RGL – Chapter 23

Sun Hai had never imagined he would get to live in the city. Before coming, he just wanted to take a look around, and if things didn’t work out, he’d head back.

But once he arrived and saw the life his sister and brother-in-law were living, he started to feel hopeful.

With Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang guiding him, Sun Hai quickly learned how to scavenge. He figured out the best places to go and which types of junk sold for the best prices.

Since Sun Hai was on his own for now, Su Changrong was very generous with his young brother-in-law. They usually ate together, and after meals, Sun Hai would head back to his own place. He had tried slipping some money to Sun Qiufang for food, but she wouldn’t take it.

“You’re still being polite with your own sister? It’s just one more pair of chopsticks, no big deal. No matter how poor we are, we can afford that much. You just focus on making money and stop worrying about meals.”

“But I can’t just eat and drink for free.” Sun Hai felt guilty. He had come out here with the help of his sister and brother-in-law. Instead of helping them out, he was now depending on them. No matter how he looked at it, it just didn’t sit right with him.

Sun Qiufang said, “Xiao Hai, let me tell you something. Don’t fuss over these things. If you do, we’ll start feeling like strangers. Once you get married, I, as your sister, won’t care about anything anymore. I’ll leave it all to your wife to worry about.”

“Sister, why are you bringing that up again?” Sun Hai scratched his head, a little embarrassed.

“Why not? You’re at the age now where it’s time to think about that. As long as you keep working hard and your circumstances improve, what kind of wife couldn’t you find?”

Sun Hai pressed his lips together and smiled shyly. His tanned face flushed with a faint red.

Sun Hai took this job very seriously—he could endure even more hardship than Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang had when they first started. He wouldn’t return home until it was completely dark outside. After a month, he was earning several dozen yuan.

He felt very satisfied with this lifestyle. Compared to being back home, he was much happier. When the weather was bad and he couldn’t go out to work, he’d stay in and help Su Min with her homework.

Even though he hadn’t been in school for a few years, he still made a point of studying and reading. He actually remembered what he had learned quite well.

Business was going well for Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang too. Especially after the New Year, the couple had started going further out, even visiting several nearby villages. There weren’t any recycling stations in rural areas, and people didn’t like to throw things away. They’d just stash it all in their homes. When Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang made a round through those villages, they found quite a lot of things.

But it took a lot of time just walking everywhere. Su Changrong figured this was a long-term business. If they were going to keep doing it, it might be worth buying a pedal tricycle. Though expensive, it would save time and allow them to cover more ground in a day—and collect more junk too.

Sun Qiufang was reluctant to make such an investment. They had only just managed to save a little money, and their child was about to start school. Who knew how much that would cost? Buying a tricycle would make their business easier, but they wouldn’t have much money left at home.

“How about we wait a bit and talk about it later? No rush if we get it next year. We’ve made it through this whole year already; it’s not like a little delay will make a difference.”

When Su Changrong heard that, he knew the plan was off.

After finishing her chores at home, Su Min went to the Zhu household to find Liao Zhaodi. Lately, she had been reviewing her schoolwork. With the help of a full set of middle school textbooks that Sun Qiufang had helped her collect, she had nearly self-studied all of the first-year curriculum. She’d marked down anything she didn’t understand to ask Liao Zhaodi about.

When she arrived at the Zhu household, Liao Zhaodi was washing dishes. Steam rose from the pot of water, and her hands were greasy from the washing.

“Uncle Zhu and the others went out already?”

Liao Zhaodi smiled. “Yeah, they went to set up the stall early. My mom also started a veggie stall nearby—it’s going really well.”

“That’s great. Now Aunty can have her own income too.” Su Min thought Liao Zhaodi’s mother was a very smart woman. Even though she had someone to rely on, she didn’t depend entirely on the man. But Su Min couldn’t understand—how had someone with such a capable mother ended up the way she remembered Liao Zhaodi to be?

Looking at the healthy flush on Zhaodi’s face now, Su Min couldn’t figure it out.

After finishing the dishes, the two girls were about to head to the room to read when Zhu Xiaobing burst through the door, wearing a thick army green coat.

He looked at Liao Zhaodi and waved, “Go make me something to eat.”

“Why didn’t you come home for lunch?” Liao Zhaodi frowned and asked.

Hearing that, Zhu Xiaobing rushed over and raised his hand to hit her, not even caring that someone else was present. Su Min reacted quickly and pulled Zhaodi away.

“What are you doing?! Why are you hitting people for no reason?”

“Who do you think you are, meddling in my business?” Zhu Xiaobing, already fifteen, had a tall build and an intimidating presence. Even though Su Min had the soul of an adult, she still felt uneasy facing him.

