Chapter 2: Ma Street

Wang Xiaojuan chased after her, annoyed, and gave a playful swat at Li Manjun’s head with a spatula.

"Who are you talking about? Who else could it be? Of course, it’s that nephew of Factory Director Li’s. Have you even met him or not?"

Li Manjun didn't stop what she was doing. She spat out a mouthful of white foam, took another sip of water to rinse her mouth, turned to put her toothbrush and cup back on the windowsill, and tilted her head to reply with two words: "Haven't met."

Wang Xiaojuan’s expression changed instantly. If Li Manjun hadn't reminded her that the food in the kitchen was about to burn, that spatula definitely would have landed on her.

"I don't like that person," Li Manjun said bluntly.

Wang Xiaojuan was stunned. "You haven't even met him and you already say you don't like him?"

Her eyes lit up immediately after. "Well, we can try someone else then. I heard from Auntie Wu that the young man from the grain shop on East Street is also quite good..."

Li Manjun: "..."

Seeing her daughter didn't respond, Wang Xiaojuan assumed she had agreed. She happily rattled off several other candidates, finished cooking the meal with lightning speed, and served it to this "ancestor" in the dining room.

"Come eat!"

There were only the two of them, the unemployed mother and daughter, left at home; the ones who worked and went to school had already left. The meal consisted of a pickled vegetable soup and a plate of stir-fried edamame.

Li Manjun glanced toward the kitchen cupboard, and Wang Xiaojuan immediately guarded it, locking the cupboard door.

"Don't look. That piece of pork belly is for tonight’s braised pork. Your brother loves braised pork the most. The school sports meet is coming up soon, so he needs to build up his strength to win a place."

Mentioning her son, Wang Xiaojuan’s tone softened significantly.

Li Manjun thought to herself that it was fortunate she wasn't the original owner of this body; otherwise, hearing such blatant favoritism from her mother would have been heartbreaking.

In her past life, she was an only child and had never experienced the feeling of parents failing to hold the scale of justice level. She hadn't expected to experience it on her very first day of transmigrating.

Li Manjun certainly wanted to eat meat. In the past, she had meat with every meal; she was someone who couldn't live without it.

Eating pickled vegetable soup and edamame occasionally would just have to count as a diet meal.

Li Manjun was surprised to find that she still possessed a bit of an Ah Q spirit.

After finishing the meal, Li Manjun took the initiative to clear the table and took the dishes to the sink in the courtyard to wash them.

This way, she could avoid listening to a few more of her mother's nagging words.

She had only been with Wang Xiaojuan for one morning, and her ears were already starting to grow calluses.

It was always the same thing: finding a partner, getting married off as soon as possible, and so on.

Previously, because she wanted a room of her own, her younger sister Li Lijun would also stir the pot from time to time, hoping her sister would get married early so she could have a bedroom to herself.

Li Manjun could understand the girl’s pursuit of private space, as she was in the midst of her rebellious teenage years.

But if that pursuit was built on her sister’s suffering, then sorry, no way!

The original family’s home wasn't actually small. It was a three-room bungalow with a small courtyard. The bedroom on the left was for the two sisters, the largest room in the middle was divided into two—the front part was the dining and living room, and the back was the bedroom for Wang Xiaojuan and Li Dawei.

The largest room on the right was occupied solely by Li Jianjun.

One side of the courtyard was for washing and daily chores, and a shed had been built on the other side to serve as a kitchen.

Such housing conditions were among the best in the entire middle school district.

Many people were still living with seven or eight people, three generations squeezed into a small house of a dozen square meters.

At this time, everyone was waiting for their work units to allocate housing. Commercial housing wouldn't become popular for a few more years, and people didn't have high requirements for housing; as long as they had a place to live, it was enough.

If it came with an independent bathroom, that would be the standard of a luxury presidential suite!

Li Manjun put the washed dishes on the stove, shook the water off her hands, grabbed two rolls of coarse yellow paper from the living room, and said to Wang Xiaojuan, who was preparing to wash clothes

"Mom, I'm going out."

Wang Xiaojuan asked, "Where to?"

Li Manjun held up the paper in her hand; the destination was self-evident.

There was no bathroom in the house, so for both number one and number two, one had to run to the public toilet next to the school.

Of course, the "toilet escape" was just an excuse to go out and walk around.

It was only now that Li Manjun realized, did no one have bathrooms in their homes back then?

Unfortunately, her childhood memories were truly blurry. By the time she had clear memories, it was already the end of the nineties. By then, people’s lives had long since become affluent, and independent bathrooms were already very common.

Wang Xiaojuan instructed, "Come back right after you're done. It's a big market day today. Take those two pairs of new Liberation shoes on the shoe rack and ask the villagers to help take them back to your grandparents."

After saying this, she couldn't help but complain, "They always say the middle child is the most neglected, but in the end, isn't the middle child the most filial?"

Li Manjun took the shoes with her before leaving; she didn't want to run back for them later.

"Your Auntie Wu is coming to our house for lunch tomorrow. Don't you dare run off, you hear me!" Wang Xiaojuan shouted at the top of her lungs.

Why was Auntie Wu coming?

Naturally, for a blind date.

Li Manjun gave a perfunctory response and rushed out, taking two steps at a time. After holding her breath to finish her business at the public toilet, she headed toward Ma Street with the two pairs of Liberation shoes wrapped in yellow paper.

Ma Street used to be a place specifically for selling horses. Later, when the horses were gone, pigs, cows, and sheep became more common, but the name remained the same—it was still called Ma Street.

Li Manjun felt that "Farmers' Market" would be more appropriate, because whenever it was market day, every kind of agricultural product could be found here.

Today was a big market day. Villagers from the villages around Shinan Town would come to the market. Some sold chickens and ducks, others sold tobacco leaves grown at home or other medicinal herbs, all concentrated in Ma Street, making it very lively.

It wasn't difficult to find fellow villagers from their hometown, Hongxing Village. Li Manjun found their next-door neighbors in the poultry section of the market and entrusted them to give the two pairs of Liberation shoes to Old Man Li and Old Woman Li when they returned to the village.

Li Dawei had an older brother above him and two younger sisters below him. Li Dawei was the second child and the only one in the family who had gotten a job in a state unit, yet he was the one his parents liked the least.

When Li Dawei first married Wang Xiaojuan, because they had two girls in a row, Wang Xiaojuan suffered a lot of grief from her mother-in-law, and the couple was not well-regarded.

It wasn't until they later gave birth to their son, Li Jianjun, that the old couple’s attitude toward her improved slightly.

So, in this regard, Li Manjun could understand why Wang Xiaojuan valued Li Jianjun more.

It wasn't that she wanted to favor boys over girls, but this environment had turned her into this kind of person.

But even though they were so disliked by the old couple, Li Dawei and Wang Xiaojuan never skimped on their filial duties.

The neighbor from their hometown took the two pairs of shoes and couldn't help but sigh, "Manjun, your parents are truly sensible and filial."

Wang Xiaojuan’s goal in sending the shoes was achieved; she had successfully earned the title of "filial."

She wanted to slap the old couple in the face and make them see who they should really be cherishing.

Li Manjun was noncommittal about her parents' actions. She thanked the neighbor, turned, and left Ma Street to wander around the town.

People who lived through the nineties all said that this was an era where even a pig could fly if it stood at the center of the whirlwind.

Li Manjun wanted to see if she could be that pig that learned to fly.