Chapter 5: Brick and Tile Factory

Jiang Liyun had just finished cooking when her younger sister, Jiang Liyu, returned from elementary school.

Today is Thursday, a school day, and after having breakfast, Jiang Liyu called out to Jiang Liyun before heading off to school. She just returned.

Upon arriving home, the rich aroma of minced meat and scrambled eggs filled the air. The petite Jiang Liyu licked her lips, her eyes fixated on the table.

“It’s time to eat.” Jiang Liyun smiled, reaching out to pat her sister’s head.

She was not young anymore; at the time of her passing, some of her peers were already grandmothers. In her previous life, she treated Jiang Liyu as her daughter, and in this life… She felt that Jiang Liyu was almost like her granddaughter.

The child had fine, brittle, and visibly malnourished hair. She needed to eat more nutritious food.

“Finally, time to eat!” Jiang Liping exclaimed joyfully, heading straight to the stove.

In this day and age, everyone eats relatively plain food. Even though Jiang Liping had married into town, the morning meal still consisted of rice porridge and pickled vegetables. She was already hungry, so she took the ladle and scooped a large bowl of rice from the pot, carrying it to the table.

Jiang Liyun was the second to get the ladle. She first served a bowl of rice for Jiang Liyu, then scooped one for herself. Only then did they sit down. As soon as the dishes were on the table, Jiang Liyun divided the minced meat and scrambled eggs, which had already been claimed by Jiang Liping, into portions.

If she didn’t divide it, her parents would think about saving the delicious bits for the children, and then they wouldn’t touch it at all. Jiang Liping would eagerly grab it all.

She wouldn’t spoil Jiang Liping.

When dividing the scrambled eggs, Jiang Liyun set aside a portion in her enamel cup.

She intended to save it for Feng Yi.

It might be a bit inappropriate to give the family’s food to Feng Yi, but Jiang Liyun had no qualms about it. At sixteen, she entered the sofa factory, where she had been working for four years. After receiving her monthly salary, she kept two yuan for herself and handed over the rest to her family.

That was not all; she also did the most farm work among her siblings.

Jiang Liping’s salary contribution was less than hers, and today she even took away so many vegetables from home. Would it really matter if Jiang Liyun kept a few scrambled eggs for herself?

Speaking of salary contributions, in this era, if a family hasn’t split, young people often have to give a portion of their earnings to their parents. Her older brother and sister also contributed their salaries.

So, before getting married, Jiang Liping couldn’t afford to perm her hair.

At that time, Jiang Liping worked odd jobs in town, earning a wage similar to Jiang Liyun in the sofa factory. However, even with a slightly lower contribution, she could only save around ten yuan for herself each month.

With this meager amount, Jiang Liping occasionally bought small things, but that was it.

Considering the current cost of living, it was quite high compared to the average wage.

As for her brother, Jiang Lihai, who worked hard at the brick and tile factory with a higher salary, he earned over a hundred yuan a month. However, since he didn’t stay at home for meals and had additional expenses for courting someone, he only contributed sixty yuan to the family each month.

Jiang Liping refused to contribute more because Jiang Lihai’s contribution seemed quite meager compared to his income.

Seeing Jiang Liyun set aside a portion of scrambled eggs, Jiang Liping sarcastically remarked, “Is that for big brother? He enjoys good food every day at the factory; he doesn’t need your concern.”

Jiang Liyun said, “It’s not for big brother; I’m keeping it for myself.”

Jiang Liping didn’t believe her. Jiang Lame didn’t care about such things, and Jiang Liyu was just focused on eating. Only Wu Xiaochun whispered, “I can’t eat so many eggs; could you, Liping and Yun, share some with me?”

When Jiang Liyun divided the scrambled eggs, she gave the most to Wu Xiaochun, while she and Jiang Liping received the least.

Jiang Liyun said, “Mom, you should eat more. The doctor said you need to eat good food to supplement your nutrition.”

Ever since she could remember, Wu Xiaochun had always been frail.

Regarding her prolonged menstrual periods, sometimes after seeing a doctor and taking medications like Yunnan Baiyao, she would improve for a while but then relapse after some time…

In short, her condition had been constantly fluctuating.

If their family were better off and could afford to provide Wu Xiaochun with good food and nutrition, her condition would likely improve significantly. Unfortunately, their family’s circumstances were poor, and Wu Xiaochun was accustomed to giving tasty food to others.

Nevertheless, even with that, Wu Xiaochun struggled until Jiang Liyu went missing ten years later, and she couldn’t hold on any longer. If they paid more attention from now on, they should be able to gradually make up for her deficiencies.

Jiang Liyun planned to buy a chicken later and stew it for Wu Xiaochun to eat.

In her previous life, at this time, she couldn’t bear to spend extra money on buying chicken, always wanting to save it for a rainy day.

