Reborn to Strive

Guan Baiyu’s relationship with the others in the class couldn’t be considered poor, and his academic success was quite good. But Yan Jiangtao didn’t like him, and Guan Baiyu knew exactly why that was.

    At school, the majority of students had average families. A few of them were willing to spend money on some decent food and clothing, but most were comparatively frugal. The basic necessities of food and clothing aside, they didn’t spend money. 

    Yan Jiangtao was different. His family had plenty of money. His dad had bought several weaving machines and earned a ton of money. Yan Jiangtao’s weekly allowance was 30 yuan.  Other than him, the rest of the students in their class thought that 50 cents for a daily allowance was a decent amount. Many families couldn’t even afford to give their children a single cent. 

    Yan Jiangtao’s family was wealthy. They ate well and dressed well. He always disliked and avoided Guan Baiyu because he thought he was filthy. Once, Yan Jiangtao had caught sight of lice on Guan Baiyu’s head, making him ever more disgusted, and he announced it to the class.

    Within the class, quite a few had lice, and the convenience store on the school grounds alway had medicine for killing lice in stock. Most people didn’t think lice were a big deal, but there were some who joined in with Yan Jiangtiao and made a ruckus, trying to embarrass him. Most of the time, they just taunted him, saying he had lice, his family had bed bugs, etc. Once in a while, during P.E., they’d even shove him. It was extremely childish, and made him ill to think about it.

    Most of all, though other people sympathized with Guan Baiyu, they merely said a sentence or two empathizing with him behind his back, but didn’t dare to confront Yan Jiangtao and his friends. With this lack of support, even he himself didn’t dare to offend Yan Jiangtao.

    He wanted to switch desk partners, but when he told the teacher, the teacher refused. Their head teacher was surnamed Chen, and while most of the teachers muddled along, lecturing on whatever they pleased, the youthful Mr. Chen was conscientious, and thought that classmates should help each other out. Teacher Chen wanted Guan Baiyu to help Yan Jiantao improve his academic achievement.

    Okay, this wasn’t necessarily Teacher Chen’s idea, it was probably more of Yan Jiangtao’s dad’s idea.

    In school, Guan Baiyu’s academic achievements ranked very high, and he never caused trouble, appearing to be a well-behaved kid in the eyes of others. Previously . . . there were plenty of people who wanted to be his deskmate.

    Yan Jiangtao had always been wilful, and seeing the dead inchworm in his bookbag, he completely refused to eat. Abandoning the bag at school, he headed home. He didn’t want to continue studying, and didn’t like listening to the lessons. It was his dad who had insisted on placing him in the advanced study class. 

    Yan Jiangtao didn’t show up for afternoon class. Guan Baiyu was very relaxed, but his mind kept wandering. He . . . had suddenly gained a cousin.

    Shi Zhen worked the whole day and returned to Guan Jiangguo’s house already exhausted, but his heart was filled with joy.

    He and Shi Xinghuo had dug clay together, earning ¥15 in a day.  Working separately, their wages added up to ¥20 a day.

    But presently, their expenses were still many. The daily necessities that they still needed to acquire aside, they also needed to pay for their daily meals.

    Shi Zhen had only rented one main room in Guan Jianguo’s house, and it didn’t have a kitchen. Although he would be able to cook meals after buying a coal stove and a cooking pot, those both cost money. He was temporarily broke, and could only join Guan Jianguo’s family at mealtimes.

    Breakfast was one yuan, and dinner for two people cost two yuan altogether. Every day, he and Shi Xinghuo gave Guan Jianguo’s mom three yuan, and she brought them their meals. Naturally, eating meat was out of the question, but eating a salted duck egg wasn’t bad. Guan Jianguo had grown the rice and vegetables himself, so they didn’t cost him anything. On the contrary, he made a little profit.

    Shi Zhen had only just gotten home a bit ago, when Guan Jianguo’s mom carried over two large bowls packed with rice, a bowl of stir-fried cabbage, and a bowl of salted celtuce.1 The stir-fried cabbage didn’t have any grease, the salted celtuce was freshly sliced with salt sprinkled over it and mixed. The dishes were certainly sufficient, but there was no meat. But Guan Jianguo’s own family wasn’t eating meat either, so this was normal.

