Chapter 14: Securing the Supply

The meat buns that Xiaomei brought back were split in half by Grandma. Ten were sent to Grandpa Gu, and ten were kept for their own family to eat.

The cold meat inside was decided by Grandma to be chopped into meat sauce. Tomorrow she would buy some tofu to make tofu stuffed with meat, cooking it a bit salty to see if Grandma-in-law might eat some because of the stronger flavor. There was also some meat left, which she planned to wash with flour to get some gluten dough, then wrap the meat and cook soup — very tasty. She hoped Grandma-in-law would drink some soup to help with her appetite.

The steamed buns were soft and sweet, with a big lump of fresh salty meat inside, making Xiaomei and her little brother very satisfied. Afraid that leftovers would spoil overnight, the last two buns were taken by their mother to give to their uncle’s family — cousins.

After dinner, the siblings tried on their new clothes, all made of cotton, very comfortable and well-fitting. The brother and sister looked so nice, they immediately became happy.

But there was bad news — it seemed the educated youth uncles all said that dolantin (a medicine) was hard to get.

At night, Grandma and parents went to visit Grandma-in-law, telling Xiaomei and Xiaohua to close the door well and go to sleep.

When Grandma and the others returned, they found Xiaohua fast asleep, but Xiaomei was sitting on the bed with wide-open eyes staring blankly, which scared Granny Wang.

Xiaomei’s eyes were already big, but now she kept them open without blinking, just staring at Grandma, very creepy.

“Dear child, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Grandma, I want to go see Aunt Zhou tomorrow to see if she can get dolantin,” Xiaomei said, her tone not leaving room for refusal.

Grandma Wang sighed, “Even if you hadn’t said, I was going to tell you. Just now you didn’t see how painful your Grandma-in-law was — no one who saw her didn’t shed tears.

Tomorrow, try to find a way to get someone to buy it for us.

Catch two chickens for Aunt Zhou, tell her one is a gift and one to sell for us. Don’t charge 300 yuan, just 250 yuan, and use that money to buy dolantin.”

Seeing Xiaomei tearfully smiling, Grandma Wang hugged her granddaughter, “From what you say, it’s so developed over there. Ask Aunt Zhou if there are any medicines or injections that can cure your Grandma-in-law’s illness. Tell her not to worry about the money. Grandma will try to get the money tomorrow, I will definitely manage.”

“And Grandma still owes money to the hospital. I also want to help pay it off for Uncle’s family. I don’t want Grandma-in-law to be chased by debt collectors like this,” Xiaomei sobbed.

Grandma Wang, heart aching, hugged Xiaomei, “My dear granddaughter, why are you so lovable and dear? Your Grandma-in-law’s pain will not be in vain. But when you go there, Grandma’s heart won’t be settled; I won’t be able to focus on anything.”

“It’s okay, as long as Jinhua doesn’t come to pluck the rose bushes, everything will be fine.”

“Pah, pah, pah, she already got two better rose bushes again. I’ve told her Grandma clearly, and I’ve locked the back door. When you go there, I’ll stay right next to the roses, and if anyone dares to harm them, I’ll deal with them myself,” Grandma Wang said fiercely.

“Grandma, you’re the best.” Xiaomei hugged Grandma and slowly fell asleep.

Grandma Wang reluctantly stroked her granddaughter’s face, covered her with a quilt, then got up and put on her shoes.

She quietly went to the living room, gently opened the door, slipped outside, then closed and locked it behind her.

At home, Gu Hua’e and the Xiaomei siblings were all sound asleep. Wang Peigen hadn’t come home yet.

Grandma Wang walked forward in the dark. There were two families east of her home; she went to the one closest to the east and knocked on the window.

“Navy’s mom, are you asleep?”

“Is that Aunt Wang? I’m about to sleep, wait a moment, I’ll come open the door,” came Navy mom’s voice from inside.

