Time Travel: My Comfortable Life After Going to the Countryside

Liu Xiangyang retreated into the shadows, took out a basket and a wild boar from his spatial storage, and carried them toward his cousin.

My cousin saw Liu Xiangyang and asked, "Do you understand the rules?"

"I understand. I'm here to buy things, and I'd like to trade this wild boar meat for something with you," Liu Xiangyang said.

"You're quite the clever one. You don't need to pay. Go inside, but you can't sell this wild boar. Otherwise, you'll have to pay the remaining two cents."

Liu Xiangyang nodded to indicate that he understood, and went inside with his basket on his back.

When Liu Xiangyang walked in, he found that there were quite a few people here. One side of the alley was lined with people sitting and selling their goods, while the other side was filled with people buying things.

Both buyers and sellers were completely covered up, afraid of being exposed.

Each stall was dark. Only after the price was agreed upon would the seller turn on the lantern, and then turn it off again once the buyer could see clearly.

Liu Xiangyang looked at each stall one by one. Most of them were grain stalls, probably where nearby villagers had distributed grain to exchange for some money coupons.

A very few stalls still had meat for sale; these were probably Fourth Brother's own stalls. Liu Xiangyang glanced at them and saw that the prices were much higher than outside. The advantage was that they didn't require meat coupons. All these meat stalls were doing the best business, packed with people.

Two other people were patrolling the alley to maintain order.

Liu Xiangyang looked around but didn't find anything good, so he figured he'd have to go get it from his fourth brother.

Just then, a middle-aged man approached and said, "Comrade, I've seen you walk around, haven't you seen anything you like?"

"Yes, big brother has something good?"

"I do have some good stuff, but it depends on what you're willing to trade for it. If you're interested, let's go to the next room and discuss it in detail."

Seeing that the patrolmen didn't stop the man, Liu Xiangyang knew he was one of Fourth Brother's men, and could use this opportunity to probe his background.

Liu Xiangyang nodded and followed him into a room where four or five groups of people were sitting, all talking in hushed tones.

"Brother, what do you want to exchange for? National grain coupons? Or the three essential items? I have them all here. What will you use to exchange?" The middle-aged man asked, leading Liu Xiangyang to sit down at a table.

Liu Xiangyang put the basket on the table and put away the thing that was still on top: "Brother, take a look and see what you can exchange this for."

The man stood up, looked at it, and said, "Yellow-haired one, huh? It's not bad, but there's only one, so the quantity is a bit small."

"Brother, to tell you the truth, I raided a wild boar's den yesterday, and there are still more than ten of them. I heard there are good things here, so I came to scout it out first," Liu Xiangyang said honestly.

"Are there really more than ten?"

"Look at his wound yourself, it's still fresh, he was hit just yesterday."

"Brother, you're a new face. This is a bit too much. I can't make the decision myself. I'll go and call Fourth Brother over to talk to you." After saying this, the middle-aged man got up and went into the backyard.

A short while later, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties, wearing a green military uniform without epaulets, walked over and sat down.

"Hey bro, this is Zhao Si. Want a cigarette?" Zhao Si offered me a Zhonghua cigarette. "I heard from Lao San that you have a lot of good stuff?"

"I don't smoke, and there are still more than ten of these left." Liu Xiangyang pointed to the basket on Zhao Si's back.

"Several thousand pounds of meat, that's quite a lot. What would you like to exchange it for?" Zhao Si exhaled a puff of smoke and looked at him.

"Just exchange this yellow-haired boar for the money and tickets. I don't know what other good stuff you have here," Liu Xiangyang said, pointing to the wild boar in the basket.

"Haha, third brother, there are still people in Bingcheng who doubt my strength, Zhao Si." Zhao Si pointed at Liu Xiangyang, "You're the first one in recent years, come with me."

Zhao Si led Liu Xiangyang outside, and after walking around for four or five minutes, they arrived at an ordinary courtyard gate. Under Liu Xiangyang's spiritual detection, there were people all around the courtyard.

"Today I'll show you what your fourth brother is capable of." After saying that, Zhao Si pushed open the courtyard gate and went in first.

Following Zhao Si into the courtyard, there was a tree in the yard. After entering the inner room, Liu Xiangyang secretly took a breath to calm himself down.

Inside the room were a television, radio, bicycle, sewing machine, camera, phonograph, various watches and clocks, various kinds of foreign liquor, and coffee. Even more outrageous was the presence of a Honda motorcycle.

Liu Xiangyang had to admire Zhao Si. In this era, to be able to get these things and bring them in, there were only two possibilities: either his background was incredibly strong, or his background was so strong that even if he wasn't afraid of death, there was nothing he could do.

I'll ask my godmother later to see if she has any news.

Liu Xiangyang walked up to a sewing machine and, feigning interest, asked, "How do I change this?"

"Looks like you're thinking about women, brother. Has your family arranged a marriage for you? I, Zhao Si, am not a stingy person. Industrial tickets are too hard to come by these days. It should normally be two head of yellow-haired meat for a sewing machine, but since you're about to have a happy event, I'll give you half a head of pork. You just need to bring one and a half head of yellow-haired meat in exchange." Zhao Si looked like he had gotten a great deal.

The wild boar meat that Liu Xiangyang brought weighed about 250 to 260 jin (125-130 kg), and even after removing the bones, it was still about 200 jin (100 kg). At 9 mao (0.9 yuan) per jin (0.5 kg) of meat, the price was almost 180 yuan, which would be nearly 300 yuan for a whole pig.

A sewing machine only costs 140 or 150 yuan. Even if industrial coupons are hard to come by, they shouldn't cost 150 yuan. Liu Xiangyang sneered inwardly, thinking that he had just seen someone outside sell industrial coupons to Zhao Si's people for 40 or 50 yuan.

Zhao Si is treating him like a pig to be slaughtered; he'll be left with nowhere to cry later.

Liu Xiangyang asked about several more items, but Zhao Si, that bastard, had overstated the price by more than half. Finally, Liu Xiangyang asked...

"Who would dare buy your motorcycle? Even if they did, they couldn't get gasoline. And even if they did, who would dare ride it out?"

"Not bad, you even recognize motorcycles. These motorcycles aren't for sale. Didn't you see those big metal barrels? Those are all gasoline." Zhao Si pointed to the gasoline barrels hidden by the shelf. "Hey, this isn't your business. You couldn't trade them for 100 blondies."

Liu Xiangyang looked in the direction Zhao Si pointed and saw seven or eight gasoline drums piled up behind the shelf.

Judging from Zhao Si's tone, it must have been given to his backer. In order not to arouse his suspicion, Liu Xiangyang only asked about it once and then didn't mention it again.

"I'll replace this blond guy today, then I'll go back and discuss with my family whether we should exchange some things here."

"Young man, I, Zhao Si, am arguably the fairest person in the entire Ice City. You won't get as much as I do anywhere else."

"I'll give you an extra ten dollars today for this blond-haired guy. All the blond-haired guys you bring over after this will be paid the same price as today. Am I being generous enough?"

"Hmm, I'll tell my family what you said. If it's really a good deal, we'll definitely come to you to exchange."

"Alright, brother, I'll be waiting for you. Third brother, give him the money, and give him an extra ten yuan," Zhao Si said with a smile.