All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

Finally, everyone got one of the second batch of sesame cakes. This time, Zheng Tong and the others watched others eat, while Ning Wei deliberately ate very slowly to show off in front of his brother Ning Bin, which made Ning Bin so angry that he wanted to snatch one too. Everyone burst into laughter.

The boy's cave dwelling was separated from the girl's cave dwelling by a kitchen, but the aroma was impossible to conceal. Soon, everyone in the girl's cave dwelling across the street looked towards the boy's cave dwelling.

There are only three girls in total. Since they cook separately from the boys and the ladies don't eat much, they still have more than half of the food left, which should last for about half a month.

However, they are also a little worried right now. After all, what should they do if they really run out of food? They haven't figured it out yet!

They already knew that the boys only had a few days' worth of food left.

These past few days, they had been on guard against boys coming to borrow food, but unexpectedly, a fragrant aroma suddenly wafted through the air late at night!

Li Ping was tending the fire when she smelled the aroma. She swallowed hard and asked curiously.

Can you smell it?

Wang Hong couldn't hold back any longer and quickly nodded in agreement.

"I thought I was hallucinating because I haven't eaten meat in so long! Can you smell the chicken aroma too?"

Li Ping nodded in agreement, while Jiang Biyun, while cutting potatoes, fell into deep thought. Would those boys give up and trade their last bit of food for chickens with the villagers?

"Biyun, shall we go over and take a look?"

Jiang Biyun snorted and said.

"I'm not going. Even if they trade grain for chickens, there are nine of them. Is one chicken enough to go around? Don't let them come back to us to borrow grain later!"

Jiang Biyun's words immediately made everyone nod in agreement. What she said made sense. Last time, they had to scrape together two pairs of pants to exchange for dog meat. This time, they didn't know what they would exchange for chicken. They had already heard that the boys were about to run out of food.

Li Ping smelled the aroma of chicken and said with some concern.

"Do you think we'll really have to beg for food once we run out of food?"

Li Ping's words immediately silenced the two women. They didn't know what to do. Over the past month, they had become quite familiar with the villagers in the brigade and had asked about how people in this area had managed to get through the lean season in previous years.

This place suffers from drought nine out of ten years, and this year it has been more than three months without rain. Judging from the state of the year, it's clear that they will have a tough year ahead. Although it has only been a little over a month, they have already experienced what hardship means.

Silence filled the room; everyone felt somewhat oppressed. But they were all sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls, and they didn't understand these things. They could only respond with silence.

As the group was pondering this, they saw someone walk in through the door. The three girls looked up and saw that it was Zheng Tong.

Zheng Tong didn't look happy either. He was holding a plate with three sesame seed cakes on it. He walked up to Jiang Biyun and said...

"Here are three sesame seed cakes, one for each of you. By the way, tomorrow we boys are going to the county town to get some grain. Yuemin, are a few of you girls going?"

Jiang Biyun looked at Zheng Tong with some wariness. Seeing the golden-brown cornbread and the faint aroma of chicken, she swallowed hard and asked cautiously.

"You're not planning to go to the county town to beg for food, are you? We're not going. You don't even have enough food for yourselves, why are you giving us flatbread? Are you trying to borrow grain?"

Seeing that the people didn't appreciate his kindness, Zheng Tong immediately put down the plate and snorted.

"Fine, don't go then. Do you think I want to give it to you to eat? Take it or leave it. We don't even have enough for ourselves. This is Yuemin's idea. Anyway, you're overthinking it. Yuemin is very capable. He's the one who made this chicken-flavored sesame seed cake. Tomorrow we're going to the county town to sell these sesame seed cakes. We don't have any grain left. We've made all the remaining grain into sesame seed cakes!"

After saying that, Zheng Tong put down the plate, turned around and left, leaving several girls looking at each other in bewilderment.

Zhong Yuemin finally found an opportunity for Zheng Tong, but Zheng Tong squandered it all.

