I Overhear Animals' Thoughts to Feed My Family

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Baiting the Old Man with Potatoes

Zhao Wendong gave the big brown horse a speechless look. ’Is it right for a horse to have such a good memory?’

Third Master Zhao was dozing on the head of the heated kang bed. When he saw Zhao Wendong and Zhao Wenwu come in, he shot up, scooted further back on the kang, and watched them warily.

"Well now, Third Master, aren’t you spry?"

Zhao Wendong immediately started teasing Third Master Zhao.

"Get lost! What are you two little rascals up to now? I’m telling you, you little punks, I haven’t settled the score with you two yet!"

Before the words were even out of his mouth, he saw a woman follow them in. Third Master Zhao took a closer look and saw it was that capitalist miss from among the educated youth. He immediately swallowed the rest of his curses.

Zhao Wendong chuckled and plopped down on the kang, pulling out a few potatoes and placing them in front of Third Master Zhao.

"Third Master, my brother and I were a bit impulsive yesterday. We brought you a few potatoes as an apology!"

"Well, I’ll be!"

Third Master Zhao cried out in surprise. In times like these, grain was more precious than anything!

"Since when are you so kind-hearted? You little rascal, did you put rat poison in these?"

Zhao Wendong’s face fell.

"Hey, you old man!"

"Haha, no need. I don’t want them. Hurry up and take them back. You’ve got a lot of mouths to feed at home. It’d be a waste on an old man like me."

Third Master Zhao, pleased with his teasing of Zhao Wendong, laughed heartily.

"Third Master, you got any leftovers? I’m starving!"

Zhao Wendong ignored the potatoes and directly asked Third Master Zhao for food.

"You’re hungry?"

"Yep!"

Third Master Zhao glanced at the potatoes. ’So that’s what he was after,’ he thought. ’Trading a meal for a few potatoes... that’s a fair deal!’

"There are two cornbread buns left, and some leftover wolf meat is freezing outside!"

Zhao Wendong dashed outside and found half a bowl of wolf meat and two cornbread buns on the outer windowsill.

The winters in the Northeast served as a natural deep freezer. The indoors were like a variable-temperature room, and only a very deep cellar could be considered close to refrigerated.

Back inside, Zhao Wendong handed the food directly to a bewildered Lin Zhiyin.

"Go on, heat this up!"

Lin Zhiyin glanced at him, took the food in a daze, and turned to go to the outer room with the stove.

"Second Brother, go get Uncle Weiguo."

"Alright!"

Zhao Wenwu ran out happily. He was in an especially good mood these days. Following Zhao Wendong felt like every day was the New Year—there was food, drink, and even fights. It was simply too exciting.

In the outer room, Lin Zhiyin was feeding corncobs into the stove pit when she suddenly stopped as if remembering something. She pulled a shard of a mirror from her clothes. It was about the size of her thumb, irregularly shaped, and probably salvaged from a larger, broken mirror.

After carefully checking her reflection in the small shard, Lin Zhiyin felt relieved. ’I’m still that same dirty, ugly girl. So why is Zhao Wendong acting like this today?’

Lin Zhiyin didn’t understand, but Third Master Zhao, cunning with age, was starting to get it. He gave Zhao Wendong a meaningful look, then picked up his long-stemmed pipe. As soon as he had packed it with tobacco, Zhao Wendong immediately sucked up, grabbing a match, striking it, and lighting the pipe for him.

The old man said nothing. He gave Zhao Wendong a sidelong glance and slowly puffed on his pipe, ignoring him.

A short while later, footsteps approached, and Zhao Weiguo arrived with Zhao Wenwu.

"Team Leader."

Lin Zhiyin’s voice, greeting him from the outer room, rang out. Zhao Weiguo was clearly taken aback for a moment before responding.

"Oh, Educated Youth Lin, you’re here too!"

Once inside and seated on the kang, Zhao Weiguo looked quizzically at Zhao Wendong and Third Master Zhao.

"What is it now? Wenwu came and dragged me over in a huge rush. Wendong, you little hellion, are you getting wild ideas about stealing the horse again?"

"It’s only been two good days, and you’re already itching for a beating, is that it?"

"Don’t think you can rest on your laurels just because you shared some wolf meat... rest on your what’s-it-called?"

Third Master Zhao lowered his pipe.

"Rest on your laurels."

"Right, rest on your laurels!"

Zhao Wendong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He hadn’t even said a word and was already getting a lecture. But he couldn’t blame them. His reputation preceded him, and that wasn’t something that could be changed overnight.

"Uncle Weiguo, if you keep tearing me down like this, you’ll hinder my attempts to turn over a new leaf, you know? This time it’s not about the horse!"

"Really?"

Seeing Third Master Zhao nod, Zhao Weiguo finally lowered his guard.

"Alright, spit it out. What do you need me for?"

Zhao Wendong took his pipe and, just as obsequiously as before, helped Zhao Weiguo pack it with tobacco and light it. Third Master Zhao shot Zhao Wendong a glare, speechless. That rascal was using *his* tobacco to fill Zhao Weiguo’s pipe.

"Good news, Uncle Weiguo. I want to use the team’s boat."

PFFT—!

The words had barely left his mouth when Zhao Weiguo nearly choked to death on a puff of smoke.

"Zhao Wendong, you punk! I knew you were itching for a beating! So you’re not stealing the horse, you’re stealing the boat now!"

