Chapter 10

As the man spoke, he pointed to a brick house ahead. Lin Yun looked at the house—seemed like he wasn’t lying after all. Their family really might be the most well-off in the area. No wonder others were jealous.

Thinking about her own dirt house with a thatched roof, Lin Yun could only keep comforting herself. Everything would come in time—no need to rush.

She followed the man inside and found several other people already there. They all looked like they were also there to buy pork.

She had already asked earlier—pork at the supply and marketing co-op cost one yuan per jin, but here it was 1.25 yuan per jin, though it didn’t require meat coupons.

Lin Yun did a mental calculation. Given how rare meat coupons were these days, this price wasn’t bad at all.

Once the man arrived, he went behind the meat counter to help cut pork. There were four people ahead of Lin Yun in line. Once they finished buying, it was finally her turn.

The man picked up a piece of meat and showed it to her. “Miss, I feel like we really hit it off today. What do you think of this piece?”

Lin Yun looked at the fatty, greasy meat and wanted to decline. But she also knew that in times like these, people considered this a premium cut. Most people lacked oil in their diets, and fatty meat could be rendered into lard—something that many families relied on as their only source of cooking oil for the entire year.

Thinking of this, Lin Yun smiled brightly. “Thanks, big brother. Please weigh me two jin. Our family hasn’t had any meat for nearly half a year. I’d prefer it not to be all fat though—could you include some lean meat as well?”

In the past, Lin Yun would’ve only bought lean meat. But now, she had to be practical.

“Sure thing. Don’t worry, Miss. I always give the full weight.”

She watched the man cut a piece and place it on the scale, then showed her the weight. “Exactly two jin. Don’t worry, my stall’s been here a long time. I wouldn’t cheat you.”

Lin Yun didn’t know how to read the scale, so she had Lin Yonggang check it. After he nodded, she pulled out a handful of small-denomination bills—mostly one- or two-jiao notes, even some mao (cent) notes.

“This two jin is 2.50, right? I won’t haggle with you. Could you throw in a little extra for me? The Dragon Boat Festival is coming, and our family’s counting on this meat to celebrate.”

The vendor was easygoing and added a small piece of meat to the bag.

Meanwhile, Lin Yun was still counting her mao bills. The 300+ yuan from selling centipedes earlier had been split up and hidden in different parts of their clothing once she and Lin Yonggang were a bit further away. She’d kept 3.60 in mao bills in her pants pocket—she’d even asked the recycling station owner for change ahead of time.

She’d figured that would be enough to buy a good number of things—but unexpectedly, the two jin of meat had already taken up most of it.

It seemed that while the general environment was still poor, there were still people living relatively well—otherwise, pork wouldn’t fetch such prices.

Lin Yun handed over the 2.50 and let Lin Yonggang carry the meat as they left the stall.

When they returned to the livelier part of town, Lin Yun began to feel a little troubled. What else should they buy?

She really wanted to get some toiletries, but those would draw too much attention. Buying meat was explainable—it was almost the Dragon Boat Festival and her family hadn’t eaten well in months—but toiletries? That’d be harder to justify.

In the countryside, there were no secrets. Families often visited one another, and a few gossipy aunties loved to snoop around. Her house only had a front door, and none of the rooms inside had doors, so it’d be easy for others to poke around.

Even though she had earned some money, Lin Yun still remembered the saying: never show your wealth.

“Is there anything else you want to eat for the Dragon Boat Festival? We still have one yuan left—we can buy a bit more.”

Lin Yonggang looked at the money in her hand, then at the meat in the bag he was holding, and swallowed hard. “Sis, let’s leave it at that. We’ve already spent a lot. This much meat—we don’t even eat this well during New Year.”

Seeing that he insisted, Lin Yun didn’t push further. But before heading home, she did buy half a bar of soap from a woman who had just come from the co-op. It cost extra, of course, since they had no coupons.

Lin Yun mainly wanted the soap to wash her hair. She knew very well that many people had lice at this time. Ever since coming here, she’d insisted on washing her hair every other day—just with water, though. She was starting to feel paranoid, like she might already have lice.

Before coming to town, she had a whole list of things she wanted to buy—including batteries for their flashlight—but upon arriving, she quickly sobered up. One, their family situation didn’t allow them to splurge. Two, you needed coupons for everything. They didn’t have any, and it wasn’t feasible to pay extra for everything.

Even so, Lin Yonggang had been excited ever since buying the meat. He clutched the snakeskin bag tightly and refused to let go. On the way back, Lin Yun offered to carry it for a while, but he firmly refused. “It’s nothing for a man like me to carry this much,” he said.

They didn’t walk fast, so by the time they got home, it was already dark. As they passed the village entrance, they saw many villagers sitting on low stools, fanning themselves and chatting.

Seeing the siblings, some looked surprised. “Oh my, isn’t this the Lin family’s kids? Where have you been? It’s so late! What’s in that bag?”

One of the aunties spoke up first. And not just with words—she even reached out to peek inside their snakeskin bag.

Lin Yun didn’t stop her. She knew that the more you tried to hide something, the more curious people became. Instead, she just placed the bag on the ground and opened it up. “The Dragon Boat Festival is coming. My mom wanted to make some rice dumplings, but she’s been busy, so she sent us to gather some mugwort. But since the nearby hills have already been picked clean, we had to go a little farther, all the way to the mountain over there.”

She pointed to the distant mountain behind them. “We saw others heading up there before, but we didn’t expect the paths to be so tough. That’s why we got back so late.”

“You gathered so much mugwort?”

“Yeah, Mom said she wanted to make a mugwort bath for us, so we picked a bit extra. Auntie, do you want some? Take some if you like—we gathered a lot.”