Wei Xingde led a group of commune members up the mountain to catch the man. Stealing the brigade’s collective property made everyone furious—especially since it was the money the brigade had set aside to buy phosphate fertilizer next spring.
Crops were the brigade’s lifeblood. Without grain, what would everyone eat? Especially after experiencing years of famine, everyone had been scared by hunger. Anything that affected farming and the harvest naturally drew universal condemnation.
Jian Hualin was dumbfounded. He, who had always actively participated in collective activities, for the first time didn’t rush to join the manhunt. That was his chosen live-in son-in-law—how had he turned into a thief overnight?
His dream of having a son—shattered before it even began!
Jian Lu pulled her third sister home first. The matter was settled. What remained was for the brigade to catch the man and report it. These days, harming the collective was naturally a grave crime. Even if the police station didn’t handle it, the commune members would give him a hard time.
Having accomplished a major task, Jian Lu was joyful all the way home. A faint smile hung at the corners of her mouth. She felt the day didn’t seem as cold anymore.
“Lulu, you’re so happy today?” Jian Xin was seeing her sister show emotion so openly for the first time. In the past, her sister had been timid and didn’t like to smile or cry—as if nothing was worth being happy or sad about.
“Of course!” Jian Lu linked arms with her third sister, happily heading home. “Didn’t we get meat today? What a great thing!”
So that was why!
But Jian Xin reminded her sister, “Getting it doesn’t mean we get to eat it.”
“Huh?” Jian Lu stopped in her tracks and looked at her third sister, a hint of confusion in her eyes. “Why?”
“Did you forget? Mom will definitely cure the meat and save it for later. It’s still a month until the New Year. Just wait—we’ll get to eat meat on New Year’s Eve.”
Jian Lu: !!!
She missed meat so much. Over ten days since transmigrating, she hadn’t eaten a single bite of meat. Every day it was cabbage, sweet potatoes, potatoes—basically all the same thing on repeat.
This life was truly unbearable.
Just as Jian Xin predicted, when Jian Hualin and Zhang Cuixia returned home afterward, they didn’t prepare any meat to eat. The total of three jin of meat was already extremely precious. Zhang Cuixia planned to rub the meat with salt and cure it into bacon.
Bacon could keep for a long time and be eaten slowly. During holidays and festivals, they’d cut off a piece. It could last a year.
Jian Lu watched as Zhang Cuixia rubbed salt over the three jin of springy pork, turning it over and over. She couldn’t help but swallow her saliva. Before, she could at least eat pork freely. Now? Too stifling.
Fortunately, Zhang Cuixia also craved meat. She used some scrap pieces of pork and stir-fried them with cabbage in a wok. Just thumb-sized bits of pork scraps produced a full wok of meat fragrance.
That night, even the cabbage tasted more delicious to Jian Lu.
“Caught him, caught him.” At the courtyard entrance, commune members’ voices rose from time to time. Old Mrs. Liu, carrying a porcelain bowl with half a bowl of boiled cabbage—not a single drop of oil—passed by the Jian family’s house and hurried to inform them. “Go take a look! Hong Qiang’s been caught.”
With such a bad element in Xingmin Production Brigade, everyone couldn’t be bothered with anything else. Each grabbed their rice bowls and headed to the brigade headquarters.
Jian Lu finished her food in a few bites and joined the crowd going to watch the excitement.
Hong Qiang had originally planned to steal the money from the brigade headquarters while everyone was watching the pig slaughter, without anyone noticing. He hadn’t expected the brigade leader to suddenly come back.
He was young and agile. He immediately jumped out the window and fled straight into the mountains.
But it was winter now. The mountains were even more bitterly cold. Plus, with so many commune members searching the mountain, the commotion was great. Hong Qiang was caught after fleeing for just over two hours, half-frozen.
“This kind of behavior—seriously undermining collective unity and stealing public property—we must resolutely strike against it!” Wei Xingde rarely dropped his usual amiable demeanor. His face was stern as he harshly denounced the crime. Usually everyone struggled together, but now that the bottom line had been crossed, there could be no leniency.
“Brigade Leader! Uncle Wei!” Hong Qiang, surrounded in the middle, strained his voice to plead. “I know I was wrong. Please, for the sake of this being my first time doing something like this, spare me!”
