The wild-vegetable balls were limited in number—Shen Song's grandparents, the eldest son, the second son, and the fifth son each got three.
Everyone else got two apiece.
Today's wild-vegetable balls were simply too delicious, and the Shen family was left craving more after eating.
Shen Song was also terribly tempted, but he thought it would be such a shame that Sanqiu and the others had never tasted something so delicious.
So he quietly set one aside, and when it was time to leave, he stuffed it into his nephew's hands. "Sanqiu, share this with your little brothers and sisters. I'll check when I get back—if you haven't finished it, I'll be very sad."
Shen Sanqiu didn't dare accept it. They were doing hard labor in the fields—how could he dare take it?
"Sanqiu, take it. Otherwise, every time I eat, I'll just be thinking about how you've never tasted something this good, and the food won't taste good to me at all."
Shen Song was desperate for Shen Sanqiu and the others to try a wild-vegetable ball. Warmth flooded Shen Sanqiu's heart. He certainly wanted to eat it, but he couldn't let his little uncle go hungry while doing heavy work.
Shen Song was in a hurry to leave and forcibly stuffed the dumpling into Shen Sanqiu's hand before running off.
Afraid of dropping the dumpling, Shen Sanqiu had no choice but to hold onto it.
Back in the room, he sat on the edge of the bed board, watching as his four younger siblings stared wide-eyed at the wild-vegetable ball in his hand.
All four children were drooling, dying of temptation.
The five of them had stomachs growling loudly from the smell of the wild-vegetable balls. Thinking of what his little uncle had said, Shen Sanqiu lowered his head and divided it up.
"This is what Little Uncle saved for us. He thinks it's delicious, so he wants us to try it too. When Little Uncle comes back, we have to tell him whether it tastes good, understand?"
Wuxi and Siping, who could understand, nodded repeatedly, while Liurui and Qitian, still too young to understand, stared at the dumpling and sucked on their fingers.
On the way to the fields, Shen Dashu secretly slipped Shen Song half a wild-vegetable ball.
"Quick, eat it."
Shen Song looked at the wild-vegetable ball in his hand as his father said, "The other half has to be saved for your eldest brother. He's stubborn about his work and burns a lot of energy. Song-ge’er, next time you get a wild-vegetable ball, eat it yourself—don't save it for the family. If you don't eat your fill before working in the fields, your body won't hold up."
Shen Dashu also wished his grandsons could eat their fill, but the situation simply didn't allow it.
After the spring plowing was done, he and his sons would go out to work for wages. Then he'd buy some malt candy and boil a pot of sweet water for the children.
Shen Song watched as his father gathered up the crumbs left in his palm from breaking the dumpling apart and tipped them into his mouth, wasting not a bit.
The wild-vegetable ball in his hand still held a trace of warmth. Shen Song smiled and took a bite.
His father was so good to him!
After one bite, Shen Song fed a piece to Shen Dashu. "Father, let's eat together."
Shen Dashu had never experienced anything like this—his child smiling and feeding him food. His heart felt both warm and awkward.
The honest, simple farmer didn't know how to react. He could only press down his ge'er's hand and say in a low voice, telling the boy to eat it himself, "Father's not hungry."
Liu Chunxia watched father and son from not far away and couldn't help but smile.
While working in the fields today, Shen Song consciously used the Blessed Land Technique, pouring energy into the soil.
Because of using his supernatural ability, Shen Song was so exhausted today that he didn't even have the strength to walk.
Shen Dashu offered to carry him on his back, but Shen Jing stepped forward and said, "Father, let me do it. Your back is bad."
Beside them, Xu Hongmei secretly rolled her eyes, thinking, And your back is any better?
But seeing how exhausted Shen Song was—unable to even speak, lying obediently on the ground with his big eyes rolling around as he watched them—she steeled herself. Fine, she would carry him!
Xu Hongmei had already handed the iron shovel in her hand to her eldest son, Shen Yi'an, standing beside her, but someone moved faster than she did.
"I'll do it."
The second son of the Shen family was a quiet one, never willing to say more than necessary.
After dropping those two words, he simply bent down and picked up Shen Song, who was lying on the ground.
Shen Song lay on his second brother's not-so-broad back and whispered his thanks by his ear, "Second brother, thank you for your hard work. I'll dig lots of wild greens later on—nice tender ones—and give them to you to eat."
Shen Zhun was silent for a moment, then gave an unaccustomed "Mm."
After walking quite a few steps, Shen Song was nearly asleep when he heard his second brother say in a low voice, "If you're tired, rest more. I don't need to eat tender wild greens."
Shen Song answered groggily, "Okay then…"
Liu Chunxia, who was brushing the dirt off Shen Song's back, paused slightly at Shen Zhun's words. Ever since her second son had learned to talk, his words had come out only a few syllables at a time.
Saying so much all at once—how rare!
By the time they got home, Shen Song was awake again.
The boiled wild greens they had for dinner were the same ones dug up the night before. As Shen Sanqiu cooked, he marveled at how fresh and tender the vegetables still were.
She wondered where they'd been dug from. That patch of land must be good land—the vegetables grew well, tasted good, and kept for a long time, too.
Tonight's boiled wild greens had much less of the bitter, astringent taste in the broth, and toward the end one could even detect a faint fragrance and the natural sweetness unique to fresh greens.
After finishing a bowl, Shen Song felt the vegetables, carrying traces of spiritual energy, replenishing his body.
Combined with the recovery from his supernatural ability, all his fatigue was swept away, and he felt full of strength once more.
The rest of the Shen family had no supernatural ability, so the effect wasn't as pronounced as it was for Shen Song, but after the meal, everyone felt less tired and refreshed in body and mind.