But now, with a second chance and knowing that money would become increasingly less valuable in the future, her mindset had changed.

She wouldn’t spend money recklessly; after all, if she wanted to start a business, she needed capital.

But the money that needed to be spent couldn’t be avoided either.

Besides, today was the anniversary of her rebirth; it called for some celebration.

Jiang Liyun made rice with pickled vegetable soup and ate two large bowls of rice in one go. Everyone else ate quite a lot too, except for Wu Xiaochun, who had a small appetite.

After the meal, Jiang Liping took a bag of vegetables and rode her bicycle back to town.

Originally, she didn’t have a bicycle, but her in-laws bought her one after she got married.

Jiang Liyun washed the dishes, took the enamel cup filled with scrambled eggs, and headed to the commune brick and tile factory to see Feng Yi.

The commune brick and tile factory was a bit of a distance from their home, but not too far. It took about forty-five minutes to walk and only about ten minutes by bike.

Since Jiang Lihai started working at the brick and tile factory, he rarely came home. His explanation was that it was far and the work was tiring, but in reality, he just didn’t want to come home after work to do farm work.

And Jiang Liyun felt this way because, during busy farming seasons, Feng Yi had come back from the brick and tile factory to help her harvest rice.

Jiang Lihai worked as a brick carrier at the factory, just like Feng Yi.

The brick and tile factory was run by the commune, and the workers they hired were all from their commune.

In the 1970s, getting into the brick and tile factory required connections, but their family was relatively poor. At that time, the commune took care of them and let Jiang Lihai work at the brick and tile factory.

As for Feng Yi… Feng Yi was a year younger than Jiang Liyun. In 1984, when the brick and tile factory expanded its recruitment, since there was no one from the Feng family working there before, they were allocated a slot.

Normally, it should have been the older siblings from the Feng family, who were several years older than Feng Yi, who went to the brick and tile factory. But both brothers felt that bricklaying was hard work and were unwilling to go, so they let Feng Yi go instead.

Of course, the main reason they were unwilling to go was that workers at the brick and tile factory had to contribute part of their salary to the commune.

At that time, Old Man Feng made it clear that they could keep at most twenty yuan from their salary. After toiling as bricklayers for a month, they only had twenty yuan in hand, which they still had to use to buy food. They were not happy about it.

But it was different for Feng Yi.

Feng Yi was the tagalong his mother brought with her when she married into the Feng family. Every month, he could only keep ten yuan from his salary for food, and the rest had to be contributed to the commune, which would also be used for the older brothers Feng Da and Feng Er to get married.

Having money without having to work is great!

As for staying at home and doing farm work… Farm work was just as tiring as laying bricks, but there wasn’t always farm work to do. Plus, Old Man Feng was good at it. They didn’t need to do much work, which was definitely easier than going to work.

Jiang Lihai didn’t want to come home to do farm work after work. If he were only asked to do farm work, he would certainly be willing.

Anyway, the skinny sixteen-year-old Feng Yi went to work at the brick and tile factory like this.

After that, Jiang Liyun rarely saw him.

But they still had some contact; Feng Yi had even helped Jiang Liyun with some work.

During those years when Jiang Liyun came home from work to do housework and farm work, she almost collapsed from exhaustion. But one morning, when she went to the field, she found that someone had already helped her harvest an acre of rice.

After that, similar incidents kept happening.

Initially, she didn’t know who was helping her and thought someone was doing good deeds like Lei Feng. In the past, their production team had once done good deeds like Lei Feng, helping other production teams with work, but when the people from that production team didn’t help them back, they stopped.

It wasn’t until later, when she divorced Xie Zugen and got together with Feng Yi, that she mentioned this and found out that it was Feng Yi who had helped her harvest the rice.

Feng Yi usually lived at the brick and tile factory. Hearing that she couldn’t finish the farm work, he would come back in the middle of the night, when everyone in the village was asleep, to help her harvest the rice before returning to sleep.

In her previous life, after she married Xie Zugen, Feng Yi quit his job at the brick and tile factory and went to work outside until she divorced Xie Zugen before he came back.

By then, Feng Yi had changed a lot.

Jiang Liyun used to consider Feng Yi the little brother of the neighbouring family. It was only after several times of Feng Yi helping her and seeming interested in her that her perception of him changed. After Xie Zugen caused trouble for her multiple times, she decided to marry Feng Yi.

It had been a long time, and Jiang Liyun couldn’t quite remember what Feng Yi looked like now.

But overall, he wasn’t bad. Feng Yi was quite handsome.

The commune brick and tile factory was located by the canal, occupying a modest-sized area. Workers at the factory would fire bricks here, selling them to nearby residents or loading them onto ships bound for larger cities nearby.

The boats used to transport the bricks were called “tugboats.”

They had a tugboat at the front, pulling several, even a dozen, barges at the back, creating a long chain.

