Chapter 25 ☆ Shaqima and Xin (Part 1)

The counters at the supply and marketing cooperatives of this era were very high, and the glass display cabinets featured four traditional dim sum: glutinous rice noodles, egg cakes, peach cakes, and snow cakes. Most of the time, these dim sum items were out of stock, and the ones displayed were just for show. You couldn’t buy them without some connections.

Today, Cheng Yaoyao and her friends were lucky. With the Dragon Boat Festival approaching, the supply and marketing cooperative had received a new batch of snacks. In addition to egg cakes and glutinous rice sticks, there was also a rare new snack: shachima^[1]is a traditional Chinese sweet snack made from fried dough strands coated in a sticky syrup. It’s soft, chewy, and often includes extras like sesame seeds or nuts for added flavor..

These days, shachima isn’t fancy. It’s cut into large square pieces, has a golden, oily appearance, and is mixed with sesame seeds. The sweet aroma could almost be smelled across the counter.

Fried shachima is fragrant and crispy, tempting everyone. Han Yin and the others gathered and chattered for a long time. They had managed to collect enough money but lacked snack tickets.

Several of them looked at Cheng Yaoyao. She spread her hands and said, “Don’t count on me. I don’t have any snack tickets.”

When the original owner went to the countryside, her father gave her a stack of snack tickets, which she used up in less than three months.

Of course, the original owner didn’t use all the food for herself but spent a lot on Shen Yan. Most of the snack and food coupons went to Shen Yan, with half of Shen Yan’s snacks given to Cheng Nuonuo.

Thinking about this made Cheng Yaoyao’s teeth itch with anger.

The three girls chatted around the dim sum counter for a long time but couldn’t get a dim sum ticket. The salesperson, growing impatient, said, “Are you going to buy or not? If not, get out of the way and stop disturbing other customers!”

Han Yin, angry, said, “Stop looking down on us. Do you think we can’t afford it?!”

“But we really can’t afford it right now,” Cheng Yaoyao said quietly.

Cheng Yaoyao felt quite embarrassed. In the past, salesclerks at high-end brand stores who used to look arrogant now smiled brightly and were as enthusiastic as Haidilao employees^[2]refers to the well-known friendly and enthusiastic employee that the restaurant chain is famous for. when they saw her.

However, only salespeople in supply and marketing cooperatives dared to treat customers this way. With a stable job earning 24 yuan a month and job security regardless of their service attitude, their arrogance was natural.

The three of them left the snack counter unhappily. Han Yin said to Cheng Yaoyao, “Why didn’t your family send you any money or something? I saw Cheng Nuonuo holding a stack of money and saying it was sent by her family.”

“What?!” Cheng Yaoyao was immediately furious. Cheng’s father secretly sent tickets and money to Cheng Nuonuo?

Seeing Cheng Yaoyao’s face change, Zhang Xiaofeng stepped on Han Yin’s foot. Han Yin quickly added, “Maybe it was sent by Cheng Nuonuo’s mother?”

Thanks to the original owner’s several fights, everyone knew that Cheng Yaoyao and Cheng Nuonuo weren’t born of the same mother. Their looks and heights made it clear they couldn’t be from the same mother.

“How is that possible?” Cheng Yaoyao sneered. Cheng Nuonuo’s mother was a brother-supporting demon^[3]refers to someone who unfairly favors their own family members over others., giving all the good things to her mother’s family. There was no way she would send anything to Cheng Nuonuo.

Cheng Yaoyao, fuming, said, “Let’s go to the post office!”

At the post office, Cheng Yaoyao gave her name and a letter of introduction, but there was no package for her. The clerk handed her a letter. “Just a letter!”

Cheng Yaoyao, unwilling to accept this, asked, “How could there be no package?”

The clerk said impatiently, “No means no!”

Cheng Yaoyao held the letter in her hand, her face pale with anger.

It felt like her own experience from years ago was replaying itself. Her stepmother had whispered in her father’s ear, cheating her out of the property left to her by her grandparents, and giving it to her sister as a birthday present for her 12th birthday.

If the manager, who was hired by her grandfather, hadn’t been loyal and secretly warned her, Cheng Yaoyao would have ended up crying in front of her father. As a result, her grandfather’s hard work could have been taken over by her stepmother and stepsister.

From that time on, Cheng Yaoyao realized that before she became an adult, she had to rely on her father’s love to live well. However, her father’s love was no longer unconditionally given to her alone. Fortunately, Cheng Yaoyao was beautiful and was born to be loved by everyone. She acted cute and coquettish in front of her father and used her charm to pull his love away from her stepmother and sister.

She didn’t expect that even after living her life again, she would still fall into such a cycle.

Clutching the envelope, Cheng Yaoyao was momentarily lost in memories she thought she had long forgotten.

Han Yin hadn’t expected her words to make Cheng Yaoyao so upset.

Han Yin laughed awkwardly and said, “Yaoyao, don’t be angry. First, take a look at what your father wrote to you.”

