They Say I Can Curse People (13)

Chapter 44

When Chang Fang was a little child, her greatest wish was to play with the big kids. Now that Chang Fang was a big kid herself, she naturally carried the aura of an older sister. Moreover, she was a big kid who had come to the village with the police. When the children in the village saw her, every one of them wanted to talk to her.

During this period, the older children in the village had to listen to the adults at home cursing and complaining.

It was all about the Hukou issue, and the blame inevitably landed on the child who had been born in excess of the birth quota.

“It’s all because of you, you jinx. You’ve made life miserable for everyone in this house since the moment you were born.”

These children were also lectured: “Do you not have eyes and ears? Can’t you see the police are here? As soon as the police arrive, you hide in the mountains, do you understand?”

When the adults reached the “do you understand” part, they usually poked the child’s temple with a finger.

These older children would remain silent, saying nothing. Past experience taught them that talking back never led to anything good. But they weren’t fools. They had their own small-scale society, and the village children had their own social circles. They naturally knew who was an extra birth and who was a Black Household, who had to call their own father and mother “Uncle” and “Aunt” instead of “Dad” and “Mom.”

Furthermore, since there were usually older brothers and sisters or younger brothers in the family who were able to get a Hukou, it was impossible for these over-quota children not to harbor resentment toward the adults.

Consequently, these children actually felt a sense of goodwill toward the police. Although they kept their mouths shut, they secretly hoped the police could persuade their parents to get them a Hukou so they could live openly in the light.

Precisely because of this, Chang Fang, the older sister brought by the police, naturally enjoyed the favor of these older children.

As soon as Chang Fang mentioned making money, the children immediately crowded around.

That was money!

“Did you guys collect any Cicada Slough before…” Chang Fang used a different term: “Gonggazi Shells?”

“They said those can’t be sold for money anymore.” Previously, when everyone heard those could earn money, the adults were searching everywhere, and the children were doing the same.

“That was because the pharmacies had bought enough and didn’t want any more.” Chang Fang roughly understood how it worked. Pharmacies did business mainly by selling to patients, so they usually only needed to collect a small amount of medicinal herbs. They couldn’t take too much. After all, for a pharmacy, their primary way of making money was having an old doctor of traditional Chinese medicine stationed there, waiting for patients to come to the door.

If they collected too many herbs and the pharmacy couldn’t use them all, sending them specifically to the city to sell would cost both transportation fees and labor.

Those pharmacies made their living off the doctors’ skills and didn’t care much for the small profits from the herb trade.

The villagers didn’t know where these herbs could be sold for money, and between the work in the fields and raising pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks, they were already exhausted. Herbs weren’t something found everywhere; searching for them was time-consuming and laborious, so no one did it.

Chang Fang didn’t have the skill to treat patients, nor did she have fields, pigs, sheep, chickens, or ducks. She cared very much about this herb business.

But she couldn’t do it alone. Herbs like mugwort and stinking wormwood grew everywhere, but they needed to be harvested and then dried. Since the price itself was cheap, she didn’t want to spend so much time and effort just to earn a few yuan.

So, Chang Fang thought of her past self.

How hard had she worked to collect Gonggazi Shells back then? Before dawn, she would sneak up the mountain alone.

But at that time, even though she collected so many, there was nowhere to sell them.

“Bring me all the Gonggazi Shells you collected before. Put them in bags and sell them to me.”

Several children looked at her, a bit skeptical.

But the problem was… since they couldn’t be sold for money back then, the shells had either been used as toys or given to the adults to soak in liquor.

There were none left now.

Chang Fang found it hard to believe: “Not even one left?”

“None.” After all, that was two years ago.

Chang Fang wasn’t discouraged: “It’s fine. Anyway, Cicada Slough doesn’t weigh much.”

“I also want to buy mugwort and stinking wormwood. When you’re cutting grass for the pigs, if you see them, cut them and bring them back. I want them dried, bone-dry. These two are three…” She originally wanted to say thirty cents per jin, but that would mean she only made twenty cents per jin. Ah! The world of adults. Chang Fang hardened her heart and said: “Twenty cents per jin.”

To the children, twenty cents was not a small amount of money. Ten jin would be two yuan! The daily allowance for their older brothers and sisters who went to school was only ten or twenty cents a day.

Chang Fang knew this. But seeing how happy everyone was, she realized they were the main force. Although she had to carry the herbs down and find pharmacies, it seemed she was earning more than them, which felt wrong. Chang Fang’s conscience pricked her a little.

“I thought about it, let’s make it thirty cents per jin. Remember to get a lot; ten jin will be three yuan.”

“I also want mulberry bark. The mulberry bark must also be dried, fifty cents per jin.” Mulberry bark was eighty cents per jin at the pharmacy. She consistently ensured her own cut was a bit lower.

Chang Fang went through the prices for all these medicinal herbs.

When the time came, she could come to the village to collect them, and once she had them, she would carry them to the town to sell. If the town stopped buying, she would find a way to sell them in the city.

Anyway, she had no fields, so she could focus entirely on this.

