Su Xiangwan stomped her foot in frustration.

She thought to herself: This man is really sending both the big fat lamb and the little fat lamb into the wolf’s den. Doesn’t he feel any urgency?

“Baiyang Farm is divided into eleven teams. Your mother, Zhao Yinshuang, and your younger brother, Su Fufu, are in Team Seven. So, are we going directly to Team Seven now?” Liu Zaiye casually glanced at the woman in the rearview mirror.

She was dressed simply, with two thick braids, and in this hot weather, she was holding a little girl in her arms.

Her skin wasn’t particularly fair, but where her shirt was unbuttoned, well, there was a delicate whiteness. Clearly, she was the type of woman whose skin would turn fair when covered.

“Let’s go then, but can we turn on the air conditioning? This car is really hot,” Su Xiangwan complained.

“Comrade Su, don’t you think you’re asking for too much? There’s no air conditioning in the car,” Liu Zaiye replied.

Su Xiangwan thought for a moment and said, “True, it’s only 1970, there shouldn’t be air conditioning in the car.”

Real car air conditioning only began to appear around 1965, with Ford in the U.S. installing it, while most of the domestic vehicles in China were pre-liberation models. They could barely have heating, let alone air conditioning.

“There’s water in the car, right? You volunteered to be our driver, so hurry up and get us some water to drink. It’s too hot,” Su Xiangwan added, still fanning her collar.

Unintentionally provocative, Liu Zaiye felt inexplicably dry-mouthed and almost slapped himself.

He couldn’t even understand why he had come on this trip, as if he were under a spell—he was actually driving people around.

“Thirsty? Tough luck. There’s no water here,” Liu Zaiye said, pressing on the gas as he arrived at Team Seven. He opened the car door, secretly looking down on Su Xiangwan.

He still thought she lacked education and had so many children with her. Moreover, her gaze towards him wasn’t at all gentle or dependent like a wife’s should be.

But once he opened the door, he couldn’t help but say, “Put up your umbrella. It’s so sunny here. You’ll probably get sunburned.”

He instantly regretted his words, cursing himself for being too nice to this woman.

Su Xiangwan got out of the car and, from a distance, saw a man, probably in his forties or almost fifty, standing at the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative, picking lice under the scorching sun.

She looked at him for a moment and felt like she recognized him.

Just like with Li Yifan, who was a real person, this man seemed familiar, and the more Su Xiangwan looked at him, the more she could tell who he was.

This man, after the reform and opening up, would become one of the wealthiest people in the country. By around 2010, he would be the richest person in the Republic.

His name was Zhao Guonian.

The future tycoon was squatting in Haixi County, Baiyang Farm, under the scorching sun, picking lice. Su Xiangwan was glad she had traveled back in time; after all, living a long life meant witnessing everything.

“Uncle, do you know where Zhao Yinshuang’s house is?” Su Xiangwan approached and asked.

When Zhao Guonian heard someone asking him, especially a young woman, he hurriedly put on his worn-out sweater, looked up at Su Xiangwan for a moment, and said, “You must be Zhao Yinshuang’s daughter?”

“Yes, yes! Do you know my mother?” she replied eagerly.

“I know her, I know her,” Zhao Guonian said as he stood up and dusted off his pants.

“What’s your surname, Uncle?” Su Xiangwan asked.

Zhao Guonian stopped, turned around, and said, “My surname is Zhao, my name is Guonian. Just call me Uncle.”

“Uncle Zhao, how many years have you been here? Will you go back to Beijing?” Su Xiangwan, realizing it was really Zhao Guonian, casually struck up a conversation. Who would have thought that this future richest man in the country would be here picking lice today?

Zhao Guonian replied, “I’ve been to many places. I’ve been here for six years.”

Su Xiangwan stepped forward with several children. The ground was soft, the fine, yellow soil seemed to swallow her feet as she walked.

Qingshui County, after all, was a beautiful place. Xiaosong Village was picturesque, like a painting.

The children had never seen such a place. They weren’t complaining about the hardship; it was the fine yellow dirt, which couldn’t be brushed off, that soon covered them in dust.

Zhao Yinshuang was already 42, but since she gave birth to a daughter like Su Xiangwan, it showed she was in good health.

Despite spending four years under the sun here, she remained one of the fairest-skinned women in Haixi.

The labor reform farm housed families, but each family had only one small house, with a kang (a traditional heated bed) in the middle.

On one side slept Fufu, and on the other side, Zhao Yinshuang.

A narrow wall of mud bricks separated the two.

Today, Zhao Yinshuang had almost accepted a bowl of beans from Ma Xijun, but after a scolding from her son, she hadn’t even had the cornmeal porridge that her son refused to drink. Out of frustration, he had left.

Zhao Yinshuang was thinking about whether to mix some rat poison in her food to end it all.

After all, the one thing they had plenty of at home was rat poison.

Just then, she heard laughter outside.

One of the voices sounded strangely like her eldest daughter, Su Xiangwan.

“Xiangwan?”

“Mom?” Su Xiangwan didn’t expect to be so emotional when she saw her real mother.

She rushed over and hugged Zhao Yinshuang, nearly jumping for joy.

Zhao Yinshuang looked at the three boys standing behind her and, for a moment, couldn’t recognize them.

She then pulled Li Chengze over and said, “Is this Lu Dan? Has he grown this tall?”

“This is my adopted son, and this is Lu Dan and Gou Dan. Oh, and this is Zhi Zhi. Mom, you haven’t met them, right?” Su Xiangwan said.

