Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

With the Lunar New Year fast approaching, Zhao Da'e thought that the New Year celebrations in the North at least had some festive atmosphere, like the candied hawthorns that he hadn't really had a chance to eat this year. He wanted to have some, after all.

This is the first time she's preparing for the New Year since her rebirth, so she wants to have some sense of ritual. Although Zhao Da'e isn't a woman who likes rituals...

After all, she's not that superficial.

That day at Zhao Tingming's house, I mentioned it briefly. Zhao Da'e said he wanted to eat candied hawthorn, and Zhao Tingming's house had hawthorns.

As it turned out, just as Zhao Da'e got up this morning, Guo actually brought over the hawthorns.

A huge bag full of hawthorns.

Just when I was about to doze off, a pillow appeared.

Hawthorn berries, when eaten alone, aren't very tasty. They're sour, hard, and don't have much flesh, plus they have seeds, making them quite unpleasant. And eating too many can cause discomfort, like acid reflux.

The improved varieties from later generations were passable, larger and tastier. But the ones from this era haven't been improved at all; the current hawthorns are tiny and hard.

Most importantly, it's incredibly sour.

Looking at the hawthorns that Guo had sent, Zhao Da'e's mouth watered. It was quite like the story of "quenching thirst by looking at plums" from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These hawthorns were incredibly sour; just seeing them made his mouth water.

"Grandma, what are you doing... bringing so many hawthorns? Um... candied hawthorns need rock sugar, where's the rock sugar?"

Guo: "..."

Zhao Da'e, you're really making a fuss, even when you're begging, you complain the food is bad...

"We're out of rock sugar, so I brought two catties of white sugar instead." Guo took out a cloth bag from behind her, which contained some white sugar.

Unlike later times, plastic bags were extremely rare then. In rural areas, cloth bags were used for carrying things. Generally, rice and flour bags were used to buy rice and flour, and the rest were used to store other items.

Zhao Da'e was a little stunned. She had actually forgotten whether it was better to use white sugar or brown sugar for candied hawthorn.

After all, it's normally made with rock sugar, otherwise why would it be called candied hawthorn?

However, the Guo family did not have this, and we cannot insist that it is not true.

As the two were talking, Zhou Chunwen came out wearing a cotton-padded coat. "Big Goose, are you dragging my shoes again? I only have one pair of shoes, and you keep dragging them, the heels are all worn out." Zhou Chunwen complained, but when she looked up, she saw Guo Shi. Zhou Chunwen knew that Guo Shi was Zhao Tingming's wife, but she wasn't very familiar with her. After all, they were from different villages, and they could only be considered acquainted, but not really close. Zhou Chunwen quickly ran back to get dressed again before coming out again. "Big Goose's great-grandmother is here, please come in and sit down."

Guo smiled and said, "No, I'll bring some hawthorns to Da'e. She said the other day that she wanted to eat candied hawthorns, but I don't know how to make them, so I'll bring some hawthorns over."

After saying this, Guo exchanged a few more pleasantries and then left.

Left behind, Zhao Da'e looked bewildered and muttered, "Oh dear, they gave me hawthorns but not rock sugar. How am I supposed to make candied hawthorns?"

Zhou Chunwen glanced at Zhao Da'e, picked up the bag of hawthorns, and carried it towards the house: "Da'e, you're being picky about free stuff. What, did you have someone deliver a whole box of candied hawthorns to you? Those things are pretty expensive."

Actually, in many later television shows and videos, candied hawthorns are depicted in a cart canopy, stuck in a cylindrical container. However, that equipment certainly didn't exist back then. The only tool available for selling candied hawthorns was a bicycle. In the dead of winter, with strong winds everywhere, if the container were left outside, it would quickly become covered in dust, making it unpalatable. Therefore, many more discerning candied hawthorn vendors would store their fruit in styrofoam boxes for better cleanliness and hygiene.

There are often vendors selling candied hawthorns outside. Transportation is relatively convenient in Dongtaizi Village, and some people go from street to street selling food and household goods. Some are like peddlers carrying loads on shoulder poles in the south. In winter, there's not much farm work, so those with some skills come out to do something to earn some money to supplement their family income. Dongtaizi Village is a remote and impoverished village in the north. There aren't many people with skills in the village; most people just farm. There's relatively more farm work, so there's less time for other jobs. Therefore, there really isn't anyone who knows how to make candied hawthorns.

