Driving a truck for the state was famously a golden rice bowl. Quietly picking up some local specialties and taking them home to cultivate connections or sell through the right channels was an unspoken rule of the trade.
Truck drivers earned good wages and had money to spare, and their trips around the country made it easy for them to bring local specialties along.
If they could stay in touch, the family could dry shrimp and stockpile them every day, then deliver them to the roadside at a set time. That would give them a reliable sales channel.
Chen Haichao planned to visit the supply and marketing cooperative and the purchasing station tomorrow to find out what things cost these days. He would also buy a few packs of cigarettes. He still owed his friends, and he couldn't let their efforts go unrewarded.
Cigarettes built bridges, liquor paved roads, money warded off disaster, and generous gifts opened back doors.
Whether greeting someone with a smile or navigating social obligations, cigarettes, liquor, and gifts came in handy everywhere.
His mother had locked the cigarettes, liquor, and canned goods the brigade leader had given them yesterday in a cabinet, where no one was allowed to touch them.
Supplies were scarce these days, and all those things were precious. They had to be saved for social obligations. Even the little sponge cakes had been given only to the younger children, one each; the three older brothers and sisters hadn't gotten any.
Of the ten jin of pork, one jin had been cut off and red-braised for their guests. The rest had been cut into strips, salted, and hung up to air-dry for the New Year, when they could eat it bit by bit to get some fat in their diet.
"I want to go to the supply and marketing cooperative in town tomorrow. Is there anything you want to buy? I'll bring it back for you."
Chen Sidi said, "We need clam-shell cream. We're almost out at home. Mom keeps saying she'll go buy some, but she hasn't had the time. The skin on my hands and face is so dry it's cracked and peeling."
Chen Pandi said, "Get two malt candies for the twins while you're at it."
"No need to buy them any. I gave them a mao each yesterday, so they must have already had some."
"Forget it, then. Ask Mom if there's anything she wants you to bring back. She'll probably tell you to buy red paper or something."
"Okay."
At dinner, when Mother Chen heard he was going to the supply and marketing cooperative, she said she would go with him, so he wouldn't have to shop and pick things out on his own as a grown man.
Chen Haichao didn't mind. If Mom wanted to come along, so be it. That way, there would be someone to pay for the shopping. He didn't have much money in his pocket, let alone any coupons.
"New Year's almost here. I'll buy a few lengths of cloth and make each of you a decent new outfit. For years now, we've just been mending and patching. We still have a little money this year, and the third and fourth are grown girls old enough to marry. They can't keep wearing their eldest and second sisters' hand-me-downs every day."
Chen Sidi was still a young girl who loved looking pretty. When she heard she would have new clothes this year, she happily put down her chopsticks, her eyes full of anticipation.
"Me too? I get new clothes this year too?"
"Everyone does. The money from Abao... yesterday is just enough to get you some cloth. We'll add a little of the family's money to buy cotton and make new clothes. Everyone gets a set, big and little alike."
Mother Chen was all smiles and in high spirits, and there was even more affection in her eyes as she looked at them.
"After dinner, I'll go trade your eldest aunt for a few more cloth and cotton coupons. Everyone will wear new clothes this year."
Chen Haichao figured the big gold bracelet had done the trick. When the money came into their hands yesterday afternoon, she hadn't mentioned making new clothes. Nor had she said anything about using the money from the shrimp they'd caught last night and this morning to make everyone new clothes.
The big gold bracelet carried more weight after all. It had loosened Mom's purse strings in one stroke, and she'd suddenly become generous.
Really, it was all because they were poor. If they had money, who would shortchange their own children?
Chen Pandi's face was full of anticipation too. "Really? Then I'll help you make the clothes when we get the cloth. Otherwise, with so many people in the family, we might not finish them in just a few days."
"Of course both of you will help me. We'll also borrow the sewing machine from the village party secretary's house when the time comes."
Chen Sidi eagerly raised her hand at once. "Me, me, me! Zhiyu and I are good friends. I'll go tell her after dinner and book a time in advance, or someone else might beat us to it."
Mother Chen beamed. "All right, sorry to trouble you to tell the university student. We'll reserve a time in advance. Tell her we'd like to borrow it the day after tomorrow, morning and afternoon."
"No problem."
The atmosphere at the table changed in an instant, becoming relaxed, joyful, and warm. Everyone was smiling, their eyes full of anticipation.
The boy-and-girl twins kept their eyes darting around at the adults, holding their bowls in both hands as they shovelled down sweet potato rice. They watched whoever was speaking and didn't interrupt, but that didn't stop their hearts from leaping with joy.
