Chapter 59: The Little Mule in the Black Market

Seeing that Zhang Huacheng was somewhat tempted yet remained silent, Qin Xiaodong grew anxious.

"This time they will continue to gamble with us, and both sides will put up items of equal value. As long as we win, everything we get will belong to you, Big Brother!"

He knew very well that without Zhang Huacheng's help, their chances of winning were too slim.

Last time, it was because Luo Cheng broke the rules and pulled out a gun. The opposing party adhered to the principle that a powerful dragon should not overwhelm a local snake, and since the police were also looking for them, they didn't dare stay long, leaving behind harsh words before departing.

"What if they don't gamble this time?"

Zhang Huacheng was indeed tempted. These southerners dared to run all the way from this railway station to the south; they were definitely heading to the Soviet border to smuggle goods.

Hearing this, Qin Xiaodong secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Zhang Huacheng had mostly agreed. He smiled and said, "Big Brother, we have more men and more guns. If they were really just here for revenge, they wouldn't have sent someone ahead to pass a message."

That was indeed true.

"Did you guys rob them of something else?"

Zhang Huacheng stared intently at Qin Xiaodong.

Given how persistently the other party was clinging to this, it definitely wasn't just a matter of pride, nor about items of minor value like military overcoats, desk clocks, or sabers.

Hearing this, Qin Xiaodong gave a wry smile and said, "Big Brother, we really didn't rob anything valuable. It's just that, well, Luo Cheng shot the ringleader right through the leg, leaving him with a limp."

"I'll assess the situation first and make a decision then."

Zhang Huacheng understood. If that was the case, the other party naturally wouldn't let the matter rest.

Yet, he didn't agree outright either.

After chatting for a while, Leizi came running over in a flurry of haste.

"Brother Dong, a few peasants selling a little mule have come to the black market. Even offering them three hundred yuan isn't enough; they insist on five hundred."

"A little mule? How old?"

Zhang Huacheng's interest was piqued the moment he heard this.

He knew that mules commanded a much higher price than Mongolian horses, several times that of a donkey. Having a small mule along with a smaller sled would make pulling goods and traveling immensely convenient.

"Big Brother, it's just been weaned. They say it's three months old, and the little mule looks quite nice."

Leizi gestured with his hands.

"Is this price expensive?"

Zhang Huacheng looked toward Qin Xiaodong.

He wasn't familiar with the market price of young mules.

Qin Xiaodong nodded. "It's not considered expensive. Three months is barely weaned, though they usually wean at five or six months. A young mule goes for four hundred yuan around here as the market price, and an adult mule maxes out at about eight hundred yuan. A young male mule costs about fifty yuan more than a young female mule. If you want it, Big Brother, let's go take a look!"

"It's a young male mule," Leizi added.

Prices were high right now because it had only been a few years since the Three Years of Great Famine, which had drastically reduced the livestock population and caused prices to rebound sharply. Currently, even a single Mongolian horse cost five hundred yuan.

"Tiezhu, keep selling the meat. We'll make a trip to the black market and take the flatbed cart with us. If the market administration people show up, just run." Tiezhu had only sold a little over a hundred catties so far, with more than three hundred catties remaining. Seeing Tiezhu growing increasingly adept at selling meat, Zhang Huacheng felt reassured leaving him here.

"Got it, Brother."

Tiezhu nodded. He really enjoyed selling meat.

Because every portion sold meant money in hand.

"Leizi, keep watch here. The Big Brother and I will go ahead. Is Luo Cheng at the black market?" Qin Xiaodong immediately went to pull the flatbed cart,正好 to drop off the guns on the way.

Having one or two guns lying around could still be explained as carrying them for self-defense, but carrying this many guns and bullets at once meant that if they were caught, no one could save them.

"He's there, keeping an eye on those guys. They won't be able to run away."

Leizi nodded.

