He Shi remembered very clearly how he had once warned Xu Xiangdong not to find a girlfriend in the countryside.
It had not even been that long ago.
Xu Xiangdong had not gotten himself into trouble, yet He Shi had managed it first.
When he had said those words back then, it had not been out of prejudice against rural people.
It was simply the reality of the era and its policies.
Very few city residents married rural women because converting a rural household registration into an urban one was extremely difficult.
Without an urban household registration, there was no grain allocation and no access to ration coupons.
It was a matter of survival.
This was not the first year of the educated youth movement.
Cases of urban educated youths falling in love with rural villagers were already common.
That was why any parent sending their children to the countryside would never forget to remind them of one thing:
Do not find a partner there.
Families like those of He Shi and Xu Xiangdong lived far better than most.
But among the compound families, comparison was unavoidable.
If one of them actually married a rural girl, the household would probably erupt.
And Shen Yao’s situation made it even more problematic.
For the first time in his life, He Shi had fallen for a girl.
Yet before he could even savor what it felt like to like someone, his thoughts had already galloped straight toward marriage.
These concerns flashed briefly through his mind but did not leave much of an impression.
What occupied him more was a sense of confusion, the bewilderment of feelings whose origin he could not fully understand.
Outside, Song Jincheng’s voice drifted in.
“A lot of people in the village are going digging for sweet potatoes. I was thinking fresh sweet potatoes taste pretty good even without drying them first. Want to come along? Where’s He Shi?”
The moment he heard that, He Shi almost reflexively sat upright.
Shen Yao had just told Old Madam Shen that she would also be going into the mountains.
His hand reached toward the table for the key.
The cool metal touched his fingertips.
Then he froze.
Could he give Shen Yao a future?
If they could not be together in the end, what right did he have to draw her into his feelings now?
His fingers slowly curled into a fist.
He sat there motionless for a long time.
Then he heard Xu Xiangdong outside say,
“He’s probably busy. You go ahead.”
Song Jincheng answered with an “Okay.”
Footsteps sounded from the adjoining kitchen.
The room where He Shi lived shared a wall with it.
He heard Song Jincheng take the hoe leaning against the wall and walk away.
The footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
Slowly, He Shi’s clenched hand relaxed.
Back at the Shen household, Shen Guozhong returned home halfway through lunch.
He was carrying two jin of dried noodles.
From his pocket, he also pulled out a handful of colorful fruit candies for Shen Yao and Shen Gang.
Shen Gang naturally assumed everything had been brought back from their grandmother’s house.
Shen Yao, however, paused when her gaze landed on her father’s trouser cuffs and cloth shoes.
She stood up, fetched a towel and a basin of water, and brought them over.
“Dad, wash up first before you eat.”
Shen Guozhong grinned.
His daughter really was the most thoughtful.
Using the towel, he thoroughly washed his hands and face.
He even wiped down his neck and back.
When he rinsed the towel afterward and saw the basin water turn black and foamy, even a man with naturally dark skin felt a little embarrassed.
Quickly carrying the basin outside to dump the water, he said awkwardly,
“I walked more than thirty li. Picked up quite a bit of dust along the way.”
By then, Wang Yunzhi had already gone to the kitchen and brought him a bowl of rice.
After lunch, she shut both the courtyard gate and the front door.
Then she and Shen Guozhong went back to their room and even closed the bedroom door behind them.
A thoughtful look flashed through Shen Yao’s eyes.
She stood outside their room for a moment.
Inside, Shen Guozhong took out a large handful of scattered cash and ration coupons from a hidden pocket in his clothes and placed them on the table for Wang Yunzhi to put away.
Before she could do so, a knock sounded at the door.
It was Shen Yao.
Wang Yunzhi hurriedly swept everything into a drawer before opening it.
Shen Yao made no attempt to hide her intentions.
After entering and glancing at her parents, she asked directly,
“Dad, you weren’t actually at Grandma’s house these past few days, were you?”
Wang Yunzhi’s expression changed slightly.
