Courtyard House: Is Xu Damao a childless man? Let me help.

Well, Ye Jianchuan originally wanted to find some cotton to use, but if there was no cotton, he could buy a few quilts and take the cotton out to use later, which would not be bad.

Besides, Qin Huairu's side doesn't have anything at all. They definitely need something like blankets, so buying a few more to take back won't be a waste.

"Grandpa, how much are you planning to sell this quilt for?"

The old man looked up at Ye Jianchuan and then said, "I'm not selling this quilt, I'm just exchanging it for something."

Hearing the old man's slightly accented words, Ye Jianchuan wasn't surprised at all. "Exchange something? Sir, what would you like to exchange?"

"I need to exchange it for food. I don't have any food. I'll give you national food coupons if you want. If you don't have any food coupons, you can give me something else that can be exchanged for food coupons."

Upon hearing this, Ye Jianchuan was utterly speechless. What... how was this any different from selling it?

"No... I'll just give you cash. You can go find them and buy some national food coupons and other necessities yourself. Isn't that the same thing?"

Chapter Sixty: The Cunning Old Man

But the old man was very cunning. "That's different! If you give me money and I get caught, I'll be accused of speculation! If you give me tickets and I get caught, we'll be bartering, and the government won't make things difficult for us."

Ye Jianchuan was now at a loss for words. If you were really afraid of getting into trouble, why did you come to the Ghost Market?

However, since the old man had already said so, Ye Jianchuan was too lazy to dwell on it anymore. He briefly checked the items in his inventory and then spoke directly to the old man.

"Grandpa, how many kilograms of national grain coupons would you like to exchange for this quilt of yours? If the price is right, I'll trade with you!"

The old man wasn't in a hurry to quote a price. He looked Ye Jianchuan up and down, and then said, "Um, we have two kinds of blankets here, one weighing six jin and the other weighing eight jin."

"If it's six jin, you'll give me thirty jin of national grain coupons, okay? If it's eight jin, you'll give me forty jin of national grain coupons."

Ye Jianchuan curled his lip upon hearing the price, then turned and left without saying a word.

Good heavens, how dare he set such a price? Thirty catties of national grain coupons can be exchanged for about fifty or sixty catties of local grain coupons.

Local grain coupons were worth about 117 yuan per kilogram of grain, meaning that 30 kilograms of national grain coupons were equivalent to 30 kilograms of refined grains!

Thirty catties of fine grains are only worth a six-catty quilt? That price is outrageous! Ye Jianchuan wasn't willing to be ripped off, so he turned around and left.

The old man probably realized he was asking for too much. When he saw Ye Jianchuan turn around and leave without saying a word, he panicked and quickly grabbed Ye Jianchuan.

"Hey, young man, what's the rush? You're not happy with this price? Then name your price, and if it's reasonable, we can change it."

Ye Jianchuan turned around and said, "Sir, it's not that I don't want to buy, but the price you're offering is outrageous. I don't see any sincerity from you, so there's no need to continue the conversation. Otherwise, it would just be a waste of each other's time."

After saying that, Ye Jianchuan turned to leave again. This time, the old man got really anxious and quickly grabbed Ye Jianchuan's arm.

"Hey! Young man, why are you still so impatient? Well, I didn't know the price, so I just gave you a random one. If you're not satisfied, just name your price."

"You're the one who told me to name my price. If I name a price and you think it's too low, don't get angry!"

The old man nodded, and Ye Jianchuan no longer hesitated, offering a very low price: "It's still 30 jin of national grain coupons, but I want two 8-jin quilts from you."

Now it was the old man's turn to complain, since the price was too low; two quilts cost sixteen pounds of cotton!

Although cotton is not for eating, it is the first of the four major aspects of people's livelihood—clothing, food, housing, and transportation—and is a part of clothing.

Although cotton is made into quilts, cotton is still cotton, and that will never change.

Based on the usual market price, about one pound of cotton can be exchanged for two or three pounds of grain. The price Ye Jianchuan offered, thirty pounds of national grain coupons, should be easily exchanged for thirty pounds of grain.

Thirty catties of grain in exchange for sixteen catties of cotton was much lower than the usual market price, so the old man was naturally not happy about it.

