Wu Xiu’s sobbing alarmed everyone.
They all came rushing in, and the moment they stepped through the door, they saw Wu Xiu clutching Jiang Jun and weeping.
“What’s wrong? Is it Ah Jun and the—” Grandma Jiang’s words cut off abruptly. When she saw her eldest grandson sitting up, his eyes clear and lucid, her own went wide. “Ah Jun, you, you’re awake!?”
Jiang Jun at this moment had stubble sprouting on his chin and a grayish cast to his face, but he looked very alert.
The old woman’s tears spilled over in an instant, she couldn’t stop crying.
Grandpa Jiang, standing behind her, also went red around the eyes.
Jiang Jun looked at the family before him. Although tears welled up, a smile broke across his face. “Grandpa, Grandma, I worried you both.”
Grandma Jiang laughed through her tears. She grabbed her eldest grandson’s hands and looked him over from head to toe, murmuring without pause, “As long as you’re awake, that’s all that matters. As long as you’re awake.”
Grandpa Jiang rubbed his reddened eyes. “You little brat. You’re finally awake.”
Just then a small figure came charging in from outside and threw itself straight into Jiang Jun’s arms, hugging him tight.
“Daddy, Daddy, wuwuwu, you’re finally awake! Sisi missed you so much!”
“Sisi…”
Looking at the thin, frail little Jiang Si, Jiang Jun felt a stab of pain in his chest. He scooped Jiang Si up and looked levelly into the child’s tear-brimming eyes, full of guilt. “It’s Daddy’s fault…”
Jiang Sui stood off to one side, staring blankly at the scene before him as though afraid it was all a dream.
Wu Xiu stroked his head, and Jiang Sui called out timidly:
“Dad—”
That unconfident manner cut deep into Jiang Jun’s heart.
He held out a hand toward Jiang Sui. “Suisui, come here to Daddy.”
Jiang Sui took two steps. The moment he touched Jiang Jun’s warm hand, he pressed his lips tight together, tears spinning in his eyes. He sniffled and held them back for a long while, but in the end he couldn’t, and burst out crying. “Auntie didn’t lie to me! She really did cure you!”
Jiang Jun froze, not catching on for a moment, and looked helplessly at the two old folks.
Grandpa Jiang nodded and gave him a brief explanation of how Jiang Zhi had used a special item to save the father and son, then said, “The reason you came around this time, you have Ah Zhi to thank.”
Jiang Jun had been in a daze for too long and didn’t yet know they’d already reunited with the third household. He blanked for a beat before it registered. “Where’s Ah Zhi? And Dashu? Are they all right? Nobody’s been bullying them, have they?”
Ye Qingyun, who had still been wiping away tears, couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You siblings are as close as ever.”
Only then did Jiang Jun notice Ye Qingyun and her husband standing in the back row, and he hurriedly called out, “Third Uncle, Third Auntie.”
Jiang Shan smiled and nodded. “Don’t worry, Ah Zhi and the rest are all fine. Now that you’re better too, the lot of you can get into mischief together like when you were little.”
Jiang Jun smiled, not feeling the least bit awkward. “Third Uncle, that was all when we were kids.”
Seeing Jiang Jun lucid again, Grandma Jiang felt half her worries lift. “Ah Jun, how’s your body feeling now? Anything still hurting?”
Jiang Jun shook his head. “I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in for years. Except for… nothing else feels off.”
What “except for” meant, everyone present understood.
Years ago Jiang Jun’s leg had been injured, and to save his life it had to be amputated. Even now that his body had recovered, the missing leg could never grow back.
Everyone’s hearts, just lifted with excitement, sank again, and the mood instantly turned much heavier.
Seeing this, Jiang Jun quickly composed himself. “I’m already content just to be alive. I still have my hands, I won’t let myself starve down the road, so don’t any of you worry.”
Grandpa Jiang pushed down the melancholy in his heart and nodded with relief. “Good boy. As long as you can think of it that way.”
He looked over at Jiang Hai beside him and went on, “I just don’t know when your dad will be able to—”
Before Grandpa Jiang could finish, Jiang Hai, lying nearby, slowly opened his eyes as well.
“Ah Hai?!”
Everyone’s heads whipped around at once.
And met Jiang Hai’s bewildered gaze.
“Big Brother!” “Grandpa!” “Ah Hai!”
The family’s joyful cries rang out all at once.
Jiang Hai had been unconscious far too long, and the situation left him a little dazed for a moment.
“What’s all this…”
Wu Xiu was too overwhelmed to contain herself, tears streamed down uncontrollably. She, of all people, should have been the happiest, yet at this moment she couldn’t get a single word out.
“Ah Hai…” she murmured, wanting to go over and look at her husband.
But the moment she lifted her foot, her vision went black and she fainted dead away.