    As Shi Zhen finished his meal, he pondered how he was going to proceed.

    After eating, Shi Zhen took an enamel cup and headed over to Guan Baiyu’s home.

    He and Shi Xinghuo had brought a few items with them for daily use, for example, things to keep themselves warm. They each had a cotton padded jacket. Last night, they’d simply laid down on the straw they’d piled on top of the wooden plank bed, wearing their jackets to sleep. Prior to that, under the bridge, they’d slept in the same manner. Additionally, cups, spoons, chopsticks, and those sorts of things, they brought along with them as well. He had newly bought the enamel cup before bringing it along. 

    Arriving at Guan Baiyu’s home, Shi Zhen knocked on the door like he had yesterday.

    Guan Baiyu opened the door, and looked at him.

    Shi Zhen smiled, “Baiyu, I came to see you.”

    Guan Baiyu moved aside, and let Shi Zhen pass through the door.

    Guan Baiyu’s dwelling had only two rooms. On the south side of the main room, for eating, sat an Eight Immortals table2, and on the northern side was a cooktop. The other room was a storehouse, and his sleeping room.

    Shi Zhen had now been here twice, both times sitting in the main room. At this moment, he could see that the flame on the kitchen range was still burning. Guan Baiyu should still be in the middle of cooking dinner.

    That wasn’t surprising. Third year students got out of school later than he got off work, and when Shi Zhen had finished work and headed home, Guan Jianguo’s mom had cooked dinner, but when Guan Baiyu got home, he had to cook dinner himself.

    “You haven’t eaten yet?” Shi Zhen asked.

    “Yeah.” Guan Baiyu quietly replied.

    “Perfect, I brought you a little something to go with your meal.” Shi Zhen said, setting the cup on the table.

    Yesterday’s cardboard box was no longer to be seen. Presently, several books were spread out on the surface. Shi Zhen set the cup on the table, and Guan Baiyu could see it contained fried beancurd and braised pork.

    Shi Zhen smiled, “You can put it on the steamer rack to heat it up before you eat it.” At lunch, he had eaten a bit of soup, a bit of fried bean curd, and kept all the leftovers.

    “Why are you being so nice to me?” Guan Baiyu asked. Yesterday, Shi Zhen had given him some cash, and today he also gave him some meat.

    “You’re my cousin.” Shi Zhen smiled at him, “Go finish cooking so you can eat.”

    Guan Baiyu intensely gazed at Shi Zhen, lifted the lid of the cooking pot and placed the cup within to steam. Beneath the pot were stuffed some . . . stalks of grass?

    “Are those . . . rice straw roots?” Shi Zhen asked.

    “Yeah.”

    “Why are you burning them?”

    Guan Baiyu answered, “There’s not enough firewood.”

    Shi Zhen paused, then said, “Since there’s not enough firewood, you burn those? Where did you get them?”

    Guan Baiyu didn’t understand what the problem was, and glanced at Shi Zhen,“Pulled them out of the ground.”

    Shi Zhen’s family lived in the mountains, but they also grew some paddy rice.

    Paddy rice seeds were edible, and the stem and leaves were good for lighting a fire, but they couldn’t sustain a fire. In Shi Zhen’s hamlet, they first lit a bundle of rice straw, and once the fire got going, they placed longer burning twigs on top of it.

    His hamlet was in the mountains, and there was no shortage of firewood. But Anshan Township had no mountain. And, because it had been under cultivation since early times, the whole area was farmland. That is to say, finding firewood in this place was not easy.

    Every year, after the harvest of paddy rice, there was lots of rice straw left over, and everyone took some home to store away. Burning it bit by bit, there often wasn’t enough to last the whole year.

    Guan Baiyu simply didn’t have enough firewood, so after the harvest he picked up the leftover fragments of rice straw as well as pulling up the remaining roots. After sun drying them, he could burn them. It wasn’t easy to dig them up. And not only was it especially tiring, even after all that work, they only burned for a short time . . . 

    Shi Zhen took a deep breath, and saw Guan Baiyu put out the fire.

    “It’s done?” Shi Zhen asked.