Shen Guozhong remained calmer.
Closing the door, he asked,
“What makes you think that?”
Shen Yao pointed at his shoes.
“The road back from Grandma’s village is all yellow dirt. The weather’s been hot, and it hasn’t rained in ages. After walking more than thirty li, your shoes should be covered in dust.”
“But the soles are stained with a lot of black residue. There’s only a thin layer of dust on the outside. Your clothes and trousers have traces of it too.”
Shen Guozhong looked down.
The shoes he wore had thick layered cloth soles made by Wang Yunzhi.
The sole edges had originally been covered with white cloth.
Now those areas were so black that their original color was barely visible.
Suddenly, he laughed.
“I really didn’t notice. Our Yaoyao isn’t just smart, she’s observant too.”
Patting the stool beside him, he motioned for her to sit down.
Lowering his voice, he said,
“Now that you’re better, there’s no need for me to hide it from you.”
“I really wasn’t at your grandmother’s house.”
He proceeded to tell her how he had secretly traveled to a neighboring province at night to buy and resell dried noodles.
Smiling, he said,
“On the way there, I rode a coal freight train. I spent six hours lying on top of it. The stains on my clothes got washed out when I cleaned them at night, but I didn’t pay attention to my shoes.”
Shen Yao’s eyes lit up when she heard about trading dried noodles.
Shen Gang had once told her that some villagers secretly sold grain they had saved at the black market in exchange for money and ration coupons.
But her father was the production team leader.
He always appeared to be the sort of person who followed rules to the letter.
She had never expected that beneath his calm exterior, he was quietly involved in something this bold.
There was no fear in Shen Yao’s eyes.
Instead, there was a hint of excitement.
She grabbed Shen Guozhong’s arm and urged him to tell her everything in detail.
Since he had already decided to tell her, there was no point hiding the specifics.
So he explained everything, from sneaking onto freight trains to the neighboring province to buy noodles, to selling them afterward on the black market.
The more Shen Yao listened, the more interested she became.
She asked question after question.
The original Shen Yao had never known what a train was, so she had no frame of reference either. She assumed it was some sort of cargo vehicle, perhaps similar to a horse-drawn wagon.
What she cared about most, however, was how much money could be earned from such a trip.
Shen Guozhong told her that each run brought in around twenty to thirty yuan.
But because the journey took time and there was always the risk of attracting attention, he only dared do it two or three times a year.
When Shen Yao first heard about crossing provincial borders, climbing onto trains, and dealing on the black market, it all sounded incredibly daring.
Surely this was serious business.
But after hearing Shen Guozhong explain the profits, she realized it amounted to only sixty to ninety yuan a year.
Disappointment inevitably showed on her face.
Shen Guozhong chuckled.
“You think that’s too little?”
“Let me tell you, after three trips, even subtracting the money spent while traveling, I’d still make around seventy yuan. That’s already quite impressive.”
“Look at how much we earn from a whole year’s work.”
Shen Yao shook her head.
She genuinely did not know.
Shen Guozhong explained:
“Annual dividends depend on the harvest.”
“Take last year, for example. In our production team, every ten work points were worth thirty-eight cents.”
“A strong laborer who earns ten points a day can work, at most, around two hundred and sixty days a year.”
“I’m the team leader, so I get an additional thirty work points as an allowance. Even after working the entire year, I only earned about one hundred and ten yuan.”
“As for your mother, she only earns eight work points a day. A year’s work gets her around seventy or eighty yuan.”
In other words, the profits from three noodle-trading trips equaled an entire year’s dividends from Wang Yunzhi’s farm labor.
After hearing all this, Shen Yao was left with only two thoughts.
First, this family was truly poor.
Second, commerce really was the way to make money.
She could not understand what had happened to the world.
How could doing business be forbidden?
Given her background, there had never been much in life that frightened her.
By now, she was already thinking about ways to do this profitable business more often.
After considering it, she felt her father could earn considerably more.
The main reason he only made three trips a year was because the source of the noodles was too far away.
