Chapter 44

Zhenzhen hurried out of the alley, walking quickly toward the forest while constantly using her consciousness to check her surroundings for any signs of being followed. When she reached the edge of the forest, she found a flat area. With a flick of her hand, she scattered some seeds, and instantly a golden wheat field sprouted. Without Zhenzhen needing to do anything, the wheat grains fell off automatically, and the rest of the plant turned to ash, merging into the soil. She waved her hand, and the wheat grains gathered into a pile.

She repeated the process, and in just a moment, a pile of rice appeared beside the wheat, with exactly fifty pounds of each.

Clapping her hands, Zhenzhen felt somewhat pleased with herself. “It’s good to have this ability. Otherwise, it would be a hassle to exchange for money.” Time passed minute by minute, and Zhenzhen kept closely monitoring her surroundings with her consciousness. About half an hour later, the man from the alley did indeed arrive with a cart. Zhenzhen used her consciousness to scan the cart and saw that no one was hiding inside, which made her sigh with relief.

The man was also very cautious. While driving the cart, he kept looking around. When the two met, he saw the food by Zhenzhen’s side and immediately relaxed.

When the cart reached Zhenzhen, the man, looking at the scattered food, twitched his mouth. “At least get a rice or flour sack to put it in. You just pile it up on the ground, aren’t you afraid others will see?”

Zhenzhen, looking at him confidently, responded, “A sack costs money, you know? We barely have any bags. Besides, we still need to keep some for cornmeal, where else would I put this?”

“Alright then.” The man glanced around, seeing that no one else was around. He couldn’t help but ask, “Did your family just leave the food out like this? So careful, are you afraid someone might see your face?”

Zhenzhen looked at him with some impatience. “Why do you care so much? Hurry up, do you want to buy or not? If you do, hurry up and weigh it, then pay. If not, I’ll have to find another buyer.”

“Little girl, you’re young, but you have quite the temper.” The man chuckled awkwardly and quickly took the basket and scale from the cart. “Good thing I came prepared, or we’d have to carry it by hand.”

They first weighed the baskets, then used an iron shovel to scoop the food into the baskets, each precisely one pound. The current market price was 1.65 per pound of rice, and 1.18 for flour, with a discount of three cents, totaling 11.50.

The man took out ten Yuan from his pocket, counted it, and handed it to Zhenzhen. She didn’t want the local notes, just the ones that were valid across the province. The man had to dig through his own notes and gave her some industrial vouchers, cotton thread tickets, light bulb tickets, fabric tickets, and so on.

After packing the money and vouchers into her backpack, Zhenzhen remembered the expensive pastries she had bought at the hydrolysis factory during summer, which didn’t require grain tickets. She winced at the memory. She had no idea that a single cake was more expensive than a pound of flour. No wonder the whole family, including Mingbei, was reluctant to eat those cakes.

Sighing, Zhenzhen watched the man leave, then walked in the opposite direction. Once she saw the man had gone far, she immediately teleported to another city, using the same method to exchange twelve Yuan. By the end of the day, Zhenzhen had visited three nearby small towns. She hadn’t sold any gold bars but had sold quite a bit of food, accumulating a total of 45 yuan.

Zhenzhen couldn’t help but sigh. It was actually expected. She had only gone to small cities, and the people there didn’t have much disposable income. The only ones who could afford fine grains were wealthy families. As for gold bars, only a place like Ice City could handle them.

But selling gold bars in Ice City was much riskier than in these small towns. The city was densely populated, hard to find a quiet place, and full of mixed elements. There were also military troops stationed there, and with her young age, holding a sixteen-tael gold bar would definitely attract attention. Zhenzhen hesitated. She thought that the money she had now would be enough for the time being, and there was no need to hurry to liquidate the gold bars. If she needed more money in the future, she could go to Ice City then.

