For dinner, Ye Qingyun made a plate of grilled dried fish.
There was no special recipe. She simply laid the cleaned sweetfish flat on an iron griddle, roasted them over the fire while turning them over, then brushed on a little salt.
The fragrant aroma of grilled fish filled the entire house.
The four children stopped playing in the yard and crowded around the stove, staring eagerly at the fish. Drool was practically dripping from the corner of Fu Xiangdong’s mouth.
As soon as the grilled fish were plated, Fu Min immediately reached out.
“Mom, I’ll take it.”
Ye Qingyun handed her the plate.
Xinyang and Fu Xiangdong instantly gathered around their eldest sister, calling, “Big Sister! Big Sister!”
Even the usually composed Xinyu couldn’t resist tugging gently at the corner of her sister’s shirt, reminding her not to forget about her.
Fu Min secretly glanced at her mother.
Seeing that Ye Qingyun was busy serving porridge and wasn’t paying attention, she quickly picked up a grilled sweetfish and took a bite herself.
Then she held the rest out to the three younger ones, letting each of them take one bite.
The delicious fish exploded across their taste buds.
It was crispy on the outside, tender inside, and still piping hot from the fire.
The three little ones immediately teared up from the heat, hissing as they carefully swallowed the precious bite.
They licked their lips.
One bite only made them want more.
“Watch out for the fish bones!”
Ye Qingyun took the fish from Fu Min’s hand, set the plate in the middle of the table, and reminded them.
Children were experts at reading adults’ expressions.
Seeing their mother smiling instead of scolding them, Fu Xiangdong boldly said,
“Mom… two. I want two.”
Fu Min corrected him.
“You count fish by saying two fish, not two pieces.”
Fu Xiangdong nodded.
“Oh.”
Then he corrected himself.
“Two fish!”
Xinyang spoke timidly.
“Mom… I want three…”
Fu Min immediately protested.
“Mom, I can eat four!”
Only Xinyu silently held out her bowl to her mother.
“Mommy decides.”
Ye Qingyun rubbed Xinyang’s little head.
“No fighting.”
“Everyone gets two. It’s the same for all of you.”
She had expected the children to crave more, so she had grilled exactly eight fish.
Two for each person.
She placed two fish into each child’s bowl.
Fu Min only received one because she had already secretly eaten one earlier.
Since the fish had tiny bones, Ye Qingyun carefully removed every bone herself before handing the bowls over.
Only then did she begin eating.
Today’s meal was simple white rice porridge.
A bite of grilled fish.
A spoonful of porridge.
A sip of wild vegetable soup.
The mother and her four children ate with great satisfaction.
Fu Min finished every last bit of fish but still had nearly half a bowl of porridge left.
Patting her stomach, she said,
“Mom, can we have scrambled eggs with tomatoes tomorrow? I’ve eaten so much meat lately that it’s getting a little greasy.”
The other three little ones immediately nodded in agreement with their eldest sister.
If the villagers had witnessed this scene, they would probably have been tempted to spank the children.
They were being fed delicious food every day…
And now they were complaining?
As she gathered the dishes, Ye Qingyun replied,
“No ordering food.”
“You eat whatever I cook.”
“If you don’t want it, then don’t eat.”
The four children sighed dramatically.
A short while later, however, they were once again full of energy, running out into the yard to play Eagle Catches Chicks.
After washing the dishes and wiping down the stove, Wang Tiezhu finally arrived.
Catching the smell of alcohol on her master’s clothes, Ye Qingyun frowned.
“You didn’t even come for dinner. Where did you go?”
Wang Tiezhu grinned at the four children and waved them away to keep playing before stepping inside.
“Someone invited me out for drinks.”
“Oh, right.”
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
Ye Qingyun looked puzzled.
“What is it?”
Wang Tiezhu found himself a stool and sat down.
“Your master’s wife’s son left to deliver a message. He’ll be gone for half a month.”
“So we can’t borrow the flashlight anymore.”
The moment she heard that, Ye Qingyun didn’t even have to guess who had invited her master out for drinks.
Without a flashlight, entering the mountains at night would be extremely inconvenient.
