Starting a new chapter in life

Jing Yan chuckled and shook her head: "No need to pressure me. Today is my first day setting up a stall, and you are my first customer. I won't forget you. Just come back as soon as possible. Don't worry, I brought so much soup, I won't renege on my debt."

The woman was very happy and handed Jingyan a ten-yuan note. Jingyan gave her fifty cents in change, saying, "Don't worry, I have so much meat here, I can't sell it all in a short time."

The woman smiled even more happily, "I'll be right back." With that, she happily took her daughter's hand and left.

After opening, things started to go smoothly. Some men who were too shy to ask for meat would just ask to buy it directly. Those who weren't good at cooking or lived far away didn't ask for soup. When He Zhijun came back with breakfast, he saw a group of people gathered around Jing Yan's cart. He walked around from behind the stall next door.

He placed the lunchbox and the paper package of steamed buns and fried dough sticks in the corner of the cart and went over to help. With his help, he took charge of scooping and cutting the meat, while Jingyan was responsible for weighing and packaging. They worked together quite well.

After a busy period, He Zhijun checked his watch and saw that it was almost eleven o'clock. Two bowls of ribs had already sold out, and there was only one bowl of large bones left. The pork belly was also almost gone. He Zhijun opened the lunchbox, which contained tofu pudding with chili oil. He handed it to Jingyan and then handed her the paper package of fried dough sticks.

Jingyan took the container, drank a couple of sips of tofu pudding, and then started eating fried dough sticks. She finished the fried dough sticks in no time, and there was still more than half of the tofu pudding left in the lunchbox. She casually handed it to He Zhijun: "You drink it."

He Zhijun took the lunchbox, drank the tofu pudding and ate the steamed buns. After finishing the steamed buns and the tofu pudding, he closed the lunchbox and hid it in the corner of the cart. The two of them sat on the bench, enjoying a rare moment of leisure.

Around noon, the woman who ran Jingyan's business came over with a man. Reaching Jingyan's stall, she smiled and asked, "You still don't remember me? I..."

"You're a kind person who helped me open my business today." Jingyan didn't want her to be too awkward, so she picked up where she left off. The woman visibly breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing her words and handed her a lunchbox: "Please use this to hold the soup."

Jing Yan smiled and took it, just about to serve her soup, when the man who came with her spoke up: "Do you still have pork belly? I'd like two more pounds."

He Zhijun also stood up and smiled apologetically at him: "I'm sorry, pork belly is hard to buy. There are only a few pounds left, and it's all sold out. Now we only have spare ribs and big bones."

The man looked into the basin in the direction He Zhijun pointed, thought for a moment, and said, "Then weigh me two more pounds of ribs. These bones are a bit big. We have guests at home tonight, and it won't look good to eat them."

He Zhijun nodded knowingly, scooped out the bones with a spoon, and Jing Yan weighed and packed them up. "I should have given you three spoonfuls this morning, but here are two, making it five spoonfuls in total."

The woman smiled and nodded. Jingyan poured five spoonfuls of soup, thought for a moment, then poured two more spoonfuls in, closed the lunchbox, and handed it to her: "There are quite a few people who didn't bring lunchboxes today, so there's some soup left. I'll give you a little more."

The woman handed over six yuan, which Jingyan accepted. Thinking that this was her biggest customer of the day, she cut off a large bone with tendons and fascia, wrapped it in brown paper, and handed it over: "Here's a piece for you to try."

The woman was somewhat taken aback. "This... isn't this inappropriate?"

“You bought fifteen yuan worth of meat from me today, so you’re one of my biggest customers. Besides, you were the first customer I ever had, so giving you a piece for free is no big deal.” Jingyan continued to hand the paper package forward.

The woman happily accepted it, thanked him with a smile, and left with the man.

At 2:30 p.m., only five large bones remained in the bowl, and the ribs were all sold out. Jingyan rubbed her lower back and said, "Let's go back. We can eat these few pieces tonight. The feeling of gnawing on bones is just one word: awesome!"

He Zhijun smiled and helped pack up the stall, pouring the remaining soup into the steamer. The empty bowls were stacked together and tidied up. He Zhijun pushed the cart, and the two walked home into the sunlight.

Although they hadn't done any physical labor, Jingyan was still exhausted after most of the day. She had only eaten one meal, combining breakfast and lunch. She got home before four o'clock, rubbed her empty stomach, and since neither of them wanted to cook anything, they cooked noodles. They sat facing each other and gnawed on a big bone on the table. The posture wasn't very elegant, but the taste was really delicious.

