Guan Baiyu believed what Shi Zhen had said to him, and he also believed that Shi Zhen wanted to treat him well.
After Shi Zhen came to him the first time, he went to inquire about Shi Zhen and observed Shi Zhen the past few days.
His life was pretty bad, with almost no food to eat, and Shi Zhen’s life didn’t look that good either.
Not to mention anything else, the clothes Shi Zhen wore were worse than his clothes.
He had resented his mother before, thinking that she didn’t want him, but when he saw Shi Zhen’s appearance, his resentment disappeared.
His mother probably gave him to someone else to raise because she really couldn’t support him.
Even though Shi Zhen was so poor, he still came to see him and gave him money. It was impossible that he wanted to harm him.
It was just that if Shi Zhen was this poor, he probably didn’t have enough money to support Guan Baiyu to continue studying.
The tuition for a technical secondary school was two to three hundred yuan per semester, plus living expenses and other miscellaneous things. In a year, he could even spend one to two thousand if he was not careful.
If things didn’t work out, he’d better find a way to get a job.
When Guan Baiyu returned to his home, he turned off the lights and went to sleep.
He didn’t dare to use too much electricity. After all, he had to pay the electricity bill.
Guan Baiyu went to bed early. On the other side, Shi Zhen also told Guan Jianguo that Guan Baiyu was his cousin.
Guan Jianguo was a little surprised, but he had no doubts.
In fact, over the years, people in the Guan family had always wondered why Guan Baiyu’s grandparents and mother didn’t come to see Guan Baiyu. Now that someone had come, he only felt something like “he is finally here”.
After explaining his made up relationship with Guan Baiyu, Shi Zhen said that he would go to Guan Baiyu’s place for meals in the future.
Guan Jianguo had no objection, but his mother was a little unhappy. If Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo weren’t eating at their house, she wouldn’t make any money.
After Shi Zhen finished speaking, he was about to leave. At this time, Guan Jianguo spoke up. “The rice over there at Xiao Yu’s* house is probably only enough for him to eat alone. When you go over there to eat, remember to buy some rice.”
”I will,” Shi Zhen said.
Shi Zhen came to talk to Guan Jianguo, and Shi Xinghuo came with him. When they returned to the room where they lived, he immediately asked, “Ah Zhen, do you have a cousin on your mother’s side?”
”Yes! I came here just to find him,” Shi Zhen said.
There was a reason why Shi Zhen dared to make up such a story – his mother had married from outside the mountains to the mountain village. No one in their village knew where she was from, not even his father.
However, his mother probably ran and hid in the mountains because her family background was not very good. Otherwise, his mother was so beautiful that she definitely would not have married his father.
And now, his mother was dead.
When he was eight years old, his mother fell ill and died, leaving his father to raise him and his younger sister.
His sister was only four years old at the time and was not in good health. She cried all the time and his father couldn’t manage her, so he married his stepmother through someone’s introduction.
His stepmother was a few years older than his father, and she was not very good-looking. After marrying his father, she brought along her two daughters from a prior marriage. She felt at ease living with his father, and she treated him and his sister quite well.
There was nothing his stepmother could do to treat them badly. He and his sister were natives of the village, but she and her daughters were outsiders. His father also valued his own flesh and blood and would not tolerate his stepmother treating them badly.
As for partiality… Their village was too poor, and there was nothing materially available to make her partial. As for her being closer to her two biological daughters, this was inevitable.
Because of this, Shi Zhen created a maternal cousin for himself, and no one would suspect him, not even his father.
Shi Zhen still understood his father very well.
The next day, Shi Zhen got up at around 4 a.m. in the morning.
Rubbing his sore shoulders, which were sore from dredging up river silt the last few days, he opened the door and walked toward town.
He couldn’t go empty-handed when going to Guan Baiyu’s house to eat.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
There waa a building with a farmers’ market* in the town. It was just built and had two floors. It was considered quite big for this time period.