Soon, a woman in her forties opened the door and led Grandma Wang inside.

It was late; Grandma Wang didn’t waste time and went straight to the point:

“Navy’s mom, my Xiaomei’s Grandma-in-law’s illness isn’t getting better. I want to buy some nutritional supplements for her, to maintain the relationship between our two families.

I’m planning to sell some chickens in Su City soon and then buy some supplements. But we only have five chickens at home. Do you have some hens that can lay eggs soon? I want to buy a few, so when our home chickens are sold, we can quickly replace them.”

“You can’t hide anything from me,” Navy mom laughed, “We don’t have many chickens, but various sizes, and eggs too. Auntie, whatever you need, just ask.”

“That’s good. You know, those educated youth families there have pretty good conditions. Maybe they’ll ask me to buy for them later,” Grandma Wang revealed a little, meaning in the future her granddaughter would have a steady supply for selling chickens and eggs.

She took out two yuan: “Here’s two yuan as a deposit. Tomorrow give me two hens, preferably ones that will lay eggs soon, and prepare 20 eggs. How much is that in total?”

“Eggs are 5 fen each. We’re neighbors; usually, if you give me a fertile egg, I’ll hatch chicks for you for free. Hens that will lay eggs soon are one yuan each; laying hens are three yuan each. If that works for you, we’ll settle like this in the future. For chicks, it’s two eggs for one chick or one mao for one chick.”

“Okay, thanks a lot,” Grandma Wang nodded. “It’s late, you rest now. I’m leaving.” With that, she hurried out.

Navy dad had a leg injury and originally learned tailoring, but no one came to ask him to sew clothes anymore, so he had to work in the fields. The team arranged for him to guard the dike by the “Beautiful Leg” of Yangcheng Lake.

“Beautiful Leg” is a major scenic spot in Su City in later years. Zhongyuan Temple, Huayi Brothers film base, and others were built there, attracting crowds on holidays.

But now, the “Beautiful Leg” is just a flood control dike. The land is low, and during flood season, water from Yangcheng Lake often backflows into the rice fields. The team organized people to build the dike, and Navy’s dad guards it.

There were some peach trees planted on the dike. The flowers in spring were pretty, but the peaches were not tasty, so few people visited.

Navy’s dad was mostly alone there, and except for Navy’s family, almost no one else came.

In recent years, Navy’s family secretly raised quite a few chickens there.

Buyers ordered through Navy’s mom.

Grandma Wang knew this; she heard from her granddaughter how popular these farm chickens were there, so she got this idea.

There was no other way — only five chickens at home. Buying and selling them was the only way.

Buy hens soon to lay eggs for 1.5 yuan, sell the laying hens at 3 yuan each, and after a few days, the new hens would start laying again.

The price difference is double, so this operation is most profitable.

Of course, she couldn’t tell Navy’s mom it was to sell chickens, so she blamed it on the educated youth.

When Xiaomei woke up, as usual, Grandma wasn’t by her side.

Dolantin was hard to buy; Xiaomei wasn’t in a hurry to go to modern times.

After breakfast, she first helped Grandma run an errand to town to buy some fried tofu.

While Xiaomei was in town, Grandma Wang was busy making dough and preparing gluten.

The Malantou (a kind of vegetable) picked yesterday was sprinkled with some water and left in the yard. After drinking the dew overnight, it looked fresh and tasty.

She also went to the backyard to pick some goji shoots and Chinese toon shoots, packed separately in big bags, looking full.

These were for Zhou Huifang; a rural family with nothing much to offer except seasonal vegetables.

Grandma Wang could read, so she wrote a letter to Zhou Huifang, but the letter had a lot of traditional Chinese characters.

The letter basically expressed thanks for caring for her granddaughter, explained their big difficulty, and hoped Zhou could help buy dolantin. If she couldn’t help, no pressure — the thought counted, and the Wang family would still be grateful.

At the end was a phrase: “Amitabha.”