Liu Xiuyun tightly gripped the packet of rat poison her neighbor had bought for her.

She had originally intended to drag Du Jianguo down to death with her. But unconsciously, the words he had just spoken floated up in her mind. He said he wanted to let her and the children live a good life.

“Should I use it?”

Liu Xiuyun muttered to herself, looking dazed.

Suddenly, she thought of her own child. Only four and a half years old, the kid got up before dawn every day. Sometimes they went into the mountains to cut pig grass, other times they stayed home working to earn production points. The only hope they had was to get a new set of clothes during the New Year. But now, even that small hope seemed completely invisible.

“Child, Mom is sorry to you. In the next life, find a good family to be reborn into.”

Liu Xiuyun fiercely wiped away her tears and finally made her decision.

…

While Liu Xiuyun had already calculated the day for her whole family to go to the underworld, Du Jianguo had arrived at the commune’s fields.

Picking up leftover potatoes is a rural tradition. Potatoes grow underground and rely entirely on manual labor with hoes to dig them up. Often, after one round of digging, not all potatoes are turned over. So, the commune would organize people to dig a second, third, or even fourth round. Of course, the first three rounds dug up the communal potatoes. However, there were always families short on clothes and food who would wait until the fourth round. By then, the commune would tacitly allow anyone to take the remaining potatoes left in the ground. So, many people carried their tools out to scavenge.

Even after the field was turned over three or four times, some missed potatoes could still be found though none were very big, the largest only the size of a chicken egg. But if you saved up a bag, it could help your family survive a few more days in winter.

But Du Jianguo didn’t have his heart set on this. Although potatoes could stave off hunger, given the family’s current situation, relying solely on them was truly insufficient. If he really wanted to turn his life around, he had to rely on hunting and gathering mountain produce. The field where the village was currently planting potatoes had a small river at its western end. “Rely on the mountain to eat from the mountain, rely on the water to eat from the water.” This saying was indeed true. No one could have ever imagined that this unnamed little river would one day be planned as a nature reserve. At present, the villagers thought this small river was too far away. For daily washing and fetching water, they preferred to run to the Xiaojiang River, which was closer to the village. It wasn’t until decades later that the villagers would realize that this small riverbank was hiding so many rare wild animals and numerous precious Chinese medicinal herbs. Of course, the nature reserve was a thing of the future. Right now, this river, which everyone disliked, was a tangible opportunity for Du Jianguo to turn his life around. He could pretend to be digging for potatoes while going over there to see what good stuff he could find.

He just lacked the right tools for the moment.

Du Jianguo scanned the field and suddenly his eyes lit up; he finally saw someone he knew. He ran over to the group: “Dad, lend me a hoe! I’m coming to dig too!”

The people in front were his biological father, Du Daqiang, his biological mother, Su Xiaomei, and his eldest sister-in-law.

Hearing Du Jianguo’s words, Du Daqiang glanced up, then suddenly hoisted the head of his iron shovel, twisted his body, and swung it hard at Du Jianguo. Du Jianguo shivered violently and frantically dodged to the side, barely avoiding having his head split by his own father’s shovel.

“Dad, what are you doing!”

“What am I doing?” Du Daqiang snorted, his grip on the shovel handle tightening in anger. “I’m asking you, were you gambling again last night? I heard people say you lost several dozen yuan! You even lost the money meant for making clothes for the kid!”

Hearing this, Du Jianguo instantly lost his temper after all, these were sins he had committed himself. He cleared his throat and said in a low voice: “Dad, listen to my explanation…”

“Damn it! There’s nothing to explain!” Du Daqiang cut him off, his eyes full of cruelty. “Today, I’ll clean up the family trash for the Du family! I’ll break your dog leg and see if you dare to gamble again!”

Du Jianguo dropped to his knees in the mud, bowing his head heavily three times in front of his father. He took a deep breath, his voice trembling with regret: “Dad, I know I was wrong. I will never gamble again. Please give me another chance. I promise I will change! The potatoes in the field are about to be picked clean. Even if you want to break my leg, can you wait a couple of days? Let me gather some food for winter first.”

