Chapter 228: Delivering Eggs

Zhou Yimin opened the shop and saw that today’s flash deals included a hundred catties of eggs, a hundred bags of milk powder, a hundred catties of beef, and a hundred catties of peanut oil. Without hesitation, he bought them all.

The village needed eggs. A hundred catties would be at least six or seven hundred eggs—just enough to meet the needs of both his own village and Shangshui Village.

Since he had nothing else to do at the moment, he decided to deliver the eggs back.

Right before arriving at Zhoujiazhuang, Zhou Yimin took out the eggs and placed them on the back of his bicycle.

Once back in the village, he headed straight for the chick hatchery. As expected, the old village secretary was there, busy at work. After the wheat harvest, the old man had been spending most of his days between the vegetable field and the hatchery.

Zhou Yimin said, “Old Secretary, I brought the eggs over.”

“Good, good! I can always count on you, Yimin. As for the money, we might need a little time. Once we sell the village vegetables, we’ll pay you,” the old secretary said with some embarrassment.

There was no helping it—there wasn’t much money left in the village. Most of it had been spent earlier on buying donkeys.

Zhou Yimin didn’t mind. “It’s fine. Once the vegetables are harvested, you can just deduct it from what I’m purchasing.”

These eggs had only cost a single yuan anyway. Even if the village didn’t pay, he wouldn’t be losing much. But in the future, things like this would require payment upfront—money first, goods later. After all, it’s not about being generous; it’s just about making sure favors are repaid. He wasn’t going to be taken for a fool.

Seeing that Zhou Yimin had agreed, the old secretary visibly relaxed. “Alright, we’ll deduct it from the vegetable payment then!”

Zhou Yimin nodded, then added, “Old Secretary, I have to deliver something to Shangshui Village, so I’ll head over there now.”

“Wait, Yimin.” The old secretary stopped him.

Zhou Yimin was a little confused. “Old Secretary, is there something else?”

The old man looked a little embarrassed. “Yimin, I wanted to ask… do you happen to have two packs of good cigarettes? Our village is about to hand over our grain quota, and if we had two good packs, it might make things go a bit smoother.”

In previous years, without decent cigarettes, they’d been “rejected” twice, which had caused serious delays.

“Oh come on, I thought it was something difficult. Just two packs of cigarettes? Here, take them,” Zhou Yimin said casually.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out two packs of Chunghwa cigarettes, handing them over.

It was a habit of his—whenever he needed something, his hand naturally went to his pocket.

The old secretary saw the Chunghwa and hesitated—he almost didn’t want to give them away. But he quickly said, “Thank you, Yimin. With these, things will definitely go more smoothly. As before, we’ll deduct the cost from the vegetable payments.”

“No worries. I’ll head to Shangshui Village now,” Zhou Yimin said as he took his leave.

It was just two packs of cigarettes—nothing worth keeping track of. One shouldn’t be a pushover, but one shouldn’t be too petty either.

Honestly, even he struggled sometimes with finding the right balance.

For the past few days, Village Chief Wang had been lingering at the village entrance, hoping to catch a glimpse of Zhou Yimin.

Then suddenly, he spotted someone riding a bike—yes, that had to be Zhou Yimin! He hurried forward to greet him. “Comrade Yimin, you’re here!”

Zhou Yimin recognized him and joked, “Village Chief Wang, don’t tell me you’ve been waiting for me?”

“That’s right. I’ve been waiting for you, Yimin,” Village Chief Wang replied directly.

He caught sight of something on the back of the bike and quickly asked, “Comrade Yimin, are those eggs?”

Zhou Yimin nodded. “You’ve got sharp eyes, Chief. I’ve got two hundred eggs here—about thirty catties. I’ll charge you fifteen yuan.”

Egg prices had gone up again. Now they were about thirty cents per catty, and that was with ration tickets. Without tickets, they could go for double that. Zhou Yimin was only charging five cents more per catty.

Besides, these eggs were meant for hatching chicks, which made the higher price quite reasonable.

Village Chief Wang said, “Alright, we’ll go with that.”

Then he pulled fifteen yuan out of his pocket.

Zhou Yimin saw this and realized that Wang had been prepared all along. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been carrying that much money around—fifteen yuan was nearly a month’s salary for an apprentice.

Zhou Yimin added, “As for the grain, I’ll transport it to a nearby location tonight. You can send people over to collect it.”

“Great, I’ll arrange a team right away,” Village Chief Wang replied happily.

That night, Zhou Yimin quietly arrived at a small grove near Shangshui Village and unloaded 7,000 catties of corn, sweet potatoes, and regular potatoes onto the ground. Then he rode off toward the village.

As he approached, he saw that Village Chief Wang had already brought a group of people out to wait. They all stood there like ghosts in the dark.

Wang quickly came over. “Yimin, didn’t you already deliver the grain?”

“Yes, follow me,” Zhou Yimin said.

He turned around and led the way. In less than ten minutes, they arrived at the grove.

From the woods came the eerie cry of an owl.

Zhou Yimin said, “The seven thousand catties of sweet potatoes and the rest are all here. You guys handle transporting it back. I’ve got other things to do, so I’ll take my leave.”

“Alright, thank you so much, Yimin,” Village Chief Wang said gratefully.

The villagers opened the sacks. Inside were corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes. When they saw the food, the people of Shangshui Village were all smiles.

These days, nothing was more comforting than seeing food.

Village Chief Wang then started directing people to haul the goods back to the village. They even brought out the village’s ox carts and donkey carts. Otherwise, relying on manpower alone, who knew how long it would’ve taken?

Thanks to the carts, it only took a few trips to move all 7,000 catties of food back to the village.

While they were still busy transporting the grain, Zhou Yimin didn’t return to Zhoujiazhuang. Instead, he headed back into the city. He returned to the siheyuan, where he had already stashed the grain. Now, he just needed to call Daniu over to move it to Widow Ma’s house.

Zhou Yimin went over to Widow Ma’s home and knocked on the door.

The door opened immediately. Widow Ma saw that it was Zhou Yimin and quickly invited him in. “Yimin, come sit down for a bit, have a glass of water.”

“Aunt Ma, no need to be so formal. Can you come over and help move the corn?” Zhou Yimin asked.

Widow Ma replied, “Alright, I’ll call Daniu over now.”

Then she shouted into the house, “Daniu, what are you still eating for? Hurry up and come help.”

Daniu quickly got up from the table and set his cup down.

They went to Zhou Yimin’s place, and Daniu didn’t say a word—he just started carrying the sacks of corn back to his second sister’s house.

Each sack weighed about fifty catties. Three hundred catties meant six sacks.

Even with an empty stomach, carrying grain seemed to give him endless strength. He carried two sacks at once all the way to Widow Ma’s house.

And just like that, all three hundred catties of corn were moved in under ten minutes.

(End of Chapter)