    Guan Baiyu said, “It’s simmering. After simmering for a while, the rice will be cooked.”

    Shi Zhen had long ago forgotten how to cook rice on a kitchen range3 In response, he chatted with Guan Baiyu on the topic, “You usually cook all your meals yourself? How many times a day do you cook?”

    Guan Baiyu didn’t conceal anything, so Shi Zhen heard the truth directly from his lips. In the summer, he generally cooked just once a day, early in the morning. In winter, he cooked in the evening instead. After cooking once, he ate the same food for his three meals.

    Right now the weather was cold, so he cooked in the evening. It was convenient to boil some hot water for drinking at the same time. During summer, the warm nights caused food cooked the day before to spoil quickly, so then he would cook in the early morning.

    “Do you get enough to eat, what food do you normally eat?”

    Guan Baiyu said, “My dad gives me enough food to eat. Usually . . . I eat whatever is growing.”

    Guan Baiyu wasn’t eloquent, but he was willing to explain. Shi Zhen got a rough picture of his present way of life. His foster parents gave him rice, and a piece of land for him to grow vegetables. In this way he was self-sufficient in providing for his meals. There was enough food to eat one’s fill, but there wasn’t any meat or fish.

    The people of this hamlet ate vegetables, and mostly what their families had grown. Buying a piece of meat once a week was considered pretty good. Some families were even reluctant to cook up an egg.

    Guan Baiyu didn’t raise chickens, nor did he have any money, so he didn’t eat meat, and was unable to obtain eggs. He didn’t even have adequate firewood. It’s no wonder he was so emaciated.

    The meal was cooked. Guan Baiyu filled a bowl with rice, and placed it on the table. 

    Besides the cup of fried tofu and braised pork that Shi Zhen had brought him, there was also a bowl of steamed garlic leaves.

    Guan Baiyu had just one pot. Regardless of the vegetables, he steamed them at the same time that he cooked his rice. 

    “Do you want to eat?” Guan Baiyu sat down at the table and asked Shi Zhen.

    Shi Zhen said, “I already ate.”

    Guan Baiyu started to eat by himself, though Shi Zhen had brought him a dish, he had still steamed some vegetables, but only ate a quarter of them.

    With a smile on his face, Shi Zhen watched him eat. While watching, he abruptly became aware of a problem. Getting up, he scooped up a bite of rice and put it in his mouth.

    “This rice is only half-cooked.” Shi Zhen frowned — Guan Baiyu’s rice had not been thoroughly cooked.

    Guan Baiyu shrugged it off, “I don’t have enough firewood.”

    Shi Zhen didn’t say anything.

    After eating the food Shi Zhen had brought, Guan Baiyu let down more of his guard, and asked, “My maternal grandparents . . .”

    “They’ve both passed on,” Shi Zhen said, “They only had two daughters, who also have passed, leaving only their two grandchildren, you and I. I came to look after you.”

    “I’m a member of the Guan Family currently . . .”

    “What does that have anything to do with it? You’re the child of my mother’s sister.”

Guan Baiyu looked at Shi Zhen in a daze.

    Shi Zhen thought that ten days would probably pass before Guan Baiyu fully let go of his vigilance, so he promptly left.

    After returning home, Shi Xinghuo was still not asleep. He took out ten RMB and handed it to Shi Zhen — it was his income for the day.

    When they left the hamlet, Shi Xinghuo’s parents had told Shi Zhen that out of the money Shi Xinghuo earned, he could take half, and was responsible for taking care of Shi Xinghuo’s basic needs. He should help Shi Xinghuo save the remaining half.

    Shi Zhen received the ten yuan, then took out a five yuan bill and put it in the bag beside him where Shi Xinghuo’s savings were stored.

    After the New Year, Shi Xinghuo’s money would be handed over to his parents.

    He hoped he could quickly save up some money, start a small business, and then earn a lot of money. Otherwise . . . with Shi Xinghuo saving five yuan a day, after a year he would have saved less than 2000 RMB. And there was no guarantee that he’d be able to dig every day. As for himself? Dredging sludge from the river, even if it allowed him to let Guan Baiyu eat a bit of meat, it wasn’t a good job.