting as judge.
After quickly learning what had happened, she gave both of them a stern scolding.