Chapter 179 The Lifesaving Favor: Good Times Are Yet to Come
When she was tied to the donkey cart, Wang Siya regretted her decision to become a widow all those years ago: if she had known that she would raise such a beast with all her heart and soul, she should have drowned it in the dung bucket back then!
That beast used her as a tool to exchange for dowry. The family she supposedly married into was no good either. On the day of the wedding, he beat her up, saying it was to teach her a lesson. Afterwards, he would beat her every few days. Wang Siya had resigned herself to being beaten, but one night, the young girl from the Pan family came to her and asked if she was willing to go out and do chores.
Wang Siya still remembers the scene that night. The weather was very cold, and although the moon was not full, it was very bright and hung in the sky. She stared at it for a while and then became lost in thought. For some reason, she began to pray to the goddess on the moon to help her escape from her suffering. It was at this moment that Pan Tiefeng lightly leaped from the wall in front of her, as if stepping on the moonlight.
She didn't know what she was thinking, but the next day she actually listened to the girl, found an excuse to go out, and got a job sweeping floors with room and board included. She was illiterate and only drew a cross when signing the contract, but she gave herself a new name.
It wasn't a curse from her parents, nor was it a pseudonym like Wang Siya, Wang the Widow, or Wang the Old Woman. It was Yuesheng, Wang Yuesheng. The surname Wang didn't come from her parents either, but from her three older sisters who never changed their surname.
Wang Yuesheng had never really believed in things like gods and ghosts, but Pan Tiefeng's arrival that night was too coincidental, and the moon was too bright, making her think that someone had actually heard her wish. Yuesheng, born of the moon, the moon never scolded or beat her, and even lit up her nights. She was willing to let the moon be her mother.
As for whether the moon is willing or not—if the moon is unwilling, it will definitely say so; if it hasn't said so, then of course it is willing.
Wang Yuesheng, now with a new name, happily returned home, but her smile vanished when she saw the drunken man who had come back: she had almost forgotten that she still had to get past this hurdle before she could get the job.
But it's okay, she already has an idea.
...
What's the best frostbite medicine you have here?
When Wang Yuesheng reminisced about the past, Yao Xiaoyu, who had just finished a massage and was feeling languid, also thought of her when asking about frostbite cream. Of the eight people she had hired, all except Fan Jinxiu had frostbite, but the severity of the condition varied. Wang Yuesheng, the oldest of the group, was the most severely affected.
Although she is called a "little old lady," Wang Yuesheng is only thirty-eight years old. In modern times, she is still free to roam around, but in this era, she is already a grandmother and can already say that half of her body is buried.
To be honest, Yao Xiaoyu was quite shocked when she learned Wang Yuesheng's age. She knew that people aged quickly in this era, but the oldest she had ever seen was only five, six, eight, or nine years older than their actual age, and ten years or so was the absolute maximum. However, when she first saw Wang Yuesheng, apart from not missing a single tooth, he looked no different from someone in their early sixties.
Although Yao Xiaoyu knew that people in this era were not very energetic, Wang Yuesheng was truly the embodiment of rotten wood and dead ashes. Even with Pan Tiefeng as guarantor, Yao Xiaoyu almost didn't want to hire her. Being skinny like a skeleton was fine; she could gain weight naturally after eating her fill. But if her heart was empty and she was just a shell, how could she possibly give someone a heart?
Fortunately, during the subsequent conversation, although Wang Yuesheng was rather dull, one could still sense his liveliness. Coupled with his quick and efficient work, Yao Xiaoyu eventually signed the contract, though a minor hiccup occurred—
"Just sign here."
Yao Xiaoyu pointed to the contract and said, but Wang Yuesheng remained silent for a long time before finally speaking, his face flushed:
"I can't write my name."
A few years ago, she would have boldly asked if she could draw a circle, a common way for illiterate people to sign their names. For a widow to raise her innocent child safely, she needed a lot of courage and fierce determination.
But being forced into marriage by her son really dampened her spirits. Coupled with being beaten for so many years, Wang Yuesheng no longer dared to do anything out of line. Old Mrs. Wang didn't even ask anyone to help check if the contract was a contract of servitude—away from that beastly place, even a mud pit is paradise!
"Shall we draw a cross?"
This was also a way to replace a signature. Wang Yuesheng nodded, and Yao Xiaoyu then asked her to draw a cross where she should sign and then press her fingerprint. Wang Yuesheng obediently complied. The middleman watched as the red thumbprint fell and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Although Yao Xiaoyu had high requirements for her employees, she was also very generous with her money. Once the contract was signed, the money was in her pocket. The children in the family had been clamoring for meat for a long time. Once the money was in hand, she would buy a pound of fatty pork to render into oil, and buy some pork belly for her wife to cook. The whole family would then have a good meal.
Yao Xiaoyu recalled the happy look on her face when she successfully received the middleman's fee, and then she thought of Wang Yuesheng, who was noticeably more lively than last time when they met today. She was a little curious about what had happened to her after she went back. If it weren't for the fact that she was still thin with high cheekbones, she would have thought they were two different people.
Can a job really bring about such a big change in a person?