She asked her parents,
“Why does it have to be noodles? Couldn’t we sell something else?”
“If we made more trips like this, we’d earn more money.”
“Maybe we could sell something we produce ourselves.”
Wang Yunzhi lightly tapped her forehead with a finger and laughed.
“Listen to you.”
“Tell me, what exactly does our poor little household have to sell?”
“The grain allocated to us by the production team isn’t even enough for our own family.”
Shen Yao rolled her eyes thoughtfully.
That might not be entirely true.
“What about fish from the stream?” she suggested.
“People in the city don’t have streams where they can catch fish. Don’t they have to buy them?”
Wang Yunzhi shook her head.
“That would create too much attention.”
“You and Gangzi spend half a day just catching two fish for the family.”
“How many fish could we realistically catch?”
“If we take only a few to town, the bus fare alone would eat up the profits.”
“If we walk, it takes too much time.”
“If we sell too few, it’s not worth it.”
“If we catch too many, the villagers will notice.”
“Speculation and profiteering are serious offenses. If you’re caught, you’ll be dragged out and publicly criticized.”
After saying that, she warned Shen Yao:
“Don’t ever let family matters slip outside the house.”
“You don’t need to worry about these things.”
“Your father and I will take care of providing food and clothing.”
“We’ll never let you or Gangzi go hungry or cold.”
Shen Yao nodded obediently.
Neither of her parents had the slightest idea that she would eventually make something herself and take it to the black market.
The life Shen Yao wanted had never been as simple as avoiding hunger and cold.
She wanted good food.
Comfortable living.
Quality things.
She was not expecting a life equal to the one she had enjoyed before.
But surely life could be better than this, where even a little extra cooking oil in a dish was considered a luxury.
As a daughter of a prominent family, she had been taught much more than music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.
Needlework and cooking had also been essential parts of her education.
A noble young lady’s dowry included more than gold, jewels, houses, and farmland.
It also contained recipes and formulas passed down through generations.
Cosmetic formulas.
Incense blends.
Beauty treatments.
Pastry recipes.
Family cookbooks.
These represented the heritage and refinement of an entire household.
Shen Yao had learned all of those things growing up.
She knew very little about cities and had no idea what sold well on black markets in this era.
But judging from her father’s success selling noodles, food products were probably always in demand.
Unfortunately, Wang Yunzhi was right.
Their family was poor.
They barely had enough food for themselves, let alone goods to sell.
Still, opportunity arrived quickly.
One day, Shen Gang stumbled across several chestnut trees in the mountains and returned home carrying a basket filled to the brim with chestnuts.
The moment Shen Yao saw them, her eyes lit up.
Recently, the production team had assigned everyone to land reclamation work.
Both Shen Guozhong and Wang Yunzhi were away from home.
Shen Yao had Shen Gang help remove the spiny outer husks from the chestnuts and score the shells.
Then she headed into the kitchen to make chestnut cakes.
The moment Shen Gang saw her open the cupboard and take out Wang Yunzhi’s carefully hoarded peanut oil, fine flour, and white sugar, he nearly panicked.
“Sis, sis!”
“If we want chestnuts, we can just boil them.”
“Do we really need to use all that stuff?”
What if she ruined it?
Their mother would definitely be reluctant to scold Shen Yao.
As for him, that was another story.
He might end up getting beaten.
Seeing how frightened he looked, Shen Yao comforted him.
“Don’t worry.”
“I’ll make something delicious for you.”
“When Mom and Dad taste it, they won’t be angry.”
Shen Gang wanted to cry.
Sis, what kind of confidence is that?
You can cook porridge and steam rice.
Since when could you make delicious pastries?
Filled with anxiety and mentally preparing himself for a future scolding from Wang Yunzhi, he watched Shen Yao awkwardly prepare the filling and knead the dough.
Only when flattened rounds of dough gradually took shape did his curiosity overcome his fear.
Actually…
They looked pretty convincing.
