Chapter 2, Chapter Two: Going to the County Town
Modern cold medicines have an almost immediate effect on the body.
When Guo Baiwen woke up the next day, he felt lighter than ever before, and the weakness he had felt the day before was much better.
As soon as I mentally called out the sign-in system, the colorful screen reappeared before my eyes, and the previously grayed-out "Confirm Today's Sign-in" button was refreshed to red.
I rubbed my hands together, silently reciting the words "gold and silver" several times in my mind, just as I had planned to do before going to sleep, before pressing the sign-in button with a look of anticipation.
The same spinning wheel slid rapidly, and the patterns inside the three golden machines gradually came to a stop.
500g dried shiitake mushrooms, 500g dried white fungus, one bottle of soy sauce
Okay, he's overthinking it.
He heard what sounded like people moving around in the yard outside the house. After clicking to confirm and temporarily storing the items in the system warehouse, he got up.
The old lady was slowly drawing half a bucket of water from the well under the jujube tree on one side of the yard, then filling the half-empty water vat with the cool well water. Seeing her trembling figure, Guo Baiwen immediately stepped forward to help, and after much persuasion, finally managed to get the bucket into his hands.
After exchanging a few words with the old lady, he gained more information about his current body.
He still had the surname Guo, but his given name was Bawen. It was the amount of money his father gave to the midwife as a blessing. It was originally just a nickname, but because he hadn't been given a formal name for a long time, Bawen gradually became his real name.
Although it is completely different from his modern name, when pronounced in the local dialect, it sounds similar to his old name.
I don't know if that's why he became the Guo Bawen he is today.
He continued fetching water in silence, listening to the old woman's ramblings. It seemed that his mother hadn't taken proper care of herself during her postpartum period after giving birth to his younger sister, which led to a gynecological illness. She endured it for several years until a couple of years ago when she finally succumbed to her illness. Old Guo hadn't remarried, and the family still had three acres of land. He was also a skilled farmer, and they had managed to get by, albeit somewhat haphazardly, enough to eat.
Last year, however, Old Man Guo attended a wedding in a neighboring village and probably couldn't resist drinking too much. When he was walking home in the dark, he accidentally fell into the water.
He wasn't with anyone, and it was late at night, yet no one noticed.
By the next day, the person was so swollen that they were almost unrecognizable.
Grandma Guo saw her son and daughter-in-law off by herself. In order to handle her son's funeral, she had no choice but to sell half an acre of land.
Vegetable plots are not taxed, so now we use two acres to grow grain to offset taxes, and the remaining half acre to grow vegetables for our own consumption.
But she was an old woman, and Guo Bawen was a young boy. They were not as good at tending the fields as Guo's father, who had been a farmer for many years. They worked hard to grow grain for a year, but the harvest was barely enough to make ends meet.
The land here yields only one harvest a year. After paying taxes, the little grain left is barely enough to keep the three of us from starving.
This is only because God provided food last year. If the weather were bad, we might not even have enough to eat.
Seeing that neither of them were cut out for farming, the old lady thought that perhaps she could save some money and send her eldest grandson to the county to learn a trade. Whether it was masonry or carpentry, at least he would have a skill. She didn't expect him to be very good at it, but at least he could help out during the off-season and earn some food.
However, most craftsmen take on apprentices from a young age, and Guo Bawen is almost fifteen now.
After asking around the county but no one was willing to take it, and then it started raining on the way back to the village, Guo Bawen gave his only raincoat to his grandmother and ran home in the rain, where he fell ill.
Then, the sick Guo Bawen became Guo Baiwen.
He filled the water tank completely, then washed his hands and face with the little water left at the bottom of the bucket before placing the bucket back on the edge of the well.
That day, they didn't have porridge for breakfast. They probably thought they would have to do some work during the day and needed something to stave off hunger, so in the morning, the three of them each received a black flour bun mixed with various beans, along with a small dish of pickled radishes.
Grandma Guo's cornbread was the smallest. She would nibble at it little by little, prolonging the chewing time to make herself feel fuller.
The dark flour wasn't ground very finely, and it even stung a bit when you ate it, so you had to swallow it with water. But it was still a rare treat in these times.
Just look at Guo Xiaohua, how happily she's eating those dark cornbread buns.
After finally finishing breakfast, Guo Baiwen was filled with melancholy, unsure whether it was for Guo Bawen or for himself now. He slowly exhaled, calming his pent-up emotions, and then cleaned up the dishes.
I took a walk around the kitchen in my current home for the first time.
There was still a small half-jar of salt, a small jar of homemade soybean paste, and two large jars of pickled radishes, with only a little solidified soybean oil left at the bottom of the jar. There wasn't much millet left in the rice jar, because millet was more expensive than beans (soybeans, mung beans, red beans) and barley. In order to increase the family's food supply, Grandma kept ten catties of millet for him to nourish his health, and exchanged the rest for cheaper soybeans, dark flour, and barley. But when he weighed the large jar of stored grain, all the beans, dark flour, and barley together weighed only about 130 catties.