...
"You know my situation. The job the girl gave me was out of gratitude for saving my life."
Wang Yuesheng insisted on putting the silver thimble into Pan Tiefeng's hand. Pan Tiefeng sincerely refused, but how could she resist Wang Yuesheng's decades of skill? In the end, she had no choice but to accept it, planning to see if she could take better care of her aunt later.
My auntie has a hard life. She was sold by her son at an advanced age, and her husband is that notorious swindler who beat his first wife to death without repenting. When my auntie first came here, she was such a capable person... Pan Tiefeng's determination not to marry and to find a job and cut ties with her family is hard to say that she was not influenced by Wang Yuesheng.
"Dao Laoye" is a derogatory term for a night soil collector. In this era, the modern common flush toilet was a symbol of wealth, otherwise Yao Xiaoyu would not have been so excited about the bathroom in her new house.
The job of a night soil collector sounds undignified, but it actually has many benefits in private. In the countryside, people use dry toilets, and even if there are public toilets in the city, they are mostly used by men. Every decent family has its own portable toilet, which is placed at the door every morning for the night soil collector to clean. This is not free; the current general price is 15 cents per toilet per month. [1]
However, this wasn't the night soil collector's income. This money had to be handed over to the night soil boss, the person responsible for hiring the night soil collectors. The contents of the night soil cart didn't belong to the collectors either; they would mix an equal amount of water into the half-full cart and sell it to villagers for one yuan per cartload.
Every day, a small boat comes to transport the fertilizer from the farmers. Because of the food they eat, the fertilizer from Shanghai is extremely popular in the market, and there is never a problem of it not selling.
But giving this money to the dung collector doesn't mean that being a dung collector isn't a good job. Life is nothing more than eating, drinking, and defecating. Compared to government officials who are often owed wages, the dung collectors' wages are definitely not less. Moreover, once they become one of them, as long as they follow the rules, they will not be affected by the boss changing. Just like in factories in the 1960s and 70s, they can pass the position on to their descendants.
In addition, these "dealers" also earned tips, a practice popular among foreigners. It could be said that, aside from the undignified position and somewhat harsh working conditions, it was a "lowest-class business with the highest interest" job in this era—to become a "dealer," one had to pay 90 silver dollars to the dung boss.
Wang Yuesheng's second husband had a job that earned him a good income, but that didn't mean Wang Yuesheng's life would be better. The man spent all the money on himself and wouldn't give Wang Yuesheng a single copper coin. For the past few months, Wang Yuesheng hadn't been beaten, and everyone said that the old man had repented and that good days were coming. But just as Wang Yuesheng found a job, the man suddenly became paralyzed!
Because the change was supposed to be gradual, no money was given in the past few months, even though no action was taken. Pan Tiefeng felt this was retribution: he didn't give him any household expenses, so when he became paralyzed, his family couldn't even find a few copper coins.
But this man was incredibly lucky. Aunt Yuesheng was a kind woman. After she got a job, she didn't abandon him. She used her wages to hire the man's nephew to take care of him. Originally, the man wouldn't have lasted much longer, but now that he's being taken care of like this, he can probably live for quite a while longer.
Pan Tiefeng touched the silver thimble on her hand and thought that it was really unfair that good people didn't live long while evil people lived for thousands of years.
Wang Yuesheng didn't have mind-reading abilities; he just stared at the silver gleam in Pan Tiefeng's hand and smiled. She had received this silver thimble while she was in postpartum confinement. Her first husband wasn't great, but he wasn't bad either. Seeing that she was pregnant, she also had a stroke of luck at work, receiving a silver dollar as a reward. She then found a craftsman to melt down the money and process it into this silver thimble.
After some time, the man froze to death in the ditch. When her son was disobedient, this silver thimble was her only memento, so she couldn't bear to sell it no matter how hard things got. She originally planned to use it to make a delicate bracelet to pass down to her daughter-in-law after she entered the family. In the end, she herself became part of her son's dowry.
It's better to give it to Tie Feng, who helped her find a job, than to leave it to that beast. After all, without this job, she wouldn't have the leverage to break ties with the beast sleeping next to her.
It wasn't that the beast hadn't made a move in the past few months, but rather that he found beating people pointless. He somehow found several long needles and would stab people from time to time, because the wounds were too... She was also stupid, still clinging to the old idea that family matters shouldn't be discussed. Fortunately, God had eyes and helped her escape her delusions.
The human body is very fragile. If you want a part of a person to become useless, you can tie them up with rope for a period of time and they will be ruined. If a person is really drunk, they will not feel anything at all.
Nothing good grows in a beast's house. The nephew may seem decent, but he's long since taken the old beast's things for himself. Paying him for taking care of things is just an excuse. The old woman is sensible enough not to take anything, and the nephew doesn't mind giving her a good reputation.
The good days of overthrowing the old man are yet to come!
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The author has something to say: [1] In the 1920s-1940s, the price for a night soil collector was generally 2 cents per month, but the article is set in 1919, and the price has not yet increased.
[2] In the 1920s-1940s, the job of a night soil collector cost 100 silver dollars, and the privately set price did not increase.
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