CHAPTER 46: CHAPTER 46: EXPANDING OPERATIONS

"Xiao Xue is truly a little lucky star for our family! Grandma just doesn’t know how to thank you! If you can get it, bring it to grandma! Grandma’s got the money!" Grandma Chen was overjoyed!

It’s not easy to eat meat! And fine grains — her son’s monthly ration tickets were mostly used to exchange for fine grains for her. When you get old, your taste buds crave everything.

"Alright! Grandma, take good care of yourself. We’re heading back! We’ll definitely bring you meat and fine grains before the end of the year, but it’s hard to say how much we can get!" Bai Xue stood up, and Zhang Yuan stood up with her. They couldn’t delay here for too long; once they got back, they still had to wait for Wang Cheng to finish transporting the grain before returning to the village.

"Okay, okay, good children, take your time and be careful on the slippery snowy roads!" Grandma Chen nodded repeatedly.

"Got it! Don’t worry, grandma!" Bai Xue responded and left the house with Zhang Yuan.

Chen Qiyue sent them out and then returned home; she still needed to cook for her grandma! During the day, her mom worked at the milk powder factory and wasn’t home!

"Grandma, what do you want to eat for lunch? Should I cook the meat that Xiao Xue brought?" Chen Qiyue asked as soon as she walked into the house.

"Wait till your parents come back and we’ll eat together at night! Just make something simple for grandma to eat!" Grandma Chen was reluctant to eat the good stuff by herself.

"Okay! Then just wait a bit! I’ll prepare it right away!" Chen Qiyue said as she walked towards the kitchen; she needed to get moving as she had work in the afternoon.

Bai Xue and Zhang Yuan hadn’t been back for long when Wang Cheng came over with a handcart, loading the grain onto it, covering it with burlap bags, and hurried off.

"Zhang Yuan, let’s hurry back too! It’ll be dark soon if we delay any longer!" Bai Xue said to Zhang Yuan after seeing off Wang Cheng.

"Girl, are you really short on money?" Zhang Yuan asked suddenly.

Seeing her figuring out ways to earn money all day, he figured she must be short of cash, despite knowing about the supermarket and all its resources.

"Huh?" Bai Xue was momentarily confused.

"I mean, if you want to exchange items for money, I can help you! These small-scale trades you’re doing are dangerous and not very profitable!"

Zhang Yuan affectionately patted Bai Xue’s head as he spoke.

Bai Xue was wearing the scarf he gave her today. Zhang Yuan had previously said he wanted her to knit him a scarf, but he hadn’t given her any yarn yet! But now it wasn’t necessary; the supermarket had plenty of yarn, in all sorts of varieties! When she had some free time, she could knit him a good scarf.

"Are you saying you have a way to deal these resources in bulk?" Bai Xue’s eyes lit up, thinking this would be fantastic! "I do need money! I’m saving up to build a house and pay for my younger siblings’ education; there are so many expenses!"

"I know a black market boss who does well throughout Chenxi County and can handle large quantities of goods!"

"That’s great! But how does it work exactly? How can I get the goods out to him? It seems difficult to do in large amounts?" Bai Xue acknowledged that, in this era, there weren’t many vehicles available, and even if you borrowed a carriage or ox cart, you couldn’t transport too much.

"You can take the resources out and store them in this courtyard’s warehouse! I’ll have someone come pick them up later!"

He wouldn’t let his girl take risks, no way; Zhao Qiang could take risks to make money himself!

"Is that doable?"

"Xiao Xue, it’s almost New Year’s; just take out grain and meat, and hold off on the more valuable items like tobacco, alcohol, sugar, and tea for now! Let’s test the waters first!" Zhang Yuan, having been involved in the black market himself with Zhao Qiang, was well informed; this courtyard was originally used for such purposes.

"Okay! I’ll go get them now!" Bai Xue walked towards the east wing room.

