My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 29 Lin Ying's Worries

Lin Ying knew perfectly well that both the sale of tea eggs and the sale of old hens were temporary, and they couldn't continue doing this business indefinitely.

Even if this business is very profitable, the profits are limited. Perhaps the money they earn now is much better than that of ordinary people, but this is based on working extremely hard from dawn till dusk. In addition, the situation in society is still very volatile. Although the market has been relaxed, it is still a long way from truly allowing individual business and individual operators. To put it bluntly, their business is not legal and is merely skirting the law.

Putting everything else aside, the household registration issue is a huge problem.

Neither Zhou Jiye nor Lin Ying have Shanghai residency. They are currently staying in Shanghai using their letters of introduction, but these are only for emergencies and cannot be used long-term. In addition, these letters of introduction have an expiration date. Even if they obtain a new letter of introduction through Zhou Furong's connections, it will be exposed if they are not carefully checked.

Putting everything else aside, the fact that a young couple from out of town, on business, have stayed in Shanghai for an extended period and even started a small business is hard to explain. The current household registration system is very strict; if the relevant departments investigate, not only will they be sent back to Northwest China, but Zhou Furong, who helped them obtain the letter of introduction, will also be in serious trouble.

Moreover, their current living conditions are not satisfactory. Although they pay an extra yuan in rent and occasionally give their landlady, Aunt Wang, a few tea eggs to try, hoping that Aunt Wang will turn a blind eye to their situation, people's hearts are unpredictable.

Aunt Wang knew very well that Lin Ying was selling tea eggs, and she probably wouldn't be able to hide Zhou Jiye selling old hens at the market from her either.

Aunt Wang is a shrewd woman. Although Lin Ying kept telling her that they didn't earn much from selling tea eggs, barely making ends meet, those words only fooled outsiders. Aunt Wang wasn't stupid. Living under the same roof, did she not see how many tea eggs Lin Ying cooked every day? How much does an egg cost? How much can a tea egg sell for? Even elementary school students can do such simple math problems. Wouldn't Aunt Wang understand?

People! What's truly frightening is when greed takes hold, especially since they already have issues with their social status. Aunt Wang is treating them fairly well now, and they're always polite when she sees them, but as time goes on, it's hard to guarantee they won't develop other intentions.

Lin Ying just asked Zhou Jiye to change the time he goes to the suburbs to collect the old hens and eggs, so that it would be done in the early morning every day. This was partly to make the arrangement more reasonable from a business perspective, and partly to take care of Aunt Wang.

If Zhou Jiye had followed his original plan, the hens collected each day would have had to be left downstairs. Hens are live animals; there's no way to hide them. Aunt Wang would see them immediately when she came home. It might be one thing if it happened only once in a while, but doing it every day, wouldn't Aunt Wang have some complaints? Everyone has their own selfish desires, and besides, if too many hens were collected, leaving them like that wouldn't be appropriate. This was the main reason Lin Ying specifically suggested collecting them at dawn and selling them all that day.

In addition, there's the issue of her setting up a stall near the movie theater. With more and more educated youth returning to the city, most of these young people are unemployed, and many are idle every day, wandering around the streets, gradually becoming a destabilizing factor.

These days, there have been some unpleasant signs outside, which Lin Ying, who runs a stall, has especially felt. Every day she sees groups of young people wandering around, especially in crowded and lively places like the entrance to movie theaters, and there have even been several fights and even robberies.

Fortunately, Lin Ying had paid the rent to the movie theater, and her stall was right next to the ticket office. If she had moved to another location, there was a chance that people would come and buy tea eggs without paying. She earns her tea eggs through hard work; how much can she make from one tea egg? If this happened frequently, she would be lucky to break even, let alone make a profit.

What's worse, because of their identities, they can't do anything about the other party. Once they report it to the police, their identities will be exposed, and they'll only get themselves into trouble. Lin Ying is very troubled by this. Despite her usual composed demeanor, she's always uneasy inside.

Another thing that worried Lin Ying was whether setting up a stall at the movie theater would be sustainable. Despite the current situation, who could predict the future? Neither Zhou Jiye nor Lin Ying had any relatives or friends in Shanghai, and the movie theater was merely a temporary rental space negotiated with Director Liu; there was no formal agreement, only a verbal one.

On someone else's turf, they can be kicked out anytime, anywhere if things change. Once the stall in front of the movie theater is gone, Lin Ying will have to find another place to sell tea eggs, and whether the business in the new place can maintain the same level of success or even remain stable is unknown. There are just too many variables involved.

These feelings of crisis had been building up in Lin Ying's heart. Although she had never mentioned it to Zhou Jiye, she had been secretly making preparations for it for a long time.

There aren't many good options right now, so Lin Ying can only think of taking things one step at a time and try to earn as much as possible during this period. As long as she has money in hand, she can try to accumulate some initial capital by selling tea eggs, so that if this business doesn't work out in the future, she can switch to another business.

