The next morning, Wang Lingling woke up early, which startled her father, Wang Yongshun. It’s known that his second daughter, ever since she graduated from middle school two years ago, wouldn’t get up even if the rooster crowed for three hours.
Why was she suddenly so energetic today?
Wang Lingling still put on an act in front of Wang Yongshun, saying that she planned to go to the town to take a stroll and also check if her younger brother, Yaozong, needed anything at school.
Wang Yongshun didn’t say anything, but Li Chunjuan was immediately alert.
“Why are you going so far? Just send Sanya to run the errand.”
The town’s high school could no longer be called a town; it should be considered the high school of Hongqi Commune, the only high school in the vicinity of several communes. The place was small, and most of the students had to carry their own food to school, heating it up in turns during meal times.
The Wang family was better off, so Wang Yaozong didn’t carry food to school. He ate at the school canteen. Even so, Li Chunjuan still worried that her son might suffer at school, so she made a trip to visit him every half month, bringing him some food.
Wang Lingling impatiently replied, “There’s nothing ready at home right now. I’ll go ask first. If Yaozong needs anything, I’ll bring it next time.”
She was eager to create more opportunities for Wang Ying and Xu Shuang to spend time together.
Li Chunjuan, who was also feeling a bit tender towards her second daughter, who had just recovered, didn’t say much after hearing her.
After both Wang Yongshun and Li Chunjuan left for work, Wang Lingling went to knock on Wang Ying’s door.
Wang Ying had been recuperating these days, and she generally slept in late in the mornings.
When Wang Lingling knocked on the door, Wang Ying immediately remembered.
The meat buns!
She quickly got up to tidy herself, while Wang Lingling stood at the door, not stepping into the room at all.
Wang Ying’s room was the worst among the four rooms—small and poorly lit.
Especially in the past two years, since Li Chunjuan took over, she had turned Wang Ying’s room into a storage room.
In one corner of the room were some broken wooden planks and bricks. It’s not easy for rural people to build houses. Li Chunjuan was thinking that her son would need to marry and have children in the future. While the four rooms seemed spacious, they were not enough for the family. If her son had two or three grandsons, they would be out of space.
So, Li Chunjuan started to stockpile bricks and wooden planks, planning to save some money over the next few years. She also planned to take money from Wang Ying and add the dowry Wang Ying would bring when she got married to buy tiles, wood, and bricks, enough to build a room.
The old folks say that the more rooms you have, the more children gods will come, and more children bring more blessings.
Other than the wooden planks, bricks, and broken tiles, Wang Ying’s room only had a broken wooden bed and a table with a missing leg. On the table was an enamel basin with half its handle missing.
Wang Lingling stood at the door, feeling disgusted. She thought, how could Wang Ying be so messy? The room was such a mess.
How did she even manage to win Zhao Jun’s heart in her past life?
She couldn’t help but lecture Wang Ying, “Sanya, I’m not saying this, but you should at least tidy up your room. Look at this mess. If you get married and live in someone else’s house like this, won’t your mother-in-law scold you? Sanya, you better remember this. Your parents are gone, and if you don’t get your act together, you’ll regret it after you’re married.”
While tidying up, Wang Ying rolled her eyes. She wanted to retort, but she was worried that Wang Lingling might back out of the promise to bring her meat buns later.
In the few days since she had arrived, Wang Ying had quickly noticed that Wang Lingling was acting strangely.
In the past, Wang Lingling was quite proud of her boyfriend working at a state-run restaurant. Wang Ying clearly remembered that last month, Wang Lingling had boasted that once she married into the Xu family, she would live a good life. During the three-year drought, cooks didn’t starve. In the eyes of country folk, working in the kitchen meant they could freely take public goods. Wang Lingling had even discussed with Li Chunjuan how to persuade Xu Shuang to bring things from the kitchen.
The state-run restaurant’s kitchen—wasn’t that the best place to eat meat and drink oil? Bringing some food back home would be such a respectable thing!
But now, after just a few days, why did Wang Lingling suddenly not want to marry Xu Shuang anymore?
Wang Ying put on a patched-up outfit with even more patches, and her hair was tied into two braids. She looked at herself in the small mirror by the door, which was only the size of half a palm. After drinking the spirit water for a few days, although she still felt weak, her energy and spirit had returned a bit.
