Reborn in 1984, fishing and hunting in Jiangnan

Chapter 61

On the evening of the first anniversary of the establishment of the Baiyang Town Promotion Station, Chen Zheng received a letter.

The letter was sent from Chengguan Town in the neighboring Qingshui County, and the sender was his eldest sister, Chen Fang.

The envelope was the cheapest kind of kraft paper envelope.

There were soy sauce stains on it; I don't know if it was written near the stove or on the counter of the supply and marketing cooperative.

The letter was torn from a primary school student's notebook, and most of the page was written crookedly.

Chen Fang hadn't received much formal education, and her handwriting resembled that of a toddler just learning to walk.

He used too much force in every stroke, and tore the paper in several places.

The letter said that her husband had worked at the supply and marketing cooperative for eight years and had finally been promoted to a permanent position this year, with his salary increasing from 18.5 yuan to 26 yuan.

We got a new sewing machine for the house. It's an old Butterfly brand, but it still works.

She told Chen Zheng to come and stay at her place for a few days when he had time.

They say the county town is more lively than the village, with a movie theater, a department store, and even candied hawthorn vendors on the street.

At the end of the letter, she added a sentence.

"How is Mother's health?"

Did she eat the brown sugar I asked someone to bring her last time? Tell her not to be stingy, I'll buy more when she runs out.

Chen Zheng sat on a stone stool in the courtyard and read the letter twice.

Zhang Cuihua poked her head out of the kitchen, holding a spatula in her hand.

Seeing the letter in his hand, he asked who it was from.

Chen Zheng said it was the eldest sister.

Zhang Cuihua wiped her hands on her apron, took the letter, and squinted at it under the kerosene lamp for a long time.

After reading the letter, she folded it, placed it on the stove, and turned around to continue cooking.

The sound of the spatula hitting the iron pot was a bit louder than usual.

Chen Zheng knew that his mother missed his eldest sister.

Chen Fang is six years older than him and has been married to the neighboring town of Qingshui County for seven years.

My brother-in-law's name is Zhou Peishan. He is an honest man who works as a sales clerk at the Chengguan Town Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

Except for the two days they come back to stay during the Chinese New Year, you can hardly see them at other times of the year.

In his past life, Chen Fang was the person he felt most sorry for.

When his mother passed away, his eldest sister came back to help with the funeral arrangements, and she lost weight from exhaustion.

When his father passed away, it was his eldest sister who came back to take care of things.

Later, he had an accident in the city. It was his eldest sister who identified his body and buried him.

He remembers when he was a child, his older sister would carry him to school on her back, walking several miles of mountain road.

When he couldn't walk anymore, his older sister carried him on her back, telling him stories as they went.

It tells of the fish in the lake, the foxes in the mountains, and the stars in the sky.

At that time, he thought his older sister knew everything.

Thinking of this, Chen Zheng folded the letter, put it in his pocket, stood up, and walked to the kitchen door.

"Mother, I'll go see my eldest sister in a few days."

Zhang Cuihua turned around and smiled.

That smile contained both joy and heartache.

To get to Chengguan Town, you have to transfer buses twice, and the round-trip fare is several yuan.

In the past, this amount of money would have been enough for a family to eat salt for a month.

But she didn't mention money, only saying, "Bring two cured fish when you go, your eldest sister loves them."

Chen Zheng nodded.

Three days later, Chen Zheng boarded a bus to Chengguan Town.

He brought two cured fish and a cloth bag of dried mushrooms that he had sun-dried himself.

There was also a package of sticky rice cakes that Zhang Cuihua had steamed overnight.

The steamed buns were wrapped in several layers of lotus leaves, and they were still steaming when I held them close to my body.

Chengguan Town is the county seat of Qingshui County, and it is much larger than Baiyang Town.

The main street is paved with asphalt, and there are two-story brick buildings on both sides.

Televisions and radios were displayed in the glass windows of the department store.

People were riding motorcycles whizzing by on the street, and girls in skirts were walking by holding parasols.

Chen Fang's home is in an alley at the west end of Chengguan Town. The alley is so narrow that only two people can walk side by side.

