Song Wei traded three palm-sized fish for the small fish in the children’s bucket.
She headed home, feeling quite pleased.
“Where have you been? I was just about to go look for you.”
Aunt Xinghua hurried over as soon as she saw Song Wei. Spotting the fish, duck, and duck eggs, she was immediately surprised.
“You brought back so much from just one trip out?”
Song Wei nodded. “Got lucky today with the fishing.”
Aunt Xinghua’s eyes curved into happy crescents. “No wonder you eat so much—you certainly have the skills to provide for yourself.”
Song Wei pointed to the small fish. “Auntie, I’d like to make some fried small fish.”
“Consider it done!”
Preparing the small fish was a bit tedious, but no one minded the effort for a tasty treat.
Coated in flour and fried in oil, the small fish soon released an irresistible aroma.
A crowd of furry little ones gathered at the door.
Aunt Xinghua shooed them away. “Shoo, shoo! These aren’t for you. They’re all for your owner.”
Song Wei interjected, “There’s plenty to share. It’s not good for me to eat too much oily food anyway.”
“You spoil them too much,” Aunt Xinghua chuckled. “In anyone else’s home, who would bother making such precious treats for animals?”
A large bowl of small fish was fried to a golden crisp, each bite delivering a perfect crunch outside and tenderness inside.
Song Wei gave each animal two or three fish in their bowls, shared a generous portion with Aunt Xinghua and Lin Ping’an, and kept the rest for herself to enjoy slowly.
The day passed by in leisurely contentment.
Early the next morning, Aunt Xinghua came to prepare breakfast.
After eating, Song Wei followed her to the fields but was assigned the easiest task—pulling weeds—and could even do it sitting on a small stool Aunt Xinghua brought for her.
“Take your time,” Aunt Xinghua said. “Even if you only earn three work points, it’s perfectly fine.”
Those nearby watched in amused disbelief.
“What’s going on? Is Song Zhiqing sick? I saw you going to her place often yesterday.”
Aunt Xinghua beamed. “It’s happy news!”
She didn’t elaborate, but the women who had been mothers themselves immediately understood. Their eyes turned toward Song Wei.
“Really? She’s pregnant?!”
Aunt Xinghua nodded. “Why would I lie?Alright, everyone, stop crowding around Song Wei. Let her work at her own pace. You all have your own tasks to attend to.”
Sitting on her small stool, Song Wei worked at a steady pace.
Soon, she found herself chatting with the other aunties.
“Song Wei, are you really pregnant? How many months along?”
Song Wei replied, “Two months.”
“That would be right around when Lin Zhen left, then. Have you been able to get in touch with him since finding out? When will he be back?”
“No,” Song Wei said. “His location isn’t fixed, so letters won’t reach him. But he should be back soon.”
In these times, without telephones, communication was far from convenient.
“True enough,” the others agreed.
Song Wei’s pregnancy became a topic of light discussion, but since pregnancy was a common experience for women, it wasn’t treated as anything particularly extraordinary.
Then they moved on to other topics.
“The Lin family is arguing again. That household is always fighting—I’m tired of even going over to watch the drama.”
“I heard Old Lin’s fourth son is also demanding to split the family? What’s their plan?”
“They are, but Old Man Lin won’t allow it. He’s still counting on the second son to hand over all his work points to support the rest of them.”
“Really? Even after they’ve already split? When the second son left, he didn’t get much. Now they want him to give up all his work points?”
“Exactly! The only capable one left in Old Lady Lin’s household is the second son. The eldest son is all talk and no action—useless. Can you believe it? He grew up in the countryside but can’t even handle farm work properly, and he’s not willing to learn. A full-grown man like him only earns five work points a day, less than what we women earn!”
“Right? And that eldest son looks down on everyone—acts like he’s so high and mighty.”
“With two men in the family who don’t earn many work points and are both lazy and greedy, Old Man Lin has no choice but to rely on the second son.”
Song Wei didn’t say anything, but she perked up her ears, thoroughly enjoying the gossip.
Hearing about the Lin family’s misfortunes made her even happier.
After finishing their daily dose of Lin family drama, the aunties moved on to other topics.
The most exciting discussions were the slightly risqué ones.
For example: “I’m not lying—I saw Third Grandpa Ma sneaking into Dashun’s house with my own eyes. They’re not even relatives, so why does he need to go there so often? And every time he goes in, he stays for at least an hour!”
“My guess is Dashun’s wife is fooling around behind his back.”
“Ah, that poor man. He’s not all there mentally. His parents found him a restless woman before they passed, thinking she’d take care of him. They say the daughter was born premature, but from the size and health of that child, I’d say she was full-term. Premature babies are usually sickly and hard to raise, but that girl looks perfectly healthy.”
“Dashun’s parents just wanted to find him a wife to settle down with, but this… this is worse than being a cuckold. I heard from my family back home that Xu Yinhua was already known for being restless even before she married into this family.”
When Dashun was mentioned, Song Wei glanced toward a man working diligently in the distant fields.
That was Dashun, the intellectually disabled man the aunties were talking about.
But he still knew how to work to earn his keep.
Sitting on the ridge of the field was a little girl, about three years old.
She was the so-called “premature” child the aunties mentioned.
Dashun adored his daughter. His wife paid no attention to the child, so it was Dashun—simple-minded as he was—who raised her.
Another unfortunate soul.
Although there was no concrete evidence for what the aunties were saying, everyone pretty much knew it was likely true.
Once Song Wei finished weeding, she headed home because she was hungry.
She never shortchanged herself when it came to meals.
She chopped the duck into pieces, waiting for Aunt Xinghua to return and cook it.
After that, she went to check on the backyard.
She picked some young bok choy shoots—this vegetable was best eaten fresh and tender.
The cucumbers and long beans had already started climbing their trellises, just waiting to flower and fruit.
The other vegetables weren’t ripe yet.
Lotus leaves had begun to emerge in the pond, and she crouched by the edge, already craving lotus roots that hadn’t even fully grown yet.
How annoying—it felt like there was so little to eat right now.
“Song Wei, are you back?”
“Yeah… I’m here!”
Song Wei called out and hurried over.
With duck eggs, chicken eggs, fish, and meat, Song Wei’s meals were always quite lavish, though they were consumed quickly.
After lazing around at home for over ten days—either fishing at Reed Lake or catching ducks—she found herself itching to explore the mountains visible just across from her doorstep.
Finally, she slung a basket over her shoulder. “I’m just going up the mountain to pick mushrooms and bamboo shoots. I’ll be back soon.”
Having successfully convinced herself, Song Wei happily followed Wolf One and the others into the mountains.
It had been a while since her last visit, and even mushroom picking felt refreshing.
“Let’s go check if there are any bamboo fungi left in the bamboo grove where we found them last time.”
She led the wolves, the fox, and the eagle into the bamboo forest.
The bamboo grove was truly inconvenient for the eaglet—it couldn’t spread its wings properly to fly.
In the end, it had no choice but to land grudgingly on Song Wei’s basket and let out a disgruntled coo.
“Hold on—we’ll leave as soon as we’ve picked the bamboo fungi.”
After soothing the eaglet with some pats, she sharpened her eyes and began scanning the area intently, not missing a single suspicious spot!
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