I wrote novels in the Republic of China

Sang Jingyun drank the brown sugar water that Sang Qianshi made for her, and then watched Sang Qianshi take out her dirty clothes to wash.

Her grandmother in her previous life was unwilling to help her wash clothes after she was a little older.
She used the washing machine her parents bought, and was scolded for wasting water.

She liked Sang Qian very much.

Brown sugar water did not relieve the pain. Because of the pain in his lower abdomen, Sang Jingyun did not sleep well that night.

The next day, she was awakened by the noise outside and found that the ulcer at the corner of her mouth had grown bigger and it hurt when she opened her mouth.

After getting up and changing into the menstrual pads prepared by Lu Ying and going outside, Sang Jingyun saw Sang Qianshi opening the lid of the pot.

This morning I had rice and steamed pumpkin again, with steamed edamame and pickled mustard tuber soup as side dishes.

At this moment, the bamboo steaming rack is stuffed full of all kinds of things, and the rice underneath smells like pumpkin.

The dishes they eat at home now are basically steamed dishes. There is nothing they can do about it as they only have one big iron pot at home.

Sang Jingyun wanted to buy another iron pot, but iron pots were not cheap, so he put the plan aside.

Ordinary people at that time had very few belongings at home. Many families only had one iron pot, which they would use for dozens or even hundreds of years. When it was broken, they would just patch it up and continue using it.

Even if a bowl is broken, he will repair it.

It is also because of this that ordinary people at that time could survive on a meager income.

These days, when Sang Xuewen was sick and locked in his room, Sang Qian would go out for a walk and buy some vegetables from the surrounding farmers. The edamame on the table was the one she bought yesterday.

She gave the man two copper coins and he picked a dozen soybean plants for her. Yesterday, Sang Xuewen picked half of the soybean pods and peeled out the edamame from them, about a bowl of it.

Sang Jingyun scooped some pickled mustard soup into the rice and also scooped two spoonfuls of edamame and ate happily. However, Sang Jingxiong next to him looked aggrieved.

Unfortunately, no one paid attention to him, and he was scared by Sang Jingying's beating... After looking at Sang Jingying, he buried his head in eating.

Sang Qianshi, Lu Ying and Sang Xuewen only had a little rice, which they ate with the pumpkin, and they didn't take many dishes with them. Seeing this, Sang Jingyun scooped two spoonfuls of edamame for each of Sang Qianshi and Lu Ying.

The bodies of both of them also need to be well taken care of.

As for Sang Xuewen…there weren’t many edamame left, so he’d better not eat them.

After dinner, Sang Jingying looked at Sang Jingxiong and said, "Follow me to the county town and help people write letters."

"Hmph, just go!" Sang Jingxiong snorted coldly, but there was expectation in his eyes.

He was happy to go to the county town to help people write letters. It was just writing and it wasn't tiring!
You can eat meat at noon!

Thinking of meat, Sang Jingxiong swallowed his saliva. He had eaten enough salted fish these days and wanted to eat meat. Yesterday's meat buns were so delicious that he wanted to swallow his tongue together.

The meat buns cost two copper coins each, so he bought two and had a few copper coins left. He wanted to spend them later, but they were snatched away by Sang Jingying yesterday...

When Sang Jingxiong thought about this, he glared at Sang Jingying fiercely.

Sang Jingying happened to see it, and immediately stretched out two fingers with a threatening look on his face.

Sang Jingxiong was horrified and quickly hid aside.

After Sang Jingying took Sang Jingxiong to the county town, Sang Jingyun told Sang Qianshi that he wanted to wash his hair and take a bath. Upon hearing this, Sang Qianshi moved the peeled mulberry branches and went behind the stove to boil water.

The branches of mulberry trees need to be pruned every year. The bark of the branches is an excellent material for making paper. Farmers will peel it and sell it. They will keep the remaining branches as firewood or sell them to people in the city as firewood. Sang Qian bought a lot of them and piled them up at home together with straw.

