Rebirth in the 1980s: The Spicy Wife

Two people could not survive on just 20 jin of sweet potatoes for very long.

This year's new harvest had not yet arrived, and when Xia Jundong returned, he would definitely ask Liu Fen to go back home. But would the Xia family forgive Xia Xiaolan? Liu Fen was thinking of returning to her parents' home the next day to think of a solution. The Liu family was also poor, and Xia Xiaolan's uncle was a generous man who would not just stand by and watch his niece starve.

Just as she was making plans, Xia Xiaolan returned carrying a bundle of dry branches, her eyes bright, saying that she wanted to eat roasted sweet potatoes. Liu Fen was pleased to see her daughter looking healthier and was willing to endure any hardship:

"All right, mom will roast sweet potatoes for you."

But then, Xia Xiaolan moved the firewood aside to reveal a clutch of wild duck eggs.

Liu Fen was also quite happy, as the size of the duck eggs was similar to that of chicken eggs, and they looked like they had been collected from the reeds. With these duck eggs, Xia Xiaolan could replenish her strength; she was so thin now that a breeze could potentially knock her over, and Liu Fen felt a great pity for her.

"I'll also boil a duck egg for you."

The old broken house did not have cooking utensils, but country people were not picky; cooking an egg in an enamel cup was definitely doable. Xia Xiaolan stopped her mother, however:

"We can't eat the duck eggs now. Our good days depend on these wild duck eggs. I want to find more duck eggs to sell in the city... Let's go to the reeds tonight. If we can catch a couple of wild ducks, that would be great too."

Liu Fen had never done anything like this before.

The Xia family had not split up, and the eggs they saved were usually taken by her mother-in-law and older sister-in-law to the city to sell. It took two hours to walk from the Great River village to the county town, and people wouldn't go to the city unless they had a reason. But Xia Xiaolan was persuasive, and Liu Fen could not argue with her daughter, who was accustomed to obedience, and could not find any words to refute her.

The mother and daughter each ate a sweet potato and then went to sleep, with the thought of selling the duck eggs on their minds. They needed at least two baskets. Liu Fen ran outside to get some reed stems and made two small baskets:

"Without tools and not soaked in water, they're bound to rot within a month."

Liu Fen placed the reed baskets underwater, weighted down with stones, and felt quite dismissive of her own handiwork. Xia Xiaolan, however, already considered them a work of art in weaving. Clearly, both of them were clueless about this!

The mother and daughter were about to become "egg thieves" and quickly went to sleep after making the baskets. The door was not locked, just propped open with a stick, and there were no beds inside. Xia Xiaolan laid down a layer of clean reed stems on the ground. Thank goodness it was August; otherwise, this rundown old shack would have frozen them to the bone.

Without an alarm clock, they were awakened by the rustling sound not long after. It turned out that Liu Fen had already retrieved the reed baskets from the water.

"You go back to sleep, mom will go first."

The leaves of the reeds could cut into one's skin, which was why the duck eggs had not been picked up earlier. It was a tough job, and Liu Fen did not want her daughter to suffer. Xia Xiaolan was usually delicate, having done little farm work.

Xia Xiaolan shook her head, "Let's go together."

Two people would be faster and safer. They only had a flashlight, which they had to use by the light of the moon. Fortunately, the moonlight was strong that night, and it would certainly be a sunny day the next day.

Xia Xiaolan and her mother carried their small baskets and tried to go to less frequented places. They startled a wild duck, which flew away, and when they finally found a duck's nest, it was empty.

When they found the first clutch of eggs, they startled a dog in a cattle shed.

The old widower who looked after the cattle was very alert: "Who's there!"

The flashlight beam flickered a few times, and Liu Fen blocked Xia Xiaolan behind her, feeling quite embarrassed: "...Uncle, it's me. I'm just picking a few duck eggs to feed the child."

"Xia Jundong's family?"

The old man looked at the mother and daughter, both with heads full of grass clippings.

The fact that Xia Xiaolan had been kicked out of the house was known to everyone in the Great River village, and the old man didn't particularly like Xia Xiaolan, even without the issue of her character. This daughter-in-law of his didn't respect her elders, and she rarely even addressed anyone. However, Liu Fen seemed quite pitiful, and Xia Xiaolan had a Band-Aid on her forehead, oozing blood. After some thought, the old man handed the flashlight to Liu Fen:

"Return it to me tomorrow."

Liu Fen was so grateful her eyes teared up.

