My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 14 Getting to the bottom of things
The next morning, Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying got up at 4:30 a.m., cooked a pot of rice porridge with the leftover rice from the previous night and a dish of pickled vegetables, and then went out.

Lin Ying carried a vegetable basket, while Zhou Jiye followed beside her empty-handed. The two looked no different from any other young couple going to the market to buy groceries.

The market is very close, just a few steps away. The market was already bustling at five in the morning, with people everywhere at every stall, especially at the meat and non-staple food stalls. It was almost like a mad rush to buy things, with people holding money and coupons and pushing forward, shouting things like "I want this and that."

The vendors at the stalls were also busy, taking money and tickets with one hand while handling, cutting, and weighing items with the other, creating a lively scene.

"There are so many people!"

Zhou Jiye helped Lin Ying move forward slowly. He arrived late yesterday, and the busiest time at the market had already passed. He was surprised to see so many people at this time of day.

It was as if all the nearby residents had suddenly rushed to the market. As far as the eye could see, it was a sea of ​​heads, crowded and incredibly noisy. No wonder there's a saying that it's "as bustling as a market."

They squeezed forward, occasionally peering at the stalls and asking about prices. But buying was out of the question, as most items in the market required ration coupons, especially groceries and meat. Zhou Jiye and his group didn't even have Shanghai residency permits, so they naturally didn't have coupons, and even if they had money, they couldn't buy anything.

Walking slowly forward, looking around and asking questions along the way, and buying some vegetables that didn't require coupons, Lin Ying's vegetable basket gradually filled up.

They made a special trip to the egg stall to inquire about today's egg prices and supply.

Zhou Jiye is right. Eggs are in high demand at the market these days, and they're not cheap.

Eighty cents a pound of eggs is not a low price. You have to know that although the income in Shanghai is higher than in other cities, the difference is still relatively small.

The salary standard in Shanghai is slightly higher than that in Northwest China and other regions. However, the monthly income of a formal employee after being promoted is only 36 yuan. Moreover, this income has not changed for several years because the grade assessment system was interrupted a few years ago. Therefore, there is a saying in Shanghai that describes this very aptly: "Long live 36 yuan".

Based on an average monthly wage of 36 yuan, a month's salary can only buy 45 jin (22.5 kg) of eggs. Even so, eggs in the market are still in short supply. This is due to both high demand and insufficient supply.

In addition, Lin Ying also discovered a phenomenon: although the egg stall had the wooden box that Zhou Jiye had mentioned for scouring eggs, the sales staff did not allow anyone to use it casually when selling eggs.

Several people who bought eggs wanted to specifically look at them to pick them out, but the salesperson refused. An elderly woman even got into an argument with the salesperson. The salesperson wouldn't back down, speaking arrogantly and bluntly to the elderly woman, telling her to take it or leave it, leaving the woman speechless with anger and frustration.

"Auntie!" Just as the old woman, muttering curses, squeezed out of the stall with a basket of eggs on her lap and turned to leave, Lin Ying quickly approached her.

"Is there something you need, young lady?"

"I just saw you arguing with the egg seller. I overheard a couple of sentences from outside. Was it about canning eggs? Isn't that wooden box for canning eggs? Why aren't they allowed to?" Lin Ying asked curiously, blinking her big eyes. It has to be said that Lin Ying's appearance was very deceptive. She was thin and small, dressed very simply, and her slightly yellow hair, caused by years of malnutrition, combined with her young age, made her look like a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl.

"Why are you asking this?" the older woman asked warily.

Lin Ying said weakly, "I'm a former educated youth who just returned. I live in Lane 77 nearby. This is my first time buying vegetables at the market." As she spoke, Lin Ying showed the vegetable basket she was carrying.

"No wonder." The old lady's expression softened as she said to Lin Ying, "You don't understand. That egg seller is just bullying ordinary people like us who have no connections."

"Bully?" Lin Ying blinked, looking confused.

The older woman looked around, then reached out and pulled Lin Ying aside, lowering her voice to say, "Is this your first time going out to buy groceries, young lady? Didn't your family tell you anything before you came out?"

"My dad is busy with work, and as for my mom..." Lin Ying didn't finish her sentence, but her eyes reddened.

The older woman instantly understood what was going on. She gently patted Lin Ying's arm, sighed, and stopped asking questions.

“It’s normal that you don’t know, young lady. This market is a real minefield. If you don’t know, you’ll get ripped off without even realizing it.” “Really?” Lin Ying asked in surprise, “Auntie, could you tell me about it? My family isn’t well-off. I just came back and don’t have a job. My dad is the only one in the family who earns a meager fixed salary. I have several siblings, and we’re barely making ends meet…”

Hearing Lin Ying say this, the old lady felt even more sympathetic to Lin Ying's situation, and immediately lowered her voice and babbled on to her.

The older woman told Lin Ying that the wooden boxes at the egg stall were indeed for people to scan eggs, but how they were used and who used them was in the hands of the egg seller. If you encountered a reliable seller, it would be fine, but if you encountered an unreasonable one like today, you could only consider yourself unlucky.

