Little Shorty

Produced by Tomato Listening.

Little Shorty's Clothes!

Lin Yuzhu dug out a navy-blue jacket and pants. Clothes these days didn't care much about shape; wearing them made a person look like a barrel.

With a few alterations, no one could tell whether the wearer was male or female just by looking at the clothes.

So, over the next two days, she diligently practiced makeup and disguise. She even specially practiced different voice tones. Her pronunciation was about right, and she sounded like a boy, though it wouldn't hold up under scrutiny.

But there was no helping it.

The advantage of having a space was that she could travel light.

Lin Yuzhu only carried an empty basket when she went out, but Wang Xiaomei was different. She carried a sack, and it was stuffed full.

Lin Yuzhu smiled. "Aren't we going out to buy things?"

"This is some hawthorn I picked last year. I'm going to deliver some to relatives in town."

Wang Xiaomei spouted nonsense with a straight face. As if nobody knew whether she had relatives there.

Shanshui Village was fairly close to town, and a road that people from several other villages had to pass through ran nearby. Ox carts passed this way almost every day.

Wang Xiaomei and Lin Yuzhu were quite lucky—they caught an ox cart. It only cost two cents each to reach town. The two of them worked hard to lift the sack onto the cart. It was supposedly filled with mountain goods, but Lin Yuzhu knew it was actually food.

Thinking it over, Lin Yuzhu understood. Wang Xiaomei was guarding against the new educated youths who would soon arrive. If she sold off her surplus rations, she naturally wouldn't have the means to support anyone else. Was she supposed to starve herself to help others?

Was Wang Xiaomei that kind of person?

Lin Yuzhu found it amusing. This girl really was shrewd when it came to food.

The two understood each other without saying anything and split up once they reached town.

Wang Xiaomei was going to visit relatives. Why would Lin Yuzhu tag along?

Lin Yuzhu first went to the grain station to check food prices. The moment she looked, she felt a little deflated. The finest rice was only twenty-three cents a jin, enriched flour was seventeen cents a jin, cornmeal was even cheaper at nine cents a jin, and soybean oil was fifty-five cents a jin.

Making a hundred million by selling grain was out of the question.

She also checked the butcher shop. Pork was seventy-eight cents a jin, while hens were sixty cents a jin—and they were out of stock.

Compared with those, eggs were rather expensive at forty-eight cents a jin. No wonder people called a chicken's backside a bank. The name was well deserved.

Eggs were an interesting case. They had a listed price but no actual market. The town's Supply and Marketing Cooperative only bought them and never sold them. The price tag was practically a joke. They looked cheap when buying, but when selling, they were truly cheap too.

Lin Yuzhu soothed her disappointment, silently reminding herself that money was especially valuable these days.

After hypnotizing herself like that, she found an empty corner and entered her space. She hurriedly changed clothes, put on a wig, darkened her face with foundation, then used an eyebrow pencil to draw several thicker brows. She immediately had the right look.

Then she casually added a few touches and lowered her head. Her features made her look like a little boy. She took out a concealer stick in a different shade and smeared it over her face. Uneven skin tone—there she was, a thin, dark-skinned young man.

Lin Yuzhu had previously made a rough inquiry into the Black Market locations in this town and had identified one or two possible spots.

There was a cannery at the edge of town, with a patch of woods beside it. The place was deserted.

In theory, the workers should all be working during the day, so it shouldn't have been lively there. Yet one or two people could always be seen going in and out, each carrying a cloth bag.

The bags were clearly empty when they went in, but bulging when they came out.

Lin Yuzhu guessed there should be a trading point in the woods. Sure enough, there was one in a small grove not far from the cannery, though there weren't many people.

Seeing that she was unfamiliar, everyone inside became wary. Lin Yuzhu felt slightly awkward.

Why was everyone paying so much attention to this?

A burly man walked over and asked in a low voice, "Buying or selling?"

After speaking, he looked probing at the basket on her back.

Lin Yuzhu had covered all the goods with cloth, so he couldn't see what was in her basket. Still, she looked like she was there to sell, and his guard lowered somewhat.

"Big brother, I'm new to this. I just wanted to try my luck and see whether I can sell anything."

Lin Yuzhu deliberately deepened her voice, making herself sound like a young boy.

"Hm?"

"What do you have?"

Lin Yuzhu looked at the man in front of her. Was he a seller too?

Seeing that the youngster didn't understand the rules, the man looked impatient. "I run this place. The people selling inside are all mine. Outsiders aren't allowed."

"Who introduced you? You don't even know that? Outsiders who come here to sell have to sell their goods to me."

Then the man frowned. Could this little brat be a spy?

But would there really be such a young spy?

As soon as the man moved, several of his subordinates stood up and approached with unfriendly expressions.

Lin Yuzhu twitched her lips and silently told herself to stay calm. She didn't know whether this luck was good or bad. By sheer accident, she had run into a minor boss. Still, people like them probably wouldn't be too ruthless, or how could they keep operating?

Without another word, she set down the basket on her back, removed the cloth covering it, and said, "Oh, I have twenty jin of cornmeal, ten jin of rice, and two old hens!"

It wasn't much merchandise. First-timers never sold too much at once.

The man didn't think much of it. He casually opened the rice for a look, then gave an appreciative grunt. "Not bad. Just not much of it."

