As soon as the sky brightened, Zhou Fu and Zhou Mu got out of bed. Zhou Fu packed a large bag with this year's freshly harvested wheat on the back seat of his bicycle, while Zhao Yuzhen used a basket to pack thirty or so chicken eggs and over ten duck eggs that had been collected for three or four days, carrying it in the crook of her arm, preparing to go to the market early to sell them.

  Ordered by Da Bao to take Xiao Bao out to play, Zhao Yu Zhen decided to bring along obedient Da Ya and still young Er Ya.

  Zhou Xiaoyun obediently followed her parents to the market where farmers traded goods at that time.

  When passing by the grain station, Zhou's father went to sell the wheat first. He let his wife and child wait outside while he pushed his bicycle into the grain station alone.

  At this time of year, the price of grain is not high. If it's left until winter to sell, it will be more expensive. Grain is the most precious thing for rural people, and no one sells grain easily unless they have to. Every family has a large granary specifically for storing grain. Zhou Xiaoyun's granary was in the kitchen, big and round, filled with a lot of grain.

  Zhou Xiaoyun thought about how her parents had been troubled by her tuition fees for so long, and she felt a deep sense of guilt and unspoken sadness. Her family had always been relatively poor, with many children and high expenses. From the beginning to the end of each year, they relied on the dozen or so acres of land at home to grow grain and raise chickens, ducks, and pigs, but her father couldn't make much money from slaughtering pigs either.

  She remembered that when she was in junior high school, she still shared a bed with her sister and didn't even have her own room. Zhou Xiaoyun made up her mind to help her parents earn money to make their lives better. She hadn't thought of how to do it yet, but after all, she had more than 20 years of life experience and was no longer the ignorant child she used to be. Underneath her immature appearance lay a mature soul.

  Father Zhou came out excitedly, holding a few thin one-yuan notes in his hand: "Damn it, our wheat is clean and full, it's top-grade stuff. The price isn't bad either. Big sister's tuition fees won't be a worry anymore."

  Zhao Yuzhen's face lit up as she took the money and counted it, totaling seven yuan and eight jiao. She counted it three times before neatly folding it into her handkerchief and putting it in her pants pocket.

  Zhou Xiaoyun was infected by Zhou Fu's joyful mood, and the four of them started going to the market.

  Arrived at the market and found that many people had already arrived.

  On both sides of the road, there are many stalls selling bok choy, cucumbers, liangfen, tofu, bean sprouts, meat and so on, forming a small vegetable market. A few steps away, there are stalls selling flower cloth, bowls and dishes, daily necessities, clothes and other things like a small shopping mall.

  Of course, it's all open-air, and no taxes are paid. Whoever has fresh vegetables can bring them to sell. Zhao Yuzhen brings her family's eggs and duck eggs to sell at the market every time, and after selling them, she buys some vegetables back home.

  Zhao Yuzhen walked to an empty space, put the basket on the ground, and waited for customers. Zhou Fu held Er Ya by his side and chatted with familiar people.

  Zhou Xiaoyun found herself in the bustling market, feeling both familiar and strange, excited and thrilled. She whispered to Zhao Yuzhen that she wanted to go take a look at the peddler's stall.

  Zhao Yuzhen thought that Zhou Xiaoyun was a quiet and obedient girl who wouldn't get into any trouble, so she said to her: "You go for a while and then come back, I and your dad will be waiting for you here."

  Zhou Xiaoyun squeezed into the crowd with a fluttering heart, as if she had regained her mood of strolling through the market in those years.

  Every month on lunar calendar 3rd, 6th and 9th are traditional market days. Some smaller villages can't form a scale so they unite with several other villages to hold the market together.

  The market is only open for half a day in the morning and everyone disperses at noon.

  Rural people come to the market every time, bringing their own vegetables that they can't finish eating to sell, and some people bring eggs from chickens and ducks to sell. There are also families who kill pigs to sell pork. This small vegetable market is bustling with activity. In the past when there were no supermarkets, farmers could only buy fish and meat at the market.

  However, Zhou Xiaoyun wanted to stroll through another market on the other side.

  The stalls a few steps away were selling daily necessities, mostly some households with surplus money went to the county town wholesale market to buy in bulk and then sell them to their neighbors at a small profit. At that time, people were very simple and there were almost no swindlers. Moreover, most of the people coming and going in the market were familiar faces from the village or neighboring villages. One would call out "Uncle Er" when seeing someone, another would say "Auntie", and it was easy to run into relatives if one wasn't careful. So Zhao Yuzhen also let Zhou Xiaoyun go out for a stroll with ease.

  At this time, there were many people in the market, and they could only walk slowly along with the crowd. Zhou Xiaoyun walked along with the crowd, looking around, she didn't buy anything even if she liked something, but she was very satisfied just by looking. Thinking that after a few more years, the market would be replaced by shopping malls, supermarkets, and hypermarkets, and disappear, how could children who hadn't experienced this era understand her feelings?

  Zhou Xiaoyun stopped in front of a small stall selling hair ties and rubber bands.

  The stall doesn't sell much, it's all small trinkets that girls use, there are little bags of colorful hair ties, long multicolored headbands, stickers with pretty princess patterns, and various types of hair clips, all in all many different kinds.

  Zhou Xiaoyun had short hair like a boy since childhood and never used these before. After seeing them, she liked them very much in her heart.

  Zhou Xiaoyun made up her mind to grow out her hair from now on, and later tie it into a ponytail or two braids, either way would look good. Which girl doesn't love beauty?