Several people would be on the tugboat, and each barge at the back would need about three people. A transportation team usually consisted of thirty to forty people, and the brick and tile factory’s transportation team was no exception.

Their income was considered high in the commune, with subsidies included, and they could earn more than two hundred yuan per month. Some smart individuals could even make extra money by working outside.

However, it was a hard and, at times, dangerous job.

People in the transportation team had to help load the bricks onto the boat, take turns to keep watch, and not to mention that security is poor nowadays. Robberies were common when sailing, and in the turbulent Yangtze River, falling off the boat meant a direct loss of life.

Of course, despite the hardship, people were eager to join the transportation team at this time.

After all, even being an ordinary worker at the brick and tile factory was quite dangerous.

Ordinary workers not only had to carry and fire bricks but sometimes had to do construction work, like repairing water towers.

In the past, in their commune, someone fell to their death while repairing a water tower.

Speaking of this… Her parents only had Jiang Lihai as their son, and the brick and tile factory had a rule not to let an only son do dangerous work. So Jiang Lihai usually just moved bricks around in the factory and didn’t have to do risky jobs.

Feng Yi was different; the Feng family had enough children, and he wasn’t their biological son.

At a young age, he had to climb high scaffolding to build water towers.

There weren’t many safety precautions in those days. It was indeed a risky job.

Jiang Liyun thought about it; she should encourage Feng Yi to quit early.

Working outside was much better than moving bricks at the brick and tile factory.

At this time, the factory wasn’t managed strictly at all; Jiang Liyun just walked straight into the brick-and-tile factory without anyone stopping her.

But she didn’t see Feng Yi right away; instead, she saw Jiang Lihai.

The 25-year-old Jiang Lihai was completely different from the one Jiang Liyun had seen before she died.

The current Jiang Lihai, in his sixties, had few hairs left on his head and a beer belly, but the present Jiang Lihai was thin with thick hair. He was wearing an old work uniform, faded at the elbows and knees, with long, dusty hair and a tanned face.

“Sis, are you here to see me?” Jiang Lihai’s gaze fell on the enamel cup Jiang Liyun was holding, and he swallowed.

His little sister had come to see him; perhaps the family had cooked something delicious specifically for him?

“No, I’m not here for you; I’m looking for Feng Yi,” Jiang Liyun said.

In Jiang Liyun’s previous life, her brother’s life was uneventful, neither good nor bad.

After his breakup with his former partner, he couldn’t find another partner due to family burdens. It took him three years to marry a girl from another place who came to work here. At first, his wife seemed diligent, always doing household chores at home. But after giving birth to a son and considering herself the hero of their family, she changed completely.

She passed all the household chores to Jiang Liyun and even complained about her in front of her parents-in-law.

After Jiang Liyun couldn’t bear being scolded by her anymore and left home to work, her whereabouts unknown, Wu Xiaochun became worried and eventually passed away due to worsening health conditions. Jiang Lihai then divorced his wife.

After that, Jiang Lihai didn’t remarry. Instead, he decided to work hard and learn to be an electrician. He became the only electrician at the brick and tile factory, which had been privatised and changed to a cement factory.

After more than a decade of doing this, he was fired for taking private jobs outside to help people with electrical and plumbing repairs.

He wasn’t upset about it; instead, he focused on doing renovations. Though the work was hard, he earned a decent income and bought a mobile home for his son.

Jiang Lihai, when Jiang Liyun passed away, already had a granddaughter. Besides going to work, he often expressed concern for his granddaughter, feeling that his daughter-in-law was too harsh, not allowing the two-year-old to have candy or watch TV.

However, he didn’t have much authority at home, and every time he complained about these things, his son, who emphasized scientific parenting, would scold him.

“Why are you looking for Feng Yi?” Jiang Lihai was puzzled but still pointed Jiang Liyun in a direction. “He should be over there in the bamboo grove.”

The brick and tile factory had a clinic with a female doctor who provided medical care for both the factory workers and nearby residents. Disliking the factory’s dust, she planted some bamboo near her clinic.

After the bamboo was planted, as long as she didn’t harvest its shoots, it wouldn’t take long for a large bamboo grove to grow. In the dusty brick and tile factory, this created a green oasis.

Jiang Liyun arrived there and saw some people resting under the shade near the bamboo grove, and among them was Feng Yi.

Seeing Feng Yi, Jiang Liyun froze.

Is Feng Yi looking too young?

At nineteen, Feng Yi was taller than her but very thin, with a face that still looked quite youthful.

How should she put it? Feng Yi looked like the junior and senior high school students Jiang Liyun had seen in her previous life.

To make matters more interesting, when Feng Yi spotted her, he opened his mouth and called out, “Sis Liyun!”

The dark and slender young man looked excited, with a sparkle in his eyes.

Jiang Liyun came to find her future husband with a sense of nostalgia, but upon seeing him, her heart was filled with nothing but tender affection.