Chapter 14

In the alley, people were furtively taking out surplus agricultural and sideline products from their homes, along with idle second-hand goods, to sell or barter. Here, there was no need for ration tickets to buy anything—some urgently offloaded items were even cheaper than market prices.

If it weren’t for the pressing matter at hand, Fan Hua really wanted to go on a shopping spree. This kind of free market without the need for tickets—she truly missed it!

Geng Ailing was also stunned. She didn’t expect the people here to be so bold. “Lihua, I feel uneasy. What should I do?”

“What’s there to feel uneasy about? Come on, let’s find a place to rest while we wait for your cousin’s shop to open.” With that, she pulled Geng Ailing behind two vegetable baskets to hide.

As luck would have it, they hadn’t crouched there long before they saw Geng Ailing’s cousin smiling as she saw a middle-aged man out of the yard. Before the man left, he even took advantage of the moment, his eyes full of lechery…

Geng Ailing’s face went pale instantly—this really was her cousin!

As soon as the man left, her cousin’s expression immediately darkened, and she even rolled her eyes before slamming the door shut.

“Ailing-jie, now do you believe me? They say it’s a barbershop, but in reality, it’s…”

Geng Ailing quickly covered Fan Hua’s mouth. “Lihua, let’s just go!”

Seeing Geng Ailing looking so disheartened, Fan Hua didn’t say anything more. She held her hand and led her out of the alley.

Suddenly, Fan Hua stopped in her tracks, her eyes landing on a second-hand sewing machine.

“Excuse me, how much is this sewing machine?” she asked.

“One hundred yuan,” the man behind the sewing machine replied.

Fan Hua pulled Geng Ailing closer to take a look. It was a Butterfly brand, and in very good condition. She wasn’t sure how it worked, though.

Seeing her interest, the man quickly said with enthusiasm, “Comrade, I’ve got a piece of scrap cloth here—you can test it out. To be honest, I only bought this sewing machine four years ago. My wife has always taken great care of it. If it weren’t for needing money urgently to treat her illness, I wouldn’t even think of selling it.”

Fan Hua took the cloth from him and stepped on the pedal a few times. Sure enough, the machine worked great.

“I’ll take it for eighty yuan. Is that okay?” she asked.

Geng Ailing tugged on Fan Hua’s sleeve and whispered, “Lihua, are you really going to buy it? Do you even have that much money?”

Fan Hua gently patted her hand and gave her a reassuring look.

The man hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth. “Alright, you seem sincere about buying it—eighty it is!”

“Can you help push it to our home? I’ll give you an extra yuan for the trouble. We live over on Wusi Road.”

The man nodded immediately. “No problem, I can take it over right now.”

Fan Hua pulled out a ten-yuan note and handed it to him. “I didn’t bring that much money with me today. Here’s ten now—once we get to my place, I’ll give you the rest.”

The man didn’t object and pushed the sewing machine home with them.

Fan Hua felt that taking Geng Ailing to visit her cousin today had turned out to be a stroke of luck. She’d been fretting about where to find an affordable sewing machine, and here she’d stumbled upon a second-hand one at half the market price—such a steal!

After settling the payment, Geng Cuihua (Geng Ailing’s full name) looked at the sewing machine now sitting in their living room in a bit of a daze. “Lihua, tell me honestly—how much money did you sneak out from home?”

“Just two hundred. Between yesterday and today, there’s not much left. Ailing-jie, we need to start figuring out how to earn money soon!”

Geng Ailing, however, was fixated on the fact that Fan Hua had taken two hundred yuan from home. At that time, a typical rural household’s total savings would only amount to two or three hundred yuan. On this trip, she had brought all the money Li Dazhu had left her—just over 130 yuan, including 30 yuan her cousin had sent ahead for travel expenses.

“Lihua, how could you take that much from home? Is there even any money left now?”

Fan Hua gave a dry laugh—one lie always leads to more lies. “Don’t worry, there’s still some left.”

Geng Ailing remained skeptical. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, unwrapped it, and took out 40.5 yuan. “Lihua, this is for the sewing machine. Take it—we’ll split the cost.”

Fan Hua pushed the money back. “Ailing-jie, I wanted this sewing machine for myself. You don’t need to pay. Otherwise, how will we divide things later? Let’s just use this one together for now. When we’ve earned more, we’ll buy another for you.”

“You’re really generous with money, huh? Don’t forget you already spent over thirty yuan yesterday on a mattress and light quilt. Good thing the weather’s warm here—we can get by with palm fiber mats and don’t need thick quilts, saved a bunch of cotton that way. Otherwise, you’d have blown all your money already!”

Fan Hua hadn’t expected Geng Ailing to keep such a detailed mental account. She was used to spending freely and had never worried about money before. She hadn’t thought much of her spending this time either, believing it was all worthwhile as a necessary upfront investment.

But Geng Ailing’s words reminded her that the cloth tickets Zheng Zening gave her yesterday had all been used to make bedsheets and quilt covers. Thankfully, Geng Ailing had brought a small mattress and sheet from home, or those tickets wouldn’t have been nearly enough.

“Ailing-jie, do you still have any cloth tickets?” She was desperate to start sewing clothes.

“I have three 2-shi chi tickets left—barely enough for one woman’s outfit,” Geng Ailing replied honestly.

“Then never mind. This afternoon, let’s go browse the department store and see how much ready-made clothes cost and what styles are popular here.”

Fan Hua sighed—there was just too much of a shortage of cloth tickets. She didn’t even have the heart to ask Geng Ailing for her last two. She’d better try her luck at the black market later.

“Alright, you rest for a bit—I’ll go make some porridge,” Geng Ailing said, heading to the kitchen.

Fan Hua sat in front of the sewing machine, resting her chin in her hands, fretting about how to make money sewing clothes. Suddenly, an idea struck her…

After lunch, the two headed out again—this time to the most bustling department store in Yangcheng.

Geng Ailing, staring up at the grand building, felt like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden. She didn’t even know how to walk properly. She quickly straightened her clothes and hair, then followed Fan Hua inside, filled with admiration at how calm and composed Fan Hua seemed.

She leaned closer and whispered, “Lihua, don’t you feel out of place here? How are you so calm?”

Fan Hua took her hand and smiled. “Don’t be nervous. We’re not here to steal anything. If we can afford it, we buy it. If not, we just look—it’s not a crime! Take it as a learning experience!”