Looking at the time, it was already noon. Zhenzhen flashed and teleported a few times, returning to a river near her home. She looked back at the smoke rising from the chimneys of the nearby houses. Pointing at a weeping willow by the river, she made several branches fall and interweave to form rough little baskets.

Zhenzhen picked up the baskets and found an ice hole in the river that hadn’t frozen solid. She took a stick and struck it, breaking the thin layer of ice. A perch, which had been lying at the bottom of the river, suddenly sprang to life and leaped out of the hole, jumping more than a meter high. Zhenzhen quickly caught it in the basket. The perch was frozen solid as soon as it landed in the basket.

With thick mittens on her hands, Zhenzhen carried the willow basket back home. Before Li Laotai could speak, Zhenzhen handed her the basket. “Grandma, look, I went to the river after school and caught a perch.”

Li Laotai handed the basket to Wang Sufen, pulled Zhenzhen inside the house, and while using a feather duster to brush the snow off her boots, she kept talking. “It’s so cold, you didn’t come home after school and were outside showing off. If you want fish, you can tell your dad, let him catch it for you. The ice is slippery, what if you fall in?”

Li Laotai put the feather duster on the kang and helped Zhenzhen take off her fur coat and boots. “Hurry up, sit on the kang and warm up. Let me feel your face to see if it’s cold.”

“I’m not cold, Grandma, I still have sweat in my palms,” Zhenzhen said, stretching out her hand for Li Laotai to feel.

Li Laotai touched her hand and then her forehead, finding it covered in sweat, which reassured her. Sitting on the kang, Li Laotai asked her the usual questions, “What did the teacher talk about today? Did any classmates bully you? Was it cold in the classroom?”

“It wasn’t cold, and no one bullied me. I’m the class monitor, so no one dares mess around in front of me.” Zhenzhen repeated what she always said and then hugged Li Laotai’s arm, telling her everything that happened at school. “Today, the teacher didn’t give us a lesson, just a test. We don’t have school in the afternoon. We’ll go pick up the papers and homework the day after tomorrow, and then we’re on vacation.”

“Vacation’s good. In this heavy snow, I don’t like you running around outside,” Li Laotai said, opening a box and handing her a basket of melon seeds. “I peeled two of them in the morning, specially roasted them for you.”

“Thank you, Grandma.” Zhenzhen kissed Li Laotai on the cheek, making Li Laotai smile as she hugged her. “With you, my big treasure, cheering me up all the time, I could live an extra ten years.”

“Ten years is too few. You’ll live to be a hundred,” Zhenzhen said with a smile, peeling a melon seed and stuffing it into Li Laotai’s mouth. “When that time comes, you’ll still be helping me look after the kids.”

“Alright, when the time comes, I’ll stay with you.” The two of them, grandmother and granddaughter, discussed it cheerfully. Over there, Wang Sufen had already prepared the fish in the kitchen. After washing her hands, she came over and asked, “Zhenzhen, how do you want to cook the fish?”

“Pine nut mandarin fish!” Zhenzhen quickly responded. Pine nut mandarin fish is a famous dish passed down from the Qing Dynasty. Last time when Li Muwen went back to his hometown, he mentioned that the pine nut mandarin fish in Ice City tasted great. Zhenzhen, like a greedy cat, immediately used all her skills to persuade Wang Sufen to make it. Although it requires some ingredients, it is indeed delicious and has a perfect balance of sweet and sour flavors.

When Wang Sufen heard that Zhenzhen wanted to eat pine nut mandarin fish, she looked at her and sighed, “Why are you so greedy, girl? Why not steam it or stew it? Why does it have to be fried with oil and sugar?”

Grandma Li almost spoiled her granddaughter to the skies. When she heard that Zhenzhen wanted to eat, she immediately spoke up for her, “You can’t eat this dish often, but if the child wants it, let her have it. Isn’t there oil in the kitchen?” Wang Sufen also just complained a bit. When she saw that Grandma Li was supporting Zhenzhen, she didn’t say anything else and turned to the kitchen to make the pine nut mandarin fish.