She pulled Zhaodi behind her. “She didn’t even do anything. Can’t you talk properly?”

“Hmph, she’s my servant. She’s going to be my wife in the future. I’ll hit her if I want to.”

“What?” Su Min’s eyes widened in shock. She looked from Zhu Xiaobing to the pale-faced Zhaodi. It felt like someone had punched her in the chest—completely stunned.

Aren’t these two basically siblings now? Even if there’s no blood relation, they’re still family—how could they get married? And they were so young too. How could marriage even be brought up?

Zhaodi tugged at Su Min’s sleeve and said to Zhu Xiaobing, “Don’t be angry. I’ll make you something to eat.” Then she pulled Su Min back into the kitchen.

Zhu Xiaobing snorted and swaggered off to his room.

Back in the kitchen, Su Min was still in shock. She watched as Zhaodi busied herself with cooking, and cautiously asked, “Zhaodi, he was just talking nonsense, right?”

Zhaodi kept her head down and didn’t answer. Once she had placed the food in the steamer, she sat down with a small stool next to Su Min by the stove and finally spoke.

“During the New Year, his maternal aunt came and made a big scene. She said if my mom wanted to stay in the Zhu household, then I’d have to become Zhu Xiaobing’s wife. Otherwise, we had to leave.”

“What? How could they say that? And you agreed?” Su Min was furious. It wasn’t just her own relatives that were unreasonable—these Zhu family relatives were the same. How could they decide a thirteen-year-old girl’s life like that, as if this were still some feudal era where women had no rights?

And it was obvious what they were trying to do. Zhu Xiaobing was lazy and good-for-nothing. Anyone could see what kind of person he would become. They were just afraid he wouldn’t be able to find a wife in the future, so they wanted to tie Zhaodi down while she was still young.

Liao Zhaodi’s eyes turned red. “I didn’t agree, but my mom did. She said Uncle Zhu had helped us a lot, and Zhu Xiaobing is his only son. We need to repay them. She also said that at least the Zhu family lives in the city—if we were still in the countryside, we wouldn’t even get a marriage proposal this good. She said once I turn eighteen, we’d hold the wedding.”

Hearing this, Su Min’s heart filled with mixed emotions. She had originally thought that Zhaodi’s mother was a strong, independent woman—after all, she had dared to divorce and bring her daughter to the city. But she hadn’t expected her to compromise on something like this.

Getting married isn’t just about the family’s background—it’s about the person’s character. Zhu Xiaobing was already fifteen. Not only did he not help out at home, he was always getting into trouble outside and treating Zhaodi and her mother like this at home. No matter how you looked at it, he wasn’t a good man and probably wouldn’t turn into one in the future either. If Zhaodi really married someone like that, how would she live a decent life?

Su Min thought of the last time she had seen Zhaodi in her previous life—a young girl with a face that already looked worn and weary. Had she already married Zhu Xiaobing by then?

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Zhaodi had a soft temperament and was easy to talk into things. Having left the Liao family, with her only family member pushing her into this marriage, she could very well force herself to agree. And Zhu Xiaobing’s grandmother’s side of the family—what a bunch of schemers. They were setting their sights on a young girl like her. They were going to ruin her life.

Not knowing what Su Min was thinking, Zhaodi wiped away her tears and whispered, “Su Min, what should I do?”

“There’s nothing to do except not agree.” Su Min looked her in the eye, her gaze firm. “As long as you don’t want to, no one can force you. There are many ways to repay a kindness, but none of them should cost you your entire life. We’ll focus on studying and earning money—then we can repay them however we want. Just don’t overthink it.”

Zhaodi kept her head down, staring at the ground. She wiped her tears with her sleeve.

Su Min patted her on the shoulder. “Zhaodi, trust me—relying on yourself is always better than relying on others. Don’t sacrifice your whole life for someone else. It’s not worth it.” She had died once before—she saw things much more clearly now.

“Is the food ready yet? What are you trying to do, starve me?” Zhu Xiaobing’s voice came from outside. The moment Su Min heard it, disgust welled up inside her.

Zhaodi, however, immediately got up and busied herself, bringing the food out from the pot and placing it in a basin to carry outside.

Watching her, Su Min let out a long, heavy sigh.

Since she didn’t want to see Zhu Xiaobing again, Su Min stopped going to the Zhu house. Instead, she invited Zhaodi to come study at her place—it was much better than staying at home and being bullied. Zhaodi didn’t want to stay at home either, so she and Su Min agreed to meet every afternoon to study together.

As the weather gradually warmed, business became easier.

Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang started traveling even farther. Sometimes they wouldn’t return home until late at night. Fortunately, with Sun Hai around, they weren’t worried about Su Min being home alone.

