Chapter 8: Plans

Upon seeing Feng Yi, Jiang Liyun’s heart settled. Everyone she cares about is doing well—how wonderful!

She didn’t rush to ask Feng Yi to resign. Unlike her sister Jiang Liping, who desires and wants everything, Jiang Liyun is frugal and rarely spends money. Even when working at the sofa factory, she would come home for lunch.

With the opportunity, she always found ways to earn money. At the moment, she has around a hundred yuan in savings. While not a small amount for a girl of her age, it’s still not much, and a little spending would easily exhaust it.

Jiang Liyun hasn’t decided what she wants to do next. Asking Feng Yi to resign abruptly would upset the Feng family. Where would Feng Yi eat and sleep after leaving his job? She couldn’t afford to support both herself and Feng Yi at the moment.

Jiang Liyun plans to find a way to make money first. Once she has enough, she will ask Feng Yi to resign and join her in whatever endeavour she chooses.

As for how to make money…

In her previous life, she had early exposure to the internet and was willing to learn various new things. She knew that in this era, there are many ways to make money. For instance, she could become a middleman (dao ye), but these money-making methods are not suitable for her.

Born in a rural area with no connections, trying to make money through buying and selling would be nearly impossible for her. She has limited knowledge in this area.

She can only strive to earn money based on her own understanding.

Regarding what she considers as money within her understanding… After her divorce in her previous life, she supported herself and her family by running a breakfast stall in the county town. Starting as a street vendor, she later opened her own shop.

Running a stall is a suitable and stable path for her. However, it’s the late 1980s, and selling breakfast in town won’t bring in much money. The main reason is that the town has a small population, and the people there have limited income.

In the 1990s, her breakfast shop thrived because her town established many factories and small workshops, booming in light industry.

Back then, not only did the locals have more money, but many people from other places also came here to work. With more customers, her breakfast shop naturally thrived.

However, it’s different now. In her previous life, around early next year, due to the declining profitability of the sofa factory and constant holidays, she set up a stall in town.

She sold vegetables grown on her land and wholesaled fish and bamboo shoots, earning around four or five yuan a day. If sustained, she could make over $100 in a month, which is not bad. The problem was that no matter what she sold, someone would start selling the same thing after a few days.

In a market saturated with unemployed people, seeing someone make money with a small stall, they couldn’t resist trying it themselves.

Yet, the market was not that big.

Even when she later sold breakfast, it was hard-earned money, and the income was only slightly higher than working for someone else.

To make decent money, she needed to sell something different. Coming back from the information explosion era, she knew about things her town didn’t have.

In the next few days, she planned to go to town, explore what might sell well, and capitalise on the people’s willingness to try something new. By setting up a stall, she could earn her first bucket of gold in life.

Contemplating, Jiang Liyun walked back to the village. Upon reaching a house, she said, “Aunt Yuxian, I want to buy a chicken.”

In the 1980s, as the economy gradually opened up, the demands of ordinary people started to soar.

The brick and tile factory is profitable because there are countless people in the nearby city and their commune who need to build houses. Some factories, like sofa factories, experience declining profits due to outdated products and high production costs, losing customers to newly developed factories.

In this era, there’s a high demand for many things; for instance, in the mid-1980s, chicken and duck prices were high. In 1980, they introduced white-feathered chickens, and by the mid-1980s, people in the area began breeding them, earning substantial money and becoming well-known as wealthy individuals.

This led to a trend, and in recent years, several families in their village alone have started raising chickens. The locals have a long history of doing business; although restricted in the strict 1960s and 1970s, when given the opportunity, many became successful entrepreneurs.

Most people, being ordinary, find it impossible to come up with a unique money-making method. Hence, they follow trends. For example, if someone makes money from chicken farming, others buy chicks to raise. The same goes for ducks or other ventures like pickling vegetables, growing strawberries, raising pigs, and setting up stalls.

However, this approach doesn’t guarantee much profit. Take the example of breeding white-feathered chickens. At that time, the market wasn’t as extensive, and feed wasn’t cheap. Initially, those who started chicken farming made good money, but as more joined, the problem of oversupply emerged.

Fortunately, since it was mostly home-based, with not many chickens and people stopping if it didn’t profit, losses were minimal. “It’s Liyun; my family doesn’t have any sick chickens today,” Jiang Yuxian said apologetically upon seeing Jiang Liyun, who suddenly recalled something.