However, Zheng Tong clearly didn't have a good impression of Jiang Biyun anymore. He wasn't a thief, so why was this girl so wary of him?

In this era, relationships really do require a natural progression; it takes time. Zheng Tong and Jiang Biyun are clearly still in a stage of mutual distrust. Zhong Yuemin, acting as a matchmaker, is more likely to do more harm than good.

After Zheng Tong left, all the girls turned their attention to the sesame seed cakes on the plate. No one said a word until the sound of the three of them swallowing their saliva rang out. Then everyone burst out laughing and stopped being coy, each taking a sesame seed cake.

Jiang Biyun took a small bite of the sesame seed cake. The aroma of the caramelized cake had barely entered her mouth when a subtle chicken flavor filled her senses. She stared in surprise at the brownish-yellow filling inside—it really was chicken!

The girls took the first bite and looked at each other in disbelief. Jiang Biyun even tore it open to check the filling before confirming that Zhong Yuemin had indeed made chicken-flavored sesame cakes. It was truly amazing.

At this moment, the girls didn't care about saving face anymore. They wolfed down their sesame cakes and quickly finished them. They looked at each other with lingering reluctance. After a long while, Jiang Biyun suddenly spoke up.

"Why don't we go sell sesame cakes with them?"

Li Ping and Wang Hong nodded in agreement almost without hesitation.

Li Ping glanced in the direction of the boy's cave dwelling and said hesitantly.

Do you think the boys will agree to let us join?

Jiang Biyun raised her head, looked at the person opposite her, and finally gritted her teeth, as if she had made a great decision, and said.

"Bring out all our grain, and we'll join them right now!"

Chapter 153: Taking a Gamble

Three girls, carrying dozens of kilograms of grain, suddenly asked to join the group, and Zhong Yuemin naturally welcomed them with applause.

Previously, the men and women were separated and paired up, which Zhong Yuemin wanted to let these teenagers experience what it's like to live together. Now, there's no need for that anymore.

However, the other boys had some opinions about this, especially Zheng Tong, who glared angrily at Jiang Biyun, as if she were saying, "You guys are taking advantage of us."

With these dozens of kilograms of grain, Zhong Yuemin decided to have a hearty meal for everyone tonight and take a gamble. Whether they could turn their bicycle into a motorcycle, they would see tomorrow.

Hot sesame flatbreads, bursting with chicken flavor, and laughter echoed especially loudly on this night.

Seeing the smiles on everyone's faces, smiles that hadn't been seen in a long time, Zhong Yuemin sighed inwardly. People in this era really have very simple needs; being able to eat their fill every day is the greatest happiness.

Just as everyone was having a good time, there was a knock on the door. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the door. Zhong Yuemin was also a little confused. Why would someone come here so late at night?

He went up and opened the door, and saw Secretary Gao of the brigade smoking his pipe. He twitched his nose a few times and glanced around the room. When he saw the table piled with sesame cakes, he swallowed hard, suppressed his discomfort, and said.

"Are you all eating? What's wrong with you kids? Aren't you planning to settle down?"

Zhong Yuemin guessed that Secretary Gao had come because of the smell of chicken, and with a smile, he pulled Secretary Gao into the house.

Zhong Yuemin originally planned to talk to Secretary Gao about this tomorrow morning, but since the secretary had already come looking for him, he could only hand him a sesame seed cake and explain the whole story.

Secretary Gao held the half-eaten sesame seed cake, but couldn't eat any more. The main reason was that this thing really reminded him of his children at home. Such a delicious sesame seed cake, he had to take it back for his wife and children to try. He was too embarrassed to ask for more, so he could only hold the sesame seed cake in his hand and listen to Zhong Yuemin talk about his business idea.

Secretary Gao approved of the educated youth's actions. He naturally approved of their ability to be self-sufficient. It was just that Shichuan Brigade was poor and there was nothing to sell in the past. In previous years, they would only collect some medicinal herbs to sell in the county town.

