T/N: Hello Jyzciel here

I have receive my first ever donation on Ko-Fi!! Yet

Thus! I'm going to triple the update this week. To thank this people who is out to support someone like me!

Dedication to Alicia, A Triple bonus Week!

Last time Zhou Cheng had taken her by bicycle, so Xia Xiaolan hadn’t realized just how exhausting the ride to Shangdu City was.

Ever since she arrived in 1983, fatigue had become her normal state. Yesterday she hadn’t gone into the city. Instead, she rode through more than twenty villages and collected over fifty jin of eels.

Today’s task was to sell the yellow eels, along with the several hundred eggs she’d brought into town along the way.

The busiest days of the rice harvest were over. Fewer and fewer people were willing to sell eggs to her. Besides, using Qijing Village as her center, she had already swept through every village within dozens of li again and again like casting a net. Villagers needed time to accumulate eggs.

Once she sold these few hundred eggs, she could focus solely on reselling eels. Unlike eggs, eels were already fully grown just waiting to be caught in paddy fields and ditches. But as she thought about it, she wondered, it wasn’t cost-effective to ride into Shangdu City with two full baskets and return empty-handed. Could she bring goods back from the city to sell in the countryside?

The problem was that rural purchasing power was painfully weak. Apart from necessities like oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, villagers clutched every penny tightly.

If they could avoid spending, they would. In fact, some households didn’t even buy cooking oil. For some families, the only money they spent all year was on salt. They could live without soy sauce or vinegar, even oil. But without salt, they’d have no strength.

What could she bring back that would make farmers willing to part with their money?

Marketing wisdom in later years would say that women and children were the easiest consumers to target. But now, women hardly dressed up, and children ran around in packs, largely left to themselves. Family planning had only just begun. Which household didn’t have several children? Only an only child was precious.

In big families, feeding everyone was already good enough, there was no spare money to spend on children. That was why Tao Tao’s new schoolbag drew envious looks from classmates, their families couldn’t bear to spend that much.

Children’s clothes were out of the question.

The older child’s garments were passed down to the younger ones. A single outfit could circulate like a family heirloom for years, until it was worn beyond repair.

Xia Xiaolan thought and thought but found no clear direction. Pedaling on, she returned to the first shop that sold shredded eel noodles.

“Comrade, do you need eels today?”

She tried to sound serious, but her naturally soft, sweet voice carried clearly. Before the shop owner even appeared, every customer eating noodles turned to look at her.

Youth healed quickly. The wound on Xia Xiaolan’s forehead had long since scabbed and fallen away, leaving only a faint pink mark. Though she wore no makeup, she was clean and neatly dressed already rare enough to be strikingly beautiful.

She waited a moment. But the person who emerged was not the boss who had bought eels from her before.

It was a middle-aged woman, her tone unfriendly.

“We’re not buying eels. Our shop has a regular supplier. Don’t come again.”

“But—”

“I said we’re not buying! Why can’t you understand plain speech? We don’t want your eels!”

Her harsh tone made the noodle shop customers uneasy.

“If you’re not buying, just say so nicely.”

“With a voice like that, you’ll scare the young lady!”

“Someone spilled the vinegar at home, huh?”

The woman didn’t argue with the customers. From the kitchen came a loud clatter of pots and pans.

Xia Xiaolan understood. This must be the boss’s wife. The other day she had thought the owner was honest and straightforward she hadn’t expected the wife to overturn a vinegar jar out of jealousy.

Xia Xiaolan felt deeply wronged, but if she quarreled here, how could she continue doing business in this area?

Unlucky beyond words.

She maintained her composure, though her expression shifted slightly.

As she pushed her bicycle to leave, the eel noodle shop owner rushed out.

“I’m terribly sorry. You see how unreasonable my wife is…”

“The shop doesn’t dare buy your eels anymore. But I have a relative in charge of procurement at the Municipal Party Committee Guesthouse. His name is Hu Yongcai. If you’re willing to try, just say Hu Zhuliang sent you.”

Boss Hu felt ashamed. His wife had embarrassed Xia Xiaolan in public. Someone with a temper might have made a scene. It was rare that Xia Xiaolan didn’t argue, but they couldn’t bully her too much.

The Municipal Party Committee Guesthouse?

Official institutions weren’t easy to deal with. But if it worked out, it could become a long-term partner.

“Thank you, Boss Hu!”

Xia Xiaolan expressed her gratitude. Hu Zhuliang didn’t dare linger, his wife was throwing another fit inside.

She didn’t head straight to the guesthouse.

It wasn’t that she doubted Boss Hu’s introduction. But after asking around, she learned that despite its grand name, the Municipal Guesthouse wasn’t in the city center at all... it was in the western outskirts.

Who knew what the city leaders had been thinking, building it so far away?

Instead, she returned to the agricultural market where she had sold goods before. She had come early today, and it was already busy. After paying the management fee and securing a small spot, she set up her sign, and customers soon approached. Her appearance was unforgettable, some shoppers even remembered her. Someone even asked why her boyfriend hadn’t come today.

Xia Xiaolan responded to such questions with nothing but a polite smile.

“Can you make the eels cheaper?”

“One jin—just one jin!. But make sure the scale is honest!”

Business picked up quickly. Shoppers crowded around her, talking over one another. Some wanted things weighed, others needed change. Some bought eggs, others eels. Anyone even slightly slow would have been overwhelmed. She worked nonstop for two hours, her clothes soaked through with sweat before she finally caught a break.

After two solid hours, her clothes were soaked through with sweat before she finally caught a breather.

Most customers were buying for home consumption, bulk buyers were rare. She still had over a hundred eggs and more than twenty jin of eels left.

The agricultural market sold all kinds of goods. What sold well were either daily necessities or rare items like the eels brought from the countryside. If she had brought leafy greens instead, selling for a few cents per jin, the effort wouldn’t have been worth it.

After persisting a while longer, she still had some eggs and eels unsold. Retailing like this every day was risky. She still wanted to find someone who could purchase in bulk.

Remembering Boss Hu’s words, she decided to try the Municipal Party Committee Guesthouse. Someone in charge of purchasing there might not buy huge quantities, but he would certainly know others in the trade.

The 1980s were an era thick with personal connections. If she could build a relationship with Hu Yongcai, she might open not just one market, but many.

Xia Xiaolan prepared to deploy the sugar-coated tactics she had learned from running sales in her later life. Gift-giving required strategy.

For a man, cigarettes and alcohol were always safe choices.

The most prestigious liquors were undoubtedly Moutai and Wuliangye. But leaving aside the price, these were special-supply liquors allocated to officials. Even with money in hand, she wouldn’t be able to touch a bottle.

They were simply unavailable.

As for cigarettes, Shangdu Cigarette Factory produced Golden Leaf, Sanhua, and Colorful Butterfly.

Golden Leaf was a Grade B cigarette for ordinary smokers.

Sanhua was a premium Grade A Special cigarette used for leaders and official meetings.

Colorful Butterfly fell in between Grade A, retailing at 0.35 yuan per pack. Xia Xiaolan thought it would be appropriate for Boss Hu’s relative.

But reality slapped her in the face.

When she asked to buy a carton of Colorful Butterfly, the clerk looked at her as if she were an idiot.

“A carton? We don’t have that. Even if you want to buy more than two packs, you need an official purchase slip!”