Chapter 17

Ye Qingshui didn’t know whether Zhou Ke’s grandfather ultimately survived. If it was simply because he was too poor to afford treatment, then it was truly a pity.

Thinking of this, Ye Qingshui thought about going into the city again to engage in speculative trading.

These past few days, although she was exhausted to death, her legs almost running off, she hadn’t earned much money. She had originally planned to take the route of small profits but quick turnover — selling out early and packing up early. But now it seemed that wouldn’t work. Since she had already embarked on the path of speculative trading, a road of no return, how could she still be so honest?

Honesty would only get you beaten!

Ye Qingshui decided to raise her prices! Since she was going to raise her prices, then the buns she made couldn’t be careless either; she had to bring out her true skills.

Selling buns — the dough needed to be soft and fragrant, the meat filling needed to be solid and juicy. Even the temperature of the freshly steamed buns had to be just right. As for the temperature, there was nothing she could do about it — after all, the journey was long, and it was impossible for customers to eat freshly steamed buns immediately.

Thinking of this, Ye Qingshui thought of Liu Yiliang and Zhang Yuanchao.

If she could get pork, chicken, duck, and fish — enough ingredients — what would she still have to worry about? She could simmer a rich broth for a whole day and night, just like the top-class dish Boiled Cabbage in Supreme Soup , where an entire chicken was used to make just one bowl of pure broth, using it to cook cabbage. Pursuing the ultimate taste — that would be the level of a Michelin chef.

The difficulty was, her relationship with Zhang Yuanchao wasn’t good enough. Would he be willing to help her? Ye Qingshui had no choice but to turn her gaze toward Liu Yiliang — she heard the livestock station had a strong connection with the meat processing plant.

The next day, after finishing her work at noon, Ye Qingshui pulled out the glazed bead she had carefully stored, wrapped it carefully in cloth, and went into the city.

Ye Qingshui first made a trip to the Zhou family.

The Zhou family’s house was as dilapidated as ever. As soon as the door opened, a wave of stale, decaying smell rushed out.

Ye Qingshui pinched her nose and couldn’t help but worry:

Could it be that Old Man Zhou had already… given up?

But this worry quickly vanished, because she saw Old Man Zhou at the side of the water pool, washing a bucket used for manure. His face was tense, lips dry and cracked, and although his sickly complexion hadn’t improved much, it was still better than when she last came.

Ye Qingshui breathed a sigh of relief. At least he made it through!

Zhou Cunren glanced indifferently at Ye Qingshui, then withdrew his gaze.

Instead, it was Zhou Ke who, upon seeing her, called out warmly, “Sister, you’re here!”

“You haven’t set up your stall for a long time. Lots of people came asking about Brother Zheng who sells eggs — asking when you would come.”

Ye Qingshui took out the glazed bead, smiling as she spoke to Old Man Zhou:

“You really have a discerning eye — you could tell at a glance that the book wasn’t worth keeping.”

Zhou Ke said, “My grandpa used to be a teacher! He was really good at math and physics!”

Zhou Ke’s words were interrupted by Zhou Cunren. The stubborn old man curled his lips and coldly snorted,

“Once something is given away, it’s given away — no need to deliberately bring anything back.”

“That won’t do. If you insist on me accepting it, then I must pay a little more,” Ye Qingshui said, pulling out three yuan and stuffing it into Zhou Ke’s hand.

Ye Qingshui glanced around the dilapidated house.

Though small, it had everything necessary.

On the old man’s bedside table sat a dismantled radio, with a mess of dense electric wires, circuit boards, and dial meters scattered around — making Ye Qingshui find it rather interesting.

She took one look, then withdrew her gaze.

Ye Qingshui pulled out the buns she had brought from home and gave them to Zhou Ke.

Zhou Ke’s eyes instantly turned red.

He returned the money to Ye Qingshui, saying,

“It’s okay, Sister. I found a job smashing stones — a basket of stones can earn five cents! Grandpa was right — in life, we must rely on ourselves and can’t accept other people’s things. I will work hard helping you sell buns and repay your money.”

