Chapter Sixty: Hidden Trouble

"It is indeed suet jade material, but why did you bring just a single bead?"

"What? Is there something wrong with this bead?"

"It's not that there's anything wrong with the bead itself, but it's missing some components. Usually, jade beads of this shape and size are set in gold or silver to be used as necklaces or pendants. You're still missing quite a few things here..."

"Does the master mean that this bead alone isn't valuable?"

"Of course. How could just a suet jade bead alone be as valuable as one set with gold and silver jewelry?"

"If I were to sell it, how much would you offer?"

"Eighty."

"Eighty yuan?"

"Of course eighty yuan, what else did you expect? The current market rate is around six thousand yuan per kilogram. Your bead weighs at most a dozen grams, so eighty yuan is already a generous offer..."

Before long, Chen Ling walked out of the jewelry store feeling slightly disappointed.

He truly hadn't expected that suet jade, which would be worth ten to twenty thousand yuan per gram in later generations, was only around six yuan per gram at this time.

It was simply too cheap.

"I'm not in urgent need of money right now, so I might as well keep this thing for now!"

He looked at the white jade bead under the sunlight, then put it back into his heavenly space.

After that, he pushed his bicycle and walked toward the newsstand not far from the jewelry store.

After picking out a few novels at the newsstand, Chen Ling originally didn't plan to have lunch in the county town and intended to head straight home. However, he ran into an oil mill owner who had previously bought peanuts from him, and the man stopped him.

When Chen Ling first came to the county town to sell peanuts, this particular man had bought even more than Liu Xinggeng.

Upon seeing Chen Ling this time, the man insisted that Chen Ling deliver another two thousand catties of peanuts to him, no matter what.

Chen Ling explained that he had already supplied other oil mills at a price of one yuan and one cent per catty, and he couldn't possibly sell them at the original price of ninety cents per catty.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, the man didn't hesitate at all, nodded in agreement on the spot, and even offered to pay a deposit in advance.

This attitude left Chen Ling quite stunned.

Thus, he had no choice but to promise him that he would deliver the two thousand catties in a couple of days when he had time.

Because he needed to stay at home tomorrow to wait for the forestry seedling station to deliver fruit tree saplings, which would inevitably require a lot of tending and organizing, he wouldn't have any spare time.

After making this arrangement, Chen Ling suddenly realized that if he wanted to continue making money using the produce from his heavenly space, carrying on like this was definitely not going to work.

Although technology was not advanced in this era, it was far from the pervasive surveillance of later generations.

However, if he continued to rely on the heavenly space to transport two to three thousand catties of peanuts a day using donkey carts and ox carts, it would inevitably arouse suspicion from others sooner or later.

Furthermore, he had been selling them under the banner of greenhouse vegetables and greenhouse peanuts. In this region of ten miles and eight villages, greenhouses were still a brand-new concept that had just emerged.

Should he encounter someone who liked to dig deep and ask questions, things would become difficult to handle.

"To solve these two problems, there is only one less-than-ideal method..."

"Opening a shop."

Asking him to go and farm greenhouses right now was utterly out of the question. Knowing full well that there would be floods this year, wasting time and money on such endeavors would be sheer foolishness.

Therefore, logically speaking, the only option that barely made sense was opening a shop.

By opening a shop, whether it was vegetables, fruits, or peanuts, they could be sold after passing through the transit of the shop.

Under the guise of greenhouse vegetables and greenhouse peanuts, no one would pry too deeply.

After all, with a shop to serve as a cover, he could claim they were harvested from someone else's greenhouse, or transported from the city or a major metropolis. It was basically a plausible explanation.

Even if a former buyer really asked about it, it wouldn't matter. He could just say that claiming they were produced in his own greenhouse was merely a gimmick, a story made up to encourage people to buy—wouldn't that work?

In any case, the goods were indeed greenhouse produce, and they tasted even better than ordinary greenhouse goods. So what if his family didn't run greenhouses themselves?