Jingyan ate two pieces and was full. He Zhijun finished the remaining three pieces. After cleaning up the pots and pans, the two locked the door, sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), and took out all the money from their wallets. While sorting through the money, they counted it. "One hundred and fifty-three yuan and thirty cents. I originally had thirty yuan here. Today I sold one hundred and twenty-three yuan. After deducting the cost, I made about fifty-five yuan. Not bad, except for being a little tired, hahaha."

Jingyan was really happy, earning fifty yuan every month, which made her very happy.

He Zhijun was also surprised, not expecting the sales to go so smoothly. He said, "If this market were on a Sunday, I could help you prepare the goods. Now I can only accompany you to sell the goods, but I can't help with the preparation. It's too hard for you to prepare so many things by yourself."

Jingyan shook her head: "It's not hard work. It's only one day a month, how tiring can it be? You don't need to worry about me preparing the goods. We have a trolley, it's not heavy. What's more important now is that we should buy a big steamer and two more basins to clean the bones. This time there were only 60 pounds in total, and it took me three times to finish cleaning them. It was too slow."

“You need industrial ration coupons to buy steamers and large enamel basins. You’ve already used up all the coupons you had at home to buy knives. How about next week? I’ll go back and exchange some industrial ration coupons with my colleagues, and then we can go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy them.”

"Pork belly and ribs sell the best, but the big bones don't sell. Maybe I should just make two big bones and a few pounds of pork belly in the future. We don't need to bring the big bones to the market anymore; we can keep them at home and gnaw on them ourselves. They're quite delicious, and they have tendons too." Jingyan decided to make those the main ingredients after reviewing the situation.

"The reason why big bones don't sell well is probably because everyone knows they have the least meat and they think it's not worth it. Why do you want to braise this?" He Zhijun was indeed very puzzled.

"Because there is bone marrow, and large bones also have a lot of tendons and fat, when they are braised together with ribs, a lot of oil will be mixed into the braising liquid, just like the fat in pork belly. The amount and fat content of pork belly are not very stable, so large bones are better."

“Okay, from now on we’ll keep the big bones for ourselves,” He Zhijun agreed.

The next day, Jingyan felt her arms were very sore and swollen, and she kept groaning. He Zhijun massaged them for her for a long time before it got better. When he went to work, she was alone at home again. With nothing to do, she remembered that she should make soybean paste. In the past, her fourth sister always took care of these things. Now that she was living independently for the first time, she had completely forgotten about such an important matter.

I tapped my head in frustration, realizing it was a bit late to start preparing now. In the past, I would start boiling soybeans and sealing them for fermentation in February or March after the New Year. Now it's already May. Oh well, it's late if it's late. At worst, they won't taste very good, but I can't not do it. I'll make a small batch, about three pounds of soybeans will do. If this year's batch is good, I'll make more next year.

Without hesitation, Jingyan slung her small basket over her shoulder, took her wallet and grain coupons, and went to the supply and marketing cooperative. She bought three and a half jin of soybeans, one jin of coarse salt, a pestle, and a few packets of braising spices from the condiment section. She also bought five jin of noodles. With everything ready, she hurried home to get to work.

Although she wasn't a meticulous person, she still tried her best to pick out shriveled beans, broken beans, and grit when selecting beans. After picking them all out, she weighed them on her own scale. Hmm, three jin and two liang. She had picked out quite a few random beans, and after accurately weighing the three jin, she washed the beans clean and put them in a clean basin to soak in water.

The next day, seeing that the soybeans had been soaked and swollen, and could be crushed with a pinch, she drained them, washed them twice, and put them in a steamer to cook. After they were cooked, she used a garlic press to mash the soybeans into a paste. She didn't like the soybean paste to have any bits of paste, so she mashed it into a very fine paste. After it cooled, she kneaded it into paste dough. She pounded each of the three paste dough pieces firmly, and then placed them on a bamboo mat and took them to the backyard to air dry.

In three or four days, the fermented soybean paste dough was dried out completely. Each piece of dough was wrapped tightly with waste newspaper and placed in a cool, well-ventilated place in the warehouse, ready to be taken out again when it was time to make fermented soybean paste in June.

He Zhijun did not return home this week. Jing Yan knew he was busy again when he did not come back on Friday night. Fortunately, she had a lot of work to do recently, and time was passing quickly. After preparing the fermented soybean paste, she had to ferment the soybean cakes from before the New Year to make soybean cake fertilizer. The soybean cakes were very solid, so she had to use a hoe to break them up by knocking and smashing. Fortunately, she managed to break them up.

