Chapter 4: Money and Tickets, Please

Over 200 jin (100 kg) of Jiang Manman hurled herself straight at Jiang Mingtang.

Even though he was a full-grown man, he was still knocked backwards, stumbling and losing his balance, ultimately falling to the ground.

He landed on his butt, a sharp pain shooting up from his tailbone.

Right after, Jiang Manman collapsed on top of him. When he twisted his waist to adjust, a bolt of pain made him grimace in agony.

“Ah! You damn girl, are you crazy?!”

When Jiang Manman climbed off him, she deliberately pressed her leg twice against his waist.

“Yes, I am crazy!
You people drove me to it!
I’m a martyr’s orphan, and yet you treat me like this? I’m going to report you!”

The ruckus between this father and daughter caught the attention of the hospital crowd, who all looked on in astonishment.

Jiang Mingtang clutched his lower back and stood up, hissing from the pain.

“With that figure of yours, you’re seriously accusing me of mistreatment? Do you even hear yourself?

All the best cloth in the house was used to make your clothes. Look at you—dressed well, eating well. Otherwise, how’d you get this fat?”

Fine, Jiang Manman had expected this. She knew he was waiting to say exactly that!

And sure, he wasn’t wrong about the superficial things. She couldn’t argue with that.

The hospital staff were all giving her strange looks—what kind of girl could eat herself this fat in times like these?

“Even so, you still stole my job and sabotaged my marriage!

New stepmother, new stepfather—figures!

I got this fat because I was eating with the 1,000-plus yuan of pension money my real mom left me.

It’s my mom’s money—why can’t I eat and wear clothes with it?

Enough talk. Since you’ve already signed me up to go to the countryside, then give me my 1,000 yuan.

Otherwise, I’ll report you.”

If the abuse angle wouldn’t stick, she’d switch tactics and report him for something else.

Jiang Mingtang, still clutching his back, stood up, thoroughly annoyed.

He thought he was living righteously and had nothing to hide from this brat.

“What do you need that much money for? You’re going to the countryside to help build the country, not to enjoy life.

A couple of unity bills should be enough. You look fine now, so get discharged and go home already.”

As a squad leader—a small-time official—he was already humiliated enough as it was.

Jiang Manman patted the dust off her clothes. Fine, go home it is.

Since Jiang Mingtang had shown up, he clearly hadn’t gone back home yet.

There was still a surprise waiting for him there!

Just as the two were about to leave, a doctor in a white coat approached them.

“Good thing you haven’t left yet. We just found traces of a drug in her blood sample.

This drug causes unconsciousness. Comrade, do you remember eating anything unusual or experiencing anything strange before this?”

Jiang Manman shook her head.

“I don’t know. I ate dinner, went to bed, and next thing I knew, I woke up on the street.”

She finished, her eyes sparkling as she took a step forward and looked at the middle-aged doctor.

“Doctor, could that drug be what made me this fat?”

The doctor shook his head and replied bluntly:

“No, you’re fat because your body has excessive nutrition and energy intake.

The drug in your system only causes unconsciousness.”

Jiang Manman: “…”

“You just said the drug made me pass out—so how would I know what happened?”

The doctor realized she had a point.

“Do you want us to report this to the Public Security Bureau?”

Before Jiang Manman could reply, Jiang Mingtang waved it off.

“No need.”

Jiang Manman wasn’t having it.

“What do you mean no need?! I was drugged and dumped on the street. It was definitely Zhang Cuifen—I’m going to report her!”

Jiang Mingtang’s brows furrowed deeply.

Zhang Cuifen had been right—this girl was nothing but trouble.

“She’s treated you so well over the years, and this is how you repay her?”

“Don’t insult dogs. No wait—don’t insult the word ‘kindness.’

Ugh, let’s just go home already!”

She was way too eager to see the look on Jiang Mingtang’s face once they got home.

Seeing her take the lead, Jiang Mingtang followed behind with a grim expression.

Once outside the hospital, she naturally rode on the back of Jiang Mingtang’s bicycle. When she got on, the bike sagged under her weight.

