Sun Zhaodi waited and waited, but the two of them still didn’t come back. Anyone who didn’t know better would think they’d spent the night outside.
“We accidentally walked too far,” Lin Mingyuan said awkwardly.
“Y-yeah,” Li Baoling echoed.
“Hm? What’s that smell?” Sun Zhaodi sniffed left and right. She seemed to catch the scent of meat—coming from the two of them.
Lin Mingyuan didn’t dare let his mother find out. He sidestepped at once. “What meat smell? Mom, you must be imagining it. We just went for a walk. Where would we get meat at this hour?”
“Alright, Mom, it’s late. We’ll go back to our room. You should lock up and get some sleep too.” Lin Mingyuan grabbed Li Baoling and hurried off.
“There really is a smell,” Sun Zhaodi muttered to herself. But then she thought about it—there was no way. Where could those two possibly have gotten meat in the middle of the night?
Since they were back, she didn’t dwell on it any further. She bolted the gate from the inside and went to bed.
Back in their room, the couple was still on edge. They’d nearly been discovered.
“Did the smell really not fade on the way back?” Li Baoling sniffed herself.
Then she sniffed Lin Mingyuan. If you smelled carefully, there really was a faint scent.
“My mom’s nose is sharp. She can pick up even the slightest smell—let alone meat.”
Li Baoling sighed. “Looks like we’ll have to be even more careful in the future. Still, thinking about it now feels kind of unreal. We went out for a walk and ended up eating meat.”
“And that Lin Lusheng—don’t you think he was a little too nice to us? Given the conditions these days, who treats you to meat for free?”
“And whatever we said, he agreed to. Could he be trying the corrupt-cadre-family approach?”
After Li Baoling analyzed it this way, Lin Mingyuan started thinking too. “Probably not. Besides, we didn’t eat for free—we’re giving him money tomorrow.”
“Still, I feel like there’s something else going on.”
“Yeah, I feel that way too. But I really hope he’s a good person. That way, we can sneak over there to eat barbecue in the future.” Li Baoling said hopefully.
Lin Mingyuan nodded. “I’ll ask my dad tomorrow what kind of person he really is—see if he can be our long-term supplier.”
Early the next morning, as soon as the food was set on the table, Lin Mingyuan couldn’t wait to ask.
“Dad, let me ask you something. That Lin Lusheng—what kind of person is he?” He went straight to the point.
Lin Guoqing glanced at him, not knowing what trouble his youngest son was up to again. “Why are you asking about him?”
“We ran into him last night when Baoling and I were taking a walk. We even talked,” Lin Mingyuan said.
“Talked about what?” Sun Zhaodi was curious. She knew of the man too. “His own brothers don’t even bother with him—why would he talk to you?”
“Listen to you—like I’m not a good person,” Lin Mingyuan retorted.
Speaking of Lin Lusheng, the eldest brother actually had something to say. “We often work together. He’s solid—never slacks off. More honest than Guliang and Gaodui put together.”
Lin Guliang and Lin Gaodui were the sons Lin Lusheng’s stepmother had borne.
“He’s a good kid,” Lin Guoqing added after taking a sip of water. “He even greets me when he sees me. Lusheng must be twenty-six or twenty-seven by now. That father of his, Lin Changhai, hasn’t even tried to arrange a marriage for him.”
“Lin Changhai—what a piece of work. He’s even less reliable than Lin Cungen,” Sun Zhaodi scoffed. “And whether he even acknowledges Lusheng as his son is another matter. If he were to get Lusheng married, where would the money come from? Just watch—if Zhao Yuxiang is willing to take out even a single cent, I’ll take your surname.”
Everyone in the village knew that Zhao Yuxiang hadn’t even allowed Lusheng to enter the house back then. When Old Lin died, Lusheng was still young, yet he was made to live alone on that hillside. If he hadn’t had some hunting skills, he’d have starved long ago.
Zhao Yuxiang didn’t even bother with the rule that the eldest should marry before the younger ones. She’d already arranged a wife for Gaodui early on, and now Guliang was next. As for Lusheng—he could wait in line. The excuse was always that the boy had a “hard fate,” hard enough to kill his own mother, and no respectable family would want to marry their daughter to him.
Thinking of this, Sun Zhaodi let out a long sigh. It really was a serious problem.
Li Shufen said, “You’d think Lin Lusheng himself would be anxious.”
“What good would it do even if he were?” Sun Zhaodi replied. “Having a father is no different from not having one, and with a stepmother like that, plus that reputation—if you ask me, this kid’s going to have a hard time marrying.”
Wang Hongmei’s eyes flicked around, but she didn’t say anything.
“One last question, Dad,” Lin Mingyuan said. “Do you think he’s someone we can really befriend?”
“Why do you keep coming up with ideas on a whim?” Lin Guoqing tapped his chopsticks. “What kind of deep friendship are you looking for? You’ll just annoy him.”
“That’s not it,” Lin Mingyuan said quickly. “Last night when we greeted him, we felt he was a good person. After hearing what Mom said, we feel he’s pitiful too. We want to be friends with him. And Dad, you know—we may not be good at work, but we’re good people.”
Li Baoling said this without the slightest shame.
Lin Guoqing snorted inwardly—they certainly knew they weren’t good at work. Still, since Li Baoling had asked, he answered honestly. “He’s definitely a good kid. If you get along well with him, that’s fine. If Lusheng ever runs into trouble, you can help him too.”
