noffsinger Chapter 390 The quality of grain on the black market is terrible!
Chapter 390 The quality of grain on the black market is terrible!
She was genuinely worried that it wouldn't be good for Su Niannian to go to the black market alone.
The main problem is that Su Niannian looks too young and too innocent.
The black market is a place for private transactions. A fair-skinned girl like Su Niannian might be deceived if she were to deal with such a mixed bunch of people.
Especially considering Su Niannian's decent attire, what if she gets taken advantage of...?
Su Niannian could tell that Sister Chen was indeed a kind-hearted person who genuinely cared about her.
"Then let Sister Chen take me there next time. I'll go explore some safer places today," Su Niannian said with a smile.
There's no need to make Sister Chen worry.
"Okay, then I'll take you to see it when you have time sometime."
“I also have a distant cousin who works in the black market. He knows a lot of people, so if you need any tickets or anything, you can just ask me.”
“I can get industrial invoices too, and I’ll ask him to give you a discount,” Sister Chen continued.
Su Niannian nodded and said thank you.
Sister Chen really likes Su Niannian.
After a while, the car stopped at the same station where it had stopped before.
Everyone got off the bus.
"Take care of yourself, I'll be going now," Sister Chen said to Su Niannian after getting out of the car.
Su Niannian nodded and replied with an "okay".
"The return times to the compound are 2 PM and 4 PM. Don't be late! Otherwise, you'll miss the bus and it will be troublesome," Sister Chen reminded Su Niannian again.
"Okay, thank you, Sister Chen."
"Don't mention it, I'll be going now." Sister Chen waved to Su Niannian and left.
Su Niannian planned to first visit the black market near Baicaotang, which Sister Chen had mentioned.
I have too much stuff in my storage space right now. If I want to find someone to take it over, it's better to try my luck in a larger black market.
Moreover, Baicaotang... wasn't Zhou Qishan in Baicaotang in Long County before?
It must be a chain of traditional Chinese medicine shops.
Su Niannian wandered around the station area.
We found a bus that goes to the vicinity of Baicaotang.
By 1976, Beijing already had nearly two thousand buses in operation.
At that time, buses were mostly white with red stripes on them.
It may not look as nice or safe as later ones, but it had already begun to develop a public transportation system.
At that time, there were 96 bus routes in Beijing.
Fortunately, the area where Su Niannian was located was a small transportation hub, and she actually managed to find a bus to Baicaotang.
However, the departure time between vehicles is a bit long.
When the bus arrived, Su Niannian boarded, and the ticket seller came over with a ticket holder.
When asked where she wanted to get off, Su Niannian told the ticket seller she wanted to get off near Baicaotang.
The ticket seller tore off a five-cent ticket and a one-cent ticket from the ticket holder and told Su Niannian that it would cost six cents.
Su Niannian smiled and gave six cents to the ticket seller.
For a distance of about five kilometers, six cents seemed perfectly reasonable to Su Niannian.
On the bus, people would glance at Su Niannian from time to time, after all, Su Niannian was just too beautiful.
Especially after Su Niannian became pregnant, her lower abdomen had not yet become noticeably protruding, but her figure became more and more curvaceous.
Even in Beijing, it's rare to see such a beautiful young girl.
Upon arriving at the station, the ticket seller called out the station name.
Su Niannian heard the station where she was to get off the train, and after getting off, she saw the sign for Baicaotang.
Following the directions given by Sister Chen, we circled around and finally saw the entrance to the black market.
Contrary to Su Niannian's expectations, there were no burly men guarding the entrance, nor were there anyone checking who went in.
It's similar to a typical market entrance in later generations.
Su Niannian can go in directly.
After taking a look around, Su Niannian felt that this place was truly incomparable to the black market in Long County.
It seems like they sell all sorts of things inside.
In addition to various meats, there are also rice, flour, cooking oil, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
There are also shoe soles and insoles that I sew myself, and clothes that I make by hand.
The clothes aren't very stylish; they're all very basic styles and fabrics.
The colors are all navy blue, gray, black, and military green, which are relatively dirt-resistant.
They have bed sheets, mattresses, quilts, and so on.
However, there weren't many nice styles available; people in this era prioritized practicality.
Moreover, there's no way to get nice fabrics to make it.
There are also clothes hangers made of stiff wire and clothes racks made of wood and bamboo.
After looking around, Su Niannian found that most of the products being sold were made by her own family.
In those days, the economy was not yet open, so some items like enamel basins, enamel mugs, brushes, soap, and laundry soap could only be bought at supply and marketing cooperatives.
In the black market, apart from agricultural products, most items are basic, handmade goods.
Su Niannian knew that in two more years, some smuggled goods would be circulated from the port city.
Furthermore, they can also build factories privately and produce certain items.
At that time, the variety and types of items sold privately will increase.
Su Niannian wandered around the black market again and decided that it would be better to start with the grain.
We arrived at a place that looked like the largest grain store.
Su Niannian went over.
The grain vendor had just weighed out ten pounds of white flour for the previous customer when a very pretty young girl came over.
He quickly greeted her with a smile.
"Young lady, are you here to buy grain? I have rice, wheat flour, cornmeal, sorghum, millet, and all sorts of things. The prices are fair, and no coupons are needed."
"We also have dried noodles," the grain vendor greeted enthusiastically.
Su Niannian smiled and looked at the grain that the shopkeeper was selling.
The quality is not high; much of it looks like old rice or grain.
"Boss, do you have any better quality grains here?" Su Niannian put the rice back into the bag and looked up to ask the boss.
I just put my hand in the bag and grabbed some rice, and my hand got covered in white powder.
This rice looks like it's been stored for at least two or three years.
The broken edges and both ends of the rice grains were either white or black, indicating poor quality.
Seeing Su Niannian's appearance, the boss figured she must be wealthy.
After thinking for a moment, he took out a smaller bag from a box behind him.
Open it and place it in front of Su Niannian.
"Young lady, how about this? But this one is a bit more expensive, it's top-quality rice," the shopkeeper said to Su Niannian with a smile.
Su Niannian took a look and found that it was indeed better than the ones in the big bag, but still not good enough.
Compared to my own rice, it's far inferior.