Su Min knew her parents were working so hard just to make sure she could eat well and dress nicely while studying—to keep her from being looked down upon. Sometimes, when she couldn’t sleep at night, she’d overhear them talking in the next room—sighing over how poor the family was and worrying that their daughter was suffering. They were determined to work hard and earn more money.

Every time she heard this, Su Min felt useless. She had lived two lives and knew more than most people—so why couldn’t she make a lot of money and ease her parents’ burdens?

“Su Min, what’s wrong?”

Zhaodi was doing a worksheet and looked up to see Su Min spacing out.

Su Min snapped back to reality and looked at Zhaodi. “Zhaodi, I want to make money. A lot of money. I want to buy a house in the city and settle down.”

“What are you talking about? That’s impossible,” Zhaodi replied, clearly not believing her. “We’re still so young—how can we make money? I tried to work at a restaurant before, but they wouldn’t even hire me.”

Su Min thought about it. It really wasn’t realistic. Her age alone was a barrier—who would do business with a kid?

Do business?

An idea suddenly sparked in Su Min’s mind.

Their current business was collecting scrap, but recyclable materials in the city were becoming scarcer. It wasn’t possible to gather that much every day. But if they could shift to a more stable business, her parents wouldn’t have to work so hard every day, traveling far to collect scraps.

That night, as usual, Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang came home late. They hadn’t collected much.

“When we were out today, we ran into someone else collecting too—and not just one group, a few people,” Sun Qiufang muttered while setting the table, complaining about business.

Su Changrong didn’t seem to mind. He was munching on orchid beans with Sun Hai and chuckled, “That’s business. Sometimes you earn, sometimes you don’t. At least with this kind of work, we’re not losing money—just wasting time.”

“Time is money. Earning less is the same as losing money,” Sun Qiufang replied grumpily.

Hearing the couple bickering, Sun Hai laughed. “You two really do sound like businesspeople now—all sharp and calculating.”

Su Changrong laughed heartily. “We are businesspeople—small-scale ones, anyway.”

To be honest, he never thought he’d become a businessman. He used to think his brain was only good for farming, that if he tried doing business, he’d be taken advantage of. But ever since they started collecting scrap, he’d felt a change in himself. If nothing else, he was much quicker at doing the math. Way better than before, when it would take him half a day to figure out basic addition and subtraction.

Seems like there’s really nothing in this world you can’t do—only people who don’t want to do it.

After helping everyone dish out the food, Su Min sat down beside Sun Qiufang.

“Mom, Dad—I have a new idea. Do you want to hear it?”

“What kind of idea?” Su Changrong was the first to respond. These days, he trusted anything his daughter said—she was clearly smarter than he was.

Both Sun Qiufang and Sun Hai turned to look at her too.

Su Min smiled. “Our current business collecting scrap is just too unstable. We only earn if we’re lucky enough to find stuff. And since we don’t have a vehicle, traveling far takes too much time. Now that more and more people are doing this, it’s getting harder. I think we should switch to something else.”

“Switch to what?” Sun Qiufang asked curiously.

Su Changrong sounded worried. “We’re from the countryside, no real skills—what else can we do?”

“Exactly because we’re from the countryside, we should play to our strengths. Think about it—people in the city love stuff from the countryside. Our glutinous rice cakes, roasted sweet potatoes, stir-fried chestnuts—all those are super popular. If we could sell those in busy areas, we’d definitely make money.”

“You think this will work? Can these things really make money?” As soon as Su Changrong said that, he recalled how even waste products could be sold for cash now. So, these snacks making money actually seemed pretty plausible.

Sun Qiufang didn’t say anything either and quietly fell into thought. Sun Hai also looked thoughtful.

Seeing that no one was talking, Su Min continued explaining her plan. “We can just try it out first. The cost isn’t high. Don’t we have sweet potatoes at home? If we keep them too long, they go bad anyway. Why not roast them and sell them? The price difference between raw and cooked sweet potatoes is pretty big. There’s also roasted glutinous rice cakes, stir-fried chestnuts. Even sunflower seeds and peanuts can be done.”

The key was that their family had enough capital now—even if they lost money, they could afford it. Of course, Su Min didn’t say that discouraging part out loud at a time like this.

Sun Hai was the first to react. “This idea sounds pretty good. Lots of people are doing small businesses now, and it’s going well for them.”

Hearing even her well-educated younger brother say this, Sun Qiufang started to feel a bit tempted. Collecting scrap might bring in money, but it was getting harder, and the profit wasn’t as good as before. If there was something better to do, they wouldn’t have to worry about money anymore.

