Chapter 8 is not a good bird
The tricycle was in the front yard. Wu Peng asked Yao Weimin to come with him so that some things could be unloaded and they could clean the tricycle while they were there.
As soon as the two disappeared into the backyard, Yao Fanghua's legs began to throb. She wanted to peek into the storage room where Wu Peng had just moved the cabinets, and also into Wu Peng's bedroom. However, she ultimately controlled the impulse and grabbed a rag to clean the two safes. While cleaning, she silently recited, "A gentleman loves money, but he earns it honestly." Although she wasn't a gentleman, she wouldn't stoop to such a shameful act. She wasn't in dire straits yet; there was no need. Her teacher had said that only with a righteous heart and upright conduct could one possess extraordinary character, and only then would one's studies of sages be worthwhile. She wasn't aiming for extraordinary character; she just wanted peace of mind and a good night's sleep. She wasn't in a situation where she needed to sacrifice her principles for her future; there was no need, absolutely no need.
As soon as Wu Peng reached the front yard, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to Yao Weimin. "Comrade Wang, who had lunch with us today, might be transferred to your machinery factory as a leader after the New Year. Don't tell anyone else, I'm just telling you because I think you're reliable."
"Yes, don't worry, Brother Peng."
“We’ve known each other since we were kids, how could I not trust you?” Wu Peng exhaled a smoke ring and asked, “What did you and your sister do this morning?”
Yao Weimin chuckled, pretending to be silly.
"I know even if you don't say it, you've gone to sell watches, haven't you?"
Yao Weimin just kept chuckling to himself.
Wu Peng handed the whole pack to Yao Weimin, with five yuan tucked under the cigarettes. "Weimin, I'm just curious, how much did that watch actually sell for?"
"Brother Peng, I really don't know, I don't know anything." Yao Weimin chuckled foolishly, but inwardly he was cursing. Was this a way to get him to betray his sister? Brother Peng wanted to both steal his money and cut off his livelihood. Brother Peng was no good!
Trying to bribe him with five yuan? You're underestimating him! Yao Weimin considered himself a worldly man who had seen plenty of money; this small sum of money couldn't sway him.
Wu Peng took back the money and handed the cigarette to Yao Weimin. "If you didn't know, that's fine. I was just curious. You still play cards with Zhong Er and the others? You never learn your lesson. Don't play with them anymore." Anyway, there's plenty of time in the future. Let's keep this kid in line for now.
"Yeah. I always lose at cards. My family doesn't know I gamble for money, so please don't tell them about it, bro."
"Don't worry. But you should hang out with them less in the future. If you want to have fun later, come find me. I'll show you the world and let you know what real fun is."
Yao Weimin's eyes lit up. He had heard Zhong Er mention that Peng Ge and his gang played big games and their place was always bustling. He wasn't thinking of gambling with these people; his skills were no match for them, and besides, he didn't have any money. He just wanted to broaden his horizons, see how others played, and experience the atmosphere.
After the two men finished smoking and carrying their things, they returned pushing their tricycle. Yao Fanghua had already cleaned the safe and security box. She was now squatting in front of the safe, examining the lock. Seeing them return, she told them to move the cabinets to the yard first, then she filled a basin with water and rinsed the safe and security box inside and out several times.
Wu Peng let her do whatever she wanted. Anyway, his yard was big and full of junk. A few basins of water were nothing to him.
Looking at the muddy ground, Yao Fanghua finally felt embarrassed. "Pengpeng, these wooden furniture pieces in your yard are just lying there in the open; they'll be ruined sooner or later. Why don't you clean them up quickly?" There are so many houses here; if you dismantle these pieces and stack them neatly in a room, even if they're not of great use, they'd be better used as firewood than rotting in the yard. She immediately noticed a jewelry box under a mahogany chair and a half-finished camphor wood chest just lying in the yard.
"It's not that I haven't had time. I was busy before the New Year, running around every day. I'll get everything sorted out by the first month of the lunar calendar." Everyone's waiting to get money for the New Year; the scrap metal business is especially good before the New Year.
"Okay, Weimin and I will come over to help you then," Yao Fanghua said with a smile.
"Sure, I was just worried about not having anyone to help me, so I'll thank you in advance."
"Okay." She wasn't really capable of doing any heavy work, so she would just sit in the main room and watch them work. If they found some good wood, she would pay Weimin for his work.
She had had enough of the hard and tiring work during her two years in the countryside, and vowed that once she turned her life around, she would never toil herself again. In this life, she wanted to live within the limited means of survival, buying what she wanted and eating what she wanted, avoiding hardship and suffering whenever possible, and not making things difficult for herself. She believed that being content with a simple life and not pretending to be diligent was the best approach.
