"I'll treat you to meat. Starting this week, I'll bring you meat once a week, though I can't specify what kind," he said through gritted teeth.
Song Xiu Jun paused her movements: "Seems you're going all out." This truly struck a chord with her.
She had money but couldn't obtain fresh meat. Going to the black market was both distant and risky.
"If I eat your meat and your sister doesn't listen to me, I can't return it," she hesitated, not wanting to get involved in others' family affairs.
Yan Xiang'an waved his hand: "No need to return it. Consider it compensation for your trouble."
After thinking for a moment, she continued: "Actually, I have an idea. Your sister might not necessarily like Zhao Shuwen that much – it could be more admiration. Why not introduce her to another male comrade of similar type?"
Yan Xiang'an's eyes lit up; he hadn't considered this approach.
"Zhao Shuwen has decent looks, is educated, and appears polite and mild-tempered to outsiders – qualities that easily win female comrades' favor. Combined with his urban household registration, some might just envy city life and want to transfer from rural status through Educated Youth programs."
"Your younger sister's conditions are quite good in the marriage market – striking appearance, hardworking, high school educated. Though from a rural household, her family doesn't need financial support from their daughter. She might not find someone in the county town, but finding someone in the commune should be easy enough."
By looking for someone similar to Zhao Shuwen, she might transfer her affections upon meeting them.
After all, transferring rural status through Educated Youth programs was uncertain, while current matchmaking prospects held more immediate value.
"Alright then, I'll talk to my mother and have her find a reliable matchmaker," Yan Xiang'an could tell she really didn't want to meddle and changed the subject: "I wonder how many rabbits we can catch today."
After searching the mountain for hours, they only found three rabbits in the burrows.
Yan Xiang'an looked disappointed: "I thought they bred quickly."
Song Xiu Jun checked the time: "Should we look some more?"
"Visibility is poor at night. We should come during daytime – it's unsafe without scouting the path first," Yan Xiang'an shook his head.
She didn't respond, silently reviewing the mountain's map in her mind while activating her detection function.
"Hey," Song Xiu Jun suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "There seems to be a hidden cave ahead."
Yan Xiang'an had grown up at the foot of this mountain. People from the Production Team knew these paths well, and he often came up here looking for rabbit burrows. Though today's location was somewhat remote, team members had been here before, yet no one had ever mentioned a cave in this area.
Holding a long stick given by Yan Xiang'an, Song Xiu Jun followed the map forward on her own.
As she approached, her detection function scanned ahead.
"There's a cave here," Song Xiu Jun pointed at the mountain wall before them. "Inside…" She was about to say there were boxes hidden inside but quickly closed her mouth.
How could an outsider Educated Youth know such details so clearly?
Yan Xiang'an asked doubtfully: "Are you sure?"
Song Xiu Jun quickly amended: "I saw an animal going in here earlier, so I guessed there must be a cave. Should we… go in and check?"
The cave entrance was blocked by vines and large rocks, with the vines covering even the gaps between stones. It was normal that no team member had discovered it.
"No," Yan Xiang'an stopped her. "It's not safe at night. We should go down the mountain. If you're curious, we can come together tomorrow during the day. We absolutely cannot take risks at night."
"If something really happens, no one would even know where we went. Tomorrow I can ask Xiao Mi to join us."
He grabbed Song Xiu Jun's walking stick and pulled her toward the downhill path.
He was most worried she wouldn't listen to reason and would insist on exploring at night.
Song Xiu Jun wasn't the kind of reckless person who acted without thinking. As the two descended along their original path, she glanced at the backpack and said: "How about giving me all three rabbits? I'll pay you the same price you'd get at the black market."
Yan Xiang'an kept business separate, calculating roughly before saying: "Then let's count them as 3 kuai each. You can give me 4.5 kuai – we'll split it half and half."
Song Xiu Jun counted out the money from her pocket and handed it to him. Yan Xiang'an waited until he saw her climb over the courtyard wall before leaving.
The next day at noon, after lunch, Yan Xiang'an came looking for her.
