“Uncle Wufu, can you stop by the supply and marketing cooperative later? I want to buy some more stuff.”
Lu Xiuxiu lifted the wooden bucket onto Uncle Wufu’s ox cart and pulled two mao from her pocket to hand him.
Uncle Wufu lifted the lid and peeked inside. “Oh, looks like business is good. You sold everything, huh?”
He had seen it in the morning—more than half a bucket full. The ox cart ambled slowly toward the main road, picking up a few more passengers along the way.
A woman glanced at Lu Xiuxiu and deliberately shifted over a little, lifting her hand to cover the necklace around her neck.
She had heard yesterday that this girl had almost killed her sister-in-law just for a necklace.
She wasn’t about to let her necklace be stolen, so she kept a wary eye on Lu Xiuxiu throughout the ride.
Feeling the hostility in the woman’s gaze, Lu Xiuxiu gritted her teeth and forced a smile. “Auntie, why are you staring at me like that?”
The woman smiled faintly but said nothing, her hand covering her necklace even more obviously.
Lu Xiuxiu guessed that Xu Nian’an must have been spreading rumors in the village. Remembering that her father had scolded her the night before, the joy of earning money instantly vanished.
“I’m not trying to steal Xu Nian’an’s things! I’m spending my own money to buy them. She yelled at me for it, and she’s the one who pushed me into the water.”
At the time, she had indeed pushed her, but there was no camera or third party around—if she didn’t admit it, no one could do anything.
The woman, however, was even more displeased. “Xu Nian’an can’t even swim. She nearly died jumping in after you?!”
Her mind was made up: Lu Xiuxiu was not a good person. She had done something that awful and still dared to show herself in public. Selling things? What was she really up to?
Were all the Lu men dead? Who knew what an unmarried girl like her might be doing on the streets?
Other passengers on the cart were from nearby villages. A woman from the neighboring village knew that their Li Niu still wanted to marry Lu Xiuxiu and decided she should warn Mrs. Li: if this girl was a troublemaker, marrying her in would bring disaster to the whole family.
Lu Xiuxiu sat on the cart fuming, feeling like she was on pins and needles. She cursed all the gossiping women in her head.
At the same time, she reassured herself: once she made enough money, she’d never have to deal with these people again.
When they arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, she quickly carried the bucket inside to buy more supplies. She calculated that this time she could get twenty jin. Tomorrow, she planned to sell in the county for a day—today’s batch wouldn’t be enough.
As long as she got the business running, she was confident she could make big money.
“What? There’s only this one left today?”
Lu Xiuxiu pointed at the small section of large pork intestine on the cutting board, frowning. That wasn’t nearly enough.
The clerk at the cooperative rolled her eyes.
“That’s all there is. Take it or leave it. Pork intestines don’t need meat coupons, and with so many people busy with farm work, lots of families want some meat. Don’t worry, it’ll sell.”
“What’s with your attitude?!” Lu Xiuxiu shouted in frustration, momentarily forgetting that this wasn’t her future world.
Dong Xiaoyan, hearing her, immediately smirked. “There’s none left. Not for sale!”
She then sat back down behind the counter.
At this time, any young woman able to work at the supply cooperative usually came from a family with some status. Not many dared to shout at them while buying goods.
Dong Xiaoyan made a mental note of Lu Xiuxiu’s face. Next time she came, as long as Dong Xiaoyan was working, there’d be no stock for her.
Lu Xiuxiu had no idea how much trouble offending Dong Xiaoyan would cause her future self.
She had no choice but to leave in a huff—there was nothing worth buying in that one piece anyway.
Before leaving, she shouted, “Save all the pork intestines for me tomorrow—I’ll take them all!”
After she turned, Dong Xiaoyan made a face and mockingly repeated her words in a sarcastic tone.
“Heh, I’ll be on duty tomorrow.”
…
Meanwhile, at home, Xu Nian’an was chatting with her mother. Around noon, her mother had gone out specifically to buy some pastries Xu Nian’an liked and brought them back.
When she was young, her mother had been lucky—her first child was a boy, and her second was also a boy.
The couple had planned not to have more children.
But then, somehow, they ended up with a daughter near thirty years later.
They cherished this daughter in their hearts, and by then the two sons had grown up enough to know they needed to protect their little sister.
“I’m planning to hand my work over to your eldest sister-in-law in a few months. I’ll retire and stay home to help look after the grandchildren.”
At this time, women could retire at fifty. Wu Chunlan had actually retired a few years earlier, but her position was difficult to replace, so she had been rehired.
Over the past two years, she had trained her subordinates, so now she could retire with peace of mind.
“When you have children, if you don’t trust your mother-in-law, I can help take care of them for you.”
Xu Nian’an hadn’t expected her mother to think so far ahead and called out coquettishly, “Mom!”
Soon after, there was a knock at the door.
“Sister Chunlan, are you home?”
Xu Nian’an obediently called out, “Aunt Zhang,” and the woman’s face lit up even more.
“Oh, our college student is back at her parents’ home?”
“Well… this is a bit embarrassing,” Aunt Zhang said with a sheepish smile. “I heard from Yangyang that Nian’an brought a chicken home.”
Aunt Zhang looked embarrassed. Wu Chunlan noticed and immediately spoke up.
“Do you want the chicken? I heard a few days ago that your daughter-in-law couldn’t get a chicken during her confinement. Even if you hadn’t come today, I was planning to send one to you later so you wouldn’t go hungry.”
“Aunt Chunlan, we really appreciate this, and thank Nian’an too,” Aunt Zhang said, beaming. She held the chicken Xu Nian’an had brought, praised it to no end, and handed three yuan and a meat coupon to Wu Chunlan.
“Nian’an, Aunt Zhang also asked you to help her check—are there any other people in your village selling chickens? Many people in our courtyard want to buy some.”
“In the countryside, people usually raise chickens to eat themselves. You can also ask elsewhere,” Xu Nian’an replied.
After seeing Aunt Zhang out the door, Wu Chunlan let out a little sigh of regret.
“Such a fine hen… I was hoping to make soup for you tonight. That little rascal Tiechui must have spilled the beans. If he were here, I wouldn’t even spank him.”
Xu Nian’an smiled. “If you were so attached to it, why give it away so generously earlier? Don’t worry—I still have more at my husband’s house. I’ll catch another one later, and we can eat together at home. Ouch…”
Before she finished speaking, someone knocked her head.
“Do you think chickens are cheap? You can’t just take another one. Don’t think you can do whatever you want just because your in-laws love you. These days, people raise chickens in the countryside for their eggs. Your mother-in-law already had several, and you’ve taken one of them.”
Xu Nian’an rubbed her head, not daring to mention that she had actually slaughtered one yesterday. Out of five chickens, only three were left.
“Mom, what do you think—if I raised chickens to sell, would it be okay?”
She was thinking of the broiler chickens from the future that could be ready for market in about 45 days.
Besides, Qushui Village had plenty of space and access to water—it would be suitable for raising chickens, ducks, and geese.
With her two thousand yuan, setting up a poultry farm in the countryside would be no problem.