Wang Yaozhong stood at the door of his house, staring in confusion at the two somewhat dilapidated rooms before him.
He had only been away from home for a little over half a month, so how had things changed so much?
Li Chunjuan had been lying in the house sulking. These past few days, she hadn’t even wanted to step into the yard; even being in the yard made her blood boil. The newly built courtyard wall was even higher than the one that had been torn down before, and just looking at it annoyed her. When Xu Shuang had brought people to build it, she hadn’t paid much attention, but later she noticed them raising it higher and higher, and that’s when she realized something was wrong.
If the wall of Wang Ying’s house was so tall, wouldn’t it overshadow her own yard? Now only one room in her house could get sunlight during the day; the other one only caught a few hours of sun. The courtyard was completely overshadowed and felt suffocating.
From the main entrance, the small courtyard was now blocked on one side by a high wall, making it feel cramped and unpleasant.
Li Chunjuan had wanted to go to the production team to raise a fuss, but Wang Yongshun had told her with a fake smile that the team leader was definitely siding with Wang Ying, and going there would be pointless.
Li Chunjuan didn’t buy that and went to argue two or three times, but Tian Youfu never gave her a kind face. He just said that it was Wang Ying’s house and she could do whatever she wanted with it. If their family was unhappy, they could renovate too. After all, in the countryside, if nothing else, there was plenty of land. Wang Yongshun’s family had three children and hadn’t used all their allotted homestead space. At worst, they could just expand their own yard.
Li Chunjuan had hoped that Tian Youfu would stop Wang Ying from changing the courtyard, but Tian Youfu insisted that once the homestead was allocated, the owner could use it however they liked. If she wanted to throw a fit, he wouldn’t entertain it.
After all the fuss, Li Chunjuan could only watch as Wang Ying completed the wall.
Lying on the bed, she cursed everyone in her mind—from Wang Ying and Xu Shuang to Old Lady Xu and even Tian Youfu.
That little tramp Wang Ying was even taking in a live-in son-in-law and had no gratitude toward her own family—scumbag!
Xu Shuang, a useless cooking pot—he used to be her son-in-law, and now he was acting like a lust-driven fool. What a bastard!
Then there was the old hag, Old Lady Xu. Even though her own life was going well, she still kept tabs on what she’d given to her in-laws. Miserly old witch, may she die penniless!
The team leader was a shameless man, always siding with others. People always said that oppressors should be sent down to the cowshed*—why hadn’t he been sent yet?
[*Note: A reference to the Cultural Revolution, when people seen as oppressive or counter-revolutionary were humiliated and punished.]
…
As she was fuming with resentment, Li Chunjuan heard her son Wang Yaozhong’s voice. At first, she thought she was imagining things, but as the voice grew louder, she immediately sat up and craned her neck to look into the courtyard.
The windows of their two rooms had been smashed by Wang Ying earlier and hadn’t been repaired yet—just covered with a layer of paper. Peeking through a torn corner of the paper, Li Chunjuan saw the apple of her eye.
“Yaozhong! Why are you back?!”
It wasn’t vacation time.
Since Hongqi High School was close to the production team and near the mountains, travel became difficult once heavy snow set in, so school usually ran until the end of November, followed by a two-month break.
So why had her son come back now?
Li Chunjuan rushed outside and tried to grab her son to check if he’d lost weight. “Did you run out of supplies at school? Or were you bullied?”
Wang Yaozhong impatiently shook off his mother’s hand. He was in his second year of high school now—a growing young man who would graduate next year. He already looked like an adult: tall and strong, with a broad frame that took after Li Chunjuan. Unfortunately, his facial features were a blend of his parents’ worst traits—thin lips and a flat, shoehorn-like face that made people naturally dislike him. But Wang Yongshun and his wife were blind to this, and so was Wang Yaozhong. His hair was slicked back and shiny, and he wore a pair of leather shoes rarely seen even in town.
He brushed off Li Chunjuan and said, “Did you guys forget about me or something? I’ve been eating mixed-grain flatbread at school for days now!”
Actually, mixed-grain flatbread wasn’t too bad—made from cornmeal and soybean flour, it wasn’t as prized as white flour, but in the countryside, being able to eat it every day meant a family was doing well.
But not for Wang Yaozhong. He’d always eaten refined grains at school. The cafeteria’s food was low in oil, and he couldn’t eat without ordering meat dishes. Eating mixed grains for several days straight made him feel deprived.
Wang Yaozhong kept complaining: “Did you and Dad both forget the schedule or something? I’m almost out of ration tickets.”
That’s when Li Chunjuan finally remembered—on the day the Xu family caused trouble, Wang Yongshun had planned to go into town, but everything had gotten derailed by Wang Ying’s affair.
