Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space novel Chapter 424

Chapter 424: Chapter 321: The Sampan Boatman

Early in the morning, as Zhang Guoqing’s biological clock rang, he woke up without waking his wife. After confirming the time, he closed his eyes and sorted out the tasks that still needed arranging today.

After a while, he felt some movement and said with a chuckle, "I’ve been awake for a while. Seeing you tired, I wanted to let you sleep a bit more. Are you sure you still want to go to the morning market?"

Zhou Jiao rubbed her eyes, lifted the blanket, got up, and laughed, "You scared me! I thought I overslept. Let’s go! Grandma Jiang said that early in the morning at Eight Immortals Bridge, there are people pushing carts selling hairy crabs and knife fish. I want to see if there are any specialties from here that we don’t have in the Northeast. After this year, even if we come again, it won’t be easy to buy them."

Seeing her exhausted and sleepy when they returned last night, Zhang Guoqing didn’t tell her that he already had some good news. He was afraid that once she found out, she’d be too excited to sleep. He was just teasing her earlier.

"Yesterday afternoon, while you weren’t around, I already arranged with a junk boat owner to help us purchase some. He’ll be waiting for us not far from the dock at half-past five."

Zhou Jiao squinted at him, pretending to smile, "Alright, you’re starting to tease me now." Then she reached over and tickled him until he couldn’t stop laughing and gave up.

"Did you pay him? What if he breaks the deal and runs off?"

Zhang Guoqing shook his head and whispered, "A helper at the Chinese restaurant introduced me to the boat owner. I avoided the helper and instructed the boat owner to help me covertly purchase a large number of hairy crabs and river fish, as much as he could. His eyes lit up with happiness, how could he run away?

Anyways, the price is very cheap; let him earn some money to save us the trouble of roaming around unfamiliar places. He didn’t even take a deposit from me; said he would bring them over first and then get paid. A smart man! He kept winking at me for secrecy as we left."

Zhou Jiao knew that this guy was smart. She praised him vigorously, seeing his smug face; she slowly said, "Then after meeting the boat owner, will you accompany me to Huaihai Old?"

Zhang Guoqing immediately put on a pained expression and said, "Wife, dear, darling, do we really have to go? Can we not? Those things aren’t much use if we buy them..." Before he could finish, she covered her mouth with laughter, which made him jump out of bed, pick her up, and tickle her back.

The couple fooled around for a while and calmed down to start discussing how to cover it up. After deciding, they noticed it was nearly five o’clock; Zhang Guoqing pulled her to wash up and, after handing the child over to the nanny, the two hurried out.

Reaching the agreed spot, they saw two junk boats of different sizes docked at the shore, even before the set time. The boat owner waved excitedly when he saw Zhang Guoqing and his wife.

Zhang Guoqing, holding Zhou Jiao’s hand, approached and glanced at a woman and a young man behind the boat owner, guessing that this was a family operation. He smiled and said, "Thank you for your trouble. Are you ready? Let’s see the goods first."

Seeing them arrive empty-handed, the boat owner hesitated and said, "Should I have my eldest son deliver them to the restaurant?"

"Please don’t! If you deliver them over there, won’t everyone find out? There’s a cart up ahead; just load them and unload from the boat in a bit," Zhang Guoqing quickly interrupted him.

The boat owner led them onto the boat, where burlap sacks and bamboo baskets filled the space. Zhang Guoqing took another look at the people there. He didn’t expect to encounter such capable folks.

The boat owner opened a few burlap sacks, revealing the hairy crabs and prawns inside the bamboo baskets.

Seeing that they were all good quality, Zhang Guoqing nodded. Then he followed the family to another small boat, and sure enough, it was also filled with supplies. Besides hairy crabs, there were plenty of special products from the river.

"They’re all very good. I see little slips of paper on top; is that the count? We didn’t weigh them, so just tell us the total price," Zhang Guoqing said with a smile.

The boat owner asked his son to take out a scale, "I have one. You can weigh everything before calculating the price. I won’t hide it from you; I only earn a small margin on each item. Other than what we’ve caught ourselves, everything else is marked up a bit."

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