They had pricked up their ears and heard it all. They were going to have new clothes for New Year too!
They had never worn new clothes before. They had always worn their older siblings' hand-me-downs.
They hurriedly finished eating and left the table, then immediately ran outside.
The adults were still eating inside when they heard the twins shouting outside.
"My mom says she's going to make me new clothes!"
"I'm getting some too! Mom says we'll all wear new clothes for New Year! Are you getting new clothes?"
"Huh? You can ask your mom!"
"I always wear my big brothers' and sisters' old clothes. I'm finally going to have new clothes to wear..."
Mother Chen couldn't stop laughing as she listened from inside. "Those two! Good thing we didn't talk about selling things for money in front of them. They can't keep anything to themselves."
Father Chen laughed too. "When children get something good, of course they can't resist showing it off and sharing it with the other children."
Chen Pandi bit her chopsticks and looked at Mother Chen, her eyes sparkling. "Mom, when the tide goes out tonight after dinner, should we go catch shrimp again?"
"Whatever we catch tonight definitely won't dry by the fourteenth."
"We can save it up. What if there's a next time? On the fourteenth, we can ask the truck driver if he'll want any more the next time he comes through."
Chen Haichao gave his third sister an appreciative look. She was thinking the same thing he was.
"All right, then. We'll go get some more tonight and bring them back to dry. There won't be many people in the village after dark, so there's no harm in getting a little more. Don't go during the day, though. Take a break. You've worked all year without a rest."
No one had any objections. With a carrot dangling in front of them, they were all eager now, to say nothing of the sweet promise of new clothes.
"When you're done with your work tomorrow, go spend some time with your friends. Abao and I will go to the supply and marketing cooperative. New Year's almost here, and it'll be packed shoulder to shoulder. You'd better not squeeze in there. Abao can come with me and help carry things."
Both sisters nodded.
"I already told you not to call me Abao..."
Mother Chen rolled her eyes at him. "You're the only one who makes such a fuss. We've called you that for years without a problem, and now you won't let us."
"Not just me. I was thinking, how about changing my sisters' names too? Their names are all bad. Don't give them names with 'di' in them. They sound awful, like our family was crazy for a son."
The two sisters couldn't help tightening their grips on their chopsticks. They exchanged a glance, then looked nervously at their parents.
Mother Chen put down her chopsticks, her expression sour. "It was all your great-grandmother. She thought I hadn't given your father a son and had left him without an heir. Your eldest sister wasn't called Zhaodi before. At first, she hadn't been registered, so we just called her Daya."
"When your second sister was born the next year, she started cursing: another little girl. First she cried, then she threw a tantrum, then she threatened to hang herself. She cursed at our door every day, insisting on giving the girls names with 'di' in them. Otherwise, she wanted your uncle's family to give your father a son for adoption, or she wouldn't have the face to meet your great-grandfather when she died."
"Your grandfather was useless too, blindly filial and listening to everything that old woman said. He pressured your father into agreeing."
"Then, after you were born, she thought it was the names that had brought you here. We'd gotten used to calling them those names, so we never changed them."
Father Chen frowned as he listened and shot her a glare. "She's been gone for so many years. What's the point of talking about it? Think of something good instead."
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Hearing that made Mother Chen even angrier, and she glared fiercely at Father Chen!
"Then it's all your fault!"
She couldn't very well speak ill of the dead, but she could take her anger out on the living.
Father Chen said innocently, "There was nothing I could do. My grandma lay on the ground making a scene, and even my dad couldn't do anything about her. He even beat me with a rattan cane. My mom couldn't get a word in on my behalf either. What could I have said? She was an elder, after all..."
"And you're still talking! If I can't blame your grandma, then I can only blame you."
"All right, all right, it was all my fault."
So it was all thanks to his great-grandmother.
He had never heard about it before. Perhaps it was because a person's death was like a lamp going out, and it wasn't right to dwell on what she'd done wrong in life.
Mother Chen didn't want to rake up the past again either. The woman was gone, and there was nothing more to say. She hadn't brought it up again in all these years; it had only come up today because one thing had led to another.
She looked at the two sisters. "What do you two think? Do you want to change your names?"
Chen Pandi asked carefully, "Is it easy to change them? Will it be a lot of trouble? We've been called these names for more than twenty years."
Chen Sidi gripped her chopsticks tightly, her hand resting against her chest. She looked a little nervous. "Can we change them?"
Chen Haichao made the decision for them. "Of course you can. Why not? Dad can tell the brigade and get a certificate, then we'll go register it at the public security bureau and change the names in the household register."
Father Chen nodded too. "Right, just as Haichao said."