Chapter 7 - Selling Cakes

Su Yue saw some people passing by riding a bicycle and she couldn't help envying them. She also wanted one so that she wouldn’t have to rely only on her legs anymore.

But in this era bicycles were very expensive. Even if you had more than two hundred yuan, you still needed a coupon which was really hard to get, hence why very few people had bicycles.

What's more, all she had now was ten something yuan. There was no way she could afford one.

This was probably the poorest period of her life.

Wu Xiaoxiao and Mao Lin were going to the supply station to look at fabrics, and Li Xiaoqing also planned to buy some personal items. Su Yue was afraid of delaying them, so she told them to go first.

After they left, Su Yue remained where she was and rested. After she recovered most of her strength, she stood up with her basket and walked to the supply station.

She didn't plan to sell at the market as this method was still too dangerous. She planned to go directly to the supply station and quietly look for customers.

Su Yue stood not far from the entrance and observed. After a long time of observation, she saw a stylishly dressed woman in her thirties coming out holding a tin can and something wrapped in an oil paper bag in her hand, most likely food.

At first glance, this woman was not short of money.

Su Yue's eyes lit up. Without hesitating, she walked straight up and stopped in front of the woman.

Earning herself a suspicious look, Su Yue smiled slightly and asked in a low voice, "Big sister, do you want to buy some sponge cakes? The cakes I make are very delicious."

The woman was originally impatient thinking she had been stopped by someone trying to sell their own stuff again. She was just about to wave her hand and leave immediately when she heard "sponge cake".

She hasn't heard of those yet.

Out of curiosity, the woman did not leave, but asked: "What sponge cake?"

Seeing that there was a chance, Su Yue immediately opened a corner of her basket revealing the golden cake inside, "Big sister, look, this is my own sponge cake. It's very tasty, you will know if you try it."

Su Yue didn't say anything else and handed over a piece for this big sister. The sweet fragrance was so enticing the woman didn't hesitate at all, eager to see if the taste was as good as it seemed.

After taking a bite, the woman was taken aback. She didn't expect it to be so delicious. The smell was good, but the taste was even better! She had never eaten such a delicious cake.

Now the woman didn't stall and asked directly: "Meizi, how much is this sponge cake?"

Su Yue knew that this business was a done deal and quietly said, "Big sister, there are many people here. Let's go to the alley over there and talk."

The woman nodded clearly, following Su Yue over and introducing herself as she walked, "My name is Jiang, you can just call me Sister Jiang."

Su Yue called Sister Jiang in a friendly manner. When she saw there was no one else in the alley, she completely opened the basket’s cover and said, "Sister Jiang, these were all made by ourselves. You can’t buy them anywhere else. You already tasted it, so I won’t waste your time. They are 15 cents a piece. How many do you want?"

"15 cents?" Sister Jiang was slightly surprised. She wanted to say that was too much, but when she thought of the taste, she felt that it wasn’t really that expensive. It was much better than the pastries sold by the supply station, both delicious and beautiful, not to mention you couldn’t buy it anywhere else. The piece was not small either, so it was better to buy this as a gift than the stuff in the supply station.

It just so happened that her family had to prepare gifts. All the things in her hands were bought for that reason.

Sister Jiang peeked inside Su Yue's basket and said, "Meizi, I want all of your sponge cakes, but you have to give me a cheaper price."

Su Yue was pleasantly surprised. She thought this sister would take three or four pieces at most, but she didn’t expect that she would pack it all at once. It was really great. She immediately packed up the cakes, "Okay. Sister Jiang, why don’t I give you all the little scraps left?"

Sister Jiang was also very happy that Su Yue was so straightforward. One paid the money, the other delivered the cakes, and business was done.

When Sister Jiang was leaving, she said to Su Yue: "Dameizi, I live in the family building behind the textile factory. Next time you make something delicious, bring it to me, I still want more. "

Su Yue happily agreed without delay.

Touching the money in her pocket, Su Yue almost wanted to sing. This basket was sold for three yuan and a half, and the cost to make the cake was less than fifty cents. In other words, she made almost three yuan all at once.

Although three yuan may not even be enough to buy a popsicle in modern times, in the ‘70s it was a lot of money. Everyone envied factory workers’ income of nearly 40 yuan a month, which meant about one yuan a day, yet her three yuan was comparable to three days' wages of a factory worker.

Su Yue's heart was so happy it couldn’t compare to when she made ten million a month in modern times.

After making money, Su Yue wanted to buy a lot of things right away.

She went to the market and bought five catties of rice and flour from local farmers without coupons. Seeing that there were locally grown beans, she then also bought some mung beans and red beans.

Finally, she went to the supply station again and bought the spices and oil that were essential for cooking.

After a lot of buying, all the money on her body was spent and the coupons were gone. It could be said that there was not a penny in her whole body.

But seeing her hands full of things, she didn't feel heartache. Anyway, even if she had no money she could still make more.

When Li Xiaoqing and the others came back, they were shocked by the amount of things in front of Su Yue. In the end, each helped her carry a little, and the four of them finally succeeded in transporting her things back to the village.

In the village, the first thing Su Yue did was to weigh out two catties of flour, and then wrap the two pieces of sponge cake she had left behind in oil paper. She took both and walked towards Han Aiguo’s house.

She was going to return it.

This time when she arrived at the entrance of Han Aiguo’s house the gate was not closed, but wide open. She could vaguely hear someone in the yard shouting loudly.

