Reborn:1983

Chapter 13: Mobilizing the Child Labor Force!

Liu Fen’s hands were truly nimble.

With Xiaolan describing what she needed, Liu Fen could weave a passable prototype using just some straw she found lying around.

Seeing Xiaolan’s initiative, Liu Yong stopped worrying about her. After breakfast, he headed out again to drain the paddies. Some fields still held water; releasing it a couple of days before threshing allowed the ground to dry out.

Draining the paddies sometimes yielded extra bounty: loaches, eels, and palm-sized crucian carp… all wild delicacies highly prized in the future, but treated rather casually here and now. Crucian carp were small and bony, troublesome to eat. Loaches and eels needed generous amounts of oil to taste good. Who would waste precious oil on such things?

Boiled plainly, they were unpalatable, plagued by a muddy, fishy taste.

Xiaolan sighed inwardly. Such excellent high-protein, low-fat meats, yet unappreciated by 80s palates.

Her eyes had initially lit up, seeing a potential money-making opportunity. But Liu Yong quickly dashed her hopes, saying loaches fetched a pitiful price. Dried loaches sold for mere fen per jin, certainly never exceeding 0.1 yuan… less than the price of a single egg!

“That stuff’s dirty and smelly. Better stick to your egg plan!” Liu Yong casually tossed a captured crucian carp into a wooden bucket.

“Uncle, don’t waste the crucian carp! Make more fish soup for Tao-tao! It’s good for kids’ growth and helps them get sick less!”

Liu Yong paused. “Where’d you hear that?”

Xiaolan thought, Isn’t it common knowledge?

Oh well, common knowledge in 1983 was different. She fibbed: “Read it in a book.” Please don’t ask which one, I really can’t tell you.

Afraid Liu Yong might press further, Xiaolan grabbed her little shadow, cousin Tao-tao, and made a quick exit.

The villagers helping Liu Yong breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Xiaolan was distractingly beautiful. Her casual crouch by the field edge made most men too self-conscious to look directly at her—and given Liu Yong’s former reputation as a local tough, anyone in Qijing Village who dared make a move on his niece would have to be a suicidal i***t.

Liu Yong wiped the sweat from his neck and glared at the men nearby. “Listen up! Any dimwit who sets his sights on my niece, I’ll find out and deal with him!”

A villager protested, “Yong-ge, she’s practically my niece too! I wouldn’t dare think anything like that…”

Liu Yong shoved the bucket at him. “Quit yapping! Catch more fish! Didn’t you hear Xiaolan? Kids need crucian carp soup!”

Xiaolan strolled around Qijing Village with Tao-tao in tow.

Qijing Village was blessed with abundant water resources; the reed marshes from Great River Village extended here. Anqing County’s “Baihua reeds” had been famous since ancient times, making reed materials readily available. Xiaolan hadn’t considered reed weaving as a business – the timing wasn’t right, and Anqing’s market for woven goods was already saturated.

But the reed marshes clearly offered more than just raw materials; they were also habitats for wild ducks and waterfowl.

To Xiaolan, they represented waving banknotes… Ecological preservation could wait until she’d solved her basic survival needs! Compared to those who made fortunes through robbery or extortion, her methods were downright clean.

Tao-tao marched proudly ahead, Xiaolan being his ultimate trophy. No other kid had a cousin as beautiful as his Xiaolan-jie.

With harvest approaching, the scorching sun couldn’t dampen the youthful energy radiating from Qijing Village’s young men.

They all called out to Tao-tao:

“Tao-tao! Your cousin’s here?”

“Tao-tao! Wanna catch fish with me?”

“Tao-tao…”

Their mouths called Tao-tao, but their eyes kept darting towards Xiaolan. This roundabout way of trying to get her attention made the young men blush furiously. Xiaolan mused that most young people in the 80s were still quite innocent.

She had no interest in these innocent young men.

With an empty stomach, she lacked the mood to appreciate fresh-faced hunks.

Xiaolan had visited Qijing Village before. Her reputation among the youth was infamous, and the old Xiaolan had been notoriously aloof, disdainful of their attentions… Xiaolan decided to maintain that policy. Her interest wasn’t in the young men, but in the children who played with Tao-tao. Kids over ten were mostly helping with farm work; thirteen or fourteen-year-olds were considered half a laborer. Xiaolan’s target demographic was the under-tens – kids who were energetic, resilient, and easily bribed.