As long as the children in the village were over eight years old, they could carry baskets to the fields to cut pig grass or herd sheep and cattle. This was the perfect time to dig up these herbs.

The next day, Chang Fang went to another village. While the police promoted policies, she promoted her acquisition plan.

“Don’t worry, I will buy everything you find. It won’t be like the last time with the Gonggazi Shells.” Last time, someone had said people were buying them, and everyone in the whole town started collecting. In the end, only one or two people managed to sell their Cicada Slough, while everyone else’s rotted in their hands.

Chang Fang felt she had to have a principle. Since she said she would buy them, she had to buy them all.

In this way, she followed the police through seven villages.

Yun Song and the others didn’t know what the girl was up to.

Until the morning of the eighth day, just as dawn broke, Yun Song got up and found only Huanhuan next door.

“Auntie Yun Song, my sister said she’s going to do something big today. Don’t worry about her.”

Yun Song felt a bit puzzled. “What big thing?”

“I don’t know either. Sister said she’d be back by noon.”

Yun Song felt uneasy. It was so early; where could she have gone alone?

Since Yun Song was the one who had brought Chang Fang away, she felt a constant responsibility for the two sisters. Yun Song had already spoken with the Tonglin Town Primary School, and Huanhuan would be able to start primary school directly next autumn.

But what about Chang Fang? Regarding junior high, Yun Song had already reached out to the principal. The principal’s stance was that the lack of a Hukou and school records were issues, but the most significant problem was that the girl hadn’t even finished primary school. Even if they let her audit classes for a while, she wouldn’t be able to keep up. Moreover, at her age, it would be very difficult for her to integrate with the other students.

Yun Song had also observed that while Chang Fang lived with them on the first floor of the girls’ dormitory, she never spoke to any of the junior high girls.

Yun Song kept dwelling on this problem, unsure of what to do.

At noon, Chang Fang returned. Her back was bent under the weight of a basket, with a fertilizer sack laid across the top, stuffed to the bursting point.

When she reached the first floor of the dormitory, she set the basket down, wiped away her sweat, and stood with her hands on her hips. “From now on, you can call me Boss Chang Fang!”

Today, she had gone to collect medicinal herbs and kept accounts for everyone. Everyone had called her that, and she thought it sounded wonderful.

The youthful ambition and vitality that had once been suppressed by her fate and her parents’ supposed kindness now erupted completely.

Only then did Yun Song realize that this girl had taken up the work of a medicinal herb buyer.

Chang Fang continued, addressing Yun Song, “Officer, don’t you think I’m amazing?”

“Amazing!” Yun Song was truly shocked. She had been focused on finding a way for Chang Fang to return to school, never imagining that Chang Fang was already carving out her own path.

“Can I stay ‘undocumented’ for a bit longer?” Chang Fang asked.

Yun Song found this strange. “Aren’t you anxious about your Hukou?”

“I am,” Chang Fang said, scratching the back of her head. “But this can’t be rushed. I think I just need to wait four more months. Just four months. I’m only four months short.”

Yun Song didn’t understand. Short of four months for what?

Chang Fang explained, “In four more months, I’ll be eighteen.”

She would no longer live by the November birthday the fortune teller had given her; she would live by her original date. Her real birthday was in March. This meant she had already turned seventeen long ago, and in four months, she would be eighteen.

“Eighteen is adulthood. I can have my own Hukou. I’ll be the head of the household¹.” As Chang Fang spoke of this, her heart was filled with boundless joy.

To Yun Song, Chang Fang’s age was her greatest source of anxiety. If only Chang Fang were younger, they could find a way to get her back into school and give her more possibilities.

But for Chang Fang, it was the opposite. She actually resented being too young.

Ever since she could remember, her mother had sent her to her Eldest Aunt’s house and told her that if she ever came home, she had to call her mother “Little Aunt.”

At her Eldest Aunt’s house, she was always wondering why her aunt didn’t like her, always worrying about how much trouble she was causing.

She had stayed with Second Aunt and Third Aunt as well. While there were happy moments, most of the time she was unhappy.

Every day, when she returned home carrying firewood or pig fodder and saw her Eldest Aunt’s family eating, she knew she was an outsider who was just a burden to others.

She longed to grow up. Once she was grown, she wouldn’t have to live under someone else’s roof. She could make her own decisions, just as she had decided her sister would go to kindergarten, and just as she had decided to start a medicinal herb business. It was hard work, but she was happy.

She had secretly asked around and learned that she had to be eighteen to register her own Hukou. She was only four months short.

As long as she had a place to live, she could register her own Hukou when the time came.

“Officer, regarding my Hukou problem, can we delay it a bit longer?”

Yun Song looked at the girl. She was moved by a massive surge of vitality, which even soothed some of the panic deep within Yun Song’s own heart.

“We can,” Yun Song said.

She always felt she wasn’t doing enough, always felt she couldn’t save everyone.

At this moment, just when Yun Song thought she had exhausted every effort and still couldn’t save Chang Fang, she turned around and found that Chang Fang’s will to survive was so strong that she had already climbed out on her own.

How could anyone not be moved by that?

Translator’s Notes