As it approached noon and Su Xiangwan still hadn’t come out, Lu Dan’s stomach growled with hunger, and he was thirsty.

But he wouldn’t ask his dad to buy him two biscuits, continuing to tease him: “Oh, by the way, Dad, do you know why Jin Huan is so fierce?”

“Jin Huan’s fierce?” Song Qingshan hadn’t been home for seven years. He remembered Jin Huan as a silly boy about Lu Dan’s age who had once climbed on his neck.

Jin Huan had a bad reputation in the village; everyone except Song’s mother disliked him. When he got angry, he even fought with his mother. Song Dahua once got beaten up so badly that she was bedridden for half a month.

“You’re not serious. We have nothing to talk about.” Lu Dan waved his hand, looking sympathetic. “I heard you were working at the Qingshui Gorge reservoir, sifting sand. Is that true?”

To keep others from knowing his real job, Song Qingshan had always claimed he was sifting sand at the Qingshui Gorge.

Lu Dan swung his stick around and said, “When I grow up, I’ll be the general commander at Qingshui Gorge and order you to sift sand for me.” This was clearly disrespectful.

At that moment, a military truck drove down the street, full of soldiers armed with live ammunition, possibly escorting something.

There wasn’t a market in town that day, and there were only a few people around, but the few villagers stood frozen, watching the truck.

Lu Dan pointed to a soldier with thick eyebrows and a big beard: “Look at how fresh his uniform is; you can tell he’s a real soldier. I want to be like him when I grow up.”

The soldier with thick eyebrows and a big beard jumped out of the truck and walked straight toward Lu Dan.

Lu Dan immediately stood up and held his stick, thinking, “Are they going to give me a task? After all, Wang Erxiao was only eight when he was assigned a mission to deliver a message.”

“Comrade, Group Leader.” Liu Xiangqian, the soldier, saluted Song Qingshan with both feet together: “Is it time to pick up the explosives for your house?”

“Let’s wait until another day. I’ll move them myself. You all can head back,” Song Qingshan said casually. Getting the explosives wasn’t a big deal.

He had intended to introduce Liu Xiangqian to Qingyu.

Liu Xiangqian, 28 years old, divorced, and unable to have children due to an injury, would be a good match for Qingyu.

But for now, Song Qingshan thought it would be better to wait and see. Qingyu was his sister, but her selfish nature made him feel that introducing her to Liu Xiangqian would be irresponsible.

Liu Xiangqian saluted and turned to leave.

All the soldiers got off the truck, saluted the group leader, and after Song Qingshan returned the salute and said “Dismissed,” they lined up and got back in the truck.

Lu Dan swallowed nervously and didn’t speak for a long time.

Song Qingshan suddenly asked, “Song Donghai, comrade!”

“Yes!” Lu Dan quickly responded.

Song Qingshan raised his hand and placed it on his forehead: “Do you want to join the army when you grow up?”

“Yes, I dream about it every day,” Lu Dan said.

Song Qingshan exhaled and quietly asked his son, “Can you tell me what your mother likes the most?”

“She likes Xiaosong Village, but she says she likes Xiaosong Village without my grandmother in it.” Lu Dan was being quite blunt.

Song Qingshan stayed silent for a moment and then said, “That might be hard to manage, but Dad will try. Anything else?”

Lu Dan thought for a while and then said, “Yesterday, she said her skin was cracking badly and she wanted a tube of Snowflake Cream, but she didn’t have any daily necessities coupons.”

Song Qingshan quickly replied, “That’s easy. I have some daily necessities coupons. Let’s go buy her a tube right now.”

“Anything else?” Song Qingshan asked.

Lu Dan thought hard for a moment and then said, “One day, she suddenly woke up in the morning and said, ‘I don’t want to farm, I don’t want to raise kids, I want to be a boss. I want to eat delicacies, drink spicy things, and wear the biggest underwear!'”

Song Qingshan didn’t realize that Su Xiangwan was just joking with the kids: “Buy her some big underwear?”

Sure enough, when Su Xiangwan came out of the village government building with Gou Dan standing straight, she saw Song Qingshan holding Zhi Zhi and Lu Dan standing by the roadside holding a box of Snowflake Cream, waiting for her.

“Why did you insist on getting the largest pair of pants?” Song Qingshan had bought a pair of truly enormous boxer shorts, probably the biggest size available.

They were the kind that hung in the supply and marketing cooperative, something that the starving, overworked workers could only look at longingly but never afford.

How should I describe it?

These boxer shorts were so wide that Su Xiangwan couldn’t even imagine.

They could fit their entire family.

She looked at Song Qingshan, and he looked back at her: “Wasn’t it you who said, if you want to eat well and live well, you need to wear the biggest pants?”

“Eat well, live well, and wear the biggest pants.”

This saying was something that Su Xiangwan remembered from her childhood in the previous life.

It was a mocking phrase often used by rural people about the contractors and nouveau riche—envying their good lives while also ridiculing their obesity.

Su Xiangwan recalled that when she was too lazy to work in the fields, she had used this saying too.

Holding back a smile, she said seriously, “Zhi Zhi is still young, but Gou Dan, Lu Dan, and I all need pants. Look at these giant boxer shorts—at least we can make three pairs out of this one pair. But we only paid for one pair of pants, right?”

