Make Money!

Not wanting to become a left-behind child, he could only improve his family's circumstances.

But Wang Pan was still too young. There was nothing he could do.

Time flew like an arrow; days and months sped by like a shuttle.

Wang Pan turned six and started first grade.

The elementary school was in town, while Wang Pan's home was in the countryside.

It was four or five kilometers away. Every day, Wang Pan's mother, Cao Ju, got up early to make breakfast, then took Wang Pan to school.

Before school let out in the afternoon, she would come wait for Wang Pan.

During the rest of her time, she still had farm work to do. Though it was exhausting, what comforted Cao Ju was that Wang Pan was sensible and did well in school.

Wang Pan also studied diligently and obediently at school, greedily absorbing all manner of knowledge with his talent for Extensive Knowledge, Rote Memorization.

The most precious thing in Life Simulation was knowledge!

Under Wang Pan's nearly ravenous absorption, he quickly finished learning everything taught in elementary school.

Tongjiang Town had no middle school. After finishing the elementary-school curriculum, Wang Pan had no way to access middle-school knowledge for the time being.

So after completing the elementary-school curriculum, Wang Pan began to slack off. In his teachers' eyes, this showed up as:

Wang Pan did not pay attention in class.

Yet what frustrated the teachers was that even though Wang Pan did not listen attentively in class, his grades did not decline in the slightest.

This left the school's teachers both loving and hating Wang Pan.

Another year passed, and Wang Pan was nearly eight. The Life Simulation Event at age eight was drawing closer and closer.

"In the Life Simulation Event, Mother left home when I was eight and went away to work with Father, leaving me a left-behind child."

"But the timing of age eight is too vague. It could be any day of the year. She might leave tomorrow, or she might not leave until half a year from now."

Wang Pan pondered it and decided to start making money as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Wang Pan had already found a way to earn money.

He did not tell his mother, Cao Ju, about his idea. In adults' eyes, children had children's responsibilities, and adults had adults' responsibilities.

At a child's age, they were supposed to study hard and get good grades.

The adults, meanwhile, were the ones who held up the household.

In front of Wang Pan's home stretched vast fields of paddies. It was not yet time to transplant rice seedlings, and the fields were still holding water.

"Crayfish sell for two yuan per jin, and the big ones can sell for two and a half."

After school that day, Wang Pan raced home and began making tools for catching crayfish.

The tools needed for catching crayfish were simple: a scoop net, then a dozen or so thin wooden sticks. Tie a line to one end, and a skinned toad to the other.

Everyone was poor, so naturally children did not get much pocket money.

Usually, being able to fish thirty or fifty cents out of their pockets already counted as having money.

So Wang Pan was not the only one who had thought of catching crayfish.

By the time Wang Pan reached the ridge between the fields, there were already children there in twos and threes.

Wang Pan did not mind. He simply went about sticking a wooden rod into the field ridge every short distance.

By the time dinner was nearly ready, Wang Pan already had half a bucket of crayfish, probably five or six jin.

"Catching crayfish is fine, but be careful. Don't fall into the water."

At dinner, Cao Ju earnestly reminded him.

"It's too late today. Tomorrow, Mom will cook the crayfish for you."

Cao Ju had no intention of selling the crayfish. She merely thought Wang Pan had been craving them.

The other villagers thought the same way. They all saw it as children earning a little pocket money, perhaps using any extra to help support the household. No one had thought of getting rich off crayfish.

After all, there were only so many crayfish to catch in all the village's paddy fields. Before the water was drained for rice transplanting, at most they could catch two or three thousand jin.

It sounded like a lot, but there were a lot of people catching them!

Divided up like that, it was not much at all.

"I'm not eating them. I'm going to sell them for money."

Wang Pan said honestly.

"Alright, I'll take them to sell for you tomorrow. But you have to promise Mom that you'll study hard and your grades can't drop. Crayfish are only temporary. Only by studying can you earn big money in the future."

"Mm, I know."

Wang Pan nodded and swallowed a piece of pig jowl meat through tears.

Life was much better now than it had been a few years ago. At the very least, Wang Pan no longer had to eat stir-fried loofah with cracklings until he threw up. Now there was pig rump meat and pig jowl meat instead.

Wang Pan no longer needed Cao Ju to take him to and from school every day. He went with several little companions from the same village.

Even when it rained, Wang Pan was never worried, because he knew that his mother would definitely be waiting outside the school gates with an umbrella to pick him up.

After school that afternoon, Cao Ju gave Wang Pan the money from selling the crayfish: thirteen yuan and eighty cents in total.

She reminded Wang Pan again, "Now that I've given you the money, don't spend it recklessly. Save it to buy something useful."

Wang Pan agreed profusely, then in the next moment grabbed his crayfish-catching tools and ran out the door.

Over half a month, Wang Pan earned a total of three hundred and twenty-six yuan.

The money was not much, but it was a good start.

There were fewer and fewer crayfish in the fields. After working all afternoon, he could not even catch three jin, and they were all quite small.

Carrying the crayfish home, Wang Pan did not plan to sell this batch. He had worked for a whole month—couldn't he enjoy some for himself?

With nimble hands, he cleaned the crayfish, and there turned out to be quite a lot.

At dinner, eating the tender, silky crayfish meat, Wang Pan nearly cried.

Cao Ju was all smiles as well. She peeled the crayfish shells for Wang Pan, eating only a few herself.

After dinner, Wang Pan took the initiative to wash the dishes.

There was not much entertainment at night in those days, so they could only watch television.

Wang Pan's family had a black-and-white television, bought the year before last, and it could only receive three channels.

"Mom, how much money do we have at home?"

Wang Pan suddenly turned and asked.

"Why are you asking that? Are you out of money? That's not right—I gave you all the money from selling the crayfish, didn't I?"

Cao Ju had been engrossed in the television drama, but the moment she heard the word "money," she instantly snapped back to attention.

In Cao Ju's eyes, what did a child know? If he asked about the family's money, it had to be because he had run out himself and wanted to ask an adult for some.

This puzzled Cao Ju somewhat. In the past month, Wang Pan had earned more than three hundred yuan just by catching crayfish!

If not for their prior agreement, and the fact that her son truly caused her no trouble, Cao Ju would have wanted to pocket such a large sum for him.

Pork only cost four and a half to five yuan per jin at the time.

More than three hundred yuan was equivalent to several days of Wang Pan's father's wages at the construction site!

"I have money. I haven't dared spend a single cent of the crayfish money."

The corner of Wang Pan's mouth twitched. He took out the little box where he kept his money and showed it to Cao Ju, then hurriedly hid it away.

Seeing the way his mother stared at the little box with shining eyes, Wang Pan felt somewhat afraid. He had the feeling that Cao Ju would say the next moment, "You're still young, child. Mom will save this money for you and buy you new clothes for the New Year."

"Then why are you asking how much money the family has?"

Seeing Wang Pan hide the money box behind his back, Cao Ju reluctantly pulled her gaze away.

"Mom, look, I made more than three hundred yuan catching crayfish in half a month. That's about the same as Dad's wages for five or six days, and I'm not even as tired as he is."

"I heard the people in town who buy crayfish say that when they transport them to the city and send them to the wholesale market, they sell for three and a half yuan per jin.

"The big crayfish cost even more when delivered to restaurants and barbecue stalls—four yuan per jin.

"But they only pay two yuan, or two and a half yuan, for the crayfish we catch.

"If we bought crayfish ourselves and then transported them to the city, even if we calculated everything at three and a half yuan per jin, we could earn more than one yuan per jin!"

Wang Pan laid out his plan.