After walking for a whole night, Ning Jie finally arrived in City B.
The sky was just beginning to brighten. Bicycles creaked past from time to time on the road, and occasionally, a few Jiefang trucks loaded with timber roared by.
Finding a private breakfast shop, Ning Jie spent one yuan and twenty cents on a bowl of porridge and four guolao (a kind of large pan-fried stuffed bun unique to the Northeast). After finishing breakfast, Ning Jie found a small inn and rented a small room for three yuan.
He bolted the door, pushed a bedside cabinet against it, took off his trousers and padded cotton jacket, and fell asleep with his arm for a pillow.
"Knock, knock, knock!"
Not knowing how much time had passed, the sound of knocking drilled into his ears. Ning Jie sat up, looking alert, a short knife clutched in his hand.
"Who is it?"
"Little brother, it's three o'clock."
Hearing the landlady's voice, Ning Jie breathed a sigh of relief.
In this era, inns were not particularly peaceful. State-run ones required a letter of introduction, while small private inns were unsafe—pickpockets and innkeepers were usually involved with one another to some degree.
"All right, I know."
Putting on his clothes and carrying his sack, he came out of the room. Ning Jie paid another three yuan and asked the landlady to leave a kettle of hot water for him in the evening.
Strolling around the streets for a while, Ning Jie found a noodle shop. A bowl of noodles cost seventy cents, almost enough to buy a catty of pork.
After eating, Ning Jie went to the state-run guesthouse. There were several guesthouses in City B, and the one Old Zhou mentioned was the one right across from the municipal government building.
Waiting from four o'clock until it was pitch black, Ning Jie did not see any merchants from the South. According to the timing Old Zhou had given him, the southern merchants should arrive within these two days.
Ning Jie was not in a hurry; this kind of thing couldn't be rushed. He would just wait slowly—they weren't going to run away.
Returning to the inn, Ning Jie used the toilet and carried the thermos back to his room.
There were no entertainment programs in this era, and you couldn't expect to have a television or anything like that. A TV was insanely expensive, and the inn would never be willing to buy one.
Pushing the cabinet against the door, he went back to sleep. Not knowing what time it was, Ning Jie suddenly heard movement at the door.
He snapped his eyes open, felt for his short knife with light, practiced movements, and got off the kang barefoot.
By the moonlight, Ning Jie could see the door bolt being slowly pushed aside. The other person gave the door a push, but it didn't budge. After half a minute, hearing no movement inside the room, the person outside began slowly pushing the door again.
The door slowly cracked open a sliver, and immediately, a hand reached inside.
Ning Jie was waiting for this exact moment. With his knife in his left hand, his right hand clamped down on the wrist. The person outside twisted fiercely, trying desperately to yank their hand back, only to find that it felt as though it were clamped in a vise, completely unable to budge an inch.
Ning Jie pressed the back of the blade directly against the other person's hand and said in a low voice, "Don't move. Move again and you won't have a paw left."
The other person truly stayed motionless, whispering, "Comrades in the same trade..."
"Comrade your mother, don't talk underworld jargon with me. I don't have anything. If you're after wealth, go find another place, I won't stop you. But if you're after me, only one of us walks out of here alive!"
The other person knew when to quit and realized Ning Jie was not someone to be trifled with, so he hurriedly said, "I'm leaving right now, I swear I won't come back."
Ning Jie let go of his hand, bolted the door, and propped the cabinet back against it.
After such a commotion, he figured the guy wouldn't dare mess with him for the next few days. Times were simply too chaotic these days; you might glare at someone on the street, and ten minutes later a dozen guys would show up with axes to crack your skull open.
The next morning, as soon as it grew light, Ning Jie went to pay the landlady his room rent, went out for breakfast, and then went back to wait at the entrance of the guesthouse.
Until dark, he still didn't see any southern merchants.
For four days in a row, Ning Jie waited in vain, and by now he was growing somewhat impatient.
