Chapter 54

Su Ye’s lips were swollen, and Gu Xiangqian’s lips were also bruised. Anyone with a keen eye could tell what had happened.

At this time, the atmosphere still leaned toward conservatism, and even married couples couldn’t be intimate in public. Su Ye took out the lipstick Fang Xiulian had given her and used it to cover the swelling on her lips. Gu Xiangqian washed his face at the sink. Without saying a word, they both silently returned home, one ahead and one behind.

Su Ye arrived home first. She found that Yao Chunyu and a few others were waiting at her doorstep. When Yao Chunyu saw her, she greeted her warmly, “Comrade Su, you’re finally back.”

“I heard you have some tea, I’d like to buy some.”

Su Ye opened the door and invited Yao Chunyu and the others inside.

Before long, Gu Xiangqian returned. In his left hand, he was holding an old hen, and in his right hand, he carried a bag of mountain goods, as if he had just come back from the market. He slowly took out some ^[1]“Huai yam” (淮山) refers to a type of yam that is native to the Huai River region in China. It is also known as Chinese yam or water yam (Dioscorea opposita) in English.huai yam and red dates from the bag.

Su Ye took out a box of tea, but it didn’t catch anyone’s attention.

All three pairs of eyes were immediately fixed on the old hen in Gu Xiangqian’s hand and couldn’t look away for a long time. Even Yao Chunyu couldn’t help but wonder where Gu Xiangqian had bought the chicken.

The store hadn’t sold chicken in a long time, and whenever news of meat supplies came, citizens would line up at dawn, each household only able to buy a pound. To buy a whole chicken, one would have to go to the countryside, and the price wouldn’t be much cheaper. On the black market, it was an unimaginably high price.

Yao Chunyu had money, but she would never consider such an extravagant purchase.

One of the sisters-in-law joked, “This hen is really fat. Where did you get it, Comrade Gu?”

Gu Xiangqian was about to speak, but Su Ye smiled and said, “Where can you buy chicken at this time of the year? It was given to us by a few fellow villagers.”

Gu Xiangqian mistakenly thought Su Ye wanted to handle it quietly and eat the meat in private, so he didn’t correct her.

He had killed a wild boar, and when people in the army saw him, they couldn’t help but tease him. Su Ye was always catching fish, picking up rabbits, wild boars, and wild chickens. If she didn’t keep a low profile, she would never be able to live peacefully in this life.

“Given by the villagers,” Gu Xiangqian said lightly, picking up the hen and heading to the kitchen to prepare it, not giving any sign of entertaining guests.

The other three people, however, understood this sentence in a completely different way!

Buying things from the black market wasn’t something shameful, but the couple seemed like they were trying to hide it. One of the sisters-in-law secretly thought Su Ye was stingy, not even willing to share such news. This hen was definitely bought from the black market by Gu Xiangqian!

How much money would a fat hen like this cost? The two sisters-in-law, while envious, couldn’t help but feel heartache for that amount of money.

Yao Chunyu’s gaze scanned the room. She saw a bag of wheat flour on the floor, three unopened bundles of noodles hanging on the wall, a wardrobe with large red double happiness symbols still on it, and scattered colorful fruit candies on the table. These high-end snacks seemed to be treated carelessly, left casually here and there.

In a deep corner, there were also cans of malted milk, imported milk powder, and clean leather shoes. These were undoubtedly things for Su Ye to eat and use.

Yao Chunyu was gravely mistaken.

Gu Xiangqian lived a simple and frugal life. Apart from the malted milk and eggs, which were comfort supplies from the military, most of the other things were provided by Su Ye. She had a habit of stocking up on food, and fortunately, Gu Xiangqian had already handed his salary card to Su Ye. Combined, their salaries were quite substantial. Although Su Ye spent freely, he had never voiced any objections.

Su Ye brewed a pot of tea and offered it to them. She believed in making the most of business opportunities, remembering that the original female lead had a large sum of money.

The tea Su Ye poured was sweet and refreshing, with an aftertaste that lingered and left a fragrant taste on the palate. But the group’s attention was almost entirely on Gu Xiangqian in the kitchen, who was busy plucking and preparing the chicken.

It seemed that the chicken was the real star of the day. No matter how good the tea, it couldn’t compete with the allure of the chicken. For those with empty stomachs, the tempting sight of fatty meat was irresistible.

Gu Xiangqian asked Su Ye, “Do you want the chicken’s butt? I don’t eat it.”

Su Ye shook her head, neither did she eat it. Without a second thought, Gu Xiangqian tossed the piece of meat into the trash.

In the month that Gu Xiangqian had been on vacation, he had not made any major progress elsewhere, but his cooking skills had improved remarkably.

