The First Order

Chapter 1014: Food shortage

“I’ll have to discuss it with him first, Mrs. Hu,” Yang Xiaojin said with a smile. After all, it was still up to Ren Xiaosu whether he wanted to go even if Hu Xiaobai did recommend him a job. She would have to get Ren Xiaosu to agree to it first.

Hu Xiaobai said anxiously, “Why do you need to discuss this with him? Just look at how lazy he is. It would be a wonder if he agreed to it! So don’t discuss anything with him and force it on him. Let me tell you, men are all like that. When they’re young, they idle their lives away. When my husband was younger, he did not work a proper job either. He just cooped himself up at the school every day to teach. After the Zong Consortium was defeated, I had to force him to go and interview for a job with the Northwest Army. Look, isn’t he doing pretty good now?”

“That won’t do, Mrs. Hu.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head with a smile. “My partner is very opinionated, so I can’t persuade him easily. How about this? I’ll talk to him about it. Give us three days to consider, alright? But no matter what, I want to thank you for being so helpful.”

“Alright then.” Hu Xiaobai sighed and said, “I’m just afraid that he’ll set you back.”

After that, Hu Xiaobai went home. Yang Xiaojin suddenly felt this place was even more homely now. Not only was she earning her own keep, but there were also all sorts of neighbors, like the aunties and old ladies not far away who were chatting about their daily lives while playing mahjong.

Charcoal briquettes were piled up at the entrance of every household. If any households had their briquettes stolen in the morning, the neighbors would even start shouting “thief” in the morning.

But it was relatively rare for briquettes to be stolen. Otherwise, everyone would have moved them into their backyards.

In Yang Xiaojin’s opinion, this was all about human compassion.

Yang Xiaojin went back into the house and said to Ren Xiaosu, “Mrs. Hu recommended you for a temporary position at the administrative center. Do you want to take up the job?”

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Why would I go there? The administrative center is where the residents get their paperwork done. I’ve got no such experience.”

“It’s up to you. Anyway, I told her we would take three days to consider. If you don’t want to go, I can just turn her down after three days.” Yang Xiaojin smiled. “But I feel that it’s not a bad idea for you to work in the administrative center. That way, I can also be considered to have a backer in the stronghold. When the time comes, I can hold very respectable conversations with the older women.”

“Alright, you’ve become great at mocking people now.” Ren Xiaosu said with a laugh, “But I feel that you’ve been smiling more since you came to the Northwest.”

…

The two of them still woke up early each morning and headed to the marketplace to sell potatoes. At the beginning, Yang Xiaojin sold their potatoes at a cheaper price than the other stalls. She was hoping to sell out quickly, but Ren Xiaosu told her not to do that, because their business was just a form of experience for them. But for the other stall owners, it was their main livelihood to support their families.

It was very tough work for the stall owners to transport the groceries back from the wholesale market on their trikes, and they did not make much money in a single day of sales either.

Their wives and children at home were waiting for them to put food on the table. Their children’s school fees were also slowly accumulated from every single cent they made.

If Yang Xiaojin were to disrupt these stall owners’ normal business because of her interest and desire to experience life, it wouldn’t really be good.

Yang Xiaojin was not someone who refused to listen to advice. As such, she decided she would sell their potatoes at 20 cents more per kilogram than the other stalls in the future.

When Yang Xiaojin returned home at night, she even lamented, “Although I’ve also been through very tough times before, it was always for the sake of honing my willpower. It’s only now that I’m truly starting to understand the ways of the world.”

During the day, Ren Xiaosu would stop reading his books and just wander around the market.

The stall owners would look at him in confusion, not knowing what he was walking around for.

Ren Xiaosu went to the various stalls to inquire about the prices of vegetables and meat. He even went to the provisions stalls to ask about the prices of rice and noodles. In any case, he just strolled around like had nothing more important to do.

But when Yang Xiaojin closed for the day, he would go around to buy some vegetables and meat. However, the ingredients he bought were always the best quality ones, and those were often the most expensive.

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, there was absolutely no need for him to make things difficult for himself now. When it was time for war again, he would have to go back to eating and sleeping in the wilderness. If he did not treat himself to something good at this time, when else would he do that?

But in the eyes of the other stall owners, Ren Xiaosu was a complete wastrel. After all, why would a person like him who relied on his wife to sell potatoes to support the family deserve to eat so well?

He was probably wasting all the money earned from selling potatoes every day on his meals! He didn’t even bother to keep any savings. What would he do if they had a child?

On the third day, Ren Xiaosu returned to the stall with a frown and whispered to Yang Xiaojin, “Have you realized? The prices in the market are different every day. Yesterday, the string beans only cost 20 cents to buy, but today, it’s risen to 22 cents. And this is only the vegetables. The prices of rice and noodles are even worse. Yesterday, it was only two yuan per kilogram, but today, it’s almost 2.20 per kilogram. Although price fluctuations are quite normal, the prices have been increasing for several days in a row now. I’m afraid that there’s some problem. It looks like the food shortage is probably getting more and more serious.”

“Then do you think we can buy some food from the Wang Consortium if there’s a famine in the Northwest?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“I doubt it. You also know how ruthless the Wang Consortium is. The times that they tried to sabotage the Pyro Company during the war are still fresh in my mind. They were also indifferent to the large number of escapees fleeing south back then, so how could they possibly disrupt their plans over such a trivial matter?” Ren Xiaosu said, “But it’s alright, I still have a plan if it really comes to that.”

Although it might not be the best solution, it could at least ensure that no one in the Northwest would starve to death.

When Yang Xiaojin saw Ren Xiaosu’s serious expression, she thought that while others might think Ren Xiaosu was just wandering around aimlessly, she knew he was stepping up to the role of the Northwest’s future commander and starting to think about how to solve the current problem.

“By the way,” Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, “it’s time to give Mrs. Hu an answer today. Are you going to take the job she’s recommending?”

“Yes.” Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “I can also go and observe how the stronghold’s administrative center is run.”

In the past, Ren Xiaosu did not have too many opportunities to deal with the so-called stronghold administrative centers, though there might have been one or two instances where he accidentally blew up a stronghold administrative center or ran across the roof of one.

As he had only lived in a stronghold for a short period, he did not know much about how a stronghold was run. For example, the people in town would only resort to oral agreements when it came to the transference of a property. Sometimes, there would even be cases of ruthless people forcefully occupying other people’s houses as there were no such things as title deeds, and neither did the stronghold acknowledge the legitimacy of property rights in town.

Also, no one in town would ask if a couple was married like how Hu Xiaobai had recently asked them. Once two people started living together and became interdependent, they would be considered a couple. There was no need to apply for a marriage certificate with anyone.

This made Ren Xiaosu feel that he still needed to gain a better understanding of this place, because he might be spending the rest of his life here in the Northwest.

Moreover, he also wanted to see how Stronghold 144 was going to resolve the issue of the food shortage. He wanted to make some observations first, and working undercover at the administrative center was the best way to do it. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu’s interest was piqued.