Seeing the old man shake his head, Ye Jianchuan spoke again, "You see, if I deliberately set a lower price, you wouldn't be happy, would you?"

If you ask me, let's be honest and agree on a price that we can both accept. If it works, great; if not, forget it!

If you agree, just nod, and I'll renegotiate the price, okay?

The old man paused for a moment, then spoke again, "Alright, name your price!"

Ye Jianchuan quickly estimated the price in his mind, and then said, "How about this, still 30 jin of national grain coupons, I want an 8-jin quilt and (blank) 698925850 one 6-jin quilt."

I'll also give you half a pound of meat coupons, is that alright?

Upon hearing the first part of the sentence, the old man was about to shake his head, but when he heard that half a pound of meat coupons had been added, he hesitated again.

Although Ye Jianchuan's price didn't seem to be much higher than the previous price, the difference between getting two fewer catties of cotton and getting half a catty of meat coupons was actually quite significant.

After hesitating for a moment, the old man finally nodded in agreement, "Alright, this price is acceptable!"

As he spoke, the old man picked out two quilts from the large baskets behind him. Ye Jianchuan took them and weighed them in his hands. Then he looked at the cotton in the quilts and found that the cotton was actually new cotton!

Ye Jianchuan got a little excited. He took out the thirty catties of national grain coupons and half a catty of meat coupons he had just promised, and continued to ask questions.

"Grandpa, this cotton looks new. Could you tell me where you got it from?"

Upon hearing this, the old man looked at Ye Jianchuan with suspicion. "What do you want? I brought this quilt from home. Are you going to sell it or not?"

As he spoke, the old man began to shrink back, as if he was about to run away with his belongings if Ye Jianchuan said anything even slightly wrong.

Seeing the old man's cowardly appearance, Ye Jianchuan couldn't help but find it amusing. However, in this day and age, if you commit a crime, you'll carry that stain for the rest of your life.

So it's understandable that he had to be careful, and with no other choice, Ye Jianchuan had to explain again.

"Grandpa, don't get agitated. I just want to get some cotton to make clothes. If you have any more, I'd like to exchange some with you. If not, then forget it."

Upon hearing this, the old man immediately felt relieved. "You should have said so earlier! The cotton tree was all beaten into a quilt by me."

Ye Jianchuan was slightly disappointed after hearing this, but since these quilts were made from new cotton, it seemed like a good idea to buy more quilts.

So Ye Jianchuan handed the old man the grain coupons and meat coupons in his hand, and then spoke again.

"Alright, sir, I'll give you the tickets for these two quilts first. My friend is over there, I'll go ask him for some more tickets, and then I'll come back to exchange quilts with you later, is that alright?"

It wasn't that Ye Jianchuan didn't want to continue the transaction now, but rather that he didn't have enough national food coupons!

Although the system has been rewarding me with a lot of national food coupons, didn't I impulsively sell some yesterday?

Now, things are even worse; when we need them, we have to spend even more money to buy them back from scalpers.

Chapter 61 The police are here to snatch someone? Good news!

The old man didn't agree to Ye Jianchuan's words, but waved his hand at Ye Jianchuan instead.

"Go ahead, I'm in this place anyway. If you come quickly, I'll switch places with you. But if someone else comes, I won't let you stay."

Ye Jianchuan didn't care, as long as you were still here. He nodded and turned to walk towards the ticket scalper he had seen earlier.

After spending money to get another 60 jin of national grain coupons from the ticket scalper, and while he was at it, he found a place to stuff the two quilts he was carrying into his storage space before returning to the old man's stall.

And you know what? These new cotton quilts are really selling well. I've only been gone for a dozen minutes, and the old man has already replaced two more quilts.

Ye Jianchuan didn't waste any more time. He took out the tickets and handed them over. "Grandpa, I'd like two more quilts weighing six jin each and two more quilts weighing eight jin each. Here are sixty jin of national grain coupons and one jin of meat coupon. Can you take a look?"

The old man took the ticket and looked at it, then turned around and rummaged through his baskets and pulled out four quilts.

