Chapter Three: Li Yi's Wish List (New Book—Your Support Is Welcome!)

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 soybeans in the fields, so after leaving Li Na to look after Tang Xue, the old couple hurried off to work.

Tang Xue felt rather awkward staying at the Li household, but she was too embarrassed to return to the educated youth quarters, afraid people would say she was improper.

With no other choice, Li Na had to take her for a walk in the hills behind the village to clear her mind.

Before long, only Li Yi was left at home. At last, he had time to think carefully about what to do next.

He went back inside, found a sheet of paper and half a pencil, and came beneath the large willow tree in the courtyard.

Spreading the paper over the stone mill, he held the pencil and thought for a moment. Then his gaze slowly grew resolute, and he began writing furiously.

Ten minutes later, looking at the small list before him, Li Yi smiled in satisfaction.

The contents were simple enough:

First: spare no effort to prepare the wedding and marry Tang Xue in grand style, so that she will sincerely accept him.

Second: make money and build a house to improve the family’s living conditions.

Third: help Tang Xue get into a key university.

Fourth: save his eldest sister’s life and prevent the tragedy from happening.

Fifth: take his father for a medical checkup.

He slowly set down the pencil, tore the page covered in writing into scraps, and tossed them into the air.

Watching the paper flakes drift away on the wind like snow, Li Yi’s face showed a faint smile.

Though life was poor now and supplies were scarce, his heart was light.

Unlike in his previous life, when he had assets beyond counting yet was poor in every way that mattered, left with nothing but money, with not a single relative by his side when he died. That kind of loneliness was more terrifying than poverty itself.

Since heaven had given him another chance, he would live this life happily, without regrets.

As for the present, the most important and urgent matter was to make money.

The marriage had been settled, but money was still the biggest problem.

In this era, weddings still had to be done with some style. While houses, cars, wedding convoys, and bridal agencies were not necessary, betrothal gifts were indispensable.

Tang Xue had only asked for eighty-eight yuan, which did not sound like much.

But nowadays, even a factory worker earned only twenty-seven or twenty-eight yuan a month. Eighty-eight yuan was equivalent to three months of wages for a worker who ate and drank nothing at all.

For a rural family, it might not be possible to save that much in an entire year.

Besides that, families with the means were also expected to prepare the so-called three rotating items and one ringing item for the bride: a bicycle, a sewing machine, a wristwatch, and a radio.

Though these were ordinary things by the standards of later generations, in this era they were indeed the highest standard of household goods that ordinary people dreamed of owning.

At the same time, the three rotating items and one ringing item were not only the greatest wealth most people could possess in those years, but also one of the main standards by which many women chose a husband.

If any family could produce the three rotating items and one ringing item, matchmakers would wear down their doorstep.

Tang Xue was from the city to begin with. Marrying Li Yi, a country boy, was already considered a step down. She had also given up her chance to return to the city and had somehow lost her innocence. So this marriage was bound to invite gossip.

The best way to shut the villagers’ mouths was to make the wedding as grand and impressive as possible, so that everyone could see Tang Xue had not married into the Li family out of desperation, but because she had good judgment.

It would show that she had not come to the countryside to suffer after abandoning a comfortable city life, but to enjoy herself.

Therefore, although Li Shankui had only agreed to buy Tang Xue a wristwatch, Li Yi had made up his mind to provide all three rotating items and one ringing item in full.

Of course, anything considered family wealth was expensive. Take a bicycle, for example: one cost at least 120 yuan, and it had to be purchased with a coupon. Even having money did not guarantee you could buy one.

To prepare the full set of three rotating items and one ringing item, at least 400 yuan would be needed. If he wanted good brands, even 500 yuan might not be enough.

Add in the betrothal gift and the banquet, and the conservative estimate came to seven or eight hundred yuan.

But Li Yi knew exactly how poor the family was. To put it in one word, it was this: poor.

In previous years, there were many mouths to feed at home, and the children still had to be sent to school, so they had hardly saved anything.

In the past couple of years, with his eldest and second eldest sisters married off, things had improved a little, but after taking on a spendthrift like Li Yi, they still had not put away much money.

So relying on the family alone to hold a grand wedding was clearly impossible. Everything would have to depend on him.

That was also why Li Yi had set the wedding for a month later. He intended to gather the full set of three rotating items and one ringing item, along with Tang Xue’s betrothal gift, within that month.

He was not worried about making money. After all, he had the memories of his previous life. Earning money would not be difficult.

For example, if he remembered correctly, beneath the mountain cliff behind the village lay a general’s tomb, buried with a great deal of gold and silver treasure.

If he quietly opened the tomb and sold part of the burial goods, he could become rich overnight.

But Li Yi did not want to do that. Having been reborn, he wanted to earn money cleanly with his own hands. He wanted every penny spent on his family to be spotless.

It was just that figuring out how to earn seven or eight hundred yuan in a month would indeed require careful thought.

......

By the time he checked the clock again, it was already past eleven. His parents were working in the fields and clearly could not come back to cook, while his third sister was accompanying Tang Xue. So Li Yi decided to cook lunch himself for the family.

He returned to the house and searched carefully, only to find that the large storage jar for grain contained merely half a jar of white flour, and nothing else.

Not to mention meat, there were not even any eggs, which were the most common thing in a rural household.

Li Yi knew the eggs had probably once again been taken by his mother to the supply and marketing cooperative in exchange for daily necessities.

Looking at the ingredients he had managed to “scavenge,” Li Yi could not help but give a wry smile.

Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice or flour. His cooking skills were quite good, but only when backed by abundant ingredients and a full set of seasonings.

With nothing but half a jar of white flour, he really was at a loss.

He knew this era was short of supplies, but not to this extent—this truly was beyond his expectations.

After all, it was already the nineteen-eighties, and the coastal regions had long since opened up. How could things still be this poor?

Perhaps he should just steam a basket of buns and boil a pot of porridge, as his mother usually did.

But then he thought of how Tang Xue would likely be eating at his home today. This was the very first meal his future wife would have with him after their relationship had been settled, so it could not be handled carelessly.

Besides, it was summer. Eating steamed buns and hot porridge at midday would be enough to kill anyone’s appetite just by thinking about it.

Suddenly, Li Yi thought of a delicacy that could be made with flour alone—cold skin noodles.

Hot summer weather easily robs people of their appetite, and for food lovers that is no less than torment.

All across the country, people had their own solutions to this problem, and in the north the answer was cold skin noodles.

Their coolness made them inextricably tied to the scorching season.

Under sweltering heat, what could be more appetizing than something sour and spicy?

Thinking of this, Li Yi no longer hesitated and immediately set to work.