Chapter 74: Going to the Market with My Wife

Bang! Bang! Bang!!

“Second Dad, it’s time to get up and hunt rabbits!”

Early the next morning, just after 5:00 AM, the door to Lin Heng’s room was knocked on.

His eldest nephew, Lin Wei, who was often late for school, woke up earlier than his own mother today.

“Honey, get up.”

Seeing that Lin Heng had not moved, Xiu Lan gently shook him awake.

“Huh? Where’s the big fish I caught, the one over a hundred pounds?” Lin Heng groggily looked at a beautiful face.

Xiu Lan looked at him in confusion: “Lin Wei called you to hunt rabbits, what fish are you talking about? You’re dreaming.”

Lin Heng then woke up fully, realizing it had been a dream. He sighed in regret: “I dreamt I caught a big fish over a hundred pounds. It was so real, dreams really can make anything happen.”

He felt like he must be sick, to be dreaming about fishing.

“Second Dad, are you up?” Lin Wei called from outside.

“Coming, coming,” Lin Heng said helplessly, thinking that his nephew was being overly eager.

After getting dressed, Lin Heng yawned, took the bow and arrow from the wall, opened the door, and walked out.

“Second Dad, let’s hurry up and go!”

Seeing Lin Heng come out, Lin Wei immediately urged him.

Lin Heng patted his nephew’s shoulder and smiled: “No rush, I’ll wash my face and use the bathroom. It’s still early, the rabbit might not be up yet.”

“Okay,” Lin Wei said, a little reluctantly, but still very excited.

After washing his face and using the bathroom, Lin Heng unchained the dog, Xiong Ba: “Let’s go, up the mountain. Today, it’s all on you.”

“Woof! Woof!!”

Xiong Ba stood tall, charging forward. Every time he went out, he had to run in circles first before feeling comfortable.

Lin Wei walked ahead, excitedly telling Lin Heng how he had spotted the rabbit yesterday.

When they arrived at the place, however, there was no sign of any rabbit.

Lin Wei looked anxious and explained, “Second Dad, I’m not lying. I really saw it yesterday, right next to the straw pile.”

Lin Heng smiled and patted his shoulder: “It’s fine, no need to worry.”

He squatted down and petted Xiong Ba’s head: “Find the rabbit’s hole, Xiong Ba.”

The smell of rabbit urine and feces is very strong, and it’s not hard for a dog to find, as long as the rabbit has been active in the area recently.

“Woo woo~”

Xiong Ba sniffed the ground, then darted into the straw pile, moving upward.

Lin Heng and Lin Wei followed closely behind. After a short while, Xiong Ba stopped at a very hidden spot within the straw.

“Woof! Woof!”

Xiong Ba looked up at Lin Heng, signaling that it was here.

“Second Dad, Xiong Ba is amazing, he found it!”

Lin Wei crouched down and petted Xiong Ba, amazed.

Xiong Ba raised his head, seemingly saying, “You have no idea how strong I am.”

“Don’t celebrate too soon, the rabbit might not be home,” Lin Heng warned, looking around for other exits. Rabbit holes usually have two or three exits.

After finding all three exits, Lin Heng turned to Lin Wei and Xiong Ba: “You stay here with Xiong Ba. I’ll start a fire and smoke them out.”

“Okay!” Lin Wei, eager, ran over to guard the hole with a slingshot in hand.

Lin Heng gathered some pine needles and juniper leaves, lit a fire, and after adding some dry wood, threw the juniper leaves on top. With a series of crackling sounds, thick smoke began to rise.

“Cough, cough!”

Lin Heng turned his head away, vigorously fanning the smoke with leaves. In no time, he saw smoke coming out of the other exits.

This time, Lin Heng carefully checked, making sure no exit was overlooked.

Poor rabbit, there was no escape this time.

On the other side, not long after the thick smoke started rising, a grayish-brown figure couldn’t hold back and dashed out of the hole.

“Woof!!”

Before Lin Wei could shoot with his slingshot, the rabbit darted out, and with a dog’s bark, Xiong Ba accurately bit the gray rabbit.

“We caught it, Second Dad! It’s the big gray rabbit I saw yesterday!”

Lin Wei danced around in excitement. Hunting was so thrilling!

“Piece of cake, nothing difficult,” Lin Heng smiled slightly, having already expected this outcome.

Just as Lin Heng was about to put out the fire, he suddenly heard his nephew’s excited shout again.

“Oh my god, there’s another rabbit! It’s a baby rabbit, one just ran out!”

“Another rabbit!!”

Lin Heng hadn’t expected such a pleasant surprise and immediately ran over.

“The one that ran out, Xiong Ba chased the big rabbit, but didn’t catch up. I was careless,” Lin Wei pointed to the hole.