Wu Xiaochun and Jiang Liyu often fall ill, and every time they go to the hospital, the doctors advise them to eat nutritious food. Although their family doesn’t consume much meat, whenever they return from the hospital, Jiang Lamei buys a chicken to cook.

The prices of chickens vary, with locally raised chickens being cheaper than white-feathered ones. Even cheaper are the sick, white-feathered chickens. In their village, when people raise white-feathered chickens, some tend to get sick or die, and the farmers either consume them or sell them to villagers.

In their case, they usually buy sick or dead chickens. Luckily, there haven’t been severe outbreaks of diseases among the chickens in their area, so eating these chickens hasn’t caused them any health issues.

Thinking about the past, Jiang Liyun sighed, then smiled and said to Jiang Yuxian, “Aunt Yuxian, today I want to buy a healthy chicken.”

“We happen to have some grown ones. Come and choose,” Jiang Yuxian replied.

Entering the courtyard with Jiang Yuxian, Jiang Liyun saw a simple shed crowded with around a hundred white-feathered chickens of various sizes, ready for sale. She picked a plump and lively-looking chicken, asking Jiang Yuxian to weigh it.

“It’s a bit over four pounds, three yuan,” Jiang Yuxian said, using straw to tie the chicken’s legs and weighing it.

Jiang Liyun paid with a banknote and carried the chicken home. Upon arriving, she found Jiang Lamei sun-drying mulberry leaves.

Every household here has mulberry trees for silkworms. Despite their small space and insufficient manpower, Jiang Lamei doesn’t raise silkworms. Instead, Jiang Lamei picks and sells mulberry leaves to those who do, earning a few coins per piece. In this season, if the leaves aren’t sold, Jiang Lamei sun-dries them.

Mulberry leaves are considered medicinal and are bought by others who only purchase dried leaves, referred to as “selling dried leaves” locally. They also don’t waste orange peels; after eating oranges, they sun-dry the peels to sell as dried tangerine peels.

“Liyun, did you buy a chicken?” Jiang Lamei asked.

“Sure, I feel like having chicken,” Jiang Liyun said. “Dad, I’ll boil water, and you can slaughter the chicken.”

Jiang Lamei felt it might be inappropriate to have chicken again for dinner after having meat at lunch. “Today?”

“Yes,” Jiang Liyun replied.

Jiang Lamei hesitated but didn’t say anything, then proceeded to slaughter the chicken.

Jiang Liyun wasn’t surprised by this; her father felt he was a burden due to his disability and refrained from strict discipline. Her mother, being unwell, relied on her children to earn money for medical expenses, making her unable to be stern in front of them.

It had been a while since Jiang Liyun slaughtered a chicken, so she let her father handle it while she boiled some water. After slaughtering, they needed to soak the chicken in hot water for plucking.

They usually cooked chicken by boiling it, making chicken soup for Wu Xiaochun and Jiang Liyu.

However, chicken soup isn’t particularly nutritious, especially with the white-feathered chicken raised within two months. Jiang Liyun chopped the chicken and braised it in a pot. They had homemade soy sauce, a bit less refined compared to the variety available later, giving the braised chicken a slightly dark colour.

Despite the colour, it smelled delicious—after all, it was meat.

Jiang Lamei and Wu Xiaochun couldn’t resist the tempting aroma. Jiang Liyun, on the other hand, focused on her cooking and contemplated her plans for the next day.

She also reminisced about her colleagues at the sofa factory. She was going to work tomorrow, but she couldn’t recall all her colleagues at the sofa factory.

In the end, Jiang Liyun divided the braised chicken into four portions for each family member. Wu Xiaochun asked, “Should we save some for your brother?”

“Why should I give him any? I bought the chicken, and he never brings any for us,” Jiang Liyun replied.

While Jiang Lihai did earn more, he exchanged the extra rice from home for meal tickets at the factory without doing any farming, contributing less to the family.

Hearing Jiang Liyun’s words, Wu Xiaochun chose not to insist. A quarter of a chicken was actually quite little, but Jiang Liyun thought she could finish it in one meal. Nevertheless, she saved a chicken leg from her portion, intending to give it to Feng Yi, who was really too thin.