Miao Qing paid very promptly and made sure not to ask a single extra question—she didn’t want the old woman to refuse to sell to her next time.
Tietui watched Miao Qing hand over a stack of bills to the old woman, his brows knitted with worry. At the rate his sister was spending, how much money would it take to keep this up?
Miao Qing didn’t notice Tietui’s concern at all. She hugged the eggs and meat happily as she got back on the cart, wishing she could be home immediately.
She wanted to eat meat buns, egg pancakes, steamed rice, and cabbage with tofu and vermicelli stew…
Tietui was already calculating—two catties of white flour, two catties of rice, and five catties of fine cornmeal—how to mix them with sorghum flour to stretch things out so his sister could make it through next month.
One trip and she’d already spent several yuan. There were only two days left in this month—next month, she definitely couldn’t come again.
That evening, Miao Qing finally got her meat-stuffed steamed buns.
Though the bun dough was made with a mix of white flour and sorghum flour, at least it was a one-to-one ratio and didn’t scrape her throat going down.
The filling had a bit too much cabbage, and the meat was chopped very finely, but there were vermicelli noodles and soy sauce mixed in. The skin was thin and the filling generous—absolutely delicious.
Miao Qing ate three in one go and only stopped when she was too full to take another bite.
Seeing that the buns she’d forced on Tietui and the others were still untouched, Miao Qing wasn’t happy.
“Eat up—I have money. The compensation money from last time still isn’t used up.”
Tietui still couldn’t bear to eat them. These were meat buns—a delicacy they wouldn’t even get during the New Year.
Taohua had swallowed a whole jar of saliva from craving them, but since her brother and mother weren’t eating, she didn’t dare either.
Yang Xiaomei felt that as a cripple lying in bed all day unable to do anything, eating such good food was a waste—better to save it for her cousin.
Miao Qing tossed her head.
“If you don’t eat, I’m not coming back. We’re done!”
Seeing that she was genuinely about to get angry, they finally started eating.
But they all took tiny bites, afraid they wouldn’t savor the flavor properly.
Miao Qing pinched Sugar Bean’s little face. The baby had gained a bit of weight and no longer looked as frighteningly thin as before.
Still, she was much skinnier than other babies who had breast milk—at two months old, she weighed less than seven catties.
Miao Qing had asked the sales clerk at the supply and marketing cooperative today, and there was no powdered milk for sale at the commune—you had to buy it in the city, three yuan a bag, plus a milk powder ration ticket.
Those tickets were hard to come by—she had no way of getting one.
But a kind woman who was buying candy said that if you dissolved White Rabbit creamy candy in hot water, it was similar to milk and could be fed to babies.
She had White Rabbit candy—maybe she could give it a try. It had to be more nutritious than just feeding rice oil.
After finishing his meal, Tietui carefully took the creamy candy Miao Qing had given him, placed it in a bowl, poured in some hot water, and gently stirred it until it was completely dissolved. He dipped a chopstick in and tasted it.
Sweet, fragrant, with a faint milky smell.
Such good stuff—it had to be nutritious.
But Miao Qing was still worried. After all, this wasn’t real milk, and Sugar Bean was so small—what if it made her sick?
So Yang Xiaomei did as Miao Qing said, first dipping a chopstick in and giving Sugar Bean two drops.
Sugar Bean smacked her lips. After waiting a moment and getting no more, she started fussing with little cries. When no one paid her any attention, she clenched her fists, pouted, and was about to cry.
Seeing that Sugar Bean showed no adverse reaction and was still quite spirited, Miao Qing felt relieved.
And so, Sugar Bean (Tangdou) finally got her first taste of “milk” since birth.
Though it was made from White Rabbit candy, she drank it with great relish. After she’d had her fill, she let out a satisfied burp and fell fast asleep.
Her little face was rosy red, and her little mouth kept unconsciously smacking and sucking—it was adorable to watch.
Everyone was happy, though Miao Qing and Taohua were purely delighted. Yang Xiaomei, while happy, felt even more pained and guilty. Tietui, on the other hand, looked a bit worried.
White Rabbit creamy candy cost one yuan and fifty cents per catty, but you could also buy them individually—five cents apiece.
Three pieces would cost fifteen cents, and his family didn’t have a single cent to spare.