Generally speaking, time and interest are directly proportional. Zhao Da'e knows someone like Zhou Yuren, who, having nothing much to do, has been weaving flower baskets these past few days. Zhou Yuren can not only weave flower baskets, but also winnowing baskets, sieves, mats, small baskets, and small wicker lids. Many people probably haven't heard of wicker lids, because the craft has been lost to later generations. Zhao Da'e's impression of it isn't very deep either; he only knows it's a small item woven from the top section of corn stalks. Because corn stalks are quite brittle and not resistant to sunlight, weaving that thing is extremely difficult. So it's normal that the craft has been lost.

Dongtaizi Village sells candied hawthorns, but although Jurenzhangzi is very close by, they don't sell anything like that here. Sometimes when Zhao Da'e gets a craving and wants to eat something, he can only say to the biting northwest wind: "Please bring back some sand and dust so I can have a sandstorm. Otherwise, my mouth will be tasteless, nothing will taste good, and I won't have any energy to do anything."

Rural areas are already relatively poor in resources. It's even more difficult in the mountains. While there are indeed many works in later generations depicting people getting rich in the mountains, the level of difficulty is extremely high. For example, right now, if Zhao Da'e wants to eat candied hawthorns, there's not even any rock sugar available; he'd have to go to town to buy some, which would take a lot of time and energy.

The candied hawthorn vendors don't come to Juren Zhangzi Village; they think it's too poor. They probably figure that even if they came all the way over the mountains with their carts, few people would buy many candied hawthorns, which would be a waste of their effort. So, they don't come.

Zhao Da'e sighed: "Candied hawthorns without rock sugar are not much different from eating hawthorns."

"How about adding some saccharin?" Zhou Chunwen asked tentatively.

Saccharin is sweeter and is a very primitive food additive. Many people in later generations may never have seen it. Zhao Da'e does know a little about saccharin; it's called o-benzoyl sulfimide. Just hearing that name tells you there's benzene in it, so it's definitely not a legitimate product.

Actually, this stuff isn't very good. In this day and age, saccharin is cheap, and a very small amount can have the same effect as a large amount of rock sugar.

If Zhao Da'e were to use rock sugar to make this candied hawthorn, it would probably require several kilograms of rock sugar.

However, you can just add water to saccharin. Just a small packet is enough to make the water very sweet.

Of course, the side effects have been mentioned in later generations, and in 07, saccharin was listed as a carcinogen. Since then, saccharin has completely disappeared from the market.

However, in this era, people's understanding of saccharin was still limited to the fact that saccharin was very cheap.

It's cheap, so many people use it. Zhou Chunwen often uses saccharin; she adds a little to steamed buns and bean buns to make them taste better and sweeter.

The reason was simple: saccharin was much cheaper than white sugar or rock sugar. Besides, in those days, there were no newspapers, no television; some families had radios, which was their only window to the outside world. Zhou Chunwen had never left the mountains, so naturally he didn't really know that saccharin was a carcinogen.

But Zhao Da'e knew about it; she'd eaten it before and nothing seemed to have happened. Of course, back then she didn't know it was carcinogenic. If you knowingly eat something that's a carcinogen, wouldn't that be a bit disgusting?

"No, we can't eat that stuff anymore." Zhao Da'e said with a pout, "Big sister, you shouldn't use saccharin to steam buns anymore, that stuff causes cancer."

"Huh?" Zhou Chunwen was taken aback: "What does 'carcinogenic' mean?"

Zhao Da'e: "..."

Zhou Chunwen genuinely didn't know what "carcinogenic" meant; the understanding of many diseases was extremely backward in this era. In remote mountain villages like Jurenzhangzi, people generally only had two ways of analyzing diseases.

One is a minor illness, and the other is a major illness.

For minor illnesses, just tough it out; for major illnesses, just tough it out...

The only medicine that can cure the illness is painkillers. Painkillers seem to be a panacea; whether it's a headache, fever, a cold, or even other illnesses, as long as there's a special symptom, painkillers are used to treat it.

Therefore, Zhou Chunwen didn't know what cancer was either.

"It causes cancer, that's why eating this stuff can easily lead to terminal illnesses," Zhao Da'e said.

"Oh. Then eat less, we're out of rock sugar."

Zhao Da'e sighed helplessly, "Never mind. I'll go buy some rock sugar from Xiao Liuzi. Big sister, pick out a few big hawthorns, wash them thoroughly, and then remove the pits. When I get back, we'll eat candied hawthorns."

Zhou Chunwen readily agreed, and then began picking out the hawthorns.

It has to be said that the hawthorns that Guo sent over were all quite large. However, removing the pits from these things was quite a chore, so Zhou Chunwen took a small spoon and started poking at them with the other end.

Zhao Da'e put on a hat and a cotton-padded coat and went outside.

The mountain wind was strong and it was very cold.

Winters in the north, especially around the Laba Festival, are ridiculously cold.

