I Overhear Animals' Thoughts to Feed My Family

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The Past

On the path behind the house, two middle-aged women happened to pass by, pointing and whispering at him as he was taking a leak...

The stream of water stopped abruptly. Zhao Wendong didn’t even have time to do up his pants before turning to flee in disarray. ’Damn it,’ he thought, ’I feel so defiled.’

Toilets in this era were still all open-air. When you squatted, a low wooden fence offered minimal cover, but when you stood up, there was zero privacy.

’Damn it. As soon as life gets better, the very first thing I’m doing is building a proper toilet!’

’No, that’s not right. I have to fix the house before building a toilet. The house is about to collapse, after all. Would it make any sense for the toilet to be fancier than the house?’

’And I can’t just fix up one room. Our old family house is falling apart, and my eldest brother’s place is old too. Plus, shouldn’t I think about bringing Grandpa and Grandma over to live with us so I can look after them?’

’Alright, the road ahead is long. I’d better focus on filling our stomachs for now. But I need to start saving money to build a house!’

Zhao Wenjun’s family arrived soon after, and the room grew lively again. Perhaps because Song Xiaoyu had gotten some extra nutrition last night, Yadan had also eaten her fill. Today, the little baby was crawling around on the kang with unusual cheer, constantly gurgling like a little duckling.

After the production team could no longer afford the communal meals, the two families had always cooked and eaten together. This saved Zhao Wenjun’s family from having to cook separately, and it also conserved firewood.

Although they weren’t far from the mountains, gathering firewood in the village during winter was no easy task. It was brutally cold outside. If you wore too little, you could freeze to death; if you wore too much, you were too bundled up to move easily. And the more energy you spent, the more grain you needed to eat.

That morning, the family was having millet porridge again. Not that they had anything else to eat—they were so poor that a visiting mouse would curse them out before leaving. Chen Yanmei had only planned on rinsing two bowls of millet, but Zhao Wendong dug out two more large scoops from the jar and dumped them into the basin.

Looking at the now half-empty millet sack, Chen Yanmei raised her hand and gave Zhao Wendong a couple of light smacks.

"You little spendthrift! No family can afford you being so wasteful!"

"If you eat too much, you just shit it out later. In the end, all that grain goes to waste."

Zhao Wendong just grinned without answering, completely unfazed, like a dead pig that doesn’t fear boiling water.

Little Tuanzi ran in front of Zhao Wendong, spreading her arms out like a mother hen protecting her chick.

"Mama, don’t hit Third Brother! Millet porridge is the best, and Little Tuanzi loves it too."

Seeing his little sister defending him so fiercely, Zhao Wendong happily scooped her up and planted two big kisses on her cheek. This made Little Tuanzi squeal, and she furiously wiped her face with her sleeve, a look of pure disgust on her face.

"Aiya, Third Brother, you’re so annoying!"

Her antics made Zhao Wendong roar with laughter.

Zhao Wenjun and his wife exchanged a look. Their third brother, Zhao Wendong, was really changing so much. He used to find children annoying and would never have been so affectionate with Little Tuanzi.

Not long after they finished eating, Zhao Weiguo arrived. He brought twenty jin of wolf meat, a full set of wolf offal, and a perfectly preserved wolf pelt.

"Wow, meat! Lots and lots of meat!"

"We’re eating meat!"

The children jumped and hopped in excitement.

Little Tuanzi proudly put her hands on her hips, her little head held high.

"My Third Brother hunted this wolf! My Third Brother is the best!"

Not to be outdone, Shitou piped up.

"My Third Uncle hunted it! My Third Uncle is the greatest!"

"My Third Brother!"

"My Third Uncle!"

The innocent back-and-forth made all the adults chuckle.

Zhao Weiguo watched Zhao Wendong’s family with a hint of envy. Such warmth was a rare sight in other households. These days, every family in the village was fraught with anxiety, all worried about their next meal.

After checking on Zhao Dashan’s condition, Zhao Weiguo nodded, satisfied.

"I feel much better knowing it’s nothing too serious. Dashan, you take your time and recover. I’ve got to go!"

"Stay a bit longer. Why leave so soon after you’ve just arrived?"

Zhao Dashan didn’t want him to leave. As a man who was always active, being suddenly confined to the kang and unable to move was making him feel unbearably restless.

"Can’t. I still have to distribute the meat to every household!"

With that, Zhao Weiguo got up to leave. As he passed Zhao Wendong, he gave the young man a rare smile.

A moment later, the large loudspeaker installed in the village just this past summer crackled to life. CRACKLE... SQUAWK...

"Ahem, testing! Attention, all comrade members of the Commune! Uh, could every household send one person over to the brigade office to collect your share of wolf meat!"

"Get a move on! First come, first pick!"

"Hey! You folks at the Educated Youth dormitory, send someone over too!"

