When Wen Qing looked up, she saw Yao Shiling and Wen Peng standing by the oxcart outside the carriage door, looking at her.

"Mom, Pengpeng!" Wen Qing called out happily.

"Big sister." Wen Peng ran towards the car.

There were too many people on the bus, and Wen Qing couldn't squeeze off.

Wen Peng ran to the car and pulled hard on Wen Qing's backpack, allowing Wen Qing to get off. Wen Qing was covered in sweat.

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Wen Qing asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

“We’ve come to pick you up,” Wen Peng said. “When Mom went to the fields, she saw that student from Nanzhou No. 1 Middle School in Shanwan Village had returned. She asked him and found out that the whole school was dismissed at 3:30 in the afternoon, so she brought me to pick you up.”

"Mom, you're so smart," Wen Qing said with a smile.

Yao Shiling scolded playfully, "How can you talk to your mother like that, you little kid?"

Wen Qing chuckled, then noticed Wen Peng's unusual appearance out of the corner of his eye and turned to ask, "Pengpeng, where did you get that red scarf? Oh, and a Youth League badge too."

"I bought them all." Wen Peng touched his red scarf with a proud look on his face: "Big sister, I am now an outstanding Young Pioneer. I am always in the front row when the national flag is raised. The teachers all praise me."

Young Pioneers?

Wen Qing couldn't help but laugh out loud.

“He’s been gloating for days.” Yao Shiling took Wen Qing’s backpack and put it on the oxcart. Then the three of them walked towards the dirt road: “He bought the red scarf himself.”

Wen Qing asked in surprise, "Pengpeng, did you buy this yourself?"

Wen Peng pulled Wen Qing aside and said, "Yes, I sold my calamari shell."

"How much will it cost?" Wen Qing asked.

"Four yuan and fifty cents."

"Wow, so many!"

Yao Shiling chimed in, "He's been saving those cicada shells for two or three years, and this is the first time he's selling them."

Wen Qing: "..."

Wen Peng was overjoyed to learn that this was the first time he had earned so much money. He said, "The red scarf cost one cent, and the Youth League badge also cost one cent. I have four yuan and three cents left, and it's with my mom."

"Great job!" Wen Qing patted Wen Peng's head.

Wen Peng chuckled.

Yao Shiling took the opportunity to ask Wen Qing some questions about school, and Wen Qing answered them one by one.

As the three were about to step onto the dirt road, Wen Qing asked, "Mom, how's Aunt Xiao's tailor shop doing lately?"

Yao Shiling paused, frowned, and then said directly, "Not good."

"What's wrong?" Wen Qing asked, puzzled.

“A new tailor shop opened across from Aunt Xiao’s shop. It’s bigger than Aunt Xiao’s shop, and it sells fabrics, shoes, and clothes. The prices are even cheaper than Aunt Xiao’s, so it’s taken away all of Aunt Xiao’s business,” Wen Peng said.

Wen Qing looked at Yao Shiling and asked, "Mom, is what Pengpeng said true?"

“It’s true.” Yao Shiling looked at Wen Qing. She had thought that Wen Qing would be angry, surprised, or furious, and would rush to Aunt Xiao’s tailor shop to find out the truth, or even start a fight with the tailor shop across the street, but none of that happened.

As if she had expected this, Wen Qing calmly said, "Then I'll go take a look again tomorrow."

Yao Shiling asked in surprise, "Aren't you angry?"

Wen Qing laughed: "What's the big deal? Just because you're allowed to open a tailor shop doesn't mean others aren't?"

"But they are clearly imitating Aunt Xiao's tailor shop."

Wen Peng chimed in, "That's right, the items are exactly the same as those sold in Aunt Xiao's tailor shop, and the shoes are the same style you made, sister."

Wen Qing smiled and said, "Those who learn from me will live, those who imitate me will die. What's there to be afraid of?"

"Big sister, what do you mean?" Wen Peng asked, his eyes wide. He felt that his older sister's level had improved after only half a month of school.

Yao Shiling couldn't understand either.

Wen Qing said, "What I mean is that people who learn from me may succeed. But those who only know how to imitate and don't know how to innovate will definitely fail."

Yao Shiling and Wen Peng nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

"So what do you plan to do?" Yao Shiling asked.

Wen Qing said, "We don't know yet. Let's wait and see tomorrow. Let's go home first."

Seeing the relaxed smile on Wen Qing's face, and remembering that her daughter had sold a tattered piece of paper for six hundred yuan and was becoming more and more reserved, Yao Shiling's worries lessened slightly. In addition, since Wen Qing had finally come home, there was no rush to deal with Aunt Xiao's tailor shop. So she asked, "Wen Qing, what do you want to eat tonight? Mom will make it for you."