"Don’t even think about it. The diesel ration was used up long ago."

"And another thing, don’t even think about taking a wooden boat out to sea yourself. A few days ago, a family of three from Minle Commune went out and never came back!"

Third Master Zhao nodded in agreement.

"Wendong, you have to listen to your Uncle Weiguo on this. Don’t be stubborn. The old saying is right: ’Don’t sail far in the dead of winter.’ There’s a reason for our ancestors’ words, you know?"

Zhao Wendong rubbed his head.

"Third Master, Uncle Weiguo, I understand everything you’re saying! But if we don’t go to sea, where will we get food?"

"There are eight mouths to feed in my family, and my dad’s leg is injured again. Should we go into the mountains? Most of the animals are hibernating now. The ones that aren’t are fierce, and they don’t stick to the outskirts."

"Besides, it’s so much effort to go into the mountains now, and there’s no guarantee you’ll find prey every time."

Third Master Zhao nodded.

"That’s true. You were lucky to get that wolf yesterday. It was a lone wolf. If you’d run into a pack, the three of you might not have made it back."

Seeing Zhao Weiguo smoking his pipe in silence, Zhao Wendong pressed his case.

"Besides, if I can figure out a way to feed my family of eight, maybe I’ll blaze a trail to feed more people, right?"

When neither of them responded, Zhao Wendong flopped onto the kang and started rolling around.

"Damn it! I’m gonna starve to death! I can’t go on living!"

Third Master Zhao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he watched Zhao Wendong act like a shameless rogue. He spoke, half-annoyed and half-amused.

"What a living terror. Dragon King Pond hasn’t produced a rascal like this in centuries. But Weiguo, I think there’s some truth to what he just said. ’A tree dies when moved, but a person thrives.’ We’re all watching our food supplies dwindle. Even if we make it through by eating roots and wild vegetables, those won’t be available for another two months until spring. Let him try something. Maybe it’ll mean a few fewer people starving to death!"

Zhao Weiguo nodded, his gaze falling on the potatoes on the kang.

"Where did these potatoes come from?"

"Dongzi brought them for me, as an apology for yesterday. I told him I didn’t want them..."

"What?"

Zhao Wendong shot up, interrupting Third Master.

"You don’t want them, Third Master? My, you are a man of noble character!"

"Second Brother, hurry and pocket them!"

"You got it!"

Grinning broadly, Zhao Wenwu quickly stuffed the potatoes back into his pockets.

Third Master Zhao: ...

’It’s over,’ he thought. ’I’ve taken a huge loss!’

Not only were the potatoes gone, but he was also out two cornbread buns and half a bowl of wolf meat. Furious, Third Master Zhao picked up his pipe and whacked Zhao Wendong with it a couple of times.

Zhao Wendong acted as if it were a massage, grinning and winking cheekily at the old man.

A smile touched Zhao Weiguo’s lips as well. For some reason, Zhao Wendong’s reckless, devil-may-care attitude was sometimes rather endearing.

"Wendong, about you wanting to use the boat... we’ll need to discuss it further. But even if the team agrees, you can’t take it out. There’s no diesel!"

"No problem, I can get the fuel myself!"

HISS~

Hearing this, Zhao Weiguo and Third Master Zhao both sucked in a sharp breath.

"Dongzi, you can get diesel?"

"You really have a way?"

Zhao Wendong tilted his head back smugly.

"Who am I? I’m Zhao Wendong! I have friends in all walks of life, wherever I go. Don’t worry, I really have a way to get diesel."

Seeing Zhao Wendong so confident, Zhao Weiguo and Third Master Zhao exchanged a look and both began to ponder the matter.

After a while, having finished a pipeful of tobacco, Third Master Zhao tapped out the ash and gave his opinion.

"I support it. Dongzi is motivated and wants to give it a shot, so let him. With diesel, we don’t have to worry about him being unable to get back if he runs into trouble! At worst, he’ll just suffer a bit."

"However, if the boat is damaged, Dongzi will have to be responsible for the repairs. Also, he can’t use it for free. It’s team property, after all. When the time comes, he’ll have to give a cut of the diesel he gets to the brigade. We’ll call it payment for using the brigade’s motorboat. That way, the brigade can also save up a little extra diesel for next spring, right?"

Third Master Zhao’s last words moved Zhao Weiguo. As the production team leader, his mind was constantly occupied with the daily lives and sustenance of the dozens of families in the team. Surviving the winter and getting through to next spring were his biggest worries. Having more diesel after spring began would allow them to get a lot more done.

"Alright, it’s settled then. For each time you use the boat, you hand over a portion of diesel to the team. I don’t care how you get it, but I know it won’t be easy. If you don’t bring anything back, you’d better give up on this idea for good. Don’t go wasting resources for nothing."

"Deal!"

Zhao Wendong agreed with a decisive nod.

’I refuse to believe that with my past life’s seafaring and fishing experience, plus the ability to hear the thoughts of animals, I could still come back empty-handed. Do you really take me for one of those unlucky fishermen?’

"Yeah! We get to go play at sea!"

Zhao Wenwu jumped up in excitement. The other three men looked at him with a hint of envy. The difficult struggle for survival was just another form of play in Zhao Wenwu’s eyes. It was true that the simpler one was, the happier one could be.

"What’s the deal with that girl outside?"

Zhao Weiguo suddenly asked in a low voice, remembering what he’d seen earlier.