A Beauty in the 80s Goes on a Blind Date with Her Child, Captivating the Military Compound - Chapter 62

As of now, her market had only just opened up. Shen Sisi couldn’t guarantee how much she would earn or how many orders she would receive, but since Zhang Xiuhong was willing to work for her, she couldn’t treat the woman unfairly.

“A base salary of 10 yuan every month, plus a commission for every catty (0.5kg) of herbs—2 cents per catty. I will decide the total amount of herbs to be collected to prevent a surplus of materials if orders are low.” The wages Shen Sisi offered were quite generous.

Zhang Xiuhong could sit at home and receive a base salary of 10 yuan a month without a fixed work schedule; it was essentially a part-time job with extra commissions. From a purely business perspective, Shen Sisi was actually taking a loss on this deal.

Shen Sisi knew this well—she could have simply bought the herbs by weight without a base salary. However, she didn’t want to mistreat Zhang Xiuhong or dampen her enthusiasm.

Upon hearing the terms, Zhang Xiuhong’s eyes lit up with excitement. “A base salary of 10 yuan a month! That’s enough to feed my whole family and buy meat. And then there’s the extra money… 2 cents a catty means 20 cents for ten catties, and 2 yuan for a hundred catties! That’s no small amount…”

To put it in perspective, her family ate relatively well, and their monthly living expenses were only 6 or 7 yuan. With 10 yuan as a living allowance, she’d even have money left over for her personal “private vault.” Wasn’t that wonderful?

Zhang Xiuhong clutched her chest privately. Thank goodness, she thought. She had almost missed a golden opportunity to make money.

“I say… what kind of dog-shit luck have I run into? You not only saved me and patched things up between me and my family, but now you’re giving me work and paying me a wage. I… I really don’t know what to say.”

Shen Sisi’s eyes crinkled with a smile, the curve of her gaze just right. The whole world seemed to turn gentle and bright. She patted Zhang Xiuhong’s shoulder. “Then just work hard!”

Shen Sisi was a woman of action. Along the way home, she taught Zhang Xiuhong how to identify several types of medicinal herbs. Having worked in the countryside since childhood, Zhang Xiuhong was no stranger to wild flowers and weeds; she quickly memorized the herbs Sisi pointed out. She seemed to have a natural talent for it.

“I understand. I’ll spend my free time wandering around. No one knows the surrounding hills better than I do.”

Still, Shen Sisi was uneasy. “You’re a woman going into the mountains alone; is that alright? What if you run into danger?”

Zhang Xiuhong’s grip on her sickle tightened until her knuckles cracked. “I’ve been going up the mountains to cut pig grass alone since I was a little girl. I’m used to it. Don’t worry, whether it’s wild beasts or bad men, it’ll be their bad luck if they run into me!”

Jokes aside, there was an old saying: “One man should not enter the mountains alone.” Sisi figured she still needed to find a partner for Zhang Xiuhong. Who would be best?

A perfect candidate suddenly came to mind—Li Wenhui!

After parting ways with Zhang Xiuhong, Shen Sisi hurried to Li Wenhui’s house.

Li Wenhui had minced some meat today and was sitting at her doorstep in the sun, rolling out dumpling skins. She planned to make a basin of pickled cabbage and pork dumplings to send over to Sisi. She looked up to see Shen Sisi walking in, looking like she was in a great hurry.

“Sisi, come here! I’m making dumplings. Take some back later to have a taste…”

Shen Sisi was dazzled by her nimble movements. Li Wenhui was truly skillful; there was nothing she couldn’t make. Looking at her slender, white fingertips, Sisi hesitated at the door, suddenly finding it hard to speak. Would sending such delicate hands up a mountain to cut weeds be a waste of talent?

It wasn’t until Li Wenhui warmly invited her in that Sisi snapped out of it.

“What’s the occasion? Why the dumplings?” Sisi asked, sitting down with Niuniu in her lap.

Niuniu looked curiously at the balls of dough on the kneading board, wanting to reach out and grab them, but Sisi stopped her. Amused by Niuniu’s playful look, Li Wenhui dotingly gave her a small piece of dough to play with like modeling clay.

Li Wenhui stared absentmindedly at Niuniu and replied slowly, “It’s nothing, no big day. It’s just that after this meal, my Yong-ge and I will probably be eating nothing but radishes and cabbage for a while.”

“What do you mean?” Sisi asked.

Li Wenhui explained, “Word came from Yong-ge’s hometown today. His mother is having her 60th birthday banquet. Out of the whole family, Yong-ge is the most successful, so they’re all counting on him for the money. Yong-ge is a filial son; knowing his brothers are struggling, he agreed to cover the bulk of it. He’s already taken the savings book!”

Li Wenhui was anxious about the situation but didn’t dare say much. After all, Cheng Yong earned the money; she just stayed home, cooked, and did laundry. Most importantly, they had been married for several years, and there had been “no movement in her womb.”

Staying home, not earning money, and having no children—Li Wenhui constantly felt like a burden to Cheng Yong.

Shen Sisi had always thought she was quite optimistic, but she hadn’t realized Li Wenhui carried such a heavy heart. “No movement… have you seen a doctor?” Sisi asked with concern.

“I did. They said I have severe ‘cold in the uterus’ (Gong Han). It’s very hard to conceive, and even if I do, a miscarriage is likely…” Speaking of this, Li Wenhui’s heart throbbed with pain.

She actually had been pregnant once two years ago—it was a boy. But in the fifth month, the heart stopped. Since then, her body had been severely weakened, making another pregnancy nearly impossible.

“With my situation, how could I dare say ‘no’ to Yong-ge? And of course, I don’t dare go back for the old lady’s birthday. If I go back, it’ll just be a public trial against me.”

Having “cold in the uterus” wasn’t her fault, but as a woman in that era, she felt the weight of it. Shen Sisi sympathized deeply. To watch a child grow for five months only to lose it… it was like carving a piece of flesh out of one’s heart.

“I’m sorry for bringing up such sad things,” Sisi said in a low voice.

Li Wenhui suddenly wiped her eyes and laughed. “Oh, it’s nothing. I have no other virtues, but I’m naturally optimistic. If I think about the good side of things, life will smooth out. As for children… I’ll leave it to fate. If I really can’t conceive, I won’t hold Yong-ge back. I’ll take the initiative to ask for a divorce.”

Shen Sisi looked at her silently. It seemed every woman had her own difficulties. She felt lucky to have met Gu Chengfeng.

Knowing Li Wenhui was short on cash, Shen Sisi stopped beating around the bush. “If there was a job that could earn you some living expenses with flexible hours—but it requires going up the mountain often to cut herbs—would you be willing to try?”

“Cut herbs on the mountain?”

Li Wenhui frowned immediately. She had always preferred quiet over movement; a hike up a mountain would usually leave her gasping for air. However, the mention of flexible hours and earning money sounded quite good.

“What kind of work is it?” she asked.

Shen Sisi’s interest was piqued, and she offered Li Wenhui the same terms she had given Zhang Xiuhong. “The base salary isn’t high, but we have commissions,” Sisi explained.

“We?” Li Wenhui asked. “Who else is there?”

Shen Sisi intentionally kept her in suspense. “You’ll find out when the time comes…”

Li Wenhui stopped rolling the dough and sat there in silence. Shen Sisi could tell she was considering it very seriously.