novelraw Chapter 444 - 22: The Profiteer on the Train
Chapter 444 - 22: The Profiteer on the Train
Chapter 444: Chapter 22: The Profiteer on the Train
This time it’s not just a matter of intuition.
It’s... that apple.
These days, fruit is a rare commodity. Unless it’s local, under a planned economy, it’s truly not something you see often.
And the middle-aged man didn’t look remarkable, but when he opened his bag, though each package wasn’t much, they were all sealed tightly. Only the apple on top was bright red.
Traveling away from home, it’s unlikely you’d only bring one apple, and it would be so easily exchanged, right?
Chu River looked at his simple luggage, roughly forming a guess in his mind.
These days, the role of the black market is quite significant, but due to the limited economy and inadequate transportation and policies of the era, many materials can’t be transported between the north and south.
For example, Shi Suifeng once talked about the black market in the city they were in.
Although you can buy daily essentials like rice, flour, grain, and oil, better materials still aren’t something everyone can source.
But this man in front of her spoke so naturally, and his actions were so practiced. Chu River glanced into his bag and tentatively asked, "Do you have things that don’t require a ticket?"
...
She asked as if it was completely expected, and the middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, then looked around, suppressing the questions in his heart, gestured with a hush, and then whispered:
"What do you want?"
Chu River: Huh.
He really is a black market dealer.
But who knows how big his business is?
Is he the kind that has friends everywhere, or is he just a local boss, or perhaps a second-hand dealer...
As for what she wanted, she wanted a lot of things.
She wanted all the good stuff.
But right now, she had over a thousand yuan on her, and she couldn’t spare a hand to carry anything else, so she tapped the table: "How about leaving an address?"
Leave an address?
She’s planning on doing long-term business around the country? Wouldn’t it be more convenient to find someone local?
But the middle-aged man thought of the network he had worked hard to maintain over the years, and then looked at this hero against human traffickers in front of him, and had an idea.
So he puffed out his chest:
"Whatever flies in the sky, swims in the sea, whatever you want, we can get it."
As for the address... write a fake one, find a kid to check it regularly, what’s there to fear?
This girl clearly has potential; maybe she can really bring in big business.
He said, taking out an empty matchbox from his pocket, deftly dismantling it, pulling out a pen, and scrawling an address on it.
This is really endearing.
...
Chu River nodded and then pondered, if she couldn’t buy it, she could trade for it!
"I have wild boar meat, wild rabbit, smoked fish, what can you trade for them?"
Meat?
The man was pleasantly surprised, too.
In a planned economy, everyone lacks fat and oil. Yet, private individuals can’t raise pigs, let alone slaughter them. The meat that ends up on the market is either second-hand from someone else or small amounts secretly taken from slaughterhouses.
If not, it’s from wild animals in the mountains.
But without some skills, who dares to deal with wild boars in the mountains?
If lucky, there’s meat to eat; if unlucky, losing a limb is just the beginning.
He looked at Chu River: "Young lady, to be honest, you don’t seem to be well-nourished—would you want milk powder?"
He tapped the bottom of the bag through the fabric, and the metal can made a dull sound.
Chu River was indeed worried about her nutrition—she was a woman who needed to grow.
So without hesitation: "Yes!"
...
The two of them were still going back and forth about canned meat and wild rabbit meat without reaching a conclusion when a few train police walked over, accompanied by an old man with graying hair.
"Little Xuan..."
The old man looked at the boy in the middle-aged man’s arms, tears streaming down his face:
"That’s my grandson, this is my little grandson..."
"Look at the mole on his bottom! He has one in the swirl of his hair too!"
He spoke so in detail, even mentioning the hair. Naturally, the train police felt relieved.
He politely smiled at Chu River and the middle-aged man beside him.
"Comrade, you’ve shown great courage and successfully saved three families."
"We went through the cars one by one, and it just so happened that the old man from car 13 in front came to find me, so I brought him here for identification."
These days, you often have to rely on the loudspeakers of the train service personnel to shout announcements car by car, and it indeed takes a while to notify everyone.
Without a word, Chu River passed the child over: "He’s been sleeping all afternoon, but he seems stable, so the medication should have worn off a bit. He should wake up soon."
Thinking about it, seeing the other person’s hunched back, she added a careless word of comfort: