Back to 1980: Farming the Sea and Expanding the Island

"The soles of these shoes are well-made, with tight stitches. But the price is outrageous! Two yuan and twenty cents for a pair of cloth shoes? They were only one yuan and eighty cents at this time last year!"

Lin Chuan heard a familiar sound coming from not far away, and when he looked up, it was indeed his mother.

"Amu!" Xiaoman shouted loudly and happily went over there.

Lin Chuan followed along, and his mother, Aunt Liang, and Wang Haiyue squeezed together in front of a shoe and sock stall.

On the stall were several pairs of finished black cloth shoes and cotton shoes, as well as a pile of neatly tied soles and twisted hemp rope.

"Sister, you can't say that." The stall owner's voice was very loud. "You know how difficult it is to get cotton coupons this year!"

The price of hemp rope has gone up! I work from dawn till dusk sewing a pair of shoe soles, and my hands get cut several times from the hemp rope. Two yuan and twenty cents, I really didn't charge you more!

Lin's mother held a pair of cloth shoes she had her eye on, with a blue cloth trim around the opening. She rubbed the thick soles, her face full of conflict.

Thinking to myself: Although these shoes are indeed well made, the price is really a bit high. I feel bad about spending the money if I buy them, but I really like them if I don't.

Aunt Liang chimed in from the side, "How about a discount? One yuan and ninety cents, we'll take two pairs!"

"I'll really lose money if it's 1.9 yuan! How about 2.1 yuan, that's the lowest I can go! If it's any lower, why don't you go look elsewhere?" The woman selling shoes was adamant and wouldn't budge an inch.

Wang Haiyue didn't participate in the bargaining; she was looking at the scarves and yarn on the stall next to her, occasionally picking up a strand of dark blue yarn and twisting it in her hand.

"Auntie, these shoes are two yuan and one jiao, we'll take them. Do you have another pair in size 42?"

"Xiao Chuan! This is too expensive." Lin's mother still felt the pinch.

"Auntie, you should have changed those shoes a long time ago," Lin Chuan advised with a smile.

Seeing Lin Chuan's straightforwardness, the shoe seller's face immediately lit up with a smile. She took the money, praising him repeatedly, "Young man, you're so sensible! So filial! Yes, I have the forty-two size, I'll give it to you!"

He neatly wrapped the two pairs of shoes, tied them with a straw rope in a cross knot, and handed them to Lin's mother.

Seeing this, Lin's mother sighed and said nothing more.

Not far away, Lin's father was squatting in front of a blacksmith's stall.

I picked up a newly forged sickle, flicked the blade with my finger, listened to the clear echo, and looked at the sharpened edge against the light.

"Master craftsman, is this steel 65 manganese?"

"You're an expert. It's 65Mn. I added an extra quenching step during the process, so it's hard but not brittle."

Mr. Lin nodded, swung it a couple of times to test its balance: "It's a good thing."

"I can tell you're an old hand at this," the blacksmith said with a smile.

Lin Chuan led the children to continue exploring. The deeper part of the market was even more lively and had more "novel" things.

A young man wearing sunglasses and tight bell-bottoms leaned against a bicycle. A small cardboard box was placed at his feet, covered with red velvet, and several shiny digital watches lay on it.

He didn't really shout out; he just stood there with a filtered cigarette dangling from his mouth, surrounded by smoke.

"A digital watch from Hong Kong, thirty-one dollars, no need to wind it, it can last a year!" he replied lazily when someone asked.

Thirty-one yuan! A collective gasp rippled through the crowd. Many people watched, but no one was actually willing to pay.

A few elderly people walked by with their hands behind their backs, shaking their heads and whispering, "Tsk tsk, thirty yuan for a watch? That's wasteful!"

"He's dressed like a hoodlum..."

The water monkey curiously poked its head out, but Lin Chuan patted it on the shoulder and pulled it away.

"Don't miss out! A family secret recipe, highly effective rat poison!"

One bite, and the rats immediately kick their legs. No charge if it doesn't work! A cure for pests in granaries and under stoves!

There stood a man in an old military uniform and a green military cap, holding a paper package in his hand, with several dead rats on the ground in front of him.

He was talking animatedly, pouring out some grayish-green powder from an enamel mug and mixing it with a piece of bread crumb.