The courtyard wall was built with broken bricks, and a clump of wild grass grew on top of it.

The gate wasn't closed properly, and when Chen Zheng pushed it open, Chen Fang was squatting in the yard washing clothes.

She was wearing a blue cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and her hands were covered in soap bubbles.

His face was tanned and he had fine lines around his eyes, but he looked much more energetic than when we last met.

"Sister," Chen Zheng called out.

Chen Fang looked up, paused for a moment, and then stood up from the washbasin.

He wiped his hands on his apron several times, and his eyes immediately welled up with tears.

"What brings you here?"

"I came to see you."

Chen Fang pulled him into the house, poured him a glass of water, and then rummaged through drawers and cabinets to find a bag of biscuits.

It was the cheapest kind of loose biscuits, quite a few of them were broken, but they were still neatly wrapped in a plastic bag.

It's clear that they've been saving it up because they couldn't bear to eat it.

"You've lost weight?" Chen Fang looked him up and down. "Are you not getting enough to eat at home?"

"We're eating well. Sister, the fishpond at home is catching fish this year, and our income is several times higher than last year."

Mother's health has improved, and her stomach problems haven't recurred.

Chen Zheng took out the items he had brought one by one and placed them on the table.

"This is the cured fish that Mom asked me to bring, these are the dried mushrooms we picked from the mountain, and these are steamed buns with red bean paste, which Mom steamed early this morning."

Chen Fang looked at the things on the table, her lips moving slightly.

She lowered her head, broke off a piece of the steamed bun, put it in her mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and then tears started streaming down her face.

"My mother's steamed buns still taste the same."

After crying for a while, she wiped her eyes with her sleeve and smiled sheepishly.

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the courtyard gate.

A man wearing a gray-blue overall outfit and carrying a net bag of vegetables walked in.

Upon seeing Chen Zheng, he paused for a moment, then smiled and greeted him.

It was Zhou Peishan, Chen Fang's man.

In Zhang Cuihua's words, Zhou Peishan was such an honest man that he wouldn't even dare to step on an ant.

He worked at the supply and marketing cooperative for eight years, starting as a temporary worker and eventually becoming a permanent employee.

A monthly salary of twenty-six yuan is neither high nor low in this county.

He doesn't smoke or drink, and goes straight home after work.

His only hobby was squatting in the yard fiddling with his old radio.

The radio is a Red Lantern brand. The outer casing has a crack, which is glued back together with adhesive tape, but it still works.

"Zhengzi is here!"

Zhou Peishan placed the dishes on the table and patted Chen Zheng on the shoulder.

"Your sister talks about you every day, saying that you've made a name for yourself raising fish in the village."

A while ago, I heard someone at the supply and marketing cooperative say that a skilled breeder named Chen had emerged in Baiyang Town. I knew it was you as soon as I heard that.

"Brother-in-law, does the supply and marketing cooperative sell fish too?"

"For sale. But they're all frozen fish brought in from the provincial capital, not fresh."

"If you could bring those live fish to the county to sell, they'd definitely be in high demand."

Chen Zheng kept these words in mind.

Chen Fang cooked dinner, making four dishes.

I steamed a plate of preserved fish, stir-fried dried mushrooms with greens, stir-fried chives with eggs, and stewed pork ribs with radish.

Zhou Peishan brought back a bottle of liquor from the supply and marketing cooperative; it was the cheapest kind of bulk liquor.

When poured into a rough porcelain bowl, the bubbles were small, but the aroma of the wine was very strong.

At the dinner table, Chen Fang kept putting food on Chen Zheng's plate, but she didn't eat much herself.

Chen Zheng talked about the changes that have taken place in the village over the past year.

The old family's fishpond has been expanded into a six-acre terraced fishpond, and artificial breeding of mandarin fish has been successful.

A fisheries technology extension station was established in Baiyang Town, and he became the station manager, receiving a monthly subsidy of twenty yuan.

Chen Fang listened, nodding from time to time, her eyes reddening again.

She picked up the rough porcelain bowl, clinked it against Chen Zheng's, took a small sip of the wine, and frowned because it was so spicy.

"Is Mother really feeling better?"