The water would take a while to boil, so Sang Jingyun walked towards Sang Xuewen who was peeling soybeans at the door and said, "Dad, you are amazing. You can do any job now."

Sang Xuewen stopped when he heard this.

Sang Jingyun smiled and said, "Dad, our family will definitely get better."

If you want Sang Xuewen to improve, you need to encourage him from time to time.

Sang Xuewen lowered his head and looked at the red swelling caused by the sting of the moth on the soybean leaf. He suddenly said, "Ayun, I really want to smoke opium. I really want to. You must keep a close eye on me and don't let me run away."

Sang Jingyun was slightly stunned.

Sang Xuewen started to peel edamame again. As he was peeling, his hands began to tremble: "Ayun, Dad has always been very good to you. Please have pity on me and buy me some opium..."

When Sang Qian heard the noise, she came out quickly and dragged Sang Xuewen away.

Sang Jingyun sighed when he saw this.

After the water was boiled, Sang Jingyun took a bath, washed her hair, washed the menstrual belt she had used yesterday, and put it in the sun to dry.

Nowadays, many women are embarrassed to put such private items outside to dry, and instead place them under the bed to dry.

Sang Jingyun knew that doing so would breed bacteria, so he naturally wouldn't do that.

Seeing her doing this, Sang Qian, who came from a farming family, said nothing, but Lu Ying couldn't help but said, "Ayun, it's not good to leave this thing outside in the sun."

"Mom, this stuff must be dried in the sun. Drying it indoors in the shade will make people sick. I read this in a book," Sang Jingyun said. "Mom, you should also dry your clothes outside in the future."

Not only did Lu Ying have bound feet, she also couldn't read or write.

She had little knowledge, so she just took what she saw in books as her guide.

After hearing what Sang Jingyun said, she stopped trying to stop him, but took some other clothes and hung them nearby to cover them.

This will work too... Sang Jingyun took some cotton cloth to wipe his hair, then found a pair of scissors and trimmed his hair a little shorter.

Now, let alone a hair dryer, there is no electricity at home, so her hair can only be left to dry naturally. It’s better to keep it short so it’s easier to manage.

Today's lunch is porridge made with the leftover rice crust from the morning, with pumpkin and sweet potato leaves added in. Black, yellow and green are mixed together, which looks very similar to the pig food cooked by some people. It makes people lose their appetite just by looking at it.

Sang Qian didn't let Sang Jingyun eat this. She left two bowls of white rice in the morning, one for Sang Jingyun and one for Sang Jingli. Sang Jingyun also got an extra boiled egg.

"Grandma, you don't have to cook for me." Sang Jingyun felt a little embarrassed. Sang Qian said, "You are not in good health, you need to take care of yourself. As for us, I like to eat soup."

Sang Jingyun ate the rice mixed with pickles, peeled the eggs and gave the egg whites to Sang Jingli.

Sang Jingli doesn’t like egg yolks, but likes egg whites. She squinted her eyes and ate happily.

On the other hand, Sang Jingxiong couldn't stand it anymore.

After arriving at the paper shop in the morning, Sang Jingying asked him to learn how to write letters. He looked at it for a while and found it very simple, so he started to help others write.

As a result, when he finished writing and read the letter, the person who asked him to write the letter was not satisfied and said that he could not understand it.

He is a very talented writer, and writes much better than his brother, yet this peasant actually despises him!

Sang Jingxiong was very angry and was about to lose his temper when his brother grabbed the flesh on his arm and twisted it...

His brother also said to him: "Hong Xu learned to write letters very quickly, why can't you learn it?"

Sang Jingxiong screamed first, then said dissatisfiedly: "I wrote it very well!"

"What's so good about your writing? You can only make far-fetched claims and show off your literary talent! No one will be willing to spend money on what you wrote." Sang Jingying pointed at the words "The beautiful moon shines on my lonely body, and your pretty figure appears in my heart" written by Sang Jingxiong and sneered.

