Back to 1978: Getting rich starts with treasure hunting

"Cousin Lin Shu, why do you want to go to the county town? Is there anything you want to buy?"

Liu Xiao'e opposed Lin Shu going to the county town in the afternoon, but Lin Shu insisted, and she had no choice but to let Ding Zaichun accompany her.

In fact, since he didn't have to work and could go to the county town for a stroll, Ding Zaichun was very happy to accompany him.

So Ding Zaichun borrowed a bicycle from the village committee and rushed to the county town with Lin Shu.

It usually takes about an hour to walk the ten-mile distance, or half an hour to ride a bicycle, which means an hour round trip. It is not yet two o'clock, so they can still spend three or four hours wandering around the county.

Lin Shu sat in the back seat, looking at the scenery on the roadside, and said with a smile: "You know how far our village is from the county town. It is not easy to come to the county town. Since I am here at your house this time, I might as well go to the county town to take a look while I have time and buy something I need."

Ding Zaichun thought about how far Xiaohe Village was from the county seat, and felt worried. "My cousin is right. Now that I'm here, I'll take a closer look."

"Cousin, do you think people in the county are short of food and vegetables?"

"Food is rationed, and vegetables are grown in rural areas. Even many people in the county are actually villagers. They also have land outside the county. Any leftover vegetables can be exchanged with county officials."

Lin Shu nodded, actually he was a villager from the urban village.

The county town of that era only had a few main streets, and the rest of the place was where residents of the urban villages lived.

"Cousin, what should we do if the people in the county don't have enough food? Is there a black market in the city?"

"black market?"

“It’s an underground trading market.”

Ding Zaichun hesitated for a moment, "Yes, there is, but... it's dangerous there too. If someone catches you, it will be troublesome. Do you want to buy something there?"

"I want to go and have a look, cousin Chun, please take me around later."

Lin Shu lowered her head to check the system. The current balance was 223 yuan. She dug herbs in Dingjia Village at noon and sold them for 8 yuan. She wanted to buy some rice or flour from the system and sell them on the black market to see if she could exchange them for some tickets.

After Ding Zaichun took her to the black market, Lin Shu asked about the prices of rice and flour.

The price of rice at the grain station is 0.138 yuan per catty, and the price of first-grade flour is 0.24 yuan per catty.

On the black market, rice costs only 0.25 yuan per pound, and first-grade flour costs 0.35 yuan per pound.

Selling a pound of grain on the black market can make a profit of about 1 cent.

Lin Shu asked Ding Zaichun to wait for her at the door of the supply and marketing cooperative, while she took out 50 kilograms of rice from the system and moved it to the black market.

The price can be settled according to the price of the grain station, but she exchanged a lot of tickets with others, such as industrial coupons and cloth coupons.

The balance in the system can be withdrawn, prices are synchronized with real life, and she can make money by digging herbs in the wild. The only drawback is that the mall has too few types of goods.

In real life, if Lin Shu wanted to buy other supplies, he had to go to the black market to find someone to exchange tickets, and then go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy them.

After coming out of the black market, I rushed to the supply and marketing cooperative and saw Ding Zaichun standing outside the gate of the supply and marketing cooperative and talking to someone from afar.

"Cousin Haru."

"Lin Shu, you're back. Let me introduce you. This is my former elementary school classmate Xu Ming, who now works at the county power supply station."

Xu Ming is about 1.75 meters tall, with small eyes, single eyelids, a big nose, and a loud voice. He smiled and punched Ding Zaichun, "Brother, is this your cousin? How come you haven't heard of such a beautiful cousin before?"

Ding Zaichun covered the place where he had hit her, and said helplessly: "As your classmate, I don't have the obligation to report all the relatives' situations to you, right?"

Then he turned to look at Lin Shu: "My cousin, Lin Shu."

"Hello, cousin. I'm glad to meet you today. If you have any trouble coming to the county town in the future, please find me, your cousin."

Lin Shu stretched out his hand and shook his hand: "Please take good care of me in the future, Cousin Ming."

"Haha..." Xu Ming pointed at Lin Shu and said to Ding Zaichun, "Zaichun, I like your cousin's personality."

Lin Shu smiled.

Ding Zaichun pushed him and said, "You said you were going to the city to pick someone up, why aren't you leaving yet?"

