Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space-Chapter 796 - 670: The County Town Away from Home

Early the next morning, just past four o’clock, as dawn was breaking, Mr. Wang eagerly took his son along with Zhang Guoqing and his son up the mountain behind them.

According to Lin Quan, the mountain posed no danger. In earlier years, his martial uncle and master often spent nights on the mountain. Even the boys in his family often went hunting there.

Hearing this, Zhou Jiao felt reassured.

Lin Quan went to work at the team, and Aunt Lin also hurried to the township for work. How could the Lin Family function with her being the only one left at home? The wild ginseng purchased by both families had been hidden in some secret room by Lin Quan early in the morning.

Zhou Jiao picked up her military bag and followed Aunt Lin out. She also planned to take a stroll around the nearby area to see where she could buy some specialties.

The township wasn’t far from the Lin Family, so the two of them walked together for half an hour. Zhou Jiao was quite disappointed as she found that the entire township had just one main street, surrounded by mud houses and thatched huts. In such a large township, there was only a small post office and a supply and marketing cooperative, and not even a single restaurant.

Aunt Lin pointed to the corner ahead, "I work at the sewing club on the street just up ahead. Remember to come find me by noon, and we’ll eat at the township canteen together."

Zhou Jiao shook her head, "Auntie, don’t wait for me. I’ll walk around nearby and eat wherever it’s convenient."

Aunt Lin laughed heartily, "Silly girl. You can’t buy any food around here. Even the pastries at the supply and marketing cooperative need ration tickets. Listen to me and come by later."

Zhou Jiao looked helplessly around and asked softly, "Why isn’t there anyone around here?"

Aunt Lin suddenly realized, "Silly old me. We’re really close to the county town ahead, so people usually go there to buy stuff. Do you want to take a look around the county? There’ll be horse carts or ox carts passing through here soon that you can hitch a ride on."

Zhou Jiao quickly nodded.

"I’ll wait with you for a bit; a cart will come by soon. When you get to the county, there’s a parking spot outside the city gate where there are many ox carts. You can ask someone returning to our commune and hitch a ride with them."

Zhou Jiao looked doubtfully at both ends of the street, "Auntie, how long does it take to walk to the county?"

"A little more than an hour. Don’t walk, it’s all dirt roads. The locals here are very kind, if you say you’re heading back to the commune, they’ll take you along."

Hearing it would take a little over an hour, Zhou Jiao didn’t worry about the ox carts. She continued to ask, "Along the way, there are villages, right? It isn’t all barren land, is it?"

"No, it’s all villages. Every few miles, there’s one village. My parents’ home is not far from here. It’s a pity I have to work, otherwise, I could have accompanied you to the county."

With this information, Zhou Jiao declined promptly, "You’re almost late, so go on to work. I won’t wait for the ox cart either; I’ll walk and wait at the same time—an hour isn’t that long."

Aunt Lin thought for a moment, realizing there were residences all along the way, so there was no danger, and nodded with a smile, "Alright then. If anything happens, remember to call for help. Get on a cart when you see one."

After saying goodbye, Zhou Jiao walked briskly forward. She thought to herself, if something actually happened, would she need to call for help? Aunt Lin was indeed quite trusting of her.

As she walked, she touched her face, wondering if she had grown ugly and didn’t fit someone’s beauty standards. Usually, whenever she wandered around aimlessly, people around her would try to stop her.

Along her self-indulgent journey, she found that the place wasn’t bad at all—at least there were no ruffians around, and everywhere in the fields people were busy farming. As ox carts passed by, they would instinctively slow down, and the drivers would glance at her before speeding up once she said nothing.

After walking for half an hour, another ox cart passed, with an old lady on board shouting to ask if she was heading to the county. Seeing her nod, they stopped and let her get on.

Zhou Jiao chuckled with delight. Such enthusiasm!

Seeing the old lady and the others make room for her on the cart, she didn’t refuse and climbed on quickly, "Thank you, granny and auntie."

"Girl, why not wait by the roadside for a while? Walking wears out your shoes."