The man who asked Sang Jingxiong to write the letter was a man in his thirties. He thought life in Shanghai was pretty good, so he wanted his brother to bring his wife and parents to Shanghai to make a living. As a result, Sang Jingxiong wrote about his homesickness and longing for his wife, and only wrote the last few words about the main business.

What the hell is this!

Sang Jingxiong wanted to quarrel with Sang Jingying, but he couldn't beat Sang Jingying, and the people around him were all on Sang Jingying's side.

He could only write according to Sang Jingying's request.

He was actually very smart and could write in vernacular Chinese, so he got the hang of it quickly.

But after writing three letters, he got tired.

Each letter had two to three hundred words, and the three letters together had nearly nine hundred words. He rarely wrote so many words without stopping in the past.

Putting the dip pen on the table, Sang Jingxiong wanted to take a break.

Hong Xu next door has already started to rest!

But he was scolded by Sang Jingying again. Sang Jingying complained that he wrote too slowly, saying that he was not as good as Sang Jingyun, and even pinched him several times.

Sang Jingxiong could only continue writing pitifully.

He wrote six letters in the morning and finally it was time for lunch.

There was a bowl of fried tofu stuffed with meat on the table. Sang Jingxiong ate one quickly and was about to take the second one when Sang Jingying pinched his thigh.

Immediately afterwards, Sang Jingying picked up a piece of salted fish for him.

Manager Hong naturally saw this scene, but since Sang Jingying had greeted him, he did not persuade Sang Jingxiong to eat more.

The Sang family had never been short of money before, and Sang Jingxiong knew etiquette. He also knew that he should not be restrained when eating out and should not eat all the delicious food by himself.

He didn't pick up any more meat, endured the pain in his legs, and ate the salted fish with white rice in silence.

Just after he finished eating, he was dragged to write a letter again...

In the afternoon of that day, Manager Hong closed the shop and prepared to go home to celebrate the festival.

Sang Jingxiong was finally freed and went home with Sang Jingying.

Sang Jingying said: "You only earned ten copper coins today, which is less than half of what my elder sister earned. After you pay these ten copper coins to the government, you still owe the family ten copper coins."

Sang Jingyun only wanted Sang Jingxiong to hand over fifteen copper coins every day, but Sang Jingying increased the amount and asked him to hand over twenty.

Sang Jingxiong said, "Why? We only eat pickles every day at home, how can we afford so much money?"

"The family is still in debt, and the interest alone is a lot a day."

"It's not what I owe, why should I pay it back!" Sang Jingxiong was very angry.

"Just because you are a member of the Sang family," Sang Jingying sneered, "don't even think about running away. If you leave home, I'm afraid you won't even be able to pay for rent. You don't know how to cook or wash clothes, and you don't have money to buy oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and clothes. You can't even afford a pot. What's more, you are still young. If you are out there alone, you might be kidnapped and sold! Have you seen those children on the other side of the river? Without a home, you will be worse off than them."

Sang Jingxiong thought of the dirty, skinny children on the other side of the river, and he shuddered unconsciously and started crying again: "I won't talk nonsense anymore, I will study hard..."

"You can't go to school anymore. You have to support your family."

Sang Jingxiong cried even louder.

Sang Jingyun didn't know about these things.

After dinner, she saw that her hair was almost dry and her stomach no longer hurt, so she took a nap.

After waking up, she took out the notebook and pencil used by Sang Jingxiong and planned to write a novel.

These days, she has read several newspapers. To be on the safe side, she plans to write a martial arts novel first to earn royalties, and then think about other things.

She wanted to write articles to promote the revolution and expose the true face of imperialism like some of her predecessors, but doing so was very dangerous.

For some things, it would be better to wait until she is not short of money and no longer cares about the royalties before writing them under a fake identity.

If she doesn't leave her real name or address, others won't be able to find her.

She doesn't have the conditions to do that now, so she might as well focus on writing martial arts novels.

(End of this chapter)