The stalls in the market were not particularly numerous, but though the sparrow was small, it had all its internal organs—the market was fully equipped.
Before long, they found a shop selling honeycomb briquette stoves. The place also carried pots, pans, and bowls in a variety of styles.
The shopkeeper watched as they looked around at everything without asking about the prices. He kept his eyes fixed on them, terrified that they were planning to take advantage of the situation to steal something.
"Shopkeeper, how much is your coal stove?"
"This one? It's a major brand from Haicheng, the Torch brand. Eight yuan each, and it'll last for decades," the shopkeeper said lazily, glancing at the stove Li Xiulan was pointing to.
"Eight yuan? You might as well be robbing us, shopkeeper! That's way too expensive. We saw them in town before for only five yuan each," Zhang Guifen said in a loud voice.
"Are the ones in town this brand? Look at this—the stove core, the sheet metal, all top quality. And it's a name brand! See this damper at the bottom? Close it to keep a low fire, open it up and you've got full heat." Hearing her complaint, the shopkeeper raised his voice as well.
Don't assume they were about to get into a shouting match and fail to make a deal; people back then always bargained this way. Xinghua and her husband had also spotted items they wanted, so the group banded together to negotiate with the shopkeeper.
When the shopkeeper learned that Xinghua and the others were buying wholesale and would be coming back regularly to stock up if their business did well, his expression softened considerably.
"All right, all right. Since you're taking these back to start a business, I'll give you wholesale cost. But sister, if you stock up in the future, you have to come to me. I'll definitely give you the dealer price."
The people who had been at daggers drawn just moments before were suddenly acting like sisters. Their readiness to hand over several yuan soon caught the eye of someone with ulterior motives.
After settling on the terms with the shopkeeper and leaving a deposit, they decided to leave the goods right there for the moment. Once they finished their errands, they would bring the ox cart over to load everything up together.
Next, they strolled around the other shops, since they still hadn't bought everything on their list.
"Mom, let's head over this way. I just saw someone selling flour," Li Xiulan said, pointing to a shop on the other side.
After being out all morning, however, Zhang Guifen really needed to use the restroom.
"Xiulan, I need to use the washroom, but I have no idea where the public latrines are in this city. Would you mind coming with me?"
"Let me go ask." Li Xiulan quickly found an older woman running a nearby stall and asked where the public toilet was located.
"Mom, Xiulan, let's all go together. We've been out all morning, and I actually need to go too, but I was too embarrassed to say anything," Xinghua said. With that, the whole group headed toward the public toilet.
The public restroom served everyone in the agricultural market. It was divided into men's and women's sections, set one behind the other on opposite sides. Once inside, Li Xiulan almost vomited—the latrine was filthier than the one they had at home.
What's more, there was quite a crowd waiting. They stood in line outside for a long time, and she was the last of their group to go in. When she finally stumbled out of the restroom holding her breath, she heard a commotion outside.
"What gives you the right to say this money is yours? We brought this cash ourselves!" Xinghua's voice rang out, and Li Xiulan hurried over.
"You country folks walking around with all this cash—you must have stolen it! This money is mine, you bunch of thieves!" a middle-aged woman said with a look of utter contempt.
"We honestly didn't steal your money! This is our own cash. You claim you're a city person, so how can a city person go around falsely accusing people?"
Zhang Guifen was furious. She had just stepped out of the restroom when this woman bumped into her. While she was waiting for Xinghua and Xiulan to come out, the woman had rushed over and accused her of stealing her money.
Zhang Guifen had lived to a ripe old age and had never been falsely accused of anything before. Seeing the looks from the people gathering around, her face flushed red as she argued with the woman.
"Exactly! Just because you're from the city doesn't give you the right to frame people and look down on us country folk. This is our own money! How dare you make false accusations? Do you have any sense of justice at all?" Seeing her mother's face turn bright red, Xinghua stepped in front of her to argue.
