“On the first day Father wasn’t here.”
Bai Shuhua really didn’t feel much of anything. She went to school when it was time to go to school, and ate when it was time to eat.
“On the third day Father wasn’t here.”
At the dinner table, everybody was talking about whether Bai father had bought the seeds.
Bai little aunt was still pouring cold water on things. This time, Bai mother didn’t even need to push back, and Grandfather Bai very rarely opened his mouth to scold her. Bai little aunt got so angry that she didn’t even eat dinner.
Bai Shuhua: Serves her right!
“On the fifth day Father wasn’t here… he came back.”
Bai Shuhua was stunned, this was way too fast.
Had the seeds been bought? Had something happened in Harbin?…
But before she could even ask, Bai father only checked in at home and, without even having time to eat, went to the brigade captain’s home.
Grandfather Bai hurried after him.
Bai Shuhua also wanted to follow, but unfortunately she still had to go to school in the afternoon. There was nothing she could do about it.
She had never felt half a day drag on so long, and the moment the bell rang for dismissal she ran home.
Then she saw her father sleeping soundly on the kang.
He had probably been tired these past few days too.
She tiptoed out again and helped make dinner with eldest cousin sister.
“Third younger sister, don’t tend the fire, it’s too hot. You sort vegetables over there,” Bai Shuhui arranged a light job for her.
Bai Shuhua obediently listened. She didn’t want to tend the fire in this kind of heat either.
“Third younger sister, what is Harbin like?” Second cousin sister said with some longing. “It must be much bigger than here, right? Little aunt said the houses in the city are all several stories high.”
“Second sister, wait a moment!”
Bai Shuhua ran off thump thump thump, and quickly ran back, holding two newspapers in her hands. “Look at these two photos. One is Harbin’s steel plant, there are already quite a few buildings inside. The other is Harbin’s department store, it’s the same thing as the supply and marketing cooperative in our town, only they have three floors, and the goods are so much more complete than here.”
“Let me see!”
“I want to look too!”
Bai Shuhui and Bai Shuting squeezed together to look over and over, and even started discussing it.
Actually, the photos in the newspaper were just ordinary black-and-white photos, with no camera tricks used either, gray, plain, and ordinary.
But the two little girls were both looking at them with bright eyes.
Bai Shuhua honestly went to sort vegetables.
She had to remind them, “Eldest sister, second sister, my vegetables are done.”
She was afraid that if they dragged it too late, and dinner wasn’t done, Grandma would scold people.
Eldest sister reluctantly folded up the newspaper and handed it over. “Third sister, here you go, the city really is nice.”
Bai Shuhua waved it off. “I don’t want it anymore, I have a lot of old newspapers at my place.”
Eldest sister confirmed it again, and only then took the newspapers back to the second room, probably to store them carefully.
The two sisters were very happy to get the newspapers, and insisted that Bai Shuhua stay to the side or go back to the room to lie down. She didn’t need to do any work.
What a good thing!
Bai Shuhua pretended to refuse a bit, then agreed.
But she also had a little conscience, and promised that the old newspapers she bought could be looked at by the two sisters however they wanted.
When she went back to the small room in the third room, she saw that Bai father had already woken up and was gulping down water.
“Dad, you’re awake! Have you been tired these past few days?”
Bai father turned back and smiled. “What tired from working? I just never rode a train before, and after getting off I still felt like I was swaying. Sleeping once made me feel much better.”
As he spoke, he touched his stomach. “I’m a bit hungry, is dinner ready?”
Bai Shuhua shook her head. “Not yet, but it’s almost done. Eldest sister and the others don’t need me, so I came back.”
Bai father was not like other people’s fathers. When he encountered this kind of situation, he would not say, “Then why didn’t you make dinner with your sisters?”
“Dad, did you buy the seeds?” Bai Shuhua was curious.
Bai father shook his head. “No.”
“Ah, there wasn’t a seed store?” Bai Shuhua frowned her little brows.
“There was, it was huge, everything there was there, it was really good!” Bai father was very excited. This was still the first time he had known there were so many seeds.
“Then was it because sugar beet seeds were too expensive?” She couldn’t afford them, so she didn’t buy them, that shouldn’t be right.
Bai father still shook his head. “Not expensive, two mao for a big bag.”
After that, Bai father talked about his experience going to Harbin. “After I got off the train I looked around asking people for directions. First I went to Heilongjiang Province Agricultural University, and I also found a teacher who knew how to grow sugar beets. That teacher told me that the latest time to grow sugar beets around here was in April, and now it was already too late. He also told me that sugar beets had a very high sugar content, and sugar factories would be very willing to take them. After hearing that I thought of a problem, there doesn’t seem to be a sugar factory in our county seat, so if we really planted several hundred mu of sugar beets, where would we send them? The grain station probably wouldn’t take them either.”
Bai Shuhua also felt a jolt in her heart, how had she forgotten about sales? As expected, she still wasn’t thorough enough in doing things.
“After that I went to the city’s sugar factory and asked a little leader. They did want sugar beets, but our place was too far from the city, there was no way to transport them over, something about increasing some kind of cost.” Bai father tried hard to think, but couldn’t say it right on the tip of his tongue.
Bai Shuhua added uncertainly, “Transportation cost?”
“Yes, yes, that’s it, it increased transportation cost, unless we could find a vehicle to send them over. Ah, when I thought about it I knew it wouldn’t work.” Bai father let out another long sigh. “I was unwilling. After finally making a trip to the city, I did nothing at all, so I went back to Agricultural University again. I chatted one by one with the teachers. Those people really knew a lot, turns out wood ear mushrooms can also be cultivated, raising pigs also had plenty of tricks, and herbal medicine could also be cultivated. So I thought, if we can’t cultivate sugar beets here, could we switch to something that could be cultivated, like wood ear mushrooms and herbal medicine? If these two were cultivated well, they would definitely make money.”
Bai Shuhua naturally knew the benefits too, but, “These two should not be easy to cultivate.”
Bai father sighed again. “Yeah, if only the teachers from Agricultural University could come here. But I left our production team’s address with several teachers, so we can also write letters later.”
Bai Shuhua also wanted to sigh. Making money was really too hard. “The brigade captain didn’t say anything to you?”
After all, this time could also be considered as not having accomplished anything.
Bai father wore an expression like, “Why would he say anything to me?” “What would he say to me for? I made a contribution to the team. If I had stupidly bought sugar beet seeds, that would have been miserable. And besides the money, apart from the round-trip train tickets, I didn’t spend much. I ate and stayed at the school, I stayed in an eight-person dormitory, they didn’t charge money, and I ate by using the meal tickets I exchanged with the cornmeal I brought.”
There were some things he did not find it convenient to tell his daughter. The grain he brought along had been sold off by him at a high price. This trip out really didn’t cost much.
But the city was a bit chaotic, including that Agricultural University. The teachers were actually afraid of the students.
Bai Shuhua gave a thumbs-up. It still had to be you, Dad.
You really knew how to get things done.
It was definitely the times that limited Bai father’s development.
In another ten-odd years, maybe Bai father would be able to take off. Her dream of being a rich second generation had hope!