Chapter 53: The Biggest Client – Wu Jiaxiu
“Is that all?” Mother Sheng pressed. “Did Xiao Gu tell you about his plans for the future?”
“He mentioned a few things,” Sheng Wanyan replied. “He said the family hasn’t officially split the estate yet, but when he gets married, his parents will oversee the official division of the property.”
Mother Sheng finally heard exactly what she wanted to hear. Even with a large family tree, she felt much more at ease knowing a legal split was on the horizon. Besides, once her daughter married, she would undoubtedly follow the army to the military base, keeping a comfortable distance from her parents-in-law. There was a lot of truth to the old saying that distance breeds respect, while proximity only breeds contempt. As long as Xiao Gu could protect his wife and handle any domestic friction, the young couple would live a good life.
Overall, Mother Sheng was highly satisfied. Once the time came to finalize the engagement and meet the rest of the in-laws, it would be absolutely perfect—provided everyone possessed a good character. She asked a few more probing questions, and only after Sheng Wanyan finished answering did she finally dismiss her back to her bedroom.
Sheng Wanyan headed off to take a shower. By then, Grandpa and Grandma Sheng had already retired for the evening. Mother Sheng, however, was in such high spirits from the good news that she was practically bursting with energy when she showed up for work the next day.
Her coworkers in the factory department thought she had taken some sort of miracle tonic, but Mother Sheng kept her lips tightly sealed. No matter how much they pried, she refused to utter a single word. In her mind, a relationship could only be made public once the formal marriage arrangements between the two families were set in stone. Otherwise, if an unexpected hitch occurred down the line, wouldn’t her daughter’s reputation suffer?
Mother Sheng overthought everything. As a parent, she constantly weighed her children’s long-term security, terrified that a lack of careful planning on her part would leave them exposed to grievances.
Meanwhile, Sheng Wanyan was passing her shift at the factory quite comfortably. The general atmosphere in the Propaganda Department was relaxed and cheerful, with the clerks frequently swapping gossip and joking around to pass the hours. As long as Director Li didn’t catch them slacking off, it wasn’t a major issue. Furthermore, now that Niu Fangli had stopped monitoring her every move, Sheng Wanyan felt incredibly at ease.
“Wanyan, do you want to head to the back hills to collect firewood after we clock out?” Wu Jiaxiu asked, leaning over her desk. She was always anxious to gather kindling, terrified their winter reserves would fall short.
“Sure,” Sheng Wanyan agreed.
Wanyan was eager to join. She preferred to bathe frequently, and even during the brutal winter months when a full bath was too difficult, she insisted on thoroughly wiping herself down. A woman had to be meticulous about hygiene to ward off bacterial infections, a concept that was largely overlooked by many women in this era due to a lack of basic public health awareness.
“I’ll tag along with you two as well,” Niu Fangli chimed in the moment she overheard their conversation. Her household was also running low on fuel.
In Niu Fangli’s mind, there was strength in numbers. Once the younger girls gathered their own bundles, they could easily help her pick up a bit extra. More importantly, Sheng Wanyan owned a bicycle and could help haul her heavy load all the way back to her doorstep.
“Sister Fangli, we’re actually heading out toward the steel plant,” Sheng Wanyan noted politely.
“Ah? You’re running all the way out there?” Niu Fangli faltered.
Her own neighborhood was a considerable distance from the industrial zone, requiring more than a thirty-minute walk just to get there. She had assumed they were simply foraging in the small hills directly behind the cotton mill.
“Yes,” Wu Jiaxiu explained smoothly. “It’s convenient for Wanyan since she lives nearby, and my husband works at the coal factory right next to the steel plant. It’s perfect for him to just hoist the bundles and carry them home after his shift ends.”
Niu Fangli forced a smile. It was entirely too far a trek for her, especially with her children waiting at home for dinner. “In that case, I won’t join you today. I’ll just gather a few branches at the foot of the local hill and head home to cook.”
“Alright, we can definitely go together next time when we have more flexibility,” Wu Jiaxiu replied cheerfully. Niu Fangli nodded, though no one could truly guess what was running through her calculating mind.
Sheng Wanyan silently gave Wu Jiaxiu a thumbs-up. Who would willingly walk more than half an hour just to forage for basic twigs? The excuse was brilliant.
Wanyan knew exactly what Niu Fangli had been plotting, but her own demands were modest: as long as the woman didn’t meddle in her private affairs, she was perfectly content to maintain a polite, superficial peace at work. Having been with the factory for three months now, Wanyan’s monthly promotional slogans had consistently caught Director Li’s eye, making her a rising star in the department. The rest of the staff could see that this newcomer possessed far more talent than the senior clerks.
