His eyes were red, his hands folded, trembling in the corner, softly whimpering but too scared to come out.

Of course, Su Xiangwan thought that if they tried to force this child to step out now, he’d probably become violent.

After all, in the original story, he was indeed burdened with a life taken.

In any case, after Song Qingshan slapped the two brothers one after another, they became enemies.

But whether they were enemies or not, when it came time to sleep, the two of them, one on each side, kept a close watch on him like prison guards.

Song Qingshan’s large hand patted each of their behinds, both round and firm, feeling strangely pleasant.

Su Xiangwan was really busy.

One moment she was sewing fabric scraps, the next moment grinding wool, and the leaves outside rustled in the wind.

Lu Dan still had a pair of worn shoes, and she had to knit two pairs of wool socks and make two more pairs of shoes for the children.

Song Qingshan was getting irritated and suddenly asked, “Su Xiangwan, why aren’t you sleeping so late?”

“You sleep if you want. Don’t bother me,” Su Xiangwan replied.

As a mother, she could already feel the coming winter’s chill.

She was trying to figure out how to make a nest to stay warm. After a day of hard labor, she was too tired to think about anything else.

As for Song Qingshan, it had been a month since he started work, and he still hadn’t mentioned his salary.

In their military unit, there were supposed to be allowances, as people often said that those with high ranks were called “meat and egg cadres,” those with lower ranks were “sugar bean cadres,” and the common residents and members were called “melon and vegetable people.”

The reason for this was because cadres had special provisions like meat, eggs, and sugar beans, while ordinary people only got melon and vegetables.

…

“Comrade Su, I’d like to have a serious talk with you. Where did you learn that word, ‘intercourse’?” Song Qingshan asked seriously after waiting for Su Xiangwan to speak.

“Pig mating, human intercourse, a village cadre taught me. What’s wrong? Doesn’t it sound right to you?” Su Xiangwan said roughly, hoping he wouldn’t figure it out.

“Driving the tractor? Who taught you that?”

“That thing, you just need to look at it once to learn. Only someone as useless as your third brother would have trouble learning it,” Su Xiangwan answered decisively.

Well, Song Qingshan immediately fell asleep.

This was the old Su Xiangwan—moody, uneducated, and uncultured.

The village team had long wanted Su Xiangwan’s two donkeys, hoping to take them for themselves.

Originally, they had agreed to pay 600 yuan, but were waiting for approval from the township before finalizing the purchase.

She had to wake up at night to feed the donkeys.

Although Song Qingshan usually took care of it, Su Xiangwan couldn’t help but be bothered by the noise.

Besides, at home, the donkeys didn’t have good food.

They only ate grass every day.

But if they were taken by the village team, she heard that each donkey would get 30 kilograms of barley and 50 kilograms of rice every month.

To solve this, Su Xiangwan had been trying to convince the village team to take the donkeys.

Finally, Zhao Guodong came to tell her that the village team was going to take the donkeys and asked her to prepare the halters, reins, and donkey harnesses.

However, she didn’t expect that people would covet her donkeys like this.

So, when the village team came to pick up the donkeys, Zhao Guodong and Song Jianguo were the ones to arrive.

Zhao Guodong was a cadre, while Song Jianguo was a local cart driver. Since the donkeys needed to be driven, Song Jianguo would be the one to lead them away.

Gou Dan and Lu Dan woke up early today to help the donkeys move to their new home.

They were washing them down with water.

“Mom, will the donkeys really eat well at the village team?” Gou Dan asked while splashing water on the donkeys.

Lu Dan, holding a large brush, kept scrubbing, and yellow dirty water ran off the donkey’s body.

“Of course! How could they not be fed well? These two donkeys are males and haven’t been castrated. We’ve always wanted to help people breed them. Your grandma used to charge 50 yuan for breeding once, but it was too expensive, so no one dared to do it. Now, since the donkeys belong to the village team, they only need to pay 10 yuan for breeding. I reckon that soon, people wanting to breed them will be crowding at our village team’s door,” Song Jianguo said loudly.