For a while, the tent descended into chaos.
＊
When Jiang Zhi and the others were nearing the city gate, they deliberately split up to enter so no one could tail them.
After Jiang Wen and Xu Na hauled a woven sack in ahead, Jiang Shu and his sister leisurely fell in with the returning line and headed back.
Once they were inside the base, Jiang Zhi checked the time, it was exactly five-fifty in the afternoon.
Pushing the flatbed cart, Jiang Shu said, “I wonder if Uncle and the others have woken up yet.”
Jiang Zhi said nothing.
She couldn’t be sure when they’d come around either.
Both of them had been affected by the radiation toxin more severely than Liu Xu, and Liu Xu had taken an entire night.
For a case like Jiang Hai and his son’s, Jiang Zhi had no real idea.
The siblings soon met up with Jiang Wen and his wife at the entrance to the self-built housing district.
When they got home, they saw from a distance the whole family gathered in the eldest household’s room.
Jiang Zhi’s heart lurched.
Could something have happened?
Before the few of them could overthink it, they heard Ye Qingyun call out joyfully toward them, “Ah Zhi, you’re back! Hurry, come in, your uncle and your eldest brother are both awake.”
The tension in Jiang Zhi’s shoulders gradually eased.
Jiang Shu was thrilled. Forgetting all about the cart in his hands, he dropped the luggage and dashed inside.
Behind him, Jiang Wen and his wife exchanged a glance, joy in both their eyes.
The two of them quickly set down the woven sacks and ran in as well.
The moment they entered the tent, they saw the whole big family gathered around Jiang Hai and his son, a warm and harmonious scene.
Jiang Shu shouted excitedly, “Uncle, Big Brother! You’re finally awake!”
Jiang Hai still didn’t look in good shape, almost no flesh on him, cheeks deeply sunken, cheekbones jutting out starkly, the whole contour of his face made sharp by the gauntness.
But his spirits were decent.
“Dashu, Ah Zhi, you’re back.”
Looking at Jiang Hai before her, Jiang Zhi couldn’t stop her eyes from reddening.
The uncle in her memory had always been the image of an unbreakable, iron-tough soldier, seeing him like this made her nose sting.
Although she knew it was from being unable to eat properly for so long, and that once he could take normal meals again his condition would slowly improve, Jiang Zhi still felt awful.
Meeting her uncle’s loving gaze, the emotions she’d been holding in burst the dam at once.
“Uncle…”
“Why the tears? Uncle’s awake, isn’t Ah Zhi happy?”
Jiang Zhi shook her head. “Uncle’s too thin now. It doesn’t look good.”
Jiang Hai burst out laughing.
“You little thing, come here, let Uncle have a look at you.”
Before the great catastrophe, Jiang Hai had been a demobilized soldier, upright and unbending in character, but especially good to the children.
When the siblings used to squabble, they always liked to bring their grievances to him to settle.
Right or wrong, the moment Jiang Zhi turned on the charm, Jiang Hai’s favoritism would tip clean over to her side.
In a sense, Jiang Hai counted as a second father to the two siblings.
Hearing that, Jiang Shu was instantly jealous. “Uncle, how are you still this biased? Can’t you see I’m here too?”
He turned to Jiang Jun and complained, “Big Brother, if you play favorites like this too, I’m going to throw a fit.”
Jiang Jun laughed. “You’re not as endearing as Ah Zhi. Isn’t it only natural I’d like Ah Zhi more?”
Jiang Jun’s words set everyone laughing.
Jiang Hai laughed too. “Come on over, all of you. Let Uncle get a good look at you.”
Jiang Zhi walked over and crouched down beside Jiang Hai.
Jiang Hai stroked her head. “Our Ah Zhi’s all grown up, prettier than before. Uncle almost didn’t recognize you.”
Looking at his skin, which had lost its elasticity and sheen, Jiang Zhi pressed her lips together.
Jiang Hai noticed her gaze and smiled. “Ah Zhi, Uncle has to thank you for that precious medicine powder—”
“Uncle!” Jiang Zhi cut in. “Say one more word and I’m going to get angry.”
Seeing how serious she looked, Jiang Hai immediately gave in. “All right, all right, I won’t. Once Uncle’s well in a few days, I’ll teach you army boxing.”
Watching Jiang Hai cave so completely, the whole family couldn’t help but smile.
Jiang Hai turned to the others. “All this time, I’ve been a burden on you, especially you, Dad and Mom…”
Grandma Jiang waved a hand. “Enough, enough. As long as you’re awake, that’s all that matters. What’s the use in saying so much? Just keep it in your heart. If you’re really afraid of being a burden, get well soon and help share the load.”
Jiang Hai wasn’t one for sentimental speeches either, but facing the family’s caring eyes, he was moved.
