Wang An walked onto the main street and suddenly remembered that he hadn't bought a fountain pen for his younger brother, Wang Yi!
Returning to the supply and marketing cooperative, he walked up to the counter. At this time, there were very few fountain pen brands—only three or four types. The cheap ones were 50 cents, the slightly more expensive ones were over one or two yuan, and the most expensive was 6 yuan.
Wang An wasn't short on money, so he directly bought two of the most expensive ones, which were also the best pens of the era.
The "Eagle" brand fountain pen, 6 yuan each—a favorite of many veteran heroes!
He also bought two bottles of ink. This stuff was a consumable; children who loved to study used it up quickly, and Wang Yi happened to be quite studious and had good grades!
At this time, bottled ink was considered a luxury item. Normally, fountain pen ink was made by buying pigments and mixing them with water.
This pigment was called "ink powder," sold in paper packets for 2 cents each. The ink made from it was very pale when written on paper and was extremely difficult to use!
After thinking it over, he also bought 20 sheets of large red paper, as well as a brush, an inkstick, and an inkstone, to be used for writing couplets during the New Year.
Although Wang An hadn't even graduated from middle school, in his previous life, before he spent his days lounging by the fence, he had played the part of a refined scholar for a while and had seriously practiced calligraphy!
Furthermore, in an era where a vast portion of the national population was still illiterate, a middle-school education level was actually not low at all!
Fortunately, in order to eradicate illiteracy, all stationery supplies did not require ration coupons; as long as you had money, you could buy them. Otherwise, these things truly wouldn't have been obtainable!
He then bought two bundles of thin iron wire and one bundle of thick iron wire, as well as 200 springs specifically for making traps. These items were rarely bought by anyone other than hunters because they were of little use to those who didn't know how to set snares or traps, and they were quite expensive!
The wire was weighed on a scale and priced by the jin. In this day and age, iron wire cost 1.2 yuan per jin; a formal employee's daily wage could only buy one jin.
Springs were one cent each. There were ready-made traps available for 10 cents each, so most people chose to make their own.
At these prices, ordinary commoners couldn't afford them because they truly had no money!
Because demand was low and stock was limited, these were hard-to-sell items, so they didn't require coupons either.
As he was leaving the cooperative, Wang An saw a young mother leading a child of four or five. This reminded him of his younger sisters and little Sister Lai!
However, whether it was his sisters or his sisters-in-law, they didn't lack meat or nutrition now; they drank malted milk every day. In this era, they belonged to the happiest small group of children!
Only little Sister Lai, that angel-like little girl, though very lovable, was indeed heartbreaking to look at.
Consequently, Wang An turned back to the counter and bought four bottles of malted milk, four cans of preserved food, and 5 jin of coupon-free biscuits.
With so many things, Wang An bought two cloth bags and one burlap sack before finally turning to leave the cooperative.
Placing the burlap sack on the horse's back, Wang An returned to Kaoshan Village without delay.
Along the way, he was truly frozen stiff. Actually, Wang An was mainly worried that the cans would freeze and burst. Pulling a sledge was better, as it was covered with straw mats and old burlap sacks, so it was fine.
This time, riding the horse, there was only a single layer of burlap. The insulation of one layer of burlap was mediocre at best; he estimated it wouldn't be of much use.
After returning to the village, Wang An first went to Shen Wei's house. Seeing Wang An arrive, both Shen Wei and little Sister Lai were very happy. Shen Wei wanted to send little Sister Lai to stay in the east room, but Wang An stopped her.
Day after day, you can't treat a person like a pack mule! Besides, who was she treating like a pack mule?
When Wang An brought out the malted milk, little Sister Lai didn't react much because she didn't know what it was! But when Wang An brought out the biscuits and cans, little Sister Lai immediately beamed with joy!
Because she was already quite familiar with Wang An, little Sister Lai affectionately hugged Wang An's leg and asked in a milky voice, "Uncle, is this for me?"
"Yes, because little Sister Lai listens to her mother, so this is a reward for her," Wang An answered while looking at the cans in front of him.
Damn, the four cans were now solid blocks of ice, and two of them had frozen and cracked. Fortunately, the cracked glass bottles didn't have shards inside, so the food was still edible.
Wang An said to Shen Wei, who was looking at him with a face full of happiness, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and find a basin."
Shen Wei was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly ran to the outer room and soon returned with a large earthenware basin.
When Wang An saw the basin, which was a full size larger than a washbasin, he was momentarily stunned. There were only two broken cans; why bring such a huge basin?
However, looking at Shen Wei, whose IQ seemed to be offline at the moment, Wang An said nothing. A basin was a basin; he'd just make do!
Wang An carefully pried off the frozen glass, then placed the ice blocks into the basin. In a short while, two cylindrical blocks of ice sat at the bottom of the massive basin, with yellow peach chunks embedded in the ice. It actually looked quite nice!
After giving the biscuits to little Sister Lai and teasing her for a while, Wang An ignored Shen Wei, who was gazing at him with eyes full of affection, and turned to leave!
After returning home, Wang An first set the fountain pen and ink aside. Luckily, the ink had been kept in his cotton coat pocket, otherwise it would have frozen into a block of ice too!
When he brought out the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, the whole family was stunned!
Liu Guilan asked in great surprise, "What did you buy this stuff for? Can you even get your own name right?"
Wang An said with a smile, "Listen to you. I'm a man of culture; writing a few characters is a piece of cake."
Liu Guilan replied disdainfully, "Oh sure, a 'man of culture'—a man of culture who was kicked out of school!"
Wang Dazhu, chewing on an Ice City cigarette, suddenly chimed in: "A toad holding a pen still looks like a shit-stirring stick!"
Hearing this, Wang An's smile instantly vanished. He smacked his lips and blinked his eyes, completely stumped by the couple's roasting!
Then, Mu Xueqing, Liu Guilan, and Wang Dazhu burst into loud laughter!
As the three of them laughed, they began recounting various embarrassing things that had happened to Wang An in the past. The more they spoke, the more spirited they became, and the laughter simply wouldn't stop!
Only Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli were confused, glancing from one person to another before looking down to continue fiddling with their yellow-goat galaha!
Galaha was one of the primary toys for children at this time.
Regardless of whether they were boys or girls, they loved playing with them, mainly because there weren't many other toys to play with!
Moreover, this toy required a high degree of hand-eye coordination. Almost everyone knew how to play, but wanting to play it at a master level was truly difficult!
Listening to his family mock and tease him, Wang An wasn't angry at all. On the contrary, he felt it was actually quite good. This feeling of the whole family sitting together in a lively atmosphere was truly blissful!
After thinking it over, Wang An decided to show off. He spread the yellow straw paper he had bought on the table, poured a bit of water onto the inkstone, ground the ink, and got everything ready.
After a moment's thought, Wang An wrote an ancient poem on the yellow paper that every student could recite
*Goose, goose, goose,* *With curved neck sings to the sky,* *White feathers float on green water,* *Red webs paddle the clear waves.*
The reason he wrote this poem was that when he first learned it, he had a strong feeling.
A big white goose like that—if you plucked the feathers, chopped it up, and stewed it with potatoes until the goose was tender and the potatoes were mushy, then paired it with a pot of wine... that feeling would be truly top-notch!
After finishing, Wang An studied it and felt that his writing looked quite good!
Although he didn't understand things like "charm" or "rhyme," and hadn't captured the hidden depths or expressions that true master calligraphers wrote into their work...
Regardless, as long as the characters looked neat and pretty, that was enough!
As his old man said, even if he held a pen, he was like a shit-stirring stick, so what was there to nitpick? Why bother?
***
(End of Chapter)