Think about it—if a man wants to breed, it’s really difficult. That’s why people jokingly say “donkey breeding,” because even for a male donkey to breed, they charge 10 yuan.

Donkeys are worth more than humans.

Zhao Guodong felt that talking about breeding in front of a woman wasn’t proper, so he kicked Song Jianguo to stop him.

But Song Jianguo didn’t care. “Tomorrow we’ve scheduled someone for breeding. Gou Dan and Lu Dan, you can come to the wheat field to watch.”

Gou Dan and Lu Dan agreed eagerly, “Okay!”

“But, Comrade Zhao, what about our money? Isn’t it 300 yuan for each donkey?” Su Xiangwan asked.

Zhao Guodong immediately replied, “Yes, yes. I was just about to remind you. Your third wife, Fang Baoyu, saw me take the passbook from the credit union when I was filling up oil at the warehouse. She said she’d help you take it home. Did she not bring it back to you?”

“Does it look like I have any oil here?” Su Xiangwan said, spreading her hands.

Zhao Guodong kicked again. “That Fang Baoyu is a petty woman who needs a lesson. Let’s go. I’ll go with you to find her and get your money and passbook back.”

You can imagine, Fang Baoyu must have intercepted it halfway and already taken it to her old house.

Su Xiangwan stomped her foot and saw Zhao Guodong still following her, so she quickly said, “No need. I’ll deal with my own things. Even if I have to tear Fang Baoyu apart and turn her into oil, I’ll get it back myself.”

“Bastard,” Su Xiangwan thought to herself. “Today, I’m definitely going to tear Fang Baoyu apart.”

As a result, when Su Xiangwan arrived at the old house, she saw the old lady in the yard, along with Qingyu and Fang Baoyu.

This wasn’t surprising, but the most surprising part was that Song Qingshan was there as well.

“This is the money from Su Xiangwan’s donkey exchange. If you want me to decide and give you half, Fang Baoyu, let me ask you, how big is your face?” Song Qingshan was actually scolding Fang Baoyu.

Fang Baoyu immediately started crying, “Big Brother, our family doesn’t have any laborers, we don’t have oil to eat, winter is coming, and we don’t even have cotton. Look at Fuwazi, he’s still wearing just a single coat. I don’t dare ask my sister-in-law, she’s too fierce. You make the decision, give us half.”

She shoved Song Fu forward, saying, “Fuwazi, quickly go tell your big brother that you’re cold, tell him.”

And she really played her part well, dragging Song Fu along and saying, “Come on, Fuwazi, quickly kneel before your big brother, you don’t know, when you were little, your big brother treated you the best, it was only you two that he ever held. Hurry up, kneel and kowtow to your big brother.”

Song Fu, being quite a performer himself, immediately knelt down with a loud “thud” and began crying uncontrollably.

Qingyu sneered coldly, “Third sister-in-law, if you really want to act, at least stick two green onions up your nose. Look at Song Fu’s body, where is he lacking clothes? He at least has three cotton coats. But look at my Jinguai, he hasn’t had a single egg in three months. I haven’t said anything about that.”

Jinguai used to live well because his grandmother had money.

But now that the old lady had nothing, what could he have?

The child had already lost a lot of weight.

Eventually, Song Qingshan tore the money out of Fang Baoyu’s hands and said, “If the third son really works hard, you’ll have everything. If he doesn’t, then you can divorce him and find a man who will work. There’s no such thing as a brother who can’t support his own wife. If necessary, I’ll help you.”

“Mom, say something,” Fang Baoyu pleaded with the old lady.

What could the old lady say? Her son had just bought her a box of medicinal pills, and as she took them, she found that her mind wasn’t as narrow as before. “Let’s wait. After a month, the third son’s money will come. Let the eldest take his things and move out. From now on, we should rely on our third son, right?”

Now, Old Lady Song was fully invested in waiting for Song Laosan to become a high-ranking official and earn a lot of money.

Song Qingshan came out of the old house carrying an oil bucket.

As he reached the main road, he saw three people standing in front of him.

Su Xiangwan was wearing a set of altered military clothes with two braids.

