I Overhear Animals' Thoughts to Feed My Family

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Rebirth in a Famine Year

In Dragon King Pond Village, the rhythmic beat of a drum echoed from a dilapidated mud-and-thatch house.

"Wandering soul, where do you roam!"

DUM—!

DUM-DUM—!

"Zhao Wendong, your soul, return to thee!"

DUM-DUM-DUM—!

The ancient-sounding chant and the strangely rhythmic drumming seemed to drift from the edge of the sky.

Zhao Wendong’s eyes flew open, like a drowning man just rescued, or someone startled awake from a nightmare.

His gaze fell upon low-hanging beams, earthen walls of yellow mud mixed with straw, a worn-out mat on a heated kang bed, and an ancient-looking kang cabinet.

’Isn’t this my family’s old house, the one that collapsed long ago?’

’Great, I’m dreaming again!’

A woman’s voice rang out, filled with pleasant surprise.

"My youngest son, you’re finally awake!"

It was the voice of his mother, Chen Yanmei. Zhao Wendong turned his head to see her slapping her thigh in excitement.

No matter what others said about Zhao Wendong, in Chen Yanmei’s eyes, her youngest son was the best child in the world. He just hadn’t grown up yet.

Thank heavens. Her youngest son had been unconscious with a high fever for two days, and he had finally woken up.

She turned and grasped an old woman’s hand, her own rough, chapped hands trembling uncontrollably.

"Granny Liu, it’s all thanks to you! Please, take this money!"

As Chen Yanmei spoke, she pulled a few crumpled mao bills from her pocket and shoved them all at the woman.

The old woman’s surname was Liu. She was the village shaman, a spirit medium who had been invited to perform a soul-calling ritual for Zhao Wendong.

She wore a pointed red hat on her head, from which hung colorful cloth strips inscribed with Manchu script.

She was dressed in a bright yellow jacket and a wide, gray skirt.

Numerous bells were tied around her waist, jingling with every move she made.

The old woman didn’t take the money, pushing it right back.

"Your family has already run out of food. I don’t want your money. Tomorrow, just have Wenjun and Wenwu get me some more kindling. I don’t have enough firewood for the winter."

A few mao wasn’t a small sum. It could buy seven or eight catties of cornmeal, enough for their family to scrape by for ten days to half a month—provided they had the ration coupons.

Chen Yanmei knew Mrs. Liu was helping her family and felt incredibly grateful. But country folk were often clumsy with words, too shy to express their thanks. A thousand unspoken words ultimately turned into a few tears.

She wiped the corners of her eyes and nodded heavily. "Alright!"

Granny Liu touched Zhao Wendong’s forehead and smiled happily, revealing her two remaining molars.

"The fever’s broken! Dongzi’s going to be fine. I’ll be heading back now!"

With that, she picked up her Wenwang Drum and Driving Whip, got up, and left. Her two small, bound feet scurried away with surprising speed.

Chen Yanmei hurried out to see her off.

On the kang.

Zhao Wendong pinched his thigh hard. It hurt.

’I really was reborn. This isn’t a dream!’

In his past life, his parents’ favoritism had turned him into the village’s notorious good-for-nothing slacker—the type who would lie down if he could avoid sitting. His greatest skill was fooling around all day with a gang of worthless friends.

But after his father had an accident, the family ran out of food. His eldest brother and sister-in-law ventured into the mountains and were torn apart by wild beasts. His second brother secretly went to sea and drowned. His mother, utterly devastated, drank rat poison at his father’s grave. In an instant, Zhao Wendong was forced to grow up. He wanted to provide for his three remaining younger siblings, but with no experience, he couldn’t find anything to eat.

Eventually, his nephew and niece were taken in by their mother’s family. His little sister, starving, secretly ate a large amount of tree bark. Her stomach bloated, and the pain became unbearable. She writhed on the kang for three days before she finally stopped breathing. Just like that, their family of eight was shattered, leaving only him behind. Just as he was about to end it all and join his family in the afterlife, his grandparents brought him their last remaining rations, begging him to live on.

Countless times, he had wondered if his family might have survived if he had learned to hunt and sail from his father instead of fooling around his whole childhood.

In the decades that followed, his hunting skills grew sharper and his experience at sea became richer, but there was no one left who needed his abilities.

So many times, he had dreamt of his deceased family in the dead of night. But now, things were different. He could finally start over!

This place is too poor! Not a scrap of food to be found. It’s cleaner than my nest!

Just as he was overcome with excitement, a faint, indescribably strange voice suddenly came from the corner of the room.

Zhao Wendong got up to look and was instantly dumbfounded.

There in the corner squatted a large gray rat, and the voice he had heard was actually coming from its body!

’Has this rat become a spirit?’

In an instant, a huge sense of disappointment washed over Zhao Wendong!

’It’s over. Fuck, I was happy for nothing. I’m still dreaming!’

"Get lost, you little bastard! Your house is the one that’s poor! Your whole family is poor! Say one more goddamn word and I’ll castrate you!"

