NOVPUB
Chapter 109: Chapter 105 Earned
Both parties reached a consensus, and the trade continued.
Next was the counting and payment for eggs. One person picked them out, while the other counted. There were three hundred eggs in a basket, with three cracked ones among them. Shen Yunfang didn’t charge for those but gave them away to Director Sun. This made Director Sun sigh once more about how sincere and trustworthy the young lady was.
There were a total of two hundred and ninety-seven eggs, each priced at fifteen cents, amounting to forty-four yuan and fifty-five cents. Shen Yunfang rounded down the change and just took forty-four yuan and five cents.
Then, before leaving, Shen Yunfang casually mentioned there were still a few hundred eggs at home, along with some mushrooms and chives. This made Director Sun hold her back, insisting she deliver them the next day.
After some thought, Shen Yunfang nodded in agreement. They made an appointment, and she would deliver the eggs when the bank opened the next morning. As Shen Yunfang left, Director Sun kept reminding her to bring whatever she had at home when she came the next day, promising to take care of everything.
As Shen Yunfang walked beyond the street, she purposefully checked behind her to see if anyone was following. Finding nobody, she finally felt at ease.
She refilled her carrying basket and proceeded toward the residential area she had previously planned to visit.
Wandering through streets and alleys, it wasn’t until dusk that she headed back to her inn, and upon returning to her room, she quickly filled a basin with hot water to soak her feet, which were sore from the day’s efforts.
After washing her feet, too tired to move, she lay in bed, took out a steamed bun to gnaw on, and checked the remaining stock in her space.
Despite the fatigue, she had reaped handsome rewards. She had managed to sell some items and earn some money at every door she knocked on today.
Her main sales items were eggs, mushrooms, and chives.
She had nine baskets of eggs in her space when she arrived, each containing three hundred eggs, with the last basket being slightly underfilled. Today, she sold over three baskets, which amounted to more than four including the eggs sold to Director Sun.
There were over six hundred and seventy pounds of mushrooms, out of which she had sold over one hundred and forty pounds.
The chives were bundled by the pound, and she had sold over two hundred and sixty bundles today.
After finishing her steamed bun, Shen Yunfang poured all the money she had earned onto the bed, straightened each bill, and then counted a total of three hundred and eighty-one yuan and fifty cents, with some Cloth Coupons, Cotton Coupons, and special supply tickets for liquor on the side.
While selling her goods, she specifically inquired whether excess coupons could be used for bartering.
Without coupons, it was tough to survive in the city, especially the Food Coupons, which were in great demand. Most people didn’t even have enough for their own use, let alone spare any. Very few households had extra Food Coupons, and even fewer were willing to trade goods for them. However, the city had a surplus of daily necessities such as clothing and socks, so Cloth Coupons and Cotton Coupons were plentiful, resulting in Shen Yunfang acquiring quite a few through exchanges today.
Shen Yunfang carefully stowed away the coupons, planning to visit the city’s department store to do some shopping before leaving. The store back home, while decent, did not offer the variety available in the province’s capital. Since she was there, she wanted to seize the opportunity to look around.
After a comfortable night’s rest, Shen Yunfang ate breakfast early the next morning and, carrying one basket and holding another, went straight to find Director Sun.
It was the same office as yesterday, but today it wasn’t just Director Sun present; three strangers were with him. n𝚘vp𝚞𝚋.com
Fearing Shen Yunfang might get worried, Director Sun quickly introduced them. All three were bank executives who could be trusted. They were there hoping to buy some eggs and other subsidiary food items.
Shen Yunfang looked at the men suspiciously for a moment but eventually placed her basket on the desk, reassured by Director Sun’s guarantee.
This time she brought a basket of eggs, a total of three hundred, and another basket underneath held fifteen bundles of chives, with over six jin of mushrooms on top.
Everyone was surprised at the sight of the contents of the baskets, "Where did you get these mushrooms from? We don’t have them here, do we?"
Shen Yunfang clamped her mouth shut and said nothing.
Bank Manager Sun nudged the person and chided, "If you like what you see, just buy it, why ask so many questions?"
"Hehe, I was just curious."
Seeing that everyone had started reaching towards the goods in front of her, she didn’t have time to chat anymore and hurriedly began to pick her choices.
It seemed like a lot of stuff, but it wasn’t much once divided among four people.
Shen Yunfang saw Bank Manager Sun’s hopeful gaze and said with a naive smile that she had brought all the stock from home that morning, intending to go to the black market after finishing here to sell some more. If they didn’t have enough, she would bring the rest as well.
Everyone agreed, of course, so Shen Yunfang left the bank, turned into an alley, and came out pushing a cart with several baskets on it.
She didn’t take out more eggs, but there were two baskets of mushrooms, one of chives, and two of eggplants, green beans, persimmons, hot peppers, and such.
Bank Manager Sun and the others were very surprised to see fresh vegetables but didn’t ask about the source and just focused on paying for the goods.
In the end, these items were divided among these few people.
Shen Yunfang walked out of the bank with more than two hundred yuan in her pocket.
Afterward, she continued to roam the streets and alleys like guerrilla warfare, changing location after each sale. It was tiring but safe.
During her four days in the provincial town, she finally sold all the sellable items from her space.
She summarized that chives and eggs sold the fastest among everything, mushrooms were slow because many people didn’t recognize them, and she also noticed that some fresh vegetables from her space were popular but affordable for only a few.
Shen Yunfang had set the price of chives and mushrooms at fifty cents per jin, while the fresh vegetables like eggplants and green beans were slightly more expensive, at eighty cents per jin, and persimmons and hot peppers were even sold for one yuan per jin.
She mainly took into account that she needed some fresh vegetables for herself to eat, so it didn’t matter if they weren’t sold, which made her adopt an indifferent attitude towards selling. Moreover, scarcity drove up the prices; at a time when everyone else had only radishes and cabbages, having such fresh, juicy persimmons on display meant it seemed fair to charge more for them.
Even though Shen Yunfang’s prices were high, this was after all a provincial city with mostly salaried workers, and she deliberately targeted families with better conditions. With the New Year approaching, she managed to sell quite a lot of fresh vegetables.
Even her space’s cabbages and radishes sold. Shen Yunfang didn’t know if people were attracted to her cabbages because they were plump or for some other reason, but at ten cents per jin, she sold all of them without any leftovers.
The only items she steadfastly refused to sell from her space were the pork and air-dried intestines. One reason was she needed meat to replenish her own health; no amount of pork seemed too much as she could finish it, day or month, as wild boar was not easy to come by or to hunt. Who knew when she’d be able to get such large game again, so she decided to save it for herself. The second reason was that the air-dried intestines were meant for Li Hongjun. She felt a bit guilty for already selling half to Uncle Zhou, so she decided to save the rest for Li Hongjun. After all, he had signed an IOU for five hundred yuan for her, and since he had been so decent, she couldn’t do any less.