He nodded. “All right. I’ll listen to Mom.”
Finally Jiang Hai looked at his wife. “Ah Xiu, it’s been hard on you these past days.”
Wu Xiu, who had only just come around from fainting earlier, was gradually steadying her emotions, but at his words she couldn’t help bursting into tears again.
Crying and hiccuping, she said, “What’s there to call hard? As long as you all wake up, no amount of bitterness or exhaustion scares me.”
Jiang Hai patted her on the back, his own eyes slowly reddening.
“…I’ve made you all worry.”
Yuan Ying said with a smile from the side, “Being awake is what counts. They say great calamity survived brings fortune ever after [1] “大难不死必有后福”, those who pull through a near-fatal disaster are bound to enjoy good fortune afterward jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2748331_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2748331_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Sister-in-law, you stop crying now, your days of good fortune are still ahead of you!”
Jiang He nodded with a smile. “That’s the truth of it.”
At this point Grandpa Jiang spoke up. “Ah Hai, don’t feel guilty about it. Once you’re well, you’re to help Ah He and his family pay off their debt too.”
Although Jiang He and his wife had originally fallen into debt while trying to bring in some extra income for the household, nothing directly to do with Jiang Hai and his son, there was a connection of sorts.
What’s more, back when the eldest household had been at its hardest, it was entirely Jiang He’s family that had propped them up. So the second household’s debt was something Grandpa Jiang figured he ought to take a share of as well.
Hearing this, Jiang He quickly said, “Dad, we don’t need—”
Grandma Jiang shot him a glare. “You hush!”
Jiang He didn’t dare say another word.
On this matter, Grandma Jiang backed her old man.
Brothers helping one another was only right, but once people had families of their own, they had to consider the wives’ feelings too. If the second household were made to shoulder the eldest household’s living unconditionally, it would be fine in the short term, but over time, even the closest of kin would end up at odds.
Wu Xiu nodded along from the side. “That’s for certain.”
Then Wu Xiu told Jiang Hai and his son about Jiang He and his wife’s debt.
After listening, Jiang Hai was silent for a long while. “It was us who dragged you down.”
Jiang He waved his hands again and again. “Big Brother, you mustn’t say that. Back then, if not for you and Sister-in-law, my Ah Wen couldn’t have gone to university.”
Jiang He only knew a few handicraft trades. Although he’d taken on jobs around the village in the past, it was barely enough to feed his own family, nowhere near enough to put a child through university.
After his discharge, Jiang Hai had become the village Party secretary, and would lead the villagers in selling the village’s tangerines. It could be said that back then Jiang Hai was the only one in the Jiang family who could earn money, and Jiang Wen getting all the way to university couldn’t have happened without Jiang Hai and his wife’s support.
Jiang Hai wanted to say more, but Grandpa Jiang cut him off with a wave. “We’ll talk about this another time. Ah Hai, your body’s still weak, rest first. And Ah Jun…”
A moment ago Grandpa Jiang had taken both their pulses. Although Jiang Hai was lucid, his body hadn’t fully recovered.
Jiang Jun said, “Grandpa, my body’s fine now.”
Grandpa Jiang recalled that Jiang Jun’s pulse a moment ago had been nearly as strong as a normal person’s, and nodded. “Then have a talk with your mom. This past year, she’s been the one who’s had it hardest.” That said, Grandpa Jiang told everyone else, “The rest of you, go on out first. Ah Hai’s body still needs rest.”
At his words, the others filed out of the room.
Grandpa Jiang was last to leave, and as he walked he asked Jiang Wen, “Ah Wen, did things go smoothly out there today?”
In his view, Jiang Wen, as the elder brother, ought to look after the others.
But before Jiang Wen could answer, Jiang Shu chimed in gleefully, “Smoothly doesn’t even begin to cover it. You’ll never guess how big our haul was today.”
Jiang Wen smiled and nodded. “Right, all thanks to Ah Zhi. Otherwise we’d probably have come back empty-handed today.”
Jiang Shan looked at Jiang Zhi. “Not hurt, are you?”
Jiang Zhi shook her head.
Over there, Jiang Shu had already eagerly hauled the bags of cotton aphids into the tunnel section of the tent.
Curious, everyone followed over.
Jiang Shu was rather careful this time. Once everyone had gathered, he even lowered the tent’s curtain flap.
Watching his shabby little display, Ye Qingyun was exasperated. “You brat. Sneaking around like that, it’d be hard for people not to get suspicious.”
Jiang Shu grinned. “Better suspected than seen.”
With that, he opened up the woven sacks and Oxford-cloth bags together. When everyone saw the dense mass of cotton aphids still squirming inside, they jumped.
Jiang Si especially, she threw herself straight into Grandma Jiang’s arms in fright.
Jiang Shu said, “Don’t be scared, all of you. This is all meat!”
