People these days went to bed early and got up early. Shi Zhen started work at 7:30 a.m. in the morning, then worked until 11 a.m. for lunch, then continued working at 12 p.m., and ended at 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon.
This was a total of eight hours of work a day, but it was impossible to do hard labor all the time without a break. They could stand and rest for a while. At around 2 p.m. in the afternoon, everyone would stop to eat something, otherwise they would be too hungry to continue.
Of course, they couldn’t eat too much. They usually ate steamed buns. Yesterday they had steamed buns stuffed with pickled vegetables and dried tofu.
Yesterday was Shi Zhen’s first day at work. He was not very familiar with everyone, but today he became familiar with everyone around him.
He had been in the business world for a long time, and it was not difficult for him to make people like him.
After they got acquainted, everyone started chatting about different topics. Some people asked Shi Zhen where he came from and why he came out to work at such a young age.
Doing small jobs like this was backbreaking work, and the locals here in J City were generally reluctant to let their children do hard labor at a young age.
Shi Zhen said, “My home is quite far away. I came here to find my cousin… As for doing small jobs, I can’t find any other job.”
While he was talking, he didn’t stop working.
The person he was chatting with took a cigarette from his pocket and rested in the middle of the river with a shovel. Seeing Shi Zhen busy, he asked, “Your parents are really willing to let you go?”
”My family is too poor, so there’s no other way.”
”You should work harder so that you can make money and marry a wife.” The man sighed.
This man was in his forties and was used to hardship. He didn’t even have enough to eat before. Now he liked talking to Shi Zhen because his child was about the same age as Shi Zhen.
Seeing Shi Zhen working hard, he said something else. “Nowadays, life is really getting better and better. I almost starved to death before. Who would have thought that now, not only can I eat as much as I want, but I can also eat meat from time to time.”
The vegetables at their construction sites would be served with more or less some lard to prevent them from losing strength while working.
Shi Zhen took advantage of the opportunity to chat with him and learned about the Anshan Town of this time.
Although he still remembered some things about this time period, he still needed to communicate with others to understand the specific situation.
In this era, some things that could be industrially produced to be very cheap in later generations were quite expensive, and some things were very cheap. In addition, this was a coastal town and a place where private enterprises were developed. Everyone wanted to do business.
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.
Today’s lunch dish was pig blood curd* and tofu soup.
The pig blood curd and tofu soup was hot, with a thick layer of oil and chopped green onions floating on top.
Shi Zhen ate less than half of the bowl and planned to take the rest back to Guan Baiyu.
”Old Wang, what’s the snack this afternoon?” The forty-year-old worker who had been chatting with Shi Zhen asked the supervisor who was in charge of them.
The man who hired Shi Zhen as a laborer because he “paid” five yuan a day was named Wang Chengfa. When he heard the man’s question, he said, “I’ll go down and buy some guozi* later.”
Guozi was a local snack. It was made by mixing glutinous rice flour with water to make a paste, then sticking it in a circle on a hot iron pot and drying it. It could be eaten directly or soaked in hot water.
In this area, when guests visited, the host would definitely make a bowl of brown sugar guozi to entertain them.
”That thing isn’t filling. Why don’t you hand out instant noodles?” Someone asked. “Before, another place had people doing small jobs, and they gave each person a pack of instant noodles for the afternoon snack!”
”Stop dreaming. Some places don’t even give out snacks or meals!” Wang Chengfa said. Guozi was very cheap, but instant noodles were not cheap!
In the afternoon, he only bought a big bag of guozi and came back. He also spent a few cents to buy hot boiled water from a nearby place that sold boiled water. He asked everyone to take out their own cups and gave a cup of hot water to each of them. They could also put in some saccharine in their bowl if they wanted.
Saccharine was a type of artificial sweetener, a sugar substitute. It was not sugar, but as long as a little bit was added, it would make the water very sweet.
Shi Zhen didn’t ask for saccharine, which had long disappeared in later generations. Others did. Some people wanted to eat something sweeter, so they added more saccharine, which actually made the water taste bitter. But if they added more water, it was still sweet in the end.