This was also the center of the town. The upstairs of this building contained small shops, which were rented to merchants to sell clothes, toys, needles, thread and other things. The ground floor housed the farmers’ market..
It was Shi Zhen’s first time here. Fortunately, the place was easy to find, but he came too early and the market wasn’t even open.
However, although the market door was not open, there were people waiting at the door. When the door opened, these people rushed in with a roar.
Shi Zhen followed in and saw the appearance of the farmers’ market.
There was a lingering unpleasant smell here. Each stall was handled by the stall owner themselves, and there were all kinds of stalls, set up side by side in long strips.
Some of those who rushed in climbed over the stalls, while others got in under the stalls.
Not long after these people entered the market, shoppers also came. Some of these people were just early risers, while others operated food stalls outside and intended to buy the ingredients they would use for the day early.
Shi Zhen found a stall and asked about the price of pork.
The stall owner pushed half a pig in on a bicycle. There was a woman beside him carrying a basket filled with pork. He put the half pig in his stall and while unloading the pork, he replied to Shi Zhen. “A strip of meat is 2.50 per catty, and the butt meat is 2.80 per catty.”
The so-called strips of meat were pork belly, and the butt meat was from the pig’s hind legs.
In the past few years, pork belly had always been relatively expensive, but in recent years, people suddenly liked to eat lean meat, and pork hind leg meat had become more expensive.
Shi Zhen asked carefully and finally bought a catty of pure fatty meat, ready to take it home to make lard.
Fatty meat was only one yuan per catty. After buying fatty meat, Shi Zhen spent two yuan on two chicken frames at a nearby stall.
The meat from the chicken breasts, legs, wings, etc. had all been removed from the frozen chicken frames. There was not much meat on them, but the price was cheaper.
After buying these two things, Shi Zhen thought about it and bought ten eggs.
Guan Baiyu should eat well while he was still growing.
It was half past six when Shi Zhen returned to the village after shopping.
He took his things, called Shi Xinghuo, and went to Guan Baiyu’s house.
Guan Baiyu had gotten up early but hadn’t gone to school yet. He was a little surprised to see him coming with these things.
Shi Zhen smiled at him. “Let’s eat together. I bought some food.”
Time was tight in the morning. Guan Baiyu had to leave for school at 7 a.m., and he and Shi Xinghuo also had to leave at 7 a.m….Shi Zhen didn’t waste any time. He asked Guan Baiyu to make a fire, boil lard in an iron pot, and then put the oil residue aside. Then, he used the little oil left at the bottom of the pot, cracked open four eggs and stir-fried them. Finally, he put in the extra rice that Guan Baiyu made yesterday in preparation for today, and made a quick egg fried rice.
The meal was not much, and even after dividing it into three portions, neither he nor Shi Xinghuo had enough to eat, but Shi Xinghuo had a pack of instant noodles, which was barely enough.
As for him, it was okay to eat less.
”You actually put in four eggs…” Guan Baiyu was shocked.
He had also eaten fried rice when his grandma was alive.
His grandma would dip her gauze-wrapped chopsticks in oil, smear it around the pan, put rice and salt in and fry it. Even if it was fried rice, she would never put in eggs.
Now Shi Zhen actually used four eggs in one go!
”Eat more.” Shi Zhen gave Guan Baiyu a full bowl of rice.
Guan Baiyu lowered his head and started eating slowly.
The fried rice with eggs fried in lard was indescribably delicious. It had been a long, long time since he had eaten something so delicious.
The last time he ate meat was during the Chinese New Year, when he went to his adoptive parents’ house for the Chinese New Year reunion dinner*.
But he couldn’t eat much at that time. The chickens killed for the Chinese New Year were used by his adoptive parents to entertain guests on the second and third days of the first lunar month.
After eating, Guan Baiyu took the instant noodles that Shi Zhen gave him yesterday to school. Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo also went to work.
