Chapter 48 Gu Yue Lin: I Just Want to Make the Contract Marriage Official

Gu Yue Lin tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

How exactly could a contract marriage become a formal one?

The next day, Lu Lan didn’t go to work but followed Feng Mian to the county town to sell nylon stockings.

At first, she was a bit nervous, but seeing how busy the business was, she relaxed.

Her bag of goods sold out only about ten minutes later than Feng Mian’s.

Lu Lan hugged her woven bag tightly, because inside was a money pouch—full of money from selling stockings, more than ten yuan.

“All the money’s here, let’s go back quickly and count it slowly.”

She thought that with money on her, she couldn’t just wander around outside.

But Feng Mian wasn’t worried and said, “Not yet, I need to go to the post office first.”

“Huh? Why the post office?”

“Gu Yue Lin’s sister wrote him a letter. We don’t know when it will arrive, so I check every time we come to the market.”

“What? He has a sister?”

“I heard she’s a cousin, probably on his mother’s side.”

The two of them chatted as they walked to the post office.

Lu Lan had never seen so much money in her life. She hugged the woven bag tightly, eyes darting around nervously, afraid someone might try to steal it.

Feng Mian was a little speechless. To those who didn’t know, Lu Lan looked like she was hiding stolen goods.

“Relax. Look, people are watching us.”

“Huh? Who? Who’s watching us?”

Feng Mian smiled and whispered, “Lan Jie, this is just a little over ten yuan. Didn’t you say you wanted to do big business? What will you do when you have thousands or tens of thousands of yuan on you?”

Hearing that, Lu Lan nearly gasped.

She lowered her voice and said to Feng Mian, “If I really had that much money, I’d bring my gun whenever I go out.”

At this time, guns weren’t banned yet. Many households had them, especially in rural areas with lots of bandits and robbers.

What she knew was that in the 1990s, two villages had a conflict during a tomb-sweeping festival. Forget rifles, grenades, or machine guns—rumor had it they even brought out more than a dozen homemade cannons and bombarded each other. The impact was serious, so the authorities decided to handle it and later issued the gun control law.

Lu Lan’s family also had guns. Feng Feng was skilled with them and participated in relatively professional militia training every year.

Speaking of which, Feng Mian also remembered that militia training was about to start again this year. Some young men would participate, and given Gu Yue Lin’s situation, the squad leader would probably want him to join.

But Feng Mian and Gu Yue Lin didn’t have guns.

They’d have to get one soon.

While they talked, they arrived at the post office. Feng Mian spent five cents to buy a newspaper as usual, and asked about the letters.

“Gu Yue Lin from Fengjia Village? There’s a letter for him.”

Feng Mian breathed a sigh of relief — this time she didn’t miss it.

“Comrade, thank you.” Feng Mian took the letter.

“No problem, could you do me another favor?”

“What favor? Tell me.”

“I also have a letter here for your village, for someone named Feng Mian.”

Feng Mian’s eyes lit up, guessing whose letter it was.

“That’s me, Feng Mian.”

“Huh? You’re Feng Mian?”

“Yes, yes, that’s me.”

Lu Lan beside her said, “Right, she’s Feng Mian.”

“Good then, I’ll give you the letters together.”

“Thanks, comrade.”

The two hurriedly left the post office with the letters.

Lu Lan smiled and asked, “Who wrote you a letter?”

Feng Mian looked at the envelope and immediately knew.

She smiled at Lu Lan, “Our dream of becoming big bosses has moved forward again. Remember last time when I told you I wrote to the authorities about opening a shop?”

Lu Lan nodded eagerly.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Feng Mian raised the letter in her hand and smiled, “This is the letter they sent me.”

“Wow, really? Mianmian, hurry, open it and see if they agreed to let you open the shop.”

Feng Mian quickly tore open the letter.

Lu Lan also leaned over to look, but she didn’t know many characters and found it hard to read.

“Mianmian, what does it say? People something? What are the last two characters?”

“People’s masses,” Feng Mian said.

“The general meaning is that the higher-ups know that the people are living with difficulties, and they’re also working hard. They asked me to wait a little longer—they’re trying their best. I believe the policy will come out soon, and when it does, they’ll write me again.”

Feng Mian felt confident and smiled, “Once the policy comes out, I want to be one of the first to open a shop.”

“That’s great, really great. Selling like this we can make money, but it still feels uneasy.”

Feng Mian had already achieved her goal and was in a good mood.

That evening they cooked a fish to eat and made some mushroom soup.

Today at the market, she sold 15 yuan worth, Lu Lan sold 13 yuan, and Feng Mian gave her 13 yuan back, repaid Rongrong’s tuition fee, and took three yuan for herself.

Feng Mian still had 27 yuan left.

All together, she now had over two thousand yuan in cash.

Gu Yue Lin sat again on the bed, watching the shadow behind the curtain. Today after she finished patting her face, she hadn’t blown out the lamp yet and seemed to be counting money.

Humming a song he didn’t recognize, she counted the money. It looked like she made some good earnings and was in a pretty good mood.

He also lit a candle, took out the letter from his cousin, and read it again.

His cousin was doing well abroad and had sent him five thousand yuan, in foreign currency (M yuan).

He still had to get a bunch of certifications and take the household registration booklet to the big city to collect it.

Only a big city like Haicheng would accept it.

“Sigh!” Gu Yue Lin sighed deeply.

The silence of the night made it especially clear.

Feng Mian stopped counting the money and turned her head to ask, “Why the sigh?”

Gu Yue Lin tightened his grip on the letter, staring longingly at the curtain.

Maybe he should take this chance… go inside the curtain?

“I want to talk to you. Can I go inside?”

Feng Mian was wrapped in the quilt on the bed. She didn’t want to get off, so she agreed.

“Okay.”

Gu Yue Lin was delighted and quickly got off the bed, blew out the candle by the bedside, and took the letter to lift the curtain.

“This is the technique. My cousin sent me a letter and some money. We can’t get it in this small place.”

He handed the letter to Feng Mian.

Seeing him standing awkwardly by the bed, Feng Mian scooted over to the side and gestured for him to sit down.

Gu Yue Lin, excited but cautious, carefully sat down.

He was finally sitting on her bed.

His heart raced fast, and he felt a little uneasy.

Feng Mian soon finished reading the letter and looked surprised. His cousin was actually abroad in M country.

“This is foreign currency? Where do you collect it?”

“You have to go to the Haicheng embassy for certification. The village must also issue certification, then take our household booklet to the bank to exchange it.”

Sounds really troublesome.

But it was five thousand nice yuan — worth tens of thousands, right?

Wow…

“You’re a ten-thousand-yuan wealthy person overnight?”

“Ten thousand?” Gu Yue Lin said, “No way, it can be exchanged for a little over seven thousand yuan.”

What? Only a bit over seven thousand?

Feng Mian really couldn’t remember, but it seemed he was telling the truth.

Not sure if it’s a problem with this exchange world or if the soft currency of this time is just that valuable.

“Well, that’s still rich. Add my two thousand plus the more than one thousand you haven’t taken out yet — we’re ten-thousand-yuan rich people now.”