Wu Peng and Yao Weimin worked together to load the safe onto the tricycle, one riding and the other pushing. Yao Fanghua pushed the bicycle.
"Brother Peng, what are you going to do for the New Year?"
"What do you mean, what should we do? We'll just stay home for the New Year." Wu Peng had made up his mind. He would invite a few people to play mahjong in the front yard all night long.
Yao Weimin felt a pang of sympathy, thinking that Peng Ge was also pitiful, spending the New Year all alone.
Yao Fanghua lowered her head and remained silent. She disliked the New Year. During the New Year, relatives would bombard her with questions, flattering and belittling her. As an older single woman, she was expected to help with cooking, washing dishes, and making dumplings. If she just sat there and did nothing, her relatives would gossip behind her back. Even if she did less work, they would still criticize her. She knew her relatives' true colors all too well—they loved to nitpick, to make sarcastic remarks, and to put you down for no reason. She knew that even if she diligently did all the work, she'd be lucky to get a single word of praise; they'd probably still call her foolish behind her back. But all of that was secondary. The most important thing was that she didn't want to see her aunt's family.
She still has to go back to the factory after the New Year, so she needs to protect her reputation first. Maybe she should just pretend to be sick for a few days. She might as well just pretend to cough, coughing a couple of times when there's nothing wrong.
The three returned to the Yao family with different thoughts in their minds.
Wu Peng and Yao Weimin made a lot of noise moving things, and everyone in the courtyard knew that Yao Fanghua had bought two iron boxes. The Zhong brothers even came up to help carry them into the house.
The safe was placed in the corner by the window. Yao Fanghua and her family only lit a fire in the stove at night; the room was ice-cold during the day.
Zhong Er: "Damn, this metal safe is so heavy, my back is killing me." It was a struggle to finally stack the second safe on top, it was damn heavy.
Unlike Zhong Er, who was a chatterbox, Brother Zhong remained silent, helped carry the things, and went back home. He was twenty-six years old, the same age as Yao Fanghua's older brother, Yao Weiguo, and the two had been sent to the countryside at the same time. He returned with his family, had a fight with them, and finally the four of them squeezed into half a room, finding some shelter. Zhong Er, on the other hand, went to share a room with his parents.
"How much did you spend?" Li Chunying's eyelids twitched when she saw the two iron cabinets. They were so heavy, how much did they cost! She didn't care about anything else, only about the money.
Yao Fanghua: "Ten yuan each. I found them while scavenging for junk."
"So expensive! What a waste of money," Li Chunying muttered. Anyway, those who know how to sell are better off than those who know how to buy; whatever you buy, you'll lose out, and everything will definitely be expensive. It's always good to mutter something first beforehand.
Ten yuan? Expensive? Wu Peng felt a surge of blood rush to his head. Thank goodness he didn't have to do business with people like that.
There's no reasoning with old women who've been through so much hardship and who'd rather split every penny in two. The only way to calm your depression is to coax and appease them, letting them take small advantages and suffer big losses.
Wu Peng: "Auntie, look at what you're saying. Here, Auntie, have some sunflower seeds. I'll give you two bags of sunflower seeds for free. If you ever have any scrap metal to sell in the future, just come to me."
After appeasing Yao's mother, Wu Peng went around to Yao Fanghua's room, nodded his chin towards the outside, and said, "You said ten yuan each, aren't you afraid your mother will sell them to you for a lower price?"
Yao Fanghua was squatting down, studying the safety lock, when she heard this, her heart skipped a beat. Sure enough, it was a real possibility. Her mother was really capable of such a thing. "What should we do?" she asked, already having already said it.
"If you ask me, it's fine if you don't put anything valuable inside. But if you really fix it and want to put valuables inside, you might as well put them at my place. Putting aside everything else, my place is definitely safer than yours."
"Pah! Even if it's really fixed, I wouldn't dare leave it with him. That kid would immediately sell the safe and make a fortune." Yao Fanghua chuckled, "Don't even think about it."
Zhong Er stood by the window, peering inside again and again. "Brother Peng, do you have any more? Give me two too."
Wu Peng immediately smiled and said, "Great! One hundred and fifty taels. Let's go, let's go get it from me now."
Zhong Er was stunned. "Didn't you say it was ten yuan each?"
"You believe it's only ten yuan? Hua Hua was just joking with his aunt. Even this would fetch a hundred or eighty yuan as scrap metal. What are you thinking?"
Upon hearing this, Li Chunying screamed, "One hundred and fifty! Are you crazy?! These two pieces of junk are worth one hundred and fifty! Return them, return them now!"
Li Chunying insisted on returning the item, but Wu Peng ran away in a flash, saying, "Auntie, I'm sorry, the money is exchanged and the goods are sold; there are no refunds."
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