Brother Hu was truly a straightforward person. Upon hearing that the two individuals inspecting the goods found no issues, he immediately opened the cloth bag he was carrying, handed it to Jia Yao with both hands, and quietly explained, "The bag contains all the payments for today's transaction, a total of seventeen thousand yuan. Please check if the amount is correct." He then switched on his flashlight.
Jia Yao took the bag and casually handed it to Jia Hui, who stood beside him.
Jia Hui took the bag and, under the faint glow of the flashlight, casually picked up a bundle of "Da Hei Shi" to inspect. The payment was seventeen thousand yuan, meaning there were seventeen bundles.
On the principle of mutual trust between buyer and seller, Jia Hui did not count each bill individually. She simply unfurled the bundles, glanced at them by the flashlight's beam, then counted the total number of bundles before turning to nod at Chen Lan.
Watching Jia Hui's casual manner of inspecting the money made Brother Hu even more uneasy. Such a large sum was considered a fortune in the 1970s. He had painstakingly gathered this money from various sources, yet it seemed to mean nothing to them. They merely glanced at it, not even bothering to count, which implied that the fortune he perceived was a trifle to them, hence their lack of concern. This suggested they had witnessed far grander scenes.
If Chen Lan had known Brother Hu's thoughts, she would have simply smiled and said it was a beautiful misunderstanding. The reason was that Jia Hui and Jia Yao, like all the children in the valley, had never seen money, nor had they ever used it to buy things. They had no concept of its benefits, as all supplies in the valley were distributed based on headcount. Thus, they had no idea what money was for. To Jia Hui, money was just paper, which explained her calm and indifferent demeanor when faced with it.
However, Chen Lan could understand Brother Hu's perspective if she knew his thoughts. Why so? Because money was truly valuable at that time. The average monthly salary for an ordinary worker was around thirty yuan, and the prices were very low.
Take pork, for example. In the 1970s, pork cost about seventy-five fen per jin. One yuan could buy about one and a half jin of pork at a food store. However, due to the state's planned economy policy, pork was rationed. Consumers needed both pork coupons and to queue up early to buy it.
Consider housing prices in the 1970s. Ten thousand yuan could have bought a typical siheyuan courtyard house in the capital. In Harbin, housing was even cheaper; a small courtyard house could be acquired for a few hundred yuan.
This illustrates that seventeen thousand yuan was a sum many families could not afford in the 1970s.
Seeing Jia Hui nod at him, Chen Lan, who was standing by the car, immediately allowed Brother Hu's men to load the goods. Indeed, Brother Hu's men were well-trained and clearly experienced, as they quickly transferred the entire truckload of goods to the small warehouse.
With the transaction complete and the money received, Jia Yao nodded to Brother Hu, intending to leave. Brother Hu immediately expressed his desire for future cooperation. Jia Yao grunted and uttered the longest sentence of the transaction: "If we need to move goods in Harbin, we'll send someone to find you."
With these words, Brother Hu's heart finally relaxed. Tonight had been incredibly fortunate, as if the God of Wealth himself had descended to find him, signaling his time to prosper. He secretly resolved to cling to this "God of Wealth," which would allow him to secure much-needed supplies to report to his superiors and also earn a small fortune to improve his men's lives.
Jia Yao paid no mind to Brother Hu's thoughts. He turned and quickly led Chen Lan and the others towards the old Dongfeng truck. As Jia Yao opened the car door to get in, he discovered Xu Mingxuan was already inside. Jia Yao and Jia Hui reacted swiftly, climbing into the back of the truck.
Ten minutes later, the group safely returned outside the courtyard walls of the station guesthouse. Er Zhuang, Jia Xing, and Jia He brothers were squatting by the wall, waiting for them.
Without a word, Chen Lan produced a ladder from her system storage and climbed over first. The others followed, and they silently returned to Chen Lan and Jia Hui's room. They shed their disguises and equipment, handing everything over to Chen Lan for safekeeping, lest the cleaning staff discover them the next morning.
After a simple late-night snack, everyone returned to their respective rooms. Chen Lan and Jia Hui, without even looking at the money in the bag, had it stored away in Chen Lan's system warehouse. It was too late, and to avoid any disturbance, the mother and daughter went to sleep without even washing up.
The next morning, they woke up naturally. Chen Lan, out of habit, checked the system time with her mind and found it was already nine o'clock. She immediately got out of bed, hurried to the washroom to freshen up, and then went to Xu Mingxuan's room to find them.
Er Zhuang and the Jia brothers, having no money or coupons, were waiting in their room, hungry. She had forgotten to give them money and coupons when they returned so late last night.
Xu Mingxuan had already gone to his assigned unit. Chen Lan felt that staying at the guesthouse was very inconvenient. If they were at home, the children wouldn't have to wait for her to wake up hungry. They could get something to eat in the kitchen and wouldn't have to go hungry.
So, Chen Lan prepared a self-heating clay pot rice for everyone and said, "Er Zhuang, children, I apologize. I woke up late today. Let's eat something simple now. When your father gets back, we'll go to the best state-run restaurant here for a good meal, how about it?"
Jia Hui, the little foodie, immediately agreed, exclaiming, "Okay! Okay! Mom, honestly, I'm getting tired of clay pot rice. I really miss Grandma Chen's Sichuan cuisine!"
At this point, Jia Xing and Jia He brothers chimed in, "Yes, that's right. Fourth sister is right. Once you've tasted Grandma Chen's cooking, everything else seems tasteless."