Chapter 50: Natural and man-made disasters

Chapter 50: Natural and man-made disasters
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
The man controlling the carriage behind smiled when he saw the two little girls talking and laughing in front of him.
At first, everyone felt that using wild vegetables to exchange for grains was unrealistic. After all, food was really precious now.
However, the village chief mentioned that they should give it a try as he heard the town was short of vegetables. Moreover, they were confident about the wild vegetables they had harvested.
Jiang Xia and the others went to the previous acquisition station, Supply and Marketing Club. After all, they had experience exchanging items there and they were not afraid of getting cheated.
However, they did not get as much as Jiang Xia had imagined as the wild vegetables were not as good as the ones they had exchanged previously.
They did manage to get some corn noodles back which could be used with the wild vegetables.
Jiang Xia did not understand it before, but after listening to the conversation between the short man and her father, she realized that the way of buying and selling things was still in the form of money notes.
…..
A lot of the time, items are not worth a lot when it comes to this kind of store. However, since they had connections, the trading was better.
After packing up the corn noodles, Jiang Xia told her father that she wanted to walk around town and asked the others to bring their items back first. They would follow after.
Jiang Chuan was worried initially but he had no choice but to agree when he saw the anticipation in his daughter’s eyes. Jiang Xia wanted to check out if there are other possible opportunities.
Based on the memories Jiang Xia had and the conversations with others, Jiang Xia realise that the development of this world was similar to her previous world.
The time period now corresponded to the 1960s of her previous world and now they were about to face the great drought year, 1961.
Due to the drought that had started in 1959, every household’s grain reserves had been decreasing. It was already a surprise that they were still surviving despite the lack of food.
Back in her world, in 1961, the situation got so bad to the point where people were gnawing on tree bark, digging up roots, and exchanging children. It was the year the population plummet and countless people starved to death in famine.
Although they could survive with the interspace, what about the others?
Jiang Xia sighed and could not help but worry about the future.
Jiang Gu was unaware of her sister’s worries and looked around curiously.
The houses in the town were much a lot better than those in the village and the citizens were also dressed much cleaner.
Jiang Gu looked at the rows of houses in the supply and Marketing Club and was very curious about what it looked like inside. She had never come out to buy anything in her life.
Jiang Xia paid attention to the houses that she saw. Although there were a few hairdressers and restaurants, they were all located in secluded areas.
At this time, the country still banned free trading. If one were caught doing business privately, they would be arrested.
In fact, they had already crossed the line, but because they were in a remote town, no one came to watch over them.
Xiao Wu took Jiang Chuan’s family for a walk in town. He had been to the town a few times and knew some places.
When they passed a large courtyard, Jiang Xia couldn’t help but stare at it with wide eyes.
This courtyard looked very stylish, and there was two lions statue at the entrance. Logically speaking, shouldn’t these things have been smashed long ago? How could there still be more?
Xiao Wu noticed that the two young ladies, Jiang Xia and Jiang Gu, were looking at the courtyard curiously. He smiled and said, “You guys don’t know this, but this is the Shen family’s residence. The Old Shen family is famous in this town. During the war, old Master Shen donated all his money and even brought his two 16-year-old sons to the front line. Later, both of his sons died for the country, leaving only the youngest son who was still very young at that time.”
“After that, their family went to the city and this house had been left like that. Every year, someone will come back to clean it.” Xiao Wu continued.
Jiang Xia’s heart stirred when she heard this.
She had once lived in an era of prosperity and peace. She did not understand how hard it was for the people of this era. After the destruction of war and natural disasters, it was not easy for everyone to survive.
After walking two more streets and listening to Xiao Wu talk about some trivial things, a few of them began to travel back to the village.
Other than a few people, there was nothing else in their carriage. They moved rather fast and caught up with the donkey cart that had left first after about forty minutes..