Seeing Liang Xiaoju craning her neck to peer curiously through the fence gate, Xiao Man realized that in all the ti since her rebirth, she hadn’t visited the brigade headquarters either. So, she pulled Liang Xiaoju along to go inside and take a look.
The liveliest places in the village during people’s free ti were the brigade headquarters and, even more so, the village elentary school. The school was a large, traditional courtyard compound with classrooms on all four sides. The central area served as both a sports ground and a place for free activities. The only athletic equipnt was a ping-pong table and a row of three climbing poles—no basketball hoops or parallel bars—but it was a paradise for the children. They had classes during the day and played on the school grounds afterward. Once they finished their chores, they could run back to the school to play ping-pong or chase one another. Whenever a film was sent to the village, it was usually screened at the school, making the campus even more bustling.
The brigade headquarters was also a courtyard compound, though not as spacious as the school. It had buildings on three sides, with the fourth being a ramd-earth wall topped with a large bamboo-slat fence. In the center of the courtyard stood two large banyan trees over a wide patch of grass. It wasn’t as bustling as the schoolyard, but there was a steady stream of people, because the brigade committee office, the eting room, the village clinic, the co-op store for buying essentials like oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, soap, matches, and kerosene, and the agricultural machinery station that housed the tractors, rice transplanters, and water pumps were all located here.
For young girls their age, Liang Xiaoju and Mo Xiaoman didn’t care about the other places. Their goal upon entering the brigade headquarters was clear: they just wanted to go look at the co-op store!
Even without a single penny in their pockets, they could go in, lean on the counter, and just by slling the unique air—a mixture of sugar, sauces, salt, oil, and tobacco—and gazing at the brand-new goods on the shelves, they would feel an inexplicable sense of happiness.
In her past life, Xiao Man had occasionally been sent to the co-op store to buy salt, matches, or kerosene. Watching the young clerk behind the counter bustling about—collecting money and ration coupons, weighing sugar and salt, grabbing goods—had filled her with incredible envy. All because that girl got to spend her entire day surrounded by so many wonderful things!
Xiao Man and Liang Xiaoju leaned on the counter together, looking at the goods on the shelves. ’There really aren’t that many items. Why did my past self feel like it was such a dazzling array?’ It was strange.
Still, there was sothing on the shelves that caught Xiao Man’s eye: a freshly opened, full cardboard box of big yellow biscuits. They were stacked neatly, each a round, golden-yellow biscuit with a thin layer of granulated sugar sprinkled on both sides. One bite and they would be so crisp and crumbly! Next to them was another box, this one filled with colorful fruit candies in clear plastic bags, giving off an especially sweet and fragrant aroma.
’I really want so,’ she thought. ’Too bad I don’t have any money!’
’The big yellow biscuits are five cents each, and the fruit candies are a penny a piece. And I don’t have a single penny!’
The clerk walked over, and Xiao Man greeted her with a smile, "Sister Liu Ping!"
Liu Ping blinked her pretty, dark eyes and smiled in surprise. "Well now, I thought you didn’t recognize . Your words are so sweet today!"
Xiao Man felt a little embarrassed. She had only called her "Sister Liu Ping" because she’d heard others do it; she had never actually addressed her that way before. In her previous life, she had been like a mute, rarely speaking to anyone.
Liu Ping looked at Liang Xiaoju. "And who’s this?" she asked.
Liang Xiaoju looked to Xiao Man, who answered, "She’s my cousin, the granddaughter of my great-aunt from Shangling Village. Her na is Liang Xiaoju."
"Oh," Liu Ping said, then smiled at Xiao Man. "I heard you’re living as a family with your Grandpa and Grandma now. Did you all move into the Knowledge Youth House?"
