After hearing Su Wei’s words, Jin Guiyou thought for a moment and asked, “So what are you sisters and brothers planning to do?”
After twenty years, Su Qiao had long forgotten that her family still had land.
And now, she didn’t know how to farm at all.
Since it was her eldest younger brother who had raised the issue, she turned her gaze to Su Wei.
Yesterday afternoon, Wang Lanxiang had given Su Wei and Su Peng half a basket of eggs and insisted that they deliver them immediately to her eldest daughter Su Xiaomei’s home in town.
At the time, Su Wei had found it strange, why send eggs at such a time? By the time they arrived, it would be completely dark, and he and his brother definitely wouldn’t be able to make it back that night. But Wang Lanxiang had insisted they go anyway.
Now Su Wei understood. His aunt by marriage had deliberately sent them away so they wouldn’t run into their sister, so that their sister would have no one backing her up!
Even now, Su Wei still didn’t fully understand what exactly had happened at home.
But the branch secretary’s words just now, his sister’s resolute decision to move back home immediately, and what had happened to Xiao Lan…
No matter what, he could tell that their family had been bullied by their uncle and aunt.
If that was the case, then no one was going to take advantage of his family!
Seeing everyone looking at him, Su Wei didn’t shrink back.
He said loudly, “Since we’re setting up our own household, everything that belongs to our family has to be returned to us. I’ll farm the land myself from now on, there’s no need for my uncle’s family to help!”
“You don’t know how to farm for shit!” Su Changfu snapped at once.
To farmers, land was their lifeline.
What’s more, his family had been farming that land for so many years that Su Changfu had long since come to regard it as his own.
Now hearing that Su Wei wanted to take the land back felt like someone carving flesh off his body.
No, worse than carving flesh!
“You little brat, what can you even do? You farming? You wouldn’t be able to grow a damn thing!”
Hearing this, Su Wei wasn’t having it. He craned his neck and argued back, “If I don’t know how, I can learn! Even if I grow nothing but crap, it’s still my family’s land, and I’m willing!”
“You—! You little bastard, you’re rebelling now!” Su Changfu was so angry he jumped in place, raising his hand to slap Su Wei across the face.
“Uncle!” Su Qiao immediately stepped in front of her eldest younger brother, shielding him firmly behind her.
“That land belongs to my family!” she said to Su Changfu, each word deliberate and firm.
Su Changfu could easily have struck his niece, but for some reason, looking into her eyes, he felt an unexplainable hesitation rise from deep within.
Although he would never admit it, he instinctively lowered his raised hand.
“Branch secretary, what do you say? That land’s been tended by our family for all these years, finally brought to good use, and you’re just going to give it to them? What do they even know? If you give it to them, they’ll ruin it!”
Su Changfu completely ignored the siblings and turned to Jin Guiyou, seeking support.
Jin Guiyou hesitated.
In principle, the land should be returned to Su Qiao and her siblings.
But he was an experienced man and understood Su Changfu’s point as well.
Who among the siblings could actually work the land?
No need to mention Su Qiao—Su Wei didn’t have the ability either. Handing them the land might really end in disaster.
“Uncle Jin, we’ll return the land to the village,” Su Qiao spoke up while Jin Guiyou still hesitated.
“Sister!”
“What nonsense are you talking about!”
This time, Su Wei and Su Changfu were completely in agreement, shouting in unison.
Even Jin Guiyou furrowed his brows: “Su Qiao, can you just return land like that?”
Xiaojin Village was one of the largest villages in the county, but land was scarce and people many.
Returning the land would be easy now, but reclaiming it later would be almost impossible.
Although the family currently lacked strong labor, Su Wei was about to become an adult. When he started his own household, how would he survive in the village without land?
Su Qiao, however, felt nothing but relief.
Before her brother mentioned the land, she had completely forgotten about it. Once reminded, she realized immediately that the land could not stay with them.
She had been reborn and naturally understood the course of history.
Su Qiao knew that up until the early 1990s before the rural reforms, farming was backbreaking work with little reward, and the burdens only grew heavier over time.
The reason the government later carried out reforms and revised policies was precisely because the burdens on farmers were too heavy and life was too hard.
After working tirelessly for a year, if the weather was bad, there was no guarantee that the harvest would even feed the family, let alone cover the state grain quota, they might even end up owing the government.
In a family as weak as theirs, who could manage the land? If they failed, they’d just have to make up the difference themselves.
Moreover, she was definitely going to school and eventually moving to the city; her younger siblings would follow her.
If that’s the case, what’s the point of keeping the land? It would only cause trouble.
But she also didn’t want her uncle’s family to benefit for free, so returning it to the village was the best choice.