Soon, Qin Xiaodong pulled the cart and left with Zhang Huacheng. Qin Xiaodong knew that Tiezhu had a trusting personality and was easily fooled, but with Leizi stationed there, those people wouldn't dare pull any tricks.

For safety's sake, they went to Qin Xiaodong's house first, hid the guns and bullets properly, and then hurried toward the black market.

Upon arriving at the black market, Zhang Huacheng immediately spotted four figures wrapped up tightly against the cold. Their clothing clearly marked them as members of a rural production brigade, and the ringleader was likely a brigade cadre.

At present, mules were regarded as collective property, and private trading could easily be classified as speculation and profiteering. Most transactions were handled through collective allocation or conducted secretly in the black market.

The little mule instantly captivated Zhang Huacheng at first glance. It was exceptionally striking and plump.

It had black ears and a black tail, the lower halves of all four legs were black, its back and head featured a golden-yellow hue tinged with black, its belly was white, and large, bright eyes darted about inquisitively.

"Big Brother, Brother Dong!" Seeing them arrive, Luo Cheng ran over from behind a tree.

Zhang Huacheng stepped up to the little mule and examined it thoroughly.

"How much?"

Qin Xiaodong glanced at the animal and asked the cadre leading the group.

"Five hundred yuan. Not a single cent less."

The lead brigade cadre looked Qin Xiaodong up and down.

Noticing that he was in cahoots with Luo Cheng, the group grew somewhat wary. Zhang Huacheng observed that the other three men kept their hands buried inside their tattered cotton-padded jackets; no doubt, they had either knives or handguns concealed within. In this era, production brigades were never short of firearms.

No wonder they dared to venture into the black market.

"Are you guys out to rob people? Bringing a freshly weaned little mule to the black market and charging this much? It's just a three-month-old calf—who has five hundred yuan to spare all at once?"

"Give us a reasonable price!"

Qin Xiaodong could tell these men were no pushovers; otherwise, they wouldn't have dared to come all the way here to sell a young mule.

"This is a pack mule, capable of heavy, sustained labor. It can plow fields, pull carts, and handle any heavy work. Plus, it can eat any rough feed, and traversing mountain trails is a breeze. Five hundred yuan is not expensive at all. Besides, we don't even need all cash—grain, fabric ration coupons, and the like can all be used at a discounted exchange rate!"

The brigade cadre knew very well that few people could pull out five hundred yuan in cash these days.

"Talk about nonsense, saying five hundred yuan isn't much at all. This little mule was barely weaned and you couldn't wait to unload it, which means you've been hiding it away all along without the commune knowing. Without an experienced stockman to train a mule this young, it'll probably go west when you tell it to go east. Let's make it three hundred and fifty yuan, and we'll haul it away. To be honest, aside from us, no one here can afford it!"

Qin Xiaodong could tell that Zhang Huacheng wanted the animal, so he began bargaining.

The demand for mules in the Northeast region was indeed high, and prices were approaching the upper limit, but in mountainous and impoverished areas, prices were relatively low. Their location happened to be a mountainous and impoverished region, so five hundred yuan for a small mule was indeed slightly steep.

"This is a pack mule, a male. How about this, let me give you a new price!"

The brigade cadre reached out his hand in a gesture.

Qin Xiaodong immediately slid his hand into the other man's sleeve, clearly initiating a hidden sleeve-bargaining session.

Sleeve-bargaining was a traditional pricing method that protected transaction privacy and maintained the dignity of both buyer and seller, ensuring neither party would lose their temper regardless of whether the deal went through.

After a long while, the bargaining finally concluded. Various expressions flickered across both men's faces until Qin Xiaodong finally withdrew his hand and walked over to Zhang Huacheng.

"Big Brother, four hundred yuan. It's a fair buy. If we leave it in the black market and flip it after a few days, I can easily sell it for five hundred for you."

Qin Xiaodong whispered his advice.

This price was already quite reasonable, and the other party clearly wouldn't lower it any further.

"I'll take it!"