Hearing Third Master Zhao’s last sentence over the loudspeaker, Zhao Wendong froze. His heart began to pound uncontrollably.

The Educated Youth dormitory...

A face as beautiful as a movie star’s appeared in his mind. It belonged to the female Educated Youth who always kept her face dirty, deliberately making herself look ugly. The same one who, in the final moment of her life, had chosen to reveal her stunning beauty before taking an entire boat of people down with her.

’Lin Zhiyin,’ he thought, ’we’re going to meet again.’

Zhao Wendong silently chanted her name. She was the one person from his past life, besides his own family, whom he could never forget.

’Thank you for sparing me in our last life. In this one, how about I repay you by making you my wife?’

Lin Zhiyin was one of the female Educated Youth at the dormitory. Always filthy from head to toe, she was a constant target of ostracism and ridicule.

In his past life, Zhao Wendong hadn’t understood her. He’d often joined in with the others to mock and bully her. Later, after his father’s accident, he became so overwhelmingly busy that he never saw her again.

The next time he saw her was on the morning of the accident. She stood at the stern of the departing boat, and as the others on board laughed at him for being late, she turned and gave him a brilliant smile. Its beauty was unforgettable, seared so deeply into his memory that even decades later, the image remained perfectly clear in his mind.

During the decades he lived on alone, the older Zhao Wendong got, the more he understood Lin Zhiyin, and the more he came to admire her.

When she wanted to live, she did so humbly and with great effort, even if it meant deliberately making herself ugly. When she no longer wanted to live, she simply took everyone else with her. She lived with a terrifying clarity.

It took him many years to finally understand. On the day they were to set out to sea, Lin Zhiyin had deliberately told him the boat was leaving an hour later than scheduled, making him miss it. She did it because she saw that the prodigal son had finally changed his ways, and she chose to spare his life so he could continue to work hard and provide for his family.

As for herself, she had washed the filth from her face, revealing her true appearance. Then, under the astonished, jealous, and covetous gazes of everyone on board, she had taken all those Educated Youth and villagers who had bullied her and dragged them down with her into oblivion.

He later heard that the catalyst for all of this was the news that Lin Zhiyin’s parents, who had also been sent down to the countryside, had died at a labor farm. That was what finally pushed her over the edge, leading her to meticulously orchestrate that shocking incident.

"What’s wrong now, son?"

Chen Yanmei looked speechlessly at the motionless Zhao Wendong. ’Her youngest son was so much better now in every way, except for this one habit. He was always freezing up or getting startled over nothing, scaring people half to death. It just made him seem all the more flighty!’

"Are you anxious to get to the Commune? Have your second brother go with you. He’s strong, so let him carry everything!"

Zhao Wenwu immediately jumped to his feet, his face alight with excitement.

"I want to go to the Commune! I’m strong, I can help him carry stuff!"

’Considering Lin Zhiyin’s habit of keeping a low profile and making herself look ugly, she definitely wouldn’t be the one coming to the brigade office for meat,’ Zhao Wendong thought. ’I’ll just go see her after I get back from the Commune.’

Having made up his mind, Zhao Wendong couldn’t sit still any longer. He nodded at Zhao Wenwu.

"Alright, Second Brother. You’ll come with me."

"Yay! Let’s go! We’re off to the Commune!"

The Commune was the political and economic hub for all the surrounding villages. It housed a procurement station, a supply and marketing co-op, a grain station, a health clinic, a police station, a post office, and more. For the people of that time, it was the equivalent of a modern-day downtown shopping complex.

Going to the Commune was the equivalent of a shopping trip, so how could Zhao Wenwu not be excited? Nearby, Little Tuanzi, who had just licked her bowl clean, sat at the table watching Zhao Wendong. She stared with longing eyes, looking like she wanted to say something but holding back, constantly wringing her little hands. She couldn’t have looked any cuter.

Her adorable expression made Zhao Wendong laugh. He reached out and ruffled her hair.

"Little Tuanzi, when the weather gets warmer, how about Third Brother takes you to the Commune to have some fun?"

The little girl’s eyes instantly lit up.

"Really? Third Brother!"

"Mhm! It’s true!"

"Third Brother, pinky promise!"

Zhao Wendong held out his right pinky and hooked it with Little Tuanzi’s.

"Pinky promise, for a hundred years, no changing!"

Little Tuanzi, in her high-pitched, childish voice, solemnly completed the pinky promise ritual. Then, she broke into a wide, happy grin, revealing two rows of tiny baby teeth.

’This is great!’ she thought. ’When it gets warmer, Third Brother will take me to the Commune! I love going to the Commune more than anything!’

They kept three jin of the wolf meat for the family to eat. Zhao Wenwu was given the rest, along with the offal, to carry on his back. Zhao Wendong also dug out Zhao Dashan’s hunting rifle, gave it an expert check, and took it along.

"What do you need the gun for?"

Zhao Dashan asked, giving Zhao Wendong a curious look.