Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space-Chapter 364 - 277: Early Morning Outing (Part 2)

After getting off the car, he ran to discuss with Zhao Dashan. In the end, both of them looked at the nearby village beside the dirt road and decided to wait in place for someone to guide them.

It didn’t take long before they saw people passing by one after another. Zhang Guoqing picked two villagers, and after some communication and conversation, they finally met a villager from the village they wanted to go to.

Faced with the enthusiastic guiding gestures from the other party, Zhang Guoqing invited him into the car to lead the way, and the surprised man quickly got in.

With the person’s guidance, everyone quickly arrived at the village.

Zhao Dashan and Zhang Guoqing left the women behind and, with the villager, found Captain Liu.

Captain Liu learned that they were the families of Liu Sanyuan and Zhou Xiaozheng. He quickly gave a few instructions to the villagers and took them to the dirt road side, inviting Cheng Hongli and the others to come home with him.

Once at Captain Liu’s house, after everyone was seated, the captain curiously asked what brought them here this time. Jokingly, he asked if it was the same as last time with the intention of buying grain.

Zhao Dashan nodded and praised the other’s sharp eyes.

Captain Liu looked at the group in surprise. He really didn’t expect they would have consumed so much fine grain.

He thought for a moment and said, "We don’t have much left for the end of the year here. I’ll ask around to see whose family is reluctant to eat fine grain and maybe gather some for you. Brother Zhou mentioned the fishing village and our private agreement, right? For the neighboring villages, you’ll have to ask around yourselves. I can’t go with you, if I go, they’ll definitely claim they don’t have any."

Zhao Dashan nodded with a smiling face and first thanked him, then asked who in Captain Liu’s village had homemade wine and noodles.

Captain Liu immediately understood their intention. After learning that they wanted to purchase, he was happy since the villagers could earn without going out. Therefore, he agreed to arrange it immediately.

After discussing matters, they decided to meet in one or two hours. Meanwhile, Zhao Dashan and his group went to another village to see what they could find, leaving Captain Liu to make arrangements.

The group bid farewell to Captain Liu and returned to the car to discuss splitting up.

Zhao Dashan told Zhang Guoqing that the small car couldn’t hold everything, so he should note it down. When they reconvene in this village in two hours, the truck can come to load the goods.

This made everyone burst into laughter. But if you added the wine and noodles, they indeed needed a truck.

Zhang Guoqing specially chose a direction with fewer villages. He and Zhou Jiao bade farewell to Zhao Dashan’s family and drove quickly in that direction.

Zhou Jiao said with a smile, "You’re so cunning! I’m really excited to finally have a place to put my skills to use!"

"No choice. We have to split up, otherwise Zhao Yuanyuan would insist on following you. We’re driving far; this direction is the opposite of the fishing village, fewer villages don’t necessarily mean fewer goods." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Zhang Guoqing and Zhou Jiao passed through each village they saw. In this way, they continuously visited several villages, and the majority of what they managed to purchase were coarse grains and noodles.

To the couple’s regret, they truly arrived too late. They heard from many people that except for the grain delivered as taxes, rice and wheat flour had long been exchanged for money and distributed. The few families in the villages that received them had also long exchanged them for coarse grains.

The most troublesome part was that many villages were so remote. The dirt roads were so uneven that only a cart could go through. These villages were inaccessible by car, but the couple couldn’t bear to give up due to transportation difficulties. They parked and walked directly to the village to make purchases.

Fortunately, Zhang Guoqing was strong, easily pulling the cart directly to the car. This also saved a lot of time and prevented the two hours from being wasted on the muddy road.

The two hours were almost up, and seeing it approaching the appointed time, Zhou Jiao regretfully looked at her watch and said, "I should have set the meeting time to before noon."

Zhang Guoqing started driving back, laughing as he replied, "I see you’re almost exhausted. It’s better we go back first. This time, I think it’s hard for Uncle Dashan, driving a big truck. Except for the previously arranged villages that Uncle Dashan will haul back from, we should search together next time and not split up."

Zhou Jiao lay exhausted on the seat, nodding weakly. At this moment, she felt insufficient strength though her heart was eager; she was even too lazy to speak. Apart from the two previous villages that had already been arranged and waiting for loading, she picked up whatever she saw from the remaining villages.

She wasn’t tired, but earlier she was too tense, too excited, and now her heart was still racing. Her body wasn’t tired, but her heart truly was weary.

Back at Captain Liu’s village, exactly two hours had passed.

Captain Liu was already waiting for them by the drying area, and several villagers were loading wine jars, burlap sacks, bamboo baskets, and bamboo baskets beside him.

Zhang Guoqing saw the pile of burlap sacks like a mountain, rows of wine jars, and stacks of bamboo baskets. He finally realized that Liu Sanyuan was truly a talent. Driving all the way here, undoubtedly Captain Liu’s big village was the richest.

He intended to buy a lot of coarse grain, but in the end, decided against it. After all, if some villagers, seeing the money, sold all their surplus grain, that would be a sin on his part!

Captain Liu looked behind him and asked, "Is it just you back? Where are the others?"

"We split up and agreed to meet here in two hours. They should be back soon, at most in half an hour. Uncle Captain, please weigh everything first for me, and we’ll load it when they return."

Captain Liu nodded and instructed people to start weighing.

After a while, Zhao Dashan drove back. When he saw Zhang Guoqing, he smiled bitterly and shook his head, "All noodles and wine, very little fine grain. Many villages weren’t even accessible by car, it’s quite a challenge."

Captain Liu laughed heartily at this. There was never much rice and flour anyway—once the public grain was paid, you have to support the fishing village, so how much can there be? Even coarse grain is fought over by the fishing village, how can it be these out-of-towners’ turn?

Once the vehicles were loaded and Zhang Guoqing paid, they bid farewell to Captain Liu. The group drove to the expected village to load the car, and then headed in the direction of the fishing village.

This time, along the route when they saw villages, both families became more experienced and actually found quite a few good things.