“It’s Mom’s fault. I let you go hungry. Quick, go lie down in the house. I’ll go find someone to trade for half a chicken to give you a good meal.”
Li Chunjuan’s heart ached. After giving birth to two daughters, she finally had this one son. Before that, she’d endured ridicule from others who said she couldn’t bear sons. She was so terrified she even went to fortune tellers for charms, afraid her next child would be another girl.
When she finally had a son, she cherished him like a treasure. No matter how poor they were, they never let him go hungry.
Letting him eat coarse food for a few days felt like someone was stabbing her heart with steel needles.
“What do you want to eat? Mom will make you chicken noodle soup, or stir-fry with steamed buns?”
Wang Yaozhong waved his hand. “Whatever… Hey Mom, I asked you—what’s up with our yard? Why is my room walled off?”
He didn’t know yet that his room had been taken back by Wang Ying. He thought his room was still on the other side of the wall.
Li Chunjuan opened her mouth, not because she felt guilty, but because she felt she had let her son down.
As parents, they had failed—lost their son’s room.
She had such good plans: four rooms, and after her son got married, they could open up two of them. The couple would live spaciously, and the remaining room could be for the grandson. If they had more grandkids, they’d build again. A big happy family, all living together.
But in just under a month, her son’s room was gone. Now they only had the two on their side.
Li Chunjuan wiped her eyes and recounted everything that had happened at home recently—without forgetting to mention Wang Lingling.
“Your second sister is heartless. She ran off and left us with all the mess at home. Your dad and I were stuck in the fields while the Xu family came asking for money… and that slut Wang Ying just watched and didn’t say a word. She even spoke up to Xu Shuang, and now they’re getting married.”
Wang Yaozhong: ???
There was way too much information in that one sentence, and Wang Yaozhong was stunned.
The house had descended into chaos. Wang Ying had gone to the team leader and taken back all the money and goods.
His second sister, Wang Lingling, ditched the family to elope and became a stepmother elsewhere.
Wang Ying was now with his former brother-in-law Xu Shuang, and the two were getting married.
…
Wang Yaozhong was no child. He could keenly sense that these changes at home were very unfavorable to him.
“…So everything at home was given to her? Even my quilt?”
Li Chunjuan wiped away tears. “Everything. We couldn’t come up with the money, so the team leader heartlessly made us compensate her with goods… I didn’t give her that much at all!”
Li Chunjuan’s anger stemmed from her sense of loss and injustice.
It was true that Wang Ying had used her own money to purchase the items, but those things weren’t easy to come by — they required ration coupons and favors. Li Chunjuan had gone to great lengths to get them, and in the end, they all ended up benefiting Wang Ying.
Tian Youfu calculated everything based on money — he didn’t factor in the ration coupons and favors she had used!
Wang Yaozong was burning with rage. His thinking aligned more with his father’s — he looked beyond the loss of just material things.
He believed that since Second Uncle and his wife had passed away and they only had one daughter, Wang Ying, with no son, then everything from Second Uncle’s family should naturally belong to him. He was the only male in the Wang family of his generation. Even if Second Uncle were alive, he would have had to help raise him along with his father.
Otherwise, when Second Uncle died, who would smash the pot, break the bowl, wear mourning clothes, and keep vigil?
Of course, they hadn’t held a mourning ritual yet because Second Uncle hadn’t been confirmed dead. But if his body were to be returned and buried in the Wang family’s ancestral tomb, wouldn’t he be the one standing at the front?
Such an important matter — could Wang Ying handle it?
Since he had already “given so much,” then why shouldn’t Second Uncle’s possessions be his?
Wang Yaozong immediately stood up to go next door and cause trouble: “I’m going to ask her! Who does she think she is pulling this crap?”
He was full of confidence, convinced that he could talk Wang Ying into a corner.
His parents just hadn’t thought of this angle. Wang Ying currently looked like she had no weaknesses and could do whatever she pleased with the brigade backing her. But what about her parents?
When her mother died two years ago, he had taken part in the funeral rites too.
That debt hadn’t even been settled yet!
If she wanted the house so badly — fine. But if Second Uncle returned and needed a proper burial, she shouldn’t expect him to lift a finger!
Wang Yaozong kicked open his own gate, brimming with fury. Li Chunjuan followed behind, distressed: “Why are you kicking your own door? Go kick Wang Ying’s!”
Wang Yaozong would’ve loved to, but he couldn’t.
When Xu Shuang built the courtyard wall for Wang Ying, she had also replaced the front gate. Xu had sourced a solid piece of fine timber from who knows where — dense and heavy — and had a carpenter fashion a sturdy gate with two large brass rings on it.
With a tall courtyard wall and such an impressive gate, people in the brigade were green with envy. They said it looked like something out of a rich landlord’s house from the old days.
