◎ Entering the City ◎ 

Liang Baozhen brought home the wild hare that she had found by luck. Her family set up a few stones and enjoyed the roasted hare. They had a great feast, but the Dong family next door was not at peace. 

Outside the house, the father’s curses and the mother’s pleas continued. Meanwhile, Dong Jiayan, who had threatened to break off the engagement that day, was bent over a desk, writing something on a piece of paper and some numbers appeared on it: 

1977, College Entrance Examination 

1978, Reform and Opening-up 

*** 

Dong Jiayan was reborn in 1988. She was of similar age and appearance to her neighbor, Liang Baozhen, but she always felt inferior. Both women eventually married and moved to the city, but their fates turned out very differently. 

Liang Baozhen married into the Chen family and became a wealthy lady. Seeing her neighbor living a good life, she felt angry and resentful. She didn’t care about how other people lived but it was the constant comparison with Liang Baozhen that bothered her. 

However, Liang Baozhen was not particularly capable. She couldn’t keep a good man and divorced him. Chen Siming married a young girl. Dong Jiayan sneered. If it were her, she would definitely tie Chen Siming tightly! 

It was not until 1988 that Dong Jiayan was reborn after accidentally knocking her head while working in a factory. 

Jealousy is like a rope tied around your neck that gets tighter and tighter… 

Today, she caught up with Chen Siming, who was heading to the village entrance, and talked to him for a long time. She became familiar with him. Tomorrow, she has to go to the city. 

There is only half a month left before Liang Baozhen and Chen Siming get their marriage certificate, so she has to hurry. 

As for Xu Shengjie, he was a stubborn man. After retiring from the army, he returned home and became an ordinary worker, he ran into trouble after four years into the marriage. Fortunately, she managed to get a divorce quickly. 

She only heard that he had gone south and was unsure of his fate… 

Remembering Chen Siming’s gaze from today, she knew that men could always be tempted… 

*** 

Because she wanted to go to the city to buy things for her wedding, Liang Baozhen went to the production team to ask the team leader, Wang Dali, for a letter of introduction. When Wang Dali learned that Liang Baozhen was going to the city, he remembered something. 

“Baozhen, let’s follow the old rules and go get some urea bags.” Wang Dali handed over a note with two lines of crooked words written on it. It was a certificate from the production. 

“Team Leader, Director Liu won’t give them,” Liang Baozhen said. The urea sold by the supply and marketing cooperative did not allow the bags to be taken but every commune and village wanted them. They are eager to get a few bags back. Two urea bags can make a pair of pants, which is very cool. 

“Ah, young comrades shouldn’t be like this. You haven’t done anything yet, so why are you saying it’s not going to work?” Wang Dali remembered that Liang Baozhen had helped his village get twelve urea bags last time and felt that she could do this. “Take it and try it. If it doesn’t work, I won’t blame you. If it does, I’ll give you ten work points.” 

Thinking that this might be a bit difficult, Wang Dali made up his mind and said, “The price of ten urea bags is five yuan. I will give you six yuan. If it works, the remaining one yuan is yours.” 

Ten work points were what Liang Zhigao could earn in a day of hard labor, plus an extra yuan! Liang Baozhen nodded, “Then I’ll give it a try.” 

*** 

Early the next morning, there was movement in the Liang household. Liang Baozhen got up to wash and dress. She had to take the donkey cart at five in the morning to catch the bus to town. The kitchen was already lit up before dawn. 

Song Chunhua got up and cooked a bowl of noodles for her daughter, sprinkled some chopped green onions from her own plot, and a few grains of salt on top. The fragrant smell of noodles went straight into her nose. She swallowed her saliva but didn’t touch her chopstick. Noodles were in short supply, and she thought Baozhen would be out for most of the day, so she had to eat something filling. 

“Mother, you should eat something too.” Liang Baozhen looked at the steaming scallion noodles, which were very tempting. 

“I won’t eat any. I’ll go water the crops in our plot. After you finish eating, I’ll send you off with the donkey cart.” She had prepared a large bag yesterday, filled with mountain goods to trade at the town market and a basket of eggs. Song Chunhua would help load them onto the donkey cart. 

She was always busy and can’t sit still for a moment. 

“Have a bite. You must be hungry since you got up so early.” Liang Baozhen picked up a bite and fed it to Song Chunhua’s mouth, forcing her to eat it. She knew her mother and couldn’t bear to eat it. 

… 

“Watch out for your money and tickets on the road, especially the cloth tickets. Don’t lose them.” It was too difficult to save the cloth tickets, Song Chunhua reminded her again and again, then put the big bag on the donkey cart and watched her daughter leave. 

