Chapter 14

Xiajuan's little notebook's debts were crossed off one by one, and when the last debt was crossed off, the little girl happily hugged Li Dong's big head and kissed it.

Originally, Li Dong was still unhappy about the last piece of cured meat being taken to pay off the debt, but after Xiajuan's kiss, all his unhappiness was forgotten. "Xiajuan, let's have meat buns tonight."

"No."

Xiajuan let go of Li Dong and blocked him with her hands. "We should save the canned meat for the New Year."

"Don't."

Li Dong couldn't agree. He didn't want to eat coarse grains anymore, which really hurt his throat. "Xiajuan, look, Dad works during the day and goes fishing at night. He needs to stay up late. If he doesn't eat something good, it won't work. If Dad catches more fish, he can sell them for more money."

Who knew that Han Xiajuan actually didn't want Li Dong to go fishing. Although Xiajuan didn't know what speculation and profiteering were, she knew that secretly fishing and selling the fish wasn't good and could get them caught. "Dad, can we not go fishing? We might get caught. Let's work hard and earn our rations."

The debts were all paid off, and Han Xiajuan felt that if her father worked hard and earned his rations, it would be fine. If he got caught for fishing and selling, he would be criticized, and Xiajuan had seen such criticism, which was very scary. She didn't want her new father to be criticized.

Li Dong smiled. "Don't worry, I've checked. The militiamen haven't been patrolling recently. I'll be careful."

Fishing was a must. He planned to bring back more wild turtles next time, which could sell for 800 yuan each. This was all money. During the day, he could do some light farm work and earn eight work points, which was good. At night, he could secretly go to the reservoir to fish, and he could catch at least three or four turtles a day.

Life was quite comfortable, and his long-standing sleep problems were cured. After working all day, he would fish at night and fall asleep as soon as he got home.

"It won't work."

The next day, he woke up with a sore back. The day before, he had been harvesting sorghum, and he couldn't be lazy. Carrying sorghum ears back and forth all afternoon, his shoulders were sore, and his back couldn't straighten up.

He had to find a reason to take a day off, have a light day, and avoid carrying sorghum ears. After the sorghum harvest, he would go back. It wasn't that Li Dong was lazy; any farmer from forty years later wouldn't be able to handle it, let alone Li Dong, who hadn't done farm work for years.

Weeding, tidying the land, and sneaking some corn were fine, but heavy physical labor was too much for Li Dong. After one day, he didn't want to get out of bed. "It won't work. I need to go to the city to eat something good and have a light day. I'll say I'm visiting relatives."

Li Dong packed his sheets, five women's shirts, four men's shirts, and kept one for himself. He left two hair clips for Xiajuan and had five left. He took out his digital watch and was stunned.

The digital watch was broken, both of them. "What's going on? How are they all broken? Pinduoduo is a scam. I'll give them a bad review next time." Li Dong had planned to sell the digital watch at a high price. It was rare in the mainland, and he could sell it for five or six yuan each without any problem.

Now they were all broken and couldn't be sold. It was really a nightmare. "Insecticide, three bottles, five women's shirts, two men's shirts, leave two pairs of stockings, so there are ten pairs of stockings left. Other things, lighters, which are not available on the market."

He had brought a box of 100 disposable lighters, but now only two were left. He kept one at home and sold one. He also had some small items, which he packed in the sheets, as there was no other container at home.

Next time, he would definitely prepare a cloth bag, preferably a leather bag, Li Dong thought. "I'll go ask Uncle Guofu for a day off."

The Han Guofu family had just woken up, and the two daughters-in-law were making breakfast. They had been doing heavy physical labor recently, so they ate dry food in the morning and added more vegetable oil to the dishes. This was somewhat related to Li Dong, as each family had received some of the ten pounds of vegetable oil.

The Han Guofu family had received ten pounds of rice last time and exchanged it for over two pounds of vegetable oil, making their vegetable oil slightly more abundant. They added a bit of vegetable oil, and the soup had oil floating on top. However, Li Chunhua occasionally muttered, "What a waste to put so much oil. You don't know how to save money."

"Is Uncle Guofu at home?"

"Who is it, so early?"

"It's me, Li Dong."

"Uncle Li Dong."

When Han Xiaohao heard it was Li Dong, he ran off. The village children all liked Li Dong because he always gave them something to eat, whether a piece of candy or a bite of canned food. The children treated Li Dong like a real father.

Sure enough, Han Xiaohao ran to open the door, and Li Dong gave him a piece of candy, making his two younger brothers and sister very envious.

Li Chunhua snatched it away. "This child, you've already eaten. I'll keep the candy for you to eat during the New Year."

Han Xiaohao pouted and looked at Li Dong. "Uncle, can't you give it to me secretly?" Li Dong smiled helplessly. "Of course not. I have to give it to you in front of everyone, or the candy won't be as valuable."

Little brat, learn from this. When Li Chunhua saw Li Dong give the child candy as soon as he entered, her stern face softened. "Honey, Li Dong is looking for you."

"What's up?"

"Uncle, it's like this. A few days ago, my relatives in the city sent some things, and I want to go see them."

"You should go see them."

"What should I bring?"

"A few days ago, Xiajuan wanted to eat fish. I planned to catch some, but instead, I caught a few turtles. I thought I'd bring them as a gift." Han Guofu and Li Chunhua exchanged a strange look when they heard Li Dong was bringing turtles to visit relatives.