Laba Festival, Laba Festival, two or three freeze to death.

Just how cold was it? Zhao Da'e felt his toes were especially cold. His toes were particularly chilly. His hands were alright, not so cold, but his feet were so cold that he had to stomp them. The wind blew through the woods, whistling and carrying snowflakes from the treetops, making it almost impossible to open one's eyes.

Zhao Da'e's little face was red from the cold. She cursed the awful weather and continued walking angrily.

Xiao Liuzi's family lived not far from the front of Jurenzhangzi Village, next to Dongtaizi Village. Because he was the sixth child in his family, he was called Xiao Liuzi.

Xiao Liuzi actually has an older brother who lives in Zhangzi Village, a village known for its scholars. His other brothers and father stayed behind in Northeast China when they migrated there.

Actually, Xiao Liuzi also has the surname Zhao, and they've been separated from Zhao Da'e for a long time. You'd have to go back many, many generations to find their shared roots.

Therefore, Zhao Da'e and Xiao Liuzi were not very familiar with each other.

Xiao Liuzi, also known as Zhao Xiaoliu, runs a business selling basic necessities like firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. Of course, they might also have expired children's food. At first, people bought some, but Xiao Liuzi's prices were high, so people stopped buying it. Since nobody buys it, it's fine if it expires. But it's still on the shelves.

After making a few turns, Zhao Da'e arrived at Xiao Liuzi's house.

"Sixth Brother, are you home?" Zhao Da'e called out.

A moment later, Xiao Liuzi opened the door and came out: "I'm here, come in."

Upon hearing this attitude, Zhao Da'e became somewhat displeased and retorted sarcastically, "Sixth Brother, why don't you offer to deliver things from afar when you're doing business? This is our private home. If it were someone else, you wouldn't come out to greet them; you would just let them in without them turning around and leaving."

Xiao Liuzi paused for a moment, then walked out of the house, reached the courtyard gate, opened it halfway, grinned, and said, "It's cold, I don't feel like moving. Business is bad this year, hardly anyone comes to buy anything. I'm too lazy to even open it. I don't know what's wrong with this year, business is really tough. It's almost the end of the twelfth lunar month, and I still haven't seen many customers. I have a lot of money tied up in inventory, I'm almost starving. If it's like this next year, I'm not opening it anymore. Going out to work is more profitable than running this thing."

Zhao Da'e chuckled to himself: "Little Liu is incredibly stingy in business. He wouldn't cheat on weights and measures, but he's absolutely stubborn. He won't haggle over a single penny. His business is like a one-off deal at a supply and marketing cooperative. In the countryside, what business doesn't allow bargaining? Even if you sell it a little more expensive, rounding it down later is probably better than being meticulous and fair."

So it's understandable that Xiao Liu's business isn't doing well. It's quite possible he can't continue. After all, although Xiao Liu is located between two villages, the village of Juren is dirt poor, while most villagers in Dongtaizi Village buy their groceries in town. Except for people like Zhao Da'e who need something on the way, they don't really go to Xiao Liu's place to buy things.

"Sixth Brother, going out to work is a good idea. There are many construction projects in the city now. Going to the city to work, learning some skills, and doing something in the future would be great," Zhao Da'e said.

In his past life, Xiao Liuzi really did go to the city to work due to family difficulties. He worked in exterior wall insulation, then sold goods, raised chickens, raised cattle, and did other odd jobs. He kept changing jobs over and over again, and he was always very restless.

Of course, this was because Xiao Liuzi later had a pair of precious sons, twins. The two big boys instantly unleashed Xiao Liuzi's primal power.

In fact, people are all driven. It is when they are driven that they think about what to do.

In her previous life, Zhao Da'e also worked odd jobs everywhere to pay for her mother's medical treatment. She worked as a part-time cleaner, housekeeper, seamstress, domestic helper, kitchen helper, and even made bean curd sheets and worked in a PVC window factory. She did whatever paid for it.

But ultimately, he suffered from a lack of skills and was always stuck in the lowest-level positions, doing menial tasks.

"Learn a skill?" Xiao Liu looked at Zhao Dage with a puzzled expression. "Then tell me, what skill should I learn to earn more money?"

"On a construction site, bricklayers and carpenters naturally earn the most. Bricklaying is something that comes with practice and requires good physical strength. As for carpentry, it pays even more and is relatively easier. Sixth Brother, if you learn carpentry, you can make a lot of money laying cables and setting up boxes," Zhao Da'e analyzed.

As Zhao Da'e said, carpentry is indeed a skilled trade. Of course, carpentry is not the same as carpentry; it's a rather special trade within civil engineering. Because when we talk about civil engineering, the most important components are civil construction and carpentry.