“You go fan the smoke, I’ll catch it,” Lin Heng handed his nephew the leaves.

“Okay.”

Lin Wei quickly ran over to fan the smoke.

Lin Heng looked at the dead mother rabbit that Xiong Ba had bitten, took out a snake skin bag, and aimed it at the hole. He wanted to catch a live rabbit.

After a while, Lin Wei fanning the smoke, there was movement in the hole again. With a rush, a rabbit darted into the snake skin bag.

Then, with a few more rushes, four more baby rabbits crawled inside.

Lin Heng hurriedly picked up the bag to prevent them from crawling back into the hole. He wanted to hold onto the ones he had already caught.

Once the smoke cleared, Lin Heng saw five small rabbits inside the bag, all about the size of two fists. Two were white, one was gray, and the other two were black and white.

“Second Dad, did you catch them all?” Lin Wei asked excitedly as he heard the noise.

“Yes, and put out the fire,” Lin Heng smiled.

Lin Wei quickly extinguished the fire with a stick and rushed over, unable to wait any longer: “How many did you catch?”

“Take a look for yourself,” Lin Heng opened the bag.

“Five baby rabbits, oh my god, we’re rich!” Lin Wei was so excited, he couldn’t hide his joy.

“Indeed, these baby rabbits were a pleasant surprise. Let’s take them home and raise them. They’re all yours.”

Lin Heng smiled, thinking that going with a beginner really had its unexpected benefits—he’d even found a nest of rabbits, truly good luck.

Lin Wei shook his head: “I only need two, the rest are yours, Second Dad. I wouldn’t have caught a single one without you.”

He was very fair-minded and had become quite the little hunter.

“That’s fine, take as many as you want,” Lin Heng smiled.

“Second Dad, let me see the big rabbit!” Lin Wei eagerly stretched out his hand.

Lin Heng understood his nephew’s intentions: “Here you go.”

Lin Wei took the big rabbit, inspecting it carefully. The rabbit’s spine had been bitten by Xiong Ba, and although it was still warm, it was dead.

Lin Wei listened carefully and smiled, then skipped ahead, excited.

“Aunt Liu Lan, look at the rabbit we caught, it’s about four or five pounds!”

“Uncle Yang, this rabbit was caught by me and my Second Dad, and we also caught five baby rabbits, all alive!”

Lin Wei, though young, understood that hunting was not for showing off, like making a grand entrance in a fancy outfit. He didn’t flaunt it in front of any adults.

Lin Heng shook his head and followed behind. Without needing to say anything, the villagers knew it was his accomplishment, their eyes filled with admiration and envy.

Lin Wei went specifically to the big ginkgo tree, where the village elders often gathered, but unfortunately, there was no one there in the morning, so he had to go home, since he still had to go to school.

“Dad, Grandpa, we caught some prey!!”

Before he even arrived, his loud voice had already gotten everyone’s attention as they looked toward the door.

“Dad, Mom, look.”

Lin Wei proudly presented his catch.

“Your Second Dad must have caught it, right?” Lin Yue guessed with a knowing look.

“I helped a lot!” Lin Wei protested.

“He did help quite a bit. Today, we were lucky and caught five baby rabbits. Let’s make a cage and raise them. We’ll split them up.”

Lin Heng showed them the rabbits in the bag.

“This is great! We’ll have rabbits to eat regularly now,” Lin Mother’s eyes lit up upon seeing the baby rabbits.

“Thanks to Lin Wei’s beginner’s luck, we wouldn’t have caught these baby rabbits without him.”

Lin Heng smiled.

“Lin Wei, you were helpful this time, you’ve earned your merit. But it’s already 7:30, hurry and get ready for school,” Liu Juan praised him before urging him.

“Okay,” Lin Wei couldn’t wait to go to school and brag about his catch.

“These rabbits are hard to raise. You’ll need to use iron pear wood or bullhorn tree to make a sturdy cage, or else they’ll gnaw through the wood and escape.”

Lin Father found a deep wooden barrel and asked Lin Heng to put the rabbits inside.

The five baby rabbits huddled together, trembling in fear.

“Yes, their teeth are too strong,” Lin Heng sighed. There were no iron cages at home.

“We’ll just make a bamboo one for now, and when we go to the market in a few days, we can see if there’s any iron mesh for sale. We can buy some to keep them in.”

Lin Father shrugged.

“Big Brother, you can take two baby rabbits to raise. The rest, give to Dad, I don’t want to raise them.”

Lin Heng said as he looked at the rabbits.

“Aren’t you raising them?” Lin Mother asked in surprise.

“Why raise them? There are plenty of them in the mountains. I’ll just go hunting when I want some,” Lin Heng shrugged and smiled.

Lin Mother: “…”

“Well, if you’re so capable, you’re impressive. We’ll raise them, then.”

Lin Father didn’t refuse.

