Struggle Life in the 1970s

When Chu Ye woke up, she felt that she had slept peacefully like never before. She had no dreams all night and her nose was filled with the faint scent of soapberries. When she opened her eyes, she saw Mu Jiajun blinking his gray-blue eyes at her, and she didn't know how long he had been looking at her.

She now felt a little embarrassed when she recalled the words she said last night when her emotions were overwhelming. They were so close that she could even see Mu Jiajun's eyelashes clearly.

Chu Ye silently pulled up the corner of the quilt, trying to cover her face, but Mu Jiajun reached out to stop her first, then leaned closer and gently kissed her forehead.

"Get up. I'll go wash up first and cook for you later." After saying that, he stood up. The bed was a little small for him. He didn't dare to turn over when he slept on the edge of the bed last night. Now that he stood up, he felt a little sore in his waist and legs. After he came out of the room, he did some simple exercises before going to wash up. The toothbrush and towel were bought for him by Chu Ye when he went to the store yesterday.

The two got up early. The time they had agreed to meet with the villagers yesterday was at seven o'clock, but no one had come yet.

"Hey, Jiajun, the water in the basin has frozen into ice cubes! That's great!" Chu Ye's surprised voice came. Mu Jiajun was cooking at first. When he heard the voice, he hurried over to take a look. He looked at Chu Ye with the same surprise, and then hurried back to the house with a shovel in his hand.

After they finished their meal, they started moving the ice cubes in the basin to the cold storage, and then set up a table in the open space. With two benches and a wooden board, a simple table stood firmly on the ground.

During this time, two or three villagers came over in groups. All of them were female comrades. They were poking their heads around the entrance of the fish pond with kitchen knives in their hands, looking as if they were afraid to come in. One of them hesitated for a moment, then ran over to ask if they were recruiting people. After getting an affirmative answer from Chu Ye, she happily called the people behind her over, and several of them were very considerate and helped to move things.

Soon, more than a dozen tables were placed on the flat open space as far as the eye could see. Chu Ye also specially placed one in front of the small house. As the time was approaching seven o'clock, quite a few people gathered here, roughly estimated to be thirty or forty.

When people came, they had many questions. Chu Ye walked to the eaves of the small house, which was a little higher than the ground. As soon as she stood there, people's eyes were focused on her.

They knew from yesterday's transaction that this boss wanted to hire them to work.

"Fellow villagers, have you brought your ID cards?" Chu Ye asked.

"I brought it!" A strong man spoke first, and the others either agreed or nodded.

Chu Ye continued, "Okay, many of you should have seen me yesterday when I went to collect junk, and you know that this fish pond belongs to me, but I don't know what I am doing here today, so I will tell you now."

"First of all, let me tell you about the working hours. It's from seven in the morning to twelve at noon, and from two to seven in the afternoon. The salary is calculated that night, which is four dollars a day!" Chu Ye raised his voice and took the lead in raising the issue that people were most concerned about.

"Wow!" After a brief silence, the crowd began to shout. Four dollars a day! Even the most diligent female worker in the factory might not earn that much in a day.

People all said they had come to the right place today! Some were excited, while others questioned, "Boss, you are not cheating us with such a high salary, are you?"

"That's right! You won't do the work without paying us, right?"

"Why are you asking us to come here with kitchen knives? What on earth are you doing here?"

Some people knew more and guessed that they were closer to the truth. "Are you asking us to kill the fish for you? I heard that a lot of fish have been frozen to death in recent weather."

"What do you think they are? If the fish is frozen to death, they will be sold at a low price. Why kill it? My wife bought two cheap fish yesterday."

"Who knows."

"Everyone, be quiet and listen to me give you a detailed introduction." At this time, Chu Ye transformed into Teacher Chu again. Facing the various questions from the "students" below, she just wanted to solve them quickly.

"The wages for the day will be settled on the same day, and no one will be owed wages. If I don't pay you, you can empty my fish pond without any complaint. Now let's talk about our work, which is not difficult. I will divide our people into three groups. One group will chop the heads, bones and skin of the fish, one group will chop the fish meat into paste, and the last group will make the fish paste into meatballs, and finally arrange the fish balls to dry in the sun." It sounds easy and the division of labor is orderly.

"Let me make it clear first, although this job is simple, it is also physically demanding. If anyone tries to be lazy, I will kick them out directly and will not give you a penny! At the same time, everyone can supervise others while working. Once you catch someone being lazy, you will reward that person with fifty cents!" Chu Ye's voice hardened, with a tone that did not allow provocation.

However, this was a harsh statement, and people could understand it. After all, the daily wage was so high, and anyone who really wanted to work and earn money would not have such a crooked idea. Seeing that no one objected, Chu Ye softened his voice again, "Those who want to work, come to me and hand in your ID card. You can get your ID card and the day's wages in the evening."

