Struggle Life in the 1970s

In the following years, such incidents never occurred at Chu Ye's stall again. Many people witnessed her outsmarting the blackmailing man and went back to spread the news with gossipy feelings. This small stall became known to more and more people.

As a result, she gained a new group of customers. After her monthly income became stable, she renovated the fish pond. She set up fences in the carp pond, caught the carp in one place, and put the newly bought silver carp and black carp fry in the empty space. At the same time, she put crab fry in the sea bass pond, so that "fish and crabs" could be raised together. However, these were too small and it took time for them to grow.

In addition, she sold her bicycle for the third time and bought herself a pedal tricycle so that she could carry more goods to the market every day.

When the weather was colder, she built a plastic greenhouse around the vegetable garden behind the house, and also built a windbreak shed next to the fish pond.

Winter in the south is a completely different experience from that in the north. In Chu Ye's life from childhood to adulthood, winter is a season associated with ice and snow. In the coldest time, the sky is filled with snowflakes, dyeing everything in front of the eyes into a vast expanse of white. The snowflakes fall lightly, but can be piled up into a palm-thickness overnight. When someone walks by in the morning, the snowflakes turn from thick to thin, making a slight "crunching" sound. When the children get up, they exclaim with joy, and then put on thick cotton clothes, calling friends to make snowmen and have snowball fights.

But here, it is different. There is no heavy snow in the south in winter, but instead there is biting freezing rain. The air is full of dampness, as if every breath can turn your lungs into moss. Few people wear cotton clothes here. Everyone only wears thick coats and walks hurriedly with umbrellas, splashing water on the ground.

On the night before the Caihua Factory went on New Year holiday, Chu Ye specially prepared a table full of delicious dishes and called Pan'er and Xiaoya to come over and sit with them.

When it was dark, the two of them knocked on the door holding a bottle of beer. The three girls sat around a table of delicious food. The small house isolated them from the cold outside. They complained about the bad things they had encountered and imagined a bright future.

"Just a few days ago, Sun Jiao, who had troubled you, was fired from the factory." Pan'er drank some wine and her cheeks were flushed.

"Hey, what's that because?" Chu Ye drank little and was still sober at this time.

"After you left, she behaved well for a few months, but then she started bullying again. Anyway, it was pretty ugly." This is what Xiaoya said.

"Yes, in the end Sister Zhao couldn't tolerate it anymore and fired the person during the New Year." Pan'er said.

Chu Ye sighed and said nothing more. Her dissatisfaction with Sun Jiao had disappeared after the fight. She came to the south to do more important things, so she didn't pay too much attention to others. But sometimes she couldn't help but sigh at the magical direction of human destiny.

In just a few months, some people resigned and bought fish ponds to become stall owners, some acted arrogantly and were fired, and some worked honestly and diligently to make money.

The honest Pan'er had a bitter look on her face at this time. The alcohol had confused her brain, making her unconsciously vent her suppressed emotions. She said with a faint cry: "What should I do, Sister Chu? My aunt won't come after the New Year."

When Chu Ye and Xiao Ya heard this, they looked at her in surprise. Pan'er held her cheeks with both hands, and the light fell on her eyes and lips, making them sparkling.

She pursed her lips and complained, "My little cousin will go to elementary school after the New Year. My aunt said that he spends too long at the factory every day and can't get there in time if anything happens at school. She wants to find a leisurely job near home... " As Pan'er spoke, she became overwhelmed with grief. She sobbed and got up to squeeze onto a bench with Chu Ye, resting her head on her shoulder.

When Xiaoya saw this, she hurried over and sat next to Pan'er on the other side, gently patting her on the back with one hand.

Pan'er was drunk and vented her emotions. She turned to Xiaoya and cried, "Ya! From now on, we will be the only two of us in the factory who depend on each other."

The two of them just laughed at what she said, but they also understood why she was so sad. Pan'er was the youngest of the three. She left her hometown and came to Shenzhen to live with her aunt. Unexpectedly, less than a year later, when she had just established herself, her aunt did not want to live with her.

The two men hugged her and comforted her for a long time. Gradually, they both got drunk and lay on the small bed together and slept until dawn.

The next day, the three of them woke up and cleaned the room together. Chu Ye rode a tricycle to take them to the factory and helped take them and their luggage to the train station.

Business was particularly busy during the days approaching the end of the year, but the harvest was also quite rich. On the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, after selling the fish, she went to the vegetable market to buy some meat and vegetables, and also went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy couplets and two small red lanterns. After returning home, she took out the account book, calculated the dividends, and gave 70 yuan to Han Zhao.

When she came back, there were several plastic cans in the tricycle, filled with chocolate, candies, melon seeds, and various nuts. This was what "Stockholder Han" called "happiness money" for Boss Chu, who had worked so hard for half a year.

Chu Ye accepted it silently. Don’t be a fool if you take advantage of it.

