Walking back from the town to the village took over an hour.
Suizi was eager to return, only wanting to quickly find Lun Lamei to demand an explanation.
Lun Lamei had come with her, but upon seeing Yu Jingting, she slipped away.
You can run from the Monk, but not from the temple; her home was there and Suizi planned to confront her.
However, Yu Jingting wasn’t in a hurry and led Suizi to the entrance of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
"What are you doing?" Suizi asked.
"No matter what you see in a moment, don’t say a word," Yu Jingting said, glancing around.
Suizi’s heart clenched with anxiety, imagining him impulsively raiding the Supply and Marketing Cooperative and being taken away by the police...
In her past life, his arrest for smashing up a hospital had left a deep psychological scar on her.
Back then, his arms were twisted behind him as he cursed and tried to kick out, and because of his wretched behavior, he was detained for several extra days.
The more Suizi thought about it, the more panicked she became. Just as she was about to pull on him and give him a few words of caution, he approached a middle-aged woman who was coming out.
He led the middle-aged woman to a secluded corner and returned two minutes later, now with an extra dollar in his hand.
Suizi felt so angry she could cry.
Had he just robbed that woman?
Always skirting the edge of breaking the law, could anything good come of it?
"Where did you get the money?" Suizi braced herself to scratch his conscience, and if he hadn’t learned his lesson, she would scratch!
"I traded it for sugar ration tickets."
Yu Jingting showed her the remaining sugar ration tickets in his hand.
Nowadays, the sugar tickets were one large sheet, indicating several months, totaling six months’ worth.
In previous years, the regulations were strict and buying things required both money and tickets; without the ticket, the sale wasn’t allowed. In recent years, it had relaxed, and paying extra money would suffice without the ticket.
For sugar, for instance, with a ticket it was 0.78 yuan per market catty; without a ticket, it was 1.2 yuan.
He traded three months’ worth of tickets for one dollar; it was a profitable deal for both parties.
Suizi withdrew her poised hand and exhaled in relief.
"How did you know that lady needed sugar tickets?"
"Holding eggs and canned goods in her basket and a face full of anxiety, it’s likely she has a sick person at home; such people definitely need sugar tickets."
Suizi had an "aha" moment; that explained it.
Yu Jingting’s mind was sharp, and he had guts. As the villagers would say, he never had his priorities straight.
In her past life, she knew he had dubious ways of making money. Being of timid nature, she disapproved of such behavior, and that was one of the reasons she had been so scared of him before.
With her past life experience and viewing his actions now, she found them not only non-scary but even somewhat admirable.
"Stand here and wait; I’ll go buy some sugar."
"Let’s economize, don’t buy sugar," she urged him.
Yu Jingting chuckled, revealing two cute little canine teeth when he smiled, not looking fierce at all.
"You don’t think your old man can’t provide for his wife and child, do you? Just wait here patiently."
Suizi’s face flushed slightly; so he had bought it for her.
The egg white sugar, when dissolved in hot water, was regarded as the best tonic by the villagers, a treat reserved only for the sick and the children. He thought highly of his child and did everything possible to secure it for her.
After a while, he came out carrying a triangular cloth bag, bulging with plenty of items inside.
"What are you looking at? I didn’t steal or rob anything."
Yu Jingting stiffened his face and turned his head away, hoisting the bag over his shoulder. It looked heavy.
He knew his wife disliked and feared him.
He also knew that his ways of acquiring things disgusted her, as the villagers all looked down on such behavior. It was only natural she didn’t approve.
Whether she was scared or not, nothing would stop his determination to provide well for his pregnant wife.
"Where did all these things come from?" Suizi touched the bag; it seemed to contain more than just white sugar.
Yu Jingting put down the bundle and said menacingly:
"Hurry up and look, and then you can go report me." If she dared, he would just carry her back and give it to her so she couldn’t get off the bed!
Yu Jingting had long been fed up with her timid, fearful attitude towards him daily. If others looked down on him, and she joined in the frenzy, he needed to give her a good scare, to settle her down and live peacefully with him—take her back for a three-day and two-night session, to see if she still cries or fears!
The man harbored mischievous schemes, eagerly waiting for his plump wife to fall into the trap.
Suizi rummaged through and found, aside from a large pack of white sugar wrapped in grass paper, there were needles, threads, and an assortment of small items, nearly filling half the bag.
These were all acquired by mortgaging meat and egg coupons.
Although he had no cash on hand, he knew how to maximize the cash value of assets.
"Our village is close to the town, and these trinkets aren’t wanted here, but tomorrow, I take them to remote villages, and they’ll turn into a significant amount of money," Yu Jingting said with a mix of coaxing and aggression, "The Trade and Industry Bureau is just up ahead, I’ll show you the way."
"Why would I report you? I’m not stupid. If you’re locked up, then wouldn’t our child have no father?"
Yu Jingting, who had been fantasizing about subduing her with a bed play, was taken aback by her response.
If it had been the usual scenario, she would have trembled with fear and been unable to speak by now, but now, she was even smiling—and he had to admit, she looked truly beautiful when she smiled, her two dimples, her eyes also sweet, much prettier than when she cried.
Caught up in the allure of her beauty, Yu Jingting momentarily forgot about scaring his wife.
"There are some things, however, that I still need to make clear to you," she said, dropping her smile to become serious.
Here it comes, the weepy report, the warnings! Yu Jingting braced himself.
"You do things outside for the sake of our family, I understand, but there has to be a moral line, boundaries for what is and isn’t acceptable—how do you know the child in my belly won’t grow up to be a leader?"
"What does being a leader have to do with anything?"
"If a child’s father has a criminal record, the child can’t become an official. If I’m carrying a future leader in my womb, would you heartlessly rob him of that chance?"
This perspective was something Yu Jingting had never heard before, and it shocked him.
Villagers often said he was bound to be locked up eventually and that even if he had a son, the boy would just be another little street rogue (footnote 1), that there were no good people in the Yu Family for generations.
"Our son could be a leader?" Yu Jingting asked, astonished.
Suizi lifted her head proudly.
"If he doesn’t become a leader, becoming a great merchant like his father or a cultured person like his mother is also wonderful, isn’t it? When the child grows up, whether it’s a boy or a girl, I will teach them to be studious and upright. You need to set an example for them. Our family may produce leaders and talents, but we can’t have anyone sitting behind bars!" (footnote 2)
"We’ll go find Lun Lamei later, and it’s all right to demand an explanation from her or even ask for the dowry back from her mother, but it’s not okay to smash their things or hit them. Think things through before you act. As long as you stay out of jail, everything is negotiable."
Yu Jingting, astute as he was, translated his wife’s words in his mind: was she not opposing?
"Keep your petty thoughts to yourself. I don’t even care about this small amount of money, and even if it was a bigger issue, it’d just be a fine of a hundred or so—at wait, what did you just say? Ask for the dowry back?!" How upset must his wife have been to even bring up the dowry?!