After saying that, she walked down from the eaves and sat at the table. People couldn't wait to put their ID cards on the table. At this time, Mu Jiajun walked out of the cold storage. He had obvious foreign ancestry, and people were surprised when they first saw him.

Surrounded by a crowd of people, Mu Jiajun called a few strong men to get tools from the back of the house, and then they went down to the fish pond in a hurry. After a while, the net bag was fished out with a full belly of fish turned upside down, but the next problem came.

They had made all kinds of preparations before, but only now remembered that they didn't have enough containers to hold all the fish.

As they looked at each other, Chu Ye suddenly had an idea. He ran to the storage room to get out the extra plastic sheeting, and called a few villagers to move the old table that was thrown next to the dormitory.

These seven or eight old tables were bought at a low price when she was collecting junk yesterday. She didn't want them at first because she thought they took up too much space, but then she thought that they might be useful to her, so she bought them.

She was now working with a few other people to place the plastic between the bottom of the table and the legs. Then she bent down to fit every corner neatly, and finally nailed the plastic sheet to the table legs. In this way, a simple container was ready.

The fish were still being caught here. Chu Ye divided the crowd into three groups according to the approximate number of people. The group responsible for chopping heads and bones and the group responsible for mincing meat had the largest number of people. In the end, there were only three people making meatballs. After the division, Chu Ye asked them to sit according to their areas. At the same time, he took out the washbasins from the morning and placed two on each table.

Soon, the basket was filled with fish. Several strong men struggled to lift the table legs and carried the large basket to the group that was chopping fish heads. When the people at the table saw it, they knew that the work had come, so they picked up their kitchen knives and started to work in no time. Three minutes later, two clean pieces of fish meat were processed. Ten minutes later, Chu Ye gathered the fish meat from several tables into a basin, which was already full.

She brought the basin full of fish meat to the place where the meat was minced. People also picked up the kitchen knives in their hands. The knives made a "clang clang" sound when they touched the wooden board. Soon, all kinds of sounds were mixed here. There were strong men shouting "come on" and trying hard to catch fish, there was a crisp and loud "click" sound of the kitchen knife, and then the fish head was chopped off, and there was also the sound of chopped meat. People did their job and worked hard.

Chu Ye was not idle either. She and the three people who had not yet worked made a plastic cloth container, added water and put a lot of ice cubes in it. Then she washed the basin, put potato starch in it, and went back to the house to boil onion and ginger water.

When the seasoning water was ready, the people over there who were chopping fish meat had also finished a large pot of it. Chu Ye checked it over. Since they were all sea bass, they had few bones, so there was nothing unusual about it after it was chopped up. The meat paste was delicate and soft.

She carried the basin of meat paste to the last step, mixed it with potato starch and onion and garlic water, and the last three people also busily joined the work team.

At present, Chu Ye has not made many containers that can hold things. She estimated that these washbasins alone would not be enough in the future, so she said something to Mu Jiajun and rode her tricycle to the surrounding villages to continue collecting junk.

It was just noon when she came back, and the fish pond was still bustling with activity. Chu Ye looked at the time and asked people to go home at twelve o'clock and come back in the afternoon.

Mu Jiajun also directed the villagers to move the containers full of fish to the cold storage. Now the white bellies of fish are no longer visible on the surface of the two fish ponds. Mu Jiajun said, "There are still many living creatures in these two fish ponds. When we fish, we throw them back into the water."

Chu Ye nodded. This situation was not different from what she had expected. After half a day's hard work, both of them looked quite embarrassed, especially Chu Ye. Seeing Mu Jiajun sweating profusely and his forearms red, she pinched the corner of his clothes and felt a little distressed.

At this moment, she felt a gentle touch on her head. She looked up and saw Mu Jiajun looking at her tenderly. His gray-blue eyes seemed to see through her thoughts. "Don't think too much. I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to help you. You don't know that I think about what you are doing every day when I am abroad. Are you having any difficulties? It's great that I can accompany you now."

After saying that, he opened his arms and looked at her tenderly, "Do you want a hug?"

"Yes!" Chu Ye took a step forward without hesitation and hugged the man's lean waist. He felt a strong and powerful heartbeat in the man's chest, which made him feel more at ease than ever before.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the sound of kitchen knives hitting wooden boards rang out again in this place. The people who came to work in the morning called their friends and asked more people to come, and the number of people increased dramatically to more than 60 people.

Chu Ye couldn't help but sigh that fortunately she had been more careful when collecting junk in the morning and bought more wooden benches, so that so many people could be accommodated at this moment. She accepted all the orders and explained the price of two yuan for half a day to the newcomers. Then she collected their ID cards and placed them separately from the batch from the morning.

(End of this chapter)