Shen Yao had him tend the fire, making sure it stayed low.
After brushing a thin layer of oil across the bottom of the pan, she slowly fried the cakes over a gentle flame.
By the time she had produced several jin of chestnut cakes, she herself was sweating nervously.
For one simple reason.
In the past, whenever she wanted a pastry made, she only needed to stand nearby and give instructions.
Doing everything personally from start to finish was a first in her life.
She handed one cake to Shen Gang and told him to try it.
The sweet aroma had been tormenting him throughout the entire process.
He eagerly accepted the cake and took a bite.
His eyes instantly widened.
Feeling a little nervous, Shen Yao asked,
“Well? How is it?”
After swallowing, Shen Gang nodded repeatedly.
“It’s delicious!”
“Sis, you’re amazing!”
“It’s your first time making cakes, and they turned out this good!”
Shen Yao secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, her skills had not failed her.
With a slightly smug smile, she said,
“See? I wasn’t lying to you.”
Shen Gang nodded repeatedly. The unreliable image he had of his sister was greatly overturned in his mind. What he did not know was that it was far too early to call Shen Yao reliable. After all, she coaxed him into keeping the chestnut cakes a secret from their parents until dinner, saying it would be a surprise. Then, once Shen Gang headed into the mountains that afternoon, Shen Yao slipped off to the city by herself. Naturally, by the time he found out, it was already past seven in the evening.
After lunch, the family went their separate ways. Shen Guozhong and Wang Yunzhi went to work, while Shen Gang headed into the mountains. Shen Yao sneaked into Shen Guozhong’s room, found the official stamp, and, following her memory of the introduction letters her father had written for others, drafted one for herself and stamped it. She then casually drew information from Fifth Grandma Shen about how to get to the city by bus. Using the excuse that she wanted to buy a few things, she successfully borrowed two yuan from the old lady. Carrying three jin of chestnut cakes, she set out.
Miss Shen truly possessed both courage and resourcefulness. She also knew exactly how to draw information from others. Although it was her first time in the city, she spent only about half an hour finding her way to the black market.
Yet success required not only courage and intelligence, but also luck. Clearly, her luck was poor that day.
She had only just found a prospective buyer and agreed on a price when someone suddenly shouted several times, “The Red Armbands are here!”
Everyone carrying sacks in the alley immediately broke into a run.
Shen Yao knew at once that the people cracking down on illegal trading had arrived. She followed the crowd and ran. Unfortunately, several young men in uniforms and red armbands were pursuing them closely, and two of them seemed particularly focused on chasing her.
Across both her lifetimes, Shen Yao had never found herself in such a miserable situation.
For the first fifteen years of her life, there had always been someone shielding her from trouble. She had never truly understood fear. Only now did she begin to regret her actions.
She was no longer the young lady of the Marquis of Dingnan’s household. Now she was merely the simple-minded daughter of a small production team leader. She dared not imagine the consequences if she were caught for speculation and profiteering.
She had already prepared her excuse. If she got caught, she would insist she knew nothing at all and had only started running because everyone else had.
Of course, that was her last resort.
For now, if she could run, she would run.
Her stamina was not particularly good. After more than ten minutes, her calves were already trembling.
Then suddenly, a warm hand grabbed her.
Shen Yao was already tense from being chased by the Red Armbands. The unexpected pull nearly made her scream.
The person reacted quickly, covering her mouth and dragging her into a narrow passageway.
Before she could see who it was, she found herself tightly enclosed in someone’s embrace.
A man’s voice sounded beside her ear, deliberately lowered.
“Don’t make a sound.”
The voice was familiar.
The terror that had tightened every nerve in her body eased slightly.
She tried to look up and see his face, but as soon as she moved, his hand pressed gently against the back of her head.
Her face was forced against his chest.
Even through the thin layer of fabric, she could feel the firmness of his muscles and the steady pounding of his heartbeat.
The air around her carried his scent, cool and clean, with the faintest trace of tobacco.
Heat exploded across her face.
The flush spread from her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.