Water leaked into his shoes from time to time in the past two days. Shi Zhen’s feet became swollen and wrinkled after being soaked in too much water. He wanted to dry them, but he was so cold that his toes were almost numb.
”Uncle Wang, how much does a pack of instant noodles cost?” Shi Zhen asked Wang Chengfa.
He remembered that when he first came to J City in his previous life, Shi Xinghuo saw someone eating instant noodles at the construction site and was very greedy… It was a pity that he didn’t buy it for Shi Xinghuo back then.
And Guan Baiyu.
Guan Baiyu grew up with his adoptive grandmother. An old rural lady of his grandmother’s age would love to break a cent into two cents and spend it. Guan Baiyu would definitely have had no chance to eat instant noodles.
Wang Chengfa said, “70 cents a pack.”
The price was very high compared to his income at this time, but after Shi Zhen finished work, he still bought two packs.
Only after he bought them did he realize that the 70 cents a pack of instant noodles actually only contained a single seasoning packet inside.
When he went home in the evening, Shi Zhen gave Shi Xinghuo a package and took the remaining package and the remaining half bowl of pig blood curd and tofu soup to Guan Baiyu’s place.
He left work early. When he arrived, Guan Baiyu had just come back. Before he could start cooking, Shi Zhen asked him if he wanted to eat instant noodles.
Guan Baiyu was stunned for a moment before saying, “No, I’ll eat it next time.”
After a while, he whispered, “I haven’t eaten instant noodles before.”
The fifteen-year-old boy felt a little embarrassed when he said this, and then smiled at Shi Zhen.
Shi Zhen’s heart throbbed and he couldn’t tell what he felt.
Guan Baiyu’s appearance seemed very good, and now he smiled, showing two little tiger teeth, which was even more adorable.
If Guan Baiyu could have children, his and Guan Baiyu’s children would already be this old.
Shi Zhen said, “I’ll light the fire for you.”
Guan Baiyu did not refuse. “Okay.”
Shi Zhen lit the fire, and Guan Baiyu put water and rice into the pot. When he saw that there were straw bits in the rice that had not been washed out, he took them out and put them aside.
When he was done, he steamed another bowl of pickled vegetables on the pot without adding any oil.
When his grandma was around, he actually lived quite well, to the point that…he didn’t feel any difference between himself and the people around him.
Everyone was poor at that time.
But his grandmother passed away two years ago, and the people around him gradually became richer, and everything changed.
His adoptive parents didn’t completely ignore him. They still paid his tuition each semester, which was more than 200 yuan. However, there was nothing else, and he was too embarrassed to ask them for money.
Salt was cheap, and he could still get some, but oil and other things were not available.
Others could use their own rapeseed to go to an oil shop to exchange it for oil, but where would he get rapeseed?
He didn’t expect that a cousin would suddenly appear.
Guan Baiyu looked at Shi Zhen, paused and then called out, “Brother*, thank you.”
Shi Zhen was stunned.
He remembered that Guan Baiyu was a bit cold-tempered and didn’t like to get close to people, so he always thought that it would take several days before Guan Baiyu would accept him.
As a result, it was only the third day and Guan Baiyu was calling him “brother”?
”Do you acknowledge me?” Shi Zhen asked.
Guan Baiyu was puzzled – this was his cousin. How could he deny it?
Shi Zhen originally wanted to slowly get acquainted with Guan Baiyu, but now that Guan Baiyu called him brother… some things could be done quickly.
Shi Zhen said, “As long as you acknowledge me and are willing to call me brother, don’t worry. I will take care of you in the future! Let’s do this. Starting tomorrow, I will buy some food and come to your place to eat, so that you can eat better!”
He had already made this plan. If he bought some food and started cooking at Guan Baiyu’s place, the food for the three of them would be improved.
***
T/N: *Pig blood curd, also called blood tofu, is a common food for Chinese people – it’s a congealed form of pig blood:
Pig blood curd and tofu soup:
*Guozi:
*Brother (哥 ge) – specifically older brother. Cousins in China often call each other brother and sister, and people also call close friends brother and sister as well. Baiyu calling Shi Zhen “brother” means he acknowledges their relationship.
