Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space-Chapter 424 - 321: The Sampan Boatman

Early in the morning, as Zhang Guoqing’s biological clock rang, he woke up without waking his wife. After confirming the time, he closed his eyes and sorted out the tasks that still needed arranging today.

After a while, he felt some movement and said with a chuckle, "I’ve been awake for a while. Seeing you tired, I wanted to let you sleep a bit more. Are you sure you still want to go to the morning market?"

Zhou Jiao rubbed her eyes, lifted the blanket, got up, and laughed, "You scared me! I thought I overslept. Let’s go! Grandma Jiang said that early in the morning at Eight Immortals Bridge, there are people pushing carts selling hairy crabs and knife fish. I want to see if there are any specialties from here that we don’t have in the Northeast. After this year, even if we come again, it won’t be easy to buy them."

Seeing her exhausted and sleepy when they returned last night, Zhang Guoqing didn’t tell her that he already had some good news. He was afraid that once she found out, she’d be too excited to sleep. He was just teasing her earlier.

"Yesterday afternoon, while you weren’t around, I already arranged with a junk boat owner to help us purchase some. He’ll be waiting for us not far from the dock at half-past five."

Zhou Jiao squinted at him, pretending to smile, "Alright, you’re starting to tease me now." Then she reached over and tickled him until he couldn’t stop laughing and gave up.

"Did you pay him? What if he breaks the deal and runs off?"

Zhang Guoqing shook his head and whispered, "A helper at the Chinese restaurant introduced me to the boat owner. I avoided the helper and instructed the boat owner to help me covertly purchase a large number of hairy crabs and river fish, as much as he could. His eyes lit up with happiness, how could he run away?

Anyways, the price is very cheap; let him earn some money to save us the trouble of roaming around unfamiliar places. He didn’t even take a deposit from me; said he would bring them over first and then get paid. A smart man! He kept winking at me for secrecy as we left."

Zhou Jiao knew that this guy was smart. She praised him vigorously, seeing his smug face; she slowly said, "Then after meeting the boat owner, will you accompany me to Huaihai Old?"

Zhang Guoqing immediately put on a pained expression and said, "Wife, dear, darling, do we really have to go? Can we not? Those things aren’t much use if we buy them..." Before he could finish, she covered her mouth with laughter, which made him jump out of bed, pick her up, and tickle her back.

The couple fooled around for a while and calmed down to start discussing how to cover it up. After deciding, they noticed it was nearly five o’clock; Zhang Guoqing pulled her to wash up and, after handing the child over to the nanny, the two hurried out.

Reaching the agreed spot, they saw two junk boats of different sizes docked at the shore, even before the set time. The boat owner waved excitedly when he saw Zhang Guoqing and his wife.

Zhang Guoqing, holding Zhou Jiao’s hand, approached and glanced at a woman and a young man behind the boat owner, guessing that this was a family operation. He smiled and said, "Thank you for your trouble. Are you ready? Let’s see the goods first."

Seeing them arrive empty-handed, the boat owner hesitated and said, "Should I have my eldest son deliver them to the restaurant?"

"Please don’t! If you deliver them over there, won’t everyone find out? There’s a cart up ahead; just load them and unload from the boat in a bit," Zhang Guoqing quickly interrupted him.

The boat owner led them onto the boat, where burlap sacks and bamboo baskets filled the space. Zhang Guoqing took another look at the people there. He didn’t expect to encounter such capable folks.

The boat owner opened a few burlap sacks, revealing the hairy crabs and prawns inside the bamboo baskets.

Seeing that they were all good quality, Zhang Guoqing nodded. Then he followed the family to another small boat, and sure enough, it was also filled with supplies. Besides hairy crabs, there were plenty of special products from the river.

"They’re all very good. I see little slips of paper on top; is that the count? We didn’t weigh them, so just tell us the total price," Zhang Guoqing said with a smile.

The boat owner asked his son to take out a scale, "I have one. You can weigh everything before calculating the price. I won’t hide it from you; I only earn a small margin on each item. Other than what we’ve caught ourselves, everything else is marked up a bit."