Then it was thrown to a live rat in a small wire cage on the ground. The rat ate it for a short while, and sure enough, it twitched a few times and then stopped moving.

The onlookers gasped in amazement.

Lin Chuan frowned. He twitched his nose, vaguely smelling a pungent odor similar to zinc phosphide in the powder, but it seemed to be mixed with something else.

He whispered to the water monkey and Liang Wenwu beside him, "See? That rat was probably poisoned beforehand."

Don't easily believe these kinds of tricks. If you really want to get rid of rats, you're better off getting a cat.

The two water monkeys nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

Around noon, they began to head back to regroup.

In a relatively quiet corner, Lin Chuan saw an old farmer guarding two baskets of fresh, plump cabbages, tightly wrapped with tender green leaves.

"Hey folks, how much are the cabbages?"

The old farmer looked up, squinted at Lin Chuan, and suddenly said, "You...you're that young man from Qingping Island...the one who dug the sweet water well on the island?"

Lin Chuan was taken aback, then smiled and said, "It's me. You know me?"

"Oh my, it really is you!" The old farmer smiled and slapped his thigh. "I'm from Pingchuan Island, I've heard of you! Everyone says you're capable! That sweet water well, what a blessing!"

"Here, take two to take home and try! They're homegrown, they're worthless!" Without waiting for a reply, he picked out two of the biggest and plumpest cabbages from the basket, tied them together with straw rope, and stuffed them into Lin Chuan's hand.

"How can this be..." Lin Chuan quickly declined.

"Take it, take it!" the old farmer insisted, laughing, "I'll come to your island another day to ask for a bowl of water."

Lin Chuan couldn't refuse, so he had no choice but to accept it.

He immediately smiled, grabbed a small handful of White Rabbit milk candies from the bag of candies, and shoved them into the old farmer's hand: "Then you should try this too, it's a candy from Shanghai."

The bustling market was still packed with people, with no sign of the crowds decreasing.

"Hey! Xiao Chuan, Xiao Man, I knew you'd be here for the market!" Li Xinru waved her chubby hand and greeted them warmly from Li's meat stall in the distance.

Lin Chuan led everyone forward, greeting them with a smile: "Uncle Li, Aunt Li, you're here too."

Aunt Li smiled broadly and looked at Xiaoman, saying, "Xiaochuan's here! Xiaoman, this butterfly is so pretty!"

"Auntie, Uncle! Here's some candy for you," Xiaoman said, handing out candy.

"Okay, okay, Xiaoman is such a good girl. Uncle won't eat, but Xiaoman will." Uncle Li handed a portion of offal to the guest and turned around to smile.

Then he looked at Lin Chuan and asked, "Xiao Chuan, has the island been busy lately? I heard your transport team is doing very well."

Lin Chuan replied with a smile, "It's alright, Uncle Li. Everyone is quite dedicated, it's just that it's the beginning, so there's a lot going on."

Aunt Li interjected, "That's good. You young people are so energetic; you'll definitely make a good living. By the way, how's Xiaoman's studies?"

Xiaoman eagerly answered, "Auntie, I'm a very good student, and my teacher often praises me."

Uncle Li laughed heartily: "Xiaoman is really amazing, she'll definitely amount to something in the future."

Lin Chuan chatted with Li Xinru for a while longer before leading everyone away, inviting Li Xinru to go to the island for some fun.

As the sun was nearing its zenith, the family finally reunited by the oxcart. The eggs they had brought to the commune were quickly sold out, and Aunt Wang's braided basket was also soon gone.

The oxcart was piled with more things: cloth shoes, salt, and oil that Lin's mother had bought, and a new sickle that Lin's father had bought.

Aunt Liang bought a few feet of floral fabric, Wang Haiyue bought yarn, and Lin Chuan also bought books, candies, cookies, and two large cabbages.

Xiaoman's red hair clip shimmered in her hair as Liang Wenwu clutched the comic book to his chest.

On the way back, the tide had already begun to rise quietly, and the wide sandy road we had come on had become much narrower.

Xiaoman leaned against Lin Chuan, a White Rabbit milk candy in her mouth, its rich milky aroma filling the air.

Flipping through Liang Wenwu's "Little Smarty's Journey to the Future," he pointed to a disc-like object on the screen and asked, "Brother, can this really fly?"

"Maybe not now, but definitely in the future," Lin Chuan said with a smile.