Zhao Wendong’s joy at being reborn vanished completely. He was having a total meltdown.

A human. Run.

Startled by him, the large gray rat quickly scurried into a hole in the corner and disappeared.

Zhao Wendong lay back down on the kang, utterly dejected. He had thought he was truly reborn, but it turned out he was still in a dream!

"Third Brother, Mommy says it’s not nice to curse."

A soft, sweet, and child-like voice suddenly piped up from the head of the kang. Amidst a pile of the family’s tattered quilts, a little girl sat up.

Her large eyes were drowsy from being woken up. Her face was pale, her hair a withered yellow, and her belly was swollen while her limbs were so thin they were just skin and bones.

Zhao Wendong’s eyes shot open as he looked at the little girl who had spoken.

Seeing this tiny person before him, his chest began to ache violently again. This was his little sister, Zhao Wenwen, nicknamed Little Tuanzi—the one who had writhed on the kang for three days, crying "Third Brother, it hurts," before she took her last breath!

He scrambled over on all fours and swept the little girl into his arms, choking up with emotion once more, unable to speak.

"Oh, Little Tuanzi, I’m so useless! I’m so sorry!"

His voice was hoarse and sorrowful, squeezed from the depths of his throat like the cry of a wounded beast.

Little Tuanzi shrank back, a little scared. She didn’t understand why Zhao Wendong was suddenly so sad, but she still reached out to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Third Brother, don’t cry. You’re a good boy. Little Tuanzi won’t tell on you. Please don’t cry, Third Brother. When you cry, it makes Little Tuanzi want to cry too."

"Third Brother, does your tummy hurt from being hungry too? Little Tuanzi will give you her yummiest biscuit to eat. So please stop crying, okay?"

As she spoke, Little Tuanzi pulled a grimy little cornmeal cake from her sleeve. It was about the size of an adult’s thumb. Who knows how long she had hidden it; its hard, dry surface was covered in lick marks.

"Third Brother, you eat it! When Little Tuanzi’s tummy hurts from hunger, eating just a little bit makes it stop. You only need a little bit, okay? Don’t... don’t eat it all at once."

Zhao Wendong couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out crying with a loud WAIL!

"What’s wrong? What’s wrong, my boy?"

Chen Yanmei came rushing back in a flurry. She was in such a panic that she stumbled over the threshold.

She had just seen Mrs. Liu off and hadn’t even made it back inside when she heard her son’s heart-wrenching sobs, which threw her into a panic.

Zhao Wendong didn’t say a word. He just reached back and pulled Chen Yanmei into the hug as well, clutching her and his little sister tightly as if he were afraid they would vanish at any moment.

"Mom, I’m dreaming of you again! This is so wonderful!"

"I’m so sorry, Mom! I didn’t learn any useful skills before. I couldn’t support this family, couldn’t help you survive that damn famine!"

Chen Yanmei struggled out of Zhao Wendong’s embrace and turned to run outside, shouting anxiously.

"My boy, what have you gotten possessed by now? I’ll go get Granny Liu to come back! You’re talking nonsense. Who has dreams in broad daylight!"

A thought struck Zhao Wendong, and he grabbed Chen Yanmei excitedly.

"Mom, you’re saying this isn’t a dream? How can you prove it?"

Chen Yanmei was stumped by his question. She wanted to go find Mrs. Liu but was being held back, so she glanced around, paced back and forth a few steps, and then her eyes lit up.

She picked up a pair of old Wula shoes and shoved them right under Zhao Wendong’s nose.

"Smell it!"

Not knowing what to expect, Zhao Wendong took a sniff.

"BLEGH~"

The next second, an intensely pungent sourness shot straight to the top of his skull. His throat seized up, his stomach churned, and he couldn’t stop dry heaving!

"Haha, now do you believe me? Dreams don’t have flavors or smells, you know!"

Chen Yanmei tossed the shoes back, looking rather proud of herself.

His mouth was full of a sour taste, but his heart was pounding with excitement. He really was reborn—this wasn’t a dream!

He gave Chen Yanmei a thumbs-up.

"I believe you, I believe you! You’re amazing, Mom!"

"Whose shoes are these? They reek!"

’Without decades of cultivation and a pair of sweaty feet, you could never incubate such a peerless weapon.’

"Your dad’s, of course! You don’t even recognize his shoes?"

"My dad? Isn’t he wearing his own shoes?"

The Northeast has three treasures: ginseng, sable fur, and Ula grass. Wula shoes are made from Ula grass and are unique to the Northeast. They are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. In this era, everyone had a pair, and you wouldn’t replace them until they were worn to pieces.

"He’s not wearing this pair. You were unconscious with a high fever, so he changed into his cotton boots and went into the mountains! Said he was going to try his luck, see if he could hunt some game or gather some medicinal herbs!"

Chen Yanmei’s words made Zhao Wendong’s pupils contract violently. The color drained from his face at a visible rate.

This is bad!!!