Xiao Man nodded, subtly studying the girl behind the counter. Lin Liuping, from the Lin Family on the west side of the village, was seventeen or eighteen years old. Just as in her past life, she wore her glossy, jet-black hair in two thick braids and was dressed in a clean and pretty short-sleeved blouse with a small floral pattern on a white background. It was said she had a junior high education and had been recomnded for the position of village clerk. Others claid she got the job through her uncle, the brigade leader. But whether it was by luck or by connections, Xiao Man thought Liu Ping was perfect for the role. She had a serious work ethic and an excellent temperant, always speaking to everyone in a soft, gentle voice, never impatient or flustered.
But in her past life, Liu Ping had t a terrible fate. It had happened, it seed, in the autumn or winter two years from now. She had gone to the commune on business and was returning late when she was robbed by thugs on the road. They didn’t take her bicycle, but they stripped her of all her valuables and stole her satchel, which contained the co-op’s ledgers and receipts. Then they knocked her unconscious and dragged her into the mountains... She didn’t make it ho until the next day. Nearly the entire village saw her when she returned, hair disheveled and clothes in tatters. Vicious rumors began to spread. Her boyfriend from the city broke up with her after hearing what happened. She, however, was deeply in love with him and went to the city to find him many tis, but she never once managed to see him. The once fresh and lovely girl quickly withered like a flower. Her family hastily married her off to soone far away, and Xiao Man never heard any news of her again.
Xiao Man glanced at Liu Ping’s left hand before her eyes quickly darted back to the mouth-watering big yellow biscuits. ’That man hasn’t shown up yet, has he?’ Gongdao Village had many pretty girls, and Liu Ping was a standout among them—if not the prettiest, then definitely the second. Exceptional girls like her rarely married farrs in the village. In her past life, that boyfriend of hers was not only from the city but was also the son of a cadre. He worked as a driver for so departnt in the county, always trailing a leader. He had seen Liu Ping while driving his leader down to Huashan Commune for an inspection and had fallen in love at first sight. He arranged for an introduction, and they began dating. Every ti he ca to see her, he arrived in a jeep, making a very flashy and high-profile entrance. With her mother being the village loudspeaker, the entire village soon knew that Liu Ping had a boyfriend who was a cadre’s son from the county seat. They also knew he had given her a token of his love: a very, very expensive ladies’ watch!
Liu Ping wore that watch constantly, treasuring it dearly. Xiao Man had seen it herself during her occasional visits to the co-op store.
The Liu Ping of the previous life probably never realized it, but having a boyfriend from a cadre family and wearing that watch had made her the primary subject of village gossip. Xiao Man could recall many tis—whether she was washing clothes by the river or just walking down a village path—when she would overhear huddles of won, both married and single, gossiping. Out of every ten sentences, four or five would be about Liu Ping. It was a sha that the Xiao Man of that ti was so muddle-headed that she couldn’t grasp the true, often malicious, aning behind their words.
Liu Ping saw the two little girls staring at the bags of candy and knew they were craving so. She opened a drawer in the counter, grabbed a handful of six fruit candies, and placed them on the countertop. She divided them into two piles, three for Xiao Man and three for Liang Xiaoju. "Here, have so," she said.
Xiao Man quickly waved her hands in refusal. "No, no, it’s okay! I don’t have any money!"
"I’m not asking for your money!" Liu Ping said. "These are from my own stash. This is a new batch of fruit candies, freshly opened, so they aren’t damp at all. They taste much better this way! I love candy, too. I always buy half a pound for myself whenever a new box is opened."
She pointed to the box of big yellow biscuits and laughed. "I can’t give you any of those, though. They’re five cents apiece—pretty expensive! So I’ll just treat you to a couple of fruit candies."
Hearing this, Xiao Man no longer refused. "Thank you, Sister Liu Ping," she said, pushing the three candies over to Liang Xiaoju and grabbing her own. She unwrapped one and popped it into her mouth. Mmm, so fragrant! So sweet!
It was the sa fragrant sweetness she rembered so well. ’None of the fancy candies I ate in my later life ever tasted this good!’
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