This New Year's Eve, she stayed alone in her little house, showing off her cooking skills by making a plate of dumplings for herself. In the rice cooker, the plump white dumplings floated to the surface. In the mist, Chu Ye's vision was blurred, and she seemed to hear someone knocking on the door.

Her heart was beating strangely, and familiar memories came to her mind. With some secret guesses, she was stunned for a moment, then turned off the fire, put down the spoon in her hand, and opened the door. The door was empty, and in the pitch-black night, it turned out that the hem of the couplet was not stuck firmly, and was blown by the wind and hit the door randomly.

Being a stranger in a foreign land, holding on to some impossible guess but still holding on to hope, and then witnessing the collapse of that hope is a very sad thing. At this time, it is easy for people to think of those happy and sad memories.

Loneliness was like a big hand, ruthlessly grasping her in its palm. The palm slowly contracted, squeezing out the air in her lungs and making it impossible for her to breathe.

She thought back to her chaotic fifteen years old. Life was like a long line, which split into two directions at the age of fifteen. One direction was to the left, where she wasted her time on blind dates, getting married and having children. The other direction was to the right, where she studied hard and was admitted to a technical secondary school. She thought her life would be bright and beautiful, but now she was alone in a foreign land.

If you ask her if she regrets it, she looks up at the dark sky and touches her chest. Actually, she doesn't regret it.

But...she missed Mu Jiajun a little.

She was very busy before and never stopped for a moment. All she thought about was how to gain a foothold here and how to create greater value with the money in her hands. She said that even if she could not be a decent teacher, she would work hard to live a beautiful life, so she did not dare to stop.

Now, every house is brightly lit, and even people from far away have to rush back to their hometowns at this time, but she is still thousands of miles away, guarding the fish pond, thinking that someone holding fireworks and saying "Happy New Year's Eve" to her will appear at the door.

A sweet smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, thinking of the time when she followed him to study, commuting between home and the educated youth compound every day. Mu Jiajun was worried about her walking at night, so he bought a flashlight to send her home. Gradually, the two became familiar with each other. Later, she successfully entered the teachers' college. Every time there was a holiday or school started, Mu Jiajun would always find various reasons to come and send her off. Sometimes he suddenly appeared at the entrance of the village, and sometimes he sat on a ox cart. He always had a bright smile on his face, and her reflection was in his gray-blue eyes.

How could this not make people's hearts beat? A sincere, warm and clear heart. Later, the two of them got together naturally. I still remember one day, she asked Mu Jiajun a question, asking him when did he fall in love with her?
At that time, Mu Jiajun gently held her in his arms. She heard the man's strong heartbeat and the clean scent of soapberry on his body. His voice was low and full of love. He said, "I still remember when I fell into the water, you rushed to save me without hesitation. The river was turbulent at that time, and you held my hand tightly. At that time, I thought, this girl is really brave, I must get to know her."

Before she knew it, her cheeks were cold, and the cold wind felt like ice. She raised her hand and wiped it casually, turned back to the house, took out tape to stick the couplets firmly, then closed the door, took out the dumplings, dipped them in vinegar, and started eating them in big mouthfuls.

The next day was the first day of the Lunar New Year. The weather was good. There was a thin sun in the sky and the temperature was still cold, but acceptable. After Chu Ye had finished his meal, he took out the pergola and fishing rod from the storage room behind the house, sat by the fish pond and started fishing.

But the fish here have never seen the world and will bite the hook as soon as they see it. Chu Ye has rescued the fish and thrown it back into the water for the third time.

"Hey! This fish will kowtow to you three times under the water when it goes back, thanking it for meeting a living Bodhisattva today." A male voice suddenly sounded behind him, and from the tone he knew it was Han Zhao.

Chu Ye tilted his head slightly. Even though it was winter, Han Zhao was not wearing thick clothes. He wore a floral shirt inside and a long windbreaker outside. Although it was a bit out of place, it looked normal on him.

"That's great. I hope it can also bless its owner, me, to become rich and powerful." Chu Ye followed his words and responded indifferently.

Since Li Bo's death, Han Zhao's personality has gradually become weird. He often says something in the middle of a conversation that he thinks is very humorous, making people shiver with fear.

Han Zhao seemed to have entered a no-man's land. He went to the storage room and took out the same tools as Chu Ye, a bench, a shed and a fishing rod. After he was done, he placed the two poles parallel to the water surface.

However, his arrival scared the fish in the water, and for a while, there was not even a bubble on the water surface.

"My old man called me a while ago and asked me to go to the United States to inherit the family business." Han Zhao sat casually, but his opening words were a blast. His tone was as if he was saying, "I'm going to buy some eggs."

Chu Ye:......
"...Oh, isn't this good?"

"What's good about it? Becoming a bald man with a fat belly and who can't see his toes when he looks down, like him?" Han Zhao's mouth was really an indiscriminate attack.

"...Not really." Chu Ye answered slowly, his eyes back on the fishing rod.

(End of this chapter)