Four hundred yuan was equivalent to the earnings from hunting a large red deer, and Zhang Huacheng was naturally willing to pay it.

This little mule was clearly top-tier at first glance. Its conformation was nearly flawless, and its physique was robust. Once he brought it back to the brigade, he could simply claim it was a gift from his father-in-law, avoiding any unnecessary trouble. After all, families providing a mule as part of the bride's dowry wasn't unheard of in this era.

He took out his money and counted it, but adding everything up, he only had around three hundred and twenty yuan—clearly not enough.

"I'll cover the rest!"

Seeing this, Qin Xiaodong began digging into his own pockets, not sparing even Luo Cheng. Between cash and ration coupons, they finally managed to scrape together enough and handed it over to the lead cadre.

After taking the money, the brigade cadre counted it over and over again. With visible reluctance, he handed the lead rope to Zhang Huacheng, along with the whip in his hand.

Having pocketed the cash, the brigade cadre cast two final glances at the young mule, sighed, and quickly led his men away, evidently unwilling to linger any longer.

Zhang Huacheng understood that the brigade cadre had likely raised this young mule at home since birth and grown attached to it. The animal was plump and robust, proving it had certainly been well cared for.

"Big Brother, are we flipping it for a profit? We can sell it for five hundred yuan!"

Qin Xiaodong reminded him.

Had it not been for Zhang Huacheng, he would have bought it for himself.

"No selling, I'm keeping it to pull a cart!"

The more Zhang Huacheng looked at the little mule, the more he liked it. In another month or two, it would be strong enough to pull a flatbed cart back and forth, though procuring suitable feed would be a problem.

"Xiaodong, where can I buy feed for a mule?"

In this era, mule feed relied entirely on collective allocation and self-produced agricultural and sideline products; there were no retail purchase channels available.

Qin Xiaodong pondered for a moment. "Big Brother, I suggest you just buy some low-grade coarse grains to feed it for now. I'll go to the livestock station this morning and pull some strings to get you a few bags of feed. You can't buy these things on the open market, and whatever is available is meant for human consumption."

Zhang Huacheng nodded. During the famine years of a few years prior, many livestock had nothing to eat, and the small amounts of soybean cakes and cottonseed cakes allocated by the state through the grain bureau as supplementary feed had mostly been eaten by the common people themselves. Even now, situations where people starved to death in various brigades still occurred from time to time, so finding animal feed on the market was impossible.

Coarse grains, however, were easy to buy and available right at the morning market.

Tiezhu was busy selling meat with his head lowered when he suddenly looked up and found the two people in front of him somewhat familiar. He scratched his head in thought before remembering—aren't these his brother's father-in-law and mother-in-law?

"Hua... where is the person who was with you?" Shen Yue remembered that she shouldn't casually mention her son-in-law's name at the morning market, as it wouldn't do if someone with ulterior motives overheard, so she asked in a low voice.

"My brother just left. I don't know where he went."

Tiezhu knew this was Zhang Huacheng's mother-in-law, but he didn't mention that they had gone to buy a mule.

Wang Zhengang looked around repeatedly, failing to catch sight of Zhang Huacheng.

"Did you guys hunt this red deer?"

Shen Yue looked at the adult red deer with a hint of surprise.

Tiezhu scratched his head. "We're selling it."

"Ah?"

Leizi saw that someone seemed to be causing trouble and immediately hurried over.

"What are you doing? Oh? Isn't this Master Wang, the butcher from the food station?" Leizi instantly recognized Wang Zhengang, as Wang Zhengang sometimes came to them for meat coupons.

"It's you."

Wang Zhengang also recognized Leizi.

Leizi initially thought Wang Zhengang was there to make trouble, so he immediately piped up: "You guys sell your meat at the food station, and we sell our meat here—we don't interfere with each other. With the food station being so well-off and eating meat every day, you ought to let other people have a sip of soup too."

"We..."

"We just came to take a look. Let's go."

Shen Yue was about to explain when Wang Zhengang interrupted her, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her away.