"That's great. Last month, when I went to the county hospital for a follow-up check-up, Dr. Wei said that my spleen and stomach functions had fully recovered."

Now I can eat a bowl of rice at every meal, my face is fuller, and I walk with more energy than before.

Chen Fang put down her chopsticks and let out a long sigh.

What worried her most about this family was her mother's health.

When she got married, Zhang Cuihua's face was as yellow as dirt, and she was so thin that her cheekbones were high.

On the night of her wedding, she hid in the bridal chamber and cried for most of the night.

"That's good."

After a few rounds of drinks, Zhou Peishan gradually became more talkative.

He's usually quiet, but he becomes a different person when he drinks.

From the supply and marketing cooperative's procurement channels to the county's prices, from the news heard on the radio to the changes in the provincial capital.

"Zhengzi, do you know that a lot of people are doing business in the provincial capital now?"

Some people bring clothes back from Guangzhou to sell, and they can make several yuan per piece.

Some people even raise quails specifically, selling quail eggs individually and making a fortune.

Zhou Peishan leaned closer.

"I have an old classmate who quit his secure factory job last year and rented a few acres of land in the suburbs of the provincial capital to raise quails."

Guess how much he earned in a year?

"How many?"

"Five thousand yuan. Five thousand yuan! I couldn't earn that much even if I worked at the supply and marketing cooperative for ten years."

Chen Fang rolled her eyes at him: "Don't think about these things. Isn't it good to have a secure job at the supply and marketing cooperative?"

Why bother with those pointless things?

Zhou Peishan gave an awkward smile and remained silent.

But Chen Zheng took those words to heart.

Quail farming.

In his previous life, when he was working in the city, he heard about the wave of aquaculture boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Quails reproduce quickly, are disease-resistant, and their eggs and meat can be sold for money, requiring little investment and yielding quick returns.

It was one of the most suitable projects for small-scale entrepreneurship in that era.

But what truly touched him was another sentence Zhou Peishan said next.

"By the way, the soft-shelled turtles from your Baiyang Lake area have been sold in the county several times already."

Last time, a purchasing agent from the provincial capital came to the supply and marketing cooperative.

They said they were looking for farmers who could supply turtles and eels on a long-term basis, and they were offering a high price.

Unfortunately, no one can provide a stable supply. Now, even the big hotels in the provincial capital are vying for these premium items.

Whoever has a stable supply of goods can make big money.

Chen Zheng put down his chopsticks.

"Brother-in-law, is that purchasing agent still in the county?"

"He's gone. But he left his phone number, saying he can contact me if he has any goods in the future."

I'll go to the supply and marketing cooperative tomorrow to look for that business card.

After dinner, Chen Fang pulled Chen Zheng aside and talked for a while longer.

How was the fishpond dug? Is raising fish tiring? Are my two younger brothers eating well at school?

How many jujubes did the jujube tree in our yard bear this year? Does the black cat still catch mice?

After asking for a while, she suddenly stopped and reached out to straighten his collar.

"You've grown up. With you holding things together at home, I can rest assured when I'm out there."

That night.

Chen Zheng lay on the cot in Zhou Peishan's living room, looking out the window at the sparse streetlights of the county town, and thought for a long time.

He remembered when his older sister went to identify the body in his previous life, she was wearing a gray cloth shirt and her hair was half white.

Standing at the entrance of the morgue, his expression was blank.

Later, she buried him at the foot of the back mountain, next to her grandfather's grave.

Every year during the Qingming Festival, she would take a bus from Chengguan Town back to burn a stack of paper money at his grave.

The ashes of the paper money were swept up by the wind and drifted over the pine forest behind the mountain and the surface of Baiyang Lake.

He would never let his older sister suffer like that again in his life.

The next morning, Chen Fang cooked him a bowl of noodles and poached two eggs.

Zhou Peishan went to work at the supply and marketing cooperative before dawn, leaving a business card on the table before he left.

The business card reads "Zhao Mingyi, Aquatic Product Purchasing Department, Changxing Trading Company, Provincial Capital," with a phone number below.

"Zhao Mingyi is no ordinary person."