The fish for the pine nut mandarin fish needs to be treated with cross cuts before being fried in oil, then coated with sweet and sour sauce and thickened. The conditions aren’t great, and sugar and vinegar are scarce, so naturally, she couldn’t be too picky.

The family grows a lot of soybeans every year, most of which are pressed into soybean oil, so the Li family always has oil to use. After adding oil to the pot and frying the fish, the oil used for frying the fish could still be used for cooking other dishes, without wasting a single drop.

In the pot, Wang Sufen added peeled pine nuts and various mushrooms, then two big spoonfuls of sauce made from the tomatoes Zhenzhen had picked in autumn. She carefully added a spoonful of white sugar and mixed it, then thickened the sauce and poured it over the fish. The fragrant pine nut mandarin fish was ready.

Zhenzhen, attracted by the smell, came out of the room. Wang Sufen, feeling distressed about the white sugar she just used, muttered, “It’s too wasteful. You can’t eat this often, understand? Don’t do this again next time, wasting all these good things.”

Zhenzhen laughed twice and helped Wang Sufen bring the hot dry food to the heated kang table.

Guihua, who lived in the back room, guessed that it was mealtime and waddled over with Meat Bun. As soon as Meat Bun entered the room, his eyes lit up. He ran to the kitchen, stretched his head out, and asked in a childish voice, “Grandma, what smells so good?”

“Grandma made fish, the sour and sweet fish we had last year, remember?” Meat Bun quickly nodded. Wang Sufen smiled and said, “Go on, wait for your aunt on the kang. Grandma will bring the fish up in a bit.”

Zhenzhen helped Guihua sit on the kang. Looking at her large belly, Zhenzhen asked, “Sister-in-law, are you going to give birth this month?”

“Probably by the end of the month.” Guihua leaned against the quilt and rubbed her waist. “My belly feels heavy these days, I can’t hold it much longer. It might come early.”

Zhenzhen rubbed Guihua’s belly, and the little baby inside seemed to notice, immediately kicking twice with tiny feet. Zhenzhen looked at the bump in Guihua’s belly and couldn’t help but laugh, “This kid is really active.”

“Yes, I think it’s a boy, just like when I was pregnant with Meat Bun.” Guihua smiled gently as she rubbed her belly, “It’s fine if it’s a boy, like our mother, having more boys to support the family, then a daughter to spoil. At least she can talk to me when I feel lonely.”

While they were chatting, Wang Sufen had already brought everything to the kang table. The weather was cold, and the snow was thick, so it was too much trouble to go back and forth for work. Li Muwen had lunch at his workplace. Mingbei’s school was also far from home, so he usually left early and returned after dark. The two men couldn’t make it home for lunch, so every morning Wang Sufen would make a big pot of food, filling a lunchbox for both of them, along with some dry food. Both at work and at school, they had places to heat up meals, so even in the cold winter, they could eat a warm meal.

Although the family often had fish, this extravagant way of preparing it had only been done for the past couple of years when Wang Sufen could finally afford to make it once a year. Meat Bun ate fish and pancakes together, occasionally looking up with a smile, saying in his childlike voice, “It’s delicious.”

Grandma Li and Wang Sufen didn’t want to eat much fish. They each took two bites and then went to eat braised cabbage. Zhenzhen, knowing their personalities, didn’t try to persuade them. She directly picked up the fish with her chopsticks and placed it in their bowls. The two women felt sweet in their hearts, as if eating honey. Grandma Li couldn’t stop smiling, saying, “Stop giving me more, I can’t eat this sour-sweet thing.” But she kept praising Zhenzhen, “That’s why I say our daughter is considerate, always thinking of the old folks, she’s really been well-loved.”

Meat Bun also learned to do as he saw, standing up and serving fish into everyone’s bowls. Wang Sufen smiled and said, “Our children are all respectful. When Meat Bun grows up, he’ll be a good one.”

