Chapter 213: 213 Harvest
"Tonight, you know there’s an abandoned temple outside the city, let’s meet there. Be cautious."
Gao Wenjie nodded eagerly. "We will, what time should we be there?"
"Eleven o’clock, don’t be too early."
The three parted ways, and Gao Wenjie excitedly returned home. Upon finding out that Jinyu had already been prepared, he couldn’t help but check everything over again. Then, he arranged for his brothers to find vehicles.
After all, they had a ton of goods. At least three trucks would be needed, but eventually, the five brothers decided that each of them would take a truck, split everything directly there, and take their share away. This was much safer.
If you don’t have some guts and mental resilience in this line of work, you really can’t handle it. So during the day, they contacted clients.
They all knew that as soon as the goods came out, they would be snapped up. The five brothers already agreed on a price. It’s an additional dime per pound of grain, and one dollar per pound of pork.
This pork was really in demand, and even if it was a bit more expensive, there were still buyers, just fewer ones.
They also didn’t have much capital, so they only took five hundred pounds. A hundred pounds each was enough for them to sell.
You can’t earn all the money, it’s better to gauge your own capabilities.
At ten in the evening, Tan Shaoting and Su Yuanyuan arrived at the abandoned temple, where they laid out the grain directly and weighed the meat, gathering everything together.
By eleven o’clock, the five brothers were exceedingly punctual in their arrival.
Tan Shaoting inspected the quality of the Jinyu, while they examined the grain.
Both parties were very satisfied. Tan Shaoting took the bag of Jinyu, held Su Yuanyuan’s hand, and left.
Once they reached a place with no people, they shed their disguises, and Su Yuanyuan changed back into her girl’s clothes, which she disliked. It was a small blue floral pattern. But there wasn’t much else she could do.
They headed straight to the train station, and by eight, they could take the train back.
Having acquired such gains was already quite fortunate.
Collecting Jinyu in this way, although dangerous, was in much larger quantities than gathering it themselves since the local bosses were more effective.
They boarded the train safely, which would take three days. Tan Shaoting used the same method as before and got a sleeper berth.
By the time they reached the city, it was already mid-February on the lunar calendar. There were signs of the snow on the road melting, melting during the day and freezing at night.
Such roads were much more treacherous. However, after getting off the train, the two still headed back.
The journey was truly arduous. But Su Yuanyuan found some amusement; the thawing and freezing made the roads slick, so she skated on them. It was quite enjoyable.
After twenty hours, they finally arrived home.
Su Yuanyuan felt like her legs could barely move.
Yet, once they stepped through the door, she was reinvigorated. The two divided tasks, and soon smoke was curling from the chimney, the stove was lit, the big stove was ablaze, all in hopes of quickly warming the house.
Su Yuanyuan busied herself with tidying up the house, as they had been gone for months, and the strong northeastern winds had left dust on all the furniture and the kang, which she couldn’t stand.
An hour later, the house was spotless. The two sat by the stove drinking milk tea, without much of an appetite for food.
"The kang will be warm soon, you should go to sleep," Tan Shaoting said, looking sympathetically at the wilted young girl.
"What about you?"
"I’ll sleep too."
Su Yuanyuan didn’t even eat, with a hot water bag at her feet and hugging another one.
She slept until afternoon before finally waking.
Back home at last. This sense of security was incomparable to any other place.
Beside her, Tan Shaoting watched the girl who started daydreaming as soon as she opened her eyes and laughed.
"Aren’t you hungry?"
Su Yuanyuan laughed, "I am. What do you want to eat?"
"I want dumplings."
Su Yuanyuan sat up. Shivered a little, but it was still cold.
"No problem. I’ll get started right away."
The two worked quite efficiently. Now Tan Shaoting was very adept at rolling dumpling skins. One would roll and the other would wrap. An hour and a half later, they were eating dumplings.
"Home-cooked food tastes the best."
"Is that so? You didn’t get to taste the delicacies outside."
Su Yuanyuan felt somewhat wronged. The two of them had roamed the neighboring places, even gone abroad, yet hadn’t truly enjoyed any gourmet food.
But she knew in her heart, in twenty years, those things would be at your fingertips, as long as you had the money.
Even though she had slept a lot during the day, by ten at night, Su Yuanyuan still went to sleep, feeling she hadn’t quite recuperated. Resting was the best and most effective way.
Tan Shaoting couldn’t sleep, reflecting on what Zhang Chunsheng had said before their departure.
He was in a real dilemma now. Zhang Chunsheng was correct; he currently didn’t have the ability to provide the young girl with safety and the best life.
He wasn’t afraid of anything else, just that one day their identities would be exposed, and what awaited them would be disastrous.
But what if he had the capability? Enough ability to protect her and stand against any malicious people or forces?
Lowering his eyes, he looked at the sweetly sleeping young girl, reluctant to leave her, afraid she might forget him in the future.
Accompanying her was important, but how could they, such ordinary people, resist? Should they really hide for a lifetime? His favorite thing was to see the girl’s expression when she got something she liked, smiling like a cat who got the cream.
Did he really want her to be trapped in one place, without a happy life?
Tan Shaoting knew he couldn’t bear that.
He was caught in a bind. Perhaps he should discuss it with this young girl, hear her thoughts.
Then Tan Shaoting bitterly smiled, the girl would definitely encourage him to go. She wouldn’t be reluctant, wouldn’t try to keep him.
The next day, Su Yuanyuan stretched contently before getting up, feeling revitalized for the day.
They ate the rice porridge cooked in a large iron pot, salted duck egg, and little salted cucumbers prepared from a past life, crisp and tasty, quite satisfying.
For Tan Shaoting, that wasn’t enough, so he also had two oil and salt scones with eggs.
"Yuanyuan, I’m going to the farm, do you want to come?"
"Take me to the Zhao Family to have a look, let’s bring some grain. They took care of the livestock for us."
"It’s up to you, what do you want to bring?"
"Some winter melon from the cellar, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and some cornmeal."
There was some cornmeal ground with a stone mill in the village in the space, so they brought some over.
The two busied themselves, bringing out the snow hoe, and packed everything onto it, making it more convenient.
They arrived at the Zhao Family first. At this time, only Zhao Qingxiang and his wife were there, Zhao Yanli and the others were at the other house.
"Yuanyuan, you’re back?"
"Brother Zhao, this is your wife, right? We missed your wedding." Su Yuanyuan said with a smile.