"Do you need to take a nap? If not, we can go up the mountain this afternoon. Didn't you want to find that cave yesterday?" Actually, he didn't really believe there was a cave there.
But considering Song Xiu Jun came from a big city, she was probably just genuinely curious about the mountains and wanted to have some fun.
As a friend, he needed to keep his word.
"I've already spoken with Xiao Mi. His younger sister Xiao He is coming too – she can keep watch for us."
"Aren't you all supposed to be working this afternoon?" Song Xiu Jun asked.
Yan Xiang'an shook his head, speaking quite shamelessly: "We're not that important. The fieldwork won't stop just because I'm not there."
"I just took a day off recently," Song Xiu Jun said hesitantly. Last time when she went to his place, the Brigade leader had emphasized that they couldn't avoid labor. Although her work points were usually low, at least she showed up. If she took time off too frequently, she'd just be asking for a scolding.
"See, you're just not thick-skinned enough. Don't worry, at worst you'll get lectured by the Brigade leader. It's not like you depend on work points to survive. You'll get used to being scolded after a few times. Like I said before, to the fields, your absence is like one less handful of soil – completely insignificant."
Yan Xiang'an comforted her with complete confidence.
"That actually makes sense," Song Xiu Jun felt a strange sense of agreement. This Yan Xiang'an really knew how to talk – every word suited her tastes perfectly.
So she went to request time off during the afternoon work session.
The Brigade leader kept a stern face, staring at her for two seconds. He knew her previous illness had been fake: "Little Song Zhiqing, you can't avoid labor."
"Brigade leader, I've been with our Production Team for so long but I've never been up the mountain. I just want to go up today to look around, dig for some wild vegetables, pick some wild fruits. Anyway, the autumn harvest is over. It won't make any difference with one less person."
At first, she considered using feeling unwell as an excuse again, but then realized that going up the mountain would mean passing the fields. If someone saw her, wouldn't that damage her credibility and others' goodwill? She finally decided to tell the truth.
"Little Song Zhiqing, since you want to go up the mountain, you can gather two baskets of pigweed today. After you finish gathering pigweed, you can do whatever you want." The Brigade leader knew this girl wasn't particularly hardworking. According to her team's small leader, she usually liked chatting with others in the fields and worked very slowly.
People's boundaries kept expanding. If he let her successfully take time off twice, she'd become even lazier next time, maybe not even bothering to request leave and just not showing up.
Song Xiu Jun blinked. She didn't know what pigweed looked like, but she agreed immediately anyway.
She carried her basket and sickle up the mountain, where Yan Xiang'an and Yan Xiaomi were already waiting. Soon, Yan Xiaomi arrived as well, having also taken on the task of cutting pig grass.
With four people working together, the pig grass was cut quickly. In just over an hour, they had filled four baskets.
"Cutting pig grass is really easy. This job suits me perfectly," Song Xiu Jun said, stretching lazily.
Yan Xiaomi never left empty-handed. In between cutting pig grass, he dug up a large handful of wild herbs: "Sister Xiu Jun, do you want some? I'll share half with you."
Curious about how they tasted, Song Xiu Jun didn't refuse. She took out some Fruit Candy from her pocket and shared it with them.
The four of them arrived in front of the cave, and the Yan siblings questioned in unison, "Is there really a cave here?"
"Just a guess, just a guess," Song Xiu Jun explained guiltily.
Yan Xiaomi took the lead, pulling forcefully and immediately tearing off a large handful of vines. Yan Xiang'an stepped forward to help as well. The four of them divided the work and quickly cleared away half, revealing the mountain wall.
The vines had been densely layered, one covering another.
After resting for a while, they continued clearing.
"There really is a cave!" Soon, a crevice the width of a forearm was exposed, but it was blocked by a stone about two meters tall.
"Should we keep going? This stone is too big," Yan Xiaomi hesitated, feeling that an average person wouldn't be able to move it.
In his view, they were just here to keep the city girl company and pass the time, but now the difficulty had escalated, and they should find something else to do instead.
Only Song Xiu Jun knew that a box was hidden inside.