The money could be refused, but the buns couldn’t.

He cautiously watched his grandfather and carefully tucked the buns into his coat.

Seeing that his grandfather said nothing, Zhou Ke’s eyes crinkled as he quickly took a bite of the bun.

Ye Qingshui laughed and accepted the money.

“Take good care of your grandfather. I’m leaving. I’ll probably come back to set up my stall tomorrow.”

Ye Qingshui put on her mask as she stepped out.

Zhou Ke chased after her, holding two books in his hands, panting as he said:

“Grandpa asked me to give these to you. He said thank you.”

Of course, that last sentence was Zhou Ke’s own addition.

Grandpa’s original words were:

“Take these two tattered books and give them to her. Treating worn-out books like treasures…”

and then he coldly snorted.

Ye Qingshui accepted the books happily.

In this era, books were precious treasures.

During the Smash the Four Olds movement, many books had been banned or burned.

Interesting, worthwhile books that remained were truly few and far between.

She patted Zhou Ke’s head.

“Help me thank your grandfather.”

After that, Ye Qingshui went to the livestock station to find Liu Yiliang.

Liu Yiliang, wearing work clothes, was crouched on the ground helping a sow that had just given birth to stimulate milk production. His hands were covered in pig dung.

Liu Yiliang smiled awkwardly at her and quickly finished the work at hand.

Then he shouted loudly:

“Sister-in-law Yu, you’re here!”

When Liu Yiliang called out “Sister-in-law Yu,” some coworkers saw a slim girl waiting outside and couldn’t help teasing:

“We thought it was your girlfriend coming to find you.

Didn’t expect it was sister-in-law.

Yiliang, you better hurry up and settle your marriage!”

Someone interjected,

“Sister-in-law Yu? Which Sister-in-law Yu?”

The one asking was a new face.

Liu Yiliang quickly answered:

“Who else? My Brother Yu’s woman, of course!

As for Brother Yu — I don’t need to say more. You’ve all seen him.”

Liu Yiliang quickly washed his hands clean and ran over.

He asked, “Sister-in-law Yu, what brings you here?”

Ye Qingshui smiled at him, looking at him as if seeing a piece of meat.

She said, “Yiliang, do you like eating pig trotters?”

Liu Yiliang nodded vigorously,

“Like them! Of course I like them!”

Ye Qingshui then explained her purpose for coming:

“Pig trotters and offal — it’s hard to line up for them at the shops. If you go late, you won’t be able to buy any.

I wanted to ask — do you have any internal quotas?

I mean, benefits for employees — I’m willing to pay a high price to buy from you.”

Liu Yiliang immediately understood and said, “Yes, in summer when it gets hot, the warehouse space is limited, and there’s not much that can be frozen. Things like pig offal, pig trotters, and pig bones don’t sell well, and the meat processing plant doesn’t want to waste space freezing them. Whenever there are bones or offal that can’t be sold, the plant will forcibly require each employee to buy a few jin to take home. Sigh, people from the meat plant complain about it every day. If there’s a chance, I’ll save some for you.”

When Ye Qingshui heard “bones,” her eyes immediately lit up.

Bones were also very good — nutritious and great for health. Buying them didn’t require ration tickets, but you did need a doctor’s nutrition certificate to purchase them.

Even though not many people wanted them, the rule was the rule, and the storefronts couldn’t do anything about it.

Because of this, it was very hard for Ye Qingshui to buy bones. With internal benefits this good, no wonder so many people these days racked their brains trying to get a job at a supply and marketing cooperative, a store, or the meat processing plant.

If Ye Qingshui had an urban household registration, she would’ve wanted to apply too.

Liu Yiliang said, “Just so happens, we have some today. I’ll give them to you, sister-in-law.”

He picked out a few pig bones and gave them to Ye Qingshui. These were bones Liu Yiliang had bought from someone else — one jin cost ten cents. Although it wasn’t expensive, there were a lot of bones and little meat, so it wasn’t worth much.

People from the livestock station would occasionally grab a few vacancies from the meat plant to buy bones.