“Look at what?” Cheng Yaoyao ripped the envelope open with both hands.

To her surprise, the envelope burst open, and a stack of bills fell out, scattering across the floor. Everyone looked sideways, and Han Yin and Zhang Xiaofeng hurried over to help Cheng Yaoyao pick up the bills.

Zhang Xiaofeng, astonished, exclaimed, “Oh my god, so many tickets!”

Cheng Yaoyao was equally stunned. She quickly looked at the envelope in her hand, carefully tore it open, and found a thin piece of letter paper inside.

The letter was brief, inquiring about Cheng Yaoyao’s living conditions in the countryside. It was then tactfully noted that Cheng Yaoyao was not very sociable in the countryside and was extravagant. Given that his salary had been cut, Cheng Yaoyao was urged to be frugal. The letter ended with encouragement to work hard and integrate into the collective.

The tone of the letter was formal and slightly disapproving.

Before the original owner went to the countryside, Cheng’s father had tried to find her a good job in the city through an old friend. Unfortunately, the original owner, provoked by Cheng Nuonuo, secretly signed up to go to the countryside without informing her father. By the time Cheng’s father found out, it was too late. Facing Cheng’s father’s reproach, the original owner had a big fight with him. With the stepmother’s pillow talk and Cheng Nuonuo’s obedience in stark contrast, Cheng’s father was heartbroken.

In the three months since the original owner went to the countryside, she had not received any letters or packages from her father.

At this moment, Han Yin and Zhang Xiaofeng sorted the stack of tickets and handed them back to Cheng Yaoyao. “Look at all these food coupons your father got for you! They’re all national food coupons! There are also snack coupons, soap coupons, and milk powder coupons! They’re all rare and valuable!”

Cheng Yaoyao asked in a stingy tone, “How many tickets does Cheng Nuonuo have?”

Han Yin snorted, “She only has 50 kilograms of national food coupons. Half of them are for coarse grains, and the rest are just some cloth coupons and similar items. I saw her take out the coupons, and she definitely doesn’t have as many as you do.”

Cheng Yaoyao started to think about it. Although the letter from her father was written coldly, it was clear that he still cared for her. There was also a thick stack of bills, indicating that her father hadn’t been completely influenced by Cheng Nuonuo and his stepmother. This meant that she could still win him over.

If Cheng Nuonuo could win over Cheng’s father in three years, Cheng Yaoyao thought she could do it in three months. However, the original owner had been angry with Cheng’s father and had not contacted him for a long time, so she needed a reason to reconnect.

Cheng Yaoyao gave five dim sum tickets to Han Yin and asked him to line up and buy dim sum first, as she still had some things to do.

After Han Yin and the others left, Cheng Yaoyao took out a bottle of Dongkui dried bayberries from her bag. She had brought them into the city but forgotten to sell them, and now they came in handy.

Cheng Yaoyao bought a piece of writing paper from the salesperson and prepared to send the bottle of dried bayberries to her father.

“Dear Father, how are you doing recently? Do you still cough often?”

The first two lines made Cheng Yaoyao shudder with nausea. She imitated the original owner’s tone, awkwardly expressing concern for her father’s health and advising him to smoke less. Then she mentioned the “funny” things that happened, like being bitten by a leech while working in the field and her foot being bitten by a snake while swimming.

She wrote two pages of the letter in a very eloquent manner, without mentioning any of the hardships she faced in the countryside.

Finally, she mentioned that Tianshui Village produces the best Dongkui bayberries, which can help relieve asthma and cough. She used her last two kilograms of sugar coupons to exchange for this bottle of dried bayberries from a fellow villager and enclosed it with the letter so her father could enjoy them with his smoking.

Cheng Yaoyao finished writing the letter and asked for some glue to seal the envelope. The salesperson provided some free newspapers and tape for packing: “What do you have in here? Open it and let me check it.”

Cheng Yaoyao unscrewed the lid, and an alluring sweet and sour aroma wafted out. The salesperson couldn’t help but swallow his saliva: “Hey, it smells so good. Your dried bayberries are really fragrant!”

Bayberries grow around Lin’an City, but few people eat dried bayberries these days. They are typically sour and unappetizing, but these dried bayberries were large, covered in crystal amber syrup, making them look very tempting.

Cheng Yaoyao smiled and said, “My fellow villager made these. I’m sending them to my dad.”

The salesperson’s tone improved: “You are quite filial.”

The salesperson took Cheng Yaoyao’s letter, sealed it, and then a man approached her: “Comrade, where did you get these dried bayberries?”

Cheng Yaoyao turned around and saw a young man in glasses and a Zhongshan^[4]is a city in Guangdong Province, China. suit, who appeared to come from a well-off family.