Wang Lingling spoke for a while but seeing that Wang Ying wasn’t responding, she got bored.
Sanya was always like this—she never did anything but cry.
But Wang Lingling, for now, felt relieved. After Wang Ying retorted to her the other day, she had tossed and turned all night, almost thinking Wang Ying had also been reborn like her. But now, seeing that Wang Ying was still the same silent person, she felt better.
“Let’s go.”
Wang Ying was now thinking about meat buns—meat buns!
The two of them walked together from the production team to the town. The commune here was divided into eight production teams, and Wang’s family was in the seventh team, backed by the mountain. On the west side of the team was a small river, and after crossing the river, they would walk three more miles to reach Xipo Town.
Because it was closer to Xipo Town, even though their own Shengli Commune had a restaurant and a supply and marketing cooperative, people from the seventh team still liked to go to the Hongqi Commune in Xipo Town to buy things.
Wang Ying walked while trying to remember the route. The original owner had left memories, but it always felt like they were through a fog.
For example, when she greeted people along the way, Wang Ying could hardly match the names to the faces. She just called out to uncles, aunts, and the like. Anyway, the original owner rarely went out, and the big surname in the seventh team was Tian, with very few relatives in the Wang family. It was safe to call by age, so she wouldn’t be wrong.
At this time, most people were already off to work, so there weren’t many people around. Wang Ying smiled and greeted everyone with a grin.
“Did I see wrong? Was that Wang Ying from the Yongfu family?”
“Isn’t Li Chunjuan always mumbling that she’s treated like a young lady at home? How come she’s this thin now?”
“She’s thin, but at least she knows how to behave. Unlike Wang Lingling, her nose is always in the air.”
…
It wasn’t surprising that the villagers were gossiping. After all, Wang Ying had rarely been seen outside of school and working at home.
Li Chunjuan was open about things, but her elder brother, Wang Yongshun, cared about face. Even when doing laundry, he usually sent Wang Ying to do it early in the morning before anyone else had woken up. He would also go to the back mountain to gather pig grass, where they lived near the back mountain and rarely encountered anyone.
In recent years, Wang Ying had rarely appeared in front of others. Li Chunjuan even told people that Wang Ying didn’t go out to work, and it was always Wang Lingling who took care of her. But who could blame them? After all, she was the child of a martyr.
Not everyone believed Li Chunjuan’s words, though. Take Wang Lingling for example—she looked down on this and that. How could she serve her cousin in the other room? Anyone with a brain wouldn’t believe that.
Now that the two cousins were walking together, the contrast was obvious. The older cousin was walking in front, holding her head high and not greeting anyone, while the younger cousin, with a yellowish face, was trailing behind, still smiling shyly…
“…Maybe we should ask the team leader to check on the Wang family, after all, she’s a martyr’s child.”
“Are you going? Don’t say I didn’t warn you, a girl still needs her family to back her up when she gets married. Do you think the team leader doesn’t know anything? If the family hasn’t spoken up, why should you?”
“Besides, even if Li Chunjuan isn’t decent, Wang Yongshun is an honest man. Look, he even sent Wang Ying to high school.”
“What’s the use of all that schooling? I heard people say it’s just a bunch of ‘stinky old nine.’”
“You’re the only one who talks nonsense. She might want to be one of those ‘stinky old nine,’ but can she?”
“We were talking about Yongshun, not this. I’m telling you, I’ve noticed that Yongshun doesn’t seem to care much for her. Apart from sending her to school, he hasn’t really bought her anything. Look at those pants, they’re so short.”
Yongshun is a man after all—careless and inattentive. It’s really Li Chunjuan who’s outrageous.”
…
All the way, Wang Ying was multitasking. Her hearing had become slightly sharper due to the spiritual spring water, so she could hear everything the people behind her were saying.
As expected…
Her uncle Wang Yongshun had a much better reputation than her aunt Li Chunjuan.
Wang Ying and Wang Lingling walked for more than half an hour to reach Xipo Town. The town wasn’t big, but it was well-located. Coming down from the county seat, one could reach it by following the main road. Across a river was the Hongqi Commune, and going twenty-some miles along the main road would lead to the county town. So the town had everything it needed—two state-run restaurants, a repair shop, a supply and marketing cooperative, a livestock station…
Wang Lingling led Wang Ying through more than half the town before finally finding the state-run restaurant where Xu Shuang worked.
