Chapter 13

“Liu Zhen, look! Fangzi is dying!”

Yu Xiangnian turned toward the voice and saw a group of women in a panic. Moments ago, they were laughing and chatting, but now they were on the verge of tears.

“Fangzi, what’s wrong?” one woman cried, shaking the girl in her arms. The girl’s face was blue and purple, her mouth slightly open, and she looked in severe pain.

It was her neighbor, Sister Liu Zhen, with her youngest child.

“Fangzi!” Liu Zhen kept shaking her, “Fangzi, don’t scare me!”

The women surrounding them were at a loss, “Oh no! What do we do? The hospital is so far away! This child might not make it!”

Liu Zhen burst into tears, “Fangzi, don’t scare your mother!”

Seeing this, Yu Xiangnian didn’t hesitate. She reflexively pushed through the crowd and squeezed to the front. She recognized the symptoms immediately as an airway obstruction. These women must have been too busy chatting to notice the child, and now she was barely breathing.

Yu Xiangnian took the child from Liu Zhen’s arms. Liu Zhen, in her panic, could only cry.

One woman, both anxious and angry, scolded, “You wicked woman, what are you doing? Don’t make trouble at a time like this!”

Liu Zhen also reacted and tried to take back her child.

“If you want to save her, don’t move!” Yu Xiangnian’s stern command stopped Liu Zhen in her tracks, her hands still outstretched, too scared to move.

“Yu… Yu Xiangnian, I’m telling you, this is a life at stake. If anything happens, we will report you to the army!” one woman bravely said.

The other women chimed in, “Yes, we’ll report you. Don’t think you can bully us just because of your family background!”

Yu Xiangnian ignored them, focusing instead on the child. “Stand back, all of you!” she commanded.

Grumbling, but clearly afraid, the women took two steps back.

“This evil woman has such a cruel heart. Fangzi is only five years old!” one woman lamented.

Yu Xiangnian placed the girl’s back against her chest, wrapped her arms around the child’s abdomen, and performed the Heimlich maneuver. With a forceful thrust, a hard candy shot out of the girl’s mouth, hitting the truck bed with a crisp sound, followed by the girl’s loud cry.

The women stood there, speechless and stunned.

Yu Xiangnian handed the child back to Liu Zhen. “The child choked on some food. Be more careful in the future.”

Liu Zhen, clutching her child, started crying again, and the mother and daughter wept together. Yu Xiangnian glanced at the crowd before walking to the edge of the truck bed to continue looking at the scenery, expressionless.

The women resumed their whispering.

“How did that wicked woman know Fangzi was choking on something?”

“She must have guessed! She just did that to get everyone’s attention.”

“Don’t say that. Without her, Fangzi might not have made it.”

“Exactly, she did do a good deed.”

“…”

Twenty minutes later, the truck stopped at the central park. Everyone got off.

The other women paired up or formed small groups to go shopping in town, but Yu Xiangnian was alone since she didn’t have any friends there.

She went to the department store, hoping to buy a couple of outfits for Xiao Jie. The boy’s pants were so short they were above his ankles.

After browsing, she realized they didn’t sell matching sets.

Having no choice, she decided to buy fabric. But she had no idea how much fabric was needed for an outfit.

The store clerks were all very haughty. When she asked them, they barely paid her any attention.

Yu Xiangnian bought two types of the best fabric: floral cloth at two yuan and three jiao per meter, and Dacron at three yuan and five jiao per meter, each two meters.

With the fabric in hand, she went to the place where the original owner often had clothes made.

Private business was still not allowed, so having clothes made felt like a clandestine operation.

In a secluded alley, Yu Xiangnian knocked on a door. A girl about fifteen or sixteen opened it.

The girl peeked out, looking around to make sure no one was there, then asked, “Who are you looking for?”

“I’m looking for Auntie Sun.”

The girl eyed the fabric Yu Xiangnian was holding and asked, “Withered vines, old trees, crows at dusk.”

“Making long johns to take home.”

“When will the bright moon appear?”

“Loves eating pig head meat.”

With the passwords matching, the girl opened the door.

As soon as Auntie Sun saw Yu Xiangnian, she knew there was business. “Young lady, what kind of dress are we making today?”

Yu Xiangnian put down the fabric and gestured Xiao Jie’s size.

Auntie Sun spread out the fabric and asked, “How many outfits do you want to make?”

“Two sets. Is there enough?”

“For a child this size, four feet of fabric is enough for one outfit. You bought six feet of each, so I can make two outfits and two pairs of pants. Kids go through pants quickly.”

“Alright, do as you see fit.”

Yu Xiangnian paid four yuan for the tailoring fee. It was almost lunchtime.

She went to a state-owned cafeteria and had a bowl of wonton soup for three jiao and bought four meat buns to take back for Cheng Jingmo and Xiao Jie.

She returned to the department store and bought Xiao Jie a pair of rubber shoes for three yuan and a pair of sandals for two yuan and three jiao.

She also bought ten small bowls, ten large bowls, five enamel mugs, and two thermos flasks, spending ten yuan. Additionally, using cake and sugar coupons along with two yuan and eight jiao, she bought two jin (1 jin = 0.5 kg) of pastries and two jin of White Rabbit candies.

Lastly, she bought three sanitary belts and five packs of sanitary paper, costing five yuan.

After purchasing all these necessities, she had only five yuan left.

Remembering she still had to buy soap and snow cream for Bai Mei, Yu Xiangnian smiled mischievously.

There were two kinds of soap: regular soap costing six jiao per piece and milk soap costing eight jiao per piece. Snow cream also came in two varieties: Friendship brand costing one yuan and five jiao per pack, and Shanghai brand costing one yuan and eight jiao per pack.

Yu Xiangnian asked the clerk for the milk soap and Shanghai brand snow cream. Too bad there wasn’t anything more expensive; she would have bought the priciest for sure.

Having bought everything she needed, Yu Xiangnian looked at the pile of goods on the counter, feeling stumped.

When she arrived, she thought those women with their back baskets looked old-fashioned, but now she realized how wise they were.

“Do you have any back baskets for sale?” Yu Xiangnian asked the clerk.

“No!” The clerk’s tone was cold.

How was she supposed to carry all this stuff?

As she was anxiously looking around for help, she saw a person in a green military uniform walk into the department store.

Hey! Her “husband” appeared at just the right time!

But why was he shopping during work hours?

Cheng Jingmo didn’t notice Yu Xiangnian. He walked straight to the counter selling tobacco and alcohol.

Yu Xiangnian followed him.

Cheng Jingmo asked the clerk for two bottles of liquor and two cans of tea.

The clerks who had been so cold to Yu Xiangnian suddenly had smiles that almost reached their ears when dealing with Cheng Jingmo!

Cheng Jingmo wasn’t buying the best liquor and tea, but they weren’t cheap either. The total for those items was thirty-six yuan.

Wow, he said he didn’t need money, yet he spent so much in one go.

“Give me four jin of pastries.”

Cheng Jingmo put the liquor and tea into a mesh bag and turned to get the pastries, almost bumping into Yu Xiangnian.