Wang Yaozong couldn’t budge the gate with his kick — instead, his foot started to throb with pain.
That pain instantly flared his anger from seven-tenths to full-blown.
He banged on the door: “Wang Ying! Come out here!”
He banged for a long time, hands stinging, but Wang Ying never appeared.
Wang Yaozong was furious but helpless.
He wanted to storm in, but the heavy door wouldn’t open, and the tall courtyard wall was unclimbable.
He wanted to yell insults until someone came out, but Wang Ying didn’t respond or open the door.
Although he hadn’t had much interaction with Wang Lingling, at this moment, he shared her sentiment completely:
Like a dog trying to bite a tortoise — no place to sink your teeth.
In the end, all he could do was clutch his aching hand and stomp back to his own home in frustration.
And Wang Ying?
She was out gathering herbs in the mountains.
She had gotten annoyed just listening to her cousin’s voice from the next courtyard over.
Ever since she had inherited the original host’s memories, Wang Ying had held no moral expectations of the eldest uncle’s family. The uncle was hypocritical and selfish, the aunt was stupid, short-sighted, and mean. As for the eldest cousin Wang Pingping, she had little impression — but the original host hadn’t liked her either. And the second cousin was Wang Lingling — a reborn schemer…
The whole bunch was worthless.
Wang Yaozong was the ultimate embodiment of all their worst traits.
Wang Ying couldn’t be bothered wasting breath on people like that. With a wall between them, neither side could bother the other — no need to listen to his nonsense.
So she strapped on her basket and headed for the mountains.
In recent days, the house had been busy with the courtyard wall construction. Wang Ying thought she’d need to help, but Xu Shuang and Old lady Xu had taken care of everything without involving her at all.
The laborers building the wall were a few young men from Old lady Xu’s maiden family, along with a few neighbors who still kept ties with the family after the trouble. Xu Shuang had also recruited some decent lads from the brigade. With about a dozen people working together, the wall went up as fast as if they were riding a rocket.
Old lady Xu had Xu Shuang bring back buns and braised dishes from a restaurant. For lunch, Old lady Xu herself cooked — wild mountain rabbit meat fried in pork fat with cabbage, potatoes, and vermicelli, all stewed into a giant pot. Leftovers were even packed up for the workers to take home.
In rural brigades, work like this was typically unpaid. Large clans could summon dozens of people with a shout, and even smaller families could rally a dozen through relationships. You help me, I help you — feed everyone lunch, and that’s that.
The Xu family wasn’t short on money. Each worker got a big bowl of wild rabbit stew topped with two hefty slices of braised meat and two large cornbread buns. It was better than what some people had during the New Year.
At first, some were relieved they hadn’t been invited — thinking they dodged a chore. But by the second day, people were itching to get involved. The aroma of that braised meat wafted across the entire brigade. Old lady Xu had two sons who were both good cooks, and her own skills weren’t bad either, having been surrounded by good cooking all her life.
The rabbit was chewy and flavorful, the stew rich with pork fat — the smell alone was enough to drive people mad.
By the time others came to Xu Shuang asking to help, she turned them down, saying it was just a wall — no need for so many hands.
Those people went home and slapped their thighs in regret.
The Xu family had always lived well but hadn’t made enemies, thanks in large part to Old lady Xu’s tact. Whenever she cooked something special, neighbors could trade an egg for a taste, and she never fussed.
If this had been before, anyone who asked to help build the wall would’ve been allowed, no question. With a big pot of stew, adding a couple of bowls didn’t matter, especially for close acquaintances — Old lady Xu wouldn’t have minded at all.
But after this incident, that kind of goodwill? Gone for good.
People found their own workers, and even if you went over, they didn’t want you. They made it sound nice, saying they didn’t want to trouble you—but what kind of trouble was it, really? Eating fatty slices of meat, your mouth full of oil, doing just a bit of work that wasn’t even tiring, and even getting a meat bun halfway through?
The few families that had recently distanced themselves from the Xu family were now full of regret, feeling they had acted too rashly.
But there was still a chance—the courtyard wall couldn’t be built again, but two wedding banquets were coming up soon!
Those with scheming thoughts immediately went to Xu Shuang to ask about the weddings.
Xu Shuang didn’t mince words and directly said, “My mom has already found people. No need to trouble you, auntie. I’ll give you some sweets when the time comes.”
Look at that—“give sweets”—not even a clear word about whether they’d be invited to the wedding feast!
The people asking weren’t fools. They forced a laugh and said, “I heard you’re holding the banquet on the 26th, right? Auntie will definitely come early that day to help your mom.”
They didn’t say much up front, but they clearly wanted to restore the relationship later.
And thinking further—Xu Shuang’s son had real skills, he’d be doing well no matter where he ended up. Having a connection to a chef was a real advantage—this bond couldn’t be broken.
