The 1960s: The Story of a Country Girl's Journey to the City

"Liu Sanming, why are you hiding? I'm not going to hit you."

Bao Ya considered herself a magnanimous person, so she spoke to Liu San first, after all, they had been classmates for two years.

The original owner of this body hit someone with a brick, causing them to drop out of school, and she feels a little guilty about it now.

Liu Sanming was so angry after hearing her words that his nose almost twisted out of shape. What do you mean you won't hit me? You already did!

Besides, it wasn't something I did on purpose; I just had bad luck with the person I met.

Thinking about it, she secretly glanced at Jiang Yuan.

Liu Erge glanced at his younger brother; he knew about it. He sighed inwardly and deliberately changed the subject.

"When did your sister-in-law get back?"

"We just got back this morning. Brother Liu, did you go deep into the mountains?"

Looking at the heavy baskets on their backs, Bao Ya felt a little envious, wondering if she could go for a walk in the deep mountains with them tomorrow.

"No, it just circled around the edge, it didn't go any further in."

Jiang Yuan took out cigarettes from his pocket and gave one to each of Liu Erge and Liu San.

Liu Erge took it and tucked it behind his ear, while Liu San looked at it over and over again, then put it under his nose and smelled it again and again. Judging from this, he probably didn't smoke.

"The city is going to build a dairy farm next year. Which of you two will go? Go back and discuss it."

Hearing Jiang Yuan say this, Brother Liu looked at Bao Ya and asked:

"Isn't your sister-in-law going?"

"She can't handle the livestock work. Xiao Sanzi, are you going?"

Jiang Yuan looked at Liu San with a smile, as if he was waiting to see a good show.

"Find me an office job..."

Before he could finish speaking, Brother Liu reached out and slapped him on the back of the head.

This stupid younger brother of his still sits in an office, while Jiang Yuan himself is slaughtering pigs in a meat processing plant. He doesn't want to do such a good thing.

Jiang Yuan didn't care, as if he already knew he was going to get that slap.

Liu San scratched his head and looked at Jiang Yuan with a resentful expression. So what if he sat in an office? Jiang Yuan owed him something.

After descending the mountain, Bao Ya invited Brother Liu to her house for dinner. Brother Liu readily agreed and even took a rabbit out of his basket to give to them.

Why did Lin Baoya hit you? Is it related to Jiang Yuan?

Brother Liu guessed the general idea; judging from Jiang Yuan's performance today, he knew it was inextricably linked to him.

"He wanted to be a hero and save the damsel in distress."

"So you're going to become a thug?"

Brother Liu was so angry his nose almost twisted out of shape. What were these two thinking? Were they really that childish? Getting caught meant getting shot, luckily they were just cracked open.

He closed his eyes again and asked:

"What did he promise you? A job?"

Liu San pursed his lips, realizing he hadn't really thought about work at the time.

He said he would take me to a state-run restaurant for a meal.

Have you eaten?

"have eaten."

He regretted it as soon as he finished eating. Because he had already eaten, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and go ahead with it, but who knew Lin Baoya would be so reckless.

Brother Liu was exasperated; his younger brother, barely out of his teens, was already hogging food. This silly little brother deserved the beating.

"You went just for a meal?"

"He said if I didn't go, he would tell Dafeng that I liked her, and even have her father come to our house to propose marriage. How could I possibly date a tigress like that? She's even worse than Lin Baoya."

Then, "slap!" He received an even harder slap on the back of his head.

Jiang Yuan and Bao Ya encountered Jiang Laoshan, who was out for a stroll wearing new cotton shoes, on their way.

The youngest daughter-in-law immediately assumed the title of grandfather upon entering the family, and is now wandering around the village looking for Captain Liu to chat about everyday matters.

Knowing that Captain Liu was coming to his house that night, Jiang Laoshan stopped looking and went home with Jiang Yuan and Bao Ya.

In the evening, I made chicken stew with mushrooms, pork stew with vermicelli, and braised rabbit. I also made a cold dish of shredded radish.

Jiang Laoshan smelled the aroma filling the room and held up the bottles of wine that Jiang Yuan had brought back, comparing them over and over again.

Finally, they took out the bottle without a label, which seemed to be bulk liquor.

