Chen Yang sat at the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative restaurant.
He put the basket down at his feet.
A short while later, someone came out from inside.
"Hey, hey, hey, go somewhere else if you're begging for food! Don't you know where you are?!"
The restaurant staff thought Chen Yang was a beggar and immediately tried to kick him out.
In that era,
supermarket and restaurant servers were incredibly powerful and influential.
However, Chen Yang was not intimidated at all.
Looking up, he saw that the waitress was a young woman with two braids, pretty features, and smooth, supple skin.
She looked good, except for some freckles on her face.
However, the other party was young after all. Compared to Chen Yang, a successful businessman who had been in the business world for many years, he was definitely superior in terms of aura.
"Hello, I'm a fellow villager here to sell local mountain products."
Chen Yang stood up, straightened his back, and gave a confident and appropriate smile.
The waitress was taken aback when she saw the man she had thought was a beggar turn out to be a well-dressed young man.
"Mountain products? What mountain products?"
The waitress's gaze fell on Chen Yang's basket.
Chen Yang then lifted the white cloth covering it.
"Hey, it's a rabbit!"
"It's a hare!" Chen Yang corrected her.
At the time, an ordinary meat rabbit could sell for 12-16 yuan, which was equivalent to half a month's wages for an average worker.
Wild rabbits, on the other hand, were priced even higher.
The guests entertained at the supply and marketing cooperative's restaurant were generally prominent figures.
Some guests liked to eat wild foods.
The waitress stared at the rabbit in Chen Yang's basket for a while, unsure of what to do, so she took a step back and softened her attitude towards him a little.
"I need to ask the head chef in the kitchen. Wait for me a moment... Hey, don't come in. You look like this, it'll cause a problem."
The waitress gave a brief instruction and then turned and went into the restaurant.
Not long after, a plump, middle-aged man with a dark blue apron tied around his waist was led out by the waitress, who walked with small, quick steps.
"Master Ye, a villager from the mountains brought a wild rabbit. Could you take a look at it?"
The plump middle-aged man's surname was Ye, and he was a chef at the supply and marketing cooperative's restaurant.
He walked over, glanced at Chen Yang, and then focused his attention on the basket at his feet.
"Bring it out and let's take a look."
"Good."
Chen Yang opened the basket on his feet, picked up the wild rabbit, and showed it to Master Ye.
Master Ye had actually been quite looking forward to it.
But when he saw the rabbit was motionless with blood blisters on its nose, he immediately frowned.
"Dead?"
"Yes, I killed it without holding back. But it is absolutely fresh – I just shot it last night."
Upon hearing Chen Yang's words, Master Ye curled his lip.
"You don't know anything!"
"People come here to eat mountain produce because they want it to be freshly killed and eaten, and you brought a dead one. How can that be the same?"
After saying that, Master Ye crossed his arms, lowered his head in thought, seemingly considering something.
Chen Yang also understood that people who ate mountain products were after freshness.
But there was nothing he could do.
He had used a crude method and only managed to catch one wild rabbit with great difficulty.
If he hadn't killed it on the spot, it would surely have escaped.
"Master Ye, right?"
Chen Yang looked at the fat chef with a smile.
"Even a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. If you think it's good, give me a price. I guarantee I'll deliver fresh mountain produce to you in the future."
Upon hearing this, Master Ye pointed a finger at Chen Yang and said to the waitress, "This kid speaks with conviction and seems quite reliable..."
"Then should I tell Manager Tian to withdraw some money from the account?"
"Done!"
How much money?
Upon hearing the waitress's question, Chen Yang immediately looked at Chef Ye.
Master Ye clicked his tongue, thought for a while, and then looked up and sized Chen Yang up and down.
Chen Yang wore a white undershirt, revealing a pair of muscular arms, looking like a young man who did manual labor in the mountains.
But Chen Yang, having lived two lives, exuded a calm and experienced demeanor.
He met the fat chef's scrutinizing gaze with neither arrogance nor servility, and smiled slightly.
Master Ye nodded silently and said to the waitress, "Give him eighteen yuan!"
Eighteen yuan?
Chen Yang was somewhat surprised.
He was no longer familiar with the market conditions back then, but he vaguely knew that the price was much higher than that of ordinary domestic rabbits.
So, there was a hint of secret delight amidst the surprise.
But Master Ye thought that Chen Yang thought the price was too low.
"Don't think the price is too low. Even if your rabbit is wild, it's already dead. It's not worth that much money. Take it or leave it!"
After finishing his sentence, Master Ye turned around impatiently to leave.
Chen Yang quickly stopped him and asked, "How much will you pay if it's alive?"
"Alive?"
Master Ye raised his eyebrows with utter disdain. "Live is good! As long as you give me live ones, I'll pay five yuan a pound! But you have to have them!"
The wild rabbit in Chen Yang's hand weighed at least five pounds.
That worked out to twenty-five yuan for a live wild rabbit.
Twenty-five yuan!
This was almost equivalent to a month's salary for an average worker in urban or rural areas.
Letting that sink in: eight lively wild rabbits would be enough to make up the 200 yuan bride price.
Thinking about it, it was not that difficult to achieve.
With confidence, Chen Yang immediately handed the rabbit to Master Ye.
"Okay, eighteen yuan it is. Remember me next time – I'll bring you live rabbits!"
State-owned enterprises are so generous.
Master Ye turned his head and carried the wild rabbit to the kitchen.
The waitress immediately counted out eighteen yuan and handed it to Chen Yang.
Chen Yang stuffed the money into the purse sewn under his waistband, slung his empty basket over his shoulder, and left the supply and marketing cooperative restaurant with a smile.
He was happy not only because he had earned eighteen yuan on his first day.
Most importantly, through today's transaction, he had reached a supply agreement with the supply and marketing cooperative restaurant, so he wouldn't have to worry about finding a place to sell his mountain products in the future.
With a "huge sum of money" in his pocket, Chen Yang did not immediately return to Niujiawan.
Logically, he should first raise 200 yuan to fulfill his promise to Lin Anyu.
But he also understood that he owed more than just Lin Anyu.
The karmic debts he had incurred for his parents in his previous life were no less than the pain he had caused Lin Anyu.
The family was so poor they couldn't even afford to eat.
The most urgent task was to supplement the family income.
So, Chen Yang turned back to the market.
In that era, having money didn't guarantee you could buy what you wanted.
So Chen Yang first went into an alley and used a special method to exchange some grain coupons and oil coupons.
Then he bought twenty catties of millet and ten catties of rapeseed and put them into a basket.
He would go back and process them into rice and oil himself.
Then he thought of his mother's old coat, which she had worn, patched and mended, for so many years and should be replaced.
So Chen Yang went to the mall again.
Damn it. To buy cloth, you not only needed cloth coupons, but you also had to pay cash.
A foot of cloth cost 30 cents, plus a cloth ticket per foot, so Chen Yang asked for two zhang of cloth in one go.
In total, including the cloth ration coupons, it cost almost ten yuan.
Chen Yang felt a pang of regret...