This was also the main reason why Lin Ying decisively supported Zhou Jiye's plan to buy and sell old hens. Selling tea eggs on her own was barely enough; Zhou Jiye selling old hens at the market was a viable business, and judging from today's situation, it seemed promising—if done well, it might be just as good as selling tea eggs.

"Just hang in there, maybe things will get better in a few months."

Lin Ying told herself this, secretly encouraging herself. She turned her head to look at Zhou Jiye, who was already fast asleep, and a smile gradually appeared on her face.

Lin Ying leaned closer to Zhou Jiye, who was still asleep. Zhou Jiye instinctively reached out and hugged Lin Ying. Feeling the warmth and security in her embrace, Lin Ying relaxed a lot and snuggled into Zhou Jiye's arms like a kitten. She soon fell into a deep sleep as well.

Starting the next day, Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying adjusted their division of labor according to what they had discussed the night before.

Zhou Jiye gets up early every day at dawn and rides his bicycle to the suburbs.

When he arrived there around 5:30, the villagers had already started their new day. Zhou Jiye, who had been there many times, knew the way well and went door-to-door to buy eggs and old hens. Although most people were a little surprised that Zhou Jiye had come so early, they readily accepted it after hearing his explanation. In any case, it was actually advantageous for them that Zhou Jiye came early. He could sell the eggs in the henhouse before going to work in the fields, and if there were any extra old hens, he could sell them to the other party. Why not?

Remembering Lin Ying's instructions, Zhou Jiye specifically mentioned his hope for centralized and unified purchasing in the future, and asked the farmers he knew. They smiled and said it was no big deal; if Zhou Jiye trusted them, they could arrange a time and place, and bring their produce to him for centralized purchasing at the agreed time.

This would save a lot of time, and Zhou Jiye thought it was a good idea, so he immediately agreed. That day, he went around to several production brigades, told each of them about the situation, and arranged for them to purchase the goods at regular intervals, every few days. Today he would go to Guilin Brigade, tomorrow to Huayi Brigade, and the day after tomorrow to Huaer Brigade. He would complete a round trip in a week, which would be convenient for him and everyone else.

Because he had visited many places that day, Zhou Jiye bought sixteen old hens and over fifty kilograms of eggs in one go. He only stopped buying more because his bicycle was too heavy to carry all the goods. After much persuasion, he finally agreed to come back another time. Carrying his purchases, Zhou Jiye rode his bicycle back home. By the time he returned, the morning rush hour was almost over. Although there were still many bicycles on the road, there were far fewer than half an hour earlier.

When we got home, we first carried the eggs upstairs, and then pushed the old hen we had bought to the market.

As soon as he arrived at his stall, Lao Wen, who had been eagerly waiting, greeted him warmly. Zhou Jiye smiled and nodded at him, then pointed at the basket of chickens and Lao Wen. Upon seeing this, Lao Wen grinned.

Perhaps because he had set up his stall yesterday, Zhou Jiye's business went smoothly again today. In addition, old hens are a rare commodity, and the hens Zhou Jiye was selling were all freshly acquired and very lively. He had barely unloaded the chicken coop from his bicycle when a customer arrived. The customer looked at the hens in the coop and immediately asked the price. Zhou Jiye used the same sales pitch as yesterday, and after a few words, the customer smiled and chose an old hen.

Zhou Jiye skillfully weighed the chickens and collected the money. After the transaction was completed, he deliberately pointed in Lao Wen's direction and told him that Lao Wen could help kill chickens. If he didn't know how to kill them or was too lazy to go back and do it, he could ask Lao Wen to do it. His prices were not expensive; it would only cost one cent to kill a chicken.

Hearing this, the customer who wanted to buy the chicken was very happy, saying that this was a good idea, and immediately took the chicken to Lao Wen's stall. It's unclear what she said to Lao Wen, but after a few words, she handed the chicken to him.

After taking the chicken, Lao Wen immediately started working on it without saying a word. He performed a series of smooth steps: killing the chicken, bleeding it, scalding it, plucking its feathers, opening its cavity, and cleaning it.

In just over ten minutes, the chicken was done. Old Wen stuffed the gizzards and other parts the customer wanted into the chicken's belly, and threw the remaining chicken intestines and other unwanted parts into a wooden bucket that had been prepared beforehand. He took the one-cent fee, smiled, and sent the satisfied customer away.

Of course, not everyone who buys chickens wants them slaughtered. Some people know how to slaughter them themselves and are concerned about the one cent fee, so they don't bother Lao Wen. Others plan to raise the chickens at home for a few days before slaughtering them, so they don't need this service either. Overall, those who want their chickens slaughtered and those who don't are about half and half. From morning until almost noon, Zhou Jiye sold all sixteen old hens he had bought that day, earning a full seventeen yuan from them.

(End of this chapter)