The donkey cart was full with six people. Some of them are carrying large and small bags and were ready to go to the market to exchange things. At Liang Baozhen’s feet was a bag of mountain products, and in her arms were tightly wrapped eggs. 

Each person paid one cent and all got off the donkey cart at the town entrance. It was not yet six o’clock, and many villagers who had occupied stalls in the market had already arrived. They all came to exchange things. Now, except for state-owned stores, private transactions are not allowed, but everyone’s life is difficult, so they still turn a blind eye to private exchanges. 

Eggs were in short supply at the market. Liang Baozhen was carrying a basket and soon people started asking for eggs. Twenty eggs lay neatly in the basket. They were small but looked fresh. 

“Comrade, how do I exchange these eggs?” A man in wrinkled work clothes came over; his eyes lit up when he saw the eggs. His wife was seven months pregnant, and the family had run out of egg tickets. They could not buy eggs at the supply and marketing cooperative, so they could only try their luck at the market. 

You can exchange things at the market without a ticket; even if it is a little expensive, it is worth it. 

However, when he went to the market today, he didn’t see anyone bringing eggs. 

Liang Baozhen looked at his attire and saw that he was obviously a worker in the town, so she asked him about the sugar tickets first, but the man just kept shaking his head. 

“We don’t have enough sugar tickets. My wife is pregnant and needs some brown sugar.” The man knew that this was a countryman who came to exchange things. He thought about the things at home for a while and asked, “Do you want some noodles?” 

Seeing that the young girl was still hesitant, the man quickly added, “It’s made of Fuqiang flour; it’s very delicate.” 

Noodles made from Fuqiang flour? Liang Baozhen was instantly attracted. The noodles made at home in the commune were a mixture of corn flour and soybean flour, which was much worse than Fuqiang flour.

“How many?” 

“One pound, Swan brand. This is a gift from someone to our family. In addition, I have two boxes of matches, a packet of tooth powder, and a tube of shampoo.” He calculated that twenty eggs sold for one yuan at the supply and marketing cooperative, and he had to pay with the egg ticket. The total value of the things he exchanged for must be more than one or two yuan. 

All of them required tickets from the supply and marketing cooperative. Liang Baozhen thought about it and immediately agreed. She waited for the man to go home and get the things and put the twenty eggs into the basket that the man brought with him. 

Her bag now had a bunch of daily necessities. The family was running low on tooth powder, so this was a relief. 

After standing around for a while, a woman traded a few pounds of mountain goods for a bag of salt. The goods were all fresh wild vegetables, some dried and would last a while. At the end of the transaction, she noticed some hard pieces of wood in the bag and took them out. “Comrade, I don’t need these.” 

When Liang Baozhen looked, she saw that Liang Baoling had accidentally put the “iron thorn” used by her dad and second brother for making wine. “My sister didn’t notice and put them in the bag. I’ll take them out.” 

For this reason, the female comrade gave one less spoonful of salt. 

After exchanging all the things, only a pile of iron thorns was left in the spacious bag. Liang Baozhen looked around but didn’t see anything that could be exchanged for sugar tickets or directly for a bag of sugar, which made her feel a little disappointed. 

“Comrade, do you want to exchange these iron thorns?” A middle-aged man in wrinkled work clothes came over and asked, looking at the half-piece of yellow wood sticking out of his pocket on the ground.

“You want to exchange?” Liang Baozhen glanced at the towel around his neck, which had the word “brewery” on it, and understood immediately, “Doesn’t your brewery usually collect these directly? Do you need these few pieces?” 

At home, Liang Zhigao liked to brew some wine. Usually, buying wine is expensive, and they’re reluctant to use grains for brewing. It’s easier to dig a few iron thorns from the mountains and use them for brewing. The taste is a bit worse, but it’s still satisfying. 

“Which village are you from? Do you still have iron thorns?” The man, who worked in the purchasing office of the town’s winery, had originally cooperated with several nearby villages to buy iron thorns. However, a forest fire that burned for several days a while ago had depleted the factory’s stock, so he came out to try his luck. “If you have any, bring more. I’ll exchange as many as you want.” 

“Can I exchange them for sugar or sugar tickets?” Sugar was so rare that Liang Baozhen asked casually, without much hope. 

“Yes, I’ll take these and give you a sugar ticket. Also, if you have more iron thorns up on the mountain in your village, bring them here, I’ll buy them at one cent per pound.” The brewery buys iron thorns at one cent per pound, not more, not less. This bunch of thorns is estimated to weigh about seven or eight pounds, which won’t solve the immediate problem, but he valued the future supply. 

“I’ll go back and check; I estimate I can dig about sixty or seventy pounds.” Liang Baozhen took the sugar ticket and handed over the iron thorns. She felt a bit of an advantage here—sugar tickets are precious. But she understood that the man wanted to trade more in the future. “Comrade, next time around this time, can you bring various kinds of tickets? We can’t buy many things in the countryside.” 

