7: Lu Zaiyang
Sun Zhaodi’s scolding spree also let people in their production team know that she was someone just as protective of her own as Cuihua’s mother.
And since the lazy one wasn’t their own child, anyone with a bit of sense wouldn’t say the wrong things outside.
Feeling Sun Zhaodi’s care and protection, Lu Guoguo became even more attached to her, which Sun Zhaodi was very happy about.
Lu Zaiyang even overheard Lu Guoguo earnestly asking Sun Zhaodi for advice on how to scold people without needing to catch her breath.
The firewood-chopping task lasted for ten days in total. Combined with the twenty cents from the clothes-mending day, Lu Guoguo had now saved up two yuan and twenty cents in her space.
For these ten days, she went with her family to chop firewood every day, and gradually, people in the production team began to believe that this girl really had become hardworking.
Sun Zhaodi was in a great mood. Remembering that they were running low on lard, she told Lu Guoguo before bed, “Guoguo, get up early tomorrow and go to the meat processing plant to buy ten pounds of pork fatback to render into lard. Then, go to the supply and marketing co-op to buy two pounds of coarse flour, get a bag of soy sauce, and buy a bottle of Red Star liquor.”
Lu Zaiyang liked noodles, and whenever Lu Laoba was in a particularly good mood, he enjoyed a small sip—just a sip’s worth—of liquor.
Lu Guoguo carefully noted it all down. The next day, as soon as the sky began to lighten, she ate the breakfast Sun Zhaodi made, then shouldered her bamboo basket and set off.
Following the original owner’s memory, she walked toward the town. From their production team to the town, it took about an hour and a half.
Just after leaving the production team, she ran into a few girls about her age, all from their production team. They were all carrying bamboo baskets and walking together, while Lu Guoguo quietly trailed behind them the whole way.
The girls noticed her too, but none showed any intention of greeting her.
Lu Guoguo thought this was fine; she didn’t want to approach them anyway.
By the time she reached the town, the sky was fully bright. Lu Guoguo first hurried to the meat processing plant to buy the pork fatback, then went to the supply and marketing co-op to get the other items.
Just as she was about to head home, a middle-aged woman carrying a bamboo basket approached her and whispered, “Comrade, want a couple pieces of tofu? I ground it before dawn this morning—it’s still warm!”
Lu Guoguo’s eyes lit up as she looked at this woman. She knew her—the author had written in the book that this woman was a “black market vendor.” Every market day, she would carry her bamboo basket around, looking for customers, and the goods she sold varied each time.
“How much?”
Lu Guoguo also kept her voice low.
Seeing her interest, the woman gestured for Lu Guoguo to follow her to the side of the supply and marketing co-op to talk; standing right there was too noticeable.
Lu Guoguo followed. The woman quickly lifted the bamboo cover off her basket and motioned for Lu Guoguo to see what was inside. As soon as the cover was removed, Lu Guoguo caught a faint scent of tofu.
It smelled much more fragrant than the tofu from her time—completely free of “technology.”
“One piece like this,” the woman pointed at the tofu in her basket, which was already portioned. “Five cents. How many do you want?”
“That’s too expensive,” Lu Guoguo said with a pained expression. “How about three cents?”
The woman didn’t expect this little girl to bargain. “Three cents are too little. How about we both compromise—four cents a piece?”
“Three cents,” Lu Guoguo didn’t budge. “Three cents a piece, and I’ll buy five pieces. That’s exactly fifteen cents.”
Hearing she was buying a larger quantity, the woman deliberately hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Alright, I’ll sell it to you at this low price because you seem sincere, little comrade. I wouldn’t lower the price for anyone else.”
“Thank you, auntie,” Lu Guoguo grinned. “Auntie, besides tofu, do you have anything else?”
“Today, I only have tofu. If you come next market day and run into me again, then I might have something else.”
“Alright,” Lu Guoguo nodded.
The woman turned her back to the main road, quickly wrapped five pieces of tofu in clean banana leaves with practiced ease, tied them securely with sturdy thin vines, swiftly placed them into Lu Guoguo’s bamboo basket, then slung her own basket over her arm and continued on her way.
Lu Guoguo took the five cents she got as change and ran back to the supply and marketing co-op, where she queued up to buy the cheapest kind of candy pieces—twenty-five in total.
Tucking them away, she cheerfully headed home.
It wasn’t until she was halfway there that she remembered to check today’s task. While walking, she summoned the task panel.
[Today’s Task: Make Lu Zaiyang compliment the host. Task Reward: Fifty cents.]
Get him to compliment her?
Lu Guoguo’s little face immediately scrunched up. But it was fifty cents!
She could give it a try.
Lu Guoguo quickened her pace home. The house was empty today, Sun Zhaodi and the others had gone to the fields to pull weeds.
After putting away everything she bought, Lu Guoguo first washed the pork fatback clean, rendered the lard and stored it, then unwrapped the tofu from the banana leaves and placed it in a porcelain bowl to prevent it from taking on the banana leaf smell if left wrapped too long.
With all that done, Lu Guoguo noticed the sunshine was nice today, so she took out all the bedding except for Lu Zaiyang’s and hung them out to air.
As it approached mealtime, Lu Guoguo took a bamboo basket to the vegetable patch to pick some greens, then started preparing lunch.
After steaming the mixed-grain rice, she began pan-frying the tofu.
Each piece of tofu was larger than her palm. With five pieces in total, they couldn’t finish them all at lunch, so Lu Guoguo first made three pieces of crispy fried tofu with cracklings. Using the freshly rendered lard, she fried the tofu until golden and crisp, then sprinkled some chopped scallions on top before serving—it looked incredibly appetizing.
