Chapter 109

Students all around cast their attention towards this area.

Ye Qingshui said earnestly, “Thank you for your kindness, but I don’t have any difficulties.”

Wei Jing and Cui Xiwen looked down on Ye Qingshui somewhat; they usually stuck together. Although they were in the same dorm, they rarely interacted with Pan Lijuan and the others.

Ye Qingshui sensed the look of contempt from Wei Jing and quietly said to her, “You are lucky to be born into a privileged family, but… I don’t envy you.”

“I can change my own destiny.”

After Ye Qingshui finished speaking, she sat down, opened her textbook, and started reviewing.

Zhou Pinghuai’s friend, Zhang Xiaoguo, happened to be sitting behind Ye Qingshui. His eyes lit up, and he nudged Zhou Pinghuai, “Wow, what did I just hear? Pinghuai, why don’t you go help her?”

So, this “Lilac Girl” was also a poor one.

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…

A week later, the shop in Xidan opened for business, and the profits of the Chenguang Sausage Factory gradually increased.

The retail price of one catty of preserved sausage was two yuan, and the wholesale price was one yuan fifty cents. The sausage factory’s daily income consistently reached three to four hundred yuan. After deducting the rent, utilities, and labor costs, they could still net eight thousand yuan a month.

This number completely shocked Mother Ye.

She excitedly said to her daughter, “Shuier, we’re making money!”

Mother Ye counted the money, her face full of disbelief. “I never thought doing this would be so profitable.”

She had been bothered and pained by the “four big fat pigs” her daughter had given away for free. However, after the week’s accounts were settled, Mother Ye no longer remembered the four fat pigs; at this point, she would have forgotten even ten fat pigs.

With such a huge sum of money, Mother Ye didn’t dare to leave it in the shop. Every day after settling the accounts, as soon as the warm banknotes were in hand, she would rush to the bank to deposit them.

Mother Ye didn’t even have the concept of a “ten-thousand-yuan-household” before, but now, in the blink of an eye, a month had passed, and it seemed they could also… earn ten thousand?

“Shuier, what do you think about opening another shop?” Mother Ye suggested.

She thought that if selling sausages was so profitable, wouldn’t opening a few more shops allow them to make a fortune?

Ye Qingshui shook her head. “One is enough; we shouldn’t be too greedy.”

The ceiling for the traditional food industry was here. People’s consumption levels were not high in those years, and sausages couldn’t be sold in large quantities. Opening another store would just be a waste.

If they had a standard assembly line, the sausages could be plastic-packaged and sold all over the country, which would certainly make money.

Thinking about a few years later, when China began its urbanization, and the rural population moved massively to the cities, the dividends brought by these floating populations would surely boost sausage sales. People needed something to eat on trains and buses, right?

Buying a pack of instant noodles to fill the stomach, and peeling a sausage—even the toughest journey would pass.

But the problem was that Ye Qingshui was too poor, had no money in her pocket, and was far from qualified to buy an assembly line.

This made Ye Qingshui think of instant noodles. The globally popular instant noodles had already been invented in Japan by this time, but the “Little Kang Brothers,” who first made instant noodles in China, had not yet entered the market.

Although she felt a slight urge, Ye Qingshui didn’t plan to delve too deeply into the food industry.

In her previous life, she had done enough in this industry. In this life, Ye Qingshui wanted to try some new fields.

She told Mother Ye, “I need part of next month’s profit to do something else.”

Mother Ye handed her passbook to her daughter and didn’t ask too many questions.

…

While Ye Qingshui was diligently reviewing her studies, Xie Tingyu was preparing to set off.

The family saw him off at the airport. The two chubby babies seemed clueless about what was happening. It wasn’t until Xie Tingyu kissed them that Qiguang reached out for a hug but received no response.

This spoiled little boy cried his heart out for the first time, his wails shaking the sky. Even his twin brother was shocked, staring blankly with drool on his face.

This made Xie Tingyu unsure whether to leave or to comfort him.

Grandma Xie chided, “Go quickly, do you want the leader to wait for you?”

Xie Tingyu held Qiguang’s chubby little hand and gently coaxed him, “Wait for Daddy to bring milk powder back for Guangguang.”

Finally, he took one last look at his wife, his eyes filled with lingering affection. Although he didn’t say much, everything was understood without words. There was so much he couldn’t say, a heavy feeling that Ye Qingshui understood.

She smiled and said, “The children and I will wait for you to come back.”

Xie Tingyu watched for a moment, then reluctantly boarded the plane.

Watching the plane take off and gradually disappear into the blue sky, even Ye Qingshui felt a sense of sadness and separation. This was the first time the couple had been apart in three years, and they couldn’t spend the New Year together this year.

After seeing Xie Tingyu off, Ye Qingshui felt as if a part of her heart was missing, and she always felt uneasy.

In the past, when sleeping in the middle of the night, she was used to resting her head next to him, but in the following nights, she reached out and only found an empty space.

Habit was truly terrifying.

There was no one to get up in the middle of the night to feed the two babies for Ye Qingshui. Chenchen and Guangguang took turns waking up, causing Ye Qingshui to frequently wake up, leaving her unfocused and hazy during her daytime classes.

Mother Ye couldn’t stand it anymore, so she added a bed to the room to help take care of the two little babies.

Before Xie Tingyu left, his presence was somewhat understated, as the young couple were both burdened with heavy academic workloads. But after he left, the house felt incomplete without him everywhere.

His gentleness was like a spring breeze, silently nurturing all things.

Ye Qingshui recalled that when the babies were first born, Xie Tingyu seemed to hold Chenchen in his left arm, with Guangguang lying on his knee. He would doze off while coaxing them, barely sleeping all night.

