My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 11 The Bustling Vegetable Market
Before dawn, Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying were awakened by the noise outside.

They lived near a vegetable market, which started making noise as early as four or five in the morning.

The nearby residents also got up early, and everyone had to rush to the market to buy their groceries before going to work. Firstly, resources were scarce in those days, and secondly, chicken, duck, fish, meat, and other non-staple foods all required ration coupons. If they went late, many things would be sold out, and even if they were, they would be leftovers.

As for buying it on the way home after get off work in the afternoon? Don't be ridiculous, that's simply unrealistic. In this day and age, vegetable markets close down around 7 or 8 pm, let alone in the afternoon. Do you think this is a vegetable market or supermarket decades from now? Where would you find so many dazzling goods for you to choose from?
So, this is the busiest time of day at the market. Around six o'clock, people from all the alleys come to collect and clean toilets. Every household takes out the toilets that have been sitting overnight and puts them out at the door to clean them. With all that clanging and banging and that strange smell in the air, how can anyone sleep?

Zhou Jiye and his family didn't buy a toilet. Firstly, their place was too small to fit in the attic, and secondly, cleaning and collecting toilets required a toilet ticket, which they couldn't use without one. Yesterday, they bought a spittoon to put under the bed for emergencies. As for using the toilet, they had already inquired and found a public toilet not far to the west of the alley. Although going to a public toilet would be a bit of a hassle, this wasn't the time to worry about that.

After getting dressed and folding his blankets, Zhou Jiye brushed his teeth and washed his face at the tap downstairs. He then stuffed two sheets of toilet paper into his pocket and ran to the public toilet. Although the public toilet was not small and had three neat rows of squat toilets, it was already full of people because it was morning.

Each of them stood on both banks of the Yellow River, holding confidential documents, with machine guns firing in front and artillery fire raging behind, creating a truly spectacular scene.

He stood to the side with his legs clamped together, enduring the pain. After a while, an opening finally appeared, and Zhou Jiye rushed forward in three strides to fill the fighting position and join the fierce battle.

About ten minutes later, Zhou Jiye stood up comfortably and walked out with a sense of ease. After taking a deep breath outside, he seemed to find that the smell that had filled the alleyway earlier wasn't so unpleasant anymore.

Back at her cramped apartment, Lin Ying had already bought some groceries from the market and brought back breakfast. Today's breakfast consisted of two rice balls and a pot of soy milk. The fist-sized rice balls had fried dough sticks inside and were specially sweetened. Paired with soy milk, it was simply a treat.

After finishing their meal quickly, Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying went out separately. They had planned it last night to go out for a walk today, to take a closer look at what Shanghai looked like in this modern era, and to find something feasible to do.

Zhou Jiye didn't ask where Lin Ying went; the two parted ways at the alley entrance. Zhou Jiye headed east, and Lin Ying headed west.

The east direction leads to the market. To be honest, Zhou Jiye rarely went to the market before. After all, he is a man. When he was working in Shanghai, it was inconvenient to cook for himself, so he usually relied on ordering takeout or eating out. Even when he had the rare opportunity to buy groceries and cook to improve his life on weekends, Zhou Jiye would either go to the nearby supermarket or order directly through his phone and have the delivery guy bring it to his door. He might not even go to the market once a year.

But now there are hardly any supermarkets, and Dingdong is nowhere to be found. Nowadays, people's lives are inseparable from the vegetable market. Food, clothing, housing and transportation are all necessities, and eating is a basic necessity. Moreover, due to the climate of Shanghai, the air is humid and the four seasons are distinct. In the days before refrigerators, people could not keep vegetables and meat. So everyone had to buy fresh vegetables every day, otherwise they would not be able to cook.

It's already past seven o'clock, and the busiest time at the market is almost over. Most people have already finished buying their groceries and are heading home to get ready for work (or school). Moreover, the market's supply is limited in both variety and quantity, so if you arrive late, there's practically nothing left at the stalls.

The market stalls are all state-owned, with each stall having a fixed location and a sign indicating what they sell.

The first part of the market has stalls selling groceries and vegetables. Further in, there are stalls selling seafood, poultry, and eggs. The egg stall is particularly eye-catching because it has a large wooden box with four horizontal and five vertical round grids on top, each grid being just the right size to hold an egg.

The wooden box is hollow in the middle, with a light bulb inside. When the bulb is lit, the light shines through the round compartments. If you place the eggs one by one in the round compartments, the light from inside the box can illuminate the inside of the eggs, allowing you to visually distinguish between good and bad eggs.

This was the first time Zhou Jiye had ever seen such a device in his life. He stood there curiously for a long time, watching it. Although the eggs were sold out and the stall was closing up, after asking and figuring out what it did, he couldn't help but admire the wisdom of people in this era.

After observing with great interest for a while, Zhou Jiye continued walking forward. Although there were far fewer people in the market, there were still people coming and going. Due to the special nature of the market, the ground was uneven, slippery, and greasy. One had to be careful not to step into puddles, or one's pants would be splashed with dirty water, which would be very unpleasant. Zhou Jiye walked with one foot higher than the other. When he got to the front, he saw the meat stall. However, the meat on the stall was almost all sold out, leaving only a few large bones with hardly any meat on them. Judging from the way the salesperson was packing up their equipment, they were probably preparing to go home.

After passing the meat stalls, the fish stalls are just ahead.

Located in the Jiangnan region and close to the East China Sea, Shanghai has never lacked seafood. Moreover, some types of fish do not require ration coupons, so the seafood varieties in the market are the most abundant compared to other dishes.

A fishy smell wafted over, and there was a large pile of fish in the open space where the fish were sold. Zhou Jiye even spotted a 1.5-meter-long, snarling shark.

