Chapter 4: Made a Profit

Li Manjun and Liu Yan walked through several residential alleys in Shinan Town, one calling out while the other exchanged candy, spending the entire afternoon trading for a full bag of toothpaste tubes.

With two yuan worth of boiled syrup, Liu Yan pulled out fifty pieces of candy, which they exchanged for 60 large toothpaste tubes and 150 small ones.

At this time, toothpaste tubes contained a special tin-aluminum alloy, which had extremely high utility value.

In the 80s and 90s, when metal materials were very scarce, the state introduced corresponding policies to encourage people to recycle these toothpaste tubes.

In a small town like Shinan, news traveled slowly, and people treated toothpaste tubes as ordinary scrap to be sold. It was only recently that someone had started coming specifically to collect them.

Liu Yan carried her empty basket and empty jar, looked at the bulging bag on Li Manjun’s back, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and asked where they were going next.

Once the goods were collected, they had to be sold to make a profit.

Li Manjun signaled for Liu Yan to follow, and the two headed toward the town’s bus stop.

When she was wandering around in the morning, she had seen a middle-aged man with a large bag strapped to his waist collecting toothpaste tubes. It was only 4:30 in the afternoon, the market hadn't dispersed yet, so he should still be there.

Sure enough, upon arriving near the bus stop, they saw that familiar figure walking out of an alley across the street, carrying a large snake-skin bag.

It looked like he had just collected a batch of toothpaste tubes.

Li Manjun hurriedly signaled for Liu Yan to join her as they approached him. The middle-aged man had sharp eyes; he spotted the bulging old cloth bag at a glance, grinned to reveal a mouthful of yellow teeth, and asked

"Did you two collect all of this?"

Liu Yan felt that this middle-aged man looked like a gangster from a movie; she tugged at Li Manjun, feeling a bit nervous.

Li Manjun gave her a reassuring smile, turned to the man, and said, "Yes, these are toothpaste tubes we just collected. How do you buy them, boss?"

The boss replied, "I buy them by the piece. Two cents for a small one, five cents for a large one."

This price made Li Manjun feel that she had hit the jackpot today. She put down the cloth bag and counted them out in front of the boss

"There are 60 large ones and 150 small ones."

The boss was straightforward. He opened his snake-skin bag for Li Manjun to pour them in, unzipped the fanny pack at his waist, counted out six yuan, and handed it to Li Manjun.

"This is the first time I've received goods in Shinan Town. The ones I just took were all arranged to be sent to me from other towns. If you have more, I’ll be hanging around here for the next few days. I’ll take as many as you can get."

Before leaving, this Boss Liu, who claimed his surname was Liu, said confidently.

Li Manjun and Liu Yan exchanged a look and carried the empty cloth bag and bamboo basket into a small alley.

As soon as they entered the alley, Liu Yan urged impatiently, "Quick, let's see how much we made!"

Li Manjun took out the money. Although it was only six yuan, she counted it with the air of someone counting six hundred.

The crushed peanuts were grown by Liu Yan’s family and cost nothing, and the cost of the bamboo skewers was low; Liu Yan said she would cover that cost.

Subtracting the two yuan Li Manjun spent on sugar, they made a profit of four yuan this afternoon. Splitting it fifty-fifty, each got exactly two yuan.

Two yuan wasn't much, but when the two thought about the ratio of their investment to their return—it was almost a doubling of their money—Liu Yan couldn't stop grinning.

They agreed to start earlier tomorrow to continue collecting toothpaste tubes, then headed home separately.

By the time they got home, those who went to school and those who went to work had all returned.

For dinner, Wang Xiaojuan made braised pork belly. The aroma made Li Manjun swallow hard.

Once the dishes were set, their father, Li Dawei, picked up his chopsticks first. The three siblings grabbed their chopsticks and aimed for that bowl of glistening braised pork, each snatching a piece.

The three didn't fight, but they didn't give way either; how much you got depended on your skill.

It had to be said that Wang Xiaojuan’s braised pork was top-notch, not at all inferior to what a restaurant chef would make.

Li Manjun scraped the bottom of the bowl, covering her rice with all the dark red meat sauce, and ate with great satisfaction.

"Big sister, eat this piece, it's lean. You like lean meat." Li Jianjun picked up a very lean piece of meat and, remembering his sister’s preference, put it in her bowl.

Li Manjun put it back, picked out a piece of half-fat, half-lean meat from Li Jianjun’s bowl, and said, "I like this kind now."

Li Lijun reached over with her chopsticks, "Give it to me, give it to me, I like lean meat."

Li Jianjun smiled foolishly, holding his bowl, letting his two sisters take the braised pork that their mother had specifically put in his bowl.

Seeing Li Lijun pushing her luck and reaching for more, Wang Xiaojuan slapped her hand away with her chopsticks: "Eat your own! Your brother is still growing!"

Li Lijun pouted, "Mom, you're biased."

Wang Xiaojuan couldn't stand hearing that. She retorted sharply, "If I were biased, how did you grow so big? Did you grow up on thin air?"

Watching the three children eating meat like starving ghosts reincarnated, Li Dawei felt both amused and a little sad. He signaled for his wife to stop lecturing and hurry up and eat.

"If you don't eat, the food will get cold. Besides, it's rare for you to make braised pork. The kids have been thinking about it, so of course they want to eat their fill. Make it again sometime."

Li Dawei licked the sauce off his chopsticks; it was truly delicious!

Wang Xiaojuan just thought making this dish was too much trouble, which was why she was lazy about doing it.

Now, seeing all four of them looking at her with eager eyes, she couldn't help but burst into laughter and said proudly

"My skill for making this braised pork was learned from your grandmother, and your grandmother learned it from a master chef. That chef used to cook for high-ranking leaders, so of course it’s delicious enough to make you drool."

"Mom, this little bit isn't enough to eat at all. Make it again tomorrow," Li Lijun wheedled.

Li Manjun nodded frantically in agreement.

Wang Xiaojuan waved her hand, "Next time. We'll see how I feel."

The three siblings looked at each other, all feeling disappointed.

After dinner, Li Lijun and Li Jianjun had to go to evening self-study. Before leaving, Li Jianjun took out a donation box made from a shoebox and asked the family to donate.

"Why are you donating again? Whose classmate's family member has a terminal illness this time?" Wang Xiaojuan asked impatiently while cleaning up.

Li Dawei, sitting on the wooden sofa wearing his glasses and reading the newspaper, scolded his wife, "You and that mouth of yours—if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

Even if they didn't want to donate, they couldn't talk about a classmate's family like that.

Li Dawei asked his son, "Which student's family is in trouble?"

"No one is in trouble. Don't you see what's written on my donation box?" Li Jianjun patted the shoebox and read word by word: "Win glory for the country at the Asian Games, I add luster to the Asian Games!"

In 1984, China won the opportunity to host the Asian Games and began preparations. However, given the national strength at the time, there were insufficient funds to complete the preparations.

Therefore, for the sake of national honor, a general mobilization was launched across the country, and workers and students everywhere spontaneously donated to the Asian Games.

Shinan Town Middle School had also assigned donation tasks to students in every class.