However, Secretary Gao was still a little worried when he saw the sesame seed cakes in his hand. If it were vegetables and fruits, they could be sold at markets in the county town or even in the surrounding areas on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month. But grain was something that the higher-ups were very strict about.

Secretary Gao couldn't help but express his concern.

"Kids, you carry your wares around to sell, but don't hawk them. Go door to door and sell them. If someone is selling, go inside and sell them. Don't sell on the street. Also, be careful not to get reported!"

Zhong Yuemin smiled and nodded. He knew what Secretary Gao was worried about. In fact, in the 1960s and 70s, whether in Beijing or in this remote northern Shaanxi, there were always markets spontaneously organized by the people, and even black markets in the cities.

It's normal for people to sell their own homegrown fruits, vegetables, chicken, duck, fish, and meat; many of these don't even require ration coupons. The only problem is that the prices are a bit high, sometimes double or triple.

Of course, these are all things that can't be discussed openly, since in this day and age, the profession of businessman is still a derogatory term.

In a small place like this, there are probably not many cases where someone gets caught and sentenced to prison. Most of the time, if you are really caught, not only will your things be confiscated, but you will also have to wear a tag. It is rare for someone to be seriously punished.

In fact, the crime of speculation, profiteering, and profiteering in later generations was mostly known in the late 1970s and early 1980s, because at that time, everyone had some surplus grain at home and wanted to exchange it for money. As a result, they found that doing business was much more profitable than farming.

Therefore, they took the lead. Due to the lack of information, the prices of goods varied in many places. Many people rode bicycles to other places to collect goods and then sold them in other places to earn the price difference.

This behavior had a significant impact on society at the time, especially in the early 1980s when "ten-thousand-yuan households" suddenly emerged, prompting higher authorities to take this behavior seriously.

Even the crime of speculation and profiteering was only established in 71. Before that, in many small places, the regulations were not very strict. In those days, people couldn't get enough to eat, so they would sell things like fruits and vegetables.

To be honest, it was a bit embarrassing for the educated youth to carry a load of pancakes on a shoulder pole to sell them, but Zhong Yuemin didn't care about that; having enough to eat was the most important thing.

Moreover, he wasn't afraid of being caught, because after going to the county town, he really planned to find an opportunity to visit Uncle Ma.

That's why Zhong Yuemin, with his background, can get by in any era; he has so many uncles and elders.

In the original novel, he was once a foreign trade manager at a company. The boss at the time was Li Yuanchao. The reason Li Yuanchao valued Zhong Yuemin was because his father was Zhong Shanyue, and his father's comrades-in-arms were all over the Pearl River Delta. With that kind of background, how could he not have a smooth and successful career?

Zhong Yuemin certainly wasn't so old-fashioned as to think that he didn't need these connections. He believed that in a special period, it would be foolish to prefer staying in this remote mountain village and eating dirt rather than relying on connections to get on the right path.

The reason he didn't go to Uncle Ma at first was because he really wanted to experience life as a sent-down youth in northern Shaanxi. He had already experienced this life deeply in just over a month.

So in the days to come, he will learn to use this relationship to ensure he has enough to eat, and when it comes time to enlist next year or the year after, he will leave gracefully. This memory will become a very valuable experience in his life, and this is the right direction in life.

Old Gao clutched five sesame cakes in his arms and went back satisfied. Actually, he was worried that Zhong Yuemin would come and settle accounts for the withheld grain, but Zhong Yuemin generously said that he would not pursue the matter.

The seeds have been sown; whether there will be a harvest depends entirely on whether God will cooperate.

The next day, Zhong Yuemin led a group of educated youth toward the county town. They could carry the small amount of stuff by themselves, so there was no need for them to exert themselves.

This was the second time the group had come to the county town. The last time they had come was to go to Shichuan Brigade from the county town. Although only a little over a month had passed, the group had mixed feelings.

