As the sky gradually darkened, Wu Jun brought a basin of warm water back to his room to wash up. In this era, without electricity and no entertainment, most families rested early after nightfall. Looking around this room, it was filled with beautiful memories. This room had originally been where Wu Jun’s parents lived when they were alive, and everywhere bore traces of them. Apart from a heated kang, there was also a dressing table, a large camphorwood wardrobe, a small desk, and a stool. These pieces of furniture were all part of Wu Jun’s mother’s dowry, crafted entirely by his grandfather and uncle.
In this room full of memories, Wu Jun contemplated what path he should take in the future. Because his grandfather had culinary skills, Wu Jun decided to learn from him for a while. Once he turned 18, the factory subsidies would stop. Then, he would see if he could use this skill to find a job at a state-run restaurant or a factory canteen.
Additionally, after checking the family’s food supplies today, they were barely enough for the three of them. However, the family still lacked meat, cooking oil, fine grains, cloth… basically everything except coarse grains. Although this was already much better than many villagers’ conditions, his grandparents were old and could earn at most 3 work points a day. As for himself, a half-grown boy, he could earn at most 7 work points a day, and that was only during the busy farming season—normally just 5 work points. Most of the family’s current grain was exchanged with money and food ration tickets from the village. But he had only two years until he turned 18, and once the factory subsidies ended, the family would be left with only the small amount of money his parents had left behind. Yet, in this era of the Great Movement, there were very few ways to make money.
Sigh, he should first focus on learning cooking skills and try his luck more often in the mountains. If he could pick up a rabbit today and a chicken tomorrow, wouldn’t that be wonderful? Thinking of the fragrant rabbit meat from tonight, Wu Jun couldn’t help swallowing a few times. He began recalling all kinds of delicious foods he had eaten in the past—roast whole lamb, braised beef, Fotiaoqiang (Buddha Jumps Over the Wall), pine nut fish… If only he could eat them again. Unfortunately, in these times, even pork was hard to come by, let alone lamb, beef, and various seafoods.
As the saying goes, you dream of what you think about during the day. In his dream, Wu Jun entered a magical place. In a burst of white light, he saw a familiar object—the large double-door refrigerator he had used in his previous life before being reborn. Back then, as a bachelor, he bought such a large appliance, and his friends joked, asking if he planned to buy ingredients once a year. In fact, this refrigerator had a backstory.
It was because Li Xue had loved the meals Wu Jun cooked back then, always sending someone to his place to pick up food. Thinking back, he had been delighted to be treated like a personal chef for Li Xue and her family, proud that he had captured the stomach of the woman he liked. Now, looking back, how pathetic he had been. He had stayed a sous chef just to have more time to cook for her entire family.
The more he thought about it, the more disgusted he felt. Shaking his head, Wu Jun walked over to the refrigerator and opened it. On the left side was the freezer compartment with 185 liters of capacity, and on the right was the refrigerator compartment with 360 liters of capacity. Both sides were packed with various ingredients he had just purchased before being reborn. Thanks to the frost-free function, he could clearly see that the six compartments on the left held beef, whole chickens, pork, lamb chops, red shrimp, hairtail fish, and frozen dumplings. The left door of the refrigerator contained various meat sauces, cheese, butter, and beef tallow. The six compartments on the right held 20 eggs, a cake, vegetables, and several other fruits. The right door held some salad dressing, ketchup, purified water, homemade pickles, dried goods, a large bucket of yogurt, and several bottles of beer.
Looking at this abundance of ingredients, Wu Jun thought to himself how wonderful it would be if his family could have such ingredients now. As he thought this, a smile bloomed on his sleeping face.
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!” The sound of a rooster crowing came from outside. Wu Jun reluctantly turned over and tried to sleep a little longer. The kang had been heated too warmly the night before, so he had gotten up in the middle of the night to take off a layer of clothing. About half an hour later, the sound of chopping vegetables came from the kitchen. This time, Wu Jun had to get up—after all, his grandparents were old, and he couldn’t let them do so much work.
