Travel through famine years and awaken a post-apocalyptic survival system.

After walking a distance, Zhao Qingsong finally stopped.

Looking at Chen Ergou, who was also masked, he asked directly, "Ergou, it's me, Qingsong."

The original owner had known the other person for over a decade; how could she not recognize who it was?

Chen Ergou pulled down his mask and exclaimed in surprise, "Qingsong, you're here too! I thought I misheard!"

Zhao Qingsong smiled and said, "Of course I'm here to buy things! Weren't you at your dad's? What are you doing here?"

"Hey, don't even mention it!"

Chen Ergou looked around and, by the moonlight, handed him a cigarette.

Then he complained, "My mother passed away a long time ago. That woman was the old man's wife who married later. She had three children. She was always complaining about everything at home. Whenever there was meat in the house, she would say that my father was the head of the household and that we should take care of them. She would say that my younger siblings were still young, but I was already so old, and we should still take care of them."

"Pah! His eldest son is 16 this year, only a year younger than me, and he has the nerve to call himself younger? I'm so angry, I'm taking advantage of my break to tinker with some things."

After complaining, Chen Ergou continued to grumble, "The problem is, she doesn't eat either. She's so thin and pale from hunger that I feel embarrassed to say anything."

Zhao Qingsong sighed upon hearing this.

Second marriages are indeed not easy.

There are far too many second marriages these days. After all, it's only been a little over a decade since liberation, and too many men died back then.

"Is this a good idea? If someone gets caught, your dad might be in trouble!"

"Hey, you're one to talk! Weren't you at the steel factory? What are you doing here? Auntie, don't say I corrupted you, this has nothing to do with me!"

Chen Ergou looked at him warily.

Zhao Qingsong clicked his tongue, "There's even meat to eat, no wonder he's the boss of the railway."

There are certain rules to follow these days.

The railway is number one, electricity is number two, and oil is number three.

The nickname "Iron Boss" isn't just for show.

In this era of government-enterprise integration, the railway system possesses independent public security, procuratorial, judicial, scientific, educational, cultural, and health systems, giving it immense autonomy.

It is known for its high employee wages and good benefits.

Even in the city, it's considered an extremely secure job.

He then laughed and said, "My situation is special~"

Chen Ergou glanced around and said, "Are you missing anything? Don't worry, your brother's here. If you need any coupons in the future, just ask me, and I can get you any food."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Qingsong seemed to be deep in thought.

He had long wanted to find someone to help him with his business, and his previous plan was to find Brother Dong in the black market in the city.

Now that Chen Ergou has appeared, he has other plans in mind.

However, he still needs to consider it.

He asked, "Are you planning to do this all along, or are you just doing it on a small scale, making some food?"

"Hey, my dad's trying to get me a job. If it weren't to improve our lives, why would I do this? I don't want to go through the labor camp life anymore. I'll just do it occasionally to make enough to eat."

After Chen Ergou finished speaking, he threw the cigarette butt on the ground.

Zhao Qingsong nodded slightly upon hearing this, looked around, and said, "If you weren't going to be doing this all your life, I'd find you a more stable job."

Tell Chen Ergou to go directly to Dong Ge for the deal.

There's no need to go to the black market; this way it's safer and he doesn't have to run back and forth.

There are people to handle the collection of glass, fabric, and the like; the important thing is that this guy keeps his mouth shut.

The reason Zhang Xiulan was so afraid of Chen Ergou leading her astray was because this guy had actually taken her to the black market and they had even been caught once.

This guy got captured while trying to protect the original owner of the body.

They didn't expose him either.

It is relatively reliable.

Of course, people change. These days, the key is to catch thieves red-handed. With a safe space, you don't have to worry about any accidents happening.

With the addition of radar, the security is very high.

"Huh? You want me to find someone more reliable? Why?"

Chen Ergou was puzzled.

"Don't worry about that. Let's go exchange some things first. Whatever tickets you have, I'll buy them all."

"Wow, you've got some nerve! I have several tens of dollars worth of tickets here!"

"Come on, would I lie to you?"

Zhao Qingsong urged him to put on his mask and head towards the black market.

Seeing this, Chen Ergou had no choice but to follow.

Zhao Qingsong searched around, but his luck wasn't very good. He only found four pheasants, and he didn't know whether they were male or female, so he bought them anyway.

There were also three wild rabbits.

All of these were traded for grain.

It cost a total of 20 jin of coarse grains.

After finishing his business, he left the black market with Chen Ergou. He didn't buy anything else, as he wasn't particularly short of anything else.

I came here today to exchange some money.

He didn't like coming to the black market often.

……

On the main road outside the black market, Zhao Qingsong found an opportunity to quietly release his bicycle and push it out from a dark corner.

"What exactly do you want me to do? You've made me lose several dollars tonight!"

Chen Ergou watched him push the bike over, complaining before asking curiously, "You little rascal, you've bought a bicycle? Impressive!"

"No, it was borrowed!"

Zhao Qingsong explained briefly, then said, "Would I harm you? Get in the car!"

"oh!"

Seeing this, Chen Ergou agreed.

Zhao Qingsong rode his bicycle and took him straight to his neighborhood.

"Wait here for me a moment, I'll be right there."