"Hey girl, where are you from?"

"No need to ask, I bet she’s from the city. Aren’t you, girl? You came to the countryside to play before school started."

"That big sister’s right. Girl, move in a bit and be careful not to topple over."

Under their warm hospitality, Zhou Jiao moved farther in. Soon, they started chatting about which family’s daughter was getting married at the end of the year, how much each should contribute, and when to go help make new quilts. They even talked about what dowries they brought when they got married.

At the county gate, lost in thought, Zhou Jiao followed them off the cart. If the old ladies hadn’t dispersed for shopping, she would have liked to continue listening to their gossip.

Compared to some villages where old women often spoke indecently, these warm-hearted old ladies mostly shared interesting stories, making people laugh involuntarily.

This county, compared to her hometown county, seemed a bit smaller, yet it wasn’t lacking any necessary facilities. Particularly, the central health clinic was quite sizable, with many brick-and-tile houses around.

Strolling aimlessly, Zhou Jiao came across a purchasing station not far away and saw several young women with bamboo baskets discussing selling embroidered goods. On a whim, she decided to follow them.

In front of the purchasing station, a queue had formed selling local products and straw sandals. Upon hearing prices and the abacus sounds from inside, Zhou Jiao shook her head regretfully, regretting that they couldn’t set up a stall across the street!

"Sis, they really aren’t buying embroidery. What should we do?"

"Yeah, had we known, we wouldn’t have listened to Second Sis. We might as well have brought dried goods from home to sell."

"Alright, don’t blame Xiao Zhu. Keeping them as dowries would be nice too."

"You cheeky girl, no shame at all, saying whatever comes to your mind."

"Stop bickering. What do we do next? I need to get back to work in the afternoon, let’s come up with something quick."

"There’s no transport back now; how about we pool money to buy some noodles?"

"I don’t have any money."

"Second Sister, you’re the stingiest!"

Listening to their conversation, Zhou Jiao chuckled quietly. Seeing them about to leave, she followed them for a while and noticed the young women were heading out of the city; she quickly stepped forward to greet them.

"Hey little sisters, are you selling embroidery? Mind showing it to me?"

One of the girls glared at her, "Who are you calling little sister? You’re clearly younger than us; how bold of you. Calling us little sisters..."

The girl beside her quickly pulled her back and smiled apologetically at Zhou Jiao, "My second sister is a bit short-tempered, please don’t mind her."

Zhou Jiao just looked at the girl from before, chuckling with amusement.

Her son usually spoke just like that too, didn’t he?

Realizing they misunderstood, she laughed, "My son is already five. Are you guys selling embroidery? Can I have a look? If I like it, I’ll buy it."

The young women were stunned by her remark about having a five-year-old son and didn’t quite catch what Zhou Jiao said after.

Seeing them still in shock, Zhou Jiao helplessly pointed to their bamboo baskets, "Not selling?"

The first one to speak snapped back to reality, set down the bamboo basket, retrieved a pillow towel from it, and unfolded it for Zhou Jiao to see, hurriedly explaining, "These fabrics are woven by us sisters ourselves. We heard that some young women in the city can’t embroider pillow tops. Someone sold them and told the village about it, so we thought it was true, but it turned out to be a lie."

Zhou Jiao understood that these young women misunderstood the situation. It was probably a private transaction that didn’t go through the purchasing station. She had no intention of explaining further; at this time, speculation and profiteering were seriously wrong and could ruin these young women’s reputations.

"How much are you planning to sell this for?"

"Uh..."

Unexpectedly, Zhou Jiao’s question left the girls dumbfounded. They genuinely didn’t know how much it could sell for; they just heard from the villagers it could be sold and thought the purchasing station would offer a price.

Speechless, Zhou Jiao patted her forehead. Since her ultimate purpose wasn’t these, she said, "Besides this embroidery, are the homespun fabrics you made for sale?"

"For sale! But you’ll have to come back with us."

Zhou Jiao nodded. That wasn’t a problem. Once she reached their village, inquires about local specialties with their family’s grannies and aunts, and she would have some leads.