Of course, this method was certainly not the best one, but it was the most convenient, swift, crude, and direct approach.

Moreover, in the year 1995, and in a small mountainous county town at that, it would be enough to fool most people.

"I originally wanted to go home early, but thinking about it this way, I might as well find a place to rent in the city first."

Chen Ling sighed.

In fact, upon careful reflection, to save himself trouble in the future, he would have to go through this hustle sooner or later.

After all, from certain perspectives, this was already a fairly significant hidden hazard.

So, he went to have a meal first, then rode his bicycle around the city to scout for locations.

According to Chen Ling's preferences, the ideal location for a shop should be slightly secluded, yet not lacking in foot traffic, and with convenient transportation.

His demands were not low.

After wandering around for the better part of the day, he finally found that the area near where he met Qin Qiumei in the morning—namely, the vicinity of the county middle school—was quite suitable.

Thus, he searched around that neighborhood, and soon Chen Ling spotted a very pleasant-looking courtyard house.

This was a courtyard with a strong sense of vintage charm, covering an area of nearly two acres, featuring a small two-story building.

Aside from the main gate, the first floor also had a doorway opening directly onto the street, eliminating the need for much renovation; it could be used directly to open a small shop.

This completely suited Chen Ling's wishes.

He then knocked on the door, but nobody was home.

Chen Ling inquired around the neighborhood and learned that the owners of the house were an elderly retired couple from a textile mill. Their son worked in a municipal government organ, and their daughter taught at the county middle school, so this house had been uninhabited for a long time.

Only the elderly couple would come by once a month to clean up or grow some vegetables in the courtyard. If someone wanted to rent the house, it certainly wouldn't be difficult.

It was just that in this era, no outsiders came to this remote small county town to rent homes, let alone locals.

Subsequently, Chen Ling followed the address given by the neighboring residents and found the two elderly people. The outcome was unexpectedly smooth, except that the rent was fifty yuan higher than ordinary places.

After inspecting the house, Chen Ling didn't haggle and directly signed the lease.

The landlord couple gave him the keys, and just like that, the house was his.

After the landlords left, Chen Ling walked around the small courtyard again and looked it over.

It was indeed very clean, largely because it was completely empty.

There were not even beds, tables, or chairs—just a two-story small building with a vacant little courtyard.

The landlord couple didn't care at all whether he used it to open a shop or for anything else.

Seeing that it was getting late, Chen Ling didn't linger much longer.

After all, this place was currently just an empty shell and would only serve as a cover in the future.

It was definitely out of the question for him to sit here guarding it every day as if running a serious, full-time store.

Coming over once or twice a month to display and sell some fruits and vegetables would be more than enough.

"Well, once business officially opens, it will be easier to explain things to Susu. Otherwise, if I always go out to handle business without ever asking her for money, even if she doesn't ask, she'll surely have suspicions in her heart..."

Chen Ling pondered to himself secretly, thinking: "When the time comes, I'll just say I'm doing business in partnership with a friend from the city, someone I accidentally met while knocking around the county town in the past. He doesn't come here often, and we just split the profits."

Once the logic was barely passable, Chen Ling felt much more at ease and relaxed. He locked the courtyard gate and rode his bicycle back home.

To his surprise, halfway through the journey, a light drizzle began to fall. Chen Ling put his baskets and novels into the heavenly space, pedaled with all his might, and hurried back.

Seeing that the rain was growing heavier, Chen Ling stopped his bicycle, took a urea sack out of the heavenly space, folded a corner to wear over his head, tied it simply with a rope around his neck, and continued speeding toward the village.

"Ershu! Ershu! Go quickly and call Ershu, the greenhouse frames we just put up have all collapsed..."

As Chen Ling came down from the reservoir dam, the rain was falling even harder, and faint sounds drifted over from the southwest.

Glancing in that direction, Chen Ling smiled faintly and slowly rode into the village.