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Hearing the address, Yu Chunmiao felt it was quite familiar. She furrowed her brows and thought for a while before recalling that it belonged to the scoundrel, Wu Dayong.
She looked at Qi Chong, who calmly nodded at her. Yu Chunmiao chuckled; what a coincidence. She noted down the address, promising herself she would visit, secretly thinking that it would be a ghostly encounter if she did.
After their meal, Qi Chong intended to accompany Yu Chunmiao to the town. Just as he was preparing the Donkey Cart, a villager approached him. It was Xu Popo, a woman in her sixties.
With tear-streaked cheeks, she said to Qi Chong, "Village Chief, my daughter-in-law won’t let me eat. I haven’t had enough food for three days. Could you please talk to her? I can still work!"
Upon hearing this, Yu Chunmiao stepped forward and scolded loudly, "Is there such a daughter-in-law? Doesn’t she fear retribution? What about your son?"
Xu Popo cried even harder, "He does care, but he’s afraid of his wife and doesn’t dare give me food. He secretly saves some cornmeal for me. My daughter-in-law has locked up all the grain; even if he wants to give me food, he can’t."
Yu Chunmiao placed her hands on her hips and paced back and forth angrily. "Qi Chong, this matter needs to be addressed! We must teach that wicked daughter-in-law a lesson; this is outrageous!"
Chen Ruolan overheard and quickly pulled Xu Popo inside for a meal. There were still three chickens left from lunch and two steamed buns, which were just enough for her.
Wu Shengnan stood by, thinking that this family was good-hearted and resolved to maintain their connection after returning home.
Qi Chong had no choice but to hand the Donkey Cart over to Qi Yuan. "You take her; bring Qi Rong along too."
Qi Rong was holding a bowl of chicken soup mixed with steamed buns, topped with many chicken bones meant for feeding the dog. He followed Yu Chunmiao's advice not to give the dog any hard bones, fearing they might hurt its stomach.
Qian Duo Duo was already anxiously drooling all over the ground while Qi Rong sat there playing with the dog.
"Qi Rong, hurry up! The sooner you go and come back, the better; we have a lot to do this afternoon," Qi Yuan urged him.
Reluctantly putting down the dog bowl, Qi Rong patted the dog’s head that was sitting obediently and said, "Eat up."
Qian Duo Duo connected today’s games with food; if they played well, they would get meat soup.
Just as Wu Shengnan got into the cart and left, Xu Popo waddled into the yard with a satisfied burp. Yu Chunmiao supported her and prepared to go with Qi Chong to reason with her daughter-in-law.
Qi Chong didn’t mind; if his wife wanted to go, then they would go.
Upon arriving at Xu Popo's home, only her daughter-in-law Xu Fang was there.
Seeing her mother-in-law bringing along the new village chief and his wife, she sarcastically remarked, "Oh look, you really brought someone here! Don’t say I’m not giving you food; I’m starving myself!"
Qi Chong had dealt with such matters before; having watched Zhang Guihua pick fights with his mother since childhood gave him some experience. However, having not interacted much with villagers lately left him unaware of their current situations.
Now faced with just Xu Fang alone, he found himself at a loss. After all, she was just a woman with no personal vendetta against him; he certainly couldn’t resort to violence.
"Is there not enough food at home?" Qi Chong asked lightly.
Xu Fang perked up upon hearing this. She quickly beckoned the couple to the kitchen. "Come, come, come, you need to see this."
As they followed her, Xu Fang opened the rice jar and said, "Look, we harvested eight hundred pounds of early rice, but after paying three hundred pounds in taxes, we're left with only a hundred. After milling it, we'll have four hundred pounds left, which we sold to exchange for six hundred pounds of brown rice. With so many mouths to feed at home, how long do you think that will last?"
The late rice is still in the ear stage and won't be ready for another two months. The yield for late rice is low; we might only get seven hundred pounds at most. After paying taxes on that, we won't even make it to the summer harvest. We also wanted to plant sweet potatoes and yellow corn, but there’s only so much land available; we can't fit everything in.
We've already rationed the daily food supply, prioritizing the three men in the household. I'm hungry too! My eldest son is already twenty-one; if we don't save some now, the new daughter-in-law will come in and go hungry. What do you expect me to do?
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