Several men and women wearing rubber shoes and gloves sat around the pile of fish, busy with their tasks. Several baskets were placed around them. They would grab a fish and tear off its skin in just a few quick movements, as if tearing something apart. Then they would throw the skinned fish into the baskets next to them, casually toss the skin in another direction, and then continue to repeat the same actions.

"what fish is this?"

This was the first time Zhou Jiye had ever seen fish being handled like this, and he was quite puzzled.

Upon closer inspection, he couldn't recognize the fish at all; he had never seen it before. "Auntie, what kind of fish is this?" Zhou Jiye couldn't help but ask a middle-aged woman squatting beside him, picking out fish.

"Young man, are you from out of town?" The moment he spoke, the other person knew that Zhou Jiye was not from Shanghai. Although he had lived in Shanghai for several years and could barely speak a few simple words of Shanghai dialect, the future of Shanghai would be dominated by Mandarin. Even native Shanghainese would speak Mandarin when they went out. As for Shanghai dialect, it was only spoken at home or in private after Shanghainese had exchanged secret codes with other Shanghainese.

But things are different now. Everyone in Shanghai speaks Shanghai dialect, and those who speak Mandarin are the odd ones out. When Zhou Jiye doesn't speak, he stands out like a firefly in the dark. Even when he asks questions in Shanghai dialect, he can't hide his stiff accent from other places.

"Hehe, I just arrived from the Northwest. My wife is from Shanghai, but she doesn't speak Shanghainese very well and is still learning," Zhou Jiye explained with a smile.

"Oh, my son-in-law from Shanghai! Little Northwest is so lucky," the middle-aged woman said with a smile. Zhou Jiye was taken aback. How did he suddenly get the nickname "Little Northwest"? Did this middle-aged woman look down on him? But judging from her appearance, she didn't seem like it; she was clearly very enthusiastic.

"This is a rubber fish, a kind of sea fish. You're in the Northwest, so of course you won't see it. Look, this fish has a layer of skin on the outside. If you peel off this skin, it's like a rubber garment on a person's body, so it's called a rubber fish," the middle-aged woman explained to Zhou Jiye, pointing to the fish.

"Can this fish be eaten?" Zhou Jiye asked curiously. The fish looked strange, especially after peeling off the thick outer skin, revealing white fat that looked neither like meat nor skin. The fish piled up in the basket looked creepy.

"Why can't you eat it? It tastes pretty good." The middle-aged woman laughed. "Braised rubber fish is delicious, the flavor is amazing! And this fish is cheap and doesn't require coupons. Why don't you buy a couple and try cooking them?"

"How much is this fish?" Zhou Jiye asked.

The middle-aged woman quoted a price, and Zhou Jiye admitted that it was indeed not expensive. However, the woman also said that although the rubber fish was cheap and didn't require a coupon, it had more bones than meat. Moreover, this type of sea fish was considered a "heating" food, so one should be careful when eating it. If one was unwell or sick, one should not eat it. However, a tall and strong young man like Zhou Jiye would definitely be fine. Since he had never eaten it before, it would be a good idea to try it.

Faced with the enthusiastic recommendation from the middle-aged woman, Zhou Jiye waved his hand and declined, saying that he was just asking casually, and that he would have to ask his wife when he got home if he knew how to cook the fish. Anyway, he lived nearby and could just come back to buy it tomorrow.

Seeing Zhou Jiye's response, the middle-aged woman became even more enthusiastic, showering him with praise such as how lucky he was in Northwest China, how good-tempered he was, and how much he loved his wife. This made Zhou Jiye feel a little embarrassed.

During their conversation, Zhou Jiye became quite familiar with the middle-aged woman and learned a great deal about the market from her, including the prices of various vegetables. According to her, the market was much better than it had been a few years ago, with a much wider variety of goods. However, the supply was still limited, and due to rationing, many items had to be grabbed quickly; if you arrived late, they would be gone.

"Auntie, you just said there are farmers selling vegetables here now?" Zhou Jiye asked.

"Yes, there are some, but not many. It's inconvenient for farmers from the suburbs to travel such a long distance to come to the city, and they mostly sell some vegetables they grow themselves. Although the produce is fresh, the quantity is small," the middle-aged woman said with a smile. Then she pointed ahead and said, "Little Northwest, look, those stalls over there are where the farmers usually set up their stalls. They sold out and left long ago today."

Looking in the direction the finger was pointing, there were indeed a few stalls not far away, but these stalls had been cleaned up and were deserted. There were only a few baskets and stools locked with chains, and a pile of rotten vegetable leaves on the ground.

"Are you allowed to set up stalls freely in the market now?"

"It's possible, but there's a stall management fee. This only started this year; it wasn't allowed before," the middle-aged woman said. "Now the policy is much more relaxed, allowing private stalls in the market. It's a one-cent-per-day stall fee, and there's a dedicated manager to collect it."

"A dime, that's quite a lot!"

"Hehe, that's right. It costs one cent a day. It's definitely not worth it if only a few farmers sell vegetables. However, each stall is shared by several people. The farmers sell their vegetables in the morning and leave, and then the stalls are taken over after nine o'clock."

"Change the person? They'll sell vegetables too?"

"What kind of vegetables do you sell? You do other businesses, like selling vegetable baskets, loaches, eels, and even helping people catch eels, you know?"

The middle-aged woman gestured to Zhou Jiye, explaining that the administrator charged each stall a management fee of one cent per day, but the stalls could be shared. So, clever people came up with this idea: several people would rent a stall together and manage their time effectively. In the morning, one group would sell vegetables, and after they finished, others would take over to do other businesses, such as selling loach and eel, or selling homemade vegetable baskets, bamboo baskets, bamboo stools, and even shoe repair, umbrella repair, and key duplication.

(End of this chapter)