Chapter 8: Purchase
Victory Commune.
Thirty kilometers from Beijing City, after more than an hour of bumpy riding, Su Ning couldn’t help but be glad she hadn’t eaten anything in the morning, so when she got off at the place, she was just a bit pale.
Every few days here, the commune leader organized a large market; she had heard about it from a classmate whose home was nearby.
It happened to be the day of the large market today. Having no gains in the city, she suddenly remembered this place and wanted to try her luck.
Pine and cypress oil road sides were full of either farm household’s own produce, or small wild things hunted from the mountains, or wild vegetables and mountain delicacies picked.
There were even bundles of firewood, woven bamboo baskets and back baskets, brooms, straw sandals, straw hats…
It was her first time at such a market, Su Ning didn’t rush to buy, but strolled around with great interest, stopping here and there.
She found that everyone was indeed as that classmate said, more willing to exchange for various coupons than money.
After watching for a while and getting a sense, she walked to a stall at the end.
The stall owner was a dark-skinned farm man, wearing a gray work coat that was washed somewhat whitish with patches all over the elbows and hems. Seeing her approach, he quickly bared his big white teeth and showed a silly smile.
“Uncle, what vegetables are these vegetable seeds for?”
“Lots of them, see, each kind has the name written. Yatou, see what you want?”
Each small bag had about dozens of seeds, with the names of various vegetables written crookedly on the lattice paper wrapping the seeds.
Not only common vegetable seeds like cabbage, cucumber, radish, eggplant, beans, pumpkin, winter melon, loofah, but also seeds for several fruits like apple, plum, watermelon, peach.
“Uncle, I want all of these.”
“Ha? All, all of them?”
“Yes, all of them. Uncle, how much is it?”
Scratching the back of his head, though he didn’t know what this strangely pretty yatou wanted with so many seeds, he also knew some things weren’t to be asked about.
After mentally calculating, the man looked up cautiously and said, “Yatou, these are all saved from our own harvest, though not worth much money, but as you see, there are nearly a hundred kinds all complete…”
“Three, three yuan plus two jin of cotton coupons, okay?”
Calling such a high price, the man felt truly guilty, but with his eldest son about to marry, he had to thicken his face and go against his conscience a bit.
Having just asked at the grain station, Su Ning knew his quote was inflated by a small half. But since unavailable at the grain station, black market would only be more expensive, so this price was naturally acceptable.
Besides, she didn’t lack money and coupons, and she naturally had a good feeling toward farmer uncles. Seeing the honest man whose face was almost blushing blood from his own quote, he probably had some difficulty at home.
“Good, then trouble uncle to package them all up for me.”
“Really… really buying?”
Rubbing his hands and about to offer a discount, Li Guoqiang couldn’t help but pinch himself hard upon hearing this.
Hiss~ It really hurt!
“Hey, hey, I’ll package it right now!”
Fully coming back to his senses, Li Guoqiang happily squatted down, gathered the four corners of the oilcloth laid on the ground, folded it directly to wrap up all the seeds inside.
Said to be nearly a hundred kinds, but seeds really didn’t take much space; all stacked and wrapped, it was just about the size of two adult palms.
“This, yatou, how about you just give two yuan?”
Ripples of smile swirled in her eyes, Su Ning shook her head, took out three yuan and two cotton coupons from her bag and handed them to him, “Uncle, can you exchange some grain seeds for me too?”
Taking the money and coupons with a whisper, the already guilty Li Guoqiang brightened up upon hearing she also needed grain seeds, “Sure, why not, yatou wait here for me a bit?”
“Uncle, can I go with you?”
Seeing the doubt in his eyes, Su Ning looked around and said softly, “I also want to exchange for some livestock.”
Now everything was collectively owned, every household in the village had fixed numbers and quantities of chickens, ducks, geese, pigs and such raised, at year-end besides turning over to public, there could still be one or two left for the household’s own treat.
But in recent years, natural disasters frequent, farmers’ own crops weren’t enough to fill the stomach, who could still afford to raise task pigs, cattle and sheep, let alone exchange.
Chickens, ducks, geese these small things could still think of ways, but larger pigs, cattle and sheep…
Looking at the money and coupons in hand, struggle flashed in Li Guoqiang’s eyes, after half a moment he gritted his teeth and made a certain decision.
“Yatou, come, go with uncle!”
“Good.”
Taking over the seed package she was half-holding half-hugging, Li Guoqiang led her to sit on the ox cart of the Second Production Brigade.
Along the way because there were others present, the two couldn’t say much.
……
“Yo, Guoqiang, where’d you bring back this pretty yatou from, this dressing looks like a city girl?”
“This wouldn’t be the one Granny Wang introduced…”
“Pah, with Li Hongxing that coward, how could he marry such a pretty city girl, afraid he couldn’t even reach it in dreams!”
Afraid she would overthink hearing this, Li Guoqiang as a big man couldn’t argue with these gossipy women, so he could only keep his head down leading the way, stepping faster and faster.
Village paths were mostly mud roads, even worse to walk after rain.
Small-running to keep up with the man ahead walking faster and faster, Su Ning frowned at her skirt and leather shoes full of mud spots, could only inwardly blame herself for wearing the wrong clothes when going out in the morning.
Fortunately her leather shoes were flat-bottomed, just dirty, no worry of twisting ankle or falling.
“This is it, Su yatou you rest in the courtyard first, I’ll go find the brigade leader right now.”
“Thank you, Uncle Li.”
“Hey, no need to be polite, wait a bit, uncle will be back soon!”
No one at home to offer hospitality, all in the fields at work, Li Guoqiang embarrassedly brought over a fairly new stool, hastily said that and quickly turned to leave.
……
In a blink it was already one in the afternoon, hadn’t eaten a bite of hot food, just busy with riding to the market.
Su Ning whose stomach was starting to grumble finally regretted at this point, why hadn’t she thought to buy some ready-to-eat food to store in the space?
It seemed, besides seeds and livestock these, the rooms in the small courtyard also needed to be fully sorted out, especially filling up furniture and supplies in the kitchen and bedroom.
In case one day there’s some emergency, entering the space there would still be a place to eat, drink, sleep.
“This is the yatou?”
Interrupted by the sudden voice, Su Ning looked up to see Li Guoqiang bringing an old man about fifty or sixty, looking exceptionally sturdy, so she quickly stood up and politely greeted.
“Hello, old man.”
Li Dazhu smiled and nodded, sizing up the person in front of him—
Fair skin, rosy face, sweet smile, water-bright eyes especially bright and clear, um, a good yatou!
“I won’t ask what you want to buy those things for, but all together the price isn’t cheap, yatou can you make the decision yourself?”
Though puzzled inside, Uncle Li’s mouth said his strict and hard-to-talk-to brigade leader uncle, why didn’t match what he said.
But agreeing was better than struggling to persuade with words, right?
“Yes, as long as there are, I can make the decision.”