“Don’t worry, I know what’s going on. Just bring the things here.” 

After keeping the precious sugar tickets, Liang Baozhen packed her things and went to the town entrance to wait for the bus. She also needed to buy some cloth from the city’s supply and marketing cooperative and the urea bags for the team leader. 

… 

She took the bus to the city from the entrance of the town. Each person paid twenty cents and showed the letter of introduction. After more than an hour of a bumpy ride, she arrived. 

The supply and marketing cooperative in the city is much larger than the one in the town and has a complete range of items. Song Chunhua gave Liang Baozhen a task: to buy a piece of red cloth and a pair of enamel cups. The betrothal gifts couldn’t be many, but these items were essential. 

The new clothes were available at eight in the morning. By this time, the sky was just brightening, and there were already some people. Liang Baozhen was secretly relieved that she came early; otherwise, she might not have even seen a piece of brightly colored cloth. 

Everyone held money and cloth tickets in their hands and raised their hands high, for fear that the salesperson would not accept them. Today they were lucky; there’s bright red and light yellow plain weave cloth available. The colors were beautiful and stood out among the pile of black, gray, and blue cloth. 

After much effort, she finally managed to buy ten feet of red plain cloth, which cost four yuan per foot, enough to make clothes and pants. After squeezing out of the crowd, Liang Baozhen finally breathed a sigh of relief, she took the sugar ticket to the counter of the supply and marketing cooperative, and spent seventy cents to buy a bag of white sugar. After looking around, she also bought a pair of enamel cups, three toothbrushes, and a towel. 

Last night Song Chunhua counted the things she needed to buy and took out seven yuan from her handkerchief to give to her. With all the expenses, including transportation, there should be a few cents to one yuan left for Liang Baozhen’s personal use. 

After buying the household items, Liang Baozhen took out her own pocket money, a total of six yuan and fifty-three cents, which was the money she had saved from childhood to adulthood, including the year after graduation. She bought a steel hairpin and a silk flower for her good friend Li Xiujuan from the village, who was about to get married, and spent thirty cents on it. 

“Comrade, is the director here?” After putting everything away, Liang Baozhen looked around but didn’t see the supply and marketing cooperative director. She still had matters to handle with the team. 

The director of the supply and marketing cooperative on the west side of the capital city was Liu Jian, who was a distant relative of Wang Dali’s wife. However, Wang Dali had been trying to build a relationship with him, calling him “cousin” frequently, just to get a few urea bags. 

“He’s in the back yard warehouse.” The salesperson recognized the girl. Two months ago, she asked for twelve urea bags from the stingy director, which made the director very distressed. 

“Can you please call him for me and tell him that his cousin wants him to see me.” 

… 

“Hey, hey, hey, are you a starving ghost reincarnated?” Liu Jian stood in the courtyard with his hands on his hips, overwhelmed by the sixty-four bags of urea left “Xu Shengjie, you’re being unreasonable.” 

With a cigarette in his mouth, Xu Shengjie was tying up the urea bags with a piece of rope, making a figure-eight knot, and finally pulling it tight. He patted the bags with his bulging veins on his right hand and smiled with satisfaction. 

“Old Liu, don’t be so stingy.” 

The two were comrades-in-arms and had fought on the battlefield together. They had a life-and-death friendship. Liu Jian retired early and even became the director of a supply and marketing cooperative. When he learned that Xu Shengjie had retired and returned to Beijing more than half a month ago, he even invited him to have a meal at a state-owned restaurant. 

Who knew that this man would turn return soon and set his sights on his urea bag. 

Urea bags are popular products. The fabric is smooth, light, and soft. When dyed and sewn into trousers, they make a rustling sound in the wind, which is quite appealing. Each bag costs 50 cents, and a pair of trousers costs only one yuan. Despite the low price, these trousers are just as good as those sold in department stores for more than ten yuan, which is why they are so popular. 

“It’s not like I’m not paying. Who are you selling them to if not me?” 

Liu Jian knew about his comrade’s family situation; his sister had been ill and needed money. “You’re coming with that smell of money, huh? Alright, thirty-two yuan, I’ll give them to you for thirty.” 

“Okay, that’s a good idea.” Xu Shengjie nodded, causing the cigarette in his mouth to shake and drop some ash. 

“Director, your cousin has sent someone again, and it’s the same female comrade from last time,” the salesperson shouted at the backyard entrance. 

When Liu Jian heard this, he waved his hand and said, “What! there another bandit? Tell her there are no more urea bags. The bandit leader took them all.”  

As he spoke, he glanced at Xu Shengjie, giving him a hint.