The whole family discussed it around the dinner table and decided that Su Changrong would continue doing the scrap collecting for now. Sun Qiufang would try selling roasted sweet potatoes and glutinous rice cakes at the school and market area. Depending on how that went, they’d decide whether or not to continue.

“Xiao Hai, you’ll come with me too,” Sun Qiufang said, looking at Sun Hai.

“Me?” Sun Hai pressed his lips together. He knew exactly what his sister meant by this. “This was Minzi’s idea.”

Su Changrong also understood what Sun Qiufang was getting at—she wanted her younger brother to join the business too.

Although he felt a bit uneasy that his wife made the decision without discussing it with him first, thinking back on how much his brother-in-law had helped them, he realized even if they had talked it through, the result would have been the same. So he let it go.

“Xiao Hai, go and give it a try. If it works, you can run with it too.”

Su Min chimed in, “Yeah, Uncle, it’s not like we’re the only ones doing this business. One more family won’t make a difference. The county’s so big—one family can’t cover it all anyway.”

Sun Hai felt a warm rush in his chest. “Thanks, Sis and Brother-in-law.”

Su Min then laid out the specifics of how to run the business. Everyone listened carefully and even offered some suggestions for improvement. Hearing Su Min lay things out so clearly, with everything planned and well-justified, Sun Qiufang and Su Changrong became even more convinced that their daughter had a real knack for business. She was sure to have a bright future. Their hearts swelled with pride. So what if they didn’t have a son? Having a foolish son couldn’t compare to their smart daughter!

Sun Hai also saw his niece in a new light. He used to think she was just clever and well-behaved, but now she was coming up with business ideas like a pro. Especially after learning from Su Changrong that their move to the city and how they adapted there were all thanks to Su Min’s ideas—his admiration grew even deeper.

“Our Minzi is definitely going to do great things one day.”

Su Min, listening from the side, felt a bit guilty. She’d only taken advantage of what others had already figured out, and even after living two lives, this was all she managed to accomplish. If it had been someone really capable, they’d probably be running a factory or a hotel by now. She was still far from that level.

With a concrete plan in place, Sun Qiufang didn’t go out with Su Changrong the next day. The scrap business wasn’t as busy as before, and Su Changrong was experienced enough now that he could manage without her.

After sending him out early in the morning, she brought out the family’s peanuts and dug up some chestnuts that had been stored in the sand.

Roasting sweet potatoes and glutinous rice cakes required special stoves. Not knowing if the business would be profitable, Sun Qiufang didn’t bother getting one made. She just lit up the home charcoal stove, placed a big pot on top, found some special sand for roasting peanuts and chestnuts, and whipped up a batch at home.

For someone as experienced as Sun Qiufang, this was second nature. As soon as the batch came out of the pot, a rich fragrance filled the air.

Their landlady, Aunt Chen, smelled it from her balcony and called down, “What are you making? Smells good!”

“Just some snacks,” Sun Qiufang replied with a smile and had Su Min bring a bowl of each up to Aunt Chen.

When Su Min returned, she said happily, “Mom, Auntie said it’s delicious. Even better than what she buys on the street!”

“That’s great. Let’s give it a try and see if it works,” said Sun Qiufang eagerly. Since Su Min mentioned these kinds of snacks were best fresh, she didn’t cook all of them. She only prepared a small batch as samples and cleaned up the rest of the raw peanuts and chestnuts, putting them in bags to take along. Then she, Sun Hai, and Su Min headed to a nearby busy area.

The county wasn’t as developed as it would be in the future, so there were only one or two lively spots. Since Sun Qiufang had been collecting scrap all over town, she knew exactly where would be best for this business.

She led Sun Hai and Su Min to a square and set up shop.

A big pot, a folding table with roasted chestnuts and peanuts on top.

Sun Qiufang roasted more while calling out to customers. Su Min also shouted, “Hot roasted chestnuts and peanuts! Fresh and fragrant!”

The weather was nice, and there were a lot of people out shopping. Drawn by the aroma and the shouting, people began gathering around.

When they heard chestnuts were 0.5 yuan per jin and peanuts 0.4 yuan, they didn’t think it was expensive. They’d casually buy a jin to snack on at home.

Su Min realized that no matter the era, people were always generous when it came to food. If it was about buying a piece of clothing for a few yuan—even if it lasted a year or two—people would still hesitate. But for snacks? They didn’t even think twice before handing over their money.

By the end of the morning, the chestnuts and peanuts that Sun Qiufang had brought were nearly sold out.

Wiping the sweat from her forehead and seeing that there were no more customers nearby, she whispered to Su Min and Sun Hai, “How much did we make?” She had tried to keep track earlier, but got too busy and lost count, so she wasn’t sure.