The next morning, he made a firm decision:
Wang Lingling’s grain must be handed in!
He wasn’t as stupid as Wang Lingling. Selling grain during a famine—even in the old society that would get you arrested, let alone now under the new system.
In fact, in recent years, the campaign against “profiteering” was especially focused on speculation. What was speculation? Buying low, selling high, exploiting information gaps and profiting from both ends—that was exactly it.
If the authorities discovered Wang Lingling’s grain hoard later, it would result in the most severe punishment. And he would get dragged down with her.
Zhao Jun got up, hastily fed the children something, then rushed out to find the brigade leader. Better to report it early than late. After all, it was all Wang Lingling’s doing—it had nothing to do with him.
Ignoring the children’s pitiful looks, Zhao Jun was just about to leave when—
Standing at the doorway was his second brother, holding a gourd ladle.
“Old Third, I came to borrow some grain.”
Zhao Jun’s second brother stared at him intently.
Zhao Jun’s head instantly started to throb: “Brother… I can’t lend it. This grain has to be handed in.”
Zhao Family, Second Brother: “Third Brother, I’ll ask you one last time—are you going to lend me the grain or not?”
Zhao Jun braced himself and replied, “I really can’t, Brother. This grain has to be turned in…”
But his second brother didn’t bother listening anymore. He let out a sneering laugh: “Ah, Third Brother, it seems I was wrong about you. Fine then. Don’t worry, even if I’m down and out, I’ll still support my wife and children on my own. I won’t rely on you for a single grain again!”
With that, he turned and walked off.
Zhao Jun called after him, but he didn’t respond.
Zhao Jun clutched his head in frustration, asking himself for the ten-thousandth time: What was the point of being reborn?
His parents weren’t really his parents, and his brothers weren’t really brothers.
Suppressing his heavy mood, Zhao Jun went to find the brigade leader. As soon as the brigade leader heard what he had to say, he realized it was a serious matter and couldn’t make the decision himself. He passed the news on to the commune, and the commune immediately sent a leader over. Both parties worked together on the case.
One part was to deal with Wang Lingling pushing Zhao Granny to her death. The other part was to investigate Wang Lingling’s grain hoarding and planned profiteering.
Before Wang Lingling could even be formally interrogated at the public security office, the grain-hoarding charges hit her first.
She didn’t deny it at all and immediately exposed the Li family.
With just a look from the commune leader, the militia headed off to the Li family to make arrests.
Wang Lingling spilled everything like pouring beans from a bamboo tube: how the old Li woman partnered with her, how she was tricked, why she later compromised, and how the grain was divided.
She confessed everything. Soon after, the entire Li family was dragged in.
The old Li woman, upon seeing Wang Lingling, burst into a fit of curses—because she was scared.
She hadn’t even spoken to Xie Yuejin yet. She was waiting a few more days, hoping to approach her future son-in-law once grain prices peaked in the county, to strike a good deal.
But before she could act, Wang Lingling’s side was already exposed.
The several hundred jin of grain in the Li family’s side room became solid evidence, dragging the whole family into a bottomless abyss.
When things got serious, the old Li woman made a snap decision—she tried to shift all the blame onto her daughters-in-law, desperately trying to protect her sons.
But her daughters-in-law weren’t easy targets either—who’d willingly take the fall?
For a while, the whole room was filled with shouting from the Li family.
A public security officer knocked on the table impatiently: “Enough! Stop arguing. There are still facts to be verified. You—Li family’s old lady. Let me ask you: Wang Lingling said your third son Li Qing was being used as blackmail, with the threat of exposing that he’s… infertile, in order to force you into agreeing to the deal. Is that true?”
Wang Pingping, who had been standing beside the old woman defending her, was stunned.
“Infertile?!”
The old Li woman panicked and tried to run, but it was too late. Wang Pingping let out a sharp, miserable scream. The next moment, she grabbed the old woman’s hair.
“Damn it! Quick, pull her off!”
“Ma’am, stop hitting her! If you keep this up, you’ll end up in jail too!”
“Is this family insane?!”
…
It took a while for the officers to pull Wang Pingping off. By then, both the old woman and Li Qing had been badly beaten and bitten, their faces swollen and bruised.
Wang Pingping was in tears. She had endured countless sneers and scorn for not being able to have children—her life had been bitter and difficult. And now it turned out it was all a lie!
She collapsed to the ground, crying like a madwoman, cursing the entire Li family—calling them heartless, cursed to die without descendants, and spouting every venomous insult she could think of.
A public security officer took a deep breath and stepped outside to borrow a lighter from a colleague.
“I’m telling you, this one’s going to be a big case.”
Late August-
The cornfields of the brigade no longer needed guarding. Wang Ying’s private plot was ready for harvest.
Wang Ying wore a little straw hat and happily followed Old Lady Xu to dig up peanuts. Their household used a lot of oil, so they had planted a whole patch of peanuts on their plot.
Wang Ying had also watered them several times with spring water, so the peanut plants were thriving.
Old Lady Xu was surprised. “Our peanuts are growing really well.”
Wang Ying: “We haven’t dug them up yet.”
Old Lady Xu: “You can tell just by looking!”
Sure enough, when they pulled them out, each plant was a large bunch, pulling up a whole chunk of soft soil.
Old Lady Xu was overjoyed. “These peanuts are great. We must save some for next year’s seeds—we can’t eat them all.”
Peanuts this good should be used for planting.
Wang Ying cracked open one fresh peanut—still moist from the soil. Freshly harvested peanuts were juicy and had a naturally sweet and fragrant taste.
Wang Ying: “These help regulate the digestive system. I’ll grind some up later and make little cakes for you.”
