Chapter 50 — IAVD (QT) Chapter 50

Although she had only lived in Chunxi Village for six years, Li Shiyue felt she had already seen through the place.

It was a very ordinary small village—some strengths, some flaws. Once you blended in, you could at least have food and clothing without worry.

But without a doubt, it was not suitable for children to grow up in, especially a timid girl like Ji Yingzi.

Information was blocked off, boys were valued over girls, and educational ideas were outdated.

There were also some idle middle-aged and elderly women who loved to make inappropriate jokes whenever they had nothing better to do.

More than once, Li Shiyue had heard people say things to Ji Yingzi like, “Once your parents have a younger brother, they won’t want you anymore. Poor little thing—what will you do then?” and the like.

Ji Yingzi had cried several times over it, and Li Shiyue had quarreled with those people more than once as well.

Later, no one dared to tease Ji Yingzi to her face anymore, but Li Shiyue still felt that a place like this was not good. If there were a chance, she really wanted to take Yingzi back to the city—the city where she herself had grown up.

Six years passed, and she gave up on that dream. Now, with the reappearance of the college entrance examination, she has undoubtedly been given a new opportunity.

Should she really give up?

Li Shiyue looked up at Ji Xiu. Their eyes met, and her expression became resolute. “I will definitely get in!”

Ji Xiu nodded in satisfaction and rubbed Li Shiyue’s head. “Very good. Let’s go to the bookstore.”

This time, Li Shiyue didn’t say anything more. The only thing she could do was study hard and, when the college entrance examination was fully restored, give it everything she had—to repay Ji Xiu for all he had done.

The family of three left the black market.

Before leaving, they specifically asked Ergou for directions, then headed toward the bookstore.

It hadn’t been long since that period had ended, but society had already more or less returned to normal order. At the beginning of spring this year, even the primary school in the village next to Chunxi Village had resumed regular classes.

Since schools were holding classes normally, bookstores could naturally operate as well.

There was now a Xinhua Bookstore in the city, though it had only just opened. They walked around inside but found that it didn’t carry the high school textbooks Li Shiyue needed.

Ji Xiu went to ask the owner about textbooks.

The owner was surprisingly young. After giving the two of them a look and noticing their bearing and temperament, he guessed they were likely educated youths. He nodded in realization and pointed them in another direction. “I don’t stock those books here. If you want them, you can wait until next week when I bring in a batch. Or you could try Old Qin’s place first—you might find some used ones there. There are always students who don’t care about studying and selling their books. Old Qin told me many times that his high school textbooks are practically piled up like mountains.”

“Old Qin?” Ji Xiu asked.

“Old Qin, the scrap collector on Shuita Road. It’s just two streets away from here, not far. Go out and turn left, then keep going straight—you’ll find it.”

Ji Xiu thanked him and said they’d go take a look first and come back if they couldn’t find anything.

“Go on, go on,” the owner said indifferently, waving his hand before burying his head in a book again behind the counter.

So Ji Xiu and Li Shiyue went to this so-called Old Qin’s place.

Ji Yingzi was small with short legs and couldn’t keep up. Halfway there she complained of being tired, so Ji Xiu simply picked her up and carried her the rest of the way.

When they arrived and explained their purpose, Old Qin directly led them to an empty room. Inside were relatively intact old books, stacked layer upon layer and sorted quite carefully. He said he had collected them during the earlier turmoil and couldn’t bear to see them wasted, so he had kept them all this time and told them to look through them themselves to see if there was anything they needed.

After hearing this, Ji Xiu looked at Old Qin with some emotion.

Though he was just an ordinary person, he too was using his small strength to try to salvage the world.

Old Qin left the room to them and went outside to get on with his work.

Once he was gone, Li Shiyue excitedly dove into the books, carefully searching for the textbooks she needed.

Ji Xiu and Ji Yingzi had nothing else to do and joined in to help.

After a good deal of rummaging, they finally managed to gather most of the textbooks they needed. They also found a few children’s fairy-tale books suitable for early reading, with black-and-white illustrations that looked quite nice.

As for the high school textbooks, Ji Xiu took an extra set.

When Li Shiyue asked about it, he said matter-of-factly that he also wanted to see whether he could pass the exam.

Li Shiyue widened her eyes, thinking he must be joking. She didn’t have the heart to dampen his confidence, hesitated for a moment, and in the end said nothing, letting him have his way.

All the books together cost one yuan and two jiao, priced by weight. Old Qin even waived the odd change, saying he admired people like them who valued learning and wanted to form a good connection.

Ji Xiu and Li Shiyue were delighted. They thanked Old Qin and left with the books.

Out on the main street, Li Shiyue hugged the books to her chest. Her eyes sparkled with hope, her face full of excitement and anticipation. “From now on, I’m going to read every day.”

Ji Xiu nodded, his gaze sweeping over the street as he said casually, “It’s getting late. Should we find a place to rest and eat something before looking around some more, or just head home?”

“Let’s go home,” Li Shiyue said. “Food outside is too expensive.”

“All right. We’ll walk around a bit more, then head back. It’s not easy to come into the city—if there’s anything missing at home, we’ll buy it. And we should go to the supply and marketing cooperative to get some things for my elder brother’s side too.”

Li Shiyue glanced at him with a smile, a little surprised. “So generous?”

Before Ji Xiu could answer, she nodded and said to herself in agreement, “It’s about time. We’ve bothered big brother so many times over the past few years.”

Ji Xiu rubbed his nose and smiled without saying anything.

Carrying his daughter, he walked with Li Shiyue toward the supply and marketing cooperative closest to the station, heading home along the way.