The pheasant can't just be left there; Chen Ergou isn't suitable to be here.

He said hello and quietly returned home.

Back in the basement, they untied the rope, clipped the pheasant's feathers, and then threw it inside.

The livestock all look a bit listless.

After thinking about it, I prepared some medicine, diluted it with some water, and put it in the water dispenser.

He still has four bottles of the treatment medicine; using a little won't be a problem.

After you've finished, clap your hands. The temperature here is high, and with these pheasants, they'll probably start laying eggs in two or three days, then we won't be short of eggs.

He ignored the livestock, closed the door, and left.

……

After a while, they finally brought Chen Ergou back. Since they knew each other, even if Chen Ergou didn't know where his house was, they didn't care.

If something really happens, we can find out.

Chen Ergou followed him into the courtyard.

Once they reached the main room and the door closed, he finally spoke: "You don't sleep at the workplace? Why don't you stay in the dormitory? That's an apartment building! Although there are more people, it's more comfortable!"

Zhao Qingsong smiled nonchalantly: "It doesn't matter, I'm fine with staying anywhere! Let's go inside!"

After saying that, she led him into the inner room.

"My God, this...this is meat? Where did you get this?"

Seeing two large chunks of pork on the wooden planks laid on the ground made him open his mouth in surprise.

He squatted down and took a look.

Zhao Qingsong handed him a cigarette and said, "Don't worry about where this meat came from. I have my own channels. I called you over here for this. I have supplies, and I also have a safe channel in Beijing. I just need someone to deliver things there regularly. We're short one person. Are you in? Don't worry, I definitely won't treat you unfairly."

Chen Ergou did not answer.

Instead, he licked his lips and said, "Goodness, this meat is really rare! What price are you planning to sell it for? If you sell it cheaply, you'll lose money; if you sell it expensively, no one will buy it, and it will sell slowly. Why don't you give it to me, and I'll take care of it for you?"

Zhao Qingsong shook his head: "It's already taken, but they're short one person to deliver it. That person is called Brother Dong, and the transaction won't take place on the black market..."

I gave a brief overview of the situation.

"Just bring the goods to him directly, and you can trade them in that courtyard. Don't charge ten yuan per pound, eight yuan!"

"Eight yuan? That's a huge loss! We're losing two yuan per jin!"

Chen Ergou jumped up in anger.

Zhao Qingsong said directly, "Then let me ask you, even if pork appears on the black market, how long would it take to sell these 30 jin of pork?"

Chen Ergou, who frequented the black market, thought for a moment and said, "Nowadays, many people can't afford it, so they buy it by the ounce. It's rare to find someone buying it by the pound or several pounds. You might not even find one a month."

"That solves the problem. If I tried to sell just these 20 jin by myself, I don't know how long it would take! The important thing is that I have a supply chain, several hundred jin of which I have, and the supply keeps coming in."

"My goodness, several hundred pounds?"

Chen Ergou was no longer calm.

"No, buddy, come clean, what do you do? How come there are so many people here? You didn't start your own black market, did you? This job isn't easy!"

"What are you thinking! I know hunters in the mountains. They sold it to me, and I resold it for 7 yuan a pound. I make a 1 yuan profit on each resale. The main reason is the large quantity; otherwise, I wouldn't sell it at such a low price. Like you said, it's just for a meal; there's no need to take such risks. We should stick to stable channels."

Besides, if I ever need more tickets in the future, I can just go to Brother Dong directly. That's much safer!

Zhao Qingsong lit a cigarette, handed him another, and asked, "Will it work? Give me a straight answer!"

Chen Ergou thought for a moment and said, "Okay, let's do it. You tell me how!"

He also knew that Zhao Qingsong would not mistreat him.

Zhao Qingsong took a drag of his cigarette, exhaled the smoke, and pondered.

After a long while, he finally spoke: "From now on, I will ship the goods, and you will trade them. You will receive 10% of the profits. This 10% will be in the form of supplies. You can eat them yourself if you want, or you can exchange them for money if you prefer. It's up to you."

Don't bother running every day, one or two trips a week is enough, is that considered stable? The only problem is transportation.

They tentatively brought up the issue of transportation.

If we keep making him run around the city delivering goods, we might as well just go find Brother Dong to do the sales ourselves.

Hearing this, Chen Ergou thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll go to my dad. He found me a few jobs, like train conductor or purchasing at the railway station. I can ask him for a purchasing job. The railway system can't arbitrarily withhold purchasing information from local authorities. With that certificate, I can transport things openly and legally."

"I'll come once or twice a week then, is that alright?"

Zhao Qingsong's eyes lit up upon hearing this.

That's a good idea indeed. These days, the purchasing department has a heavy workload, but not just anyone can get in.

It seems that Er Gouzi's father is quite capable.

He then agreed: "Sure! But I'm making this clear! If either of us gets arrested, we can't betray anyone. If you get arrested, I won't admit it."

He has plenty of ways to avoid risks.

Putting everything else aside, with radar around, he can detect people hiding nearby, so he's not afraid of being ambushed.

"Hey, I didn't betray you when I was arrested back then. If you hadn't been such a coward, you wouldn't have starved to death later."

Chen Ergou was complaining there.