Niu Dajun was drinking gloomily in the Fourth Team's General Store.
The old men who often came here for loose liquor found it strange. One of them asked with a smile:
"Dajun, weren't you snaring rabbits these past few days and taking the skins to the County Seat to sell? Why haven't you gone these last two days?"
"Exactly. I heard those rabbit skins fetch three yuan apiece. You made over a hundred yuan in the first month after the snow, better than working a regular job. What have you got to be unhappy about?"
"If I could earn over a hundred a month, I'd drink bottled liquor at home every day instead of this loose stuff," another man said enviously. "This loose liquor just doesn't have the flavor of bottled liquor."
"The Purchasing Station's closed down." Niu Dajun tipped his head back and poured a cup of liquor into his mouth. After swallowing, he said, "I've still got dozens of skins at home, and I don't know where to sell them. They're all stuck there, stinking the place up."
"The Purchasing Station closed down?" another old man asked doubtfully. "That can't be right. It's a state-run place. How could they just close it? Maybe they shut the doors for a rest? Went on holiday?"
"It really has closed. The day before yesterday, I'd saved up twenty skins and planned to sell them to buy some meat. But when I got there, the doors were shut, with a notice saying the Purchasing Station had been abolished and wouldn't be there anymore."
Niu Dajun's words took all the old men, and even the storekeeper, completely by surprise.
They had grown used to having the Purchasing Station around. The Fourth Team had plenty of land and abundant resources nearby. Every so often,