Though Xipo Town was said to have two state-run restaurants, in reality, only the one where Xu Shuang worked could truly be called a restaurant. The large signboard reading “Xipo Restaurant” had a missing component in the character for “po” (坡), making it look a bit comical. The other “restaurant” used to be an old noodle shop that had since been nationalized, now called the State-Run Noodle House.
Inside Xipo Restaurant, there were about a dozen tables. Although it was almost mealtime, there were only a few customers. A waitress leaned against the counter picking her nails. Everyone in the restaurant wore aprons with bright red five-pointed stars and large characters: “Nanshao County, Xipo Town, Xipo State-Run Grand Restaurant.”
Wang Lingling walked in and asked to find Xu Shuang: “Is Xu Shuang in the kitchen? I need to talk to him.”
The waitress didn’t recognize Wang Lingling, so there was no way she’d let her into the back: “He’s not here. He went to the produce station to get vegetables.”
Wang Lingling grew impatient: “Then when will he be back?”
Waitress: “No one can say for sure. None of us has a watch. Who can tell the time?”
Wang Lingling’s face instantly turned sour, but the waitress, a proud working woman, didn’t cater to her. She simply said, “Comrade, if you want to eat, take a seat. If not, please leave. If you’re looking for someone, wait outside.”
Wang Lingling was so angry her head ached. She really wanted to say she was Xu Shuang’s fiancée, but if she said that, wouldn’t she just be giving him an excuse to cling to her?
“…Fine, give me four meat buns.”
The waitress picked up her notepad and wrote quickly: “Four cents and four ration tickets.”
Wang Ying pulled a small handkerchief out of her pocket. Strictly speaking, rural people didn’t usually receive ration tickets, but her family had gotten some because her younger brother Wang Yaozong was in school. Li Chunjuan didn’t want him to bring dry food like Wang Ying, so she took grain to the grain station and exchanged it for tickets so he could eat at the school canteen. That’s how Wang Lingling had two pounds’ worth of grain tickets on her.
The waitress took the money and tickets, then grabbed four meat buns from the back and placed them in an enamel bowl, which she plopped right on the counter.
Wang Ying had been sitting properly, but as soon as she saw the meat buns land in the bowl, she couldn’t stay still.
Steaming hot meat buns, each pleat looking so delicate and lovely, steam curling upward—at the very top, a hint of soy-brown filling peeked through. The dough wasn’t very white—slightly yellow from poor sifting—but this just added a soft glow to the buns, making them look even more appetizing…
Wang Lingling, fuming, still split two meat buns with Wang Ying. The buns from state-run restaurants were hefty and packed with filling.
Even though she was angry, Wang Lingling found herself getting hungry too. After all, since her return in this lifetime, she hadn’t even smelled minced meat at home. She had said she was here to help Wang Ying meet Xu Shuang, but she was also here to satisfy her own cravings.
Just as she took a bite and was preparing to savor it, Wang Ying had already devoured more than half of her first bun.
By the time Wang Lingling was eating her second bite, Wang Ying had finished one whole bun.
While Wang Lingling was halfway through hers, Wang Ying had already…
Wang Ying, still unsatisfied, looked at her cousin with “pitiful eyes”: “Sister, I’m not full.”
The pork-filled buns were just like the people of this era—pure and straightforward. Other than the meat filling, there wasn’t even a hint of scallion or ginger. Wang Ying thought the chef here must be someone who cared deeply about their craft. You could tell from the use of scallion-ginger infused water instead of chopped scallions and ginger. A true professional!
The natural fragrance of wheat, combined with the aroma of minced pork, filled her belly and made her feel deeply satisfied. Wang Ying thought she could eat twenty more.
Wang Lingling gritted her teeth. Xu Shuang hadn’t come back yet, and now wasn’t the time to let Wang Ying be unhappy.
“…You eat. I’ll go buy more.”
I am just a novice translator and Chinese is not my native language. I try my best to translate the chapters as accurate as possible.
If there are any mistakes then kindly comment and remind me. Your support means a lot.
