RGL – Chapter 8

The whole family had trouble sleeping after arriving in the new place.

At dawn the next day, Sun Qiufang got up to light the stove and make breakfast. The stove belonged to the landlord, and they had borrowed it with a ten-yuan deposit.

They’d always used a traditional clay stove before, so suddenly switching to this charcoal stove felt novel to Sun Qiufang.

“When we start making money, we should get our own stove too. Oh right, I saw the stove in Aunt Chen’s kitchen—it wasn’t like this one. It was made of iron.”

Aunt Chen was the landlord of the place they were staying in.

Su Min chuckled and said, “That’s a gas stove. Lots of people in the city use them. You don’t even need to light a fire—it’s ready to use right away. Once we’ve earned enough, we should get one like that.”

“How much would that cost? We haven’t even made any money yet. I don’t dare think about it,” Sun Qiufang said as she set the pot of rice on the stove to cook. Then she looked over at Su Min. “Minzi, do you really think we can make money picking up recyclables? How do we even do it? If there’s money in it, why aren’t city folks doing it?”

“Ma, don’t you trust me? City people all have jobs—who’d want to do this kind of dirty, tiring work? They’d be laughed at.”

Su Changrong came in after rinsing his mouth outside and, overhearing this, laughed, “Minzi’s right. We’re not afraid of hard or dirty work. If we can endure it, this job will work for us.”

Seeing how confident her daughter and husband looked, Sun Qiufang was filled with motivation. “Alright then, let’s eat quickly, lock up, and get to work.”

After happily finishing breakfast, each of them left the house with a woven sack in hand.

Su Min knew that the best places to scavenge were usually garbage dumps in residential communities, so she suggested they split up and each cover a different neighborhood.

But Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang, worried about her being too young, refused to let her go alone.

Su Changrong said, “Minzi, even though you know the city better than your mom and I do, you’re still young. What if something bad happens? We don’t know our way around yet. If something happens, it’d be hard to find you. You should go with your mom, and we’ll meet back at home around noon.”

Su Min pressed her fingers to her forehead, silently thinking to herself that she was nearly thirty, trapped in this young body, and it was really frustrating. No matter how mature she acted, in her parents’ eyes, she was still just a teenager they couldn’t feel at ease about.

She sighed. “Alright then.”

At this time, there weren’t many people coming into the city to make a living—most were city folks. So they didn’t see any other scavengers around.

As they walked, Su Min and Sun Qiufang picked up any plastic or scrap paper they saw, tossing them into their bags. Knowing these could be sold for money, Sun Qiufang grew increasingly enthusiastic—her eyes practically lit up when she spotted a pile of trash.

When they reached the garbage heap by the neighborhood, neither of them minded the dirt. They put on makeshift gloves made from rags and used bamboo sticks to poke through the pile, looking for things to collect.

Most city folks worked in factories and lived comfortably, so there were plenty of discarded bottles, jars, and even some gently used clothes. Even those that were a little torn were still usable. Sun Qiufang found a few pieces of clothing and was thrilled. Holding up a plaid skirt, she said, “Look, Minzi! This only has one little hole. We can patch it up and wash it clean, and it’ll be good as new.”

As she spoke, she happily placed the clothes into a separate bag.

At first, she hadn’t believed her daughter when she said the city was full of treasures, but now she was convinced. Trash could be exchanged for money, and you could even find pretty clothes!

Su Min was also making progress, collecting a good pile of scrap metal in her sack.

Some people passed by from the neighborhood and cast a few curious glances their way.

Sun Qiufang felt a little embarrassed, but quickly reassured herself and encouraged her daughter, “Minzi, don’t be afraid. We’re not stealing or robbing anyone—nothing shameful about that.”

Su Min laughed. “Ma, I’m not scared. We’re earning with our own hands—what people think doesn’t matter.”

Sun Qiufang smiled, her cheeks flushed.