This kid, he doesn't know anything. Turtles are called "wangba" for a reason. They're not good to eat. In this era, people often drowned in rivers, and women who committed suicide by throwing themselves into the river were eaten by these creatures.

This was one of the reasons why rural people didn't eat them. They didn't taste good, and they were very fishy. They also had very little meat. Moreover, they ate the bodies of people who drowned and couldn't be found.

Li Dong didn't know this. Turtles were good and nutritious. Han Guofu and Li Chunhua didn't say anything and gave Li Dong a day off. Li Dong happily went home to pack and prepare to go to the city.

"Stay at home and watch the house. I'll bring you something good when I come back."

Li Dong carried the bundle and two turtles and set off. He left early to arrive at the commune before sunrise. The ten-mile walk wasn't as tiring as before, but it was still exhausting. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a few bites of the steamed buns he had prepared in the morning.

He had a bamboo tube with rice soup, and after drinking a mouthful, he looked to see if the supply cooperative was open. Li Dong bought a pack of cigarettes with filters, which cost 44 cents. They were quite expensive. A pack of Zhonghua cigarettes didn't cost more, but the supply cooperative didn't have Zhonghua. If he had seen a fellow villager, he could have offered them a Zhonghua cigarette, which would have been very impressive.

He had 1.76 yuan left in his pocket, which he had managed to get from Xiajuan's little treasury. The little girl was very tight-fisted and only gave him one yuan for the trip. Fortunately, he hadn't returned the one yuan from Han Weiguo.

"Are you waiting for the bus, fellow villager?"

Li Dong asked the supply cooperative staff and went to the bus stop. There was nothing there, not even a sign. It was very frugal. "When will the tractor arrive?"

"Tractor?"

"Have you not taken a bus for a long time?"

"A few years."

Li Dong thought, what's going on? Did they change to a bus? That would be great. The tractor was bumpy and dusty, and he didn't like it.

"No wonder."

As he was talking, a horse-drawn carriage came over. It was a large carriage pulled by three horses, and the driver was a middle-aged man, dark and strong. "Whoa."

The carriage stopped, and Li Dong watched as people climbed onto the carriage, stunned. "Young man, what are you standing there for? Get on the carriage."

What? Don't joke, sir. This is a horse-drawn carriage. You're joking, right? It's supposed to be a tractor.

Tractor? A joke. Two cents, only fools would ride it. It's too expensive, and diesel is too expensive. No one rides it.

"Are you getting on or not? If not, I'm leaving."

The middle-aged driver wouldn't wait for Li Dong. In this era, service was for the customers, and the customers were the bosses. The supply cooperative, state-owned restaurants, and department stores treated customers like children. If they didn't buy, they were told to leave.

State-owned restaurants even had signs saying "No beating customers." No beating customers, how scary.

"Get on, get on."

If he didn't get on, he would have to walk. Li Dong had no choice but to get on. The fare was only five cents, the price of two Zhonghua cigarettes. He put his bundle down, and the carriage set off.

"Sir."

Li Dong sat next to a man who didn't look like a farmer and took out his filtered cigarette.

"Wow, young man, you're quite something, smoking a filtered cigarette."

"Where did you get it? Your family gave it to you for the trip."

"This kid."

The man happily took the cigarette, and Li Dong took out his lighter to light it, which surprised the man. "What's this?"

"A lighter."

"A lighter?"

Everyone on the carriage was stunned. "Is this a lighter? Don't fool us. What does a lighter look like?" A disposable lighter, Li Dong realized, was invented in the 1960s in Japan and only started being produced in coastal areas in the late 1980s.

"A relative brought it back, saying it was made by the Japanese."

Li Dong lit the lighter, and the flame was large. Everyone was amazed. Not only the passengers but even the driver, who had seen many things, had never seen a lighter before.

The lighter caused a stir, and people showed more respect for Li Dong. Using a Japanese lighter and smoking a filtered cigarette, the young man must be someone important, maybe from a family with a government official.

In this era, government officials were envied by the people. They lived in small buildings, didn't have to go out to use the toilet, ate rationed food, and had a good life.

The conversation continued, and Li Dong, the first-time city visitor, learned a lot from the filtered cigarettes.

"Tell me, what's the city like now?"

"What's the matter, sir?"

"The city is in chaos now."

The man took a puff of his cigarette. The carriage was approaching the city, and there were more farmers pushing wheelbarrows, carrying baskets, or pulling wooden carts along the road. "Look, these farmers don't work the land and run to the city every day."

Li Dong glanced at them. The baskets and carts were mostly filled with vegetables. These farmers were selling vegetables in the city. He couldn't believe it. They weren't being caught for speculation and profiteering anymore.

"They are, but they say that farmers selling surplus agricultural products doesn't count as speculation and profiteering."

"Ah, this world is in chaos. Before, it was just petty theft, but now it's almost out in the open. Isn't this world in chaos?"

On the carriage, only Li Dong understood that more people would sell vegetables and goods in the future.

When he arrived in the city, Li Dong walked around. There weren't many farmers selling vegetables yet, and they were mostly in remote areas. The patrol officers turned a blind eye as long as things didn't get too out of hand.

Of course, some vendors still didn't dare to sell openly. They carried bags and secretly approached people. Li Dong observed and learned. Doing business in this era was quite difficult.

No one knew if the policy would suddenly change. Things had loosened and tightened before, and it was a matter of life and death, so no one dared to take it lightly.

"Comrade, have a cigarette." Li Dong