Chapter 69: Raising Rabbits

Spring is a great time for all things to grow.

Thanks to the villagers’ attentive care, the crops and vegetables in the fields were thriving.

Saplings transplanted to the mountain arrived in a steady stream.

Uncle Chen Jiu also assigned responsibility zones, with several people in charge of a specific area to ensure the saplings were watered in time.

Everyone saved the ashes they dug out from the stove and carried them up the mountain to bury in the tree pits.

Farm manure had to be reserved for the crop fields, though some people went to ask Zhang Jin Zhi to reserve some chicken manure.

Zhang Jin Zhi refused. Too many people came to reserve it, and the quantity was limited—no matter who he gave it to, others would be dissatisfied. So, he simply led some people to reclaim two mu of land, planting one mu of potatoes, half a mu of millet, and half a mu of vegetables.

He saved and composted the chicken manure to use on his own land—this way, no one thought about it anymore.

This year, although Tongshu Village’s land was still collectively farmed, because each household contributed different seeds, the amount of land allocated to each varied. It was clear that the amount of grain harvested in the future would also differ.

Overall, the total amount of farmland had more than doubled compared to last year.

In terms of tending, people primarily took care of their own land, and helped out with others’ plots when possible.

In other words, if you had enough energy and wanted to manage your land well, that was your freedom—you weren’t obligated to be meticulous with other people’s land too.

Of course, patrols had to oversee everything.

Vegetable plots were still grown, harvested, and divided collectively.

Aunt Zhao usually rose early, starting by weeding her own field. Too many weeds would affect the crop yield.

If she found bugs, she would kill them on the spot.

Once April arrived, Aunt Zhao went to discuss with Uncle Chen Jiu about planting more land. “We’ve found a lot of wild fruit on the mountain. That freed up quite a bit of corn. So we thought we could plant it early. That way, we’ll harvest early and it won’t affect the autumn crops.”

Uncle Chen Jiu wouldn’t oppose such an idea but still asked for other villagers’ opinions.

Some wanted to join in planting more; others found it too tiring or didn’t want to contribute extra seed grain, so they gave up.

In the end, only ten people joined Aunt Zhao.

These people gathered and decided to reclaim unused village land so they wouldn’t run into trouble later.

Uncle Chen Jiu laughed at them for overthinking: “With me around, what are you afraid of? Even if I’m not enough, isn’t Lord Zhou still here?”

Aunt Zhao said, “Uncle Jiu, it’s not that we don’t trust Lord Zhou to help mediate. It’s just… Lord Zhou can’t live in our village forever, can he?

“So many people left our village. Even if not all return, at least half will, right?

“When they come back and see their land taken over, they’ll surely get mad.

“We’ve worked hard to plant, fertilize, and water the land. We won’t want to give it up either. Wouldn’t that lead to a fight?

“It’d be better if you officially handed over the ownerless land in our village for us to farm. It’d save us all a lot of trouble.”

Uncle Chen Jiu thought it made sense and agreed.

So Aunt Zhao and the other ten people threw themselves into farming with great energy. Some villagers who didn’t plan to expand their land still came over to help.

Qin Ying brought An’an to the field. She let the child play nearby with the grasshopper toy Aunt Zhao had made, while she helped Aunt Zhao till the land, plow the furrows, water along the ridges, and then sow the seeds.

When it came time to plant, An’an came to help too. She carried a little basket over her small arm, pinched two corn kernels with her tiny fingers, dropped them into the holes Qin Ying had poked, and then used her little feet to gently cover them with soil.

She worked just like the adults.

The grown-ups in the nearby fields couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. One said to Aunt Zhao, “Sister-in-law Zhao, you’re really raising a good one! She must have been sent to repay kindness!”

An’an waved her chubby hand in the air and shouted loudly, “An’an is capable!”

This earned her a wave of warm laughter from everyone.

Thanks to help from the other villagers, Aunt Zhao’s plot was relatively concentrated—over two mu of land.

They first planted corn, and once the seedlings grew over an inch tall, they began thinning them out.

Unwilling to throw away the removed seedlings, they wrapped the roots in moist soil and planted them in a newly reclaimed wasteland.

Other villagers saw what they did and followed suit. But because their own seedling sprouting rates were lower and they needed to use some to replant, they couldn’t reclaim as much land as Aunt Zhao and her family.

Qin Ying soaked some beans and planted them among the corn.

Aunt Zhao was worried: “Will they really grow well like that?”

“Well, this is reclaimed wasteland anyway,” Qin Ying replied with a smile. “We’re using seedlings that would’ve been discarded, so it’s just recycling. Even if the harvest is poor, the loss is minimal.

“But if we do get more food, that’d be a win!

“Didn’t Uncle Jiu say we’ve planted enough saplings and can stop now, or we won’t be able to care for them all?

“Now that I’ve got time to tend the fields, I want to try a bit more.”

Aunt Zhao felt sorry for her. “You finally put on some weight, and now you’ve lost it all again these past few days…”

“So what!” Qin Ying was open-minded. “I’ll fatten up again during the winter. It’s worth it to work hard now in exchange for a few more full meals later!”

Aunt Zhao patted her shoulder and joined her in going out early and returning late. Sometimes, when they left too early, they left An’an in Zhang Jin Zhi’s care. If they came home too late, An’an would already be asleep at the neighbors’.

Still, An’an never slacked off. As long as she was awake and not eating or using the toilet, she’d be in the fields helping out.

Her koi luck always came in at just the right time.

And it wasn’t just for her own family. Everyone in Tongshu Village received the boost. When others compared themselves to the Zhao family, they might feel a bit resentful, but when they saw how far ahead they were compared to neighboring villages, they felt balanced again.

Every five or six days, Aunt Zhao and Qin Ying would organize a group of villagers to go up the mountain—partly to gather firewood, partly to see if they could get lucky and find some wild game.

Others rarely got much, but the Zhao family never came back empty-handed. Sometimes they found dried mushrooms, sometimes wild fruit, and once, they even caught a rabbit!

And it was a pregnant female rabbit.

The villagers joked they should cook it—after all, even just smelling meat was rare.

But An’an clutched the rabbit tightly, refusing to let them eat it. She said she wanted to raise baby bunnies. Aunt Zhao and Qin Ying agreed.

Though the Zhao family was so lucky, not a single person in Tongshu Village was jealous.

What could they do? They all went up the same mountain, walked the same paths, searched the same areas. If they still couldn’t find anything good, who could they blame?

Thankfully, Aunt Zhao was generous. Every time she came back, she would share a bit of whatever they found with the people who came along.

As for the mother rabbit, it was now raised in the Zhao family courtyard.

Since rabbits are good at digging, they worried it would escape. Aunt Zhao and Qin Ying specially collected lots of stones to build a rabbit den.

They paved the ground, covered it with two inches of soil, then a thick layer of ash, and then a thick layer of sand.

The outer wall was built high, and they put up a rain cover. Beneath the cover was a cozy little nest for the rabbit to sleep in, padded with thick hay.

They even put a large sieve over the top to make sure the rabbit couldn’t get out.