He weighed the old hens in his hands as well. "Mm, nice and fat."

"What's the price?"

The man asked casually.

"Cornmeal is fifteen cents with coupons, twenty without. Rice is fifty cents with coupons, one yuan without. Hens are four yuan each with coupons, six without."

"I don't want grain coupons. Why would someone selling grain lack grain?"

The man looked at Lin Yuzhu and said in a deep voice.

"The hens are too expensive. Three yuan each, and I'll give you industrial coupons."

Lin Yuzhu pretended to ponder, then nodded with difficulty.

The deal was done. Lin Yuzhu received fourteen yuan and a stack of coupons. Thinking of how much effort it had taken to carry the goods in from outside, she had earned so little. The road ahead was long.

After selling the goods, Lin Yuzhu didn't leave immediately. She chatted casually for a while and learned that the man's surname was Su. She started calling him Brother Su, growing a little closer before finally leaving.

Only after walking out of the grove did Lin Yuzhu breathe a sigh of relief. Seeing that no one had followed her, she couldn't help but laugh. Apparently, her small amount of goods hadn't caught their eye.

As the saying went, residential compounds were prime places to sell goods. She had heard there was a residential compound near the town's textile factory, with many households inside. More importantly, there were no guards watching the entrance. How could she pass that up?

Lin Yuzhu leaned on the ladder and found the residential compound, carrying her basket as she wandered around nearby.

Sure enough, before long, an older woman came over, pulled her into a secluded corner, and asked in a low voice, "Young man, what do you have in that basket?"

Lin Yuzhu grinned, looking like an honest young fellow. She also lowered her voice. "Cooking oil, white flour, cornmeal, and eggs."

The older woman immediately became excited. She grabbed her and asked, "How are you selling them?"

"Young man, put the basket down and let Auntie have a look. If there isn't much, I can help you buy it all!"

"Cooking oil is one yuan fifty a jin. No coupons, no sale. I only have ten jin. There are ten jin of eggs too, seventy cents a jin, no coupons needed."

"White flour is forty cents with coupons, sixty without. Cornmeal is fifteen cents with coupons, twenty without."

"Auntie, I don't want grain coupons."

The two spoke in hushed voices, like they were thieves.

Although eggs were expensive on the open market, they couldn't fetch a high price on the Black Market. They cost more than a jin of pork, so people would rather save their meat coupons and buy pork.

The older woman found the eggs a little expensive. After some haggling, they settled on sixty cents a jin.

Lin Yuzhu talked until her mouth was dry. She hadn't sold anything yet and had only negotiated prices.

Once they agreed on the prices, the older woman saw that there wasn't much stock and feared someone might snatch it away. She simply pulled Lin Yuzhu to her home, saying she was a country cousin whenever they met someone she knew.

These days, everyone seemed to have plenty of relatives. After bringing Lin Yuzhu into the courtyard, the older woman told her to wait and went out to find the sisters she knew.

The older woman was quite efficient. Within minutes, many people had poured into the courtyard. Looking at the small amount of goods in her basket, Lin Yuzhu thought they would only be enough to divide among them for a moment. In the eyes of these women, she had become a hot commodity.

After everything was sold, Lin Yuzhu hadn't received many coupons. Thinking about it, she understood. Ordinary families couldn't save many coupons in a month. Even if they had money, they preferred buying expensive grain coupons to keep for household use.

This batch of goods sold for thirty yuan, plus five coupons. The soybean oil deserved the credit for bringing in so much; otherwise, she would only have made a little over ten yuan. She was small and not very strong, so she couldn't carry much at once. She could only take it slowly.

When the older woman walked her out of the courtyard, she said warmly, "Young man, come here whenever you have goods."

"Auntie isn't bragging. Auntie has the best connections in this residential compound. No matter how much you bring, Auntie can help you sell it all."

Lin Yuzhu grinned, revealing a row of small white teeth, and gave an honest smile.

"Auntie, don't worry. If I have goods, I'll come here."

"Good!"

The older woman immediately beamed and saw her out.

After that, Lin Yuzhu repeated the same method in several alleys, selling quite a bit of goods and building up some connections along the way.

Since she was selling live chickens, she didn't take out any eggs. She mainly sold soybean oil, rice, flour, and the few old hens left in her space.

After several rounds, she had nearly two hundred yuan in her pocket, and Lin Yuzhu felt delighted again.

In less than half a day, she had earned what others made in several months. If she could keep trading like this every day, her income would be enough to keep her fed even in the future.

Unfortunately, she was now an educated youth sent to the countryside and couldn't come to town every day.

Since it was so hard to get one chance to come, Lin Yuzhu felt she should sell more. With money in hand, she could rest easy.

Do it.

This time, Lin Yuzhu planned to find out the exact Black Market location before carrying goods over.

Carrying goods around was too tiring. Her stamina was still utterly pathetic.

As the saying went, there were business opportunities near hospitals. After wandering around the town hospital, Lin Yuzhu found another Black Market spot.

It was tucked away in an inconspicuous corner, and someone was standing guard.

If Lin Yuzhu wanted to sell goods, she had to pay the guards ten cents. Their reasoning was that they couldn't keep watch for her for nothing.

Lin Yuzhu truly admired the public's sharp eye for business. They could find business opportunities everywhere.