The two were much faster, partly because after a month of training, Jiang Xinyu’s pace had improved, and partly because Wang Ailing walked quickly, leading them to move faster.
They arrived at the town an hour later. The two chatted and laughed as they waited at the stop. They decided to head straight to the city, not wanting to waste time here.
After waiting for half an hour, Jiang Xinyu started to feel cold before the bus finally arrived.
An hour and a half later, they reached the city. It was already ten in the morning.
"Xinyu, you came here last time. I was here last year. Where should we go?"
"Sis, let’s wander around first and see if anyone wants to buy mountain yams."
"Where shall we wander?"
"Around the supply and marketing cooperative, since a lot of people buy vegetables there, or the grain station, which should work too."
Wang Ailing had no objections, so the two carried their baskets to the supply and marketing cooperative. Not many people were there shopping at this time.
Jiang Xinyu felt no embarrassment as she lifted the snake-skin bag covering the mountain yams in the basket, revealing the yams inside.
"Xinyu, does this work?"
"Let’s try, I don’t know." Jiang Xinyu felt unsure.
"Isn’t this too showy? I heard it’s not allowed to privately buy and sell."
"Sis, we’re not privately buying and selling." Seeing Wang Ailing’s disapproving look, Jiang Xinyu covered the yams again and picked up her basket.
"Sis, let’s change places and go to the grain station; there should be more people there."
Seeing the bustling grain station, Jiang Xinyu knew they’d picked the right place.
"Sis, you wait here for me."
"What are you going to do?"
"Nothing, just going to ask around. You wait here for me." Jiang Xinyu headed towards an old lady with an air of elegance.
"Ma’am, I’m from the countryside, I’ve got mountain yams here and want to exchange for some tickets. Do you need any?"
"Yes, they’re in my basket. Do you want to take a look?" Judging from the old lady’s tone, she was familiar with mountain yams.
The old lady moved to the back of Jiang Xinyu, lifted the snake-skin bag, looked at the mountain yams as thick as a baby’s arm, then covered them and faced Jiang Xinyu.
"Miss, your mountain yams are quite nice. What tickets are you looking to exchange?"
"Ma’am, shall we speak aside?"
The old lady gave Jiang Xinyu a witty smile, "Now you know to be scared?"
"Hehe, ma’am, although I’m from the countryside, I still know this isn’t entirely appropriate. But what can I do? We have no tickets at all, and it’s not easy to come to the city, so I’m taking a risk." Jiang Xinyu spoke innocently and pitifully.
Talking, the two walked away from the grain station entrance.
"Miss, let’s not beat around the bush. These mountain yams are quite good. What tickets are you thinking of exchanging for?" the old lady directly asked.
"Ma’am, what tickets do you have extra? I lack everything. I know food tickets are tight, so I won’t ask for those."
"Hehe, miss, with these few mountain yams, what do you think you can trade them for?"
"Ma’am, I just want to buy toilet paper and a mirror. I saw last time at the building that even these require tickets to purchase."
"These two items, huh? Toilet paper has special supply tickets, I’ve got those. As for the mirror, you’ll need industrial tickets.
Your mountain yams aren’t much, at most I’ll give you one toilet paper ticket and one industrial ticket."
"Ma’am, I don’t understand, just this one toilet paper ticket, how much can it buy?"
"Ma’am, I have about six mountain yams here, could you give me two toilet paper tickets? Can one industrial ticket buy a mirror?"
"It can. If you don’t want the industrial ticket, I can give you four toilet paper tickets."
"Then I won’t take the industrial ticket. Please give me four toilet paper tickets. We haven’t received any tickets in the village this year."
"Alright, could you deliver them to my home? I didn’t bring the tickets with me. My home is in that alley." The old lady pointed for Jiang Xinyu to see.
"Okay, please wait a moment. I’ll inform my sister."
Jiang Xinyu told Wang Ailing, "Sis, wait here for a moment. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes."
"Xinyu, I’d rather go with you."
"No need, you’ll be safer here."
Convincing Wang Ailing, Jiang Xinyu picked up the basket and left with the old lady.
"Would you like to come in for a drink of water?"
"No, ma’am, I’ll wait at the door for you."
With that, she put down the basket; carrying it constantly was really tiring.
The old lady didn’t say much, opening the door and going inside.
Jiang Xinyu crouched down and took out a five-pound bag of rice from the bottom of the basket. She really wanted the mirror, urgently wanting to see what she looked like now. She also lacked sugar tickets and wanted to drink brown sugar water, as there was no brown sugar in her space.
After less than five minutes, the old lady came out, holding a snake-skin bag.
"Here, these are four toilet paper tickets. Just put the mountain yams into the bag."
Jiang Xinyu took the tickets and casually stuffed them into her pants pocket, then took the bag and packed the mountain yams.
"Ma’am, these mountain yams are especially floury when steamed, you could try them."
"Yes indeed, young lady, what’s in the bag?"
"Ma’am, this is rice."
"Rice? Want to trade?"
"Yes, I can’t afford such fine grains."
"What do you want to trade for?"
"Industrial tickets, sugar tickets."
"How much do you need? Better come inside the yard, it’s quite conspicuous at the door."
Jiang Xinyu didn’t refuse this time and followed her into the yard. The conditions of this family seemed good, with the building being a proper six-room tiled house.
"Ma’am, this is five pounds of rice, how many tickets do you see fit to give?"
The old lady pondered briefly, "I have four pounds of sugar tickets, and six industrial tickets."
Jiang Xinyu didn’t respond, just smiled.
"I’ll give you five more pounds of cotton tickets, that’s the most I can do."
Jiang Xinyu knew cotton tickets were hard to come by.
"Ma’am, how many industrial tickets does a pot require?" The empty stove at home looked particularly unsettling.
"This eight-yuan iron pot requires twenty industrial tickets and eighteen yuan.
Miss, I don’t have that many industrial tickets."
"Ma’am, I was just asking, you go get the tickets."
The old lady now had a smile on her face and turned to go back inside.
Jiang Xinyu contentedly left the lady’s home and hurried to find Wang Ailing.
They exchanged no words, Wang Ailing grabbed Jiang Xinyu’s hand and swiftly left the grain station entrance.
"Sis, I still want to check the grain station."
"No need, you have food, save the food tickets."
"Sis, let me tell you, those six mountain yams were exchanged for four toilet paper tickets and one industrial ticket.
Let’s head to the building to buy a mirror."
The two carried their baskets to the building, attracting lots of sideways glances, having accidentally bumped into people and having to apologize, making Jiang Xinyu feel uncomfortable.
They directly bought eight pounds of toilet paper on the first floor, spending a dollar and sixty cents as well as four toilet paper tickets.