After a couple of laps, Xiaolan finally spotted her targets. Several kids slightly older than Tao-tao ran over, laughing. “Tao-tao! My mom said your cousin knocked herself stupid!”

Xiaolan felt a wave of exasperation. Unlike the smitten young men, these little brats were decidedly unfriendly!

Straight for the jugular!

Tao-tao protested fiercely. “My cousin Xiaolan isn’t stupid! You’re lying!”

Xiaolan chuckled coolly. She pulled out two dimes and handed them to her loyal little defender. “Go buy something at the village shop. Cousin’s tired; I’ll wait for you under that tree.”

The other kids instantly looked envious.

Giving money for snacks? Who said Tao-tao’s cousin was stupid?

Innocent, unsuspecting children were no match for Xiaolan, this seasoned schemer. When Tao-tao returned with candy, the others were practically drooling.

Xiaolan seized the opportunity. “Want some candy?”

Heads bobbed eagerly.

“Then bring me something in exchange. Tao-tao’s my cousin; you’re not. Besides, you called me stupid.” The ringleader swallowed hard. “Cousin Xiaolan, what can we trade for candy?”

He’d switched tactics fastest, adopting Tao-tao’s respectful address.

“You know the wild duck eggs in the reed marshes? Bring me three wild duck eggs, and I’ll give you 0.2 yuan. You can buy candy with that! But you must go in pairs, and no going near the deep water by the river!”

“Really?”

“I’d be a puppy if I lied.”

True or false? Trying it out would tell.

Wild duck eggs in the county town certainly cost more than 0.2 yuan for three—what kind of business wouldn’t aim for profit? Xiaolan wasn’t working for free!

Using children to gather eggs exploited the cheapest labor force possible, minimizing labor costs to the extreme. Xiaolan thought wryly, How accomplished I am. Reborn in 1983, and my first brilliant idea is exploiting child labor.

The lure of two dimes was powerful for these kids.

Born in the 70s, rural children received only a few dimes, maybe a whole yuan at most, as New Year’s money. That bought candy, firecrackers, and was treasured for ages.

A little over an hour later, a nine-year-old girl arrived with her younger sister, presenting Xiaolan with over a dozen wild duck eggs. Xiaolan checked they were intact and kept her promise. She didn’t try to cheat kids who might be bad at math; the payment was fair and square.

“You brought sixteen eggs. That’s one yuan and seven fen.” She’d gotten small change from the village shop.

The girl clutched the money, her hands trembling with excitement. Her younger sister chanted “candy” through drooling lips. The older girl led her sister home. With over a whole yuan, she certainly wouldn’t dare spend it without adult permission.

Xiaolan called after her:

“If your family has chicken eggs, you can sell those to me too. I’m staying at Tao-tao’s house. But you have to ask your grown-ups about selling the eggs.”

Xiaolan’s mobilized child labor force scoured the nearby reed marshes clean within two hours. Wild ducks quacked frantically, flapping wings in chaotic flight. Some kids even found newly hatched ducklings and offered them to Xiaolan.

Now that she had a place to raise them, Xiaolan decided to take the ducklings back for Liu Fen to occupy her time.

She collected over ninety wild duck eggs.

As for whether anyone would bring her chicken eggs to sell, that would become clear by evening.

Returning home, Xiaolan found her uncle had caught half a bucket of loaches, plenty of eels, and over ten jin of crucian carp, all swimming in a water vat against the wall.

“Keep them for a few days! Let them purge the mud from their guts before we eat them!”

Li Fengmei had stewed r****h with the pork marrow bone, filling the courtyard with a mouthwatering aroma. No one would visit during mealtime; people cherished their rare treats and knew better than to intrude.

Liu Fen sat under the eaves, weaving a large pile of straw baskets.

“Xiaolan, see if these are alright?”

They were perfect. The wild duck eggs and chicken eggs fit snugly inside. Tao-tao puffed out his chest proudly. “Cousin Xiaolan bought lots of duck eggs! She bought me candy too!”

Li Fengmei, hearing this from the kitchen, smiled. The old Xiaolan had never been so patient with Tao-tao. The boy was Li Fengmei’s heart and soul; how could she not appreciate Xiaolan treating him well?

For the moment, the atmosphere in the household was relaxed and cheerful.

Xiaolan felt the future looked promising. Leaving Great River Village had definitely been the right decision!