Original Essays: ‘Making a Living’ Years – Reflections on My ‘Earn-While-You-Learn’ Days
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During the holidays, I tidied up my 'Quiet Reading Room', and inadvertently came across an old diary, with the title 'Side Income' on the cover. When I opened this dust-covered diary, I saw row upon row of 'income amounts': 197983: 2.161.530.101.67
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Time suddenly brought me back to my difficult but memorable days of 'doing business' during my studies.
Back then, we often engaged in 'earn-while-you-learn' – raising rabbits, gathering medicinal herbs in the mountains, picking melon rind, picking apricot pit, picking pine nut, weaving baskets, and picking pine tower. We also collected sheep dung…
Our hometown's mountains were full of treasures – medicinal herbs included yellow chrysanthemum, skullcap, astralagus, licorice root, and ginseng. Every summer vacation, my friends and I would carry small baskets and shoulder poles, going up the mountains to gather medicinal herbs… If we followed the plowman, we could easily find some licorice roots.
On a Sunday afternoon, my mother told me that the production team was going up the mountain to plant buckwheat in the afternoon, so I went with them 'waiting for rabbits'. Seeing the melons growing in the field, I was very happy. Soon, the villagers came to join us, following the plowman, searching for licorice roots. The old man always scolded me, fearing I would scare the donkey, but I thought he was just trying to find licorice, so I pretended not to hear and continued to follow. Finally, I quickly ducked down and pulled. Surprisingly, the licorice root was quite long, and I pulled it forward, frightening the donkey, which pulled the plow aside with force, and the old man pulled him back, shouting at me to leave quickly. When he brought the donkey back, he twisted my ear. That afternoon, I collected 9 jin of licorice, which was also my biggest 'business deal' during my primary school years…
Additionally, after the rain, the mountain was full of melon rind resources. Melon rind, also known as lichen, ground melon, melon ear, melon soft rind, and melon peel, is a natural edible fungus. Both city people and rural people loved to eat this delicacy. Especially in recent years, the price has risen steadily. People often came to buy it, which was also our income project. Furthermore, we picked iron blocks from the blacksmith's furnace, sold old shoes, old cotton yarn, and old paper. We 'merchants' did all kinds of business, but we didn't become big or strong; we just did small-scale operations.
During my middle school years, I learned a craft from my neighbor, an older gentleman – weaving baskets. Learning this craft brought in an extra income. During the holidays, I went with the adults to chop willow branches, elm branches, and cotton hemp branches. Returning home, I used a small sickle to trim the branches one by one, and then began to weave. Sometimes I didn't finish weaving during the day, so I had to work the night shift; when the raw materials were plentiful, I even had to work late into the night. I wove baskets of all kinds – carrying baskets, hauling baskets, small baskets, dung baskets, flower baskets... I also wove baskets similar to dung pits, attaching 'Z' shaped wooden beams, using them as buckets…
During one weaving session, because the branches were too thick, when trying to make carrying baskets, the upward bending branch was processed improperly, originally intended to make carrying baskets, but ended up weaving a 'four-legged creature'. I said this one couldn't be taken to the market, and my mother said to keep it. After a long effort, the basket was finally finished. When it went to the market, this 'ugly duckling' was no one wanted. Later, my mother picked up this basket and took it to school, saying it was good for something. With these experiences, when I wove baskets again, I was more careful. I realized that my mother was always busy and tired at home, so I completely handed over the money from selling baskets to her…
From primary school to middle school, we mountain village children each season had a 'project', referring to collecting sheep dung. In northern China, in winter, the weather was dry and cold. Every Sunday, we carried baskets up the mountain to collect sheep dung. Because wearing gloves made it difficult to work, we had to go bare-handed, squatting on the ground, picking up sheep dung. Our hands were dirty, and we couldn't keep them warm, so we had to endure the cold. At noon, the sheep would lie down to rest, and when they woke up, we could quickly collect a lot of sheep dung, which was a fast harvest. Other times, the sheep were moving around, picking up sheep dung, so the speed was slow, and it took a long time to collect a basket of sheep dung. We took the sheep dung collected to the production team, and the team leader weighed it, and then recorded the labor points according to the weight. So, back then, we were also 'outsider members' of the production team, and we often sang the song 'I am a little member of the small cooperative.'
In that special era, life was very poor. But with the income from 'doing business', we were able to get through the famine years.
Many years later, whenever I recalled these experiences, I always felt a touch of sadness. Suffering is a precious wealth – that's a very good saying. After entering society, whenever I encountered difficulties, I could face them optimistically. During my school days, I always went to school early to bring hot water to my colleagues; when the school had labor tasks, I actively participated; on rainy and snowy days, I stayed at school, and I often helped the chef in the cafeteria cook. When the leader assigned tasks, I never argued. My colleagues said I was hardworking, and I thought it was a good thing to say about me, and I felt very happy and content.
After the Reform and Opening-up, the great changes had taken place across China, and people had entered a prosperous life. But today's children are still not very thrifty, and there are still many wasteful phenomena. The successful convening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Leadership Group set an example of thrift and frugality, opposing extravagance and waste. Therefore, it is necessary to educate children about thrift and frugality, revolutionary traditions, and the spirit of hard work…
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