I secretly sold grain at age 60

Chapter 27 Preparation

After dinner, Gao Huaiyi's family returned home and brought out several long wooden benches to sit around the bluestone table in the farmhouse courtyard. The evening breeze carried the fragrance of locust leaves from the corner of the yard, dispelling the heat of the day's work, and the family chatted leisurely.

The youngest, Gao Huaijun, ate his fill and leaned back on the stool with a satisfied look on his face: "Today's flatbread and braised pork were so delicious. If I could eat such decent meals every day from now on, I would be content."

Hearing this, her older sister Gao Huaijuan chuckled, pulled her patched coarse cloth jacket tighter around her, and looked out at the smooth dirt road outside the courtyard: "I not only want to eat my fill, but I also hope that one day I can wear a whole set of new clothes without patches. When I have free time, I can go to town to stroll around and see some new things."

Gao Huaiyi sat on a rock to the side, gazing at the slowly rising sunset on the horizon, his tone filled with anticipation: "From now on, the harvests from the fields will be more plentiful year after year. We won't have to rely on the whims of the heavens for our livelihood anymore." He wondered if he meant the grain in the fields or the grain in his spatial dimension. During the off-season, we could also visit the beautiful landscapes of China. We can't be like in my previous life, so busy that we had very little time truly for ourselves.

Mother Li Xiulan sat to the side, fiddling with her unfinished needlework, nodding repeatedly in agreement: "That's right. In the years of war and chaos, we worried about food every year, and every day we were afraid of not having enough to eat. It was good enough to survive on bran and vegetables, let alone dare to hope for food every meal. Now that things have settled down, being able to eat our fill every day is a good thing that we never dared to dream of before."

Father Gao Jianguo tapped his pipe, his expression resolute: "Don't worry, with the new China, the world will only prosper day by day. The land is stable, the policies are favorable, as long as our family works hard, we will eventually achieve the day when we have enough to eat and wear and can buy new things."

The family chatted amongst themselves, sharing their simple wishes. The courtyard was filled with anticipation for the future, and their whispered words, imbued with the warmth of everyday life, drifted gently in the cool evening breeze.

It was late at night, and I lay on the warm earthen bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. The wind whispered past the courtyard wall outside the window, and my mind raced, calculating the days to come. The world was peaceful now, and my family no longer worried about food and clothing. I couldn't just drift through life aimlessly; I had to find a way to make a living. Right now, securing a decent, stable job was the most respectable and reliable option, guaranteeing a steady income and allowing me to help my family prosper. This was something I had to keep in mind and plan carefully.

Besides, there's the grain stored in my spatial dimension. It'll be ready for harvest in about ten days. Keeping the grain on hand means I can't convert it into cash or consume that much. My immediate priority is to secretly contact reliable buyers beforehand, and once the surplus grain is sold, I can exchange it all for cash and various certificates. Having money and certificates in hand will be useful for daily expenses, or for finding jobs and making connections later. These two important matters weighed on my mind, and the more I thought about them, the clearer my mind became, filled with anticipation for a stable life ahead. Now that I have a spatial dimension, I can quickly accumulate enough supplies, so a suitable job for me would be a purchasing agent. Plus, my car repair skills from my previous life could have made me a driver, but I've had enough of that in my past life. This time, I'll choose the purchasing agent job!

After breakfast, I sat down in front of my parents and said earnestly, "Dad, Mom, I'm planning to go to the city to find a decent job."

The two elders were taken aback when the words were spoken. The father frowned slightly: "Finding a job isn't that easy. Job openings are scarce right now. Without connections or connections, it's very difficult to find a reliable job."

Mother Li Xiulan was also worried: "Jobs in the city are in high demand, and most require introductions from acquaintances. Going to the city empty-handed would be a waste of effort. We have enough to eat and drink at home now, why take such a risk?"

I patiently reassured my parents, "I know what I'm doing, I'll slowly find a way. Going out to work is better than staying at home and wasting time. If you can establish yourself, you can help the family in the future." My mother said, "If you can really find a job, that would be great!"

After talking to my parents, I set off to the next village to find Zhou Xiuya. After we sat down, I told them all about my plan to go to the city to find a proper job.

After listening for a moment, Zhou Xiuying said frankly that finding a formal job is currently very difficult due to strict regulations. There are only three ways to get a factory job and settle down: either catch the national unified recruitment and go through the formal process of approval at each level; or be a demobilized soldier and have a job assigned by the civil affairs department; or have a high-ranking cadre personally recommend you and you can get a job with the recommendation letter.

She detailed my difficulties: I had neither a demobilization status nor any established connections; all I had was grain waiting to be harvested, and the prospect of making connections with powerful officials or obtaining letters of recommendation was virtually impossible. Although there were occasional job openings circulating privately, they were not only scarce and expensive, but even if I were lucky enough to come across one, I might not be able to get the purchasing position I longed for.

