Chapter 6

No other shop in the county offered that in 1979.

Business exceeded every expectation.

People came from town and from the countryside, cycling dozens of li just to buy parts.

At year’s end, I did the accounts.

Repairs and parts sales had brought me more than eight hundred yuan net.

In 1979, a worker’s annual wages were only three or four hundred.

I’d earned two years’ pay in one.

Fang Zhiguo made a special trip to see the parts shop.

“That mind of yours is wasted inside a factory, Xu Heng.”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not.”

She studied the cabinet for a long time.

“Where do you get these?”

“The provincial wholesale market. I go once a month.”

She nodded and said no more.

I knew what she was thinking.

Reform.

In my first life, she’d begun the contracting system in 1982. Taking on the whole factory, she’d shifted it from farm tools to bicycle components, then motorcycle parts, expanding step by step.

What did she lack?

Someone who understood the market.

Last time, she’d found somebody else.

Now I was in her sights.

I didn’t rush to offer myself.

Business was like dealing with people. Hurry, and you lost.

I did my own work well.

What should come would come.

That winter brought an encounter worth remembering.

On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, I returned home for New Year.

I met Liu Jin at the village entrance.

She’d filled out, her face rosy. Clearly, life was treating her well.

“Xu Heng! It’s been ages!”

She linked arms with me warmly.

“Congratulations. I hear you and our future brother-in-law are having the wedding next year.”

“Yes! Third month, sixth day. You must come.”

“I will.”

She released me and called, “Yaoyao! Come here. Xu Heng’s home!”

Song Yao approached.

Five years.

He looked more mature, more handsome than I remembered.

But different.

I’d watched that face for more than twenty years in my first life: young to old, smiling to unsmiling.

I knew it too well.

I could tell from the curve of his mouth whether a smile was genuine.

This one was.

“Xu Heng. It’s been a while.”

He addressed me politely, like an older sister.

Before, he’d used my name. Later, a distant “you.” Later still, not even that.

“Hello, brother-in-law.”

He paused, then smiled.

“We’re not married yet.”

“Only a matter of time.”

Liu Jin beamed beside him.

Watching them together, I felt strangely peaceful.

Last time, I’d stood beside him.

I’d thought it was my good fortune.

It had been my shackle.

Now it hung around Liu Jin’s neck.

Could she bear it?

That was her affair.

At home, Father put food in my bowl.

“You’re not getting younger, Heng. Find a match next year.”

“No hurry.”

“How can you say that? Liu Jin’s getting married, and you’re two years older!”

“I have plans.”

He pursed his lips and fell silent.

Mother, sorting vegetables beside us, suddenly said, “She earns plenty in town. She’ll find someone when she’s ready.”

“How do you know she earns plenty?”

Mother pointed at the things on the table.

Salted fish. Cured meat. Two bottles of liquor. A carton of cigarettes. A new padded coat for Grandfather.

Nearly fifty yuan’s worth.

Father said no more.

After dinner, I sat alone in the courtyard.

The air was cold. Stars filled the sky.

Nothing like the sky fifty years later, always gray, with scarcely a star to see.

I pulled my padded coat closer and breathed white mist.

1980.

A new decade.

Last time, I’d spent it in a wheelchair.

This time, I would walk through it standing tall.

**Part 7**

Between 1980 and 1982, I did three things.

First, I expanded the parts business.

Bicycle parts became sewing-machine parts, radio parts—anything people used, I found suppliers.

I traveled to the provincial capital every month. Sometimes twice.

Hard seats on green trains. More than ten hours at a stretch, until my backside went numb.

Every trip was worth it.

I knew what would rise in price next month. What would be unavailable next year.

Not prophecy.

Experience.

Second, I established myself in Fang Zhiguo’s factory.

She relied on me more and more.