Bai Fumei in the ’70s Chapter 34
Translated by Serena Love
Liang Tiezhu was doing ideological work for his brother. When he thought about the time when he was so hungry that he couldn't afford to eat and was about to fall to the grass, his master took him on this road, and he said this.
There is the pride and glory of being a bad person.
Tiezhu thought at the time: Being a gangster is at best a violation of discipline, stealing some food and rubbing some benefits, people hate these kinds of things. But... but at least it does not hurt anyone. Speculation made a lot of noise, and there are things that are easy to get lost. At that time, the master was doing his ideological work without any burden. Tiezhu was brainwashed back and forth many times before reluctantly accepting this "comfort", but in the end, he still didn't look down on this shameless work.
As the job gradually became long and stable, the more people Liang Tiezhu had seen, the more he felt that what the master said was right.
When he saw several police officers who have captured a few imposing masters, and after a while they came to his broken grain stall and secretly bought a small bag of rice, the complicated feeling in Liang Tiezhu's heart could not be described in words. At that moment, the boundaries between right and wrong, good and evil suddenly became blurred.
Tiezhu, who had always been humble and existed like a mouse, began to face up to his unreasonable work. He began to feel that the master's words made sense. It is not wrong to buy and sell food by himself. The price does not disturb the market, and every penny earned earns are his blood and sweat. He did not hinder the society and brought convenience to many people. He felt that his conscience could live a little bit better.
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He didn't hear the brother's positive response. Tiezhu paused and continued, "We're doing the black market. To put it bluntly, the Zhang family surpluses are transferred to the Li family. Those who have money use money to buy things, and those who don't have money use tickets. It's not as rigid as a store, and there is no need for such a long line. We also delivered it to the door personally, and there is no such conscientious person in the counter..."
Tiezhu chattered all the way, adding up more words than a bag of rice.
He Songbai is completely impatient and listened to the whole thing. From time to time he gave a faint hum, and raised his eyebrows slightly.
Liang Tiezhu carried He Songbai all the way, and delivered the goods in the bike bag by bag to the customers.
Some people were unwilling to show up to trade, and only told Tie Zhu to hide things somewhere. Some people met and ran away carrying food, but others stopped in a hurry when they received the food and told them "Be careful." Faced with all kinds of guests, they are treated differently.
But their joy of receiving food is the same.
He Songbai followed Tiezhu into the city to deliver food, and then followed him to the countryside to collect food.
He borrowed a brother's bicycle in the city and followed Tiezhu along the country road. Speculation is not as profitable as outsiders imagined. The two of them rushed on the road from morning to night all day, and their legs were hardly rested. It took dozens of miles to barely receive a bag of wheat and a bag of millet. After receiving wheat, Tiezhu will take it to the city to grind it into flour, and the millet will have to be hulled. All the trivial matters have to be taken care of, but after a few days it is delivered to the guests as processed high-quality food.
When the sun was setting, He Songbai followed Liang Tiezhu and set the bicycle aside, leaning against the tree roots and nibbling dry food.
Liang Tiezhu scratched his head embarrassedly and said: "There should be a lot of grain during this period. I went home to work on farming and delayed my work for several days. The harvest was a bit more fierce in the first two days. There are a lot of stockpile at home, usually it is not so few."
He emphasized it because he was afraid that today's "dismal" business would hurt He Songbai's enthusiasm for the black market.
He Songbai nibbled at the dry food and drank a mouthful from the gurgling stream flowing down from the mountain. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said, "I know."
"You don't need to explain."
Liang Tiezhu sighed, and he said cheerfully, "I knew that the Brother I knew wasn't that kind of spoiled person!"
As soon as he was happy, the accent came out. The people in the city did not like the vulgar way of talking of the countrymen. After receiving a lot of cold eyes, Liang Tiezhu began to gradually learn the way people talk in the city.
He Songbai wiped off his sweat and said, "Tomorrow I will take you to meet some people. We don't have to distribute food everywhere, just collect food."
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Liang Tiezhu was a little surprised when he heard it, but he quickly accepted it. He knew that Brother Bai is very powerful and knew many "brothers". Men are born to worship people with hard fists. He is just a little rogue that Brother Bai saved on a whim. Before that, within ten miles and eight towns there had been "rumors". Legend has it that his fists were so fierce and didn't recognize people at all.
He Songbai said, "Tomorrow I will go to the black market to see if there are any second-hand bicycles for sale."