He was clear-headed enough to know: if he was really dragged off to a struggle session or turned over to the police station, he definitely wouldn’t come out well!
“No, no! He’s black-hearted! He even stole the money our brigade needs to buy phosphate fertilizer. If we hadn’t discovered it today, what would happen to next year’s harvest? What would happen to our grain?”
At the mention of grain, everyone’s eyes went red. Grain was their lifeblood. Anyone who messed with grain was trying to starve everyone to death!
Wei Xingde also steeled his heart for once. “Your behavior is too vile! It must be reported to the Revolutionary Committee. Drag him off to a struggle session!”
Hong Qiang was taken away amid the boiling voices of the crowd, leaving behind only a ground full of clamor. Several old men and women held their bowls, took a few bites, and started chatting again.
“That Hong Qiang kid—no parents to discipline him, learned all bad!”
“Serves him right! Stealing even the phosphate fertilizer money! He deserves a struggle session!”
“Good thing his family has no one left. Otherwise they’d all be dragged down by him. Wait—doesn’t he still have a relative beyond the five generations of mourning…”
Hong Liang from the neighboring production brigade, who’d also come to watch the excitement, panicked at these words. “We have no connection! Beyond five generations of mourning—how can that still count as relatives? Whatever this person has done, don’t drag our family into it. We’re poor peasants with pure red roots!”
Seeing Hong Liang hastily distancing himself, everyone understood. Once tainted by association with a bad element, you could only wait for misfortune. But… some people still remembered the matter between Hong Qiang and the Jian family.
“Jian Lao Da, your family and Hong Qiang…”
Jian Hualin panicked at these words too. Did he dare have any connection to this thief being dragged off to a struggle session? “Xu Wu, don’t talk nonsense! How could our family possibly have anything to do with Hong Qiang!”
Xu Wu knew he was denying it, but asked with a chuckle, “Weren’t you wanting Hong Qiang to be your live-in son-in-law? Now you don’t acknowledge your son-in-law anymore?”
“Bullshit!” Jian Hualin glared furiously at Xu Wu and explained in front of the whole brigade. “Our Lulu is so pretty—why would we promise her to Hong Qiang? Don’t spread rumors! Don’t ruin our family’s reputation!”
Jian Lu, listening nearby, felt goosebumps rise all over. But it was good. Jian Hualin now wanted to distance himself from Hong Qiang more than anyone. This stubborn male supporting character from the original book was finally no longer connected to her.
=
After dealing with Hong Qiang, Jian Lu felt completely light and relaxed. She slept in until she woke naturally—a rare treat—then was ordered around to sweep the floor and make breakfast. Afterward, she went back to her room to warm by the fire and chat with her third sister. Jian Hualin still hadn’t recovered from the blow of losing his live-in son-in-law and kept provoking the family. Zhang Cuixia was busy curing bacon, only shouting at her two daughters not to slack off.
“Xinxin, Lulu, come out here. It’s almost noon—don’t you have any sense? Xinxin, go start the fire. Lulu, check the chicken coop—any eggs? It’s been two days without eggs. I don’t know if it’s just too cold.” Zhang Cuixia flipped the curing bacon over and called toward the room.
The sisters heard Zhang Cuixia’s shout and immediately stopped talking.
“Let’s go.” Jian Xin pulled her sister out of the room, telling her to check for eggs while she went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
The Jian family’s coop had three old hens. These three hens were the Jian family’s lifeblood. It was the period of collective labor now—everything belonged to the public. Even working in the fields every day only earned work points, waiting for year-end grain distribution.
Therefore, the three old hens each family was allowed to raise seemed especially precious. Laying an egg every two or three days—these eggs were good things!
For asking favors, social obligations, even private trades—eggs were hard currency.
Jian Lu looked at the yellow-shelled egg lying in the coop, and her eyes instantly lit up.
“Lulu, any eggs?” Jian Hualin held his old tobacco pipe, took a drag, and blew out a cloud of smoke. His eyes turned toward the chicken coop. “There are four eggs at home. If there are any in the coop, gather them together and tonight take them to your grandma.”
Hearing this, Jian Lu glanced at the figure ahead and pursed her lips.