At the word “meat,” some of the fear in everyone’s hearts dissipated.
Grandma Jiang leaned in for a close look but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. “What in the world are these?”
Grandma Jiang had spent most of her life in the fields, by rights she shouldn’t fail to recognize them. But their most distinctive feature, the wings, had all been pinched off by the kids.
As they were now, apart from the color, the cotton aphids looked no different from spring silkworms.
Jiang Wen smiled and scooped up a handful of cotton aphids. “Grandma, these are sugarcane cotton aphids.”
Grandpa Jiang was a little surprised to hear it.
He frowned. “These are cotton aphids? How did they mutate into this?”
Grandma Jiang and Jiang He crouched down to look as well.
From the mouthparts and shape, you could indeed still make out the form of cotton aphids.
Yuan Ying, holding a cotton aphid up to examine it, couldn’t help asking, “Ah Wen, these few sacks aren’t all cotton aphids, are they?”
Jiang Wen nodded.
Yuan Ying sucked in a breath.
“Where did you find so many cotton aphids?”
Jiang Wen recounted the day’s events, omitting, of course, the part about catching the carp.
On the matter of the river earlier that day, the four of them had a tacit understanding to keep it under wraps.
Once Jiang Wen finished explaining, the look in everyone’s eyes when they turned to Jiang Zhi changed entirely.
After all, today’s haul matched what an ordinary person might gather in an entire year.
Grandpa Jiang could hardly believe it. “You’re telling me these sacks are all moderate-toxin cotton aphids?”
Jiang Wen nodded.
A round of tongue-clicking went through the group.
Moderate-toxin, no less…
And it was all meat…
These few sacks looked to weigh a hundred or two hundred jin.
Forget meat, even plant-based food, an ordinary person would struggle to find this many jin in a single day.
Jiang Shan frowned. “Did you run into any trouble on the way back?”
Even if outsiders couldn’t see this stuff, the sacks bulged in a way that was enough to make people’s eyes burn with envy.
This time it was Jiang Shu who answered. “We did hit a bit of trouble on the way back, but luckily we ran into someone from the patrol team…”
Jiang Shu recounted the encounter with Chen Li.
Jiang He couldn’t help sighing. “You really do have a knack for it. We’ve gone out gathering before too, but the moment the haul got a bit big, it was easy to get cornered and pressed for our gathering spot. They’ve got numbers, if you won’t tell, they’ll just follow you home.”
Jiang Shan and Ye Qingyun exchanged a glance, lingering fear in both their eyes.
It seemed this gathering business called for a great deal more caution.
Today they’d had good luck, if they hadn’t run into Chen Li, the kids likely wouldn’t have made it back so smoothly.
Jiang Shan’s brow eased slightly. “Chen Li did help us out quite a bit. We should pay him a visit one of these days to thank him.”
Jiang Shu had no objection.
In his view, if a little connection could make life more comfortable, then why not?
Grandma Jiang said, “It’s also our Ah Zhi being so capable, otherwise, how could they have caught this many cotton aphids?”
Yuan Ying laughed from the side. “That’s right. Ah Zhi really is a top-university graduate, her brain just works.”
The remark made Jiang Zhi flush with embarrassment for a moment.
She had a cheat tool, being praised like this made her feel a little guilty.
Besides… this had nothing to do with being a university student…
“It was just luck. Without Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law, we couldn’t have gotten this much either.”
Although the kids had given them a heads-up that the haul was sizable, when Ye Qingyun saw the bulging woven sacks, she was still soundly shocked.
Three whole big sacks, two or three hundred jin just by weight.
If it could all be eaten…
At that thought, Ye Qingyun quickly asked, “Are these cotton aphid things edible?”
The moment she said it, everyone paused.
Oh, right.
That was the crucial point. Heaven forbid they were toxic, then they’d be hauled all this way only to be looked at, not eaten.
Grandma Jiang said, “Cotton aphids used to be a kind of pest. They weren’t poisonous, just sucked the nutrients out of the sugarcane. But now that they’ve mutated, who knows whether they’ve developed some strange toxicity.”
Jiang Zhi said, “They should be fine. If they were toxic, we’d have come to grief back in the sugarcane grove already.”
Most importantly, on her terrain radar these cotton aphids hadn’t shown up as red warning points.
Jiang Shu knew this too. He swept a hand grandly. “What’s the big deal? Worst case we just roast a few and try them, I’ll be the first to brave the crab!”
Ye Qingyun smacked him. “Eat, eat, eat, all you think about is eating. These are all going to be distributed as a batch!”
Jiang Shu felt the sky was falling.
So they’d toiled the whole day and still couldn’t get a single hot, fresh skewer of grilled meat?
“Mom! You’re planning to sell all this meat!?”
He hurriedly looked to the two old folks.