They came in good health, but now they can't go back. They've settled in Shichuan Village Brigade and are practically half-Shaanxi people now.

Upon arriving in the county town, Zhong Yuemin originally intended to look for a local market or black market, but after asking around for a long time, he discovered that there was no large-scale market in the area at all; everyone was just selling their wares in crowded places like guerrilla warfare.

Sure enough, along the way, Zhong Yuemin saw several old men carrying loads of dried goods, vegetables and fruits. Although northern Shaanxi is arid and receives little rain, it has a wide variety of fruits, with different fruits available in each season, such as apples, pears, walnuts, dates, apricots, melons, watermelons and so on.

Zhong Yuemin carried a load on his shoulder pole, followed by a group of educated youth, attracting a lot of attention. Seeing this, Zhong Yuemin felt that it was too conspicuous and told them to form a group and go to the city to play for a while, and then come back to meet up later.

They were all young people who rarely went to the city. In fact, they still had some money on them, and many of them had written a lot of letters that they were waiting to mail, but they were just too embarrassed to ask. Zhong Yuemin was too lazy to think about it.

In this era, writing letters became the only way for people to communicate. As for when a letter would arrive, that depended on luck. If you were lucky, it would arrive in a month or so. If you were unlucky, it was normal for a letter sent this year to arrive next year. It was even normal for letters to be lost. Zhong Yuemin estimated that he would receive many letters in a while.

Zhong Yuemin hadn't thought about who to write to yet. He didn't know if his father, Zhong Shanyue, would even receive the letter if he wrote to him now. As for Zhou Xiaobai, Yuan Jun, and Zhang Haiyang, he didn't know their addresses, and he also didn't know what he wanted to say to them.

The fusion of a soul in his thirties with his inner self gave his seventeen-year-old body a maturity beyond his years.

Zhong Yuemin set up the grill at a street corner. It was outside a workers' family compound. There were several other vendors with their own stalls around, and quite a few pedestrians on the street. It seemed like this place was pretty good.

There were two modified baskets. One had a small oven on it, and the other had about two hundred sesame seed cakes, half-covered by a white cloth. This was all the family's possessions. They had eaten so much last night that Zhong Yuemin hadn't expected these teenagers to be such big eaters. In the end, Secretary Gao ate two and took five with him.

While there were still some embers in the oven, Zhong Yuemin quickly started adding coal. After working for a while, several people gathered around him. Zhong Yuemin thought he had a customer and quickly stood up.

Chapter 154: The Unpredictability of Human Hearts

Zhong Yuemin looked up and saw several seven or eight-year-old children staring at the sesame cakes with shining eyes. Their drooling expressions made Zhong Yuemin's face fall.

This look reminded Zhong Yuemin of his own childhood when he was poor and could only watch others eat. Zhong Yuemin felt helpless and was about to chase them away when he suddenly noticed the clean clothes on the group of kids. He guessed they were all children from working-class families and an idea immediately came to him.

He calmly took out four sesame seed cakes and began to bake them over a low flame. Soon, the aroma of chicken from the cakes slowly filled the air, and several children couldn't help but drool.

Zhong Yuemin then took out a golden-brown, crispy cornbread, gently tore it open, and the rich aroma of roasted chicken made him swallow hard.

With a smile on his lips, he tore off a piece of sesame seed cake, slowly handed it over, and asked in a tone full of irresistible temptation.

"Little friend, can't think of a chicken pancake? It's fragrant and has lots of meat. Do you want to eat it?"

The group of kids nodded repeatedly. The bolder ones hurriedly tried to snatch the sesame seed cake from Zhong Yuemin's hand. Zhong Yuemin laughed heartily, raised his hand, and then gently put it into his mouth, chewed it a few times, and showed an expression of ecstasy.

"Wow, this is so delicious! It's all chicken!"

"Waaaaah... Oh, I want to eat sesame seed cakes, waaaah!"