Since her daughter had arrived, she naturally had to call her son back.

Zhao Yinshuang saw that the person accompanying her daughter was Zhao Guonian, who had been privately very kind to her.

She felt a little uneasy and lightly nudged Zhao Guonian, saying, “Hurry up and leave, be careful not to let Ma Xijun see you.”

Ma Xijun was tall and strong.

Because of Zhao Yinshuang’s interactions with Zhao Guonian, he had made Zhao Guonian’s life difficult more than once.

But today, her daughter, whom she hadn’t seen in four years, had come back, and it was a joyous occasion.

Neighbors from next door came over, and some even helped to call Su Fufu to hurry back home.

Su Xiangwan lifted the lid of the pot and saw that the stove was empty, the pot cleaned spotless.

She decided to take out the salted meat and dry noodles she had brought.

She soaked the noodles to soften them, sliced the wild boar meat, and then turned to Zhao Yinshuang, asking, “Mom, do we have any vegetables here? Should I go buy some?”

“Where would we have vegetables? This place only grows corn, no vegetables,” Zhao Yinshuang replied.

After all, he was her grandson. Zhao Yinshuang picked up Lu Dan, then kissed Gou Dan, and finally picked up Zhi Zhi and held him in her arms.

Although Su Xiangwan had expected the hardships of Haixi, she hadn’t anticipated it would be this tough.

She stepped outside, ready to find some vegetables, when Liu Zaiye appeared, holding a basket, smiling at the door. “I knew you wouldn’t have any vegetables, so I brought some. Potatoes, cabbage, and squash. Here’s some dried noodles. Now, tell me, how’s my delivery?”

“If you keep doing this every day, by the end of the year, I’ll give you an honorary labor medal from our county Women’s Federation,” Su Xiangwan said as she took the basket without hesitation.

A scumbag who still liked to give things despite being despised—just like the characters in books.

Since the vegetables were there, she was certainly going to take them.

At this point, Zhao Yinshuang noticed the “son-in-law.”

She had only met her previous son-in-law, Song Qingshan, once.

Since the two villages were far apart, it was Song Tingxiu who went on the matchmaking visit.

Liu Zaiye was as fair-skinned as him and similarly handsome, so Zhao Yinshuang mistook him. “This is the son-in-law, right? Come inside and sit.”

Liu Zaiye proudly entered the small, stuffy room, pushing people aside.

He flipped his hair, feeling quite pleased with himself.

“Grandma, this is not my dad,” Lu Dan quickly said. “My dad doesn’t look like him. He’s much sturdier!”

“Then who is he? I heard some rumors that Qingshan died. Could this be your new one?” Zhao Yinshuang asked quickly.

Su Xiangwan whispered, “He’s just a troublemaker, mom, don’t mind him.”

For some reason, Liu Zaiye felt strangely pleased after hearing that someone had called him a troublemaker.

Watching the children play in the dirt outside, he thought for a moment, then took a ball from the car and tossed it into the air, spinning it with his fingers. “Who wants to play?”

Lu Dan was the most active and loved kicking the ball. Covered in dirt, he rushed over. “Uncle Liu, Uncle Liu, can I play?”

“Call me Dad and I’ll listen,” Liu Zaiye said.

Lu Dan replied, “Okay, then you need to lean your ear a bit closer.”

Liu Zaiye bent down, and Lu Dan yelled at the top of his lungs, “Dream on!”

He grabbed Gou Dan and ran off.

Liu Zaiye froze for a moment, tossing the ball into the air, unwilling to give up. He didn’t believe he couldn’t win over these little troublemakers.

Since there were potatoes, cabbage, wild boar meat, and noodles, he could stir-fry a delicious pork stew.

When the noodles were added, the meal would be rich in flavor, with oil and vegetables. It would smell so good.

As the two peeled potatoes and cabbage, Su Xiangwan began telling her mother about her life in Qingshui County over the past few years.

She also asked about how Fu Fu and Zhao Yinshuang were getting along here.

She planned to bring her mother and Fu Fu back to Qingshui County, so she needed to ask about her mother’s life here.

“We’re fine, really. Now that you’re here, you can look around, and then we’ll go back. Don’t worry about us,” Zhao Yinshuang said.

Su Xiangwan noticed a few beans on the ground and said, “Mom, the farm workers are probably afraid they can’t afford beans. Besides, I see you don’t even have any grains. Where did the beans come from?”

“Well, someone must’ve dropped a few while passing by,” Zhao Yinshuang quickly said, throwing out the few gray beans that had spilled when Fu Fu and Ma Xijun fought earlier that morning.

“Now let me ask you, you’re not very old, and Dad has been dead for many years. Do you have someone here, or have you gotten remarried?” Su Xiangwan asked.

“No, I have you all, that’s enough. What’s the point of getting married?” Zhao Yinshuang rubbed her face.

She was dark and thin, looking completely different from when she was in Qingshui County.

However, all the women in this place looked just like her—dark as donkey poop and out of shape. There was no distinction between beautiful or ugly.

Su Xiangwan said, “Then let me ask you, is there a man here named Ma Xijun?”

“How do you know Ma Xijun?” Zhao Yinshuang looked around. “Was it Zhao Guonian who said that? Why does he talk so much? You just got here, and he’s already gossiping about these unsubstantiated things.”

“Alright, mom, I guessed it. No one told me,” Su Xiangwan said quickly.