Nowadays, every household eats two meals a day. There are three people in their family. Even if they try to save money by drinking thin porridge, they still have to eat at least two kilograms of grain a day.
This is still during the off-season for farming, and we estimate that we can barely make it through the winter. When spring comes next year and we start tending the fields, the heavy work will increase our appetite, and the new grain won't have grown yet. We don't know if this little bit of stored grain will be enough to last until then.
We can't just sell off the land again, can we?
Guo Baiwen couldn't help but sigh. He rummaged through the kitchen and found a bamboo water bottle, a bamboo hat, and three cloth bags inside before coming out.
"Grandma, I'm going to the county to see if I can find some work."
"Wenzai, you've just recovered from your illness, why don't you rest for a couple more days?"
"It's alright, Grandma. If I can't find work in the county, I'll be back before noon."
Guojia Village has this advantage: although the village is small, it is quite close to the county town, and it only takes an hour and a half to walk there and back.
Grandma Guo thought about it for a moment. It wasn't easy to find work in the county town. Guo Baiwen always stayed at home, so it would be good for him to go out and explore the county town. So she didn't try to persuade him any further. "That's fine too. You've just recovered from your illness, so don't walk too fast on the way. When you come back at noon, Grandma will make you two vegetable dumplings."
This morning, Guo Baiwen choked on his dark cornbread and had to drink water several times. The old lady saw this and thought about going to the vegetable garden to pick some tender vegetables to make vegetable cornbread.
Hearing this, the little girl Guo Xiaohua was a little envious. "Brother, can you take me to the county to play too?"
“Your brother went to the county to find work, not to play.” Old Mrs. Guo pretended to hit her, but raised her hand high and then gently lowered it, only patting her head. “You are still young. There are many people in the county. If you are taken away by a child trafficker, you will never be able to find your way back.”
"Grandma, I'm eight years old, not three. What kind of child hunter would photograph such a big child?"
"Whether you're three or eight, we'll take you with us when you're as tall as Grandma."
Guo Xiaohua raised her hand to compare her height with her grandmother's, "That'll be soon, Grandma. You're only half a head taller than me. Next year! Next year I'll definitely be taller than you!"
"Go away, go away, you're teasing your grandma. While there's still time, hurry up and go twist hemp rope. Twist as much as you can so we can get a new pair of shoes for San Du before the New Year. The extra hemp rope can be used to make shoe soles and sold to the workshops in the county for some money."
"Grandma, can I have a vegetable bun for lunch too?" After all, I don't usually eat lunch at home.
"If you can twist five hemp ropes in the morning, Grandma will make one for you too."
"Okay! Thank you, Grandma!"
After listening to Xiao Hua's few words and having her idea of going to the county town dispelled, and seeing the two of them holding hands affectionately as they entered the house, Guo Baiwen then picked up his basket and headed towards the county town, following the direction he remembered.
Although the road was still a dirt road, it was relatively smooth because people often walked on it, even though there were still some small stones. He walked silently while thinking about how to find a reasonable excuse to take the items out of the system warehouse.
The sign-in system doesn't allow him to directly win real money, and these days without cash are indeed quite difficult.
Halfway there, after looking around to make sure no one was there, he pretended to go to relieve himself in the nearby bushes, but actually used the basket on his back as cover to take out all the dried shiitake mushrooms and dried white fungus from the system warehouse and put them into a cloth bag.
He then put his basket back on his back and continued on his way to the county town.
No money was required to enter the county town. After passing through the town gate, one could hear vendors hawking their wares inside. The long-lost liveliness made him subconsciously compare it with his memories.
The houses in the county town were much better than those in Guojia Village. Although there were many single-story houses, most of them were tiled. Even the main roads in the county town were paved with bluestone slabs, which were smoother and easier to walk on than the dirt roads outside the county town.
He was still wearing the patched clothes from the day he time-traveled. At the time, he only thought they were worn out, but they were now the best piece of clothing Guo Bawen owned.
Even the patches were only two in the corner of his clothes. He had specially combed his hair before going out today. He didn't know how to do the men's hairstyle here. To him, the hairstyle called "Zhuiji" looked a bit like an "ancient style version of a bun".
After fiddling with the basin of water for a while, he could only tie his hair into a simple ponytail with a strip of cloth, then slowly adjusted it into a bun. Although the methods were different, at least the appearance was similar, and his attire was quite fitting. The shoes he wore were different from the soleless straw sandals he wore at home as slippers. Although the soles weren't thick, they were specifically for going out, and they were quite comfortable after walking for so long.
The people here seem to live a more prosperous life than those in the village. Along the way, he saw several children who were much fairer and cuter, and there were quite a few shops on the street.
A note from the author:
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