“What a heavenly life.” Lin Xiaodi sighed, clutching his stomach.
“If only we could eat gleaming white rice and fragrant meat every day.” Lin Xiaomei echoed.
Life’s desires were nothing more than this.
“What are you two thinking about?” Li Dongxiang laughed helplessly. Now that the moment had finally come, she could ask. “Da Ya, where did you get all this meat?”
Lin Erjun also looked at Lin Jinghong.
“I got it from the mountain. With this great mountain right at our doorstep, how could we starve ourselves?” Lin Jinghong said dismissively.
Smack!
The next moment, her arm was slapped. She was stunned.
Li Dongxiang was both angry and anxious. “How could you go up the mountain? Have you forgotten how you nearly lost your life there before?”
Lin Erjun added, “You’re not allowed to go again!”
The memories in Lin Jinghong’s mind became clear. When she had first arrived home, the family had run out of food. She had gone into the mountain alone without telling anyone, only to encounter a herd of wild boars. If not for her great strength and quick feet, she would have been done for.
She had escaped by the skin of her teeth, covered in wounds, and had lain on the kang recuperating for a long time.
Then later, an uncle from the brigade had gone hunting in the mountain to get some nutrition for his wife who had just given birth, and he had died at the hooves of wild boars. When they found him, his body wasn’t even intact.
From then on, she had held great reverence and fear for the back mountain and rarely dared to go up.
The brigade leader had also repeatedly forbidden it, and everyone was afraid, so basically no one dared to venture deep inside.
And there was nothing much to hunt on the outskirts anyway.
“I’m fine. I’m skilled.” Lin Jinghong was unconcerned.
“No going! It’s not like the family is completely out of food. What if something happens to you?!” Li Dongxiang was forceful for the first time, her eyes reddening with urgency.
Lin Erjun was also very serious. “The family still has debts, but your mother and I can earn. We can tighten our belts and get by. You…”
“Dad! Mom!” Lin Jinghong was a little unaccustomed to their concerned gazes.
“I really am very skilled. Last time was an accident.”
Afraid they wouldn’t believe her, she went to the woodshed next door and grabbed a wooden stick as thick as an arm, snapping it effortlessly with a light motion.
“If you still doubt me, I’ll go knock down the apricot tree by the door too?”
“…”
Li Dongxiang wouldn’t budge. “In any case, the mountain is very dangerous. Don’t go.”
“Mom, I know what I’m doing!” Lin Jinghong’s gaze burned with determination.
Seeing the unyielding look in her eyes, Li Dongxiang and Lin Erjun opened their mouths but couldn’t find the words to refute her.
The two exchanged a glance and hung their heads in defeat.
At the end of the day, it was still because the family was poor. If they could afford to buy meat, Da Ya wouldn’t be insisting on going up the mountain.
“Dad, Mom, Sister should value her life.” Lin Xiaodi chimed in.
He felt that the sister he saw these past two days was different from the sister before.
She was still the same person, but the sister before him gave him a feeling of strength and reliability.
“What do you know?” Lin Erjun frowned.
“I do know.” Lin Xiaodi looked at Lin Jinghong with sparkling eyes.
Lin Xiaomei could only nod. “Sister is amazing.”
“…”
Lin Jinghong tilted her head up, gratified. “Dad, Mom, just trust me. Anyway, even if you don’t trust me, I’ll still go.”
The couple was directly left speechless.
They had a feeling that they couldn’t control this daughter of theirs.
Whatever.
They had given up trying.
Li Dongxiang went to clear the dishes, and Lin Xiaodi scurried off to boil water, saying it was for Lin Jinghong to soak her feet.
Lin Jinghong…
“Go practice your calligraphy.” Lin Jinghong patted the little shadow Lin Xiaomei.
She would be starting school in autumn and had already begun her early education.
Lin Xiaodi was in middle school and could also tutor his younger sister.
