Tie Zhu; trading for vegetable seeds

After laughing, Bai Yao worried that Kong Wu might fly into a rage from embarrassment and come after him.

So before Kong Wu came out, he hurriedly made an excuse and slipped away.

"Kong Wu, help me take the things inside later, and tidy up the little vegetable garden while you're at it. I'm going to the village chief's house to trade for some vegetable seeds."

With that, Bai Yao slipped away.

After he had been out for a while, he realized he hadn't brought anything.

That wouldn't do. After all, he still needed to ask the village chief to look after them tomorrow.

With that in mind, Bai Yao searched the stock he had taken from the black-market hideout and stored in the System Space.

If he remembered correctly, he had put away quite a bit of brown sugar.

Brown sugar and cigarettes would make good gifts.

But he wasn't going to be too free with his money, so he only took two packs of Daqianmen cigarettes and half a jin of brown sugar.

It might not sound like much, but in this era of the planned economy, especially with goods like these that required scarce ration coupons, it was already a very good gift.

As for the people in novels who casually gave away five jin of brown sugar or a carton of cigarettes, they were truly generous. A gift like that was worth the work points a rural resident earned through more than half a month of hard work.

Take what he had brought, for example. A pack of Daqianmen cost thirty-five fen, so two packs came to seventy fen. Brown sugar cost eighty fen a jin, so half a jin was forty fen. Altogether, it cost 1.1 yuan, and that didn't account for how hard coupons for such goods were to come by.

So his gifts weren't very expensive, but they were valuable, and the village chief would also be more willing to accept them.

Bai Yao walked without the slightest hurry. At that leisurely pace, he was practically slower than an old lady with a cane.

He was taking his time because he didn't know where the village chief lived. He hoped to meet a child or someone else from the village along the way, so he could ask for directions.

After walking for a while, Bai Yao finally spotted a child on the road.

He quickened his pace and caught up, getting a clear look at the child.

How should he put it?

This kid was sure to get a beating when he got home. Bai Yao could tell from the mud all over him and the two little fish in his hand.

"Hello, could you tell me where the village chief's house is?" Bai Yao didn't dismiss him just because he was a child.

"Are you one of the newly arrived educated youths?" The child didn't answer, but asked a question of his own.

Then, without waiting for Bai Yao to respond, he went on.

"That's right, you must be one of the new educated youths. You're dressed so nicely, and you're so fair. You can only be one of them."

Bai Yao smiled at that, unable to resist the urge to tease him.

"Don't be so sure. What if I'm here to steal children?"

As soon as Bai Yao finished speaking, the child laughed and replied, "No, you're not. I already saw you yesterday."

Bai Yao: ...

From the way the child had reasoned things out just now, he had thought the boy was clever. Apparently, he had given him too much credit.

Still, he had seen quite a few villagers yesterday and hadn't remembered them all.

At that moment, the child said, "Follow me. Grandpa village chief's house is right next to mine."

With that, he led the way.

"Thank you very much, then," Bai Yao said, taking out two pieces of candy and offering them to him.

The child accepted them without hesitation and became even chattier with Bai Yao.

From their conversation, Bai Yao learned that the boy was named Tie Zhu. He was only six and hadn't started elementary school yet.

As for why he was alone, he had been playing hide-and-seek with his friends when he found the two little fish, so he had taken them home.

"If you just leave like that, won't your friends be unable to find you?" Bai Yao asked.

"We're playing hide-and-seek. If they find me, I lose," Tie Zhu replied, looking at him as if he had never played hide-and-seek before.

Bai Yao: ...

"But if they can't find you, won't they get worried sick?"

"No. Once I take the fish home, I'll go back and hide again," Tie Zhu replied.

All right, then. This was the first time he had seen someone take a break halfway through a game of hide-and-seek.

But children had all sorts of strange ideas, so it was understandable.

After that, Bai Yao heard from Tie Zhu that the village chief's daughter-in-law had just given birth to a baby.

Here it comes, here it comes. In every period novel, whenever the protagonist goes to the countryside and brings a gift, the village chief or production team leader's daughter or daughter-in-law is bound to be sitting the month.

So bringing brown sugar had been the right choice.

After thinking it over, Bai Yao added a big handful of red dates to the gifts.

These days, red dates were good things too.

Red dates and brown sugar, especially when combined with eggs, were the perfect combination for replenishing a woman's qi and blood.

On the rest of the way, Bai Yao listened to Tie Zhu talk about a few more things that interested a child his age, and then they arrived.

"We're here. This is Grandpa village chief's house, and that's mine over there," Tie Zhu told Bai Yao happily.

After chatting with Bai Yao all the way there, he had already decided on his own that Bai Yao was his friend, so he happily showed his new friend his home.

Bai Yao looked over and saw that Tie Zhu's family really did live next door to the village chief.

It was just that these neighbors were a little different from what he had imagined.

Yes, they were neighbors more than ten meters apart.

Honestly, there was enough room between the two houses to squeeze in another household.

Seeing that Bai Yao knew where he lived, Tie Zhu smiled and said, "I'm going home first."

"All right, go on. Remember not to cry," Bai Yao replied.

He was covered in dirt and had been catching fish. How could he possibly avoid a beating?

Tie Zhu didn't understand what Bai Yao meant, but he didn't give it much thought. He trotted home, still planning to discuss eating the fish that evening with his mother.

After Tie Zhu left, Bai Yao knocked on the gate in front of him.

To his surprise, he had only knocked twice when the gate suddenly swung open. He froze for a moment, then came to his senses and quickly lowered his hand.

