At the small primary school…
Lin Qiuman tied the two pheasants to the side, cleaned out their insides, and planned to slaughter them tomorrow.
As for the two little rabbits—they were both female. The male rabbit in her space was really enjoying himself. It was mating season, and he was going to be very busy from now on.
“Teacher Lin, I’ll head back now,” Shen Lingkang said softly as he helped Lin Qiuman place the firewood into the simple stove.
“Wait a moment.” Lin Qiuman smiled. The water on the stove had been heating for a while and was now just the right temperature for washing.
She soaked a new towel in a basin, rinsing off the loose fibers before handing it to him gently.
“Wipe your face and neck. Wipe your arms too. You’ll sleep more comfortably tonight.”
Shen Lingkang shook his head shyly. Sometimes when his third brother was home, he would take him to bathe by the stream.
But most of the time his third brother wasn’t home. His two nephews and niece would occasionally sit in a big basin to wash themselves.
As for him… when he once tried to boil water for a bath, his sister-in-law scolded him for wasting water and told him to just rinse off when it rained.
Since then, every time he washed his hair or bathed, it was during rainfall…
“Then I’ll help you,” Lin Qiuman said, frowning slightly. She stood up and walked over, gently wiping his cheeks with the towel.
When she wiped his neck, Shen Lingkang giggled and coughed lightly. He glanced at Lin Qiuman before immediately quieting down, obediently letting her fuss over him.
“Children need to keep clean. When the weather gets hotter, you should wash your hair every two days at most.”
Lin Qiuman rinsed the towel again and wiped his arms and underarms.
“If it’s inconvenient to wash at home, come here after dinner at night. This basin is specially prepared for you—no one else will use it.”
“And don’t worry about your two sisters-in-law scolding you. I’ll figure something out.”
Shen Lingkang quietly watched Lin Qiuman as she kept talking. Under the moonlight, her voice was gentle and warm, reaching deep into his heart.
“Time to go home.”
Shen Linghua’s voice suddenly came from far away as he called out to Shen Lingkang. After shouting once, he turned and left without even glancing at Lin Qiuman.
Lin Qiuman waved at them in confusion, then quickly tidied up the firewood in the yard before entering her space to wash up.
She brought the two female rabbits into the space, planning to place them beside the male rabbit.
Unexpectedly, she walked in right as the rabbits were… busy.
Startled, Lin Qiuman hurriedly retreated, twisting awkwardly as she left the scene. She only had one male rabbit—she couldn’t scare him!
After waiting a while, she returned with the two rabbits.
This time, she placed the male rabbit together with only one of the females. The other female—who had just finished mating—was placed alone in a separate cage.
The gestation period for rabbits was only about a month. If nothing went wrong, she could have three litters of baby rabbits in a month…
At that time, she could sell the rabbits to people in the city and make some money.
After studying with the “gold medal teacher” for a while and preparing her lesson plans, she washed up and went to sleep.
Early the next morning, thanks to her biological clock, she woke up at six and headed toward the mountains with a bamboo basket on her back.
She deliberately walked deeper into the mountains where there was less soil and almost no one would notice.
After an hour, she had transported ten bags of soil into her sky garden.
On the way down the mountain, she saw a bamboo grove. Taking a machete from her space, she cut down a bamboo stalk and chopped it into short sections.
“I’ll make bamboo tube rice for those two brothers. The leftover bamboo tubes can also be used as cups.”
Lin Qiuman placed the bamboo cups into her basket and happily walked down the mountain.
Passing by the village committee building, she saw villagers gathered together. Politely, she asked, “Heading to the fields so early today?”
“No, the old village chief just asked everyone some questions. Apparently several cubic loads of soil were stolen overnight from the hillside in the township. He’s asking if anyone saw suspicious people coming down the mountain.”
“Soil?” Lin Qiuman twitched her lips slightly and forced a smile. “No one would take such a big risk just to steal soil…”
She hadn’t expected that simply borrowing some soil from nature would cause such a stir.
The news had already spread to the village overnight.
“It’s not a big deal. The township just finds it strange. The hillside is hard to walk on, so how was the soil transported away? There aren’t even any tracks.”
The villagers also thought it was strange. Normally, if someone wanted soil to build a house, they would report it to the village collective, lose a few work points, and then haul soil from the mountain.
Sometimes people secretly took a sack of soil to level their courtyard—that wasn’t unusual.
But the township thought the disappearance was mysterious. There were no traces on the road at all, as if the soil had vanished into thin air, so they wanted to investigate.
“What if they never find the person?” Lin Qiuman asked nervously. Hopefully it wouldn’t drag too many people into trouble…
“If they can’t find him, then forget it. It’s just some soil, not grain stolen from the production team.”
Lin Qiuman laughed awkwardly, made an excuse, and hurried back to the school.
When the morning reading session began, Shen Linghua arrived and started working on molding the bricks again.
At first, Lin Qiuman glanced outside and thought she was mistaken. She pushed open the door and called out, “Third Brother.” When Shen Linghua turned around, she smiled.
“Going somewhere today? Why are you dressed so neatly?”
This blockhead had finally figured something out…
Today, Shen Linghua wasn’t wearing his usual faded, patched clothes. Instead, he wore green rubber-soled work shoes.
His upper body was dressed in a white shirt-style jacket with a white undershirt underneath, making him look clean and neat.
His long trousers hung straight and slender…
“Brother Linghua, I told the old village chief that I won’t be working in the fields today. I’ll help you mold the bricks.”
Before Shen Linghua could respond, Li Wenbin approached carrying a shovel and a bucket.
“Teacher Lin, I brought you a packet of vegetable seeds. Once the soil is turned over, you can plant them. Don’t worry about anything—just go teach your class.”
“When we work in the fields, you barely swing the hoe twice before needing a break. Why pretend to be hardworking here?” Shen Linghua glared at Li Wenbin irritably, then took off his white jacket, revealing his strong arms.
Lin Qiuman walked over and took the white jacket from him.
“If you leave it outside, it’ll get dirty. I’ll put it in the dormitory for you.”
“Whatever.” Shen Linghua snorted, secretly thinking Lin Qiuman at least had some sense.
“Student Li, give me the seeds. I’ll plant them later.”
Lin Qiuman really wanted those seeds—but she didn’t intend to plant all of them in the yard. She planned to keep some for her sky garden.
The temperature there was perfect, almost like greenhouse farming. The plants would definitely grow very quickly.
Li Wenbin didn’t care about Shen Linghua’s sarcasm and continued smiling.
“Teacher Lin, don’t be so polite with me.”