Grandma Jiang made her stance clear at once. “Don’t look at me, I’m with your mom.”
Jiang Shu turned to Yuan Ying.
Yuan Ying quickly distanced herself too. “Same as Mom.”
Jiang Shu despaired and looked to Jiang Shan and Jiang He.
Jiang He looked a little sheepish. “Our Jiang family’s always had a rule, whatever the household cooks and eats, you listen to whoever’s running the kitchen.”
Jiang Wen and Xu Na chimed in too. “Dashu, things are tight at home right now. Selling these to get the house built first is what matters.”
Jiang Shan looked the most innocent of all. “In our family, your mom calls the shots.”
Wearing a long face, Jiang Shu turned to Jiang Zhi with his last shred of hope. “Ah Zhi…”
Seeing him like that, Ye Qingyun was both annoyed and amused. “I haven’t even said anything yet, and from the look of you, anyone who didn’t know better would think I abuse you.”
Everyone had said they’d defer to her, but Ye Qingyun couldn’t take that for granted.
She’d been a head nurse, managing people, running a household wasn’t hard in her view, but the relationships between the various branches were what had to be handled well.
Otherwise, over the long run, the households would easily develop friction.
“Dad, Mom, Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, here’s my thinking. The household doesn’t have many points right now, and the house needs to go up fast, the tent can’t hold out forever. There’s also Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law’s debt. If these cotton aphids fetch a good price, I plan to pay off the points they owe along with it.”
Jiang He quickly said, “Qingyun, it’s our own debt. How can we let you pay it?”
Ye Qingyun smiled. “I’m not the one paying it for you. It’s Ah Wen and the others helping out.”
“Without Ah Wen and Nana, Dashu and Ah Zhi couldn’t have brought back this much today.”
Jiang Wen looked a little embarrassed. “Third Auntie, we just rode on Dashu and Ah Zhi’s coattails. We didn’t really do anything…”
Grandpa Jiang said, “Qingyun, we agreed before that you’d run this household. Whatever you decide, we’ve no objections.”
Yuan Ying said, “Our family feels the same.”
Ye Qingyun smiled and said no more.
In this day and age, there was strength in numbers, only when the whole family was twisted into one rope, pulling in the same direction, could they survive.
Grandma Jiang, though, couldn’t bear the sight of Jiang Shu’s wilted expression. “Qingyun, you arrange all this however you see fit. But surely setting aside a little for the children to eat wouldn’t hurt anything…”
Ye Qingyun smiled. “Mom, with this much, of course we have to give it a taste.”
Hearing that, Jiang Shu instantly perked up. He flung himself over. “Dear Mom, you really are my dear mom, I knew you treat me best!”
Ye Qingyun shoved him away, feigning disgust. “Enough, enough, move it. We still have to process these cotton aphids, or they won’t sell for a good price.”
With that, she bustled off to borrow a steelyard from Ma Hongyan’s house.
Ma Hongyan happened to be home.
Handing over the steelyard, she asked curiously, “Sister Ye, did your family find something good today?”
The fish-ball soup Jiang Shu had brought over the other day still lingered in her memory.
She couldn’t even remember how long it had been since she’d had fish.
Although her son was on the base’s vanguard team, ordinarily he could only manage a bit of land-animal meat.
These mutated river creatures, she’d heard even the Evolvers rarely got to eat them.
Where the Jiang family had gotten hold of them, she had no idea.
Ye Qingyun said, “Aiya, what good thing could there be? Just some wild-vegetable stalks the kids picked at random. I wanted to weigh them and see if I could sell a bit to the base store. With so many more mouths in the household now, I’m hoping to trade for more points to buy some staple grain.”
The base store didn’t only sell things, it took in goods as well.
Ma Hongyan wasn’t about to believe the other woman had only wild vegetables on hand. She’d seen it with her own eyes today, all those sacks of stuff.
Her eyes flicked about, and she said, “Aiyo, Sister Ye, if you sell to the base store you’ll be shortchanged! They give the lowest prices there.”
Ye Qingyun paused, then smiled. “Sister Ma, by the sound of it, are there other places to sell?”
“Now you’ve asked the right person.” Ma Hongyan said eagerly, “There are quite a few private shops in our self-built district. Sell to them and you’ll get more points than at the base store.”
Ye Qingyun frowned. “How come I’ve never seen them?”
Ma Hongyan waved a hand, dropping her voice a notch. “Of course they’re the under-the-table sort. The ones that operate out in the open have to pay tax, like that family seven or eight meters up the road, they take grain.”
Hearing useful news, Ye Qingyun was pleased. “That’s important information, Sister Ma. I don’t even know how to thank you.”
“What’s there to be polite about? We’re neighbors, neighbors help one another, don’t they? If you want to go, I can take you. You’ve just arrived, so you might not know the rules. Shops like that don’t readily accept goods from new customers, you understand, they’re afraid of entrapment stings.”
