Chapter 889: You're Still the Clever One

Of course, only one goat skin was left outside; afterwards, she bought some beef and mutton to display openly, since it wouldn't spoil in such cold weather anyway.

She had originally intended to buy more, but simply hadn't found the opportunity, plus she truly didn't have that many national meat ration coupons.

Just as she was thinking of turning back, she heard someone ahead say: "Today is the twenty-first; why not go to the market ahead? With the New Year coming up, surely some locals will be slaughtering their own sheep and cattle."

Yesterday, Liu Chuxue had heard the guide, Bateer, say that there were regular markets on the first, tenth, and twenty-first, selling farm products made by nearby herders, many of which didn't require coupons.

Seeing there was still time, Liu Chuxue followed them.

After walking about two or three li, they reached a fenced-in ground where the goods for sale were quite miscellaneous; when she saw many stalls with tethered sheep, her spirits immediately lifted.

Because she was in a hurry, she quickly bought one large sheep and two small ones from a herder; it was a ewe with her two lambs. The herder said someone in his family was ill and urgently needed money, which was why he was selling.

Liu Chuxue felt the price was reasonable, so she didn't bargain it down.

She asked them to deliver the sheep to the spot she had already spotted when she arrived; after they left, she swept the area with her spiritual power where no one was paying attention, quickly storing the one large and two small sheep into her space. She lingered outside for a while longer, and indeed no one noticed her, so she continued browsing inside.

Seeing whole sheep available, she directly bought half a carcass, had it cut up for her, bought a backpack basket on the side to put it in, and only then continued browsing.

Having this backpack basket made things greatly convenient for her; she bought quite a few more items that caught her eye before leaving to head back, saving everyone from not seeing her and searching everywhere for her.

Her pace was fast; the journey that had taken her over twenty minutes on the way there, she covered in just over ten minutes on the return.

Upon entering the formal market, she saw Sister Jiang from afar, who was nearly at the end of her browsing.

She pretended she had just finished browsing too; seeing Sister Jiang carrying quite a lot in her hands, she said, "Sister Jiang, you've bought quite a lot."

Hearing her voice, Sister Jiang said, "Oh my, how come I never spotted you? I was getting worried."

Seeing the backpack basket behind her, she asked, "Where did you buy that backpack basket?"

Liu Chuxue didn't mention her trip to the market: "I met a local up ahead earlier and traded some sugar coupons for it; it saves trouble, otherwise carrying things by hand is inconvenient."

Sister Jiang laughed: "You're still the clever one."

However, she thought to herself: I truly didn't see any place selling backpack baskets; if I had seen one, I surely would have bought one too.

Liu Chuxue thought to herself that this was a government-run market, mainly selling beef and mutton, so there surely wouldn't be any backpack baskets for sale.

As the two were talking, they ran straight into Xu Chengkun and Sister Huang; seeing everyone, it was clear they had come prepared, each carrying things in their hands.

Seeing that everyone had bought basically the same things, differing only in quantity, and that purchases were nearly complete, they strolled back.

Xu Chengkun said, "When we go to fetch the slaughtered beef and mutton later, we should find some herders like Liu Chuxue did to trade for a few crates, backpack baskets, and such, to put our purchases in."

What they hadn't expected was that when they arrived, the guide Bateer had already prepared them for them: "These were prepared by them for us; they aren't worth much, consider them a gift."

Captain Ma laughed: "This is Bateer's kindness; just accept it. Next time we have a procurement mission, we'll ask him to guide us again."

Hearing these words, Bateer laughed: "That's wonderful."