The amount of cracklings left from rendering the lard was substantial. Lu Guoguo scooped a bit with her spatula to stir-fry some shredded cabbage. The cabbage looked glossy and fragrant. Finally, she stir-fried a large porcelain bowl of spring bamboo shoots and made a large bowl of vegetable soup.
Just as the vegetable soup was placed on the table, Sun Zhaodi’s voice came from the courtyard gate. “I smell the lard—looks like Guoguo has finished rendering it.”
“I’ve been looking forward to the cracklings all morning,” Lu Laoba patted his stomach. Having known there would be cracklings today, he had thought about it all morning and even while working.
“And with a sip of liquor, Dad would be even happier,” Lu Zaiyang, walking at the back, said with a smile.
“Exactly,” Lu Laoba nodded repeatedly. “Even just one sip would keep me satisfied all afternoon.”
“It’s not like we won’t let you drink more,” Sun Zhaodi chided gently.
“Liquor harms the body, one sip is enough,” Lu Laoba chuckled. Lu Zaiyang felt it was too much to watch and simply washed his hands, wiped his face, and went into the main room.
“Time to eat, time to eat,” Lu Guoguo called out to them. “I bought tofu today. That woman was originally selling it for five cents a piece, but I haggled with her for ages, and she finally gave it to me for three cents a piece. Come try my pan-fried tofu—it must be delicious fried in lard!”
The family sat down, and seeing the clearly much-improved meal compared to a few days ago, smiles spread across everyone’s faces.
Besides the fixed money and coupons Sun Zhaodi gave Lu Guoguo to buy specific items, she had also given her an extra ten cents to spend on snacks.
“Did you spend it all on tofu?”
Sun Zhaodi asked.
“The money Uncle gave me before isn’t used up yet. I didn’t touch what you gave me today,” Lu Guoguo said, keeping a straight face.
In truth, that money had long been spent by the original owner—on meat buns or meat pies in town, all eaten secretly without bringing a single bite back for the family.
“If we give it to you, use it. Don’t save it,” Lu Laoba carefully poured himself exactly one sip’s worth of liquor. It was a bamboo wine cup Lu Zaiyang had made for him, and he used it every time he drank.
Lu Guoguo nodded, her gaze sweeping over Lu Zaiyang sitting opposite her, who was quietly eating tofu. “Brother, what do you think of my pan-fried tofu? Is it good?”
Lu Zaiyang looked up to see Lu Guoguo watching him with bright, sparkling eyes full of expectation, which caught him off guard.
“Ahem, of course it’s delicious! I’ve never had such delicious pan-fried tofu! Right, Zaiyang?”
Afraid his son hadn’t grasped Lu Guoguo’s meaning, Lu Laoba desperately hinted. Sun Zhaodi didn’t say anything, just watched them with a smile.
Lu Zaiyang: …
“It’s good, quite tasty,” Lu Zaiyang said. Seeing the look of satisfaction on the face of the person opposite him, he thought for a moment and couldn’t help adding, “It’d be nice to have it often.”
Be more diligent, don’t just sleep all day in your room.
Understanding his underlying meaning, Lu Guoguo didn’t mind at all—because her task was completed! Fifty cents earned! Combined with today’s pocket money, the total saved in her space pouch was now two yuan and sixty cents!
In the afternoon, Lu Guoguo followed Sun Zhaodi to work. The work-point recorder looked her over a couple of times and finally assigned her the task of feeding the pigs.
Although the communal canteen system had been abolished, each household was only allowed to raise two chickens and could not raise pigs, cattle, etc. These were mainly raised by the production team. Pigs would be slaughtered and the meat distributed at the end of the year. Their production team raised twelve pigs and two oxen in total.
Today, Cuihua was also assigned to feed the pigs alongside Lu Guoguo.
Cuihua gave a light snort as she walked past Lu Guoguo, carrying a large bamboo basket. “Don’t you drag me down. If the pigs lose weight because they go hungry, you won’t get a single work point!”
This was a six-work-point task.
Lu Guoguo mimicked her snort. “It’s my first time being assigned this task. If you don’t guide me properly and I mess up, then it’s on you. Would you even deserve your work points?”
Cuihua didn’t expect her to turn the tables like that, and somehow it almost made sense.
Her face twisted briefly before she said coldly to Lu Guoguo, “Follow me to pick pigweed.”
Lu Guoguo hadn’t brought a sickle when she came, only her bamboo basket, so she borrowed one from the work-point recorder before catching up.
Afraid that Lu Guoguo really would hold her back, Cuihua took her to a patch of pigweed she had discovered. “Hurry up! We need to gather enough grass for twelve pigs this afternoon. If either of us slacks off, we won’t finish.”
She gave Lu Guoguo a warning look.
“Got it,” Lu Guoguo set down her basket and started cutting pigweed. This grass was called pigweed because pigs loved it—the name sounded oddly cute.
That afternoon, she and Cuihua made five trips back and forth with loads of pigweed.
The grass was for the evening feeding and the next morning’s feeding. The twelve pigs had been bought by the production team leader in the first lunar month, and each looked lively and healthy.
The pigpen was located next to the production team’s storage shed. Cuihua and Lu Guoguo each squatted on one side, each with a chopping board in front of them. They picked up their vegetable choppers and began chopping the pigweed, neither saying a word to the other.
Only after all the pigweed from several baskets had been chopped did Lu Guoguo shake her sore, aching hands and go to find the work-point recorder to register.
After confirming they had completed the task, the recorder wrote down the date, the task, and the work points earned next to their names.
Lu Guoguo had earned fifty cents today plus six work points. She was in such high spirits that she seemed to glow on her way home.
Cuihua, trailing some distance behind, scoffed. “She barely did any work. I don’t know what she’s so happy about.”
**