Just a moment ago, Houzi had seen a quiet beauty pushing his boss's wheelchair and couldn't help but feel happy for him.
Such a quiet beauty, with a wonderful personality to boot—gentle and considerate. A woman like that was a once-in-a-century, once-in-a-millennium find. His boss had really hit the jackpot.
But the moment this beauty opened her mouth, she wasn't understanding at all. She actually didn't believe him?
Su Shuochi stared at her, dumbfounded. 'My wife is so smart,' he thought. 'She figured out the prices in the mortal world just from our conversation.'
What she said wasn't unreasonable. Besides, they were selling rice fit for immortals; fifty-six cents a catty wasn't expensive at all. "Let's go inside and talk."
Houzi led them out of the black market and toward his home. Once there, he opened the bag of rice and took a look.
He was stunned. "Boss, selling this rice for fifty-six cents a catty should be no problem at all."
"Yeah. The population has exploded, but grain production is low. You can't find good rice even if you have the money. We should be able to sell it for fifty-six cents."
Seeing such high-quality rice, Su Shuochi genuinely felt the price was reasonable.
"It only sells for fifty cents a catty? In that case, we'll give it to you for thirty-five," Gu Jiaojiao said, her heart aching at the thought.
If that was the case, one hundred catties of rice would only earn them thirty-five yuan, while a single bag of this rice cost her nearly four hundred yuan to acquire.
'This is killing me!'
Houzi was speechless.
'So sister-in-law is still just as gentle, considerate, and understanding as I first thought. She's giving me such a huge cut.'
"S-Sister-in-law, that's way too much! Just give me a three-cent margin per catty. That way, I can still make six yuan off the two hundred catties."
Gu Jiaojiao asked in surprise, "Wait, the thirty-five cents you mentioned... is that your selling price?"
"Yeah. Rice in the state store only sells for eighteen cents a catty. We can sell for thirty cents at most, and the absolute best rice might go for thirty-five."
Gu Jiaojiao said sheepishly, "Oh. Then let's set the price at thirty-five cents a catty. You can just give us twenty-three cents a catty!"
"Honey, why not sell such good rice for fifty-six cents?" Su Shuochi asked. He thought his immortal wife was simply too kind.
Inwardly, however, he agreed that thirty-five cents was the absolute ceiling. Selling it for any more would attract unwanted attention.
"No matter how good it is, it's still just rice," she explained. "If we sell it for too much, it'll draw attention, and we won't be able to sell it again."
Su Shuochi was deeply gratified. 'My wife is so smart.' Feeling pleased, he turned to Houzi.
"Houzi, do you have that much cash on you? If not, just give us what you can for now. You can pay us the rest after you sell the rice."
"Boss, don't underestimate me. I've got fifty yuan. Thanks to you and Sister-in-law, I'll be able to make twenty yuan off these two hundred catties of rice."
In the end, Gu Jiaojiao sold two hundred catties of premium rice, worth a small fortune, to Houzi for fifty yuan.
The Su family didn't have any meat ration coupons, so Su Shuochi had the fleet-footed Houzi go to the black market to buy five catties of pork, a large pig trotter, and two large bones.
Only then did Gu Jiaojiao learn that pork here cost seventy-five cents a catty. After doing the math, she felt much better about their deal.
Right before she transmigrated, the price of pork in her time had been falling, but it was still eighteen yuan a catty. Here, one catty of pork was worth three catties of their rice. 'Haha, not a bad trade after all,' she thought.
On the way back, Gu Jiaojiao took another bag of rice out of her personal space, and Su Shuochi was ready with a plain white cloth sack.
Su Shuochi figured that using the rice's original, exquisite packaging from the heavens would frighten his family.
A blissful smile spread across Su Shuochi's face, and Gu Jiaojiao was in high spirits as well. After all, trading three catties of rice for one catty of pork was a good deal.
As they reached the entrance to the residential compound, they saw Mr. Su, Su's mother, and Su Xiaomei standing there, eagerly looking out for them.