“Of course.” Grandma Li nodded and then reminded Guihua, “Meat Bun is the first of our next generation. You must teach him well so that when he grows up, he can support the family, just like a big brother. That way, our family will get better and better.” Guihua immediately agreed.

The weather grew colder and colder, and Mingnan and Mingbei, having finished their final exams, returned home. Mingdong, according to the usual schedule, was probably already on the return train. However, Mingxi still didn’t know if he could come back this year. The military school’s holidays aren’t as long as those of regular universities, and it’s said that the school is run strictly like the army. Furthermore, from what Mingxi had said, he was studying things that required confidentiality, and outside the military, even mentioning them wasn’t allowed.

Finally, the day after Mingdong returned home, Guihua went into labor. Mingnan and Mingbei sat in the kitchen to boil water while Grandma Li and Wang Sufen worked together to help Guihua give birth. As expected, Guihua gave birth to a big, healthy boy.

Since Meat Bun was born first, this little boy was naturally named Doudou. Mingdong, familiar with the routine, became the nanny, helping with the washing and cleaning.

The family continued their daily routine, and Grandma Li started thinking about Mingdong’s future work. She thought that next year, when the spring came, Mingdong would graduate. So, she specially leaned on her cane and went to the back room to ask him about it.

Grandma Li pushed open the door to the back room, leaned her cane against the wall, threw her fur coat onto the nearby cupboard, and stuck her head into the east room, calling out, “Mingdong, come out, Grandma wants to ask you something.”

When Mingdong saw Grandma Li, he quickly got out of bed and invited her to sit. Grandma Li waved her hand, “You’ve got cold air on you. Don’t freeze yourself. I’m just asking about your job assignment after graduation. Let’s go to the kitchen and talk while we warm up by the stove.”

Mingdong nodded and quickly put on his shoes, got out of bed, and led Grandma Li to the stove room. Grandma Li sat on the small wooden bench, stuffing some pinewood chunks into the stove. The flames in the stove illuminated their faces as she asked, “Have you heard anything about your job assignment? Any idea where you might go?”

Ming Dong was a cautious person. He originally planned to wait until he received the official notice before telling his family, but when Grandma Li asked him, he honestly told her everything: “I already have an idea. The teacher said that our family is closest to Anbei, and considering the convenience of nearby care, they’re likely to assign me to teach at Anbei Agricultural College.”

“Teaching is good, but it’s a bit far from home,” Grandma Li clicked her tongue. “It’s over a hundred kilometers from here.”

Ming Dong adjusted his glasses and gave a helpless smile. “This is already the closest option. I studied agriculture, and I’m good at farming. Beicha doesn’t have any proper villages or agricultural schools. No matter how the assignments are made, I won’t be assigned to somewhere near home. Actually, Anbei isn’t that far. It’s quick by train and not much farther than the distance from here to Yidong.”

When Grandma Li heard that it was about the same distance as Yidong, she felt a bit better. Among the several grandchildren, except for Ming Bei, who was preparing to take the high school entrance exam for the water treatment plant, the others had all attended high school in Yidong. They could come home every month or two, so it didn’t feel too far away.

However, thinking about Guihua being left at home alone was still a concern. Grandma Li, while holding her pipe, took a puff of smoke and said, “Since you got married, you haven’t had much of a lone time with your wife. In the past, there were winter and summer vacations, and you could spend about half the year together. But now that you’re working, it’s hard to stay. How about leaving the kids at home for us to watch over while Guihua goes with you to Anbei?”

Ming Dong nodded. “That works, but it’s still a bit early to talk about this. We should wait until I get to Anbei and see what the situation is like there. If there’s a spacious single dormitory, I’ll bring Guihua, Meat Bun, and Bean Bun. I’m afraid Guihua will feel uncomfortable being away from the kids.”