Xia Xiaolan thought, not everyone in the Great River village was a scoundrel, and she was very sincere:

"Thank you, Grandpa Wang."

The old man was somewhat surprised. He looked at Xia Xiaolan and returned the dog to the cattle shed, no longer paying attention to the mother and daughter.

With the help of the flashlight, the wild duck nests in that area were doomed. Xia Xiaolan and her mother walked for several hours, collecting over seventy or eighty wild duck eggs, which they packed into two reed baskets, leaving Liu Fen somewhat dazed.

In addition to the duck eggs, they also found a nest of newly hatched baby ducks.

"They can be raised."

The down on their bodies was already grown, and Liu Fen was quite happy.

Xia Xiaolan thought of their dilapidated shack that wasn't secure even against honest people, shook her head, and said:

"It might be better to sell them all when they're grown. We can't afford to keep a few wild ducks."

Liu Fen was a bit reluctant to part with them.

However, they were facing difficulties even feeding themselves, and raising a few wild ducks would indeed draw attention.

The two returned home, checked each egg carefully, and with the additional twelve eggs Xia晓兰 had previously collected, they had a total of eighty-two unhatched eggs. They didn't wait for dawn and set off for the city with Xia Xiaolan, bringing along two roasted sweet potatoes as their meal.

Roasted sweet potatoes were novel and exciting for Xia Xiaolan's first meal, but after eating them twice, she began to feel disgruntled. Fortunately, she had experienced a lot of hardship as a child and was resilient enough to persevere in this situation. If a wealthy and beautiful woman had been dropped into this predicament, she would have probably gone mad on the first day.

To survive in this era and then aspire to a better life!

With this determination, Xia Xiaolan trudged on, and by the time they reached the county town, it was already dawn. The Great River village was poor, but Qing'an County had a bit more economic clout. There was a large meat processing plant and an agricultural machinery plant in the county, which employed many workers. The cattle from the Great River village's cattle shed were sold to the meat processing plant.

Even the workers at the meat processing plant could only occasionally get some meat, but eggs were hard to come by. The townships under Anqing County were abundant in pigs and cattle but had few poultry farmers.

"Where should we sell them?"

The two large plants in Anqing County were where the workers had money, and the black market revolved around these places. Since the meat processing plant was doing well, the workers there had more money, and Liu Fen suggested selling the eggs near the plant.

But Xia Xiaolan took a different route:

"Let's walk around outside the agricultural machinery plant."

The workers at the agricultural machinery plant were numerous, and Xia Xiaolan was more familiar with this type of factory.

By the time they reached the agricultural machinery plant, it was daylight. The workers there were riding bicycles, and Xia Xiaolan saw a few people on the side of the road with items in their hands, apparently fellow sellers... It was good, no competition for selling eggs today. Some were carrying chickens, others had newly dug sweet potatoes, but there was no one selling eggs.

As Xia Xiaolan just found a spot to set up, a middle-aged woman carrying a basket of vegetables approached her:

"Are these eggs for sale?"

Xia Xiaolan didn't beat around the bush, "They're wild duck eggs, all fresh. If you're interested, I can sell them to you cheaper than chicken eggs."

Given that wild duck eggs were the same size as chicken eggs and even cheaper, it was a great deal. Whether they were delicate or not, who cared!

Chicken eggs were selling for 1.2 yuan per jin (half a kilo) at market price, and you needed ration coupons to buy them. However, if you were a farmer selling your own eggs, you could get 1.5 yuan per jin without coupons. Xia Xiaolan had checked the prices earlier and learned that you just had to be polite and greet people to get the scoop on prices; no one kept their selling prices a secret.

Seeing that the middle-aged woman wasn't leaving, Xia Xiaolan guessed she was interested:

"If you're buying fewer than 10, I can sell them to you for 3 jiao and 3 fen each. If you buy 10 or more, it'll be 2 fen each, and for 20 or more, it's 1 fen!"

Her tiered promotional pricing strategy threw the middle-aged woman off guard.

Who wouldn't take advantage of a discount? The woman, who had originally planned to buy just a few, ended up paying for 21 eggs... It seemed that the middle-aged woman's life wisdom shouldn't be underestimated; she knew how to take advantage of a good deal without losing her head.

Xia Xiaolan collected 2 yuan and 3 fen from the woman, even giving her a 1 fen discount.

She handed the money over to Liu Fen, who still hadn't quite processed it all. The surrounding vendors were looking at Xia Xiaolan, impressed by how poised and efficient she was, considering her youthful appearance.