After pondering for a while, Zhou Xiuying gave me an idea: the safest way right now was to use the space's advantages to accumulate more wild game. In these days of scarcity, every household lacks food and meat, making rare meats especially sought after among officials. I could use the space to breed and cultivate wild game, then use these rare animals to visit people and build relationships. This would not only make it easier to build connections and obtain letters of recommendation, but also make it easier for superiors to notice my work, greatly increasing my chances of getting a good job.

I pondered her words carefully, and the more I thought about it, the more reasonable they seemed. I immediately made up my mind about what to do next.

After discussing it with Zhou Xiuying, I headed straight for the back mountain I usually frequented, intending to catch more wild game to store in my spatial dimension, relying on its unique time flow to slowly breed and stockpile. However, strange things kept happening. After wandering the mountain for two or three hours, I found very few of the small animals that were usually everywhere, a far cry from my previous harvest. After three or four hours, I only encountered a tiny baby rabbit, no bigger than my palm. Seeing how young it was, I couldn't bear to leave it and released it.

At this rate, it's unclear when we'll be able to gather enough wild game to give as gifts. The deep mountains and dense forests have many forks in the road, and venturing in rashly could easily lead to getting lost. After much thought, we decided to try our luck on the mountain next to the neighboring village.

I turned and descended the mountain, following a secluded path towards the back of the neighboring village. After walking for more than half an hour, I reached the border between the two villages' forests. Before I even took a step up the mountain, a pheasant suddenly darted out from under my feet, flapping its wings and flying towards the distant mountains. The sudden movement startled me. I didn't rashly use my spatial abilities to hunt. Firstly, the situation was sudden and I was caught off guard. Secondly, this place was close to the border between the two villages, and villagers often passed by. If someone saw me taking my prey out of thin air, the secret of my spatial abilities would surely be exposed. Right now, only Zhou Xiuying knew my secret. I trusted her to be reliable and would never casually reveal it to others. But the more people who saw it, the greater the risk. I couldn't be careless.

After calming myself down, I headed up the mountain. Just five or six minutes later, two wild rabbits darted out from beneath my feet. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, I immediately activated my spatial abilities and carefully stored the two rabbits inside. Upon closer inspection, I was delighted to discover that one of them was a pregnant mother rabbit, carrying her young. Keeping her in my spatial storage would allow her to breed a litter of rabbits in no time, making the process of accumulating wild game much easier.

Standing there, I turned to look in the direction of the mountain behind my house, my mind filled with doubt. Both are part of the same mountain range, yet after searching for days, I've found hardly any birds or animals on my own back mountain, while the neighboring village's mountain is teeming with wild creatures. Could it be that all the animals in the mountains have moved away? This strange phenomenon baffled me, and I continued deeper into the forest, still puzzled.

I wandered around the mountains behind the neighboring village for over two hours, collecting four wild rabbits and two pheasants using my spatial storage. I also moved a hive of over a dozen bees into my space. I picked up a rabbit by myself, intending to take it home for a treat. But then I suddenly remembered the Great Leap Forward a few years ago, when all the iron pots and utensils in my house were handed over to the collective. Without pots and pans, I couldn't stew anything. In the end, I could only find a place to make a fire and roast this rabbit.

It was already three or four in the afternoon, the sun beginning to set. I packed up and set off down the mountain, following the path at the foot of the mountain back to the village. I hadn't gone far when I bumped into Zhang Tie, a good-for-nothing from the neighboring village. He was two or three years older than me, and his character was similar to Huai Ren's—idle and lazy all day long, except that he had married early and already had two children. Zhang Tie's eyes immediately fell on the rabbit in my hand, and he immediately blocked my way, saying, "This is the back mountain area of ​​our village. What's the rule for you hunting on the mountain? You must leave the game behind."

I immediately saw through his plan to use his territorial advantage to forcibly steal the prey. I silently weighed the situation: I wasn't afraid of things getting out of hand, but I was afraid he would escalate the situation. If things escalated, I wouldn't be able to hunt in these mountains for the next ten days or so, and my plan to gather game and use connections to find a job would fall through. For the sake of the long term, I pretended to lose my grip and gently loosened my wrist, causing the rabbit to fall to the ground.

Startled, the rabbit took off running, its four hooves flying, and dashed down the path into the deep mountains. Zhang Tie was frantic and gave chase, but he was usually lazy and didn't like to move, and his legs were no match for the rabbit's agility. In a short while, the rabbit disappeared into the bushes.

Zhang Tie, furious at missing his target, returned, his eyes wide with rage, his anger practically spitting out of them, glaring at me fiercely. I feigned innocence, spreading my hands and teasing, "Too bad, the rabbits from your village ran back to the mountains. If you don't hurry and chase after them, you'll never find them again."

Seeing his angry yet helpless expression, I smiled faintly, stopped arguing, and walked along the path straight towards my village.