Before leaving, Zhou Peishan said, "I heard that he not only deals in aquatic products, but also in medicinal herbs. He buys and sells everything."

He has a wide network of connections in the provincial capital. If you can get in touch with him, you won't have to worry about selling your products in the future.

Chen Zheng flipped the business card over to look at the back. The business scope was printed on the back, with the words densely packed together.

Freshwater fish, shrimp, crabs, soft-shelled turtles, eels, loaches, snails, Chinese medicinal herbs, and agricultural by-products.

One section of the business scope lists medicinal herbs.

After a while.

He had a plan in mind.

Before returning to the village, Chen Zheng went to the Chengguan Town farmers' market.

This farmers' market is much larger than the one in Baiyang Town, with rows of cement platforms covered by asbestos tile sheds.

Vegetable vendors, meat vendors, and fish vendors were all huddled together, their voices rising and falling as they haggled over prices.

He wandered around the seafood section and noticed a problem.

There are seven or eight fish stalls in the market, but they all sell ordinary fish.

Crucian carp, common carp, grass carp, and silver carp are of average quality and low price.

There was a stall selling soft-shelled turtles. There was only one, and it wasn't in good condition. The edges of the shell were thin, and there were injuries on the shell.

He asked the stall owner, "How much are the turtles per pound?"

"Three yuan and fifty cents."

"Will it sell well?"

The stall owner, an old man in his fifties, squatted behind the cement platform smoking, his face full of worry.

"What sells well? We can't get goods from the countryside."

My son-in-law brought this one from the countryside the day before yesterday. It's the only one, and it's been sitting there for two days without anyone buying it.

"Why not catch them in the river?"

"Can't catch it."

There are soft-shelled turtles in Baiyang Lake, but the water there is deep and dangerous, and it's impossible to go down there when the water rises in the summer.

In winter, the turtles go back to burrowing in the mud.

"Those who can catch turtles can be counted on one hand."

Chen Zheng did not say that he was that hand.

After leaving the farmers' market, he went to the medicinal herb purchasing station in Chengguan Town.

The herbal medicine station had a small storefront with a wooden sign hanging at the entrance that read "State-owned Herbal Medicine Purchasing Station".

Behind the counter sat a middle-aged man wearing reading glasses, weighing a handful of angelica root with a small copper scale.

Chen Zheng placed the dried acorns, slices of sand ginseng, and he shou wu he had brought on the counter.

The middle-aged man picked up a piece of agaric mushroom, looked at it in front of his reading glasses, pressed the cap with his finger, and nodded.

"The quality is good. There were few oak mushrooms harvested this year, so I'll give you three yuan and fifty cents a pound for these few pieces."

"Adenophora root slices cost 1.2 yuan, Polygonum multiflorum costs 0.9 yuan."

The price is about the same as that of the county pharmacy.

But Chen Zheng noticed a type of medicinal herb on the shelf behind him that he had never seen before in the county pharmacy.

Gastrodia elata.

The dried Gastrodia elata slices are packaged in glass jars, with the place of origin indicated on the label.

Eagle Beak Cliff area.

"How well do the gastrodia elata from Eagle's Beak Cliff sell?"

"It sells well. Gastrodia elata has the effect of dispelling wind and clearing the meridians, and pharmacies in the provincial capital are scrambling to buy it."

But wild ones are becoming increasingly rare; the entire mountain around Eagle's Beak Cliff has been almost completely excavated.

The amount of Gastrodia elata harvested this year is less than half of last year's.

If you can get your hands on wild gastrodia elata, I'll offer eight yuan per jin (500g).

Eight yuan per pound.

In 1985, eight yuan was enough for a worker's wages for three days.

Chen Zheng kept this information in mind.

It was already afternoon when we got back to the village.

Chen Zheng first went to Zhao Deming's house.

Zhao Deming was drying medicinal herbs in the yard.

Since his health improved, he has resumed his habit of collecting and identifying medicinal herbs.

The bamboo sieves in the courtyard were filled with various medicinal herbs drying in the sun.

There were American ginseng, astragalus, honeysuckle, and some other herbs that Chen Zheng didn't recognize.

"Teacher Zhao, I'd like to ask you for a favor."

"Speak."