After leaving the state-run restaurant, Li Yi felt a bit down.
If he hadn’t misheard, the police officer he’d just spoken to was Wang Anguo, the captain of the county’s criminal investigation team.
And barring any surprises, in the coming days, he would lose his life during an operation to apprehend a suspect.
In his previous life, Li Yi had witnessed that pursuit firsthand. The fugitive was a notorious criminal who had committed crimes across multiple provinces and was armed with a gun.
Because they hadn’t anticipated that the suspect was armed with a lethal weapon, and had underestimated his alertness, the criminal investigation team made a critical mistake during the pursuit, allowing him to escape into the downtown area.
During the pursuit, Wang Anguo led the charge, rushing to the very front. Just as he was about to catch up to the suspect, the man opened fire.
Wang Anguo was shot in the chest and died heroically on the spot.
That day, Li Yi had gone into town on some business and witnessed the entire incident firsthand.
In this life, upon seeing this brave guardian of the people once again, Li Yi truly did not want him to sacrifice his life for a worthless criminal, just as he had in his previous life.
But Li Yi couldn’t bring himself to say this outright, so he could only give him a gentle reminder and, in passing, place that coin on the spot where he would be wounded.
This was the only thing he could do; he hoped it might change his fate!
At the same time, Li Yi was conducting an experiment. He wanted to see if rashly altering someone’s fate in this timeline would have a major impact on it.
After all, he had already begun trying to alter Tang Xue’s fate, and he would inevitably have to change the outcome of her suicide in the future.
So, before doing that, Li Yi had to make sure his actions wouldn’t trigger any other unforeseen disasters!
With this sense of unease, Li Yi arrived at the sugar factory!
As always, the place was packed with workers eager to eat liangpi.
Pulling himself together, Li Yi began setting up his stall for the day.
At 1:30 p.m., the last serving of liangpi was sold, and Li Yi immediately packed up his stall, then headed straight to the county supply and marketing cooperative to restock.
Actually, Li Yi had planned to restock at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative right after selling his mushrooms, so he could head straight back to the village once he finished setting up his stall.
Unfortunately, although he wasn’t short on money, he was short on grain coupons.
Without grain coupons, the price of flour would be about a third higher; based on 50 jin of flour, that would mean spending an extra three yuan or so.
So, he had to wait until he finished setting up his stall and collected his grain coupons before he could go to the supply and marketing cooperative.
Although running back and forth like this was quite tiring, there was simply no other way.
When he arrived at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative again, Li Yi was just about to go inside when he suddenly saw someone waving at him from across the street.
Upon closer inspection, it was actually the young ticket scalper he’d met the other day!
After securing his mule cart, Li Yi strode over.
“What’s up?”
The young man glanced around, then said, “Bro, I found out about the industrial coupons you asked me to look into. There’s a bicycle coupon and a sewing machine—which one do you want?”
Li Yi’s eyes lit up instantly, and he hurriedly said, “I’ll take both!”
“Both… both of them?”
“Yeah, I’ll take both. Just tell me the price!” Li Yi said firmly.
“Ten yuan for the bicycle voucher and eight yuan for the sewing machine voucher. Does that work for you?” the ticket scalper asked cautiously.
“Sure!”
With that, Li Yi pulled two 100-yuan notes from his pocket and handed them over.
This young man was clearly no stranger to this sort of thing. He immediately took the money, examined it carefully, then pulled two tickets wrapped in a handkerchief from his inner pocket, and gave Li Yi two yuan in change.
Li Yi took a look at the tickets and, seeing nothing wrong with them, said again, “I’d also like a watch ticket and a radio ticket. Can you get those?”
“The watch shouldn’t be a problem, but the radio voucher is hard to come by… you’ll have to pay extra!”
Damn, this sudden turn of events caught Li Yi off guard, reminding him of that “Extra-Money Monk” from his past life.
“Ten years of fresh meat, unknown to all; one day of ‘pay extra,’ known throughout the land!”
Was this kid a reincarnated soul too?
But seeing him holed up here dealing in these tickets, it seemed highly unlikely.
After all, a true reincarnator wouldn’t be doing this—they could make a fortune with any small business and wouldn’t need to take such risks!
“Money isn’t an issue. Just bring the tickets here—I’ll be here almost every day!” Li Yi said.
“Alright, give me two days!”
……..
With the tickets and the money in hand, Li Yi immediately decided to score a big item first.
Without further ado, he walked straight into the supply and marketing cooperative!
It was Sunday, and the supply and marketing cooperative was pretty crowded. Li Yi had to wait in line for quite a while before it was his turn.
The sales clerk was an old acquaintance. Upon seeing Li Yi, she immediately asked with a smile, “Comrade, why do you come to the supply and marketing cooperative every day? What are you buying today?”
“Hahaha, I’m buying rice and flour for the unit—of course I have to come every day!”
Li Yi continued, “Same as always: 60 pounds of white flour, two pounds of salt, and five pounds each of vinegar and soy sauce…”
After buying everything he needed, Li Yi asked the sales clerk again, “Excuse me, do you have any bicycles here?”
“Yes, we just received three yesterday. Why, are you looking to buy one?”
“Yeah, I’d like to buy one, but I’m not sure if I have enough money,” Li Yi said.
“175 yuan for the 28-inch model, 165 yuan for the 26-inch one!” the sales clerk replied.
Li Yi did a quick calculation: he’d earned 131 yuan selling mushrooms, and selling the cold noodles had brought in about 65 yuan—covering his costs and yielding a small profit. Plus, he’d brought 10 yuan in change with him when he came.
Subtracting the 18 yuan he’d just spent on supplies, the 20 yuan for the bicycle and sewing machine tickets, and the one-yuan coin he’d given to Wang Anguo, he still had 167 yuan left.
It wasn’t quite enough for a standard men’s bike, but it was plenty for a 26-inch women’s bicycle.
Realizing that he was buying the bike mainly for Tang Xue to ride, he immediately said to the sales clerk, “Then give me a 26-inch one!”
The sales clerk looked surprised and said, “You’re actually buying one!”
These days, while buying a bicycle wasn’t as rare as it had been in previous years, owning one wasn’t nearly as prestigious as it used to be.
But we were still in the era of the planned economy, and purchases generally required ration tickets.
But since a village or town had very limited coupons, they were quite scarce. Therefore, buying a bicycle in Qing Shan County—a remote little county—was still a surprising thing.
More importantly, Li Yi seemed to have decided to buy it without a second thought, as if he were buying a head of cabbage.
Little did the sales clerk know that standing before her was a financial tycoon who had traveled back from decades in the future—a man who had closed deals worth tens of billions hundreds of times over.
Would he really hesitate over a mere bicycle costing a little over a hundred yuan?
“I have just enough money, so I’ll take it!” Li Yi said casually.
“Alright then, pay first, and I’ll take you to pick out a bike!” the sales clerk said.
“Alright!”
……..