Back when the family was poor and on the brink of starvation, Old Lin had secretly delivered game to them twice. Because of that, Lin Guoqing had always looked after Lin Lusheng. But the boy was strong-willed—unless pushed to a dead end, he wouldn’t open his mouth.
Hearing Lin Guoqing say this put Li Baoling mostly at ease. She immediately said confidently, “Great. Then we’ll definitely become good friends!”
Roast chicken, roast rabbit—here I come!
Lin Mingyuan was just as happy. Who wouldn’t want good food? He’d felt Lin Lusheng was a good person, but having his father’s confirmation made it much more reassuring.
He’s only polite because of Father’s status—and you think you’re good friends? Wang Hongmei curled her lip.
Both Lin Guoqing and Sun Zhaodi felt the same way. Lin Lusheng was just being courteous out of respect for their family. That boy didn’t like socializing—otherwise he wouldn’t have been alone all these years, without a single close connection.
“Alright, eat up. After that, get to work.”
“And you two—work seriously.”
Once Lin Guoqing emphasized this, the two of them nodded obediently.
“Hurry up and go—it’s getting late,” Sun Zhaodi urged. After everyone finally left, she added, “You two haven’t worked for days. Take it slow—rest when you’re tired.”
Li Baoling and Lin Mingyuan nodded again. They knew why Sun Zhaodi said that. When they got married, she’d practically asked for no bride price—just a token amount.
In truth, the family had originally wanted a big payout. But then they thought about it—neither of these two was cut out for hard labor, and they wouldn’t earn many work points in the future. So it was essentially an upfront exchange of money.
Lin Mingyuan already had a track record; everyone knew what he was like. Add her into the mix, and it didn’t change much.
At least it was all out in the open. Even though Lin Guoqing said this, if the two of them didn’t do well at first, the family wouldn’t be too harsh.
This was Li Baoling’s first time going to work together with the Lin family since marrying in, so Sun Zhaodi kept a close eye on her. Along with the other two daughters-in-law, the five of them set out together.
The sixth was Lin Mingyuan. He couldn’t handle the heavy labor his elder brothers did—one day of that kind of work would leave him flattened for two. And he had a thick skin; he openly admitted he was useless, so he was often assigned the same tasks as the women. Today was one of those days—planting peanuts.
Sun Zhaodi led her four children out in a grand procession. The moment they stepped outside, they ran into Liu Heini and her daughter-in-law.
Before Sun Zhaodi could react, Liu Heini was already making faces—nose not a nose, eyes not eyes. She glanced at the group of five and felt Sun Zhaodi was doing it on purpose, deliberately showing off how many people she had in her family.
Well, of course—she’d given birth to three sons. Thinking of that made Liu Heini even angrier. She grabbed her daughter-in-law and walked off.
“Move faster.”
Liu Ling was thin and small. Being yanked by the strong Liu Heini made her stumble.
“What’s wrong with her?” Sun Zhaodi snapped. “Pulling this kind of stunt every now and then—who can stand it?”
“If I ever bother with her again, my surname isn’t Sun!”
Li Baoling said thoughtfully, “I feel like that sister has gotten thinner again.”
“Don’t even mention it,” Sun Zhaodi said. “That Liu Fengying next door is heartless—always flaunting her eldest grandson. How could that not provoke Liu Heini? And whenever she’s provoked, she takes it out on Liu Ling—beating her, scolding her, often not even letting her eat. You tell me, how could heaven be so unfair, letting such a good girl marry into a family like that?”
As a fellow mother-in-law, Sun Zhaodi thoroughly despised Liu Heini.
“She only dares bully Liu Ling,” Wang Hongmei said bitterly. As a daughter-in-law herself and a neighbor, she couldn’t help but pity Liu Ling.
“Exactly,” Li Shufen added. “And Zhang Baogen too—he was the one who pursued Liu Ling in the first place, yet this is how he treats her. Since Liu Ling married into that family, she hasn’t enjoyed a single good day. She’s been tormented by Aunt Heini nonstop.”
Hearing this made Li Baoling feel even worse. She couldn’t help saying, “I wasn’t joking the other day. Not being able to have children at this age really does have a lot to do with the man. If the Zhang family truly wants a child, why don’t they let Zhang Baogen get checked? Why should Liu Ling be the only one suffering?”
“Let Zhang Baogen get checked? That’d be like killing the entire Zhang family,” Wang Hongmei said sarcastically. Even if they divorced Liu Ling, the Zhang family would never let Zhang Baogen be examined.
Li Baoling replied, “So that means the Zhang family’s lineage is less important than Zhang Baogen’s pride?”
No one spoke.
“Alright,” Sun Zhaodi said, “other people’s business—no matter how much we talk about it, it’s useless.” She really didn’t want any involvement with that mad dog Liu Heini. The woman was obsessed with having a grandson—one wrong move and she’d lash out.
Only Liu Fengying, that fool, kept trying to one-up Liu Heini every day. If something really happened, she’d see what it was worth.
They chatted as they walked, and before long they reached the peanut fields to the east.
Before sowing peanuts, furrows had to be dug—a task that required strength. That was Lin Mingyuan’s job, along with several male educated youths. Sun Zhaodi and the two daughters-in-law could help as well. Li Baoling, meanwhile, sat to one side selecting peanut seeds.
She really wanted to sneak a bite—but with people watching everywhere, she didn’t dare.
As Li Baoling stared at the peanuts, swallowing her saliva, someone came up beside her. She looked up—and it was Liu Ling.
“That day you said that if a couple can’t have children, it might be the man’s problem too,” Liu Ling asked quietly. “Is that true?”