With speculation, there is no reason to rely on two legs to do business. It is impossible to do business without a bicycle. Now that it has been decided to take this path, the most basic tools must be owned.
Liang Tiezhu heard his words and hesitated. "Would you like me to lend you some money first, just to make up enough money for the bicycle? Then wait for Brother Bai to make enough money."
After all, buying a bicycle around this time is not an easy task. A bicycle can cost more than a wife in the country. Liang Tiezhu's family finally saved some money, but it was still difficult to buy another bicycle.
Liang Tiezhu knew the importance of a bicycle. When he first started this business, he saved a little bit of money, and it took him a whole year to save. A year later, he bought his baby, Big Golden Deer mountain bike, and he made money twice as fast. To measure whether a person can make money, you have to see if he has a bicycle.
Without a bicycle, you can only earn a little bit of hard-earned money every day, it is tired and risky.
He Songbai simply refused, "No need. I have it."
"Save your money for a wife."
Liang Tiezhu nodded, and the two said goodbye at the intersection of the village after eating "lunch."
Liang Tiezhu smacked his mouth with nostalgia and said, "If sister-in-law steamed the rice rolls tomorrow, Brother Bai will bring me a few sticks!"
If he had such delicious rice rolls to eat every day, he would be eager to eat breakfast every day! How could he be willing to miss such a delicious thing.
He Songbai nodded vaguely, and has already walked a long distance on a bicycle.
...
He Songbai returned home when the sun went down in the evening.
When Zhao Lanxiang saw it, she didn't ask much. She brought out the dinner. Some time ago, she made a translucent sweet potato noodles by grinding sweet potatoes into a paste and took out the water.
Today she took a large bundle of sweet potato noodles and soaked it. It is delicious for dinner. The soup base was made from the loach caught by Sanya from the swamp, making the soup milky white, fresh and full-bodied. The soup base is well-made, and it tastes beautiful.
Although the sweet potato tastes disgusting, the sweet potato powder after further processing tastes completely different. Silver and transparent, soft but flexible, full of elasticity. Before it got dark, Sanya proudly ate up a whole bowl of noodles because she caught the best loach for the soup herself. The loach is fried and then put in the soup and simmered with mushrooms. The loach is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and the meat is delicious.
Untreated loach is fishy and smelly, and when the children in the village caught it and ate it, the roasted loach has a crispy texture over the fishy smell, and it can barely be eaten. But Sanya never thought that loach would have such a delicious way to eat it. While she was chewing the loach, her wild grape-like eyes were bright.
Sister He is holding a big bowl of food, and she can't eat enough, educated youth Zhao's craftsmanship is really good!
He Songbai also had a pleasant meal. After eating the sweet potato noodles, he drank the soup without leaving a drop, and his stomach swelled up. Even though he is the kind of person who usually just ate a bun.
After dinner, He Songbai went to his grandmother's room.
He moved a small bench to sit by the bed and said to Grandma, "I want to buy a bicycle and do some business."
Grandma was so scared to the point that she got up from the bed.
He Songbai paused and said, "Grandpa used to do business very well, didn't he? I want to be like him."
Grandma wanted to slap her good grandson, but both hands supported her body and she couldn't pull it out. The anger on her face was very clear.
He Songbai sighed and leaned his grandma against the wall.
He said softly, "Starve to death for the timid and the bold will die full."
"I hope you will live a better life. You used to be a rich wife, an old madam. Now that you are down, you have to rely on others for a good meal. I don't want to make you so miserable anymore. Grandpa must think so too..." He paused and continued, "I will be careful."
"I need money to buy a bicycle."
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As he said that he moved the table in the room, poked the wall with a knife, and dug out a brick. Three golden leaves and a small golden bean were stuffed in the gap between the bricks.
He Songbai silently restored the bricks, re-tightened and sealed them with clay, and moved the table back.
Grandma's tears fell suddenly, and her old face was covered with turbid tears along the wrinkles.
He Songbai wiped her tears and said in a deep voice, "You have to believe your grandson you raised."
Granny said, "Grandma is tired of living a good life, I don't want a good life."
"Bai, don't go, your grandma will be dead if you die."
He Songbai lowered his head when he heard the words, with blue veins floating on his fists.
He looked down at the tears of the old grandmother and said, "No one will be tired of a good life."
"Too much hardship will only make people lose hope."
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