Lin Erjun was usually timid and submissive, but he was well-regarded in the brigade. Having managed to survive under someone as harsh as Old Mrs. Lin, he had still fought tooth and nail to send his daughter and son to school.
He was quite a figure.
Lin Jinghong had graduated from middle school, making her one of the more educated girls in the brigade.
Her bride price was even higher because of it.
“I know.” Lin Xiaomei stuck out her tongue and obediently went to practice writing.
Qingyan Brigade and the neighboring brigade shared a primary school, located right between the two.
“Sister, you’ve worked hard all day. Let me soak your feet for you.” Lin Xiaodi came in carrying a wooden basin.
“Is the meat really that delicious?” Lin Jinghong found it amusing.
“Of course.” It had been so long since he’d eaten meat. The last time he had meat was the last time.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get to eat meat in the future.” Lin Jinghong soaked her feet contentedly.
Lin Xiaodi bustled around her, even pouring her a bowl of water.
“Alright, go study.”
The Lin children had to work in the fields during the day and study at night when they came home.
Lin Xiaodi was fifteen. It was 1974 now. If he studied hard, the college entrance examination would be restored by the time he graduated from high school.
Then he could take the exam and go straight to university.
Lin Jinghong looked at the low courtyard wall. Anyone outside could see the situation in the yard at a glance.
She was very unaccustomed to it, feeling like her territory was being invaded.
And this house—she wanted a private room.
Carrying a Spatial Dimension made things very inconvenient.
But with current prices, building a house was no small sum. Every inch and every step cost money.
How to make money?
Hunt in the mountain and sell at the black market? Sell the rice from the Spatial Dimension at the black market?
But that money couldn’t be brought into the open.
A headache.
The next morning, Lin Jinghong got up along with everyone else. These past two days had been enough rest.
The wound on her head had mostly healed.
The Lin family members woke up feeling refreshed, thinking it was because they had been eating well.
In truth, that wasn’t the case—the water in the house had been replaced with Spirit Spring Water by Lin Jinghong.
“Mom, let’s make rice porridge,” Lin Jinghong said, taking a bowl of rice.
“…The rice that Youth Su bought has already been used up. Save some for yourself.” Li Dongxiang’s mouth twitched.
“No need—there will be more,” Lin Jinghong said, pouring the rice directly into the pot.
Li Dongxiang assumed she meant that Su Zhaoying would bring more later.
She frowned. “Da Ya, we saved someone, but we can’t keep taking their things. There’s no such thing as using a favor to demand repayment.”
Lin Jinghong wasn’t at all surprised that her mother was literate—after all, her grandmother had been a personal maid to the daughter of a landlord family and had accompanied her young mistress to the private school, so her mother could read and write as well.
“I know.” Lin Jinghong didn’t want to explain too much.
And she couldn’t explain it clearly anyway.
But her urgency to make money grew even stronger.
Having transmigrated into a book, there was no way she’d let herself live worse than before, right?
Under Lin Jinghong’s intervention, breakfast was thick rice and sweet potato porridge.
Served with steamed egg custard.
“Da Ya, rest for another two days,” Li Dongxiang said after the meal.
Lin Jinghong still had cloth wrapped around her forehead.
“No need—I’ll go to work.” Lin Jinghong wanted to find Su Zhaoying.
Su Zhaoying definitely knew many ways to make money.
So she stubbornly walked out the door.
Arriving at the grain-drying ground, almost everyone was already there. The brigade leader was giving an impassioned speech up front.
The people below all looked in good spirits.
This year’s harvest looked promising.
Zhao Chunmei spotted Lin Jinghong and immediately sidled over, winking and making faces at her.
Lin Jinghong completely ignored her.
Zhao Chunmei snorted and turned her head away—if you won’t talk to me, then I won’t talk to you either.
Lin Jinghong was assigned to work on the mountain. In her group were Zhao Chunmei, Du Mingkang, and a young man from the village named Wu Sankui.