Chapter 7: Buying Scrap Iron

Wen San from the city cut his niece’s hair short, which quickly became known to the villagers. However, no one criticized her. It’s brave for a girl who isn’t even 20 years old to be willing to take care of two children.

The warmth of the countryside often appears at such times, with food, eggs, and even people delivering meals.

Wen Jiajia also figured out who Fang Baoguo was from the ledger. Fang Baoguo was the captain of the Fuyang Brigade. People in the village always called him “captain,” and Wen Jiajia only knew it was him after asking around.

Fang Baoguo had a good relationship with the Wen family and didn’t accept the money when Wen Jiajia tried to pay him back.

He said, “Your family is having a tougher time now than when you built the house, so I can’t take this money for the time being. That’s what I said when your father wanted to pay me back. He went to the mountains to carry trees every year after winter and saved a sum of money when he was sick from freezing. You have to plan it well and give it to me when times are better.”

Wen Jiajia acknowledged the captain’s kindness. She knew that the money really had to be kept and couldn’t be moved, at least until she had a stable income. The money couldn’t be touched, and if there wasn’t enough food next year, she could use the money to buy some from the team.

This year’s food must be enough to eat, and the Wen family had saved a lot of work in the first half of the year, which now benefited her and her two nieces.

On the day of the burial of several members of the Wen family, many young men in the village came to help with hoes and firewood knives.

Peach Blossom Pass is a good place, with countless peach trees that turn the four hills, including Peach Blossom Pass, pink every spring.

Wen Jiajia suddenly felt that it wasn’t suitable for the Wen family to be buried here, as it might become a scenic spot in many years, and the graves might need to be moved.

Fortunately, after walking a bit further, Wen Jiajia realized they weren’t buried in the wild peach forest but on the wild tea mountain behind it, near the top of the hill.

Backed by green hills and facing into the distance with a wide view, it was a better place than the peach forest.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were carried by the villagers, and the two brothers next door, Chen Qiang and Chen Li, carried them. The brothers were strong and could easily carry a three-year-old child.

The children cried while going up the mountain.

They had to cry when they knelt.

Wen Jiajia, who had a golden finger, really couldn’t cry, so she whimpered in a low voice. When there were no tears, she wiped her eye sockets with her fingers dipped in shallot juice, and the tears flowed again.

By almost noon, it was all over.

This also meant that the Wen family had settled in the ground and had become ancestors, living in the memory of the villagers.

Maybe someone would occasionally think of them and recall the common years with the Wen family.

Wen Chun, who was sensitive that night, sobbed quietly. She seemed to have understood that her relatives would not come back.

Wen Jiajia held her in her arms, gently stroked her back, and comforted her, “Next year, I will take you and sister to Chashan to see the peach blossoms.”

“Next year, will there be an aunt?” She asked anxiously. She was afraid that her aunt would not be there when the peach blossoms bloomed next year.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be here.”

The crying aroused her own sorrow, and Wen Jiajia also missed her own world and hometown.

But in life, you have to look forward.

The next day, Wen Jiajia prepared to go to the county seat.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan went to school. Yes, three-year-olds were already going to school.

Of course, “going to school” here was similar to going to kindergarten. To emancipate women, the commune would take in children between the ages of one and six during the agricultural season, and they would be supervised in a unified manner, located next to the commune department.

This is also the reason why Wen Chun and Wen Xuan sisters didn’t eat poisonous mushrooms, they didn’t go home to eat at noon every day.

This measure was something Wen Jiajia never expected, and it was no different from the nursery schools in the city. It greatly liberated women’s hands and, at this moment, also freed her hands. No wonder the grain yield here ranked among the top in the province; the leaders were efficient.

After breakfast, Wen JiaJia enthusiastically sent the two girls to school.

She stroked their hair one by one and said, “Be obedient today. When my aunt has money, I will make you school bags.”

“School bags?” Wen Xuan’s mouth opened slightly; she didn’t know what a school bag was.

Wen Jiajia thought to herself that she could make them without money. She planned to alter the clothes left by the Wen family to fit Wen Chun and Wen Xuan. Maybe she could even make two school bags for them.

The family was poor, so she gave each of them a piece of brown sugar as a reward for going to kindergarten obediently.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan stared with wide, incredulous eyes. There was even sugar at home!

Of course, there weren’t any at home; this was a gift from the village party secretary’s daughter-in-law, meant to supplement the children’s nutrition.

At this time, brown sugar was a precious gift, considered hard currency for rural gifts, even more valuable than eggs.

So when Wen Jiajia sent them to the school gate, the two girls happily left, savoring the candy in their mouths without looking back.

They hurried to show off, as the candy would melt in their mouths, and they couldn’t wait for their aunt to walk slowly.

Wen Jiajia had no vehicle, relying on her legs to walk to the county seat from morning to noon, which was something she never expected in her life.

The sun was at its peak, the hottest time of the day.

Wen Jiajia sat under a big banyan tree at the corner of the street, humming and panting. She couldn’t understand how she could walk the distance that the original owner could complete in only two and a half hours but took her nearly four hours.

She figured it was probably her soul dragging her feet.

