Having obtained the booklet detailing the medicinal herbs, Su Qing was in a cheerful mood. She looked up at the sun—it was about time for the ox cart to head back to the village. She placed her back basket into her space and went to where Grandpa Sun parked the ox cart. She still had a transaction with Zhang Erlai here in the county town at seven tonight, so Su Qing didn’t plan on traveling back and forth. She would just return to the village on her own after the deal was complete.

When she got there, Su Qing saw that the ox cart was almost full. The only empty spot was next to Aunt Cuihua, likely saved for her.

"Su Qing, hurry, there’s still a spot!" Aunt Cuihua called out with a cheerful smile when she saw Su Qing.

Su Qing smiled and waved. Just as she was about to speak, a figure shot past her, making a beeline for the spot next to Aunt Cuihua. Su Qing took a look. ’Great, it’s Tan Qingjuan again.’

Aunt Cuihua said angrily, "Tan Zhiqing, what’s your problem? Why do you always snatch other people’s seats? I was saving this spot for Su Qing!"

Tan Qingjuan rolled her eyes. "It’s not like it has Su Qing’s name written on it. Besides, Su Qing isn’t an elder, is she? If she’s slow, that’s her problem. Seats should go to whoever gets here first."

Aunt Cuihua was about to retort, but Su Qing hurried forward. "Aunt Cuihua, don’t pay her any mind. I’m not taking the ox cart back today anyway. I just came over to let you know."

"What? You’re not taking the ox cart? You’d have to walk back, and it’s such a long way," Aunt Tao chimed in from the side.

Tan Qingjuan swung her leg up and sat on the cart, watching Su Qing with an unreadable expression. She had actually come to the county town today to find Liang Fushan. She knew he had been trying to get a factory job lately and often came into town. So, she had used her day off to make a trip, hoping for a chance to run into him.

But unfortunately, after searching for half the day, she hadn’t seen even a shadow of Liang Fushan. Now, hearing that Su Qing wasn’t going back, she grew suspicious again. She couldn’t help but wonder: was Su Qing staying in town because of Liang Fushan?

In reality, Tan Qingjuan knew this suspicion was completely baseless. But when she thought about how Liang Fushan had asked her about Su Qing, and how Su Qing had also come down from the mountain that day, she couldn’t help but wonder if Liang Fushan had already gotten in touch with her.

Su Qing paid Tan Qingjuan’s stare no mind. She smiled at Aunt Cuihua and Aunt Tao and said, "An elder relative of mine insisted I stay for dinner. They’ll take me home afterward, so I won’t be taking the ox cart."

"Oh, I see." Hearing Su Qing’s explanation, Aunt Cuihua and Aunt Tao were relieved. "It gets dark early these days. Get back home soon."

"I will."

Seeing that the ox cart was full, Grandpa Sun urged the ox onward, preparing to leave the county town.

Su Qing waved goodbye to the aunties. When she saw the way Tan Qingjuan was looking at her, she couldn’t help but frown. She felt that Tan Qingjuan’s gaze was different now, always tinged with a hint of scrutiny.

’Could it be that Tan Qingjuan has noticed something?’ 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Shaking her head, Su Qing pushed the thought aside. ’Even if Tan Qingjuan suspects something, she has no proof. This body belongs to the original owner, the genuine article.’

’Besides, in this era, no one is allowed to speak of things like feudal superstition. No one would dare to bring up something as outlandish as soul possession. So even if Tan Qingjuan really does suspect something, it’s pointless.’

She took another spin through the supply and marketing co-op, though it was just for a look. Su Qing had too few ration tickets to buy much of anything. After a quick browse, she headed for the woods east of town. Once she had changed her clothes and adjusted her disguise, Su Qing began to continuously absorb the green mist around the forest.

This stretch of woods was some distance from town, so people rarely came here. Seeing it was nearly seven o’clock, Su Qing found a relatively open area and took the two large wild boars and one roe deer out of her space. She laid them on the ground and, for good measure, sent a wisp of gray mist toward them to keep the three animals from making a racket and attracting attention.

Before long, Su Qing heard footsteps from outside the woods. A moment later, she saw Zhang Erlai approaching in a hurry with several other men.

It was already dark by now. Zhang Erlai and his men entered the woods with flashlights, pulling a flatbed cart. When he saw Su Qing waiting there, Zhang Erlai quickly greeted her with a smile, "Aunt Feng, you’re here early! Are you all alone?"

As he spoke, Zhang Erlai sized up Su Qing, thinking, ’Brother Cheng said this Aunt Feng was in disguise, but I can’t see it at all. It looks like I really have a lot to learn.’

"Yes, just me." Su Qing nodded. "My family helped me carry the goods here, but I had them go back first. I have a lot of trust in you."

Zhang Erlai smiled at her words. "Thank you for your trust, Aunt Feng. We hope this will be a long and lasting partnership."

Su Qing smiled and pointed to the boars and the roe deer on the ground. "You should weigh them first. I’ll say this upfront: they’re all alive. We gave them a light sedative—we have to guarantee freshness, after all. What you do with them after you haul them away is your business."

"Ah, right." Zhang Erlai nodded in understanding. He knew that hunters usually had powders of some sort to handle wild beasts.

The men went over to check and were delighted to find the animals were indeed alive and extremely fresh. They quickly weighed the two wild boars and the roe deer. The two boars totaled 712 jin, and the roe deer was 52 jin. They were impressively plump.

Zhang Erlai was overjoyed. After a quick mental calculation, he said to Su Qing, "Aunt Feng, the two boars weigh 712 jin. At our agreed price, that’s five hundred sixty-nine point six yuan. I’ll round it up to an even five hundred seventy for you. The roe deer is 52 jin, which comes to sixty-two point four yuan. I’ll round that up to sixty-three. So, the total is six hundred thirty-three yuan. Is that correct?"

"Correct." Su Qing nodded.

Zhang Erlai smiled again. "You mentioned you wanted some cloth tickets, cotton tickets, and things like that. I brought some with me. Take a look and see what you need."

With that, Zhang Erlai took out a thick stack of ration tickets.

Su Qing looked over the tickets he had brought. In addition to cloth, cotton, oil, and tobacco tickets, there were also tickets for brown sugar, kerosene, meat, and grain, as well as some industrial coupons.

In the end, besides the cloth, cotton, oil, and tobacco tickets, Su Qing also asked for several brown sugar and kerosene tickets, and topped it off with some industrial coupons. Those industrial coupons were hard to get, and many things in the supply and marketing co-op couldn’t be bought without them.

After accounting for the coupons, Zhang Erlai gave Su Qing the remaining five hundred thirty yuan. With the goods exchanged and the money paid, both sides were delighted with the transaction.

As Zhang Erlai and his men were leaving, he said to Su Qing with a broad smile, "Aunt Feng, next time you get a big catch like this, you just come find me."

"Will do."