Everyone in the office understood the unwritten rule of the workplace: you never offended the boss’s favorite. No matter how many years of seniority you racked up, a few critical words from a rising star could cost you your job before you even realized what hit you. Niu Fangli was old enough to understand this reality perfectly, which was why she chose to smile and hold her tongue.
Once the shift ended, Sheng Wanyan gave Wu Jiaxiu a ride to the base of the hills. Wanyan first parked her bicycle back at the tube building, ran upstairs to drop off her canvas work bag, grabbed a few thick hemp ropes, and hurried back out.
“I’ll have your father walk over to help carry the loads back later,” Grandma Sheng called out as she watched her head for the door, unable to resist offering a few protective instructions.
“Thanks, Grandma!”
Sheng Wanyan met Wu Jiaxiu at the foot of the slope, and the two immediately began foraging, grabbing every viable branch and fallen limb they crossed. Every urban household was allocated a strict, fixed ration of coal briquettes each month. Most families purchased and stockpiled these precious briquettes strictly for winter heating, relying almost entirely on scavenged firewood for cooking during the summer months.
The Sheng family followed the exact same strategy. Heavy firewood simply took up too much valuable living space. Thank goodness their apartment’s main room was relatively spacious; otherwise, hoarding enough fuel to survive the winter freeze would have been an absolute nightmare.
Sheng Wanyan managed to accumulate a substantial pile. Foraging in the city was fiercely competitive compared to the countryside, where rural households had ready access to vast forests to secure their winter survival. In the city, convenient items like coal briquettes and modern stoves were luxuries that cost significant money and coupons. If you could secure free kindling with a little physical effort, why would you waste your hard-earned funds?
Father Sheng made several round trips, efficiently hauling the heavy bundles back to the apartment on his carrying pole. Checking the time, Sheng Wanyan realized Mother Sheng would be finishing up dinner soon, so she decided to call it a day.
Right on cue, Wu Jiaxiu’s husband arrived to hoist his wife’s gathered wood. Seeing Wanyan preparing to pack up, Wu Jiaxiu quickly pulled her a few steps away from the men.
“Wanyan,” she whispered anxiously, “is there any way you can help me secure twenty kilograms of fresh pork? I know you just sourced that half-pig for my mother’s family, but that was for the wedding feast. My own household needs some meat to build up my husband’s strength.”
She leaned in closer. “Plus, I need to preserve a batch of bacon well in advance so we have something to eat during the winter. It all needs to be cured and dried in the sun while the weather allows.”
Time was running out. By the end of October, the autumn air in Chengdu would shift dramatically, ushering in a bone-chilling, piercing cold wind that turned a person’s limbs completely rigid—a damp chill that many locals considered far more miserable than the dry winters of the north.
“And Wanyan… what about clean cotton? Do you think your contact has any way to source some?”
Although they were employed at a prominent state cotton mill, ordinary clerks possessed absolutely no authority to divert the factory’s raw materials for personal use. In this era, citizens routinely wore the exact same heavy winter jackets and slept under the same quilted blankets year after year, causing the internal cotton stuffing to become completely compacted, hard, and useless against the cold. Wu Jiaxiu was desperate to sew fresh winter gear for her household, but a proper set of quilts required an immense amount of raw cotton. How were she and her husband supposed to survive the bitter freeze if they were trapped in stiff, worn-out clothes that offered zero insulation?
“I can definitely lock down the pork reservation for you at the slaughterhouse,” Sheng Wanyan replied after a moment’s thought. “But as for the bulk cotton… I’ll have to ask a different friend.”
Wu Jiaxiu instantly caught the underlying meaning. Asking a “different friend” meant the luxury commodity would be sourced through highly irregular, untraceable channels. But in an era defined by severe material shortages, who cared whether the origin of a warm winter quilt left a paper trail?
“That’s completely fine,” Wu Jiaxiu agreed without a second thought. “I’ll pay the standard black market rate. If your friend expects a premium for the risk, we can negotiate the price.” She was fully prepared to invest a significant sum; if she didn’t spend the money now, her family would be left to simply grit their teeth and freeze through the winter.
“Alright. Give me a few days, and I’ll bring you an answer,” Wanyan nodded.
Sheng Wanyan had never anticipated that her most lucrative and consistent client would turn out to be her own office colleague. Wu Jiaxiu was genuinely willing to spend whatever it took to keep her household comfortable, contributing a substantial windfall to Wanyan’s savings every single month. It was almost… embarrassing how easy she made the business look.
