Chapter 21: The Left-Behind Elderly of the Village
Jian Xingxia was curious. “Of course. Grandma Hu, what do you need me to buy?”
Grandma Hu was nearly eighty years old. In the past, she had often gone into the mountains to chat with Jian Xingxia’s grandmother, so she was very close to Jian Xingxia as well.
Grandma Hu murmured something, but her voice was so quiet that Jian Xingxia couldn’t hear it clearly.
She bent down and leaned closer. “Grandma Hu, I didn’t quite catch that. Could you say it again?”
“Sanitary paper,” Grandma Hu said, looking deeply embarrassed. “Help me buy some sanitary paper.”
Jian Xingxia blanked for a moment, not entirely understanding. “Isn’t there sanitary paper for sale in the village?”
She remembered that when she was a child, there was a small convenience store in the village. In the summer, her grandmother had even brought her there to buy ice cream.
Grandma Hu shook her head. “It’s closed now. Old Zhong got up there in years, so his daughter brought him to live in the city. No one runs a shop in the village anymore.”
In fact, aside from a few village officials and a handful of households who were truly too poor to afford a house in the town or city, Lu’an Village consisted entirely of the elderly now. Anyone slightly younger had gone out to work. Otherwise, when Jian Xingxia returned, it wouldn’t have been just the sixty-year-old Uncle Lu coming to pick her up.
Jian Xingxia knew that Lu’an Village had always been poor because it was situated deep in the mountains, but she hadn’t expected its development to have actually regressed over the years. The water, electricity, and roads were still decent because of government subsidies, but the houses and the people in the village were looking older by the day.
Jian Xingxia immediately agreed. “Grandma Hu, I’ll buy it for you. Since you live alone, shall we start with a pack of ten rolls?”
She planned to buy two whole cases. Since Grandma Hu was having trouble buying paper, the other left-behind elderly residents in the village likely faced the same issue.
But Grandma Hu refused. “I don’t want the rolled kind. I want sheet paper.”
The older generation preferred large sheets of coarse paper; it was cheap and came in bulk, but it was rough, and the packaging and hygiene standards were completely lacking.
Jian Xingxia assumed Grandma Hu was worried about the price and wanted to persuade her further. “Grandma Hu, don’t worry. The rolled paper I’ll buy for you will definitely be high quality and affordable.”
This was no challenge for Jian Xingxia, who was well-accustomed to budgeting meticulously from working part-time to support herself.
Grandma Hu, however, looked incredibly self-conscious as she whispered, “Rolled paper isn’t good to use, the sheet paper is better… it can be used as padding.”
Young people wouldn’t understand, but when women reached an advanced age, they often suffered from many lingering health issues left behind from childbirth.
Realization dawned on Jian Xingxia, and a sudden wave of sorrow hit her heart. So that’s why.
She immediately said, “I understand, Grandma Hu. How about this—I’ll buy two cases of rolled paper and one case of sheet paper. When they arrive, I’ll bring them to the village, and you can pick whichever kind you want.”
Grandma Hu rejoiced. “Oh, wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much, good child.”
…
Jian Xingxia calculated the payment for the one hundred jin of unhusked rice and one hundred jin of wheat flour at one yuan and fifty cents per jin, handing the money to Grandma Hu on the spot.
Although Grandma Hu insisted she wasn’t in a hurry and told Jian Xingxia to use the money to buy her goods first, she was still extremely happy when the cash was in her hands. She carefully lifted the corner of her shirt, rolled the three hundred yuan into a small cylinder, and stuffed it into a tiny pocket stitched on the inside of her clothes.
It wasn’t easy for the elderly to earn money. Normally, when dealers came into the mountains to buy grain, they would mostly drive the prices down. It was fine if they settled the account on the spot, but some would delay payment indefinitely or even trick the elderly with counterfeit bills. But Jian Xingxia belonged to their own village; she wouldn’t deceive her own people, so Grandma Hu felt entirely at peace.
Old Chai drove over on an electric three-wheeler and hauled the unhusked rice and wheat away. “Since you aren’t removing the bran, I’ll charge you just twenty cents a jin for the milling. I’ll throw in a few sacks to pack it all up too. Just give me fifty yuan total.”
This price was not expensive. Although Jian Xingxia had requested the grain be milled two fewer times, she wasn’t leaving the bran behind for Old Chai either. Normally, a fine mill cost thirty cents, and the bran had to be left for the mill owner.