Seeing his rebellious son kneel and bow publicly, Du Daqiang was stunned. Su Xiaomei finally dared to step forward to plead: “Husband, I think the child truly knows his mistake this time. How about… just give him another chance?”

“He’s plotting something crooked, and you’re following him into madness!” Du Daqiang glared at Su Xiaomei. However, his grip loosened. In the end, he put the shovel away and threw a hoe at Du Jianguo.

“Strictly speaking, you should have been separated from the household long ago. Your life and death should be your own responsibility; I wouldn’t care if you starved to death. But a person must have a conscience. If you don’t want to live well yourself, don’t force your wife and child into a dead end!”

Seeing the “hate iron not become steel” look of disappointment in his parents’ eyes, Du Jianguo felt a wave of unease and deep shame in his heart.

He tightened his grip on the hoe he had just received and whispered: “Then Mom and Dad, I’ll go dig for potatoes first. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t cause trouble or lose face for you again!”

With that, Du Jianguo turned and went to the potato field near the small river. No one in the village looked down on Du Jianguo, the “scoundrel”. Not a single person doing honest work wanted to talk to him. He was actually quite happy to be left alone. Holding the hoe, he carefully dug in the field. After a while, he unearthed a few potatoes and two stalks of Dandelion . Sure enough, there was good stuff here! Du Jianguo’s spirit soared. He kept digging.

Suddenly, Du Jianguo’s eyes lit up, and his heart pounded in his chest as he spotted a patch of withered plants with heart-shaped leaves. This shape… could it be Fo-ti? Fo-ti was a Chinese medicinal herb in short supply on the current market. If the quality was good, it could sell for dozens of yuan. “Keep digging!” Du Jianguo was instantly full of energy, squatting down and digging with all his might. But after digging for a while, he saw no sign of the Fo-ti. Instead, he had accumulated quite a few potatoes in his sack. He weighed them; about seven or eight jin (3.5-4 kg), enough for the family to eat for a week.

Suddenly, the hoe in his hand stopped abruptly. Then, as he dug down, he hit a hole, inside, two eyeballs were shining with a dark and glossy light. “Wild rabbits?” Du Jianguo was stunned for a moment. He instantly became alert and scanned the surroundings. Fortunately, no one was paying attention. A cunning rabbit has three dens. If it were an adult rabbit, it would have panicked and run out of another hole as soon as it saw a stranger. But these were clearly newborns, only three or four weeks old, and less than a third the size of an adult wild rabbit. They were just standing there, stupidly.

Du Jianguo dared not make a sound. Historically, “what is seen belongs to whoever sees it.” If someone else spotted it, a crowd would divide it up, and not even a rabbit leg would be left for him. The Fo-ti wouldn’t run away and could be dug up later. Right now, the most important thing was to get these rabbits out first. He quickly dumped the potatoes from his basket onto the ground, reached his hand into the hole, and carefully scooped out the baby rabbits, placing them into his sack.

Du Jianguo didn’t dare to stay long. After returning the hoe to his father, he hurriedly left, carrying the basket filled with wild rabbits and potatoes.

Du Daqiang, seeing this, was furious. “Damn beast! He couldn’t even work for a little while?” Su Xiaomei, standing nearby, sighed and said, “Husband, calm down. I saw there was quite a bit in the boy’s sack. Several jin, enough to last a week or two.” “Last a week?” Du Daqiang’s anger flared even higher. “Winter is coming! When the snow seals the mountain, you won’t be able to buy a single grain of grain! Do you still expect this coward to go hunting?”

Su Xiaomei sighed, her voice softening slightly: “If we really can’t make it, we can’t stand by and watch them die, can we? After all, he is our own son.”

The moment this sentence fell, the eldest daughter-in-law, Liu Xiaomei, suddenly lifted her head and quickly chimed in: “Mother, you absolutely cannot give our saved grain to Du Jianguo! He is a bottomless pit, impossible to fill! If you really give it, don’t blame me and the eldest for breaking away from the family!”

Hearing his daughter-in-law’s words, Su Xiaomei’s face instantly dimmed. She shook her head in disappointment, her heart filled with sighs.

This family… not a single one gives me peace of mind!