The mother and daughter worked all morning, and by noon, both of their sacks were full. Sun Qiufang was carrying two herself, heavy and full, and was delighted with the haul.

When they got home, Su Changrong wasn’t back yet.

Sun Qiufang hurried to light the stove and start lunch. Su Min sorted the recyclables into different bags, planning to combine everything once her dad came back so they could sell it all at once and then head out again in the afternoon.

Their meal was simple—just a pot of rice and two steamed eggs.

“Minzi, Qiufang, I’m back!” Just as the food was nearly ready, they heard Su Changrong’s voice.

Su Min and Sun Qiufang rushed outside and saw him carrying two large bags in one hand, and balancing a wooden armchair—missing one leg—on his shoulder with the other.

“Look what I brought back!” he said, placing the items down and pointing to the chair. “Isn’t this chair beautiful? Much better looking than the ones we made ourselves. It even has carvings on it. I figured we could use it for extra seating.”

Sun Qiufang laughed, “I found some clothes too! With a little mending, Minzi can wear them. If we had to buy them, they’d cost a lot.”

Whether or not they made money today, the things they brought back felt like quite a haul.

While the two of them were talking, Su Min had already dumped out the contents of Su Changrong’s bags. Seeing all the scrap metal inside, she lit up. “Dad, where’d you find all this good stuff?”

Su Changrong replied excitedly, “I went to a neighborhood where the steel factory workers live. After going through that area, I wandered around near the factory itself and found loads of this stuff. So I grabbed as much as I could.”

“This is great!” Su Min said, thrilled, as she quickly began sorting the items.

Su Changrong rolled up his sleeves to help. In no time, all three sacks were sorted neatly by category.

After eating, the family locked the door behind them and carried their goods off to the recycling station.

At this time, the recycling station was still relatively small and run by the government. When city residents brought in recyclables, they could exchange them for money.

Scrap iron was worth five cents per jin, waste paper three cents per jin, plastics around four cents, and even empty canning jars could fetch one cent each.

After hearing the prices, Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang couldn’t hide the joy on their faces.

Selling the three sacks of recyclables they’d collected brought in a decent total. Of course, the most valuable was the sack of scrap iron that Su Changrong had picked up earlier—it alone sold for two yuan.

Leaving the recycling station with money in hand, both Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang were visibly excited.

Sun Qiufang did a quick calculation and said happily, “We earned this much just in one morning? If we can pick up more this afternoon, that’ll be over a hundred yuan in a month!”

Su Changrong hadn’t expected such a good return either. His third brother, who worked as a teacher in the city, only made forty yuan a month—and that was considered a decent job with good benefits. Who would’ve thought that he and his wife could make this much just by collecting scraps?

Seeing how happy her parents were, Su Min felt warm inside. Life was still hard, but the whole family was safe and together, and their days were beginning to look more hopeful.

She smiled and said, “Mom, Dad, we can’t get complacent. We’ve got to keep working hard at this. Oh—and don’t go telling everyone about how much we made. People might get jealous.”

“Of course. Who would we even tell?” Sun Qiufang waved her hand dismissively and stuffed two empty bags into Su Changrong’s arms. “Alright, time to get back to work. Let’s come home early tonight and cook something nice to celebrate.”

With the morning’s experience under their belt, they were even more energized that afternoon.

In addition to rummaging through the neighborhood garbage piles, they even checked roadside trash bins.

There wasn’t as much scrap iron in the afternoon, but they collected a larger overall volume, selling it for over two yuan again.

After selling everything, Sun Qiufang told Su Changrong to head home first to keep an eye on the place, while she took Su Min to the market to buy groceries.

“We haven’t had a proper meal these past couple days. We made money today, so let’s be like the city folks and get ourselves something nice to eat.”

But once they arrived at the market, Sun Qiufang was shocked at the prices. The vegetables that used to grow freely in their backyard garden back home were now quite expensive.