Su Yue got closer and heard a woman's angry voice: "The Wang family is simply a black-hearted family! Snobbish and heartless. I was really blind before when I saw their daughter. If I had known their family was so shameless, even if you kill me, I wouldn’t dare to look down on them. They really think their daughter is a fairy. As if! At the beginning, who was the one begging to come to my family and become relatives? Oh, now that they see my family’s Aiguo hurt and feel that there is no future, they want to break off the engagement and find another match. How could it work like that!”

There was a younger female voice admonishing, "Mother, don't be angry. It's not worth it to be angry for such a family. Consider this as clearly seeing their Wang family’s character. We will definitely not interact with them in the future."

"I have never seen such a snobbish family. Back then, they came everyday to beg me. I thought their family was sincere and agreed to this marriage. Now it’s like this. They see my Aiguo returning home injured and want to go back on their word. Do they still want face! I want to see what kind of character they can match to their daughter in the end!"

Su Yue stood outside the courtyard of the Han family and listened for a while, and she probably understood what was going on. It should be that the person who had been engaged to Han Aiguo saw that he was injured and thought there would be no future with him, regretted the promise and came over to break off the engagement.

No wonder the old lady was so angry.

However, she was quite happy. If Han Aiguo had a betrothed, how could she approach him?

She couldn't do such things as being a mistress.

Seeing that the old lady's scolding quieted down, Su Yue sorted out her clothes, walked forward and knocked on the door, shouting, "Is anyone home?"

All the voices in the yard stopped. Everyone looked at the door and saw Su Yue standing there with surprised expressions.

The old lady Han asked aloud, "You are Su Zhiqing [2] who lives in the east settlement, right?"

Su Yue nodded: "That’s me, auntie. Is it convenient for you now?"

Old lady Han hurriedly reduced the anger on her face and greeted her, "Come in, come in. Girl, what did you come over for?"

Su Yue showed the flour in the basket to the old lady, "Auntie, I came once a few days ago but you were not at home at that time. Big brother was the only one at home, so I borrowed some flour from him. This time I went to the market and bought it, then came over to return it to you."

The old lady Han of course knew who was the "big brother" she mentioned. A few days ago, Aiguo told her that an educated youth had come to buy eggs and borrowed two catties of flour. She didn’t think much about it, but she knew it was a female educated youth, and a very eye-catching one.

This girl was the most beautiful girl in the whole Hanjia Village... No, no, in the whole commune.

Such a beautiful girl bought eggs and borrowed flour from her eldest. Did the two talk a lot?

Why didn't this brat tell her clearly!

The old lady Han thought about the possibility of these two people. When she came back to her senses, she remembered that laoda [3] was no longer what he used to be. With that appearance now, what was she thinking? Even the girl of the Wang family disliked him. Her family’s laoda had no chance with such a dazzling girl.

Ai, she couldn’t be so confused in the future.

Thinking about this, the old lady's eyes dimmed. She smiled and stretched out her hand to take the flour that Su Yue handed over, and said politely: "Good child, come in and drink some water. Next time you need something just come to auntie’s house to borrow it. "

Su Yue looked around without a trace but didn't see the man's figure, and suppressed the disappointment in her heart. She took out the oil paper bag and handed it to the old lady Han, "Auntie, this the sponge cake I made. I brought you two pieces as a thank you for lending me the flour."

Although the old lady Han had never heard of a sponge cake, she knew it was a pastry. Pastries were a rare thing, so she subconsciously rejected it, "Good child, this is a good thing. You take it back quickly. You just borrowed some flour, no need to thank me."

But Su Yue stubbornly stuffed the oil paper bag into the old lady's hand, "Auntie, I made this by myself. You just taste it. If you don't accept it then I will be too embarrassed to come trouble you if I lack anything in the future. Hurry and take it."

When the old lady Han saw her like this, she stopped being polite, "Alright, alright, auntie will accept it. You quickly follow auntie inside for water.”

Su Yue waved her hand, "I can’t, auntie. I have to go back and wash the clothes. I won't drink it today. Auntie, I'm leaving."

Su Yue turned around and left after speaking, not planning to go in for water.

Han Aiguo didn't come out so she couldn't see him even after drinking it, so let's talk about it next time.

[1] Dameizi (大妹子) is a friendly way for women around 30 in the north to call unfamiliar younger women (I'm not so sure if the addition of da is meant as an upgrade from meizi). It's not intimate enough to be translated as younger sister, so I just left it.

[2] Zhiqing (知青) - Educated youth (left because Educated Youth Su is a mouthful).

[3] Laoda (老大) - Eldest son.

T/N: I like knowing my weights, so here: Catty = Jin (斤) = 0,5 Kg = 1 ⅓ Pounds.

Also, I know the coupon/ticket thing is understandable by context, but here’s a little bit from wiki:

The grain rationing system in China was imposed by the People's Republic of China in the 1950s to control the production of food and to boost industrialization. People were given grain coupons with which they could buy a certain amount of grain at a low, state-imposed price, which varied somewhat with age, profession and location. Any quantity exceeding the coupon quota would have to be purchased at market price. With this system, urban households were able to buy grain at a cheaper price, and at the same time rural areas, once they fulfilled the state-imposed quotas, were allowed to sell the excess supply at market price.

And here there's some pictures with a short personal description of what life was like in those years.