Chapter 3

At noon, Wu Jianguo had his meal at the unit canteen. Chu Yumei, who worked close to home and had a relatively relaxed work environment, came back early from work around eleven to cook lunch for her brother and sister.

Lunch was still cornmeal porridge, with a side dish of stir-fried Chinese cabbage, a simple and watery meal. Wu Tian naturally had little appetite — in his previous life, he could eat enough to gain 200 pounds of fat, and he was a meat lover. Such light and simple home-cooked dishes were fine for an occasional meal, but eating them every day and at every meal was truly hard to accept.

But in this era, eating meat was not an easy thing. Pork cost 56 cents per pound, which was not expensive, but it was still the planned economy era, and meat was rationed. Even if you had the money, you couldn't buy meat without a ration ticket. Of course, you could try to get some meat tickets, but with a monthly salary of only 50 to 60 yuan for ordinary people, and tight daily expenses, who would be willing to spend their money on meat every day?

Sigh, it seems the first important thing after being reborn is to quickly get some pocket money to improve our daily diet.

"Xiao Tian, finish your soup, no leftovers!" Chu Yumei tapped the table with her chopsticks and scolded Wu Tian, who was not enjoying his meal. She then turned to Wu Yuan and said, "Yuan Yuan, go to your grandfather's house and bring back some火烧 (burnt cakes)."

In the southern mountain region, on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, the Kitchen God ascends to heaven to report good news, and people prepare burnt cakes and malt sugar as provisions. Wu Tian's hometown was in the suburbs of Shangcheng County, and his grandparents had already passed away. Wu Jianguo and Chu Yumei were both busy with work, so every year, Wu Tian's grandmother would steam extra burnt cakes for the family. This year was no exception.

"I want to go too!" Thinking of his grandparents, Wu Tian immediately shouted. In his previous life, before he was reborn, his grandparents had already been dead for several years. Wu Tian had a deep affection for his grandparents, who would take him and his sister to stay with them during holidays. Now that he was reborn, he was eager to see the two elders again and relive the warmth of his childhood.

"What are you going to do there? There are many people on the bus during the New Year, and you might get lost!" Chu Yumei immediately shot down Wu Tian's request.

Although his sister was only three years older, in their mother's eyes, the difference was significant. From Wu Tian's home in the eastern city to his grandfather's home in the southern suburbs of Shan'nan University, it was about ten miles away, and the bus required a transfer. In Chu Yumei's view, ten-year-old Wu Yuan was capable of handling the task, but six or seven-year-old Wu Tian was not.

After lunch, Chu Yumei gave Wu Yuan two cents for the bus fare and went to work, pulling her son along.

Wu Tian had been taken to his mother's workplace many times as a child. Since the work was light, there were plenty of picture books in the library to read, and he wouldn't cause any trouble.

However, the current Wu Tian was not a six or seven-year-old child anymore. He had little interest in picture books and found it boring to be confined in the quiet library. He felt depressed, thinking, "Why did I have to be reborn as a six or seven-year-old child with no autonomy?"

But on the bright side, a quiet afternoon would allow him to organize his thoughts and think about how to live this life differently, a life without regrets and without making his family suffer.

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"Xiao Tian, come set off the firecrackers."

At dinnertime, Wu Jianguo took out a string of firecrackers and called to Wu Tian.

"Set them off quickly, don't let the child get hurt." Chu Yumei complained, "Yuan Yuan, come help serve the food!"

"What's there to be afraid of? Xiao Tian will be seven after the New Year, and he's not afraid of setting off firecrackers. Come on, son." Wu Jianguo laughed.

Wu Tian, with his sore arms, walked up and took the cigarette from his father, instinctively putting it in his mouth and taking a puff — a habit from his previous life as a seasoned smoker.

But after one puff, Wu Tian immediately started coughing, feeling extremely uncomfortable — after all, he was only six years old and hadn't learned to smoke yet. His clean lungs couldn't handle the foreign substance!

"Hey, kid, why are you smoking?" Wu Jianguo quickly snatched the cigarette, laughing at his son, whose face was red from holding his breath.

Chu Yumei also rushed over, patting Wu Tian's back and scolding Wu Jianguo, "You're just like him, and you're still laughing..."

"Hehe..." Wu Jianguo laughed and took a satisfying puff of the cigarette.

There's a saying: on the 23rd, set off firecrackers; on the 24th, clean the house; on the 25th, grind tofu; on the 26th, buy meat; on the 27th, kill a chicken; on the 28th, put up decorations; on the 29th, buy alcohol; on the 30th, stay up all night. With the final firecrackers set off by his father, and the burnt cakes and malt sugar brought back by Wu Yuan, the New Year atmosphere became more intense, marking the official start of the New Year preparations.

For children, regardless of whether they had money or not, they could start setting off firecrackers from that day on — even if they couldn't afford to buy them, they could still pick up duds to play with.

