Chapter 52: Super Farm System (18)

"Giddyup—"

In the drizzling rain, the ox cart slowed to a stop at the entrance of the Commune Old Street.

Zhou Afu, wearing a coir raincoat and a bamboo hat while driving the cart, turned back to say to the Educated Youth and commune members climbing down one after another: "Wait here when you return. I will wait until 2:30 in the afternoon; if it's past that time, you'll have to go back on your own."

Everyone was used to it and had no objections.

Taking their respective rain gear, they climbed off the ox cart and dispersed.

The female commune members carried their baskets straight to the purchasing counter of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

Every time they came to the commune, they would bring eggs laid by their home-raised chickens to sell to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, then exchange them for necessities like needles, thread, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar to take back.

The first destination for the Educated Youth was the same: the Post Office.

Xie Yang followed behind Zhao Wanqing's group with the items she needed to mail.

Upon reaching the Post Office, she first dropped her letter into the mailbox, then queued up to weigh her parcel.

She had sent her aunt's family quite a bit of dried wild vegetables and mushrooms, inside which she had tucked two prepared Wild Ginseng roots and one jin of Gastrodia, along with two liang of tea leaves she had roasted herself.

She had originally wanted to stuff in a few more things redeemed from the System Mall, but after thinking about it, she felt it was inappropriate.

Her aunt knew where she had been sent to the countryside; one inquiry at the Youth Office would reveal it was deep in the mountains. How could she possibly obtain such high-quality goods in the countryside that couldn't even be found in Pingcheng? That wasn't scientific!

It was better to wait. After some time passed, she would make up an excuse that she had dug up Wild Ginseng and traded it for money and coupons, then send it to them.

Just as she finished mailing the parcel and letter, she heard a Post Office staff member ask her: "Are you Xie Yang? The Educated Youth from Yuewan Brigade?"

Upon receiving her affirmative reply, the staff member told her to wait a moment: "There is a parcel for you. It arrived several days ago, but you never came to pick it up, so I put it in the back room. Wait here, I'll go get it."

The parcel was sent by her aunt; looking at the date, it had been sent the day after she left.

With so many eyes around, she didn't open it to look, but instead placed it into her back basket.

Zhao Wanqing, Yang Qingqing, and the others hadn't received any parcels from home, but they all had letters.

Perhaps hoping to see money and coupons sent from home in the letters, they couldn't wait to tear them open before even leaving the Post Office.

Unfortunately, aside from a ten-yuan bill tucked into Lu Jieqiong's family letter and a few scattered Grain Coupons in Zhao Wanqing's, the others didn't see a single thing.

After reading her family letter, Yang Qingqing's face turned black: "My mother is actually asking me for money! She said my brother found a partner and if things go fast, they'll be married by May Day. She asked if I was tight on cash and if I could spare some gift money for my brother... Ha! Do they have amnesia? Back then, my brother was the one who was supposed to go to the countryside because he was the eldest son, but my grandparents couldn't bear it and spent all the family savings to buy him a job position. To coax me into going to the countryside, they said that when my brother started earning a salary, he would share half with me. But when he actually started earning a salary, there was never any share for me... And now they're actually asking me for gift money! They don't even think about what kind of life I'm living here!"

Wang Pandi's expression was also very ugly.

Her parents had also asked her for money. Knowing she had a resettlement fee after going to the countryside, they wrote to ask how much she had received and how much she had sent home... They even sternly warned her not to think that just because she had left home, her wings were strong enough to disobey her parents; if she still wanted to return to the city, she should obediently send money back.

Xie Yang lowered her eyes, listening to their respective stories.

Suddenly, she heard Yang Qingqing sneer: "Looking at it this way, Xie Yang is the lucky one, receiving a parcel from home as soon as she arrived. But don't get cocky! Maybe your family still feels a bit of guilt toward you now, but as time goes on, everyone is the same. In another half a year, you won't be any better off than I am now."

Xie Yang: "..."

Her sympathy for her vanished instantly.

After coming out of the Post Office, Zhao Wanqing and her group went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Xie Yang had nothing to buy, so she put the parcel into her back basket and followed far behind Zhao Wanqing.

It was precisely because she was following at a distance that she discovered Zhao Wanqing came out not long after entering the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, looked around, and then quickly turned into an alleyway nearby. After walking straight for a distance, she made a turn and entered another alley.

This seemed to be a Black Market where residents traded privately. People passing by were all peeking and looking around.

Zhao Wanqing disappeared into a hidden little corner for a moment. When she reappeared, there was suddenly a bamboo basket in her hand, covered with a dusty piece of labor cloth.

"Want some cabbage? Fresh Bok Choy, 5 cents a jin."

She lowered her voice to ask a middle-aged woman who looked like a worker and was walking in a hurry as they brushed past each other.

Seeing this scene, Xie Yang immediately understood: Zhao Wanqing intended to take the Bok Choy harvested from the Farm Space out to sell.

The middle-aged woman hadn't originally wanted to buy anything; she needed grain and meat. Vegetables like Bok Choy, which were neither filling nor oily, were not in her range of purchases.

But she glanced at the Bok Choy that Zhao Wanqing had deliberately revealed, and the quality was indeed quite good.

"Give me a jin."

Zhao Wanqing's Black Market business had opened!

She excitedly sold a jin of Bok Choy, earning the first pot of gold in her life.

Although it was only 5 cents, with one 5 cents, there would be two, three... and even countless 5 cents.

What she got from selling to the Super Farm System were points. Points could redeem many facilities, buildings, and a dazzling array of goods and Props that made people envious, but they couldn't redeem money.

She only had nine plots of land in total. After more than a month of hard work clearing them, the Bok Choy she planted finally displayed the words "Mature, ready for harvest" two days ago. The radishes would take another month or so, and the Corn would take even longer.

She hadn't originally planned to take them out to sell, but today she received a letter from home saying her sister-in-law was pregnant and family expenses would be high in the future, so they wouldn't send her money since she had food and shelter there. If she could spare any coupons, they would send them to her.

Without money, even with a few jin of Grain Coupons, she couldn't buy grain!

Only then did Zhao Wanqing decide to risk selling the vegetables grown in the Farm Space.

But people who came to the Black Market were basically aiming for grain or meat and vegetables; they had little interest in vegetables.

Zhao Wanqing squatted there for half a day before she managed to pull in three customers, earning 1 mao 5 cents.

At this moment, the rain suddenly became heavier.

Without a coir raincoat, only a bamboo hat, she could only block a light drizzle, not heavy rain.

Xie Yang immediately asked the Main System to redeem a black rubberized raincoat. While taking off her bamboo hat, she put it on, not letting her clothes get wet.

Zhao Wanqing only had a bamboo hat. Seeing the rain getting heavier and her clothes getting soaked, she wanted to find a hidden corner to enter the Farm Space to hide, but she didn't know what she had tripped over.

Looking down, it was actually a young boy curled up and shivering from the cold.

Xie Yang had been following her, so she naturally saw this scene too.

An alarm went off in her heart.

Not giving Zhao Wanqing time to hesitate, she put on a large, thick Labor Protection Mask and quickly ran over.

"Little brother! Little brother! Wake up!" Xie Yang spoke in an unrecognizable dialect, anxiously squatting down to help the boy up. "Oh my, are you running a fever?"

She picked up the thinly-clad boy and ran quickly toward the alley entrance: "Hold on! Big sister is taking you to the hospital right now!"

"..."

Zhao Wanqing retracted her hand, which had been soaked by the rain, with an awkward expression.