Damn it—wasn’t the Lin family jinxing her? First Liu Fengying, now Sun Zhaodi. Each one annoying in her own way.
She had run into those two little brats when she went in, and when she came out she ran straight into Sun Zhaodi—what rotten luck. Why was it so hard for her to do anything in secret?
Liu Heini didn’t greet her and left right away. Even though she’d just eaten at the Lin family’s banquet, she still remembered the fight she’d had with Sun Zhaodi a few days ago.
Sun Zhaodi also turned around and went back inside, unwilling to deal with her either. Honestly—every day it was always her stirring up trouble. Liu Heini never showed up without a motive; who knew what bad idea she was cooking up this time.
What puzzled Sun Zhaodi was why Liu Heini would go looking for Li Xiuli at all. Those two had never been able to talk to each other.
Sun Zhaodi muttered under her breath as she went back in, and Wang Hongmei happened to hear her.
“It has to be about Yunxia,” Wang Hongmei said. She knew a thing or two.
Once she said that, not only Sun Zhaodi but also Li Shufen gathered around, both equally curious.
“What—do you know something?”
“Think about it. What business could Liu Heini possibly have with Li Xiuli? It’s probably related to Liu Fengying. And if it’s Liu Fengying, then it must be about her son Xiaohu taking a fancy to Yunxia. Now that Fourth has gotten married, who’s Yunxia supposed to turn to? Liu Heini is probably worried Yunxia will get talked into it by Xiaohu.” Wang Hongmei pieced things together based on the gossip she’d heard from all sides.
Sun Zhaodi nodded. “You might be right. But if Liu Fengying finds out, won’t the two of them end up fighting again?”
“They’re not exactly strangers to fighting,” Wang Hongmei and Li Shufen said in unison.
That was true. Sun Zhaodi nodded again, then asked, “Where are Fourth and his wife?”
“Probably out taking a walk.”
“Hmph. They don’t work all day and still have the energy to stroll around. All that food they eat—has it even digested?” Sun Zhaodi complained disdainfully.
Meanwhile, the two people she was complaining about weren’t doing anything proper at all—they were sneaking around, watching someone.
They didn’t want to go west because there were too many people there, so they headed east instead. But just as they reached the eastern bridgehead, they saw someone carrying a pile of blood-soaked things.
The two of them were hidden by trees and hadn’t been spotted. Only after the person left did they dare go over—and discovered it really was blood.
“Oh my god… we didn’t stumble onto a murder scene, did we?” Li Baoling was terrified.
Lin Mingyuan was worried too, but after thinking it over, he said, “What he was carrying was a pile, but small. If it were human, it’d have to be dismembered. Still, I feel like that person looked familiar.”
Li Baoling panicked even more after hearing that. “Oh my god, then we really need to run. If you recognize him, that means he’s from the village. And if he’s from the village, he definitely knows you. You’re the brigade leader’s son—you’re famous. We have to leave right now.”
“Wait—I remember who he is. Lin Lusheng.”
“Even though his surname is Lin, he’s not from our branch of the family. I heard his mother gave birth to him on the road and died right after, so his father casually named him Lusheng. Not long after, his father remarried, and the new wife didn’t care about him. He grew up with his grandfather. Old Lin was a veteran hunter. After Old Lin died, Lusheng stopped going home and lived in the old house his grandfather left behind. That place used to be a pigsty—it smelled too bad, so it was built all the way at the eastern edge of the woods. The direction he was heading should be back home.”
“He doesn’t talk to anyone, but my dad says he’s a decent person, a good kid. He shouldn’t be capable of doing something like that.”
After Lin Mingyuan explained, Li Baoling reacted as well. “Then could what he was carrying be a small animal?”
The two of them leaned closer to the bloodstained ground and sniffed. On closer smell, the blood did have a gamey odor.
Just as they were sniffing intently, Li Baoling suddenly spotted a shadow approaching.
“H-he—he’s coming back!”
Lin Mingyuan saw that it looked like Lin Lusheng. At a critical moment he proved reliable, immediately pulling Li Baoling behind him. Running now wouldn’t work—they wouldn’t make it in time.
When the person came closer, it really was him—and he was carrying something in his hands.
“What—what are you trying to do?” Lin Mingyuan stared hard, trying to see what Lin Lusheng was holding. Judging by the shape, it looked like a bucket.
Lin Lusheng hadn’t expected to run into the two of them, and seeing how they were trembling made him even more confused.
“What’s wrong with you two?”
“What… what are you holding?”
“A bucket.” As he spoke, Lin Lusheng poured water onto the ground. After bringing the pile home, he’d noticed blood dripping along the way. Afraid people would see it and start imagining things—and then come looking for trouble—he’d hurried back with water to wash it clean.
“What kind of blood is this?” Seeing that Lin Lusheng didn’t look like he was about to attack, Lin Mingyuan felt braver.
“Pheasant blood.”
Li Baoling exclaimed, “You can catch pheasants at night?”
Only then did Lin Lusheng notice the person standing behind Lin Mingyuan—it was that female educated youth.
He suddenly realized they might have thought he’d done something terrible. The thought amused him. “I caught a few pheasants at noon and hid them in the woods since there were too many people on the road. When I went back just now, another one had wandered over, so I killed it on the spot. The blood from the earlier ones had already dried. What you’re seeing now is from the one that just died.”
So that was it. As long as it wasn’t murder, the couple both breathed a sigh of relief.