Song Qingshan didn’t respond, and both Lu Dan and Gou Dan dragged their voices, saying “Oh” in realization.

Because of a box of snowflake cream and a large pair of pants, the couple had a pleasant conversation again.

Song Qingshan said that after returning to his unit, he’d probably have to work overtime for half a month.

Meanwhile, back at the old house, Song Erhua had introduced a match for Song Qingyu.

Of course, for the purpose of the arranged marriage, she had borrowed five yuan from the old lady and taken Qingyu to the city.

Qingyu was quite happy at the time, thinking that she would no longer have to be a villager and could marry into the city like her sister.

But when they arrived, Song Erhua had said he was a doctor, only 30 years old.

But when they met, they found out the doctor was nearly 50 and balding. Because he was a doctor, he even pointed out Qingyu’s faults, saying that marriage was fine, but Qingyu couldn’t bring any “golden treasures” with her.

This “golden treasure” was referring to the fact that Qingyu’s temperament was so difficult that if she had married someone like that in the village, another child would have probably beaten her to death within three days.

If Qingyu knew that her brother almost introduced a good match for her, only for it to be ruined because of her own faults, wouldn’t she regret it terribly?

After becoming the village secretary, Su Xiangwan got busy.

There were several hardworking women in the village: Xiong Dan’s mother, Ye Dan’s mother, and Song Ershan’s wife, Gao Baiyu.

They were all willing to work hard.

Then there was Ye Dan’s sister, Song Xiaoqin, who had just graduated from fifth grade.

She was smart, pretty, and liked Su Xiangwan as her sister-in-law.

She always wanted to follow her around and work with her.

Xiaoqin was a very diligent girl, while Ye Dan, after being humiliated by Jin Huan, couldn’t stand up straight anymore.

So, Su Xiangwan gave her a lot of Chinese medicine seeds to plant.

The two siblings spent the cold winter planting Chinese herbs. Xiaoqin said that if they could really make money next year, she would take Ye Dan to the hospital for surgery.

Next came the issue of raising pigs.

You can’t just wait for Song Qingshan to hunt wild animals all the time, right?

The food in the village had no fat, just thin broths that didn’t satisfy hunger. One day, Su Xiangwan saw Xiong Dan digging for earthworms in the field, boiling them to eat.

She was shocked.

Earthworms? How disgusting to eat.

So, she discussed raising pigs with Xiong Dan’s mother, Ye Dan’s mother, and Song Jianguo.

A small amount of meat could make a large amount of noodles, and with meat and noodles, the children wouldn’t be hungry.

Song Jianguo immediately objected, “No, no, raising pigs requires feed, and we don’t have enough grain to feed them. We won’t agree to raising pigs.”

Ershan also said, “We haven’t raised pigs in years, and it’s because we don’t have enough grain.”

Although you can feed pigs with corn leaves or vegetable leaves, pigs still need some coarse grain, right?

Su Xiangwan whispered, “I heard my husband Qingshan say that wild boars bred with domestic pigs don’t need fine food. They can survive on just corn stalks. You guys build the pen, and I’ll have Qingshan catch us a wild boar.”

“Just corn stalks?”

Well, that sounded great!

The village had plenty of corn, and the most abundant thing was corn stalks.

If they could raise pigs on corn stalks, not only would they recycle the stalks, but they’d also have meat to eat.

Song Jianguo and Song Ershan were the type of people who only thought about doing things with their hands, not with their brains.

They didn’t think about whether wild boars were easy to catch, but they had plenty of strength, so they just selected a spot outside the commune and quickly built a pigsty.

In the evening, when Su Xiangwan returned home, she found Gou Dan rummaging around the house.

This child, according to Su Xiaonan’s settings, was a little thief who had a habit of looking through things.

When he wasn’t stealing outside, he would be like a dog digging around the house, rummaging through the old junk. And now, as he was rummaging, he found something and called out, “Mom, mom, look what I found!”

Su Xiangwan took the box and looked at it. How open-minded this thing was! There was a picture of a man and a woman wearing swimsuits on it, and it was labeled as “sanitary condom.”

This was obviously a future condom.

Afraid the children would open it and play with it, she quickly hid it away.

Song Qingshan, who was the righteous man singing the national anthem on the kang, actually had condoms—what a hypocrite.

Soon, Song Qingshan came back.

Before Lu Dan could say anything, Gou Dan shouted loudly, “If you ever call me Gou Dan again, you’re not my dad. If you want to be my dad, just say, ‘Song Xiling, hurry up and fetch some water.'”

When Song Qingshan walked in and saw his round-headed, round-faced little fool standing by the door, it dawned on him that the name “Xiling” was something he had come up with casually while dealing with the diversion tunnel at West Ridge.

But now, it seemed so important to the child.

“Song Xiling, hurry up and fetch some water,” Song Qingshan said.

Gou Dan picked up a basin and ran: “Okay, Dad.”

After Song Qingshan entered the house, he didn’t say much and immediately took out 80 yuan and handed it to Su Xiangwan. “This month’s salary,” he said.

Su Xiangwan took it, not even stopping her cooking, and glanced at him. “All of it? Then how are you going to manage with the fuel money?”

“The fuel money, I’ll probably have to ask you for later,” Song Qingshan replied.

Su Xiangwan thought his attitude toward his salary was very appropriate.