Aside from her slightly darker skin, her expression had a hint of a smile mixed with a touch of arrogance.

Goudan was wearing a colorful, snake-patterned shirt and carrying a stick, looking like a little beggar.

Dogdan had his hands in his pockets, tilting his head with a thin neck and large eyes. He looked both timid and like a powder keg ready to explode.

“I’ve come to take back what’s mine,” Song Qingshan said.

This group of little troublemakers had managed to make his sister-in-law and wife cry—really quite a feat for such a tall man.

Su Xiangwan took the oil bucket and said, “There’s only five jin of oil, not much. As for cotton, I’m going to make my own cotton clothes, but there’s none left. You know, Qingyu gets new cotton clothes every year, and I haven’t even had one. As for the money, Dad helped me feed the donkey for a long time and even fed it grass every day. This five hundred yuan, give Dad one hundred.”

As she spoke, she noticed Song Qingshan’s lips were trembling slightly.

It was a kind of trembling that indicated unspeakable excitement, and his eyes were red.

Recently, he had been caught between his mother and wife, and now he was so emotional, he couldn’t get the words out.

“Su Xiangwan, you really…”

Last night, he thought she was normal, but now, he felt something was off.

“But the money has to be handed directly to Dad, and don’t think I’m giving it to them for free,” Su Xiangwan said, her eyes instantly reddening. “Your mother once tried to force me out and used every method to drive me away. I’m not saying anything now, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten. Jinguai hasn’t had eggs for three months, and Qingyu complains, but do you know how long Goudan hasn’t had eggs? Since you died, he’s only had two eggs, and that was the day Tingxiu came back.”

Goudan chimed in, “In our village, other than Jinguai and Song Fu, no other children have had many eggs. One time, Jinhuan Ge said that if anyone wanted to ride him, he’d give them an egg. I rode him once, and my waist got broken. We can live without eggs.”

Goudan gritted his teeth and said, “One day, I’ll beat Jinhuan Ge.”

In fact, in the book, Jinhuan was the first person Goudan would kill.

Su Xiangwan gave both of the little rascals a stern look, silencing them.

She said, “Song Qingshan, today I’m letting it go because you brought out the oil, but next time, whether it’s your mother, your sister, or your sister-in-law, if they dare take my things again, I’ll come at them with a knife, no hesitation.”

Song Qingshan didn’t speak.

He just picked up Goudan and said, “So, you really can only eat eggs when your second uncle comes back?”

Goudan had always had a serious aversion to his father and didn’t want to talk to him. The child seemed timid, but his eyes instantly turned red.

Goudan softly said, “He just stole a pear from my grandmother and made her hit me. Ridiculous. Song Fu ate too many eggs, and now he can’t poop. He used a stick to push it out. We’ve been eating poor food, and we’ve been having diarrhea. Song Fu laughed at us, saying our bellies couldn’t hold butter.”

Song Qingshan stood for a long time, then said, “It won’t happen again.” His voice was quiet but firm. “Letting the children go hungry, what kind of man is that?”

“Today we’ll leave this matter, but Song Qingshan, I have other things to do. You need to fully support me, and only then will I try to get along peacefully with your family. But that has to be in the case of not interfering with each other,” Su Xiangwan said, turning around to leave.

In fact, after three months of coming here, she had been confused and hesitant, but in the end, she had found a path that could lead her toward real progress.

Su Xiangwan didn’t want to see any more children in the village like Little Ashe, who had never tasted meat before death, or like Little Ali, who starved to death, or like Little Yedan, who, just to eat a single egg, ended up breaking his back while being ridden as a child of ten.

She wanted to become the village party secretary.

She wanted the children in this village to have enough food to eat.

Of course, if she had previously had a tarnished political background, that would have been one thing, but now, her mother and younger brother had sacrificed so much for her political image. If she didn’t do something now, she wouldn’t be able to justify it.

From now on, Su Xianghong needed to be saved, and she would become the village secretary. Su Xiangwan had set her life goal.

However, if she were to say this out loud, it would be laughable. So, before trying to make it happen, she needed to find someone to discuss it with.

How could she find a way to get people to accept this idea?