After entering the east wing room, she entered the supermarket space. As soon as she got in, she heard a knocking sound in her head and decided to let Zhang Yuan into this space as well.

"Xiao Xue, let me help you!"

"Alright, let’s go! To the grain and oil section!" Bai Xue led Zhang Yuan to the grain and oil area.

Zhang Yuan, upon seeing the variety of grains, especially the large amounts of rice and white flour among the fine grains, was still greatly shocked, even though he’d been briefed by the assistant.

"Zhang Yuan, I think it’s best if we mostly take out coarse grains, right? Fine grains are already hard to come by, and if we start moving large quantities of them, it’ll raise suspicion, won’t it?" Bai Xue worried over the barrels of coarse grains, realizing she didn’t have enough burlap bags to transport them.

Although each barrel of coarse grains weighed only 500 pounds, the rest was in storage, which couldn’t be opened. Still, the combined amount of sorghum, corn grits, corn flour, and millet totaled 2000 pounds, which was quite a significant quantity.

In Bai Xue’s eyes, millet was considered a coarse grain, and it wasn’t something they ate often in the past, mainly used for porridge in the mornings. But she discovered here that millet was actually considered a fine grain, and was difficult to procure regularly.

"Yeah! Just take out coarse grains and meat; leave the rest for now!" Zhang Yuan agreed.

"Each of these barrels holds 500 pounds, and I’m out of burlap bags. What should I do?" Bai Xue asked the most pressing question on her mind.

"Would the wooden barrels replenish once we take them out? If they do, we could just take the whole rice barrel out! Then they could bring bags to fill it up!" Zhang Yuan mused, pacing around as he eyed the scene!

"We need to ask the assistant about that! Assistant! Can you come out?" Bai Xue called out.

"I thought the assistant said after installing the system, they wouldn’t have the strength to speak?" Zhang Yuan reminded her.

"I forgot about that! Maybe we should try it anyway? If the stock doesn’t replenish, we can bring it back in! It’s not like someone’s taking the barrels away for good! Once they’re done emptying the grains, we can bring the barrels back inside!" Bai Xue said, looking at the rows of grain-filled wooden barrels.

There were various types of grains, but predominantly rice and white flour; they were only taking out coarse grains for now, mainly the four types commonly consumed in the Chaoyang Commune.

"Alright! Let’s give it a try!" Zhang Yuan nodded.

Bai Xue grabbed hold of a barrel of corn flour and vanished from the supermarket space, soon reappearing in the east wing room with the corn flour barrel next to her. Just like that, 500 pounds of corn flour were taken out.

Bai Xue made four trips back and forth, taking out corn grits, millet, corn flour, and sorghum.

During this time, Zhang Yuan roamed the supermarket, looking here and there.

"Zhang Yuan, should we only take out pork when it comes to meat?" Bai Xue asked after moving everything out.

"I see there’s so much pork here; let’s just take pork for now!" Zhang Yuan said as he stood in front of the display case.

Bai Xue’s supermarket had the pork neatly categorized, including ribs, back bones, tail bones, side bones, and the meat was further divided into streaky pork, fat pork, lean pork, and lard, totaling about 1200 pounds.

"There are 1200 pounds of pork in total; let’s keep 200 pounds for ourselves to eat during the New Year and take out 1000 pounds!" Bai Xue calculated roughly and said.

"Alright! You make the call! I’ll help with the bags!" Zhang Yuan started packing the pork into the large burlap bags Bai Xue placed in the supermarket.

Soon, the two of them had also moved the meat out. Looking at the empty pork section in the display case, Bai Xue decided not to take anything else out for now. All of this was stored in the east wing room, the door securely locked, awaiting Zhang Yuan’s arrangements with Zhao Qiang to have everything moved out.

"Pingyang Town will have a good New Year too! With so much released at once, a lot of people will be able to buy some!" Zhang Yuan said.

He was confident Zhao Qiang would sell locally first, as it was unlikely they’d transport goods long distances right before the New Year.