Song Wei knew that arguing about the rabbits could get complicated, but that didn’t mean she was out of options.
“Fine,” she said. “If you’re all so insistent…”
Xu Laidi and the others’ eyes lit up, already picturing taking the rabbits for themselves. They were practically reaching out to grab the rabbits.
Song Wei gave them a cold smile. “Then I’ll just have to send these rabbits to a trusted family to look after them.”
Xu Laidi was too focused on the rabbits to really listen and had already reached out, saying, “Then these rabbits are collective property.”
Before Xu Laidi’s fingers could reach the rabbits, Song Wei smacked her hand away, leaving Xu Laidi yelping in pain and stumbling back.
“Did you not hear me? Who said these were collective property?”
“This could have been a small matter,” Song Wei continued calmly, ignoring Xu Laidi’s whining, “If you all want meat so badly, you could just buy a few chicks and raise them yourselves. But since you decided to make a fuss, I’ll send the rabbits away for someone else to raise. And from now on, if any of you want to keep chickens or rabbits, it’s not going to be easy.”
With her arms crossed, Song Wei looked completely unbothered by Xu Laidi’s dramatic wailing.
Some of the other educated youths grew tense, realizing the impact this might have. Li Juan stepped up, pointing at Xu Laidi, Liu Linlin, and Luo Yecheng.
“Chicks aren’t that expensive, and if you raise them yourself, you can have eggs and meat. But Song Wei caught these rabbits herself and is raising them, so trying to claim them for the group is just shameless. Ask yourselves, if you worked hard to catch something, would you be eager to share it with everyone? Let’s be honest about how well we all get along here. If you force Song Wei to send the rabbits away, who would dare raise anything for themselves after this?”
Next to Song Wei, Heidan’s eyes started to water at the thought of giving the rabbits away. He didn’t blame her, though; he glared fiercely at the troublemakers.
Song Wei was so good to him, yet these troublemakers kept making things hard for her!
The educated youths began to realize that this affected them, too. Who knew how long they’d be stuck in the countryside? If they couldn’t even keep a few chicken here for eggs and meat, they’d be at a big disadvantage.
Bai Yunjiao, though envious of Song Wei’s rabbits, quickly saw the bigger picture.
“This has all just been a misunderstanding. I never said Song Wei’s rabbits should be for everyone.”
Three other educated youths nodded quickly. “Yeah, and I was actually thinking of raising some chickens myself. Let’s just raise our own in the future.”
To be honest, before today, none of them had considered keeping livestock here. It just hadn’t crossed their minds until now.
With everyone realizing they could keep their own chickens and other small animals in the courtyard, Xu Laidi and Liu Linlin lost all support for their plan. They also couldn’t report Song Wei, as the rest of the educated youths clearly intended to start raising livestock too. Reporting her would only make everyone angry.
Liu Linlin bit her lip, hating how Song Wei always seemed to find a way out. Why was Song Wei so lucky?
And with that, the rabbit drama was finally over. Heidan happily went back to taking care of the rabbits.
Song Wei decided to inform the team leader about her plans for the rabbits to keep everything clear and transparent.
The following days settled into a steady routine. Each morning, Song Wei and Gao Le would join the others in the fields, planting vegetables and earning their daily three work points. In the afternoons, she and Heidan would head into the mountains.
One particular day, the village was bustling from the crack of dawn, and no one seemed to mind. It was the day to deliver the public grain to the county storage center.
After days of sun-drying and carefully checking the harvest to ensure quality, the villagers had gathered carts, wheelbarrows, and baskets, ready to deliver the grain at 4 or 5 a.m.
Only two volunteers joined the group—Luo Yecheng, who loved getting involved, and one other experienced volunteer.
Although Song Wei and the others stayed back, they still worried about how the trip would go.
“I hope it goes smoothly,” Li Juan said to Song Wei. “You know, if the grain isn’t dry enough, they’ll make us take it all back to dry again, which is such a pain.”
Song Wei didn’t known about that.
“Last year I went, and we had to wait in a line that stretched all the way out of the building. We didn’t even finish weighing until nightfall.”
Song Wei made a face. “So you have to stand in the hot sun that long?”
Li Juan nodded vigorously. “It’s brutal. I got so sunburned that I was peeling for days.”
“Lucky I didn’t go,” Song Wei said with a grin.
The delivery team finally returned around 3 p.m., looking thoroughly exhausted. Even the regular farmers, who were used to fieldwork, looked drained and sunburned, their clothes soaked with sweat.
The two educated youths who went along needed to be helped back, barely able to stand.
Delivering grain, Song Wei realized, was no easy task.
The good news was that the ping’an brigade’s grain had been accepted. One of the experienced educated youth, gulping down his meal, recounted what happened: “One of the other villages had to take their grain back for re-drying. A few of their people fainted when they heard the news.”
Song Wei shook her head. That sounded miserable.
Standing under the blazing sun, itchy with barley spikes and sweltering in the heat? She’d rather go fight wild boars in the mountains.
With the public grain delivered, it was finally the off-season.
Cabbages and radishes were mostly planted, freeing up the women to go into the mountains to gather wild vegetables, mushrooms, and firewood.
Each time Song Wei took Heidan into the mountains now, they ran into other villagers.
Seeing Heidan, many of them were surprised, not even recognizing him at first.
Thanks to Song Wei’s care, he had put on a little weight, and he looked much healthier. His clothes were clean, and his entire demeanor had transformed. He was unrecognizable from the thin, dirty child he had once been.
“It’s Song Wei and Heidan,” one of the familiar villagers called out.
Seeing them approach, the team leader’s wife, Aunt Xinghua, waved them over.
“There are lots of wild vegetables over here,” she called. “Come pick some with us!”
Since more villagers were foraging these days, the areas around the village were picked clean of mushrooms, but it’s also okay to find some wild vegetables. The villagers don’t mind at all..
Song Wei and Heidan joined Aunt Xinghua with smiles.
“Out gathering again today, Aunt?” Song Wei asked.
With a warm smile, Aunt Xinghua patted Heidan’s head, noting his closely cropped hair that fully revealed his little face.
“He looks just like his brother.”
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