Ji Yingzi had her arms around his neck and wasn’t listening to their conversation at all. She kept looking at both sides of the road, eyes darting everywhere, occasionally pointing at unfamiliar buildings and asking endless questions.

“Daddy, what’s that?”

“A state-run restaurant. Yingzi, do you want to eat there? We can go in and have a little.”

Ji Yingzi shook her head. She was a well-behaved child and knew the family didn’t have much money. She never made a fuss about wanting to eat outside.

After a while, she pointed somewhere else. “Daddy, there are so many people there.”

“That’s a movie theater. Have you seen a movie before, Yingzi? Do you want to watch one?”

This time, Ji Yingzi’s eyes lit up. She said proudly, “I have!”

Oh?

Ji Xiu was a little surprised. Thinking about it, he remembered that during the autumn harvest two years ago, the production team had indeed invited people to show a couple of movies. He was amazed by Ji Yingzi’s memory.

She had only been three back then—he hadn’t expected her to still remember it.

Ji Xiu kissed his daughter on the cheek. “Our Yingzi has such a good memory!”

Ji Yingzi shyly buried herself in his arms, embarrassed.

While talking, they arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative. Ji Xiu and Li Shiyue bought some things—soap, salt, vinegar… all everyday necessities that could last a long time. After buying the basics, as they had discussed earlier, they also bought some things for the Ji family. Li Shiyue picked up a bag of white sugar and a bag of peanuts. When she saw sunflower seeds, she remembered seeing them at the black market earlier and felt a little tempted, so she bought a bag of those as well.

This checkout was much more expensive than the books—over five yuan in total.

Li Shiyue paid with a pained expression. After counting what money was left, she frowned. “We brought ten yuan and spent more than half of it.”

The family only had fifty-three yuan in savings to begin with.

And now it is only early spring. The next time money would be distributed wouldn’t be until autumn.

Ji Xiu was also a bit helpless. To be honest, he still hadn’t fully decided what to do.

There were too many ways to make money. He wanted to choose the least tiring, easiest, and safest one. Even so, there were still so many options that he couldn’t make up his mind.

This was probably the worry of an all-round talent.

After congratulating himself internally, Ji Xiu came back to his senses and suddenly laughed.

Once he got into character, even he started acting mischievous.

…

By the time they returned home with everything, dusk had fallen.

Every household was busy lighting fires and preparing dinner. Seeing this, Li Shiyue hurriedly put the things down and started cooking as well.

Ji Xiu didn’t stay idle. After saying a word to her, he took his daughter by the hand and went to the Ji family’s place to deliver the gifts.

As each item was taken out, everyone in the Ji household gathered around, eyes wide.

Unbelievable—Ji Xiu was actually giving gifts.

Huang Taohua froze for a moment, then looked at the items in front of her. Tears streamed down her face as she was deeply moved. Her son had grown up and finally become sensible.

Ji Xiu felt uncomfortable under their gazes and said, “The things are here. You can divide them up as you see fit.”

Father Ji touched the items, his old face full of emotion. “White sugar, peanuts, sunflower seeds… This must have cost quite a bit, right? Why don’t you stay for dinner tonight? We’ve got food at home—have Dongzi go call your wife.”

Ji Xiu refused. “We’re exhausted today, running back and forth. It’s too much trouble. Next time.”

Father Ji looked a little disappointed. “All right then. But don’t give all of this to us—take some back for yourself to eat.”

He grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and peanuts, his face full of nostalgia as he chuckled. “We used to grow plenty of these at home. Your mother would even roast them and let us take them to eat when we went to see movies. Other families didn’t have anything to eat—only us. People were so envious back then.”

Hmm?

Ji Xiu looked at Huang Taohua in surprise. A spark flashed through his mind.

Sunflower seeds, peanuts, movies…

He fell silent for a moment, thinking of those well-known e-commerce snack brands from later generations—Three Squirrels, Bestore, Be & Cheery.

He thought he knew what he should do.

Ji Xiu took his daughter home, let the little girl go play in the yard, then went to the kitchen to discuss starting a business with Li Shiyue the next day.

“At the black market, you can buy raw sunflower seeds cheap—only one jiao two fen per jin. We can buy in bulk, roast them, then take them to sell outside the movie theater. As long as we maintain a good relationship with the theater, there won’t be any problems…”

The tide of the times was unstoppable. After ten years of turmoil, the authorities were cracking down less and less on profiteering. Small items like sunflower seeds and peanuts were cheap, and even if you got caught, nothing serious would happen—you’d just pay a fine and be released.

And though these things didn’t look very profitable, the margins were astonishing.

A jin of roasted sunflower seeds sold for just over two jiao, but if you split it into small packages and made them a bit more presentable, one jin could be divided into five bags, each selling for one jiao. For people wealthy enough to spend big money on movie tickets, that wasn’t expensive at all.

Movie theater popcorn in modern times worked the same way. The cost might not even be two yuan, but sold to moviegoers, the profit could be ten or even twenty times over.

Li Shiyue had been a little hesitant at first, but when she heard there was no danger and nothing would go wrong, she finally relented.

“Then let’s try it first.”

Ji Xiu grinned, wrapped an arm around her waist, and acted spoiled. “Wife, I can’t do this by myself—you have to help me.”

Li Shiyue blinked, a bit confused. “What can I do?”

“Ahem.” Ji Xiu rubbed his nose. “Roasting sunflower seeds and peanuts… that has to be you. If I do it, I’m afraid I’ll burn the house down.”

Li Shiyue laughed. “You’re exaggerating. You just want to be lazy, don’t you? Fine, fine, I’ll help you roast them.”

Ji Xiu: No, really—I’m not exaggerating at all, you know?