The reason is simple: the eggs in the market are all purchased by the supply and marketing cooperative from various places. The sources of the purchased eggs are diverse. Some come from farms, some from communes, and some are eggs laid by chickens raised by farmers themselves and sold to the supply and marketing cooperative. The quality of these eggs varies.

Eggs may look the same, but they have a shelf life. Freshly laid eggs are completely different from eggs that have been stored for ten days or half a month. Supply and marketing cooperatives do not make special distinctions between these eggs. Moreover, after the supply and marketing cooperatives collect eggs, they do not immediately put them into the market for sale. Instead, they store them in a unified manner and then distribute them to the market in batches after accumulating a certain quantity.

As a result, the shelf life of the purchased eggs varies, and people have to rely on luck when buying eggs.

If you're lucky, you'll get freshly harvested eggs; if you're unlucky, you'll get eggs that have been sitting around for a while. The former are fresh, while the latter are bound to be stale after a while. In theory, you could tell the difference by shining a light on the wooden box, but the problem is that if everyone shines the light and picks out all the fresh eggs, who will the salesperson sell the stale ones to?
For this reason, the saleswoman absolutely refused to shine a light on the eggs for the older woman, worried that she might pick out the stale ones. Wouldn't that be a loss for her? The older woman, as the buyer, naturally wouldn't agree to that. Why would she pay the same price for stale eggs? No one would accept that! That's why the argument started.

"If that's all there is to it, then we can't say it's the salesperson's fault. Are there other reasons?" Lin Ying asked after thinking for a moment, having understood the situation.

"The young girl is smart," the older woman praised Lin Ying. "If I were truly treating everyone equally, I wouldn't have argued with her. The problem is, she's no good!"

The old lady pointed towards the egg stall and said, "You think this saleswoman is just doing her job? She's actually quite cunning. If it were someone she knows or someone with connections, she wouldn't act like this. She wouldn't even say a word if she examined each egg under a microscope, let alone inspect them. To put it bluntly, she's taking advantage of us ordinary folks, secretly picking out all the good eggs for herself and then selling the rest to us."

As she spoke, the old lady looked furious, as if she wanted to turn back and give the other person a good scolding. Lin Ying quickly comforted the old lady and made her give up the idea.

Now Lin Ying finally understood why the old lady had argued with the other party; it turned out to be this situation.

"Is this the only egg stall in the market? Didn't they say there are temporary stalls where farmers from the suburbs come to set up stalls? Doesn't anyone sell eggs over there?"

"Where can I find them?" The old woman shook her head. "There are farmers selling eggs, but they mostly sell vegetables they grow themselves and turtles and eels they catch. Eggs are rare outside of regular stalls. Nowadays, farmers usually only raise two or three chickens. How many eggs can they lay a day? It's not worth it for them to come all this way to bring so few eggs, and if they break, it'll be even more expensive. Anyway, there are purchasing stations in the countryside, so it's convenient for farmers to buy them themselves or sell them to the supply and marketing cooperative. If there were fresh eggs from the countryside for sale, who would buy them from her?"

“That makes sense, but Auntie, if farmers sell eggs, they’ll probably be more expensive, since they don’t need coupons. So, it’s still cheaper to buy from a regular stall,” Lin Ying said, echoing the old woman’s words.

The older woman smiled and shook her head, saying, "You can't calculate it like that. Actually, selling at a negotiated price isn't much more expensive. Regular stalls sell eggs for 80 cents, and if you negotiate to 85 cents or even more, it's still a good deal. Young lady, look, let's say a pound of eggs has ten to eleven eggs. That's eight cents per egg. If one of the eggs you buy with a ration coupon is not fresh or even bad, wouldn't that be a direct loss? So, it's better to just buy the negotiated eggs for 85 cents, and you don't even need a ration coupon."

The older woman explained to Lin Ying, counting on her fingers. Lin Ying nodded repeatedly, looking like she was being taught. This only fueled the older woman's tendency to be a know-it-all, and she enthusiastically went on to tell Lin Ying a lot more about the market, starting with the eggs.

And you know what? With this old lady, who goes to the market every day, introducing everything about it, she knows it like the back of her hand. She knows which stall has the freshest vegetables, which salesperson has a bad temper, who's honest, and who's not so kind—she knows it all like the back of her hand.

The uncles and aunties in Shanghai are the same as the grandpas and grandmas in Kyoto. This group is well-informed and knows much more than the average person. Besides, this old lady comes to the market every day for decades, so there's nothing she doesn't know.

The older woman also told Lin Ying some things that outsiders wouldn't know, such as that although temporary stalls can be rented at the market now, it's actually skirting the rules, since there's no such policy from above yet, and there's a lot of flexibility.

How to rent, and to whom? These rights are all in the hands of a designated administrator. Without the administrator's approval, even if there are vacancies, you can't rent one; there are tricks to it.

"A trick?" Lin Ying asked, puzzled.

The older woman raised her hand and made a drinking gesture, then touched two fingers to her lips, giving Lin Ying a knowing look. Lin Ying immediately understood.

(End of this chapter)