There was a saying among those who did small jobs – that if they changed their jobs, they would change their muscles and bones.
For example, if they did the work of moving bricks for one day, their body would not hurt here and there if they continued doing it. At this time, if they changed to a job of digging mud, their body would hurt again.
Shi Zhen’s whole body hurt these days, but he was still full of energy.
He was more motivated than he was at this time in his previous life.
He was alive, and the people around him were also alive. This was really the best thing.
Today’s lunch dish was taro braised pork. Of course, there was more taro and less pork.
For the past two days, Shi Zhen would keep some of his food to bring back to Guan Baiyu, but he didn’t leave any today. Firstly, he ate less in the morning and was really hungry. Secondly, he bought some food this morning so they didn’t have to worry about dinner.
”You kid, you are finally willing to eat the dishes today.” Wang Chengfa smiled when he saw Shi Zhen eating a big meal.
He had a good impression of Shi Zhen. After all, Shi Zhen worked hard.
Shi Zhen smiled at him and said nothing.
Wang Chengfa added, “We will finish dredging up the silt in two days. Next, we need to build the bank by the river. Do you want to stay and continue to work?”
”Yes,” Shi Zhen said.
”Then you stay and move the rocks,” Wang Chengfa said.
”Uncle Wang, I have been a bricklayer before. If there is any other job, I can do it.”
Wang Chengfa said, “Have you ever learned to lay bricks? Okay, I understand. I’ll see if you can do something else when the time comes.”
Shi Zhen agreed with a smile.
He had worked so hard these days and hadn’t done anything wrong, so he could continue to work on the construction site.
He couldn’t find another job for the time being, so he had to work here first.
After finishing work in the evening, Shi Zhen walked back, but Guan Baiyu hadn’t returned home yet.
At this time, many houses in rural areas did not have door locks. They were kept open during the day, and bolted closed from the inside at night.
Guan Baiyu’s house did have a lock, but there was only one key, and Shi Zhen didn’t have it.
He sat on a stone at the door and waited for a while before Guan Baiyu and Shi Xinghuo came back and they entered the house together.
Guan Baiyu scooped up three small bowls of rice, washed them and put them into the pot to cook. He wanted to steam some other dishes as well, but was stopped by Shi Zhen. “Let’s cook them separately.”
The rice was almost cooked, so Guan Baiyu stopped lighting the fire. Seeing this, Shi Zhen put the uncooked rice in the pot into several large bowls, put some water in the pot, and put the chopped chicken frames and the oil residue from this morning in.
After that, he put in all the soy sauce that Guan Baiyu had left, chopped the garlic sprouts that Guan Baiyu pulled from the vegetable field, threw them in, and cooked a pot of chicken soup.
When cooking, he put the rice on the steaming rack, covered the pot and steamed it for a while, and the rice was no longer raw.
The chicken frames didn’t have much meat, but it was meat after all.
Neither Guan Baiyu nor Shi Xinghuo disliked it at all. Shi Xinghuo even chewed some chicken bones and swallowed them.
Shi Zhen was a little dissatisfied while eating. There were still too many things missing at home.
In this day and age, many people in the city already had home appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators. Televisions were no longer particularly rare, and many people used gas stoves and the like.
But Guan Baiyu had none of these!
And the place where they lived…the ground was still dirt. Such a place was very humid. Living there was not good for Guan Baiyu’s health!
Shi Zhen’s mind was full of various ways to make money, but he had only been reborn for a few days and had no capital or connections, so it was difficult to make money.
After eating, Guan Baiyu cleared the dishes. Seeing this, Shi Zhen hurriedly said, “I’ll wash the dishes.”
”I’ll do it,” Guan Baiyu said. Shi Zhen had given him eggs and chicken today. How could he have the face to ask Shi Zhen to wash the dishes too?
”I’ll do it,” Shi Zhen insisted. “You go do your homework.”
Guan Baiyu paused and could only go to do his homework.