“You know best,” Grandma Li always gave suggestions when it came to her children and grandchildren’s affairs, but she didn’t force her opinions if they had other thoughts. “Actually, it’s best for the kids to be with their parents, but it will tire you out a bit.”

Ming Dong smiled and continued to pack more tobacco leaves for her. “When we’re young, a little fatigue isn’t a problem. You and Dad are getting older. You should relax and enjoy your life.”

Grandma Li felt much better after hearing this, her eyes squinting with a smile. “As long as you say that, it’s enough. While we’re still able to move around, we’ll help you out however we can. After all, this is how generations have gone through life. Besides, after working a lifetime, we really can’t sit still. If there’s no work to do for a day, it feels empty inside.”

With her eldest grandson’s job settled, Grandma Li was reassured. She returned to the room and repeated the conversation to Wang Sufen. “No matter how far it is from home, this is a stable and good job.”

When Wang Sufen heard that her son was going to be a university teacher, she couldn’t contain her joy. “Dongzi is really smart, he can even teach university students now?”

The two women excitedly discussed it, while Zhenzhen, who overheard, felt a weight in her heart. Even though she didn’t know much about that period, she understood how low the status of teachers was back then. Not only were they called “stinky old ninths,” but some were even criticized and struggled, with many students turning against their teachers by reporting them.

Zhenzhen thought about it for a while and decided to cautiously discuss it with Grandma Li. “I think this job isn’t very good. Maybe we should have Brother decline it and come back to work at the hydrolysis plant.”

“Don’t say that, you don’t understand. How can you just refuse a job assigned by the country?” Grandma Li rubbed Zhenzhen’s head. “Are you reluctant to part with your brother and sister-in-law? Don’t worry, they can still come home when they have a break.”

Zhenzhen sulkily rested her chin on her hand. “I just feel uneasy hearing about this job.”

“Don’t talk nonsense,” Grandma Li hugged Zhenzhen and peeled pine nuts to feed her. “I can see that your brother really likes this job. He looks so happy about it. Don’t bring up any depressing topics in front of him, alright?”

Zhenzhen nodded helplessly. She knew that if she didn’t explain it well, Ming Dong would certainly not give up his university teaching position. But the situation was difficult to talk about, and whether the family believed her or not, it could create big trouble. With Ming Dong’s status as a university student, labor reform was inevitable. Doing some work in this day and age wasn’t a big deal, as long as he wasn’t criticized, everything could be negotiated.

Zhenzhen thought about it for a long time, considering that her grandfather and Ming Xi were both military men, and Li Muwen was a famous anti-Japanese hero. Grandma Li had also fought against the Japanese, so with these connections, she figured no one would dare to mistreat Ming Dong.

After thinking for a while, Zhenzhen decided to visit Anbei herself to see what the place was like, so she could have a better idea.

—

#Author’s Note:

When writing about the price of grain, I searched for a long time but couldn’t find the prices for white flour and rice. Eventually, I asked my grandfather on WeChat. Not only could he remember the prices from back then, but he even recalled them down to the cent. I immediately praised him, as usually, I can’t even remember what I had for lunch by the evening.

Speaking of which, when I graduated and interned at my older brother’s (Meat Bun) company, my grandfather was already in his 70s. He was still tutoring a local high school senior in chemistry. After a year, that student performed quite well and even brought a gift to thank him. I really admire my grandfather.

(PS: If my older brother sees this, he’ll probably want to kill me, haha.)

———

—”Stinky old ninths” (臭老九) is a derogatory term used in Chinese history, particularly during the Cultural Revolution. It referred to intellectuals, scholars, and educators, particularly teachers, who were often labeled as “reactionary” or “bourgeois.” These individuals were criticized for their perceived lack of revolutionary ideals, and the term “stinky” was used to demean and degrade them. It reflected the political climate of the time, where certain groups were targeted for persecution and public humiliation.

—”Doudou” is a term of affection, often used as a cute nickname for a loved one or a child’s comfort toy.