Reading her expression, Ye Qingyun guessed her thinking at once.
She was probably hoping Ye Qingyun would owe her a favor, while getting a look at exactly what good things their family had found today.
Ye Qingyun saw it all clearly, but smiled and said, “All right then. When the time comes, I’ll have to trouble you, Sister Ma.”
With that, not waiting for a reply, she took the steelyard and headed back.
Seeing Ye Qingyun hadn’t given her a firm answer, Ma Hongyan felt as if her heart were being clawed at, it itched terribly.
She stood on tiptoe and peered toward the tent for a while, but couldn’t see a thing.
Back home, Ye Qingyun found Yuan Ying and the others dividing the work, re-testing the cotton aphids while sorting and bagging them and picking out the ones that had been smothered.
Seeing the small sack of dead cotton aphids that had been culled, Ye Qingyun was heartsick. “How did so many die?”
Jiang Shan smiled. “Couldn’t be helped. The kids didn’t have proper bags, so to fit more in they stuffed them in for all they were worth, and there you have it, all crushed to death.”
Ye Qingyun fell silent.
After all, it couldn’t be helped.
They’d just have to offload everything as fast as they could.
She beckoned to Jiang Wen. “Ah Wen, didn’t you work at a secondhand shop in the self-built district before?”
“Yeah, Third Auntie, what is it?”
“I hear there are a lot of unregistered shops around here?”
The moment he heard that, Jiang Wen knew what Ye Qingyun wanted to ask.
He hesitated. “Third Auntie, there are indeed a lot, but I’d still recommend selling these cotton aphids to the base.”
Ye Qingyun blinked. “Why?”
“First, those little shops aren’t big enough, they probably can’t absorb a haul like ours. Second, if they harbor any bad intentions, we’d have no one to turn to for justice.”
Ye Qingyun understood.
In short, the little shops Ma Hongyan mentioned counted as black-market operations, with no business license. If someone swindled them out of their goods, they’d have nowhere to file a complaint, and might even be fined themselves.
Ye Qingyun frowned. “By what you say, selling to the base store really is the better option.”
But Ye Qingyun didn’t want to sell everything to the authorities.
That was far too conspicuous.
Ye Qingyun was afraid someone with ill intent would set their sights on the family.
Once or twice was fine, but if it happened too often…
Ye Qingyun didn’t dare gamble.
“Ah Wen, I don’t think we should sell only to the base store. Do you know anyone fairly reliable?”
Jiang Wen thought it over. Having worked at the secondhand shop so long, he naturally had a few connections.
The figure of a sworn brother he hadn’t contacted in ages surfaced in his mind. He pressed his lips together. “I do. But he can’t take this much.”
Ye Qingyun said, “All right then. Go get in touch with him in a bit and ask how much he can buy.”
Once Yuan Ying and the others had finished bagging, Ye Qingyun started weighing.
The steelyard borrowed from Ma Hongyan could only weigh fifty jin at most in one go.
Yuan Ying had done farm work in the past, so her estimates were rarely far off.
Ye Qingyun lifted one of the sacks and hung it on the hook. The counterweight swung a few times, once Ye Qingyun shifted it to the right spot, it reached balance.
Jiang Shu watched eagerly from the side. “How much, how much?”
“About forty-seven jin.”
Jiang Shu swallowed.
This many jin, if it could all be kept, he couldn’t even imagine how happy life would be.
Ye Qingyun weighed several more sacks in a row, noted the figures, then counted again. “We’ve bagged about five sacks total. We can line up a few more buyers.”
By now, when Ye Qingyun looked at these bugs, all she saw were points.
“In a bit, Dashan will go find that Chen Li from the patrol team and ask whether he wants any.”
Ye Qingyun gave out instructions one by one. “Ah Wen, you go find that person you know and ask how much he can take. As for you, Second Sister-in-law, I’ll have to trouble you all to go to the base store and ask how much these dead cotton aphids can sell for per jin.”
Jiang Wen and Yuan Ying quickly agreed.
Jiang Shu sidled over. “Mom, then what about us…?”
Ye Qingyun snorted. “Fine, I won’t leave you out. I’ll make you little brats something to eat right now.”
The truth was, Ye Qingyun also wanted to run an experiment first. No one in the base had likely ever eaten this stuff, so being able to offer a recipe would greatly raise the odds of moving it.
The moment Ye Qingyun said this, the two little ones, who had been helping all along, immediately swallowed.
Heaven knew that ever since the meaty meal last night, they’d dreamed of it, still craving more.
Now that they had a chance at a second meaty meal so soon, they felt happy enough to faint.
Jiang Si covered her brother’s mouth. “Brother, you’re drooling!”
