By the time they finished discussing the wedding, it was already past ten in the morning. Li Shankui and his wife were worried about the beans in the fields, so after leaving Li Na behind to look after Tang Xue, the elderly couple hurried off to work in the fields.
Meanwhile, Tang Xue felt somewhat out of place staying at the Li household, but she was too embarrassed to return to the educated youth commune, worried that others might accuse her of being immoral.
With no other choice, Li Na accompanied her to the back mountain to clear her head!
Soon, Li Yi was left alone at home, and only then did he have time to properly think about what to do next!
He went back inside to find a piece of paper and a half-used pencil, then made his way to the large willow tree in the courtyard.
Spreading the paper on the millstone, he held the pencil and pondered for a moment. Gradually, his gaze hardened, and he began to write furiously!
Ten minutes later, looking at the small “list” before him, Li Yi smiled with satisfaction.
The contents of the list were very simple:
Item 1: Do everything in my power to prepare for the wedding, marry Tang Xue in grand style, and win her wholehearted acceptance.
Item 2: Earn money to build a house and improve our family’s living conditions!
Item 3: Help Tang Xue get into a top-tier university!
Item 4: Save his older sister’s life and prevent a tragedy from happening!
Item 5: Take my father for a medical checkup…
He slowly set down the pen in his hand, tore the paper covered in writing into shreds, and scattered them into the air.
Watching the scraps of paper drift away like snowflakes in the wind, a faint smile appeared on Li Yi’s face.
Although his current life was marked by poverty and scarcity, his heart was filled with joy.
Unlike in his previous life, where he had more wealth than he could count yet was poor in every other way—dying with not a single relative by his side—that loneliness and isolation were far more terrifying than mere poverty.
Since Heaven had granted him a second chance to choose, he was determined to live this life to the fullest, leaving no regrets!
As for the immediate future, the most important and urgent task was to make money!
The decision to get married was settled, but money remained a major problem.
In this day and age, weddings still call for a certain level of pomp and circumstance. Although a house or a car wasn’t required, nor was a wedding procession or a wedding planning company, a dowry was still essential.
Tang Xue only asked for 88 yuan as a dowry—it might not sound like much.
But nowadays, even an industrial worker makes twenty-seven or twenty-eight yuan a month, so 88 yuan is equivalent to three months’ wages for a worker who doesn’t eat or drink.
In the countryside, some people might not even be able to save that much in a whole year.
In addition, families with the means were expected to provide the bride with the “three wheels and a radio”—that is, a bicycle, a sewing machine, a watch, and a radio.
Although these might seem like ordinary items to people from later generations, in this era, they were indeed the top-tier household goods that ordinary people aspired to own.
At the same time, the “three wheels and a radio” were not only the greatest wealth ordinary people could possess in that era, but also one of the key criteria for most women when choosing a spouse.
If any family could offer the “three wheels and a radio,” matchmakers would wear out the threshold of their home.
Tang Xue was originally from the city; marrying Li Yi, a country boy, was already a step down for her. On top of that, she had to give up her eligibility to return to the city and, for some inexplicable reason, had lost her virginity. Consequently, this marriage was bound to be the subject of gossip.
The best way to silence the village gossip was to throw a lavish wedding, so everyone could see that Tang Xue’s marriage to the Li family wasn’t out of desperation, but because she had good taste.
Her marriage to the Li family wasn’t about giving up the comfortable life of the city to endure hardship in the countryside—it was about coming to enjoy a life of luxury.
So, although her father, Li Shankui, had only agreed to buy Tang Xue a watch, Li Yi was determined to provide her with the full set of “three rotations and one chime.”
Of course, items considered symbols of family wealth were all quite expensive. Take bicycles, for example: one cost at least 120 yuan, and they were sold on a ration ticket system—even with money, you couldn’t necessarily buy one.
To acquire all four of these items would cost at least 400 yuan; if one were to opt for major brands, even 500 yuan might not be enough.
Add to that the dowry and the cost of the wedding banquet, and a conservative estimate puts the total at seven or eight hundred yuan.
But Li Yi was well aware of his family’s situation. If he had to describe it in one word, it would be—poor!
In the past, with a large family and the cost of sending the children to school, they had barely managed to save anything.
In recent years, with Li Yi’s eldest and second sisters getting married, the family’s situation had improved slightly, but with a spendthrift like Li Yi around, they hadn’t managed to save much.
So relying on his family to throw a lavish wedding was clearly out of the question; he’d have to handle everything on his own.
This was also why Li Yi had set the wedding date for a month from now—he needed that month to procure the three sets of wedding attire and the musical instrument, as well as Tang Xue’s dowry.
Making money wasn’t a problem for Li Yi; after all, with his memories from his previous life, earning a fortune was a piece of cake.
For instance, if his memory served him correctly, there was a general’s tomb buried beneath the cliff behind the village, containing a vast amount of gold, silver, and jewels as burial offerings.
If he could just quietly open the ancient tomb, take a portion of the burial artifacts, and sell them, he could become rich overnight.
But Li Yi didn’t want to do that. Having been reborn, he wanted to earn money honestly with his own two hands; he wanted every penny spent on his family to be clean.
Still, figuring out how to earn seven or eight hundred yuan within a month—that certainly required some careful consideration!
…….
It was already past eleven o’clock. His parents were working in the fields and clearly couldn’t come back to cook, and his third older sister was out with Tang Xue, so Li Yi decided to cook lunch for the family himself.
He went back inside and searched carefully, only to find that the large jar where they stored grain was half-full of flour—and nothing else.
Forget about meat—there weren’t even eggs, the most common food in the countryside!
Li Yi knew that his mother had surely taken the family’s eggs to the supply and marketing cooperative to trade for daily necessities again.
Looking at the meager ingredients he’d “scraped together,” Li Yi couldn’t help but let out a wry smile!
Even the most skilled cook can’t work miracles without ingredients. His cooking skills were decent, but they relied on an abundance of ingredients and a full range of seasonings.
Given nothing but half a vat of flour, he was truly at a loss!
He knew supplies were scarce in this era, but the extent of the scarcity truly took Li Yi by surprise.
After all, it was already the 1980s, and the coastal regions had long since been opened up—how could things still be this poor?
Maybe he should just steam a basket of buns and boil a pot of congee—that’s what his mother usually did.
But then he remembered that Tang Xue was supposed to have lunch at his place today. This would be the first meal his wife would eat at his home since they’d officially become a couple—he couldn’t just slap something together.
Besides, it was summer—the thought of eating steamed buns and hot porridge in the middle of the day was enough to kill his appetite.
Suddenly, Li Yi thought of a delicious dish that could be made with just flour—liangpi!
The sweltering summer heat easily saps one’s appetite, which is nothing short of torture for foodies.
Regions across the country have their own solutions to this problem, and for northerners, the answer is liangpi.
The very fact that liangpi is served cold ensures its unbreakable bond with the sweltering summer.
In the sweltering heat, what could be more appetizing than sour and spicy liangpi?
With that in mind, Li Yi didn’t hesitate any longer and sprang into action!