Chapter 9: Biesan

Watching the two figures flee in a panic, Leng Hui turned back to greet the personnel department staff before heading to the finance department.

Tang Lin was a college graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. Having spent so many years at the machinery factory, she had passed the grading exams and was earning the salary of a Grade 14 technician—forty-eight yuan a month—which was over ten yuan more than Leng Yongkang’s salary.

In 1970, forty-eight yuan was enough to support a family of four. Yet, after Tang Lin transmigrated here, she couldn't even afford the most basic surgical fees.

The reason for this situation was that the Leng family had never split the household in order to take care of the second branch. The monthly salaries of the couple in the first branch were used to subsidize the household expenses, which was effectively a disguised subsidy for the second branch.

Under these circumstances, for Sun Xiaojuan to still dare to scheme against Tang Lin, how could Leng Hui possibly give her a pleasant look?

Of course, for the following month, Tang Lin had to take sick leave due to her health, meaning she would only receive her basic salary; benefits like overtime pay and bonuses were gone.

Even with just the basic salary, when Leng Hui walked out of the finance department, her pockets were heavier by thirty-five yuan and sixty cents, along with some grain coupons.

Leaving the machinery factory, she walked slowly back along the street.

At this time of day, one could barely see anyone from the young or middle-aged generations on the streets, as they were all at their posts working.

The people most commonly seen on the streets were housewives, young children, retired elderly, and teenagers.

Most of the teenagers were those who had graduated from junior high but hadn't continued to high school, or youths who had graduated from high school but couldn't find work in the city and just wandered the streets—commonly known as "street loafers."

Whenever Leng Hui saw groups of three or five such youths, she would carefully observe their callow faces. She saw no bitterness of life in their eyes, only defiance or a sense of arrogance.

If things didn't go their way, they might gang up on someone, commonly known as a street fight.

This was also why the authorities constantly encouraged or organized the vast number of educated youth to go "up to the mountains and down to the countryside" to build the motherland in the vast rural areas.

Even though the neighborhood committees organized educated youth to go to the countryside every year, the number of unemployed youth in the city remained staggering.

In the past, Leng Hui hadn't worked or gone to the countryside because she hadn't reached the age. Now that she was of age, if she still couldn't find a job, even if she didn't go this year, the neighborhood committee would come knocking next year to mobilize her.

A street loafer with a cigarette dangling from his mouth noticed Leng Hui staring at them intently and blew a smoke ring at her. "Little sister, the boys and I are heading to the fields outside the city to catch loaches. Want to come along and have a treat?"

Courtesy demands reciprocity.

Leng Hui rolled her eyes at them and cursed, "Scum!"

The loafer didn't hear her clearly. Seeing her walk away quickly, he scoffed from behind and didn't take it to heart.

Seeing that the loafer behind her wasn't following, Leng Hui’s gaze was drawn to the small green grass sprouting from the cracks in the stones on the street.

Seeing the vibrant green grass, the first question that popped into Leng Hui’s mind was whether it was poisonous and if it was edible.

In the apocalypse, the first thing she considered when seeing wild vegetables was the fear of contamination.

Looking at the lush green mountains in the distance, she felt she was being obsessive; this world was no longer the apocalypse.

By the time she returned to the hospital ward, feeling a bit neurotic, Tang Lin learned that Leng Hui had actually withdrawn her salary and couldn't help but laugh. "If Old Lady Leng finds out you withdrew my salary, she’ll be cursing at home for three days and three nights."

"Let her curse at home. We’re staying in the hospital anyway and won't hear it. I’m just afraid she won't be reconciled and will come to the hospital to make a scene."

In truth, Leng Hui wasn't very worried about Old Lady Leng coming to the hospital to make a scene.

Because as long as she didn't say anything, it would be hard for the old lady to discover this for a while.

"How the original owner pampered her was the original owner's business. Now that it's me, if she still wants to manipulate us, she’s dreaming."

Tang Lin didn't want the salary she worked so hard to earn every month to be handed over to Old Lady Leng to manage, living a miserable life just to fulfill others.

"You don't want to pamper them, but they want to scheme against you even more—they want to take your rice bowl away entirely." Leng Hui told her what had happened at the machinery factory.

Tang Lin was shocked. "People need faces, trees need bark; the people of the Leng family are truly shameless. It’s a good thing you went to the factory today. If they had succeeded and Sun Xiaojuan refused to return the job, I would have become a housewife stuck in the kitchen all day."

"Being stuck in the kitchen is also a kind of happiness. In the past, you wouldn't have even had the chance to be stuck in the kitchen all day," Leng Hui couldn't help but retort.

"Get lost, you unfilial daughter, you just love to argue with me every day."

The daily bickering between mother and daughter began again.

"This hospital is full of the smell of disinfectant; do you think I like staying here? Since you told me to get lost, that proves you're fine, so I’m going out to play for a while."

Tang Lin’s abdominal drainage tube and catheter hadn't been removed yet, and it was still early. Leng Hui couldn't sit still in the ward and wanted to go out for a walk.

Tang Lin said impatiently, "Get lost, and be quick about it!"

Driven out, Leng Hui first went to the supply and marketing cooperative, used her milk powder coupons to buy a tin of milk powder and a tin of malted milk extract, and then headed home.

Passing through an empty alley, she tucked the two nutritional items into her space, hands in her pockets, humming a nameless tune, navigating the stone-paved alley as if she had a built-in GPS, turning left and right without getting lost.

"Hmm?"

Leng Hui pulled back the foot she had just stepped out with at the corner, pressed her body against the wall, and quietly poked her little head out.

On the other side of the alley, Leng Mei was talking to a boy. Beside them was a handcart loaded with pitch-black coal chunks.

It was unclear what they had said, but Leng Mei picked up a few pieces of coal, put them in a basket, waved at the boy, and left first.

The boy then pulled the handcart in another direction.

Leng Hui rested her chin on her hand, pondering what kind of relationship these two had. After hesitating for a moment, she followed the boy.

Not long after, the boy knocked on a door. Soon, the door opened from the inside, and the boy pulled the handcart in.

Once the door closed again, Leng Hui circled the courtyard and found a dog hole in the northwest corner.

Of course, although Leng Hui had been reborn from the apocalypse and had experienced all kinds of situations, she wasn't about to crawl through a dog hole now.

However, crouching outside the dog hole, she found she could clearly hear the conversation between the two inside.

From their conversation, she learned that the boy had sold coal—obtained from who knows where—to the owner of this courtyard for two yuan and twenty cents.

The coal burned in this era was supplied based on a quota per person. Urban residents who wanted to burn coal needed to use a coal book or coal purchase coupons to buy it from coal shops under the fuel company.

The limited supply usually couldn't fully meet a family's normal needs. Some families living in tube-shaped apartment buildings, even if they used coal stoves, still had to collect a lot of firewood to burn.

Burning firewood in a coal stove was very inconvenient, but there was no other way; they had to chop the firewood into small pieces.

Anyone who had lived in a tube-shaped building knew that whenever someone burned firewood to cook, the whole building would be filled with smoke and fumes, making everyone’s eyes and noses stream.

"Where did Leng Mei and this boy get so much coal?"

Leng Hui stood in a blind spot, watching the boy pull the handcart away. She felt this matter was worth deep consideration.