Chapter 191: Hoarding Goods

"Hahaha, Brother Changping, come, come, have a cigarette." Daoba heard his underling report that there was a wild boar and rushed over excitedly.

Zhang Ping'an reached out to take the cigarette. Daoba looked at Zhang Ping'an's hands, and a flash of sharp light appeared in his eyes. Zhang Ping'an naturally noticed Daoba's anomaly, but he was not worried; he had rubbed medicine on his hands, so they looked like the hands of someone who had farmed for years.

Trying to judge his age by his hands would only lead Daoba astray, and Zhang Ping'an's voice was also that of a middle-aged man; after reaching Body Refining Great Success, it was not difficult to simply change one's vocal cords.

Coupled with the fact that Zhang Ping'an had learned some voice acting techniques in his past life, it was even easier to switch voices, so every time Zhang Ping'an visited the Black Market, his voice was almost different.

"Weigh it."

"Done."

"Brother, that's a total of 970 jin of rabbit meat and 320 jin of pork, totaling 1,610 yuan, seven Small Yellow Fish, and I'll give you the rest in cash."

"Good."

At work in the morning, Zhang Ping'an told the news that Li Huaide wanted to announce to the several hunters in the section.

"I know this is a good opportunity to make money, but everyone must also pay attention to safety."

"Don't worry, Section Chief, we are all veteran hunters; we won't joke with our own lives."

"Good, as long as everyone has a sense of it."

Over the next few days, Zhang Ping'an would drop off a batch of meat at the Black Market every few days. This day, Zhang Ping'an found Daoba again.

"Brother Daoba, do you still want sweet potatoes?"

"Oh? Brother, you still have some?"

"Yes, there are about 60,000 jin more, and they have already been transported over."

"Done, I'll take them all. I'll calculate it at 0.25 yuan for you." Daoba knew that Zhang Ping'an definitely understood the current market price.

"Good, bring your gear and come with me."

"Let's go."

After all the sweet potatoes were loaded, Zhang Ping'an took out two giant pumpkins.

"Brother Daoba, these were stored by us in the autumn. Keep them to taste. If you want them, I'll bring them to you next time."

"Done."

Daoba signaled two underlings to take the pumpkins, and they were immediately staggered by the weight.

"Damn, Big Brother, this pumpkin must weigh at least 50 jin."

"Not bad, brother, good strength. Here are four Big Yellow Fish and six small ones."

The few of them watched Zhang Ping'an easily hold one in each hand and thought they only weighed about 20 jin; they didn't expect them to be more than double that.

"We mountain people live by this bit of strength."

"Hahaha, thank you, brother, for thinking of your brother when you have things. How about this, same price as the sweet potatoes."

"Good, next time I'll bring a few hundred over for you to have a fresh taste."

Just like that, Zhang Ping'an supplied the Rolling Mill during the day and traded in the Black Market at night; the numbers of Yellow Fish and cash were both rising rapidly.

This day, Zhang Ping'an returned home and saw that there was a pumpkin in He Daqing's house; judging by the size, it should be from the batch he sold.

"Ping'an, you came at the right time. This pumpkin tastes good. Take some back later for Weidong and Weijun to taste."

"Brother He, did you buy this at the Black Market?" Zhang Ping'an said in a low voice.

"You bought some too?"

"Yes, I saw it wasn't expensive, so I hoarded a bit of sweet potatoes and pumpkins."

"It should be hoarded. If it weren't for the fact that pumpkins are hard to carry, I would have bought eight or ten of them. Anyway, this thing doesn't spoil easily. No, I have to go again tonight."

"Just make a few more trips. I have many people in my family, so I hoarded ten pumpkins and ten bags of sweet potatoes."

"Hmm? You have land and still hoard so much? No, tonight I'll take Shazhu with me."

He Daqing also had a sense of crisis. Zhang Ping'an had been growing wheat and corn for these years, so there must be at least a thousand jin of grain at home, yet he still had to hoard so much;

He himself was better off, but apart from the monthly ration, he hadn't prepared much at home. The price of grain in the Black Market was so outrageous now, which was indeed not a good sign.

"Better safe than sorry."

"Indeed."

Zhang Ping'an also suddenly remembered, why hadn't his eldest sister and second sister come to find him? At this time, the grain at home should be almost eaten up, right?