As the family was about to clean up after dinner, Shen Song voiced what he had been thinking about all day: "I want to dig wild greens to sell."
Zhou Gu's hands paused, and he reacted quickly, immediately glancing at the faces of the two Shen elders before saying to Shen Song, "Song-ge’er, you didn't get this idea from my nonsense, did you? You've never left the village, so you don't know how hard it is. The wild greens our family dug this time may be tasty, but that doesn't mean everything we dig from now on will be. And even if they were all tasty, they're still wild plants that anyone can dig up—hardly worth anything."
After speaking, Zhou Gu still felt uneasy. His parents-in-law mustn't think that he, Zhou-ge’er, had put his brother-in-law up to this!
Heaven knew he had just said it offhandedly at the time.
He hoped these words would talk Song-ge’er out of it.
Shen Song felt that none of what Zhou Gu said was a problem. With his supernatural ability, he could dig up wild greens just as good as yesterday's anytime.
And only he could dig them up—no one else could.
Such good flavor could only come from the vegetables his family dug. How could he worry about selling them?
Shen Song said, "Don't worry, second brother-in-law. I'll search carefully, and I'm sure I can find wild greens just as good as the ones we dug last night. Our vegetables taste good enough—even if they're not worth much, they'll still sell for something."
Zhou Gu's heart went cold. This little ancestor—surely he wasn't going to set his mind on selling wild greens just because of one thing he'd said?
If wild greens sold that well, someone in their village would have been selling them long ago.
Zhou Gu delivered vegetables to his elder brother in town, so he naturally knew a bit more than the rest of the family.
Now he was in the mood to explain things properly, and he carefully laid it all out for Shen Song.
"Town is close by, so they don't lack for this. The county seat is far, and land there is worth its weight in gold—even the outskirts are mostly private land belonging to wealthy families. People there can rarely get a taste of it, which is why they'd want it. But demand is limited after all. The owners of those big restaurants already have fields in the outskirts—their estates send some over, and that's enough for the restaurants' daily use. Why would they need anyone else's wild greens?"
Shen Song was stunned.
Was his get-rich scheme going to come to an end again?
Shen Song was very disappointed.
"And here I thought I could sell some and earn money for a nice meal."
Seeing him so dejected, Xu Hongmei couldn't help but say, "After spring plowing is done, the family will plant vegetables to sell. Then your sister-in-law will take you to set up a vegetable stall in town."
Shen Song's eyes lit up, and he instantly came back to life.
"Great!"
But soon he wilted again—vegetables would take a long time to grow.
Liu Chunxia had watched Shen Song bouncing around and smiling these past days, and it made her happy to see.
Now, seeing the little ge’er looking so deflated, she couldn't bear to watch. She asked, "Xiao Ba, do you really want to go sell wild greens?"
Shen Song nodded.
"Even if you can't sell any, even if people scold you and drive you away, that's all right?"
Shen Song thought for a moment, then nodded again.
How could making money ever be easy? Everyone had their own hardships in life. If he wanted to earn money from others, then he had to endure some things.
More importantly, he truly wanted to try, wanted to go out and see the world.
Just thinking about it inside the village was useless.
Liu Chunxia glanced at Shen Dashu. The old couple exchanged a silent look, and finally Shen Dashu nodded. Liu Chunxia sighed softly, turned to Shen Song, and said, "Xiao Ba, go try selling them. It's fine if you can't sell any. Don't be afraid of being driven off or scolded—just come home."
Shen Song happily threw himself at his parents and hugged them, nodding hard.
The old couple's faces went bright red, though with the dim light and their dark skin, you couldn't tell.
The rest of the Shen family peeked over secretly. Seeing the old couple so flustered they didn't know where to put their hands, everyone held back their laughter.
At bedtime, the whole family slept in one big room, separated by straw curtains.
The adults were dead tired from working in the fields and fell asleep the moment they hit the bed.
On the children's side, Shen Sanqiu, Shen Siping, and Shen Wuxi were all quietly telling Shen Song how delicious the wild-vegetable balls he'd given them were. Shen Liurui, who still couldn't speak very clearly, could only repeat what his older siblings said, and one-year-old Shen Qitian could only get words out one at a time.
As the children talked about the wild-vegetable balls, they all savored that taste, secretly swallowing their saliva.
The vegetables were fragrant and sweet. Even though the wheat bran was hard to swallow, they still thought it was especially delicious.
Much better than the wild-vegetable balls before, and tonight's boiled wild green soup was tasty too.
If only they could eat wild greens this delicious every day.
Hearing the children swallowing their saliva, Shen Song smiled and said softly, "Once Uncle sells the wild greens and earns some money, I'll bring you something even tastier."
The children's eyes lit up, and they all pounced on Shen Song. Not daring to speak loudly for fear of disturbing the adults' rest, they all whispered about how wonderful their uncle was.
Shen Song lost himself in the repeated chant of "Uncle is the best."
Even in his dreams, he was buying delicious treats for his nephews and nieces, surrounded by them in a circle as the children held hands and spun around him, chanting, "Uncle is the best!"
Shen Song was overjoyed, grinning happily in his dream.
With only a straw curtain separating the spaces, how could the adults not hear the commotion?
As fathers, mothers, and uncles, it pained them to hear it.
If the family weren't so poor, the children wouldn't be unable to have even a wild-vegetable ball.
But for a family like theirs, lifting themselves out of hardship was easier said than done.
Being able to live as they did now—free of illness and disaster, with everyone alive and well—was already the result of struggling with all their might.
In the pitch-dark room, the five Shen brothers thought before bed: after spring plowing ends this year, they would have to work even harder.
No matter what, the family needed to have some savings.