Chapter 8. She can’t cry

Grandma was washing clothes at the door of the house. When she saw Chen Xiang walking home with her head down, she wiped her hands on the dirty clothes and got up to walk towards her, “How is Yang Yang?”

“Good.” Chen Xiang had cried last night, her eyes were swollen, and she was worried about being discovered by her grandmother, so she kept her head down and didn’t look at her.

Grandmother’s eyes were not good either, but she was relieved to hear her say so, and a smile appeared on her wrinkled face, “Has he lost weight? Tell him to eat well so that he can have strength.”

“Okay.” Chen Xiang put her bag down and came over to do the laundry.

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

Qaydexy ypjle bla ytykd, “Gald’v usw tskdt vs osaj vseyu?”

“Ls, R’x dsv.” Ubld Dkydt oyp osajkdt yp y nypbkla yv y pwrlaxyajlv kd vsod, yde sd bla oyu blal pbl bye ypjle bla cspp qsa zlyhl vs osaj vbl zyvl yqvladssd pbkqv.

Fbl oypble vbl nzsvblp yde oldv cynj vs nssjkdt obkzl bla taydexsvbla blzrle vs plv vbl qkal. Mbl qyxkzu oyp ps rssa vbyv vblu pvkzz zkhl kd y vkzl assqle bswpl yde alzu sd vbl qkal vs nssj vblka xlyzp.

Ohlau eyu, Qaydexy oswze ts yaswde yde nszzlnv caydnblp, yde psxl fwdj vs plzz, yde obld Ubld Dkydt nyxl cynj qasx osaj, pbl oswze yzps ts yde rknj wr fwdj, csvvzlp yde nyaecsyae, yduvbkdt vbyv nswze cl alwple.

When her peers outside saw her, they would laugh at her and say, “Here comes the rag-picker, does anyone have anything to give her?”

Chen Xiang used to hide under her blanket and shed tears, but for the sake of her grandmother and brother, she felt that it was worth all the pain.

Her parents work away from home and send back very little money a year. They have been cheated out of their money in a pyramid scheme and were in debt. They were now frugal and still have a few tens of thousands left to pay off.

The two of them could only come back for the Spring festival, so they could buy new clothes for Chen Xiang and her brother, and Chen Xiang was already very satisfied.

For lunch, she has white flour steamed buns with shredded potatoes and green peppers. The buns are homemade and the potatoes and peppers are home-grown. She has a vegetable garden full of vegetables and keeps four hens and a rooster, which can lay four or five eggs a day and can be sold in town after ten days of saving.

After she finished her meal, she went to the garden and plucked a radish, sliced it and tossed it with soy sauce and vinegar, and brought it to her grandmother who likes to eat cold radish.

When the water in the pot was boiling, Chen Xiang took the kettle and filled it up one by one, seeing that there was still some left in the pot. She took a quick shower, washed and dried the dirty clothes she had changed into and looked at the time. It was almost four in the afternoon. She made some bran to feed the chickens and washed her hands before she got on her bike and rode to town.

The bike was picked up by her grandmother. The chain was broken and the handlebar was crooked. Chen Xiang bought a new chain to replace it, and straightened the handlebar. She was not willing to sell it, so she used it to ride by herself.

The journey from the countryside to the town was only 20 minutes. It was the beginning of June and the heat was intense. Chen Xiang was sweating by the time she reached the entrance of the supermarket, so she took off her hat and wiped the sweat from her face.

The girl who changed shifts with her was named Wang Zhaodi. She was from the town and her family was better off than Chen Xiang’s. When she saw Chen Xiang come in covered in sweat, she covered her nose and said, “Oh my God, what’s that smell on you?”

Chen Xiang was embarrassed and froze in place. Her nose twitched, she smelt a little sweat on her body and her face began to burn as the other cashiers around her laughed.

There were not many customers in the supermarket at this time, and the cash register area was very idle. When Wang Zhaodi came out, she deliberately laughed loudly and pointed her finger at Chen Xiang’s back and said, “Hahaha, Chen Xiang, you have a hole in the back of your dress.”

The others came over and stared at it, laughing in wonder.

Chen Xiang walked straight to the cashier’s area, found her red overalls and put them on. She kept her head down and didn’t say a word, only her brother Chen Yang’s words came to mind.

––”Sister, I will make a lot of money in the future and I will never let anyone look down on us again.”

She tilted her face, forcing back the heat from her eyes, smiling at the customers who came to the checkout, and started to scan the code with the scanner.

She can’t cry.

She still had to earn money for her brother’s team uniform. She can’t cry.

She bites her lip and squeezes out a smile as she greets the customers who had finished checking out and says, “Thank you, visit again.”