"Hmph! You country people are just refusing to admit it. It's clearly my money! I was just walking past here when she ran right into me. At first, I didn't think much of it, but a moment later I realized the money I was carrying was gone. If you don't believe me, search her—she has my money on her."
The moment Li Xiulan heard this, she knew the woman was a professional scam artist who pulled this exact trick here, and today she had actually dared to target her mother-in-law.
"You say it's yours, so it's yours? Well, I could say everyone here has money stolen from me! Whatever you do, you have to talk in terms of evidence. What proof do you have that this cash is yours?"
"I advise you not to be ungrateful. Hand the money over right now and we'll call it a day, or else I'll go report you to the police station and you won't be going back home today."
Seeing that she couldn't scare Zhang Guifen and that two more helpers had shown up, the woman immediately pulled out the threat of calling the police.
"Fine by us! We haven't done anything to feel guilty about, so we don't fear a knock on the door at midnight. Let's go straight to the station and see who's lying! Besides, there's a station right near here. Let's go right now!"
Li Xiulan wasn't going to be intimidated by that threat. If she pulled out their money now just to prove their innocence, she would be playing right into the scammer's hands. If onlookers found out they were carrying a large amount of cash, it might attract other people looking to tail them, so she couldn't just produce the money on the spot.
"That's right! We didn't steal anything, and we aren't afraid of going to the police station. Let's go, let's all go together! I want to see if you make a living swindling money here in this market."
Hearing Xiulan say that, Xinghua chimed in. Realizing they were going to be a tough nut to crack, the woman mumbled agreement while turning on her heel to run.
"Don't chase her! By the way, where did Second Brother-in-law go? I'd think there wouldn't be many people in the men's room—don't tell me he still hasn't come out?"
Xinghua wanted to run after the woman, but Xiulan quickly stopped her.
"That's right, where did Youcai go? He went to the restroom before the rest of us, and I didn't see him when I came out," Zhang Guifen added.
"Oh no, could he have fallen down the toilet? Why is it taking him so long? I'll go ask," Xinghua said, realizing her husband was missing. Catching sight of a male fellow heading toward the restrooms, she hurried over to ask him to take a look inside.
The man didn't refuse. He stepped in for a quick look and came out to tell them there was nobody in there.
"Oh no! Do you think he got kidnapped?" Xinghua began to panic.
"I doubt it. Second Sister, let's not split up right now. Let's just wait here for a bit. If we still can't find him, we'll go look for the police. We aren't familiar with this county town, and it'll be dangerous if we take a wrong turn."
"Sigh, how can a grown man just vanish like that?" Xinghua felt extremely anxious as the three of them each kept watch on a different surrounding path.
Before long, they spotted Second Brother-in-law He Youcai walking over from the side.
"Youcai, where on earth did you go? None of us could find you, and we were scared to death—we were about to go report it to the police!" Zhang Guifen let out a sigh of relief when she saw him.
Seeing all three of them staring at him, He Youcai explained, "Just as I came out, an old lady asked for help buying a honeycomb briquette stove. She said her family had given her the money, but after searching around for a few rounds she couldn't find the place, so I took her back to the shop where we bought ours."
"That old lady was definitely in on it with that woman from earlier. They must have been watching us ever since we bought our things, so when they saw us come to use the washroom, they used the location of the toilets to pull Second Brother-in-law away so they could scam Mom's money," Li Xiulan analyzed, noting that the old lady had approached him almost the moment he stepped out.
"What happened?" He Youcai was still completely lost, scratching his head.
Xinghua quickly chattered out an account of what had just taken place, leaving He Youcai full of regret.
"If I'd known, I wouldn't have gone over there. These people have hearts as black as coal—they were definitely trying to swindle Mom. From here on out, we have to stick together. I'm worried those people might try something else."
"This city has money, but it's got just as many swindlers with too many tricks up their sleeves. Thank goodness you guys were here today, otherwise I really would've let her bluff me. With all those pairs of eyes staring at me, I was scared out of my wits."