Chapter 10: The First Mission 10

"I admit, back when I was a student, I had feelings for him."

"But since coming here, I feel more and more that we are not compatible."

"You know that over at the farm, they only get coupons and a monthly salary; there's nothing else."

"It's different here. Although there's no salary, we can grow vegetables. If you're hardworking enough, you can trade them for supplies." Although it wasn't money, it was very popular when mailed back home.

"When there are plenty of vegetables in the summer, we can make dried vegetables, and then we can mail them back."

"Even though we can't grow grain on the private plots, we can grow sweet potatoes."

"Mm-hmm, I plan to plant sweet potatoes next year." Liu Wen had already thought it through, planning to develop more ways to prepare sweet potatoes when the time came. "And pumpkins, too."

Lin Yuan had said that if she had any surplus from the grain distributed by the village, she could help sell it.

Having solved the problem of basic food and clothing, Liu Wen naturally wanted to make money.

"I've also planted a lot of pumpkins. I have many children at home; when I mail dried vegetables and grain back, my mother gives me money every year." At first, Wang Juan didn't want to take it, as it was her way of showing filial piety to her parents, but her parents insisted she accept it.

So Wang Juan stopped declining. Just as her parents said, she had many siblings; when she got married, they might not be able to provide a dowry, so if she married here, she could use it to buy things for herself.

"Really, back then I thought marrying him would be quite good. Coming here as a sent-down youth, I didn't know when I'd be able to go back. Many people who came here with me have already married one after another; it would be a lie to say I didn't feel lonely."

Liu Wen heard the loneliness in Wang Juan's words. She could imagine that although Li Yanan and Li Wan had been here longer than her, Wang Juan was close to her, while her relationship with the other two was just average.

"But do you know what he said?" Wang Juan couldn't help but raise her voice. "He said if we got married, he wanted me to continue staying in the village."

Ah, what did that mean? Liu Wen didn't understand; what kind of logic was this? As long as they registered their marriage, the farm wouldn't refuse to accept a family member.

Wang Juan took a deep breath. "His reason was that if I went to the farm, I wouldn't be able to tend the private plots here."

"That reason..." Not everyone felt that staying in the village was good. How to choose should be a personal decision, even if it involved a partner.

Liu Wen felt quite a dislike for Wang Juan's suitor. If Wang Juan herself wanted to stay in the countryside, that would be one thing, but what right did that man have to use such an attitude?

Wang Juan gave a bitter smile. "His meaning was that I could plant more soybeans and rapeseed on the private plots, and plant sweet potatoes. Then, the soybeans and rapeseed could be pressed into oil and mailed to his family."

"I would just eat sweet potatoes and such, and mail the village-distributed grain to his family."

"And mail dried vegetables to his family too. I asked him, what about him?"

"He said he usually lives at the farm and only comes over on Saturday nights."

"He can continue to eat at the canteen; he can eat white rice, while I can only eat sweet potatoes. Doesn't he know that eating too many sweet potatoes causes heartburn?"

"It would be one thing if there were no grain, but since I have grain, why should I wrong myself?" Thinking about it made Wang Juan feel aggrieved.

Ah, Liu Wen was stunned. "He really is... beyond unreasonable."

"Is he trying to marry a wife?" Liu Wen was almost embarrassed to say it; it sounded more like he wanted to find a hardworking laborer for his family.

"A wife," Wang Juan sneered. "He's looking for a wife to work like an ox or a horse. He even hinted that since I have several brothers in my natal family, no matter how much I mail home, they won't treat me well."

Good grief, even before the marriage with Wang Juan was a single step in progress, he had already started instigating her not to support her natal family.

If Wang Juan's family hadn't been mailing her money, she might have had some resentment after a long time, but her parents always gave her money. Compared to the man's calculations, they were infinitely better.

"Of course I'm not willing."

"He even thinks I'm being difficult. He originally planned to just let things fizzle out, hoping I'd change my mind. But I know him—he's just 'riding a donkey to look for a horse,' waiting to see if he can find someone who will help him raise his family's wife."

"With that kind of thinking, who would be willing?" Setting aside whether she would definitely help her natal family, at the very least, one shouldn't wrong oneself just to support the in-laws.

Liu Wen truly couldn't hold back. For someone like that, he actually thought he was in high demand. "He's truly a piece of work. Whoever marries him will face a lifetime of misery."

"What kind of person would be so foolish as to think of marrying him?"

"Even staying single for a lifetime would be better than marrying him." If Liu Wen had to choose, she would rather not marry at all.

Wang Juan agreed with this view. "Right, Lin Yuan and the others feel the same way. They haven't even married him yet, and they already have this and that as requirements. Once they marry him, who knows what kind of demands they'll make."

"My life right now is quite good."

"By the way, my mother works at the supply and marketing cooperative. She often gets some defective goods. I told my mother that if there's any defective fabric, she should mail some over—the kind that doesn't require coupons."

If it were anyone else, Wang Juan wouldn't want to cause trouble, but after spending time together these past few days, she felt Liu Wen was a good person.

"Great, great!" Defective fabric that didn't require coupons—how could she miss such an opportunity? "That's much better than my patched clothes."

If Wang Juan hadn't mentioned it, Liu Wen had been thinking that once she got some cotton, she'd ask Lin Yuan to help buy some cloth to make at least two sets of clothes; otherwise, she wouldn't even dare to wash her clothes vigorously for fear of tearing them.

"Thank you, Auntie. How much will it be? I'll pay you." It was already very kind of her to ask for help; she couldn't let her help and then not pay.

"No need, no need." Wang Juan felt a bit embarrassed. "You can just give me some of your dried vegetables."

"The dried vegetables we make aren't worth much, but they are very valuable in the city." The dried vegetables Wang Juan mailed back weren't just for her family to eat; she would also trade them for other things with her colleagues.

In this way, dried vegetables were very popular in the winter. Wang Juan wanted to make more, but she couldn't keep up because everyone else's dried vegetables were also being mailed back home.

Liu Wen understood. "Sure! I'm making dried vegetables so I can eat them in the winter anyway. If you need some, it's a deal."

Trading inexpensive dried vegetables for defective fabric—this business was definitely worth it.

"I feel like I should work even harder at growing vegetables." Previously, Liu Wen had focused more on soybeans to make oily, delicious dishes, but she hadn't expected that even inexpensive vegetables could be traded for things. She couldn't afford to be careless now.

Liu Wen felt that when she had time, she should go and reclaim more wasteland. Being busy was fine; having more cloth could solve many problems.

Seeing the proactive Liu Wen, Wang Juan smiled. "You don't have to work so hard."

"It's not hard, not hard at all."

"I used to do a lot of work back home." Liu Wen really didn't find it hard; the main thing was that there was money to be made.

Lin Yuan pushed his cart into the courtyard, glancing toward the female sent-down youths. "Liu Wen, Liu Wen."

(End of Chapter)