Now that Ye Jianchuan had achieved his goal for coming out tonight, he didn't want to waste any more time. He found a corner, packed up the blanket, and headed straight for the courtyard house.

When Ye Jianchuan got home, it was almost 1 a.m. He tidied up a bit and then went straight to bed.

Ye Jianchuan slept until six o'clock in the morning. He got up and rummaged through his chicken coop, finding several eggs.

Then he rummaged through his storage compartment and pulled out the pork fat and other things he had bought early yesterday morning.

Ye Jianchuan originally planned to render the lard when he came back last night, but then Xiao Dang and Huaihua were kidnapped, and Qin Huairu was making a fuss about splitting up the family business, so he didn't have time to render the lard and forgot about it.

But it didn't matter, since this stuff was used to render lard anyway, and it wouldn't spoil after just one day, so Ye Jianchuan could only make do with the method of rendering lard with water and started rendering lard at home.

Of course, to mask the smell, Ye Jianchuan also put two bay leaves and a star anise into the pot. He also sprinkled a small layer of Sichuan peppercorns into the enamel basin containing the lard, which at least reduced the smell of the lard.

Ye Jianchuan worked until after seven o'clock in the morning before heading to the food factory to prepare for the day's work.

. . . . . .

Ye Jianchuan originally thought that today would be another ordinary day. He worked at the food factory all morning and ate something in the canteen at noon.

Back in the workshop, Ye Jianchuan was about to take a short rest when, unexpectedly, Director Zhou's secretary came to him.

"Xiao Ye, Director Zhou is looking for you. You should go to his office right away."

"Brother Yang? When did you get back? Uncle Zhou wants to see me."

Not long after Ye Jianchuan joined the company, Secretary Yang took a long leave to attend the funeral of an elder in his hometown, so for nearly a month, Director Zhou did not have a secretary with him.

So when Secretary Yang suddenly returned, Ye Jianchuan was caught off guard.

"Hey, stop talking about me. You should go to the factory manager's office first. Manager Zhou wants to see you on something good! We'll have plenty of opportunities to chat later!"

Ye Jianchuan didn't seem to care much. Since they were urging him so urgently, he figured he might as well go and make the trip.

So Ye Jianchuan quickly arrived at Director Zhou's office, knocked on the door, and then pushed it open and went in.

However, upon entering, Ye Jianchuan discovered that the office was not only occupied by Director Zhou, but also by another face that looked very familiar.

Upon closer inspection, Ye Jianchuan realized that this was the same old policeman from yesterday! It was he who had arranged for Officer Liu to escort him and the two young girls back to the courtyard yesterday!

At this moment, Director Zhou and the old policeman were chatting and laughing when they saw Ye Jianchuan come in. Director Zhou actually stood up on his own initiative.

"Xiao Ye! I didn't expect you to be such a kind-hearted person! Not bad, not bad! You're quite like your father back in the day! You should have met this man yesterday, right? He's Captain Long from the Municipal Bureau, quickly call him over."

Ye Jianchuan was quick-witted and immediately stepped forward to greet him, "Hello, Uncle Long!"

Captain Long nodded, then turned to look at Factory Director Zhou. "To be honest, if he weren't from your food factory, I would have dragged him to our municipal bureau no matter what."

You wouldn't believe it, yesterday this kid took on two people single-handedly and beat those two human traffickers so badly that one suffered a concussion and a broken sternum, and the other was left childless!

2.20523149nei skirt

With that kind of courage and skill, it's a real waste to have him working in your food factory.

Factory Director Zhou smiled and pointed at Captain Long with his finger, then said, "You, you, you see someone with good skills and you just want to recruit them into your police force without even asking if they want to!"

Besides, Xiao Ye isn't just strong; he's also very intelligent. Do you know who designed the new product our food factory just got approved for? It was Xiao Ye!

Captain Long was taken aback upon hearing this. "So, Xiao Ye really is a man of both literary and martial talents? Then I'm even more interested in him!"

As he spoke, Captain Long stood up, walked to Ye Jianchuan's side, and said, "Little Ye, I see that you are quite skilled, brave and resourceful, and have the makings of a good police officer."

. . ......

"So? Interested in developing your career in our municipal bureau?"