After looking around, Chen Qiaoyu set her sights on the shops lining the pedestrian street.
She spotted a small store where the owner was sitting outside, cooling off and scrolling through his phone. She walked up and asked, “Excuse me, do you sell candy?”
The owner replied lazily, “Yeah, it’s on the second shelf. Go take a look yourself.”
Summoning her courage, Chen Qiaoyu stepped into the narrow aisle crammed between shelves—she had never been this close to so many items before.
She had been to the supply and marketing cooperative in town, where everything was displayed inside glass counters, or worse, on shelves behind the haughty salesclerks. Even touching the jars on the glass counters would earn a scolding from the staff.
But here, the store simply laid everything out in the open. The space between the two rows of shelves was so tight that even someone as thin as Chen Qiaoyu worried she might knock something over just by turning around.
She looked around cautiously. The candies here were… strange.
Some she recognized—milk candies, fruit drops, and the like. But others, like gummy candies and chewing gum, she had never even heard of.
Fortunately, price tags were inserted into the shelves. Chen Qiaoyu checked them—the most expensive candy cost eight yuan and fifty cents, while the cheaper ones were two or three yuan.
Though pricey, she had a small fortune of “eighteen yuan” on her, so it wasn’t completely out of reach.
After confirming several times that none of these were what she wanted, Chen Qiaoyu stepped out and asked the owner, “Actually, I’m not looking for these kinds of candies. I want to buy brown sugar.”
“Brown sugar?” The owner finally looked up from his phone and pointed. “You’ll need to go to the supermarket for that. The one over there sells brown sugar.”
Oh, so brown sugar could only be bought at a supermarket.
Following the small store owner’s directions, Chen Qiaoyu finally found it—the supermarket.
But standing at the entrance, she hesitated, too afraid to go in.
The supermarket was enormous, much larger than the supply and marketing cooperative.
And the lights—it was as if electricity cost nothing. The entire place was flooded with light, brighter than daytime!
Chen Qiaoyu fretted over the wasted electricity while also feeling a twinge of fear.
The spotless floor reflected people’s shadows like a mirror, the walls gleamed an immaculate white, and deafening music blared alongside countless colorful products she had never seen before—all of it formed a place that was simply intimidating.
Chen Qiaoyu, who had come from a dilapidated old house in the 1970s, felt a whirlwind of emotions.
But Zhou Quan and the others’ words were still fresh in her mind—Change has already begun; not progressing means falling behind.
After pacing outside the supermarket for a while, Chen Qiaoyu finally mustered her courage, took a deep breath, and followed the crowd inside.
The moment she stepped through the door, the most shocking thing was the sudden drop in temperature.
She couldn’t help but shiver.
“Why is it so cold?” Chen Qiaoyu was completely bewildered.
It was the scorching heat of August, but once inside, it felt like an entirely different season.
Rubbing her arms, Chen Qiaoyu marveled that the “modern era” never ceased to amaze her.
After taking a moment to recover, she followed the crowd through the automatic turnstile and entered the supermarket’s merchandise area.
There, Chen Qiaoyu saw a dazzling array of goods she had never encountered in her life.
People passing by casually and effortlessly placed items into their shopping carts—without even paying first!
No one scolded them with “If you’re not buying, why are you looking?” or “Don’t touch it, or you’ll have to pay for any damage!”
Adults and children alike picked out goods freely in the supermarket, surrounded by cheerful music. The sense of abundance and security on their faces came from the depths of their being.
At that moment, Chen Qiaoyu’s eyes grew moist.
The elders in her village often spoke of the great famine, saying that simply having enough to eat was already an incredibly good life.
But they could never have imagined how prosperous and thriving their country would become.
Through her tears, Chen Qiaoyu wore a smile she had never worn before.
She didn’t ask the supermarket staff for help but instead followed the signs on her own, finally finding a corner section where the brown sugar was located.
There wasn’t just brown sugar—there were also rock sugar, all kinds of grains, mung beans, white fungus…
Chen Qiaoyu was a quick learner. No matter how astonishing something was now, she could accept and adapt to it swiftly.
She found the price tag for the brown sugar, which read “8.99/500g.” She guessed that 500g must be one jin.
She figured out how to fill a shopping bag with about one jin, and a staff member kindly weighed it for her: “Nine fifty.”
Setting aside the cost, just the fact that she could trade a basket of vegetables for two jin of brown sugar was a treat she had only dreamed of.
At the brown sugar weighing station, Chen Qiaoyu noticed some resealable bags—much thicker than anything she’d seen at the supply and marketing cooperative.
But she didn’t see a price tag, so she had to ask a staff member: “How much is this plastic bag?”
The staff member replied, “Oh, this? It’s for customers to put their brown sugar in. Not for sale. If you want to buy some, try the household goods store next to the vegetable market. They should have them.”
Chen Qiaoyu made a mental note of another place: the household goods store.
After fumbling around a bit, she finally found the checkout counter and paid in cash, leaving her with eight yuan and fifty cents.
By the time she came out of the supermarket, it was already dark outside. There was an electronic display at the entrance showing the time. Chen Qiaoyu found it very convenient and thought she should save up to buy a desk clock for herself.
The household goods store next to the vegetable market was already closed. Seeing that it was getting late, Chen Qiaoyu didn’t dare linger. She tucked the brown sugar close and headed up the mountain.
Back at the old house in 1979, she didn’t take the brown sugar out. Instead, she wrapped it in clothes, hid it in her basket, and carried it directly into her room, locking it away.
After Zhou Quan left, she had started living alone. The camphor wood chest had also been moved from Chen Qingyang’s room to hers, and she locked it every time she came or went.
Chen Qiaoyu opened the chest and, using the half candle left by Zhou Quan, took inventory of its contents.
Of the 22 pairs of socks, she and Qingyang each took one pair. She sold two pairs to Zhou Quan, traded one pair with Yingzi, traded two pairs with Granny Yao, totaling seven pairs, leaving fifteen pairs left.
Neatly tied in bundles, they sat in one corner of the chest.
Next to the socks was a white undershirt. Last time, Chen Qiaoyu had bought two but only given one to Chen Qingyang.
There were also ten notebooks and twelve pencils.
On the other side were the eggs she had traded from Granny Yao, along with the brown sugar she had brought back this time.
Besides these, the siblings also had new sandals, and Chen Qiaoyu had a set of clothes and pants from the “modern” era.
There wasn’t much, but it was all overflowing with happiness.