Wen Qing, supporting the oxcart, followed along the dirt road and said, "Mom, let's have cold noodles for dinner. I have two packs of noodles in my backpack. After boiling them in water, we'll put them in warm water, drain them, and then mix them with chili peppers. We'll also stir-fry two dishes, add plenty of salt, and a couple of drops of hot oil."

Wen Peng's mouth watered as he listened.

Yao Shiling frowned: "Cold noodles are such a waste of flour. One serving of cold noodles is enough for our family to eat three or four servings of soup noodles."

"Mom, I'll make the noodles. We can just stir-fry some wild vegetables and eat them with it," Wen Qing said.

"Mom, I also want to eat cold noodles," Wen Peng said.

Yao Shiling couldn't refuse any longer and said, "Okay, let's eat this once."

"Okay." Wen Qing and Wen Peng were happy.

As soon as she finished speaking, Yao Shiling started nagging again, saying that one should be frugal in life, and how could one eat like this? She said that Wen Qing had learned her second uncle's bad habit, and that this was not acceptable. You have to understand that in the 1960s, even tree bark was hard to come by. What if there was another famine? Without any food reserves, what would several mouths eat?

Wen Qing used to find these things tiresome, but now she felt a warm glow, nodding and smiling, repeatedly saying, "Yes, I understand."

"Mom, you're right."

"I definitely won't waste it next time."

Seeing that Wen Qing was so obedient, Yao Shiling stopped nagging and instead asked Wen Qing in detail what he ate for three meals a day at school and whether he was keeping up with his studies.

The mother and her two children entered Shuiwan Village. As soon as the neighbors saw Wen Qing and Yao Shiling, they greeted them warmly: "Wen Qing, you're out of school?"

"Wen Qing is on vacation?"

"Wen Qing is back?"

"She's the most knowledgeable girl in our village."

"Wen Qing has grown even more beautiful."

"..."

Wen Qing was not used to the neighbors' enthusiasm, but Yao Shiling answered them all with a smile.

Once they reached their own fenced yard, Wen Qing asked, "Mom, why are they being so welcoming to me?"

"Because Mom persuaded Aunt Wang to compensate them for the wheat straw," Wen Peng said.

Wen Qing looked at Yao Shiling: "Mom, how did you do that?"

Yao Shiling stopped the oxcart and said, "Aunt Wang isn't a bad person. Didn't we lend her corncobs and sweet potato vines last time?"

"Um."

“She treated me like a great benefactor and was very kind to me. That day, she said she might not have enough wheat to eat. So I suggested that we go glean wheat ears and straw together. We walked in the fields, on the main roads, and along the riverbank. After a few years, she had gleaned more than 20 jin of wheat and several bundles of straw. She was overjoyed. I took the opportunity to say that the straw could be returned in installments, one family or half a family a year, over several years. Since they were all neighbors, it wouldn't be too much of a burden. And she agreed.”

Wen Qing asked, "That's it?"

"That's how it is. We're all from the countryside, and we're all very down-to-earth," Yao Shiling said.

Wen Qing thought about it and agreed. She picked up her backpack and took out sesame flatbread, fruit cake, apples, and salted dates. Yao Shiling asked, "Why are you wasting money again!"

Wen Liang watched without saying a word.

Wen Peng's eyes lit up.

Despite her nagging, Yao Shiling still cooked pork and cabbage for dinner. She had bought the pork specifically because she heard Wen Qing might be coming back. In those days, people bought fatty pork to satisfy their cravings and to render the fat for later use in other dishes—it was more economical. But this time, Yao Shiling bought mostly lean pork because Wen Qing preferred lean meat.

"Mom, you're so good to me." Wen Qing held a bowl of cold noodles and looked at the stir-fried eggs with chili peppers, salted duck eggs, pork and cabbage, and shredded potatoes and pork on the table. These were all dishes that Yao Shiling usually couldn't bear to eat, but she had specially saved them for Wen Qing. Wen Qing was extremely touched.

Yao Shiling wasn't buying it. She picked up a piece of meat with a good balance of fat and lean and put it in her bowl: "If you were someone else's daughter, I definitely wouldn't treat you well. Eat up."

“That’s right, that’s right, big sister, I haven’t been able to get any meat to eat since you didn’t come back,” Wen Peng said.

"Mom, you eat too." Wen Qing put a slice of meat and an egg on Yao Shiling's plate.

"Alright, alright, I'll eat it myself, you guys go ahead and eat."

The dinner was exceptionally satisfying, and everyone ate their fill. After dinner, the family sat under a tree to cool off, chatted for a while to digest their food, and then returned to the yard.

Wen Liang and Wen Peng get sleepy early because they exercise a lot during the day and go to bed early.

