Courtyard House: Starting with a 28-inch motorcycle

These wild grapes are so sour they make your teeth ache; even adults won't touch them. Only the cowherds, greedy as ever, squat under the vines and pluck handfuls at random.

Back home, he spread his hair out on a bamboo tray to dry. He thought about asking for leave from the brigade tomorrow, going to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy an iron pot, some household items, and get his hair tidied up. Right now, he looked exactly like a wild man who had crawled out of a mountain gully.

The grapes were dried, and it was already dark. The house was pitch black, without even an oil lamp. Su Yu stood in the middle of the room and sighed silently.

……

As dawn broke, Su Yu arrived at Su Guang's house. Nowadays, if you don't want to work, you have to ask the team leader for leave in advance, otherwise you'll be penalized with work points or even criticized. You're only allowed two days off a year, during the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival. Rainy days are another matter. During the double harvest season, even if it's pouring rain, you still have to swing your hoe.

He was puzzled: the original owner left the family with nothing after the separation, which was not mentioned in the book; this house in front of him had been abandoned for who knows how many years, with drafts coming from all sides and a corner of the roof collapsed. Fortunately, it didn't rain today, otherwise he would have to cover his head and hide from the leaks.

When they knocked on Su Guang's door, the family was sitting around a table drinking thin porridge. The sky was just beginning to lighten when the production team's warehouse was distributing farm tools; they had to be in the fields by daybreak.

Su Guang, chopsticks still in his mouth, looked up: "Sanzi? What's the rush to your third uncle's house so early in the morning?"

His wife lifted the curtain and peeked out, her voice clear and bright: "Borrow grain? No way! We can't even afford to eat!"

His family now has four children. Su Yun is the eldest daughter, and the two younger ones are Wu Lanhua's biological children—Wu Lanhua herself is the stepmother. Su Yun's biological mother passed away shortly after the birth of her second child, Su Zhuang.

Su Yun was fifteen years old when Wu Lanhua abruptly stopped her from attending school, saying that "her family couldn't afford the tuition." Su Guang, however, found her a job: recording work points, seven work points a day; Wu Lanhua managed farm tools, also earning seven work points. The other children were still in school; currently, in the entire Jiefang Brigade, only their family had all had a child who had stepped into the school gates.

Wu Lanhua had originally planned to have Su Zhuang drop out of school and return to the village to work, but she didn't expect Su Guang to be so protective of his son. After a barrage of slaps, she fell silent and dared not utter another word.

Su Yu: "Third Uncle, I'm not here to borrow grain today. I'm asking for leave to go to the county town to buy some daily necessities."

Su Guang nodded: "Alright, you just separated from the family, and the house is all empty. You really should buy some things. Approved! But you must report back to the fields first thing tomorrow morning—consider today your day off, plus yesterday, that's two days off in a row. The grain rations are about to be distributed, earning a few extra pounds can really save your life, you understand that, right?"

Su Yu: "Understood, Third Uncle. I'll be off now."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned and walked away. Behind him, Wu Lanhua was still muttering something, but when she looked up and met Su Guang's darkening gaze, she immediately bit her tongue, swallowing the rest of her sentence. Su Guang treated Su Yu coldly, simply because he was convinced that the child had absolutely no connection to the Su family—he had no idea that he was an orphan his second brother had picked up from outside. His second brother had never uttered a word about it in the village, and Wang Guifen was even more tight-lipped. If Su Guang knew that this was his eldest brother's offspring, he would probably have helped and protected him in every way, just as he had cared for Su Qing's three nephews.

Su Yu scurried to the edge of the field, grabbed the small wooden bucket she had hidden beforehand, scooped out two jin of lively loaches, and hurried towards the county town. This Liberation Brigade was actually farther from the commune.

As Su Yu passed by the village committee office, he bumped into Wang Guifen and Su Qing. Without even glancing up, he opened his letter of introduction and strode straight towards the village entrance. The people in the educated youth compound were just getting up to go to work. Seeing him hurrying out with a small wooden bucket, some glanced at him but didn't approach to ask. The educated youth had always had a strained relationship with the village; their belongings were frequently stolen, and they had asked a carpenter to reinforce the compound gate several times.

After walking for about half an hour, as they approached the city gate, Su Yu felt something was wrong again: her feet didn't feel heavy, her shoulders didn't ache, and her hands weren't numb, as if the bucket of water and loach were light and weightless—even though the bucket was clearly full of water, the loach was still splashing and thrashing its tail.

He didn't bother to investigate further and stepped into the county town. Just as he turned onto the main street, two militiamen wearing red armbands blocked his way.

Red armband: "Take out the letter of introduction, and what are you carrying?"

Su Yu: "It's for visiting relatives. This is a letter of introduction issued by the brigade."

The other party took the letter and scanned it carefully, then waved his hand and let him go—as long as he wasn't caught buying and selling it on the spot at the market, whether he used it to feed pigs or threw it into the river, no one would say a word.

Su Yu wandered through the streets and alleys, spotted a barbershop, and immediately went inside. Back then, all barbershops were state-owned, and the barbers were called "barbers," one of the prestigious "Eight Great Employees."

This may sound new to today's young people, but back then, the "Eight Great Workers" referred to ticket sellers, drivers, mail carriers, childcare workers, barbers, waiters, sales clerks, and cooks—everyone had a secure job and was a pillar of the people's service.