Jiang Sui covered her mouth too. “Sisi, you’re drooling too!”
The two stared at each other for a moment, then swallowed in unison.
Ye Qingyun couldn’t stop laughing.
These two kids were too adorable.
She lovingly stroked their heads. From long-term malnutrition, even the two little ones’ hair was dry and yellow.
She teased, “Well, Suisui, Sisi, do you want to eat meat tonight?”
Jiang Si withdrew her hand, wiped her brother’s drool off her palm against her back, and forced herself to look away. “No, Auntie, I, I don’t want any.”
Grandma had said you mustn’t be greedy for food, being greedy made people dislike you.
Jiang Sui savored the deliciousness of last night, then forced out painfully, “Auntie, I, I won’t eat either. I, I want to give my portion to Grandpa, is that okay?”
Ye Qingyun’s heart ached terribly. She pulled the two children in front of her. “Silly kids, you don’t need to save any for your grandpa. Whatever Auntie makes, there’ll be plenty, everyone gets a share!”
Jiang Si’s eyes shone. “Really, Auntie? You won’t think we eat too much?”
Ye Qingyun said, “You’re at the age where you’re growing. Eating a lot is normal, don’t overthink it.”
Seeing how heavy the two children’s mental burden was, Ye Qingyun went on with a smile, “Tonight Auntie’s making you skewers. I guarantee you’ll eat your fill!”
Jiang Si asked curiously, “Auntie, what are skewers?”
Before Ye Qingyun could answer, Jiang Sui shot his hand up. “I know, I know! Back when Dad took me to the county town, he bought some for me, it’s meat strung together and grilled, really, really fragrant.”
Jiang Sui looked over at Jiang Shu. “Xiao Uncle, am I right?”
Jiang Shu nodded hard. “Right, that’s exactly it!”
Wiping his drool, he made a demand. “Mom! My dear mom, besides grilled, can we do some deep-fried too?”
Ever since he’d laid eyes on the mutated cotton aphids, deep-fried silkworm pupae from before the catastrophe had floated up in his mind.
After deep-frying, silkworm pupae had a golden, crisp exterior and a soft, tender interior.
Jiang Shu had missed that crispy-outside, tender-inside texture for a very long time.
Ye Qingyun raised the steelyard, ready to whack him. “Deep-fried, too? Why don’t you go climb to heaven while you’re at it! Do you have any idea how expensive oil is now? Fifty points a jin! You know perfectly well what our situation is, you little spendthrift!”
The only oil currently sold in the base was rapeseed oil, and it was especially dear, most ordinary people couldn’t afford it at all.
So no matter how many wild vegetables one ate, the stomach still felt hollow.
Jiang Shu dodged, yelping, “Mom! We’re about to strike it rich, buying a little oil’s no big deal, is it?”
He was truly sick of boiled food.
These past couple of days, to save money, Ye Qingyun hadn’t even been willing to add salt.
Jiang Shu suspected that if not for the fear they’d fall ill without salt, his mom would surely cook the vegetables without any at all.
“The goods aren’t even sold yet and you’re already thinking about how to spend it? You brat. Is this how I raised you?”
Jiang Shu made a long face. “Then… then once we’ve sold the goods, if money’s a bit easier, surely we can buy a little oil to fry something?”
Ye Qingyun said, “You’re dreaming. What kind of conditions do we have, wanting deep-fried food.”
Jiang Shu was crushed.
Indignant, he turned to Jiang Zhi. “Ah Zhi! Tomorrow let’s not catch cotton aphids, let’s go find peanuts, rapeseed, anything we can press for oil. I refuse to believe I can’t get a proper helping of oil in this lifetime.”
Jiang Zhi dashed his hopes without mercy. “Give it up. Even if you found that stuff, Mom would just trade it for staple grain.”
Deep down Ye Qingyun was a traditional woman. Without some grain stockpiled at home, she felt uneasy.
Big as today’s haul looked, cotton aphids were probably cheaper than meat, eighty points a jin would be a good price.
All told, of the cotton aphids they had on hand, the live ones came to a hundred and seventy jin and the dead ones to ninety.
Sold off entirely, it worked out to only about twenty thousand points.
It looked like a lot, but tallied up, it wasn’t even enough to build the house.
Clay, blue bricks, roof tiles… these were all essential materials.
Yesterday Jiang He had told them that for a house sturdy enough to last, it was best to use the slime of mutated white jade snails.
Mixed into the clay, that slime could strengthen the toughness and durability of the mud bricks.
Over in Self-Built District 1, some people had used this slime to build their houses, and they hadn’t suffered the slightest damage even now.
Word was the base’s own city wall used this slime as well.
But the material didn’t come cheap, and ordinary folk couldn’t afford it.