Jiang Mingtang gave her a long, silent look.

“You eat more than you work, put on a whole body of fat, and still have the nerve to say we mistreat you? You really have no conscience at all.”

Jiang Manman rolled her eyes and replied with just two words.

“Heh heh.”

When they got to the door, the house wasn’t even locked. Jiang Manman jumped off the backseat.

Jiang Mingtang pushed the bicycle inside and immediately noticed something was off—the yard felt eerily empty.

It was like a lot of things had vanished.

He propped the bike up and walked into the house. The moment he opened the door, he froze in place.

Inside, aside from the kang (heatable brick bed), there was absolutely nothing. Even the plaster on the walls had been stripped.

“I’m starving. I’ll go make something to eat.”

Jiang Manman said it on purpose. She turned away with a smile dancing in her eyes.

At the kitchen door, she pushed it open and then, with a deep breath from her core, let out a dramatic scream:

“Ahhh! We’ve been robbed!
Dad, come quick! The kitchen’s been emptied out!”

The shout snapped Jiang Mingtang out of his daze, and he ran to the kitchen.

The kitchen had nothing but the stove frame—no firewood, no pots, absolutely nothing.

He rushed to the other rooms, opening doors—every single one was the same: completely bare.

Jiang Mingtang was completely dumbfounded.

Jiang Manman quickly hid her smirk.

“Didn’t you say Zhang Cuifen was a good woman?

Looks like she cleaned out the whole house and ran off with everything.

I’m starving. I’m going to eat at the state-run restaurant. Give me money and ration tickets.”

“Are you seriously thinking about eating right now? After all this?! Where do I even get money?!”

Jiang Manman rolled her eyes again, fully channeling her original self’s outrageous persona.

“What’s this got to do with me?

I’m heading to the countryside tomorrow anyway. Ugh, don’t tell me all the money’s gone?

Do you have any cash on you?

Any tickets?

Oh right—what about the job my mom left me? I need to go check on that.

She didn’t sell it too, did she?

You should probably stop by the Public Security Bureau or maybe the neighborhood committee to ask around.”

Seeing he had no intention of handing over money, Jiang Manman took matters into her own hands. She reached into his pocket and pulled out two unity bills and two ration tickets, then turned and left.

She really did plan to head to the state-run restaurant—to check if the subsidized job assigned to her was still available.

If it was, she’d sell it today.

If it wasn’t, she’d kick up a fuss.

She rode off on Jiang Mingtang’s bicycle. The Jiang family owned two bikes—considered middle-upper class in Beijing.

This was old Beijing, after all!

She biked to the state-run restaurant, where the waitress Lin Cuifen shot her a glare.

“You again?

Don’t tell me you actually plan to start working here. With the way you look, you’ll scare off our customers!

If you ask me, just sell that job slot for money.

Then you can buy whatever food you want. Isn’t that way better?”

Jiang Manman remembered this girl—she’d tried several times to convince her original self to sell the job slot.

Her goal was to get her sister-in-law in. But over the years, job quotas had gotten tighter and tighter.

Now she was eyeing Jiang Manman’s spot.

“You know, what you’re saying kind of makes sense. But the salary here is really good, and there’s always good food.

I’m not really sure I want to sell.
If I did sell it, how much would I get?”

Lin Cuifen’s eyes lit up.

“600—six hundred yuan!
Think how much good food you could buy with that!”

Jiang Manman knew that was about the right price.

But last night, she had done an inventory: the Jiang family had about 1,000 yuan saved.

They didn’t have many tickets though—and everything still required ration tickets.

She said, “Alright, I might consider selling it—but I want 600 yuan in tickets.

My stepmother was so good to me, always giving me 20 yuan a month to buy candy. But candy tickets were so scarce…

Can you get me 600 yuan worth of tickets?

All kinds—industrial, sugar, grain, cotton, fabric, bread, pastry, bathhouse.

Coal tickets, meat tickets, women’s sanitary pad tickets, pee tickets—you name it, I want them all.”