It didn’t take long to harvest the whole patch.
Wang Ying weighed the batch—around several dozen jin of peanuts.
Old Lady Xu was very satisfied: “Take them to the oil press—we should be able to get over twenty jin of oil.”
After harvesting the peanuts, Wang Ying set her sights on the two sunflower heads in the private plot. She had gone to great lengths to get the seeds, just to grow some sunflower seeds for roasting.
But maybe they had been planted too late, or maybe the location was a bit off, because while the peanuts were ready to harvest, the sunflower heads weren’t quite mature yet.
Wang Ying checked them three times a day, afraid someone would pick them early.
While waiting, she experimented with different ways to eat the new peanuts.
First came five-spice boiled peanuts—fresh peanuts didn’t need to be dried. She washed them with the shells on, then gently tapped them with a small wooden mallet so they’d crack a little, allowing the flavors to seep in.
She added bay leaves, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, rock sugar, cinnamon, chopped scallions, a bit of soy sauce, and a generous amount of salt (which was key). She simmered them for an hour and then let them soak for half a day.
That’s how she made salted peanuts—enjoying the fresh peanut flavor. The skins held a juicy, flavorful bite, and the peanuts were soft and fragrant.
Xu Shuang boiled a big pot, and Wang Ying and Old Lady Xu sat beside it, munching away without even noticing they’d eaten the whole thing.
Next came stir-fried peanuts. Wang Ying encouraged Xu Shuang to try all kinds of frying methods: spicy peanuts with dried chili and Sichuan peppercorns, sugar-coated frosted peanuts, tiger-skin peanuts coated with egg and flour batter, and even weirdly flavored peanuts with a mix of random seasonings—which surprisingly turned out pretty good.
Wang Ying munched while giving suggestions: “Let’s do this again for the New Year.”
These little snacks were perfect for passing the time in winter.
The final item was something Wang Ying had been longing for: dairy products.
Xu Shuang had spent quite some time cultivating a connection at the township’s livestock station. He finally managed to pull some strings during the hot weather—when the station couldn’t sell the milk fast enough and it was on the verge of spoiling—to get Wang Ying half a bucket of fresh milk.
To get the milk, Xu Shuang timed it precisely. He picked it up right after it was milked and rode his bicycle straight home without delay. The heat of the late summer was intense, and any delay could have spoiled the milk.
Once home, he immediately covered the bucket and placed it in a water vat for cooling.
Wang Ying gestured excitedly: “Use the milk to make dough, and for the filling, add peanuts, sugar, and black-and-white sesame seeds.”
Xu Shuang, hearing this, felt that no matter how it turned out, it wouldn’t taste bad.
Even Grandma Xu clicked her tongue in surprise: “Goodness, peanuts, milk, sugar, and flour—however you mix it, it’s gonna taste great!”
Wang Ying, a theoretical giant when it came to food, chimed in quickly: “Actually, it would be even better to use glutinous rice flour for the skin. Make an ‘ice skin’ pastry with a peanut, sugar, and sesame filling. If we can, add some hazelnuts too. Bite into it, and the sugary filling will ooze out…”
Xu Shuang considered it: “Would adding some wheat starch—like cheng flour—also work?”
Wang Ying nodded enthusiastically: “That works too! Mainly it just looks prettier!”
So, under Xu Shuang’s experimentation, Wang Ying got to eat not only a white flour pastry with a peanut, sesame, and sugar filling that very day, but also a small batch of translucent dumpling-like treats. Xu Shuang had made them using potato and wheat starch, steamed into sweet filling “shrimp dumplings.”
Wang Ying ate two of those, but ultimately was more drawn to the wheat flour version. The snow-white, fluffy, milk-scented pastry skin gave way to a sweet, flowing filling.
The heated sugar had melted; the peanuts were fragrant and crunchy; the sesame had been roasted too. The nutty texture combined with the oozing sugar filling and creamy outer skin kept Wang Ying coming back for more.
The remaining milk was used to make double-skin milk pudding. The only downside was that, without a fridge, the texture wasn’t ideal.
Xu Shuang sprinkled some roasted crushed peanuts on top and, as Wang Ying suggested, added some cooked red beans. Wang Ying satisfied her craving for dessert and then stopped eating.
Surprisingly, Grandma Xu loved the flavor: “It’s soft, fragrant, and sweet.”
Xu Shuang finished Wang Ying’s leftover milk pudding and pulled out his little notebook to jot things down. He still felt something was missing—like he hadn’t perfected it yet.
A few days later, Xu Shuang went to great lengths to get two more bottles of milk. This time it was less, but came in glass bottles, so there was no urgent need to use them right away.
After more trial and error, he finally made a bowl of double-skin milk that even Wang Ying said was good.
And so, life remained peaceful for a while—until the beginning of September.
September started off turbulent. News came from the county seat: a few grain stations had already closed down this month. In the city, even people with grain coupons couldn’t buy any grain.
Wang Ying reminded Xu Shuang: “Shouldn’t you go check on Master?”
The items they’d sent to Chen Dong last time should still be enough, and Wang Ying had added quite a bit more. But now that things were unstable, it was hard not to worry.
Xu Shuang nodded: “I’ll go tomorrow and check in.”
He didn’t plan to bring anything with him—just go see how things were. If needed, he could come back and fetch supplies.
Wang Ying said, “I’ll come find you tomorrow. Some of the village’s medicine is running low. I’m going to the town health station to stock up.”
But when Wang Ying arrived in town the next day, someone she didn’t recognize stopped her.
She looked confused at the person standing in front of her bicycle.
Zhao Jun hesitated, then finally spoke: “Do you have a moment? I want to ask you something.”