Just as the soybean cake fertilizer was fermenting, Sister Gao came over and said, "Jingyan, let me tell you, the family two streets away from your house is getting married and they're renovating their house. They're going to raise the wall and replace some of the old bricks. Didn't you say you wanted to build a chicken coop in your yard? They definitely have enough bricks."

"That's great, Sister Gao. When can the bricks be replaced? When can you come and help me rebuild this chicken coop? I don't know how the cost is calculated, Sister Gao, could you help me figure it out?"

"Well, these are all old bricks. You can pay five yuan for the bricks and the labor cost of building the chicken coop. They're all good workers. They can come in the morning and finish by evening. They can also bring some tiles to fix the roof of the chicken coop, making it sturdy so it won't collapse under heavy snow. Is that alright?" Gao Mei asked.

"Okay, then I'll trouble Sister Gao to help me make the contact." With that, she took out five yuan and handed it to Gao Mei. Gao Mei took the money and was about to leave in a hurry when Jing Yan tried to stop her, but Gao Mei shook her head.

"I'm not sitting here anymore. I've helped my neighbors a lot this year, and now I have a lot of influence in the neighborhood office. If I work a little harder and do well, I might get promoted and earn ten yuan more in salary. Just thinking about it gives me hope."

"My sister's gone. Get up early tomorrow morning. I'll bring them over around six or seven o'clock. They're all young men, and I'm worried it might look bad, so I'll stay here with you tomorrow and help you prepare lunch for them."

Jingyan nodded in agreement, saw Gao Mei off, went inside to get money and coupons, and went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy two catties of pork belly. Since they came to help with the work, lunch didn't need to be too lavish, but there was no need to be too stingy either. Besides, Sister Gao was there too, so it was just to save face for her.

The next morning, Jingyan got up, fried an egg for herself, boiled some noodles, and ate whatever she could. Then she heard a knock on the door. She opened the door and saw Sister Gao standing there with four strong young men. One of them was pushing a cart full of bricks. The bricks were dark red, not a bright color, and looked old, but they seemed to be in good condition.

She greeted Aunt Gao, opened the gate, and pushed the cart into the yard. One of the young men swept the yard and pointed to the corner between the shared wall and the gate, saying, "Aunt Gao, it's better to build the chicken coop there. If you have the chance, you can also raise a goose. This place doesn't take up much yard space. If you raise a goose, you can also guard the house. It's great."

Gao Mei turned to look at Jing Yan, who was also conflicted. It was close to her house, but the smell was too strong in the summer. If it was far away, it would be in the way of farming. If it rained, the land would be muddy, and it would be too dirty to feed the chickens. This place was indeed good. It was close to the door, and there were brick paths for entering and exiting. The poultry would also make noise if there was any wind or grass near the gate. It was quite nice.

She nodded: "That will be very kind of you."

Seeing that Jingyan agreed, the man said to his companion, "First, unload the bricks and tiles from the truck. Erzhuzi, find a place to mix cement. You two, figure out how to build it. The chicken coop should face north. Build a small yard around the garden. The chicks need to move around, so they can't be kept in the coop. Use a stick to mark out the area."

The group responded and got to work. One of them said to Jingyan, "Sister, do you have a bucket? Could you bring us a bucket of water? We'll use it to mix the cement later. Don't worry, we'll do a great job for you."

Jing Yan nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, right away."

She rushed into the house in a hurry, and Gao Mei looked at him with a smile: "Jianguo, you're really good. This arrangement is so well done. You even considered the chickens' activity range. Zhang Meizi, this money was well spent."

When the man named Jianguo heard Gao Mei praising him, a simple, honest smile appeared on his usually serious face: "Aunt Gao, you're just teasing me. My family also has a chicken coop. My mom taught me how to build it, so this is just me learning on the spot."

I have to do my job well. These bricks I replaced were just thrown away anyway; who would want them? If it weren't for your help in finding buyers, they'd only get five yuan a month for new bricks.

We're just a few laborers, not worth much. We have to be honest. If we get paid a lot, we have to do a good job, otherwise people will feel cheated, and it will negatively impact Aunt Gao's reputation. You've helped our community so much; we can't let you suffer in vain, can we?"

Gao Mei nodded in satisfaction: "The young men in our community are really good. They are all honest and hardworking, and none of them are lazy or slacker. This is something I am very proud of. Don't worry, Zhang Meizi is also a generous person and easy to get along with."