"Jiaojiao, you're back! Are you tired?" Su's mother came forward, taking Gu Jiaojiao's hand.
Mr. Su went to push the wheelchair. The rice was on Su Shuochi's lap, while Mr. Su carried the pork in one hand and the trotter and large bones in the other.
He didn't cover the meat with a cloth. He wanted everyone in the compound to see what he had acquired through his own "means."
"Dad, Mom, have you eaten yet? We should hurry home and start cooking."
"We've already eaten, Jiaojiao," Su's mother said. "We just need to see you home and then head to work. Have you two eaten?"
"We've eaten too. I'll make dinner and have it ready for when you get back," Gu Jiaojiao said with a bright smile.
Passersby were warmed by her smile and greeted the Su family one after another.
"Uncle Su, Aunt Su, you're so lucky! You've got such a beautiful daughter-in-law."
"That's right, she's as sensible as she is beautiful. We all watched Jiaojiao grow up; she's always been a sweet, well-behaved girl."
The men in the compound who knew Su Shuochi unleashed a torrent of compliments, flattering Mr. Su and his wife so much that their mouths, stretched into wide grins, never closed. Their cheeks were getting sore from smiling.
The men all knew Su Shuochi had been injured serving the country, so they didn't mind saying a few nice things to make the hero happy.
Kind words were free, after all. But there was always one resentful person ready to spoil the mood.
"What's the use of being beautiful?" 'She's with a cripple. It's only a matter of time before she runs off with someone else.'
He didn't dare say the rest out loud. The resentful man was middle-aged.
He was an employee at the compound's printing and dyeing factory. He once had a stunningly beautiful wife, but a few years ago she cheated on him. They had a huge fight and then divorced.
Everyone shot him a sympathetic glance and shook their heads before heading off to work.
Originally, everyone had sympathized with Gu Jiaojiao. A beautiful, well-behaved girl like her, with no backing from the Sheng family... who knew what would become of her?
But now, seeing the crippled Su Shuochi out of the house for the first time in ages—and with so much rice and pork, no less—they felt differently.
There was no reason to pity her anymore. It wasn't like their own lives were any better than hers!
Everyone had assumed that when Gu Jiaojiao saw the newspaper announcement and realized the Sheng family had abandoned her, she would become hysterical.
Who would have thought the young wife would greet them with a radiant smile, completely unbothered?
In truth, Gu Jiaojiao still didn't know that the Sheng family had abandoned her. But even if she did, she would have faced it with composure.
She had known since she was young that whether you received passionate love or cold indifference, as long as your heart remained unmoved by the whims of others...
...you would never be crushed by the drastic change in circumstances.
Besides, this Gu Jiaojiao wasn't the original owner of the body and had no emotional attachment to the Sheng family. The only issue was that the Sheng family's second and third sons, along with the story's female lead, Sheng Xinglian, had plotted against the original Gu Jiaojiao.
Although the original owner had died from the anger caused by gossiping women, the true culprits were those three Sheng children.
Gu Jiaojiao had been wondering how to get revenge, but last night, the original owner of the body had come to her in a dream.
She said that the three Sheng brothers had been very good to her growing up, and as for Sheng Xinglian's transgressions, she considered it a debt she owed her. She hoped Gu Jiaojiao would not seek revenge on her behalf.
She was moving on to be reincarnated, and the debts and grudges of this life were wiped clean. From now on, however the Sheng family treated the new Gu Jiaojiao had nothing to do with her.
The dream from the original owner made Gu Jiaojiao feel that her predecessor wasn't so bad after all.
Perhaps the book's portrayal of the female lead had been misleading...
Gu Jiaojiao believed in the cycle of karma. The person you love most in this life is the one who loved you most in a past life.
Everyone who comes into your life is a "debt." If it must be repaid, it should be repaid in full. To leave is to settle the debt. Even if the fault lies with someone else, the negative karma is your own to bear.
Gaining and losing are an inevitable path, perhaps the only path, that you must walk with certain people.
She never believed that longing for someone would inevitably be reciprocated. That kind of thinking only led to a fruitless crush or a lifetime of regret.