Zhang Guoqing, understanding the situation, interrupted, "No need to weigh. Just give us an estimated price; how much for everything in total? We can settle up and head back sooner."

Zhou Jiao took the list handed by the boat owner’s son and, seeing the writing on it, smiled at them. She quietly appreciated how this family had a good connection in the restaurant. It seems you can’t do without educated people these days.

Not knowing if the price they gave was high or low, she saw that this family didn’t lack integrity and intelligence, and their conversation didn’t seem petty. She nodded to Zhang Guoqing.

Zhang Guoqing took the list, saw the total came to seventeen dollars and nine cents, and directly gave them eighteen dollars. He knew that being soaked in river water might skew the weight. But the list was jam-packed with small amounts, and weighing them might mean they wouldn’t get back by noon.

He didn’t know the local prices, but he guessed that this family would need to earn a decent amount after all their hard work. Still, he didn’t mention it; sometimes, letting people earn a little saves oneself some trouble.

After paying, he helped move the goods off the boat and then told them to head back. Watching the family happily board the boat and return, he reckoned they felt they had made a hefty profit.

Zhang Guoqing didn’t have time to dwell on gains or losses, scanning around to ensure everything was normal. He quickly had Zhou Jiao store all the things in their space, leaving one basket of hairy crabs to repack.

Once repacked, he frowned slightly while cleaning up the site. Only when everything left no traces did he smile, picking up the bamboo basket and heading back with Zhou Jiao.

When the couple returned to the hotel, they dropped off the crabs at the Chinese restaurant’s kitchen, asking them to steam them for later.

Old Mrs. Cheng curiously looked behind them, "Didn’t get any? If not, then forget it. Those old friends will definitely prepare things for us once we get on the train."

Zhang Guoqing didn’t mention they hadn’t actually gone to Eight Immortals Bridge today.

Beside him, Zhou Jiao shook her head and smiled, "We’ve already bought some. We’re just worried they won’t be fresh after some time, so we left them in the restaurant to help steam for us to take back. Didn’t we insist last night not to give us a send-off? Why do it again?"

"They know we’re leaving this afternoon and will surely come to see us off. We couldn’t convince them otherwise; we’ll have lunch outside, so they won’t come over to tug and pull," Old Mrs. Cheng said, making everyone in the room burst into laughter.

Last night’s dinner wasn’t just a tug-of-war; even paying ended up almost in a scuffle.

Lin Lishan and Cheng Ruzhu had been mysteriously elusive these past few days. Last night, Lin privately told the Zhang Guoqing couple that she was almost out of money.

Finally, when Zhou Jiao insisted on giving her money and was refused, she realized that what Lin meant by being out of money was having over two hundred left. It puzzled the couple as to how much she had brought this time?

Given that many things are dirt cheap these days, and they hadn’t seen her buy any big items. When Lin listed out her purchases, Zhou Jiao found it laughably frustrating.

Her mom and Cheng Ruzhu were buying nothing but luxury goods, especially with her mom buying almost everything for herself.

She dared not wear fine silk on the outside. With a phonograph already owned, she still bought a radio; would she dare use it at home? With watches already in possession, how would Zhang Guoqing and her dad dare flaunt theirs with pocket watches? Four gold pens for the family, was this a family package? But she dared not use them. She didn’t buy anything from the First Department Store except White Rabbit milk candies, fearing buying anything else.

Seeing her mom and Cheng Ruzhu hadn’t gone out today was puzzling, "Mom, where are you and Aunt planning to go today?"

"I was just about to find you both. Can you accompany us to a place later?" Lin Lishan signaled to her. She and Cheng Ruzhu had found the Black Market over the past couple of days and arranged to purchase a batch of fabric today. The seller seemed to be an old capitalist; otherwise, where would they have the stockpile?

Seeing the situation might go awry, Zhou Jiao looked over at Cheng Ruzhu. Seeing her nod and smile reassured her, with her aunt around, nothing could go wrong.