"Who are you?" Li Cuihua asked, puzzled and somewhat wary.

"Hello, Auntie. My name is Bai Yao, and I'm one of the newly arrived educated youths. Another educated youth and I rented a little courtyard house. We tidied up the vegetable garden today and thought we'd grow some vegetables, but we don't have any seeds. So I came to ask the village chief which family we could trade with for some," Bai Yao replied with a smile.

Bai Yao wasn't the best-looking of the group, but he had an advantage the others lacked: his more ordinary looks naturally made him seem approachable.

Otherwise, why would Tie Zhu have come to regard him as one of his own after chatting with him along the way?

Children in this era weren't that naive. They might be down-to-earth, but that didn't stop them from being clever.

Once Bai Yao had finished speaking, Li Cuihua grew less wary.

Remembering how her husband had praised the new educated youths the night before, Li Cuihua laughed heartily and said, "So you're Educated Youth Bai! My husband was just saying yesterday that you and the others knew how to manage a household better than the ones who came before. You want to trade for vegetable seeds, right? There's no need to ask my husband. Auntie can give you some. They're not worth much anyway."

With that, Li Cuihua stepped aside and motioned for Bai Yao to come in.

"Thank you, Auntie. Please don't give me too many. Neither of us has grown vegetables before, so just enough for the two of us to eat will do," Bai Yao said.

If he hadn't needed a source for the vegetables he would eat in the future, he wouldn't have wanted to grow any at all.

Besides, just because someone said vegetable seeds weren't worth much didn't mean he should take them at their word. This was the era of the planned economy, when everything was scarce and even a single fen had considerable purchasing power.

"You've never grown them before? That's all right. Auntie will pick out a few kinds that are easy to grow." With that, Li Cuihua went inside to fetch the seeds.

Bai Yao didn't go in. Instead, he took a quick look around the village chief's home.

Like the little courtyard house he lived in, it was built with mud bricks and red bricks, making it one of the better houses in the village.

He looked away, took the gifts he had prepared from his shoulder bag, and set them on a stone in the courtyard that served as a stool.

Just as Bai Yao finished putting them down, he heard the gate being pushed open behind him, followed by a loud female voice.

"Auntie, I'm here! I didn't take a liking to the person you set me up with..."

Their eyes met, and the young woman, who had just pushed the gate open and entered looking rather gloomy, stopped complaining. Her eyes immediately lit up.

"Hello, are you another blind date my aunt arranged for me?"

"No. I'm an educated youth sent to the countryside," Bai Yao replied expressionlessly.

But inwardly, Bai Yao was wondering how trouble had found him too. Still, he thought that if he answered while copying Kong Wu's expression, she would probably keep her distance.

Ever since meeting Hu Yang and the others, he had stopped thinking of himself as the protagonist, so he hoped trouble would stay away from him.

But what he thought was an expressionless face didn't make the young woman keep her distance. Instead, she asked, "Do you have a partner, then?"

"Yes," Bai Yao lied without hesitation.

"Huh? Did your partner come to the countryside with you?"

"No. She gave her life for the country."

"Oh? I'm sorry."

"It's all right."

Now, I don't believe this young woman can keep making awkward conversation.

But as it turned out, she really could keep the conversation going.

Fortunately, just as she was about to speak, Li Cuihua returned with the vegetable seeds.

"Educated Youth Bai, the vegetables I picked out for you will grow as long as you water them. Just don't water them too much."

As she spoke, Li Cuihua also spotted her niece and noticed the look in her eyes.

Knowing something was wrong, Li Cuihua decided not to keep Bai Yao any longer. She handed him the large packet of vegetable seeds and said, "Educated Youth Bai, take these seeds. Auntie has something else to do, so I won't keep you. When you get back, start the seeds first and then plant them. The earlier you start them, the earlier you can plant them, and the sooner you can eat your own vegetables."

"All right, thank you, Auntie. I've remembered it all, so I'll head back now." Bai Yao breathed a sigh of relief at her words. He had no intention of staying longer either.

With that, Bai Yao turned and left without so much as a glance at the young woman.

Once he was gone, Li Cuihua shut the gate and said, "Don't even think about it. He's an educated youth. Your parents won't agree. Besides, wasn't today's blind date quite good? He even gave you gifts."

As she spoke, Li Cuihua went over to the stone and took a look.

But when she saw the cigarettes, brown sugar, and red dates, she couldn't shake the feeling that the gifts were a little odd.

Who brought things used for sitting the month to a blind date?

"Huh? He didn't give me anything. Didn't you buy these for my sister-in-law yourself, Auntie?"

At that, both of them realized the things were actually gifts from Educated Youth Bai.

"Oh dear, why did he bring gifts?" Li Cuihua said. She wanted to return them, but was also reluctant to part with them.

Now, the more she looked at the gifts, the more she liked them. After all, her daughter-in-law had just the use for them.

After some thought, she decided to wait until evening and discuss it with her husband.

As she put the things away, Li Cuihua said, "Just remember, no matter how good that educated youth is, your parents won't agree. Since you didn't like the one you met today, Auntie will find you another. I'll definitely find someone you're happy with."

"I'm quite happy with this Educated Youth Bai," the young woman muttered under her breath.

Outwardly, though, she readily agreed.

"Ah, got it."

Meanwhile, Bai Yao, walking home, felt a chill run down his back for no apparent reason.

"Hiss... It's been a whole day. Hasn't the rumor that I'm a sickly weakling spread yet? The women and men in this village are terrible at spreading gossip."

Bai Yao decided he would make an effort tomorrow to reinforce the villagers' impression that he was sickly.