So after those bustling days of building the courtyard wall, Wang Ying didn’t feel busy at all.
The big pot dishes old lady Xu made were incredibly fragrant. Wang Ying ate along with everyone else. Whenever she offered to help, she was turned down—Old lady Xu had heard from her son that Wang Ying had learned some medical skills from her mom, and this only made her more satisfied with her. She told Wang Ying to rest inside if it was noisy, or to go to town if she wanted a walk. Whatever she wanted to eat, she could just ask Xu Shuang to make it.
Wang Ying thought going to town was just aimless wandering. The town of Xipo wasn’t that big—after a few rounds, she’d just end up seeing the same old stuff.
As for food, she’d already eaten more than well enough the past few days—she wasn’t particularly craving anything either.
So she decided to go up the mountain again.
Over the past few days, Wang Ying had thoroughly familiarized herself with the mountain areas she could reach. She now knew exactly where different medicinal herbs were growing, even the spots with yet-to-mature plants.
Carrying her basket, Wang Ying found a rocky cave. Below the cave, growing on the stones, was a clump of plants bearing small green fruits.
Wang Ying examined the plant. The fruits were the size of raisins, but plump and round, and green in color.
She was very satisfied. This clump of stone olives had been discovered by chance. When she first saw it, the plant was already dried up and yellow, seemingly unusable.
She had poured two handfuls of spiritual spring water on it, just to see if anything would happen. Surprisingly, the plant perked up not long after, and fruit started growing.
Wang Ying carefully picked the stone olives, wrapped them in newspaper she had prepared, and gently placed them in her basket. Wild stone olives weren’t considered top-tier medicinal herbs, but since few people could identify them and they required processing before use, they fetched a decent price.
Wang Ying figured that by the time she went to the city, she might not have time to bring the processed ones—better to bring the fresh ones and see what they’d sell for.
After picking the fruit, Wang Ying poured some more spiritual spring water at the plant’s roots.
Strangely, back in the apocalypse, she had tried watering base-grown plants with spiritual spring water, but they had shown no reaction at all. But here, if she watered flowers or plants with the spring water, they would grow sturdier and more vibrant.
With this advantage, Wang Ying planned to clear a plot of land on the mountain and try transplanting some medicinal herb plants. Who knew—maybe she could grow a whole field of valuable herbs!
Wang Ying picked a few more herbs and continued deeper along a path she’d discovered herself.
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of color—an iridescent animal dashed past.
Looking closely, it was a pheasant!
Wang Ying was overjoyed. There were more wild rabbits in the mountains, and she’d seen squirrels and monkeys too, but this was her first time spotting a pheasant. Pheasant meat was tastier, and pheasants often wandered down the mountains, so if there were any around, they’d usually have been caught and eaten long ago.
This one must have stayed in the mountains the whole time, which is why it hadn’t been caught.
The pheasant was alert. As soon as it sensed her, it flapped away. Wang Ying chased after it, but it quickly flew up into a tall pine tree.
The tree was too tall and hard to climb. Wang Ying could only sigh and watch it.
Then she looked around—and was stunned.
The pheasant had led her to a small pond!
Wang Ying had a good sense of direction and had kept track of her route. With a quick estimate, she figured this pond was within the Fourth Production Team’s area.
The small pond was surrounded by thick trees, with no visible paths. Wang Ying explored the area and didn’t find any signs of regular human activity.
So this was an undiscovered wild pond?
Wang Ying tossed a stone into the water—it sounded deep.
An idea struck her. If this pond was that deep, and likely fed by an underground source—then were there fish in it?
The area of Shengli Commune where she had transmigrated to had small streams, nestled by the mountains and water. But those streams were used constantly for washing clothes, bathing, and sewage—any fish bigger than a palm was rare. Bigger fish were practically nonexistent.
And Nan Shao County didn’t have any major rivers or lakes. Local people rarely ate fish. In the countryside, a few places had rivers where fish could be caught, but people weren’t used to eating them. Unless they had important guests, they wouldn’t bother buying fish.
Wang Ying didn’t dare go into the water. Instead, she emptied her basket, scattered some bun crumbs inside, tied it securely with vines, and tossed it into the pond.
Then she witnessed something she had never seen in her life.
Half-arm-long fish swam straight into the basket!
And not just one!
Wang Ying stared, dumbfounded, as the fish kept diving into the basket, then thrashed around unable to get out. She snapped out of it and hurried to pull the basket out—it was already half full!
With great effort, she lifted the basket back up, only to find it full of five or six long, heavy fish—enough to fill half the basket. They weighed around thirty pounds in total.
After her stunned moment came pure joy—not because she was craving fish, but because this hidden pond meant she now had an endless supply of fresh fish!