The barber glanced up at him, looking at his faded coarse cloth clothes, his face expressionless. These days, a haircut costs three cents, and most people in the countryside use their own scissors; nine out of ten people who come to the shop are locals from the county town.

Back then, men got buzz cuts or crew cuts, while girls could get perms or student-style haircuts.

The hairdresser first rinsed his hair, then quickly shaved it into a neat buzz cut. The mirror reflected a handsome young face, with relaxed features and a straight nose. Su Yu was momentarily stunned—decades later, this face would probably attract countless girls vying for his attention; but these days, people valued physique, strength, whether one's shoulders could carry a hoe, and whether one's body was sturdy—only strong and hardworking young men could find wives, avoid hunger, and accumulate more food.

He took out three cents and handed it to the carpenter, asked for directions to the department store, and turned to leave. He hurried to the department store. When Wang Guifen divided the family property, she gave him a lot of cloth coupons, which were about to expire. Everyone in the village said she was generous. But cloth coupons were ultimately worthless without banknotes as collateral. Now, Su Yu was well-off and even knew where the money came from: his second uncle, Su Shan, had secretly given it to him before he died. You don't believe me? Go down and confront him face to face.

Walking up to the clothing counter, Su Yu pointed to a snow-white polyester shirt: "Comrade, I'll take two of these shirts; and a pair of these army green trousers, too."

Back then, military green was incredibly popular.

The sales clerk flipped through the book: "Four items, nine feet of cloth ration coupons, twenty-seven yuan in total."

Su Yu paid the money promptly, then added, "Give me another set of sheets and a mattress pad."

After paying, he went to the hardware counter, took out his industrial ration coupons, and bought an iron pot and a spatula, before leaving the department store. It was almost noon when he stepped into the state-run restaurant.

The waiter came over: "What would you like to eat? It's all written on the blackboard, that's what's available today."

Su Yu: "Can I cook a dish myself? Just this bucket of loach, plus a bowl of rice. I'll pay as usual. You have all the oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar here, and it will taste better than what I make myself."

The waiter hesitated for a moment: "I...I'll go ask the foreman in the kitchen."

Su Yu: "Thank you."

A few minutes later, the waiter came out quickly: "The team leader agreed, come with me."

He placed the items on the bench in the hall, picked up the bucket, and went into the kitchen. Dozens of eyes were watching him, but he remained unmoved, deftly scaling, removing the gills, gutting, and cleaning the loach. Then, he heated the pan, added cold oil, stir-fried and seasoned the loach, and in one go, he cooked a plate of bright red and fragrant braised loach.

The loach was divided into two plates: one plate was given to the kitchen staff to try, and the other plate was kept for myself. I ate it all up with white rice.

……

Before Su Yu could even step out of the kitchen, the head chef picked up a piece of loach with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth, then suddenly looked up and shouted, "Comrade, could I take two minutes of your time?"

Su Yu: "Of course, what would you like to talk about?"

The head chef rubbed his hands together, his tone sincere: "It's like this—how did you get that mudfish so clean? If you'd teach us that method, our canteen will buy your mudfish regularly!"

In the countryside, where oil and alcohol are scarce, loach are so pungent that they make people's heads throb and they feel nauseous after just one bite. Most people would rather eat wild vegetable roots than touch them. Eels are caught, but it's hard to catch more than a few every ten days or half a month. People prefer to catch rabbits, steal bird eggs, and dig for field mice—it's more practical.

Meat supplies in the city were tight, so the kitchen foreman immediately decided to take a few servings to test the waters, with only one condition: Su Yu had to teach them how to make it herself.

Su Yu grew up by the stove, and she was skilled at everything from lighting the fire to chopping meat and making sauces. She could withstand questioning and was not afraid of being investigated.

Su Yu said, "Okay, I'll bring live loaches tomorrow night and teach you three times on the spot. If you think the taste is right, I'll bring them over hot every night from now on."

The squad leader grinned: "Alright! We'll be waiting for you tomorrow night. My surname is Zhang, and my name is Zhang Yishu. What's your surname, young comrade?"

"Hello, Comrade Zhang, my name is Su Yu. I'll go eat now."

"Okay! This meal is on the kitchen staff. I'll leave tomorrow night to you, little brother!"

Su Yu carried the bowl of glistening, oily braised loach out of the kitchen, and the waiter immediately handed him a bowl of soft, white rice. He quickly ate it all and got up to head towards the village—he had originally planned to try his luck at the market, but seeing several people wearing red armbands waiting there in the distance, he decided against it: since he had already brought the food, he might as well cook it himself, and unexpectedly stumbled upon this delightful surprise.

As soon as he entered the village, he caught the midday rush of workers returning from their jobs. When everyone saw Su Yu carrying loads on his shoulders and in his hands, laden with goods, and now holding a gleaming iron pot, they immediately erupted in disbelief—where did this kid get the money? A new iron pot costs at least twenty yuan these days, plus industrial ration coupons; many families couldn't even scrape together that price after a year of work points, and were still cooking in chipped earthenware pots.

Wang Guifen, leading her two sons, bumped into the pot. Her eyes darted around, and she lunged forward, grabbing the edge of the pot tightly before collapsing to the ground, wailing loudly, "Heavens above—the third son has run off with all our possessions! Leaving us, a widow and her children, how are we supposed to survive—"