The exhaustion in his eyes was as touching as his tenderness.

Just as Ye Qingshui’s longing for Xie Tingyu reached its peak, news suddenly appeared in the media. The International Department of the newspaper published a piece of news.

“The Formal Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between China and the US; Leaders of Both Sides Sign Joint Communiqué on Establishment of Diplomatic Relations”

Ye Qingshui held the newspaper and saw a picture of the leaders of the two countries shaking hands warmly. In an inconspicuous corner, she saw the side profile of her husband.

Ye Qingshui touched that corner of the photo and smiled warmly in her heart.

Mother Ye curiously asked, “So, Little Xie went there, with a bunch of foreigners with blond hair and green eyes.”

The newspaper was one thing, but the news was what mattered.

The formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US created a nationwide sensation. This establishment broke decades of frozen relations and marked the friendly development of the people of China and the US from then on.

So… would it be possible to openly visit the US for study in the future?

Trade between China and the US would also increase daily, and the people of both countries would use each other’s products. Would foreign exchange reserves also be opened up from this point?

Suddenly, public discussion surged. Not long after the conclusion of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the friendly establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US brought hope to the people.

Ye Qingshui was also preparing to send a telegram urging her Uncle Ye to contract the mountains.

Uncle Ye finally wired back to his niece: “The village committee has decided to contract the mountain to me through auction.”

Although the rural reform had begun, implementing the division of land to households, the mountains were collective property. There was no precedent for how to divide them. So, the village committee decided to contract the mountains out through auction.

Who would be interested in contracting one or two barren mountains? Only Uncle Ye had his mind set on it.

Ye Qingshui went to the Xinhua Bookstore, selected many books on tea cultivation, and mailed them to Uncle Ye, sending a telegram to inform him: “Uncle, plant tea!”

Ye Qingshui wrote a long letter, telling Uncle Ye: “Let’s try to establish a tea-based ecological cycle of biogas—pig farming—tea cultivation.”

Before Xie Tingyu went to university, he had already helped the village set up a biogas digester. Pig manure and crop stalks would ferment to form biogas for heating and lighting, and the fermented fertilizer would be used to fertilize the tea fields. The income from pig farming would maintain expenses in the early stages, and after the tea production began later, it could generate a large profit.

The Hongqi Commune was famous for its Maojian tea, known for its clear, cool tea, elegant fragrance, and mellow taste. The unique terrain and soil structure gave the tea produced here a unique flavor, and it was a famous export commodity in her previous life.

After sending the telegram, Ye Qingshui wired ten thousand yuan back to her uncle.

Uncle Ye was stunned when he received this huge sum of money. He rubbed his eyes for a long time before he could believe that the massive sum was truly sent by his niece.

In those years, who could casually wire such a large sum of money? Even the president of the Postal Savings Bank couldn’t help but look at Uncle Ye sideways.

Uncle Ye was still dressed like a farmer, with a tanned face and shoes covered in mud.

The bank president asked, “Comrade, how do you plan to withdraw this money?”

Partially withdraw, or withdraw it all at once?

Don’t blame people for having little experience in those years. The largest denomination of the RMB was only the ten-yuan “Great Unity” banknote. Hundred-yuan bills would only be issued in the 1980s. If it were all exchanged into “Great Unity” notes, the bank employees would probably be quite busy today.

A “ten-thousand-yuan-household” was rare in Hongqi Town in the 1980s, but a “ten-thousand-yuan-household” in the 1970s was truly one in a million. The bank president didn’t even question whether the origin of the money was legitimate, which was good enough.

Uncle Ye scratched his head and said cheerfully, “Withdraw it all.”

He had to quickly take the money out to pay off the huge debt he owed Ye Family Village. He also needed to build a pig farm, buy piglets, cultivate tea seedlings, and hire labor… where wouldn’t he need to spend money?

*

Not long after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US was reported in the newspaper, Central Television also covered the event.

In early 1980, live broadcasting technology did not exist. What was transmitted back to China from the US was recorded. The images reported by the television station were also pre-recorded video footage.

Fortunately, the Xie family owned a television, which allowed Ye Qingshui to search for Xie Tingyu’s figure in the news every day to alleviate the pain of missing him.

She waited in front of the television on time every noon, holding the two babies and concentrating on watching the news. When Xie Tingyu appeared, she would gently say to the babies, “Look, Daddy, that’s Daddy.”

The fact that Ye Qingshui could see Xie Tingyu’s figure in the television news every day indicated that his frequency of appearance during this time was indeed not low.

Naturally, the people in the military compound did not miss it either.

The Xie family’s youngest son had not only been accepted into Peking University but could now follow the leader on important state affairs after only being in school for a short time. The speed of his success was astonishing.

What was even more enviable was that he wasn’t just casually doing well; he was participating in a matter of national importance this time. This was truly the kind of luck only a favored son of heaven could have!

His success was so great that people couldn’t even find a reason to be jealous.

Grandma Xie, who had been low-key for a long time, finally had her moment of quiet glory. Everyone who saw her on the street would ask, “When is your Tingyu coming back?”

“We see him on TV every day. Is he used to American food?”

“He looks so smart in his clothes!”

When Ye Qingshui saw him on TV, he was wearing a neat Zhongshan suit, looking meticulous, dignified, and utterly elite. His demeanor was in no way inferior to that of the Americans.

When Ye Qingshui heard hundreds of American children singing “I Love Beijing Tian’anmen” at the Lincoln Center in the recorded video and saw the Five-star Red Flag slowly rising in a foreign country, a wave of tender emotion swept through her chest, and she almost shed tears.

Her motherland was so dazzling, like a star rising in the East.

Her man was also so amazing, like… a star falling onto the tip of her heart.

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