He had just picked out the wine when he turned around and saw Captain Liu walking in. He immediately broke into a bright smile.

The brothers who grew up together, practically naked, have become grandchildren; it's a joyful thought.

"Yutian, do you know what you should call me?"

"Shut up and get the wine ready."

Before the captain could speak, Old Liu answered him first.

Should I call my nephew "Grandpa" and he "Uncle"?

Jiang Laoshan was so happy that he forgot about Old Liu. He quickly opened the bottle of wine he had chosen and poured Old Liu a full glass.

Captain Liu knew that the old man had been looking for him all afternoon.

Pretending nothing was wrong, he first helped his uncle onto the kang (a heated brick bed), and then sat down next to him.

Two kang tables were placed together to form a large table. Once the dishes were served, the men began to drink.

Jiang Laoshan took a few sips of the liquor, and the more he drank, the more something seemed off. This loose-batch liquor tasted better than bottled liquor. It was smooth on the palate, with a slightly sour taste, but also had a hint of pear aroma, unlike the loose-batch liquor sold at the supply and marketing cooperative.

Just as he was about to ask, he heard Captain Liu say:

"Jiang Yuan, where did you buy this wine? It tastes really good."

"This was brewed by my wife at home."

Jiang Yuan spoke with a hint of pride on his face, saying that his wife's brewed wine was even better than the wine sold by the supply and marketing cooperative, but unfortunately there was too little of it.

"Bao Ya has this skill too. That's really good. Jiang Yuan is lucky. Lao Shan, you can benefit from it too."

"That's right, my daughter-in-law, she's one in a hundred."

Jiang Laoshan, who originally wanted to switch the liquor, was now too embarrassed to do so and could only go along with Captain Liu's words.

"Baoya, let me ask you something. Do you think our brigade can do anything else? We don't have much land, and we don't have enough food to eat every year."

Besides bartering mountain produce for food, there's no other way, but not everyone in the brigade knows how to hunt. Can't we think of another option?

He risked being recognized as Jiang Laoshan's grandson today just for this.

In addition to having plenty of land and enough food, Nanshan Brigade can also grow cotton on the hillside. Cotton is a scarce commodity now, and other brigades are extremely envious.

Bao Ya knew what he was thinking when she heard him ask that question. Food was scarce everywhere, especially in areas with little arable land, and everyone was trying to find ways to have enough to eat.

Since the question had been asked of her, Bao Ya didn't hold back and simply shared her thoughts:

"Uncle, do you remember when our village grew sugar beets a couple of years ago?"

Captain Liu didn't understand why she said that, so he continued to ask:

"Didn't they stop planting them later?"

"We didn't plant it because our village wasn't suitable. I heard from the technician at the time that the plant requires plenty of sunlight and a large temperature difference between day and night to accumulate more sugar."

The temperature in our village is relatively high, so the sugar content of the sugar beets we grow is too low, making it unprofitable. Later, we switched to growing cotton.

The land at the foot of the mountain here is quite nice; it gets plenty of sunshine during the day and cools down at night, making it suitable for growing sugar beets.

"Why don't you go to the commune and find my uncle, and ask him to help you get some beet seeds to plant?"

Sugar is also a scarce commodity with a large demand. Although the sugar that we make ourselves is not as good as the sugar produced in the factory, it is still sugar, and we should be able to exchange it for grain with the nearby brigades.

That's exactly what Captain Liu wanted to hear. His village had no connections in the commune, and asking for advice directly would likely be ignored. If Su Sanqiang could help, that would be even better.

"Should I go find him? Should I...?"

It wouldn't be appropriate for Captain Liu to go directly to the person he wasn't familiar with.

"Let my brother-in-law go with you; he knows my uncle."

Bao Ya looked at Old Man Liu, who was enjoying his meal with a sip of wine and a bite of meat, and suddenly said this.

When Old Liu heard her say that, he paused, the wine glass he was about to drink stopped.

She's her uncle, so she has to call him uncle too. Her hair's all white; if she went to the commune to find her uncle, wouldn't he have face? She rolled her eyes and said:

"Why don't you just have Erde go with you to the commune to ask his uncle?"

The old man simply threw his son out; after all, these past few years, he'd called his uncle "uncle" more affectionately than "father."