Soon, the kitchen was filled with the sound of boiling water and the fragrance of chicken soup. Gu Xiangqian used half of the chicken to make soup and the other half to stew with chestnuts. He patiently peeled the chestnuts and chopped the chicken into small pieces, using wine to remove the gamey smell, expertly preparing a dish of chestnut-braised chicken.

After a seamless series of actions, the entire fat hen was used up. If it had been anyone else’s family, they might have felt a pang of heartache for wasting such meat.

But not for Gu Xiangqian. First, because the chicken was a freebie, and second, because the weather was hot, and without a refrigerator to preserve the meat, it would spoil by tomorrow if not cooked.

As for Su Ye, she didn’t feel the slightest heartache. The hen was the result of her own hard work. She didn’t steal, didn’t rob, and didn’t spend other people’s money to buy it. She worked hard and earned the right to eat that meat. How could she feel sorry for others not getting any meat and lower herself to share the same food standard?

This scene made the women feel a mixture of emotions—envy, surprise, heartache, and jealousy—all swirling in their eyes…

It was as if they were all reading the same script from the famine era. They were tightening their belts to live through tough times, but when they looked back, they saw that some people not only had malted milk to drink but also fat hens to eat, and fruit candies that they would eat and throw away without a second thought. Could they still maintain their calm in the face of such disparity?

Yao Chunyu smelled the food’s aroma and saw Gu Xiangqian busy in the kitchen. She couldn’t help but imagine that if she had not gone to the Soviet Union and paid more attention to Gu Xiangqian back then, maybe she would have been the one to marry him. All of this—milk powder, candy, snacks—he would have bought for her. She wouldn’t have had to go to the countryside and endure ten years of hardship, wasting the most precious years of her youth.

Instead, he married an ordinary woman.

Yao Chunyu had never known that Gu Xiangqian was such a man who doted on his wife. In her memory, he had always been cold and aloof, rarely smiling, and it was stressful to be around him. Who would have thought that he would be completely different in private?

She glanced at Su Ye, who was efficiently counting money, her lips lightly pursed and painted with bright red lipstick, looking like a typical businesswoman.

People who aren’t right for each other will always part ways, whether it happens early or late, it doesn’t make a difference. Yao Chunyu’s gaze lingered on the tea box that Su Ye had handed over, a hint of contemplation flashing in her eyes.

After finishing the pot of tea, Yao Chunyu took out six yuan and bought a box of tea leaves.

Su Ye had thought she would make some money off the original female lead, but she didn’t expect her to be so cautious. She had a large sum of money but only bought a single box of tea leaves, making Su Ye’s effort in brewing the tea a waste.

Su Ye smiled and said, “Sisters, Comrade Yao, I’m sorry, but we need to have dinner, so I won’t keep you any longer.”

The two sisters-in-law finally snapped out of their daze, standing up to bid farewell to Su Ye.

As they walked down the building’s stairs, one of the sisters-in-law eyed the tea box Yao Chunyu was holding and felt a sense of discomfort. “No wonder she’s selling tea leaves. With a whole chicken for one meal, how could she afford such expenses without making money?”

Yao Chunyu shook her head, “Don’t make assumptions about her. Didn’t the chicken come from the villagers?”

The other two women slowly began to entertain a thought—although the chicken was a gift, surely the milk powder, eggs, malted milk, and candies weren’t free, right?

Yao Chunyu couldn’t help shaking her head and said, “Good thing we came today, or we wouldn’t have had such good tea. Six yuan for a box of tea leaves is really worth it.”

She guessed that Su Ye was buying large quantities of tea from local farmers and reselling them for a profit.

Although the system in the 1960s was still somewhat ambiguous and not as strictly enforced as later, if you calculated the time, the first person to be executed for speculation was about to be executed, and soon, the practice of buying and selling goods for profit would come under heavy scrutiny. The good days for speculators were about to end.

Once the profits from reselling reached a certain level, it would be considered illegal profiteering. How could Su Ye, who was in business, not be making money? Selling a box of tea for six yuan—she must be counting the bills until her hands are cramped.

Yao Chunyu didn’t know what method Gu Xiangqian had used to keep her, but if this matter blew up, the two of them could just divorce and move on.

However, all the above assumptions were based on the premise that Su Ye was making huge profits.

Yao Chunyu likely couldn’t have guessed even if she tried, that there was an odd case where someone didn’t take a single penny, but instead threw themselves wholeheartedly into serving the people! Not only did Su Ye not take any money, but she also paid out of her own pocket for several kilograms of pork, Gu Xiangqian’s cigarette coupons, and cigarette money.

What a truly moving spirit!