Xu Ming smiled and nodded: "Yes, yes, yes, I still have to go to the city, so I won't talk to you for more. Next time you have a chance to come to the county, I will treat you. Cousin, next time you come, remember to find cousin Ming at the county power supply station. Cousin will treat you to a meal at the state-owned restaurant."

Lin Shu smiled and nodded. He definitely wouldn't look for her if there was nothing wrong.

After Xu Ming left, Ding Zaichun turned around and asked, "Do you want to go inside to buy something?"

"Let's go in and take a look." As he said that, Lin Shu walked into the supply and marketing cooperative first.

The supply and marketing cooperatives in the county town are built with red bricks and red tiles. The tiles are the twenty-by-thirty kind. They look very elegant on the roof and are not comparable to the small black tiles used to build houses in the countryside.

The interior area is very spacious. There is a row of counters as soon as you enter the door. There are many goods on the counters and on the shelves behind them.

"What do you want to buy?"

"I want to buy everything. There is nothing missing at home."

Lin Shu was telling the truth. The thermos bottles on the shelves were out of stock at home, as were the rubber shoes, umbrellas, cloth, rubber shoes, basins and buckets, biscuits and grains...

Ding Zaichun resisted the urge to roll his eyes after hearing this. "Every family needs things. We just need to buy the most important things. Also, did you get anything from the black market just now?"

Lin Shu took out a stack of tickets from his pocket and said proudly, "Look what this is?"

"These are not cheap. How much money did your third aunt give you?" Ding Zaichun asked in surprise.

Lin Shu held out a hand: "Five dollars, the rest is my private money."

Comrade Liu Xiao'e, knowing that Lin Shu had to come to the county town, gave her five yuan. However, five yuan had strong purchasing power, but Lin Shu had no coupons and could not spend the money.

Fortunately, she was smart and went to the black market to exchange the tickets first.

Ding Zaichun swallowed and looked at the tickets with envy. He felt that his cousin had a misunderstanding about private money. If it were young people from the countryside like them, who would have so much private money?

I also took the money to exchange tickets on the black market. You have to know that everything on the black market is expensive and not affordable for ordinary people.

"Cousin, I think Third Aunt is so good to you that she allows you to save some private money. My mother is not as generous as your mother. Can you tell me how you save it?"

"Haha, this, this cannot be told." Lin Shu would not be fooled. He could not tell anyone that he could dig herbs and sell them for the time being.

After the reform and opening up in the future, maybe I can ask this cousin to help me dig herbs.

The two walked to the cloth counter, and Lin Shu pointed at the floral cotton cloth and asked the salesperson: "Comrade, how much cloth do you need to make a piece of clothing?"

The salesperson looked up at her and said, "It depends on whether you want long sleeves or short sleeves. This kind of fabric is 1.5 meters wide. For someone like you who is about 1.3 meters tall, you need to add a little more to make it 1.5 meters tall for long sleeves."

"Then cut me three meters of this blue floral fabric, three meters of the one with small yellow dots, and one and a half meters of this dark blue one."

Ding Zaichun was standing behind and was frightened when he heard the number reported by Lin Shu. It would take a lot of cloth coupons to buy so much cloth.

The salesperson was also surprised, but faced with such a situation, she took the receipt and issued an invoice first, and then asked Lin Shu to pay.

Lin Shu did not point out the salesperson's little trick, smiled and took the receipt and paid.

After Lin Shu came back with the stamped bill, he touched his nose awkwardly and started cutting cloth for her.

Lin Shu bought the cloth, then went to buy a few pounds of wool, and finally went to the food counter to weigh a pound of sugar.

Coming out of the supply and marketing cooperative, Ding Zaichun said with lingering fear: "Cousin, you have a lot of private money. You can buy so many things. How are you going to explain to Auntie San when you go back? Will she scold you?"

Lin Shu peeled a piece of candy and stuffed it into his mouth. "I didn't spend money recklessly. These fabrics are for making summer clothes for my mom, dad and me. The wool is cheap in the summer, and it's easy to exchange wool tickets on the black market now."

Life is difficult at present, and people of this generation may not realize the need to stock up for the change of seasons. Or perhaps people of this generation realize it but just don’t have extra money to buy supplies for the change of seasons.

After being reborn, Lin Shu wanted to make his life easier and be better to himself. Now that he had money, of course he wanted to buy himself some clothes.

I looked down at my patched clothes. I couldn't go visit relatives without a decent piece of clothing. Of course I had to treat myself well after being reborn.