The people of Lu’an Village had received kindness from Jian Xingxia’s grandmother in the past, so they always looked after Jian Xingxia a bit more. Appreciating the sentiment, Jian Xingxia readily agreed, “Alright, thank you so much!”
At the same time, she couldn’t help but look at Old Chai’s electric three-wheeler with immense envy.
Running the mill made Old Chai one of the “wealthy households” in the village, allowing him to afford an electric three-wheeler. In the eyes of the residents of Lu’an Village, this electric three-wheeler was the best vehicle in the world—more practical than a car, more nimble than a pickup truck, and highly fuel-efficient.
Old Chai laughed heartily, thoroughly satisfied with his vehicle. “This cost me over five thousand yuan! I even spent an extra thousand to have the shop owner upgrade it to a larger battery.”
Lu’an Village was in the mountains, and the mountain paths rolled up and down, consuming a lot more power when climbing slopes.
Over six thousand yuan…
Jian Xingxia swallowed hard. If it were only three hundred yuan more than her current savings, she could just barely manage it by emptying her entire net worth. But if it were even one or two hundred more than that, pulling out everything she owned wouldn’t be enough.
Not to mention her current situation: yesterday, her online purchases for the electronic scale and some miscellaneous items had cost 280 yuan; today, the grain and processing fees had cost 350 yuan; and she had also bought three cases of tissues—two cases of facial tissues plus a ten-jin box of sheet paper—which cost 155 yuan.
Her savings had dropped by another 785 yuan, leaving a remaining balance of 2,385 yuan.
Carrying her empty basket back to the old house, Jian Xingxia observed a minute of silence for her bank account.
“Good heavens! When will I ever earn six thousand yuan to buy a small three-wheeler!”
Farm, farm, farm!
Right now, she owned nothing but mountains upon mountains. The only things that could generate income were these mountain plots.
Yesterday, she had heard Fangfang and Hu Ming say there was a watermelon patch hidden deep within the wild grass. It was likely planted by her grandmother in the past; although it had been neglected for over a year, there should still be some naturally growing fruit.
Jian Xingxia decided to call a helper to accompany her for a trek deep into the wild grass and the mountains. This helper needed to be physically powerful, capable of carrying heavy loads, and completely obedient.
Da Hei was the perfect candidate.
Besides, Jian Xingxia wanted to bring Da Hei over to ask him face-to-face why on earth he had only given her a 60-point rating! Out of the three temporary workers, he was the very first one to give her such a low score! She absolutely had to haul him over and interrogate him!
…
The Great Yu Empire, inside the mountains.
Da Hei clutched his sweet potatoes, shrinking into a corner by the gravesite, sitting there with absolute obedience and trepidation.
Yesterday, when he was urged to leave by Jian Xingxia, his mind had been filled with complete bewilderment. It wasn’t until he stepped into the cave that he slowly processed what his master had said—she wanted him to come back to labor first thing tomorrow morning.
His master hadn’t driven him away! His master still wanted him to work!
Da Hei had been filled with immense excitement, wishing he could immediately turn over another three acres of land. But once he entered the cave, he could only move forward and couldn’t turn back. Upon emerging from the cave, he arrived right back at his late master’s gravesite.
Bearing his new master’s words firmly in mind, Da Hei meticulously swept his late master’s tomb. He bound tree leaves into a makeshift broom and carefully swept the gravesite until it was spotlessly clean, clearing away every single stray weed and fallen leaf and hurling them far away. It was only after he had swept the earthen mound until it was a smooth, bare pile of dirt and rubbed the wooden plank serving as a tombstone until it was polished and round that he finally stopped.
Darkness fell.
Da Hei was starving, but he held onto his sweet potatoes, refusing to eat them. He knew that because he ate too much, he was always rejected by others. His new master was wonderful; she let him eat his fill, gave him saltwater to drink, and didn’t strike or curse him. He didn’t want to arouse his new master’s annoyance by eating too much.
Furthermore, his master had said she would let him labor first thing in the morning. How early was “first thing”? Da Hei didn’t know, so he simply chose not to sleep at all. That way, the exact moment his master called for him, he would know.
And so, Da Hei waited from dusk until dawn.
The sun emerged, rising higher and higher, and the daylight grew brighter by the hour.
Only Da Hei’s heart sank lower and lower.