The man, obviously surprised by Cheng Yaoyao’s beauty, pushed up his glasses and said with some embarrassment, “My name is Chen Yong, and I work in the County Cultural Bureau. This is my wife, Liu Xiaoli. My wife just got pregnant and has been suffering from morning sickness. She can’t eat anything. When she smelled the aroma of your dried bayberries…”

Liu Xiaoli, standing next to Chen Yong in a new dress with a slightly bloated waist and pale face, looked at Cheng Yaoyao. Seeing Cheng Yaoyao’s hesitation, she said shyly, “She’s sending them to her father. Forget it. I’ll go home and eat some hawthorn cake.”

Chen Yong insisted, “That won’t do. You can’t even eat hawthorn cake at home. It’s so hard to find something you want to eat. I must let you have some!”

Chen Yong was quite a romantic man, especially in an era when few men openly showed affection for their wives.

Liu Xiaoli felt satisfied but shy. She suddenly dry-heaved and covered her mouth.

Seeing this, Cheng Yaoyao took a moment, then poured out a few dried bayberries, placed them on the bottle cap, and handed them to Liu Xiaoli: “Seeing how miserable you are, I’ll give you a few. I’m sending the rest to my father.”

Liu Xiaoli shyly waved her hands, and Chen Yong quickly took the bayberries: “Eat quickly.”

The sour and sweet taste of the bayberries was refreshing for Liu Xiaoli, and she felt much better immediately. The nausea and unpleasant feeling disappeared, and she felt more refreshed than she had since becoming pregnant.

Chen Yong looked at his wife in surprise and said, “You’re not sick anymore? That’s great!”

At this point, the salesperson announced, “Everything is packed for you. The postage is 1.5 yuan in total.”

Cheng Yaoyao paid the 1.5 yuan and left the post office, feeling relieved to escape the romantic scene.

Chen Yong chased after her, asking, “Comrade, where did you buy these dried bayberries?”

Cheng Yaoyao replied, “I made them myself. There’s nowhere else to buy them.”

Chen Yong and his wife looked at Cheng Yaoyao in surprise, as she looked like someone who had never done such work. But Chen Yong was more interested in trading. He said, “What other bayberries do you have at home? I’ll trade with you.”

In those days, you had to say “trade” rather than “buy.”

Cheng Yaoyao raised her eyebrows, with a teardrop mole under her eye, and said uninterestedly, “I use the best Dongkui bayberries to make sugar, along with the best yellow sugar and rice soup. It’s labor-intensive and time-consuming to make, and I only made a few kilograms. I sent a bottle to my father and need to keep the rest for myself.”

Chen Yong said, “Comrade, my wife has lost her appetite since she got pregnant. She can’t eat anything. Just think of it as a good deed. If you still have dried bayberries, I don’t mind how much it costs.”

Cheng Yaoyao thought about it and tentatively set the price at 5 yuan. Chen Yong immediately agreed: “No problem!”

Seeing his expression, Cheng Yaoyao realized her price was too low and quickly added, “But you’ll still need to pay for the ticket.”

Chen Yong asked hurriedly, “What ticket?”

Cheng Yaoyao replied, “I’ll let your wife know.”

Liu Xiaoli pulled out her bill book and smiled, “I understand what you want.”

Liu Xiaoli had a thick stack of receipts. Cheng Yaoyao selected a few, took 2.5 yuan from her, and handed a small bottle of dried bayberries to Liu Xiaoli.

Cheng Yaoyao had only made a few dried bayberries, and after eating a lot herself, she was left with just one large and one small bottle. The small half-bottle weighed about six taels, and Cheng Yaoyao priced it as half a catty.

Liu Xiaoli repeatedly asked Cheng Yaoyao to make more dried bayberries and send them over next week. Being only two months pregnant and suffering from severe morning sickness, she was unsure how long this half-bottle would last.

Cheng Yaoyao noted Liu Xiaoli’s work unit and turned to leave.

Liu Yong happily helped his wife put away the dried bayberries and asked, “What kind of ticket did that woman exchange with you?”

Liu Xiaoli pinched him and said, “Never mind!”

When Cheng Yaoyao returned to the supply and marketing cooperative, Han Yin and Zhang Xiaofeng had already bought their snacks. They each bought a pound of glutinous rice noodles and a pound of egg cakes, sharing half a pound of each. They also bought a pound of shaqima for Cheng Yaoyao, though they themselves were reluctant to buy shaqima, which was 50 cents more expensive than egg cakes.

Cheng Yaoyao shook her head, not fully understanding the value of the products. Shaqima is fried in oil with extra sugar and sesame seeds, making it only 50 cents more expensive than ordinary snacks, with good value. However, Han Yin and the others felt shaqima wasn’t filling, so they preferred egg cakes and glutinous rice sticks, which were more practical.

Han Yin asked Cheng Yaoyao, “You gave us all your dim sum tickets. Don’t you need to keep a few for yourself?”

Cheng Yaoyao smiled and said, “It’s fine. I’m more interested in food stamps right now.”

Han Yin and Zhang Xiaofeng didn’t take her snack tickets for nothing; they exchanged one snack ticket for 20 kilograms of coarse grain tickets, which was a better deal than the black market price. Cheng Yaoyao didn’t mind this small amount of money.