Shi Zhen poured water into the pot and washed the dishes with an old loofah.
In his last life when Guan Baiyu was with him, Guan Baiyu did all the housework. He never thought of helping, but he couldn’t do that in this life.
He hoped that Guan Baiyu could be loved and pampered by his family like his peers and grow up safely.
Guan Baiyu rarely went home to do homework.
Their school itself didn’t assign much homework, and he could basically complete it in school.
But Shi Zhen asked him to do his homework, so he took out a textbook and started reading.
He thought he would be uncomfortable with the sudden addition of a cousin, but now… he felt quite happy.
Shi Zhen was washing the dishes while chatting with Guan Baiyu, and also talked about some of the next arrangements. “You don’t have to worry about not having firewood to burn. I will buy some mulberry sticks tomorrow.”
The so-called mulberry sticks were the branches of the mulberry tree. Nowadays, in the village, except for Guan Baiyu, everyone else had enough firewood to burn, because in addition to straw, they also had mulberry sticks to burn – the branches of mulberry trees needed to be trimmed every year.
These cost only a few yuan. For just one yuan, he might be able to buy a cart full of mulberry sticks.
”Okay,” Guan Baiyu responded.
Shi Zhen also said that they would have congee tomorrow morning and asked Guan Baiyu how he was doing in school.
Guan Baiyu was not doing well in school.
Today, Yan Jiangtao came to school. During class, Yan Jiangtao was fooling around with others, which affected his studying, but he didn’t say anything. Yan Jiangtao also called him dirty in public.
But as long as Yan Jiangtao didn’t damage his things and just said a few words, he didn’t care.
Guan Baiyu didn’t say anything about this. He only said that he was living a good life.
”Xiao Yu, how are your grades?” Shi Zhen asked.
Guan Baiyu said, “They’re okay.”
”Where do you usually rank in the class?”
Guan Baiyu thought for a while and said, “It’s usually the first place.”
”So powerful?” Shi Zhen was a little surprised. “What about the year?”
Guan Baiyu said, “It is also the first.”
Shi Zhen was even more surprised and a little puzzled.
Guan Baiyu’s grades were so good. Why did he go to an ordinary high school? Logically speaking… he could have been admitted to the best high school in the city, right?
He chatted with someone while working today and found out that every junior high school had a quota to recommend students to the best high school in Changxi City, No. 1 High School.
Shi Zhen asked, “Then can you go to No. 1 High School?”
Guan Baiyu was stunned for a moment, and then said, “I want to go to a technical secondary school and study in a normal school, so that I can become an elementary school teacher in the future.”
Shi Zhen said without thinking, “What kind of technical secondary school should you go to? You must go to high school so that you can take the college entrance examination*!”
***
T/N: *Xiao Yu (小羽) = little feather. It’s an affectionate way to refer to Guan Baiyu. The “Yu” character in Baiyu (白羽) means feather, and Baiyu means white feather.
*farmers’ market – this is 菜市场 (cai shichang), literally vegetable market, although the character 菜 (cai) also means “dish”, which in Chinese refers to foods that are non-staple foods and are meant to be eaten with staple foods. So staple foods are things like rice, mantou (steamed buns), noodles, etc. and non-staple foods are meat, veggie, seafood, etc. dishes. A market like this is common in China and other parts of Asia where you can buy fresh produce, but also things like meat and seafood. I went with farmers’ market because I feel like that is the closest English equivalent.
*Chinese New Year reunion dinner – considered by many Chinese people to be the most important event of the year, the reunion dinner is a time for families to come together. The reunion dinner is held on the night before Chinese New Year as the intention is to be together to welcome in the new year. Not sure why the author said Baiyu hadn’t eaten meat since Chinese New Year – Shi Zhen brought him his leftover roast pork in Chapter 7… I guess the author forgot.
*College entrance examination – a unified national examination that determines admission to colleges and universities in China.