Ye Qingyun thought it over: now that they had money in hand, there was no reason not to buy the good stuff.
While the others went off to ask after buyers, Ye Qingyun and Grandma Jiang grabbed two handfuls of the dead cotton aphids, roughly three or four jin, and washed them in a wooden basin.
Grandpa Jiang led the two children in skewering the washed cotton aphids.
Jiang Shu wasn’t idle either. He set a pot to boil and raked half the fire out of the stove, getting ready to grill.
Once the water boiled, Ye Qingyun dropped the cotton aphids in.
Unexpectedly, the plump cotton aphids instantly curled up, and a moment later something golden floated out of their bodies, mingling with the steam rising from the pot to send up a faint, clean fragrance of sugarcane.
Quick-handed, Ye Qingyun scooped the cotton aphids out of the pot.
Watching this, Grandma Jiang was a little dumbfounded. “What’s going on? What’s this golden layer? It smells oddly nice!”
Ye Qingyun dipped a finger in and tasted it. The clean, sweet flavor made her eyes go wide. “This… this is sweet?”
Jiang Shu was startled. “How can it be sweet?!”
He tried it too, sure enough, it was sweet.
His first thought was—
“So when we grill the skewers later, we can skip the honey step?”
Jiang Zhi came over and tried it as well, and immediately drew her conclusion. “The sugarcane’s sugar must have been absorbed by the cotton aphids. When Mom boiled them, it diluted the sugar granules out of the bugs’ bodies.”
As if struck by an idea, Ye Qingyun grew excited at once. “Then this sugar… could we make it into sugar blocks?”
Jiang Zhi thought about it. “It’s not impossible, sugarcane used to be made into brown sugar, after all.”
Looking back now, no wonder none of the sugarcane they’d gathered today had been sweet, it had been sucked dry by the cotton aphids.
She looked again at the golden water in the pot, it really did have something of brown-sugar water about it.
Jiang Zhi took a cotton aphid from Ye Qingyun’s hand and examined it closely.
The blanched cotton aphid had shrunk to half its size.
Pinching it released a layer of thick brown liquid at once. Bringing it to her nose, she sniffed, it really did carry a sweet flavor.
“Mom, try grilling it.”
Ye Qingyun wanted to know what these honey-secreting cotton aphids tasted like grilled too. If they were cloyingly sweet, eating them would be quite a chore.
“All right, I’ll boil them a bit more and see if I can draw all the sugar out of the cotton aphids.”
These cotton aphids went back into the gurgling, steaming pot, and soon the golden liquid turned a rich brown.
A heavy fragrance of sugarcane wafted into the air.
Next door, Ma Hongyan stood on tiptoe, peering over without pause.
But there were too many Jiang family members clustered around the stove, blocking the view solidly, she couldn’t see anything useful at all.
“You old woman, climbing the wall every day to watch what other people are doing—” Ma Hongyan’s husband couldn’t stand it any longer.
With their son working on the vanguard team, he reckoned himself a cut above others, and Ma Hongyan’s sneaking around was, to him, an outright embarrassment.
“Aren’t you curious what they’re cooking over there?” Back in the yard, Ma Hongyan couldn’t rein in her gossip-hungry heart. “That family’s really something. They show up and buy land straightaway, and now they’ve even moved a whole household in. The way they’re living, I’d say they’re no worse off than us.”
Ma Hongyan’s husband said nothing, and only after a while spoke. “I heard they sold a car.”
Ma Hongyan’s eyes went wide. “Then they’re a wealthy lot! Seems like we’ll need to cultivate a good relationship with them down the road.”
“Hmph! Stop with all your underhanded little schemes. We don’t live badly, if anything, they should be the ones begging us.”
Ma Hongyan rolled her eyes. “What do you know, you cantankerous old man! Sure, our son brings us meat every week to liven up the menu, but it’s all fire-vole meat, I’m sick to death of it. Look at the Jiang family: fish balls, river shrimp. If they can find that sort of thing, it proves they’ve got real ability. Down the line, trading them for some good food would be no bad thing.”
Ma Hongyan’s husband said scornfully, “What good food could they possibly find?”
How the Ma family was doing, Ye Qingyun had no idea.
Those two small handfuls of cotton aphids boiled for half an hour, until the liquid in the pot had thickened like syrup, before Ye Qingyun fished the bugs out.
The cotton aphids, their sugar drawn out, had shrunk by half.
Ye Qingyun winced. “That’s an awful lot of shrinkage.”
If they sold these without warning, people might well come back demanding a refund.
Jiang Zhi dipped a finger in the honey liquid, cloyingly, cloyingly sweet, yet the aftertaste was wonderfully clean.
Jiang Shu scooped a bit up and slurped it, smacking his lips. “Who’d have thought this cotton-aphid syrup would taste so good. Just don’t know how to store it.”
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