Thinking of this, Zhang Ping'an couldn't sit still and went straight to the Clothing Shop.

"Xiaochen, Xiaojing, have your parents come by recently?"

"No, Uncle, what's wrong?"

"Then have you gone back in these few months?"

"We went back at the end of October. The food in the village's big canteen was even better than here."

"It's bad." They didn't know the situation, but Zhang Ping'an did.

It had been almost three months since then. Just looking at the situation in Zhang Family Village, Li Family Village definitely couldn't be any better.

Zhang Ping'an went home, said a word, pedaled the tricycle, and rushed toward Li Family Village. When he reached the village entrance, there were four more sacks of grain on the tricycle.

"What are you doing?" There were militiamen standing guard at the village entrance.

"Wei, Xiao Wu, don't you recognize your brother anymore? Purchasing Agent for the Rolling Mill, Li Huaijin is my brother-in-law."

"Oh, oh, it's Brother Zhang." Zhang Ping'an took off his train-driver hat before they recognized him.

"Have a cigarette. You two take these two sweet potatoes back to eat." Zhang Ping'an saw that these two were also much thinner than before.

"Thank you, Brother Zhang."

"Hmm, I still need to go to my sister's house, so I won't chat with you much more."

"Yes, okay."

"Brother Zhang is still classy. I saw there are quite a few sweet potatoes on the tricycle."

"Yes, Uncle Li Huaijin's family will have it better now." Both of them had faces full of envy, but seeing the sweet potatoes as big as a human head in their hands, they felt more gratitude in their hearts.

"Eldest Sister? Eldest Brother-in-law?"

"Is that Ping'an?" Both of their voices were listless.

"It's me, Eldest Brother-in-law, open the door quickly."

*Creeeak*—the main gate opened, and the thin, gaunt face of Eldest Brother-in-law Li Huaijin came into view.

"Eldest Brother-in-law, didn't I tell you before to come find me if you ran out of food? Xiaochen and Xiaojing thought you were still eating at the communal canteen."

"It's fine, there isn't much work in the winter, eating a little less doesn't matter."

"You two..." Zhang Ping'an didn't know what else to say; he knew they didn't want to cause him trouble, so he quickly prepared two bowls of malted milk for them and had them drink it.

"Eldest Brother-in-law, I brought two bags of grain, one bag of cornmeal, one bag of sweet potatoes, and some meat. Hurry up and make something to eat; I'm going to Second Sister's house first."

"Alright."

As Zhang Ping'an passed through the kitchen, he replaced the water in the vat with Space Water; even without eating meat, it would allow their bodily functions to recover quickly.

The situation at Second Sister's house was even more severe than at Eldest Sister's; both of them were only eating one bowl of cornmeal porridge a day, preferring to lie down rather than stand, especially Second Brother-in-law, a man over 1.9 meters tall who had shrunk a size, and Second Sister was in no better shape.

"Second Sister, if you weren't going to tell me, you should have at least told Xiao Ze and the others. Look at how thin you've both become!"

"It's fine, being thin is good, being thin means a long life. Your brother-in-law used to be ridiculously fat, being thin now is just right."

"..." It was fortunate they had thick layers of fat before, otherwise they would have collapsed from hunger long ago.

Zhang Ping'an prepared a bowl of malted milk for the two of them, then hurried to start a fire and cook, pouring water and slicing sweet potatoes; when the water boiled, he poured in the cornmeal to stir into a porridge, took out some braised pig's head meat from his space, sliced it, and divided it into two plates.

Watching the busy Zhang Ping'an, tears couldn't stop flowing from the corners of Second Sister Zhang Meihua's eyes, and Second Brother-in-law Li Huaiyu was no better off.

"Second Sister, the food in the pot will be ready soon, come eat it yourselves. I'm going to Eldest Sister's place."

"Mm, alright."

When Zhang Ping'an arrived at Eldest Sister's house, the two were already drinking cornmeal porridge, and Zhang Ping'an took out the pig's head meat and divided it between them.

"Eldest Sister, you haven't eaten meat in a long time, so eat a little bit first. Wait until your stomachs have adjusted before eating more. I'll come by again in a few days."

"Ping'an, we won't even be able to finish the grain you brought before the New Year; you don't need to make a special trip over here."

"It's fine, I'll be hunting often lately, I'll just stop by when I pass through."