One hand feeling for his clothes, the other lifting the blanket, he closed his eyes and prepared to sit up. But as he turned, he bumped into something like a wall—cold to the touch. Wu Jun opened his eyes and saw it: the large refrigerator from his previous life before being reborn. Could he still be dreaming? He closed his eyes, then opened them again—the refrigerator was still there. Now, Wu Jun realized things had gotten a bit serious.
“Yunzi, are you up? Breakfast is ready. Do you want to come eat? I need to head back to the county town for work soon.” Outside the door, Little Aunt Wu spoke while knocking.
“Auntie, I’m up. I’ll come out to eat in a bit. You go ahead and take care of your things first.” Wu Jun hurriedly put on his clothes and climbed down from the end of the kang, afraid that his little aunt might come in and see this iron lump—it would frighten her to death.
At the door, Little Aunt Wu thought for a moment, then headed back to the main room.
Touching the refrigerator, Wu Jun wondered why it was here. Hadn’t he only dreamed about it yesterday? Opening the refrigerator, he saw the exact same ingredients as in his dream last night, still radiating cold mist. “Wait a minute—there aren’t any wires around. How is the refrigerator running?” Standing next to it, he could even hear the sound of the compressor working. Wu Jun reached in and pulled out a bunch of grapes, plucked one, and popped it into his mouth. Sweet and cold—it was perfectly edible. Checking the other ingredients, he found they were all real. Now Wu Jun was both happy and troubled. Happy because with so many ingredients, he could eat well for a long time. Troubled because such a large iron lump sitting here would be very easy to expose.
As he paced around the room, thinking about what to do, the refrigerator suddenly disappeared. Wu Jun was horrified—the meat in hand had vanished again. Thinking of the refrigerator, it suddenly reappeared. Now, Wu Jun began to understand. And so, in this humble little room of the 1970s, a high-tech refrigerator that wouldn’t exist for another decade kept appearing and disappearing.
After several attempts while holding the bunch of grapes, Wu Jun figured out how to make the refrigerator appear and disappear. Simply picture the refrigerator in your mind and silently chant “refrigerator” three times, and it would appear. Conversely, silently chant “refrigerator” three times while picturing the refrigerator, and it would disappear. Moreover, any ingredients taken out of the refrigerator would not vanish with it. Now, at the very least, he had a refrigerator full of ingredients.
Delighted, Wu Jun made the refrigerator disappear and went to the main room, only to find that his little aunt had already left, presumably back to the county town. Grandma Wu was trimming vegetables, and Grandpa Wu was chopping greens to feed the chickens.
“Grandpa, don’t push yourself. I’ll go feed the chickens after I finish breakfast.” Wu Jun, biting into a leftover corn pancake from yesterday, walked over to Grandpa Wu, ready to take over the work.
“No need. I can still manage this little bit. You go clean out the chicken coop. You’ve been sick these past few days, and the family has been busy taking care of you—it hasn’t been cleaned in a long time.” With that, Grandpa picked up the chicken feed bowl and went to feed the chickens.
Wu Jun stood up, preparing to follow his grandfather to the chicken coop, when a knock came at the outer door. He walked over and opened it to see “Brother Hongqi, morning! Have you eaten? Come on in.”
“Already ate, Yunzi. I won’t come in—I still have a few more households to visit. I’m here to tell you to let your grandfather know there’s a team meeting this afternoon. Make sure he gets to the team meeting ground at 2 p.m.”
“What’s the meeting about, Brother Hongqi? It’s almost New Year’s—there shouldn’t be much going on.” Wu Jun looked puzzled.
Hongqi smiled: “Big news—they’re discussing opening the lake for fishing. Alright, I won’t chat longer. I need to go notify the others.” And he walked off into the distance.