Lin Lusheng remembered what they’d said the other day—about infertility not necessarily being the woman’s fault—and thought the two of them were rather interesting. His face, however, showed nothing.
“Pheasants… you can catch things like that?” Li Baoling grew excited. She and Lin Mingyuan were completely useless in this regard. Wait—hadn’t Lin Mingyuan said this man came from a family of hunters?
“Yeah.” Not only pheasants—he could catch wild rabbits too.
Hearing “pheasant,” Lin Mingyuan’s eyes lit up as well. Li Baoling secretly pinched him from behind, and he immediately said, “Could we buy one?”
“There’s no selling things these days,” Lin Lusheng said, thinking the two of them were a bit slow.
“Right, right—not buy, trade. We’ll trade.” Lin Mingyuan corrected himself at once.
“Come with me,” Lin Lusheng said.
Watching Lin Lusheng’s back, Li Baoling whispered, “We’re really going? What if he’s tricking us back to his place to kill us?”
“If he wanted to do that, he could’ve done it right there. With his build, he wouldn’t even need to go home. And if he really meant harm, we probably wouldn’t be able to run anyway.” Lin Mingyuan glanced at the distance—it was pretty far from home.
“Let’s go. He doesn’t look like a bad person.”
The two of them followed him nervously.
“Woof! Woof woof!”
They had barely gotten close when barking startled them.
“Dahei!” Lin Lusheng shouted once, and the dog quieted down.
“Come in.”
He lit a kerosene lamp, and the room instantly brightened—light even spilled outside.
Sure enough, three dead pheasants lay at the doorway, along with a wild rabbit.
“So many!” Li Baoling exclaimed excitedly. If only the two of them had skills like this!
Lin Mingyuan saw them too and couldn’t help sighing—having hunting skills in times like these was truly important. Why didn’t he have them?
“Pick one and take it with you,” Lin Lusheng suddenly said.
“No, no, we can’t do that. We don’t eat for free,” Li Baoling refused, waving her hands. Then she added, “We can give you something in exchange.”
But they didn’t actually have anything—only money.
“No need.” Over the years, the brigade leader had helped him many times. He’d wanted to secretly give things in return, but they were always refused. Finally running into his son and daughter-in-law, he’d intended to give it for free anyway.
Besides, they’d helped him too.
“Take it and eat,” he said. Seeing them still hesitate, he added, “The brigade leader has helped me a lot.”
“That makes it even more unacceptable,” Li Baoling said righteously. “As a cadre’s family, we absolutely can’t take a single needle or thread from the masses. We can’t drag my dad down!” She spoke with such fervor that Lin Mingyuan beside her felt embarrassed.
“We’ll just give you some money. You don’t say anything, we don’t say anything—no one will know. And… could we eat it here? Taking it home would be hard to explain.”
“Yeah, yeah, Brother Lusheng, just agree,” Lin Mingyuan chimed in. There was no way they could bring pheasants home. If they said they were given for free, his dad would beat him. If they said they bought them, his mom would beat him. Either way, he was getting beaten.
Seeing how firm they were, Lin Lusheng realized they truly didn’t want to take advantage. And he understood the brigade leader well—if Lin Mingyuan took them home, he really might get beaten.
“Alright. I haven’t eaten either. I’ll roast three—we’ll eat together.”
“Great!”
Lin Lusheng was used to roasting meat for himself, so plucking and cleaning were second nature. Soon the birds were on the fire. His seasonings were well stocked. In truth, a little salt would have been enough—but even more surprising, he had honey.
Brushed on in a thin layer—my god, the aroma was intoxicating. Luckily, there were no neighbors nearby.
They’d already eaten dinner, but who could resist another meal like this? Since Li Baoling was a woman, she was given a drumstick first. Staring at the glistening, oily leg, Li Baoling’s tears and saliva almost flowed together.
Mom, I finally get to eat something good.
One bite in, she felt it was even better than what she’d eaten at the state-run restaurant—so fresh and delicious. Lin Lusheng’s control of the fire was perfect.
Lin Mingyuan soon got a drumstick too. One bite and he was just as overwhelmed—tender and fragrant.
“Brother, from today on, you’re my real brother.” Even his own brother had never given him a drumstick this delicious.
“That’s right—we’re officially recognizing you as our brother!” Wasn’t it an honor to have a brother who could hunt and roast meat?
Lin Lusheng did have brothers—sons of his stepmother—but they’d never called him “brother.” Even when they met, they wouldn’t greet him. Since his grandfather passed away, the number of times he’d eaten with others could be counted on one hand.
So eating roast chicken late at night with Lin Mingyuan and his wife felt novel to him too. He could tell they didn’t look down on him.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken out the precious honey he’d worked so hard to get.
“You can come anytime in the future,” Lin Lusheng said casually as he took a bite.
“Deal—but we won’t eat for free. We’ll pay!” Then Lin Mingyuan froze. They hadn’t brought any money out with them.
“We—we’ll give it to you tomorrow. We forgot to bring it.”
They hadn’t expected a meal like this at all—it was pure coincidence.
Lin Lusheng didn’t mind. Whether they paid or not didn’t matter. And he wasn’t entirely without ulterior motives either.
After eating their fill, the two couldn’t stay any longer—otherwise, people at home would come looking for them.
After saying goodbye to Lin Lusheng, Li Baoling and Lin Mingyuan headed back.
But before they even entered the house, they heard a voice say, “So you still know how to come home?”
Uh-oh. They’d been caught.