“Then I’ll buy one myself,” she said.
Wang Tiezhu asked expectantly,
“What about today’s earnings?”
“Take them out and let’s count them.”
“Did anyone pay with industrial coupons?”
Ye Qingyun shook her head.
“Not a single coupon.”
Their luck wasn’t as good as last time.
Everyone had insisted on paying cash and was unwilling to part with any coupons.
Forty jin of stone frogs.
At two yuan and fifty cents per jin.
Total income: one hundred yuan.
Twelve live sweetfish.
One yuan each.
Total income: twelve yuan.
Grand total:
One hundred and twelve yuan.
A flashlight cost anywhere from three to five yuan.
But you needed industrial coupons to buy one.
Money wasn’t the problem for Ye Qingyun.
The problem was that she had no industrial coupons.
Only urban workers with city household registrations received ration coupons, issued monthly by their work units.
Special coupons were even rarer, usually distributed only during holidays or as benefits for certain occupations.
Wang Tiezhu lowered his voice.
“You can buy them on the black market.”
The black market?
Ye Qingyun searched through the original owner’s memories.
There really had been such a place.
When her younger brother-in-law got married, the bride’s family had demanded a Flying Pigeon bicycle.
Her mother-in-law had sent her beneath West Bridge to exchange for the necessary coupons.
It seemed that no matter where you went…
There was always a “West Bridge.”
Having been reborn much earlier, Wang Tiezhu was already thoroughly familiar with Hongyan Commune.
He generously offered that if Ye Qingyun was too busy, he didn’t mind making a trip to the black market alone the next day.
“How much do you need?”
Ye Qingyun eyed the crafty old man suspiciously.
Feeling unfairly distrusted, Wang Tiezhu covered his face and held up one hand.
Five yuan.
That wasn’t too bad.
Ye Qingyun handed him a ten-yuan note.
“That covers the coupons and the flashlight.”
“Bring me back the change.”
She genuinely didn’t have time over the next few days.
Now that she had some money and work wasn’t overly demanding, she needed to hurry and plant vegetables in the private plot in front of the house.
She also wanted to build a proper toilet behind the house.
The weather was getting hotter.
Mosquitoes, insects, rats, and ants were becoming more numerous.
The children’s tender little bottoms couldn’t keep using the outdoors as a toilet.
She herself found it inconvenient too.
The house was tiny.
Even bathing felt awkward.
If conditions allowed, she’d like to build a small bathhouse as well.
Wang Tiezhu cheerfully accepted the money.
Stroking an imaginary beard, he declared confidently,
“Leave such a trivial matter to your master.”
With that, he tucked the money away happily and left.
Ye Qingyun called the four children inside to wash their faces and feet.
Another half hour passed before the mother and her four children finally went to bed.
The next day was bright and sunny.
Before heading off to work, Ye Qingyun secretly set up a long bench behind the house and spread the dried fish out to dry in the sun.
She gave the four children an important mission.
They were to stand guard.
No one could discover the fish.
They also had to watch out for birds, cats, and dogs.
None of the dried fish could be stolen.
If they completed the mission successfully…
Each of them would receive one White Rabbit Creamy Candy as a reward.
Fu Min had secretly searched every jar in the house with her younger siblings before.
They had never found even a single White Rabbit candy.
What the four children could never have guessed was that Ye Qingyun had long since hidden all the important supplies inside her pocket dimension.
The moment they heard there would be candy as a reward, Fu Min immediately promised that the fish would be protected with her life.
Ye Qingyun smiled in satisfaction before heading off to work.
…
Meanwhile…
In an alley near the Hongyan Commune Clinic.
Several people who had arrived exactly as instructed—three days later—found nothing waiting for them.
They grabbed the man who had previously bought stone frogs for his wife recovering from childbirth and demanded angrily,
“Where are they?”
“Didn’t they say three days later?”
“There’s not even a ghost here!”
“You’d better explain yourself!”
The man himself looked completely bewildered.
“How should I know?”
“Those two really did say three days later.”
But now…
There wasn’t a single person in the alley.
There was only one possible explanation.
They had all been played.