After dinner, Jia Liang came to Wu Tian's house, wanting to take him to pick up duds.

Looking at Jia Liang, who had a runny nose, Wu Tian wasn't interested — after all, he was a reborn person, and it was beneath his dignity to not even be able to afford firecrackers!

After a few words, Jia Liang was sent away, and Wu Tian was bored again. It was just past seven o'clock, and it was too early to go to bed. In the early 1980s, family entertainment was quite limited. The only electronic device in Wu Tian's home was an old radio-cassette player. The only television in the entire courtyard was a 14-inch black-and-white TV in the deputy director's house, and they rarely turned it on. Whenever it was on, it would attract the entire courtyard's residents to gather there.

Wu Tian watched his mother help his sister with her winter vacation homework in the living room. The third-grade questions didn't interest him, so he aimlessly wandered into the inner room, where he saw his father, Wu Jianguo, writing a manuscript at the desk.

Wu Jianguo had just become the deputy editor of the provincial newspaper, a role where he had to do the work himself, and all the credit went to the leadership, while he bore all the responsibility.

However, with his solid skills, Wu Jianguo published several influential articles in the following years, earning the admiration of the newspaper's editor-in-chief. His position steadily rose, and a few years later, when the editor-in-chief, who was also the deputy minister of the provincial propaganda department, became the minister, Wu Jianguo, at the age of 40, became the deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper. Unfortunately, the editor-in-chief lost power in the early 1990s and was transferred out of Shan'nan Province, and Wu Jianguo was also affected, forced to resign under pressure, and later suffered a stroke, leading to his death at the age of 50.

Wu Tian, leaning over his father's desk, trying to see what he was writing, thought to himself, "Since I've been reborn, with my foresight and modern perspective, I must find a way to help my father avoid that disaster. After all, at his age, he was already a deputy department-level official, and if he hadn't made the wrong choices, his future achievements would have been limitless. In this life, I could live comfortably as a second-generation official, or even enjoy a leisurely life as a young official."

"Go, Dad is busy, go play outside!" Wu Jianguo patted Wu Tian's head and said.

Hearing the noise, Chu Yumei in the living room also called out, "Xiao Tian, don't disturb your father, come look at the picture books."

Wu Tian was depressed, thinking, "I'm destined to read picture books. I've been reading them all afternoon in the library, and now I have to continue?"

He thought about using his modern perspective to guide his father in writing articles, which might help him stand out and get promoted earlier. However, at his age, even if he offered reasonable suggestions, his father might not take them seriously...

Wu Tian, dejected, returned to the living room, thinking, "I need to find a way to 'pretend' to be a 'prodigy' to increase my importance in my parents' eyes..."

"Mom, I don't want to read picture books. Do you have any other books?" Wu Tian looked at the stack of picture books his mother had taken out and said. A prodigy couldn't read picture books; he needed to read books with more text and fewer pictures to show his intelligence.

"What else do you want to read? You only know a few characters." Chu Yumei was uncooperative, throwing a picture book into Wu Tian's arms and continuing to help Wu Yuan with her homework.

Wu Tian was frustrated. Convincing his mother that he was a prodigy seemed like a long road, but he couldn't rush it. If he showed too much, they might send him to "relevant departments" for study.

Wu Tian, depressed, flipped through the stack of picture books, which included a copy of "Journey to the West." His eyes lit up — this could be a way to make money.

Due to Chu Yumei's work, she often had access to inventory books, and Wu Tian's home had a large box of picture books. Although not many were preserved, Wu Tian knew their value in the future. A complete set of "Journey to the West" with 36 volumes could be worth over 3,000 yuan if in good condition, and if they were all first editions, the price would be even higher. Some pre-1949 editions, with limited print runs, could be worth even more, such as a single copy of "Chicken Feather Letter" valued at 5,000 yuan, and a complete set of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" could sell for 200,000 yuan.

Currently, a picture book cost only a few cents to a few dozen cents.

Should I buy a batch of picture books to store? This investment is small, but the returns can be hundreds or thousands of times higher, more promising than collecting antiques! However, collecting requires time, and it wouldn't help me get rich and have meat to eat quickly. I need to find a faster way to make money...

Wu Tian, lost in thought, quickly flipped through a book — he had read it many times in his previous life, and the content was already familiar.

Wu Tian stood up, thinking about finding another book to pass the time, and saw a roll of red paper in the box of picture books. Unfolding it, he found several couplets, which his sister had brought back from his grandfather's house.

Wu Tian remembered that his family's Spring Festival couplets were always written by his grandfather, a tradition that continued until the 1990s when his grandfather passed away. As a professor at Shan'nan University, his grandfather's calligraphy was excellent, and he could have easily become a master if he had cared about fame and profit.

"Don't mess around, you might tear them!" Chu Yumei shouted.

"If they tear, I'll just rewrite them." Wu Tian said, but before he could finish, he received a tap on the head, and his mother snatched the couplets away, leaving him even more frustrated.

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