Ye Qingshui was overjoyed to receive the bones.

She handed money to Liu Yiliang and said,

“Tonight, you must come over and drink some bone soup. I won’t accept your ration tickets.”

On the other side—

Xie Tingyu and Shen Weimin were called to a state-run restaurant.

When Shen Weimin saw Zhang Yuanchao’s face bruised into a miserable panda eye, his mouth twitched.

Zhang Yuanchao poured out everything about how he had been bullied by hooligans:

“Do you remember, back then, when Brother Yu was blocked by hooligans asking for protection money, and he ended up teaching them a lesson instead? Well, now those hooligans have someone backing them up and have gotten cocky — they dared to block me.”

After he finished speaking, he whined to Xie Tingyu:

“Brother Yu, you have to stand up for me.”

Liu Yiliang also arrived and asked, “Do you still remember who all bullied you?”

Zhang Yuanchao listed their names one by one, and when he mentioned one particular name, Liu Yiliang jumped in shock: “That’s my coworker! Are you sure you didn’t get it wrong?”

“No wonder just now he even specially asked me, ‘Where are Brother Yu and Sister-in-law Yu?'”

“What?” Several men asked at once.

Liu Yiliang had no choice but to recount everything about how Ye Qingshui had come to find him earlier.

After listening, Xie Tingyu’s face darkened.

“They couldn’t have set their sights on Sister-in-law Yu, could they? It’s getting late too—” Liu Yiliang said worriedly.

Shen Weimin noticed Xie Tingyu’s ugly expression and quickly tried to patch things up:

“It should just be about snatching a few bucks. They wouldn’t make things too hard on a woman — don’t worry, stay calm—”

Monkey chimed in:

“They have pretty high standards — if it’s not a village belle, they’re not even interested.

Country girls are safe…”

Hearing this, Liu Yiliang got unhappy:

“Sister-in-law is as beautiful as a flower, walking alone at night is absolutely not safe. How can you say she’s fine?”

Monkey and Shen Weimin’s mouths twitched —

on one hand, they couldn’t help but be speechless at Liu Yiliang’s twisted sense of aesthetics, and on the other hand, they scrambled to grab their bicycles. When they turned around — Xie Tingyu was already nowhere to be seen.

Xie Tingyu was pedaling furiously, almost flying on his bike, nearly crashing into people.

He couldn’t help but think: “If only it’s just a false alarm.”

Then he thought again: “If only I hadn’t let Ye Qingshui go out today.”

The faster he pedaled, the fewer people he saw. The mountain road grew quieter, the stream in the valley grew colder, and Xie Tingyu’s mood grew more and more agitated.

After riding for about twenty minutes, he finally saw a group of people — a few big men surrounding a delicate figure, pushing and shoving.

Xie Tingyu’s blood ran backward in an instant.

He rushed over, threw his bicycle to the ground, and yanked Ye Qingshui behind him to protect her.

He said fiercely, “She’s mine — you dare lay a finger on her?”

As he spoke, he yanked at his own shirt — with a loud pop , the buttons scattered.

His muscles tightened, fists hardened, and though he didn’t look bulky, he was packed with muscle.

Even though it was one against eight, he didn’t hesitate —

he was full of courage and fought them head-on.

His lips split open, his face was scratched and bruised, his fists were torn and bleeding.

After a long time, he finally made his way to Ye Qingshui’s side, breathing heavily. He pulled her into his arms and comforted her: “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

Xie Tingyu carefully looked Ye Qingshui over —

only after making sure she hadn’t even lost a single strand of hair did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

In the golden afterglow of the setting sun, her mask had slipped off, hanging loosely by her ear, revealing the face he hadn’t seen in a long time.

It was a very beautiful face: Curved willow-leaf eyebrows, a delicately raised nose, soft lips gently pressed together like flower petals.

Set against a pair of naturally bright, lively black eyes,

her features seemed to light up, leaving one stunned.

Her skin was fair and smooth, without any cracks or red veins.

A cool evening breeze blew gently past, and the sunset made her face even more radiant and delicate.

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