Though there was still plenty of money his cousin had given them for food, that couldn’t be used to buy candy. She had already helped them out so much—he had to figure something out on his own.
After walking Miao Qing back to the educated youth dormitory, Tietui turned and headed straight to Sixth Uncle’s house. He wanted to go into the mountains to pick wild sour jujubes.
He had gone into the mountains with his father before and knew how to extract the sour jujube kernels. There was a spot up in the mountains with lots of wild sour jujubes—he could collect the kernels and sell them to the purchasing station. This kind of medicinal herb was worth quite a bit.
Liang Futian rapped Tietui several times with his tobacco pipe and strictly forbade him from going into the mountains.
The audacity of this brat! There were wolves in those mountains. If something happened to him, his father and Sanluzi would crawl right out of the ground to come after him.
Though he’d been hit, Tietui still hadn’t completely given up on the idea.
He wanted to make money—not just for Sugar Bean, but also to get treatment for his mother.
Miao Qing had no idea that her little experiment had sparked such a bold idea in Tietui.
When she returned to the educated youth dormitory and saw Wei Ran and Wang Haiyan actually cooking in the outside kitchen, Miao Qing was taken aback.
The outside kitchen was a thatched shed built against the outer wall of the easternmost cave, with the stove connected to the kang inside. It was usually used by the older educated youth.
What was going on tonight?
Wei Ran was chopping away on the cutting board with a thunderous rhythm—you’d think she had some kind of grudge against those pumpkins.
Wang Changzhu was snapping firewood with a steady crack-crack-crack, seemingly determined to stuff the stove to the brim.
By the stone mill in the middle of the yard, Wang Haiyan was holding something up to Fang Mingyuan’s face.
Fang Mingyuan sat sprawled by the millstone, hands braced on his thighs, his expression dark and stormy, as if ready to spring up and start a fight at any moment.
What on earth was going on?
Though completely confused, Miao Qing couldn’t be bothered. She walked straight inside.
Only to walk in on Chang Rufan sobbing in Zhang Jingshan’s arms, with one arm around her and the other gently patting her back.
Uh… the atmosphere was a bit ambiguous.
Zhang Jingshan was startled when he saw Miao Qing come in, looking a little awkward. He tried to pull back, but Chang Rufan spun around and snapped at Miao Qing,
“Don’t you knock before coming in?! Where are your manners?!”
Miao Qing had been considering whether to back out, but upon hearing that, she decided not to.
“Is this your house?”
Miao Qing walked toward the end of the kang, shooting back with a cold snort.
“What’s it to you?”
Chang Rufan, already emotionally unstable, completely fell apart. She burst into loud sobs and screamed at Miao Qing,
“I’ll mind if I want to! Get out—get out—”
Miao Qing sat down on the kang, lifted her foot, took off one shoe, and hurled it at her.
“Shut up! So noisy!”
Chang Rufan flinched. Zhang Jingshan quickly raised his hand to block it.
The liberation shoe, covered in dirt, landed with unerring accuracy on the back of Zhang Jingshan’s hand with a smack, sending up a puff of dust.
Zhang Jingshan patiently explained to Miao Qing.
“Don’t be angry. Something happened at home, and she’s in a bad mood—that’s why she’s acting like this—”
Miao Qing wasn’t having it.
“She’s in a bad mood—what does that have to do with me?
If you want to cry, go cry outside. I want to sleep!”
With that, she took off her outer clothes, lay down in her long johns, pulled the quilt over herself, and closed her eyes.
Zhang Jingshan didn’t know what to do. Chang Rufan, as if she’d suffered some great injustice, sobbed uncontrollably.
“I knew it—boohoo—they know something happened to my uncle—and now they’re all bullying me—boohoo…”
“Miao Qing isn’t like that. She’s only angry because you lashed out at her for no reason and disturbed her.”
Zhang Jingshan tried his best to soothe Chang Rufan.
“How about we go over to our side? That way, she won’t get mad again.
She’s not in good health—if she faints from anger, you’ll have to pay for her medical treatment.”
Chang Rufan was unconvinced, but she didn’t dare cry so loudly anymore. Wang Haiyan had been extorted out of twenty yuan by Miao Qing, after all.
She didn’t want to be the next sucker.
Besides, things were different now.