Li Xiulan took a stroll around the town. The local residents had already begun doing business, as the spring breeze of reform swept into the small town, turning the buildings along the streets into various shops.
There was a shop selling noodles and dumplings, and another selling clothes and shoes. To Li Xiulan, these clothes and shoes were hardly trendy styles; the shops mainly dealt in fabric.
The villagers still bought fabric and made their own clothes at the time, which was relatively cheaper than buying ready-made garments.
There was also a stationery store, located near the town primary school.
Some people even stood by the roadside holding baskets of eggs, waiting for buyers.
The town had a mining site where the eldest son of the Zhangjiawan Brigade Leader worked. He was reportedly a regular employee, a fact that many villagers envied, and Li Xiulan had heard her mother-in-law, Zhang Guifen, talk about it at home.
However, she had never been there herself. In the past, the original owner of her body had been praised by everyone as a so-called good daughter-in-law—obedient to her parents-in-law and her husband, completely lacking any opinions of her own.
She worked diligently at home, never gossiping about other people's affairs. She spent her days toiling away, handling all the household chores before following everyone out to work in the fields, never once seizing an opportunity to earn some private money for herself.
Consequently, after all these years, she didn't even have a single cent to her name.
If the Feng Family hadn't been reasonable people who treated her well, someone with her temperament would have been worn down and driven to an early grave long ago.
Walking and pondering, she soon reached the mining site. The road to the mine was easy to identify; it was the worst one around, constantly battered by heavy mining trucks that left it muddy and rutted.
Fortunately, today was a sunny day; had it been raining, her shoes would have been coated in a thick layer of mud.
Just looking at the main gate, one could tell the mining site was massive. Moreover, the original owner had once heard that the place employed several hundred people, was very wealthy, and because the work was manual labor, the wages were quite high.
Soon, she spotted a business opportunity: for such a large facility, there was surprisingly no one selling food here.
She waited there for quite a while, but by noon, not a single worker came out to eat, leading her to think there must be a cafeteria inside the compound.
As she stood there as a young woman, the elderly security guard at the gate soon noticed her.
"Are you looking for someone? You shouldn't hang around here; it'll be dangerous when the big trucks come through later."
The old man walked over and, seeing she was a young person, did not speak harshly.
"Uncle, can't people come out of the mine at noon? I'm looking for someone, and I thought my older brother would be able to come out for lunch."
"They can come out at noon, but everyone rests during the lunch break. Besides, there's a cafeteria inside, and it's cold outside—at least it's sheltered from the wind in there. If you're looking for someone and it's not urgent, wait until the afternoon. If it's urgent, I can go find him for you, but you can't just stand around here; heavy trucks come through at any time."
"Thank you, Uncle. Then I'll just wait until my brother comes home. It's not a big deal anyway; I just happened to come to town and thought about grabbing a bite together at a restaurant."
"What good food is there in town? It's just the same few places back and forth, I've tried them all. Better off eating in the cafeteria."
"I never imagined you frequently dine out, Uncle! Impressive, impressive. Our family doesn't have any way to make money. You see, my parents heard that they were hiring here, so they sent me to check if it's true. I have a distant cousin who works here as a temporary laborer, but we don't keep in touch much. I just wanted to try my luck and see if I could run into him and ask around."
"Hiring? I haven't heard a thing. A job is so hard to come by these days; if there really were openings, word would have spread long ago. You guys must have heard wrong. Our mining site is doing great business right now, with big trucks coming in and out several times a day. We just hired a batch not long ago, so we're definitely not taking anyone on right now."
"Thank you, Uncle. Then I suppose my trip wasn't completely in vain. I'll treat you to a meal another day."
"Hey, you're a polite young lady! I won't take your treat, just hurry on back," the old man said, laughing at her remark.
Having obtained the information she wanted, Li Xiulan took her leave.
After her observations earlier, she noticed there were still plenty of vacant spaces around the mining site. Now that she had also learned the workers could come out at noon, as long as she slowly built up her reputation through her cooking, people would naturally come to buy food later on.
Yes, her current plan was to sell food first; that was the investment requiring the least capital. However, she had less than two yuan to her name right now, so she needed to figure out how to make her first pot of gold.
By the time she returned home, it was already afternoon. Although it wasn't the busy farming season, there was still no time to waste. Her father-in-law, Feng Sixi, was weaving a back basket in the room, while her mother-in-law, Zhang Guifen, had gone to the fields to thin out the rapeseed plants, planning to bring the thinned greens home to cook or pickle.
Grandma was weeding the backyard with Jiayu. Zhangjiawan was located in the south, so crops like coriander, garlic sprouts, Chinese cabbage, and pea tips could still be grown in the winter.
Jiayu kept her eyes fixed on the front yard. The moment she heard the front gate open, she trotted toward the front, and Grandma followed suit upon seeing this.
"Mom, you're back!" Jiayu cried out happily, running straight up to Li Xiulan when she saw her mother return.
"Xiulan, you're back. Lihua went back to school, right?" Grandma asked as well.
"Grandma, Dad, Lihua has already gone back to school. I watched her go inside," Li Xiulan replied promptly. Seeing her father-in-law Feng Sixi walk out as well, she knew he cared about the matter too, so she quickly answered the question everyone was concerned about.
"That's good. You should go inside and rest for a bit, too. Going to the county town is no picnic; the last time I went, riding that bus made me want to throw up the whole time."
Thinking back on her past bus ride, Grandma Liu Facui felt like she was starting to get carsick already; just the smell of gasoline from those vehicles was enough to make her feel miserable.
"You said it, that gasoline smell is truly foul, and the ticket conductor had a terrible attitude. Lihua really suffers every time she goes off to study."
"Ain't that the truth? Being a ticket conductor is an iron rice bowl, something you need real connections to get. I've never seen a passenger who didn't get yelled at by the conductor. And look at that mining site in our town—the workers inside draw a salary. If a family has a worker there, it's something to be proud of for a lifetime. Your second sister's husband works there as a temporary laborer and brings home a good chunk of money every month. Look at how much better your second sister's life is than ours right now."
It was only then that Li Xiulan slapped her forehead, realizing she had completely forgotten: her second brother-in-law worked right at that mining site!
Her mother-in-law had given birth to three daughters and a son: the eldest sister Feng Peach Blossom, who was married to the neighboring village; the second sister Feng Xinghua, who was married in town and whose husband was the worker, making her family the best-off of the bunch; and the youngest sister, Lihua.
If she wanted to set up a food stall outside the gate of that compound, she could always go ask her second brother-in-law about the meals provided in the mine, and prepare something tasty that the cafeteria didn't offer in order to attract customers.
However, since it was already afternoon, that matter would have to wait until tomorrow. She imitated the habits of the original owner, busying herself around the house. Jiayu stuck close to her like a little follower, trailing her in and out and occasionally offering to lend a hand.
"Jiayu, come warm yourself by the fire. Are your hands cold?" Seeing the little girl acting like this, Li Xiulan pulled her under the stove-mouth.
"Mom, today I went cutting pig grass with Grandma, and I watched the fire, and helped Grandpa hold the bamboo, and even helped Great-grandma pull weeds." Terrified that her mother might think she wasn't a good girl and leave her, Jiayu had spent the entire day showing off her best behavior.
"Jiayu is such a good girl, but you're still little and shouldn't wear yourself out. Mom promises you, I'll definitely stay by Jiayu's side as you grow up and I won't leave," Li Xiulan said, gently stroking the little girl's yellowish hair.