Chapter 36
The exchange
“Of course! How can I not accept it?”
The kid’s eyes lit up as he looked at the deer in front of him. A living deer was much more valuable than a dead one.
“You caught this roe deer by yourself? Which village are you from?”
The short man was just casually making conversations; there was no way he would reject this living deer.
Hearing his question, Xiao Wu quickly took out the letter of recommendation from the village chief to prove their identity.
In this era, many things required a letter of recommendation. The letter of recommendation was usually a kind of identification certificate issued by a village or a work unit.
Jiang Chuan was glad they accepted the village chief’s kindness. Due to their lack of understanding of this era, there were many things that they didn’t think of.
Jiang Chuan glanced at the greed in the man’s eyes and secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
After roughly reading through the introduction letter, the short man said, “Tell me now! What do you want in exchange? We only have a lot of things like matches and oils here.”
Although they also needed these daily necessities, their first priority was filling their stomachs.
“We would like to exchange for food.” The few of them said in unison.
Zhou Lan added, “We would also like to exchange for an iron pot, a big one.”
Zhou Lan was the one cooking at home, so naturally, she was the only one who thought of the pot.
The four looked at each other and laughed, “We can give you the food, but the iron pot….”
It was as if Zhou Lan had said something funny, and the short man couldn’t stop laughing. “Young lady, how could you think of exchanging for an iron pot! Even if we wanted to, we don’t have it!”
After hearing what he said, Zhou Lan suddenly remembered that two years ago, the country had a large-scale production of iron and steel, and every family had to hand over their ironware. Only in the past two years had they relaxed a little.
Zhou Lan’s ears heated up, and she stopped talking. Jiang Chuan tried to smooth things over. “Why don’t we weigh the deer first, then we’ll talk about how much we can exchange?”
“Alright,” the man said as he nodded to the other three man.
With Xiao Wu being a person who often went to the town, few were not worried they would be at a disadvantage. As the deer got weighed, the short man was amazed at its size.
“27 kg, this deer is considered quite big! After removing the fur, I’ll give you 45 dollars.”
Animals were also skinny during the drought, so it was really rare for a deer to be at least 20 kg.
Jiang Chuan glanced at Wu, who nodded slightly.
“Alright, how do you want to calculate the price of this grain then?” Jiang Chuan asked.
This time, the four of them didn’t discuss it in front of them. Instead, they entered the house and only came out only after discussing it.
“I’ll trade 1kg for 1kg. How about 13kg of cornbread and 13kg of rice?”
As they were talking, an old lady walked over. Although she saw that the short man was busy, she still called him into the house. Jiang Chuan and the others were waiting outside.
Jiang Xia was busy teasing the silly deer, the group of people did not notice her. They only heard a slightly chubby man whispering to another person, “Brother Liu’s mother is here again. It can’t be for brother Liu’s wife, right?”
“I’m guessing so. I heard that brother Liu’s wife is having a lot of trouble because she’s pregnant. She’s been complaining every day that she wants to eat meat.”
“You want meat? Wasn’t this too much of a coincidence? I just got it.” The chubby man glanced at the deer and said.
Another person sighed softly, “Brother Liu really dotes on his wife. If it wasn’t for brother Liu’s insistence, perhaps we could lower the price of this meat.”
Although the two of them spoke softly, Jiang Xia’s ears were still sharp as she stood close to them.
Jiang Xia rolled her eyes and an idea came to his mind. She pulled Zhou Lan over and whispered something into her ear. Then, she rummaged through the large basket on her back.
“Xiao Xia, do you think we can take it out again? Didn’t Xiao Wu take two rabbits?” Zhou Lan squatted down beside Jiang Xia and muttered to herself.
“Xiao Wu’s rabbit is too skinny,” Jiang Xia said with a smile. The man’s wife is pregnant, and she needs to get some nutrients. Rabbits have finer meat than deers, so they’re easier to handle. Most importantly…”
Jiang Xia said as she lifted the wild vegetables that were covering the basket. Zhou Lan’s eyes widened when she peeked inside.
“What’s this?”
Jiang Xia put a finger to her mouth and made a shushing gesture.
Jiang Chuan caught a glimpse of the mother and daughter and followed them, “What are you two doing?”
Jiang Xia noticed that Xiao Wu was chatting happily with someone and was not paying attention to them, so she quickly said to her dad, “Dad, with Xiao Wu here, I’m afraid our plan won’t work out. Let’s find an excuse to walk around and see if we can exchange it for something else.”