Could Old Zhou have been talking bull?
For these four days he hadn't even budged from the spot, and since there wasn't any local mountain goods market right now, how could he possibly fail to run into these people?
Did he stake out the wrong place?
Stubbing out his cigarette, Ning Jie carried his bag back to the inn.
As he walked in holding his thermos, ready to head to his room, the landlady suddenly spoke up, "Big brother, are you here to hustle for some business?"
There were quite a few people staying at her place, including some who stayed for several days running, but someone dressed as dirtily and simply as Ning Jie staying for days on end was truly a rare sight.
Besides, the petty thief who was always sniffing around her place had said that this kid was a tough nut to crack, which only made her even more curious.
"Waiting for someone."
"Oh, picking up a relative?"
Ning Jie didn't speak. He carried the thermos back into his room.
Early on the fifth morning, Ning Jie shouldered his sack and went out again. He had just finished breakfast and reached the guesthouse entrance when he saw two men wearing military overcoats wrapped up tight as they walked out.
"We haven't received anything for so many days, the old man is getting impatient."
The other man replied with a distressed expression, "No help for it. The supply and marketing cooperative doesn't have any old ginseng; there's simply no way to acquire any this season. If this doesn't work, we'll have to put an ad on the television station."
Ning Jie's eyes lit up—he had finally waited for them!
He hurried up to meet them. Seeing Ning Jie approach, the two men took half a step back in alert caution.
"Don't be nervous!"
Ning Jie smiled and spread his hands toward the two of them, saying, "I heard from Sister Wang at the supply and marketing cooperative that someone was buying mountain ginseng. I have two roots here. I don't know if you're buying?"
The younger man's eyes lit up, but he still asked with some suspicion, "Which Sister Wang are you talking about? You wouldn't be trying to scam us, would you?"
「That's Sister Wang from the supply and marketing cooperative, isn't it? Didn't you guys go ask her if she had any more ginseng?"
The two of them exchanged glances, and the younger man who had spoken instantly smiled, "Ah, I forgot! I'm looking to buy ones with a high age, big ones—at least two taels or more."
Ning Jie nodded and said, "I do have ones over two taels, and two roots at that. However, as for the price..."
The older man grabbed Ning Jie's hand and said excitedly, "As long as you have them, the price is easy to talk about."
"Let's go inside to talk. The weather in the Northeast is freezing cold enough to kill a person."
Ning Jie followed the two men upstairs. He wasn't afraid of them playing any dirty tricks; one against two, let alone if a few more came, and he wouldn't flinch in the least.
Entering the guesthouse room, there were two beds with central heating running. A twelve-inch small television sat on a table, accompanied by a coffee table and two sofas—it was a world of difference compared to the place he was staying.
The South was developing very rapidly, with plenty of wealthy people. Moreover, the clan system in the South was somewhat different from that in the Northeast—clans truly flourished with large, prosperous families, which also fostered the harmony and rapid development of southern merchants.
Ning Jie opened his sack, took out the birch bark wrapped in sheepskin, and then unfolded the birch bark. Two ginseng roots instantly appeared before the eyes of the two southern merchants.
Ning Jie distinctly noticed that when the two men saw the ginseng, their breathing practically froze, and the joy on their faces was completely unmasked.
Exchanging a glance, the older man asked, "Friend, we haven't asked your name yet."
"My name is Ning Jie."
"Oh, my name is Lai Xingwang, and this is my younger brother, Lai Xingfu. We're both from the Laishi of Guangzhou. People in the Northeast value making friends through business. Look, how about we give you fifteen thousand for these two roots, just to make friends?"
Upon hearing this, Ning Jie's face instantly darkened. If in his past life he hadn't heard Old Zhou mention how someone else had sold a ginseng weighing just over two taels for eleven thousand, he might really have agreed. But now...
Without another word, Ning Jie directly wrapped the ginseng back up.
"The two of you had better go look around somewhere else for a few days."