Neighbors, What a Fateful Encounter

After getting the letter of introduction, Bai Yao prepared to stay at the guesthouse. He wanted to see what a "hotel" in this era was like. It wasn't as though he was short of money.

Still, the accommodations at this time certainly couldn't compare with those of later generations.

Only after he arrived did Bai Yao learn that the rooms available depended on a person's circumstances. Since he was neither a cadre nor a worker on a business trip, he was assigned to a dormitory room shared with several strangers.

He was even lucky to get a place to stay at all.

Bai Yao spent most of the night reminiscing about his school days, then left in a hurry at daybreak.

One experience was enough. He never wanted a second.

He was used to having his own space, and he couldn't sleep well while sharing a room with strangers.

As for where he would stay over the next few days?

What place could compare with his system space?

Of course, if he found it too monotonous and couldn't get used to it, he could also find an unoccupied house and stay there for a few days.

Housing was tight at the time, but that applied to intact houses in good condition. There were still quite a few damaged houses that needed repairs at the occupant's own expense.

For Bai Yao, though, lodging wasn't the most important thing at the moment. What mattered now, in his view, was quickly getting rid of the things he had on hand.

There was the pile of junk he had collected from the Li family, for instance, and the box of ration coupons he had collected yesterday.

He could keep the nationwide coupons for his own use, but there weren't many of those. Most were local coupons with expiration dates, and it would be far too wasteful to let them expire.

To avoid being stuck with them, he had better find a way to exchange them for money or other supplies.

For one thing, he had to prepare some belongings to take to the countryside. Otherwise, on the day he left, everyone else would have bundles big and small, while he had only a shoulder bag. How unreasonable would that look?

And if he wanted to sell the coupons quickly, the black market was naturally his first choice.

The thing was, he really had no idea where the black market was,

so he would have to find it first.

Finding a black market was simple enough, though. He could either take something along and ask around, or watch the pedestrians on the street for anyone behaving particularly sneakily.

Of course, a black market had "black" in its name, so naturally it wasn't a market that operated out in the open.

Especially in this era, when speculation and profiteering were strictly policed, black markets generally operated in the early morning, at dusk, or at night.

But it was daytime now, so Bai Yao decided to find an unoccupied house to stay in first.

Houses like that actually weren't uncommon at this time. A careful search would turn up quite a few dilapidated, unoccupied ones.

He wasn't particularly picky and chose a house with doors and windows that were still reasonably intact.

The only thing was, he would have to clean the thick layer of dust off the floor. After all, he would be staying there for a while.

In the past, Bai Yao figured it would have taken him at least two hours to clean a place this dirty. But now, all he had to do was spread out his mental power and sweep the dust into his system space. It took at most two minutes.

What he hadn't expected was that cleaning up would actually bring him a reward this time.

Under a floor tile by the entrance were two small gold bars.

It wasn't much, but an unexpected find like that was still quite delightful.

After tidying everything up, Bai Yao arranged the room he would sleep in.

By the time he finished, it was lunchtime.

Bai Yao wasn't about to treat himself poorly. His body had been deprived for years, and he had to nourish it properly. Of course, he wouldn't waste food, either.

He ate and drank, leaving the remaining food for his next meal.

The satisfaction of a full stomach left his mind feeling a little sluggish.

Probably because I didn't sleep well last night. I'll catch up on some sleep.

With that thought, Bai Yao went back to bed and lay down.

In a drowsy haze, he soon fell asleep.

When Bai Yao woke again, he found it quite dim around him. Only then did he remember that he didn't have a watch yet.

He had the system custom-make a watch from this era and set it to the correct time. Only then did he learn that it was already evening, and judging by the sky, nightfall wasn't far off.

"Can I really sleep that much?" Bai Yao himself was stunned for a moment.

Once he recovered, he realized he still wasn't very hungry and prepared to look for the black market. This was just when it would be "open for business."

He had originally planned to ask someone about the black market after his nap, but now he would have to find it himself.

He had slept all afternoon and was full of energy anyway, so he could treat it as an evening stroll.

He got up, went outside, and spread out his mental power.

Then Bai Yao's expression turned complicated.

If he wasn't mistaken, the little alley on the other side of the house, with people coming and going, was where the black market was.

Was his luck really that good?

For some reason, I feel like the protagonist.

With that thought, Bai Yao began taking out things to disguise himself.

Now that he had found the black market, he might as well hurry and sell the coupons he couldn't use.

Soon, a tall, heavily wrapped-up middle-aged man appeared at the entrance to the black market alley.

That was right. The man was Bai Yao.

Although he couldn't apply makeup, the quality of the human-skin mask produced by the system was guaranteed. He had even relied on it to conceal his identity when catching the adulterers yesterday.

Just as in the period novels he had read, a burly man at the alley entrance asked in a low voice, "Buying or selling?"

"Do you buy coupons?" Bai Yao asked instead of answering.

He had a lot of coupons to sell, and selling them individually would waste too much time. The people who ran the black market were the ones who could afford to buy them in bulk.

"We do. What coupons have you got?" the burly man replied without any impatience.

For them, no matter the quantity, a profit was a profit. It didn't take much effort anyway.

"Watch coupons, bicycle coupons, sewing machine coupons, cotton coupons..."

As Bai Yao spoke, he saw a look of suspicion appear on the burly man's face.

In response, Bai Yao merely pretended to pull a stack of coupons from his pocket. The one on top was a bicycle coupon.

After showing them briefly, he put them away, keeping his eyes fixed on the man.

Since he dared to bring them out, he wasn't afraid of being robbed. If the man really did get ideas, it was still uncertain who would end up robbing whom.

When the burly man saw the stack of coupons, his fierce expression immediately turned into an honest, good-natured smile.

"Big brother, that's quite a few coupons. I can't make the decision myself. I'll have to find our boss."

He could have made the decision if there were only a dozen or so, but a stack that thick had to contain at least thirty or forty.

And his sharp eyes had picked out what he estimated to be five bicycle coupons alone. This was a big deal.

"All right, lead the way," Bai Yao said. He hadn't expected the burly man to be able to make the decision anyway.

"Sure thing. Follow me, big brother."

Then Bai Yao discovered that the burly man wasn't taking him into the black market. Instead, he was heading away from it.

But the farther they went, the stranger Bai Yao's expression became.

When they reached their destination, his expression was stranger still. Luckily, the burly man had his back to him and didn't see it, or he would surely have grown suspicious.

The reason Bai Yao reacted this way was that the small courtyard house before them stood right in front of the house where he was staying for the time being.

Tsk, so we're neighbors.

Muttering inwardly, Bai Yao followed the burly man into the courtyard.

To guard against any mishaps, he had kept his mental power spread out the whole way. As he entered, his mental power saw the person inside the house as well.

The instant he saw that person, Bai Yao wanted to say, What a fateful encounter.

He hadn't met many strangers in the days since he had transmigrated, and this particular one had left a deep impression on him.

After all, just yesterday, he had stripped the man naked and thrown him into a latrine pit.