Seeing how it hurt her uncle and his wife over this made her immensely satisfied.
As long as they were unhappy, she was happy.
Faced with everyone’s objections, Su Qiao had no intention of backing down.
She looked at her brother reassuringly and said even more firmly, “Uncle Jin, I’ve made up my mind. We’ll return the land. My uncle is right, we don’t know how to farm. Keeping it would only ruin it. It’s better to give it back to the village and let someone more capable take care of it.”
After hearing this, Jin Guiyou was silent for a moment, then nodded.
“If you’ve made up your mind, then we’ll do as you say. After the wheat harvest, have Changfu return the land. In the future, your siblings can buy grain from the village or exchange labor points, whatever works.”
He could see that Su Qiao truly did not want to farm, and that this girl held grudges; she would rather hand over the land than give her uncle’s family an advantage. Returning it really was the only solution.
Jin Guiyou didn’t worry about their food. The monthly allowance was more than enough for the children to eat.
As for the future, he figured he’d be village chief for a few more years. When Su Wei needed land, they could hold another meeting to redistribute it, and the villagers probably wouldn’t object.
Recovering a good piece of land and ensuring it wasn’t wasted put Jin Guiyou in a good mood. He immediately started organizing the villagers to help the siblings move.
With the village chief in charge, everything went incredibly smoothly.
No matter how unwilling or angry Wang Lanxiang and Su Sanmei were, there was nothing they could do except sit in their houses and wail.
Especially Wang Lanxiang, after learning that Su Qiao had simply gone out to talk to Xiao Qifeng for a while, she had caused such a huge commotion.
Not only did she have to return the bride price money, she also couldn’t receive the monthly allowances of several dozen yuan, and nearly fainted from the shock!
She stomped and cursed in the courtyard, but after a few shouts, a cold glance from the village chief made her swallow her words.
In the end, she could only grunt and lie back in bed, cursing the ancestors of the Su family for eight generations straight.
After helping the siblings move, Jin Guiyou went off with Xiao Qifeng and the village militia squad leader to discuss how to catch the kidnappers.
Soon, only the four of them were left at home.
Standing in the familiar yet strangely empty courtyard, the children were silent, their eyes full of bewilderment.
Su Qiao couldn’t believe things had been resolved so easily, she had originally been prepared to fight to the bitter end.
The younger ones, meanwhile, were completely confused by everything that had happened that morning.
With the crowd gone, they felt even more disoriented.
They couldn’t understand how, in just one day, everything could have changed so drastically.
They didn’t know how long they stood there in the courtyard until one of the little ones’ stomachs growled, finally bringing Su Qiao back to her senses.
“Su Wei, you take the two of them and set up the beds. I’ll check the kitchen and see if I can make something to eat,” Su Qiao instructed.
Su Wei agreed and, along with Su Peng, carried the bedding they had brought back from their uncle’s house into the room, with Su Lan bouncing along behind them.
Su Qiao went to the kitchen herself.
Earlier, the villagers had helped them secure a month’s worth of grain from Su Changfu and Su Sanmei, even managing to get a few ration coupons out of the two households.
But the food amounted to only half a bag of sorghum flour and a dozen or so ears of corn.
Su Sanmei had reluctantly handed over a pack of old dried pumpkin that had been stored for over six months, refusing to give anything else.
Su Qiao took the items into the kitchen, and found it completely empty.
Once she had decided to take the siblings in, her uncle had immediately moved the three younger children into his house under the pretext of easier care, while sending his second son, Su Xiaowu, to live in Su Qiao’s house.
In name, it was supposedly to “help them look after the house,” but everyone knew the real reason was to set Su Xiaowu up to get married in their house.
Su Qiao’s family situation was unusual, and with so many eyes in the village watching, there was no way Su Changfu could just seize their house.
After all, Su Wei and Su Peng were both boys, and the family line wasn’t broken.
But by occupying the house first, her uncle could let his second son, who was of marriageable age, get married there, and then slowly save up to build his own house later, making things much easier for the family.
Su Qiao understood this logic, but she had school to attend, and her younger brothers were still too small to be left alone at home, so she agreed to her uncle’s plan.
Since Su Xiaowu wasn’t married yet, he naturally ate at home, which made the kitchen there basically just for show.
Moreover, having been suddenly forced to move, with Wang Lanxiang’s personality, not a single thing would have been left behind for them.
So it was completely normal that everywhere was empty.
Su Qiao went around the kitchen, put the food in order, and then walked outside.
“Are you done packing? Once you’re ready, come out—I’ll take you into town to eat something good!”
Standing in the courtyard, she called loudly toward the main room.