Jian Hualin had hoped for a son his whole life, but the family only had four daughters. This had become his heartache. So he treated his nephews better than his own daughters. As long as there were spare eggs at home, he’d have them sent to his mother and fourth brother’s family, letting his nephews nourish their bodies—all so they’d remember him in the future.
“None. Still no eggs.” Jian Lu blocked Jian Hualin’s view with her body, her voice drifting backward. “Probably just too cold.”
“These old hens—not a single useful one. Laying an egg is such a struggle.” Jian Hualin grumbled. Hearing this from the kitchen, Zhang Cuixia’s heart skipped—she always felt her man was cursing her.
Outside, Jian Lu didn’t waste a moment. She gently picked up the precious egg, slipped it into her pocket, and left as if nothing had happened.
Fortunately, the original host had always been honest and obedient. Jian Hualin would never imagine that his delicate, weak fourth daughter would lie and secretly hide an egg.
Tonight’s dinner was the same as usual—cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes. In the half month since transmigrating, Jian Lu had eaten to the point of nausea. But there was no help for it. Times were hard, and the family truly had nothing else.
The only two sources of meat were bacon and eggs. Bacon could only be eaten during holidays. As for eggs, Jian Hualin wouldn’t let his own family eat them at all—they were either used to ask favors or given to his nephews.
Therefore, the egg in Jian Lu’s pocket was already an outlaw egg.
Winter days grew dark early, and with kerosene being precious, the commune members of Red Star Commune’s Xingmin Production Brigade went to bed when the sky dimmed.
Only the Jian family had faint movement in the pitch-black kitchen.
Watching the precious egg boil into a hard-boiled egg, Jian Lu turned off the fire, poured out the water, restored everything to its original state, and tiptoed out of the kitchen back to the room.
Jian Xin watched her sister magically produce a boiled egg, her apricot eyes widening slightly.
“You lied to Dad and said there were no eggs?”
“Shh.” Jian Lu peeled the shell, revealing a white, tender boiled egg. She split it in half and fed one piece to her third sister’s mouth. “Eat quickly!”
Jian Xin hadn’t touched meat in two months. This egg was so fragrant! Chewing the egg, she mumbled, “You’ve really got guts—lying even to Dad.”
The sisters sat cross-legged on the kang, feeling the warmth. “Who told him to only give eggs to our cousins and ignore his own daughters? He’s benefiting outsiders.”
“Ah, that’s just how Dad is.” Jian Xin felt bad too, but she couldn’t say much. “The egg is really delicious. So fragrant.”
She held her sister’s hand and said, word by word, “Don’t worry. If Dad finds out, I’ll say I stole it. I’m getting married soon—he won’t raise a hand against me.”
Jian Lu knew Jian Hualin didn’t have a good temper. If you didn’t provoke him, fine. But once provoked, he’d chase you with a rolling pin.
“Third sister, what am I going to do after you get married and leave?” Jian Lu had few family ties in her previous life and had never experienced much familial warmth. Now, half a month after transmigrating, she’d only felt warmth from Jian Xin. The original host’s third sister was kind and gentle—different from Jian Hualin and Zhang Cuixia.
“You’ve really changed lately. You’re not the old silent gourd anymore.” Jian Xin saw the change in her sister but only assumed it was because she was reluctant to part before her marriage. Instead, she felt even happier.
That night, the sisters lay on the kang sleeping. The warm kang beneath them was comfortable, and their hearts were warm too.
The next day, Jian Lu again went early to stake out the chicken coop. She discovered another old hen that hadn’t laid for two days had laid an egg. With practiced ease, she secretly slipped the egg into her pocket and again falsely reported the egg situation to her parents.
“Eggs again tonight?” Jian Xin, led along by her fourth sister, actually grew bolder. After all, no one could resist the fragrance of eggs.
But this time Jian Lu shook her head and prepared to go out.
“Next time. Next time we’ll eat. Today’s can’t be eaten.”
Jian Xin asked softly, “What’s wrong? Where are you going?”
Jian Lu got fully equipped—woolen hat, woolen gloves—and held the egg in her palm. Only then did she quietly answer her third sister. “I’m going to find Matchmaker He.”
“What are you finding a matchmaker for?”
“To find a partner!”