After resting for a while, she went straight to the street where the original owner’s household registration was located to go through the procedures for transferring it.

It was the mother of the original owner’s classmate who helped her with the formalities. Her surname was Mao, and the original owner used to call her Aunt Mao.

Aunt Mao was knitting a sweater and was quite surprised to see Wen Jiajia. “Jiajia? I heard you’re back in the country?”

Wen Jiajia nodded. “Hello, Aunt Mao. I now live in the Fuyang Brigade of the Progress Commune.”

Aunt Mao sighed. “That’s good. It’s a nice place. You’ll live better away from home. Xiao Min also came looking for you. When will you have time to come to my house for a visit?”

Wen Jiajia held back a wry smile and said, “I haven’t been free lately. I’m here to transfer my household registration this time, and the team will have an autumn harvest soon.”

“What? You’re not going to stay in the city?” Aunt Mao was surprised. “The Women’s Federation said there’s a job quota for cleaning the streets, and you can take the factory test first.”

Wen Jiajia was helpless and explained everything that had happened at home in the past few days.

Sure enough, Aunt Mao was so shocked that she put down her sweater, and the two aunts next to her also looked at Wen Jiajia.

“You poor kid… Alas! Don’t be sad. Believe in the country, and believe in the government. No matter what, there is always a way for you to live,” Aunt Mao said after a long silence.

At this time, food was the most important thing. The cleaner job paid only 8 yuan a month, she had nowhere to live in the city, and she had to take care of two children. What could she do?

Aunt Mao wanted to help Wen Jiajia but didn’t know how. Life in the city was not easy these days, and even the months were tight with food rationing.

Wen Jiajia smiled. “Aunt Mao, I know. In the future, you can help me keep an eye out for factory recruitment. I still want to be a worker.”

“Okay! I’ll let you know when there’s a job!” Aunt Mao helped her complete the household registration transfer as quickly as possible. “Take this certificate to the village party secretary in your village. He will submit it to the commune, and your household registration will be transferred.”

Wen Jiajia took the piece of paper and carefully placed it in the inner pocket of her clothes.

She didn’t stay on the street for long, because the original owner’s parents’ house was not far from here, and she was about to get off work, and she was afraid that she would happen to run into the original owner’s parents. The parents of the original owner treated their son as if he were a fragile product, and they had to rush home from the factory to see him at noon every day

Wen Jiajia walked briskly until she was out of the area and felt relieved.

She passed by a store and looked at a few large bones with no flesh.

There was no meat in the butcher shop. You had to come early to queue up to buy meat. It wasn’t too early to come at five o’clock in the morning, and it was considered lucky to get a piece of lean meat by noon.

The Fuyang Brigade was so far from the county seat that Wen Jiajia felt they would have to rely on the pigs raised in the village for meat in the future.

“Uncle, give me two bones,” Wen Jiajia said. There was a shortage of oil and water at home, and the oil tank was almost empty.

“Two? Two for a dime.”

“Okay.” Wen Jiajia took out a dime and asked the butcher to help cut it into several pieces, earning a disapproving look.

Before leaving, she asked, “Uncle, when can you buy pork liver here?”

The original owner used to often queue up to buy meat, so Wen Jiajia knew that bones and internal organs didn’t need tickets. She wanted nutritious pork liver more than bones, but unfortunately, she didn’t see any today.

“If you want pork liver, you have to be early. It’s gone before 10 o’clock. But there is still a pair of large intestines. Want those?” As he spoke, he picked up a string of intestines.

Wen Jiajia shook her head. The large intestine needed spices, but her family didn’t have any.

After buying the pork bones, she didn’t go home. Instead, Wen Jiajia first went to the supply and marketing cooperative.

She found soap and bought one bar and a piece of soap with the two tickets that the original owner had worked so hard to save.

When the original owner was in the city, she secretly did private work and didn’t save much money, but she saved a few tickets.

What was she doing? Folding matchboxes.

Most of the money had been used up by the original owner. She often didn’t have enough to eat at her adoptive parents’ house and needed to find her classmates to buy food at a high price.

A small part of the money was exchanged for tickets. At this time, tickets were more important than money, and the original owner was well aware of this.

The supply and marketing cooperatives had recently put on new goods, and there were a lot of things. Wen Jiajia walked around for more than ten minutes before reluctantly leaving.

She also wanted to buy a flashlight so that it would be more convenient for Wen Chun and Wen Xuan to get up at night to go to the toilet. Unfortunately, the flashlight was too expensive, and she couldn’t afford it with her limited tickets.

She didn’t rush home but turned around and went to the scrapyard.

Yes, she was going to buy scrap.

Wen Jiajia had not forgotten that she still had a golden finger. A countdown panel appeared this morning, indicating that the golden finger would be refreshed by seven o’clock the next morning.

In other words, the synthetic golden finger could be used once every three days. There would be a countdown on the first day, and it would be confirmed tomorrow if it expired.

However, she guessed that it would have to be synthesized in about 24 hours. After all, she had only discovered the golden finger in the evening that day and used it for the first time.

Wen Jiajia was obsessed with a cauldron, so she had to bring a few catties of scrap iron home before going back.