Wen Qing sat in front of the sewing machine. She hadn't touched a sewing machine in a long time and missed it quite a bit. Suddenly, a bold idea popped into her head: what if she brought the sewing machine to school?

As soon as she brought it up, Yao Shiling refused.

"Then how will you study?" Yao Shiling asked. "Will your dorm room be big enough for you?"

Wen Qing dismissed the idea and, taking advantage of the moment when she wasn't sleepy, she used the sewing machine to finish all the chores she had saved up in her backpack.

Yao Shiling urged her several times before she finally went back to her room to sleep.

Wen Qing lay on his bed, looking at the roof beams. As he looked, he realized that he could see the stars in the sky through the beams. Wen Qing felt ashamed.

This house has way too many holes!

Her family's house was entirely made of mud, with mud bricks made from highly adhesive soil mixed with wheat husks and other materials. The roof beams weren't made of concrete or floor slabs; they were simply wood. The roof wasn't tiled; instead, it was supported by bamboo poles topped with wheat straw mixed with mud. This wheat straw served as the roof tiles. Unlike tiles, wheat straw would turn black and rot from wind and rain, so the roof had to be replaced every year to prevent leaks. This is why the people of Shuiwan Village cherished their wheat straw so much.

There was a pile of wheat straw at her house that she had prepared to repair, but Erhuzi burned it to almost nothing by setting off a firecracker. Now the house was completely unrepairable, and the leaks were getting bigger and bigger. She could even see the stars in the sky.

Wen Qing had no interest in appreciating the stars. What she was thinking about was that since her rebirth, she had assumed she could earn money to support her family, and that buying food and drinks for her mother and brother would make their lives better.

Little did she know, she was thinking too narrowly. She didn't even have the money to build a house with tiled roofs, so how could she provide a good life for her mother and younger brother?

Thinking about it again, she died of illness in her thirties in her previous life, and she will definitely die of illness in this life as well. What if she dies at the age of eighteen in this life, her younger brother is still young, her mother is lonely, and she has not left any savings? How will they live?

Thinking about this, Wen Qing couldn't sleep. Staring at the hole in the roof, she began to ponder what she should do next and how to balance her studies and making money.

After thinking it over, she finally felt sleepy, turned over, and fell asleep peacefully.

The next morning, the whole family ate breakfast together.

Breakfast consisted of corn porridge, pickled vegetables, and coarse flour pancakes.

"Mom, I'm going to the county town in a bit to visit Aunt Xiao," Wen Qing said.

“Shall I go with you?” Yao Shiling said.

"No need, you stay home and rest, I can go by myself."

“Big sister, I’ll go with you,” Wen Peng said.

Wen Liang countered, "Have you finished your homework?"

"It's only the first day of vacation, and I always do my homework on the last day."

Wen Liang: "..."

Wen Qing said, "Let Pengpeng come with me."

After breakfast, Wen Peng changed into clothes without patches and followed Wen Qing along the dirt road to the county town.

Wen Qing was still carrying a cloth bag in her hand, which contained the shoes she had made at school.

"Wen Qing, oh Wen Qing is back!" Before even reaching Aunt Xiao's tailor shop, the shoe repairman saw Wen Qing and quickly greeted her.

Wen Qing greeted them with a smile, and then followed Wen Peng into Aunt Xiao's tailor shop.

Wen Qing remembered that when she left, Aunt Xiao and Bao Hong were so busy at Aunt Xiao's tailor shop that it was unusually quiet today.

Aunt Xiao was sitting at the sewing machine, looking down at the abacus, as if she were doing accounting. The sewing machine was no longer making a constant clattering sound like before.

"Aunt Xiao," Wen Qing called out.

Aunt Xiao looked up and saw Wen Qing, then stood up in surprise: "Wen Qing, you're back? Are you on holiday?"

"Yes." Wen Qing smiled, then looked around at the consultant: "Where's Bao Hong?"

Aunt Xiao smiled and said, "Her beans ripened earlier than ours, so she went back to harvest them." After saying that, she saw Wen Qing looking at the shop and felt a little sad. She whispered, "A new tailor shop opened across the street."

Wen Qing said, "I just saw it."

“It must be because our business was so good recently that we attracted jealousy, so they opened a shop that looks exactly like ours. Even the shoes are the same style, and the clothes are from Tangquan Garment Factory.” Aunt Xiao was very uneasy: “I have been running a tailor shop for several years and I have never encountered such a blatant attempt to steal our business.”

Wen Qing nodded and said easily, "I know, but it's okay."

"It's alright? How can it be alright?" Aunt Xiao looked at Wen Qing and said, "Many of our regular customers, although they don't openly go there to make or buy clothes, go secretly, and I know all of that."

“It’s alright, Aunt Xiao,” Wen Qing said again.

"This is still okay?" Aunt Xiao looked at Wen Qing in surprise.