“Pickled cabbage soup is ready, eat up and then hurry to fix the pigsty and chicken coop.”

Xiu Lan came out of the house and said. She had made breakfast.

After breakfast, at 8 o’clock, the father and sons went to the back mountain to repair the pigpen and chicken coop.

This task wasn’t difficult. They just needed to clear a flat area, hammer wooden stakes, build a square fence, set up a framework, and construct a rain shelter.

Finally, two wooden pig troughs were needed to keep the pigs.

The chicken coop was similar, using bamboo or wood. The only difference was that the roof had to be sealed to prevent the chickens from flying out.

It sounded simple, but the work was quite a lot. It took the entire day to finish, and they hadn’t even managed to carve the pig troughs.

At night, they ate the rabbits they caught in the morning. Stir-fried rabbit meat didn’t taste that great, and after eating meat regularly for a month, the Lin family was starting to get a bit tired of it.

The next day was the 29th, the last market day in April.

In the morning, when they woke up, Xiulan turned to Lin Heng and asked, “Have you decided what to buy today?”

“You can buy whatever you want. Do you want me to go with you?” Lin Heng reached out to stroke his wife’s face gently.

The night before, Lin Heng’s father gave him and his older brother fifty yuan each, telling them to buy some furniture for their new home since they were moving in on May 2nd, and this would be the last market day before moving.

“Well, I don’t really know what to buy on my own,” Xiulan nodded, speaking softly.

“Then, I’ll go with you.” Lin Heng had originally planned to tidy up the small courtyard behind their house, but he couldn’t bear to refuse his wife.

The two of them got up, changed into clean clothes, and packed up.

“Brother, are you ready? We should go when you’re done,” Lin Heng’s older brother, Lin Yue, and his wife, Liu Juan, were up earlier.

“Ready,” Lin Heng nodded.

“I’ll go and lead the cow,” Lin Yue said, then took the wooden cart they borrowed, using their cow to pull it. Since they would be buying a lot of things, they needed the cow cart to carry everything.

Once the cow was brought onto the road and the cart assembled, Lin Yue drove it, and Lin Heng, Xiulan, and Liu Juan sat on the cart.

Lin Heng had not brought the deer skin, badger skin, or mushrooms to sell; he planned to keep them for a bit longer and take them directly to the city.

The cow walked slowly, the bell on its neck ringing clearly. Lin Heng sat on the cart, enjoying the cool morning breeze, watching the scenery outside, while listening to Xiulan and Liu Juan discuss what to buy.

When he got tired of sitting, he laid down, resting his head on Xiulan’s lap, looking at the sky. This slow, peaceful life brought him an indescribable sense of comfort.

They left at 5:30 AM, and by 7:00 AM, the four of them had arrived at Huangtan Town’s street.

Hearing the noise and seeing the crowded people, Lin Heng had a momentary feeling that he had returned to the time before his rebirth.

“Big brother, sister-in-law, you can go ahead and shop. We’ll watch the cow and cart here.”

Lin Heng spoke first.

Lin Yue didn’t hesitate, nodding, “Alright, you stay here, we’ll be back soon.”

After saying that, the two of them left together.

Lin Heng tied the cow to a tree by the side of the road and sat on the cart with his wife, chatting. He took out a piece of paper and a pen, writing down everything they needed to buy so they could get everything one by one.

“Should we buy some bowls?” Xiulan asked, looking at Lin Heng.

“Ten bowls and ten plates should be enough. There are only three of us in our house now, after we split.” Lin Heng smiled.

“Then let’s buy a couple more. I’ll give you two more children later,” Xiulan said with a playful wink, clearly hoping for a son.

Lin Heng chuckled and held his wife’s hand, “Alright.”

He wasn’t in a rush. He planned to wait until their conditions improved a bit more, at least until next year.

Once they had more money, there would be less risk for Xiulan in childbirth, so there was no need to hurry.

The two of them sat close to each other. After chatting for a while, they ran out of things to talk about. Xiulan looked at the people on the street, and Lin Heng watched her. They waited in boredom.

During this time, Lin Yue came back three times. The first time, he brought back 15 chicken chicks, the second time he brought back a set of pots and pans, and the third time, he returned with bed sheets and pillowcases.

By the fourth time, it was already 11 AM. The two of them came back, carrying snake-skin bags filled with things.

“Brother, you can go ahead and buy things now, we’ll watch the cart.”

Lin Yue smiled.

“Alright.” Lin Heng and Xiulan quickly jumped off the cart, their butts sore from sitting.

The first things they needed to buy for the new house were pots, bowls, plates, knives, and eating utensils.

Next, they needed to buy basic living supplies, like blankets, pillowcases, and sheets.

After buying all these, they spent 12 yuan. The pots, bowls, and plates weren’t expensive, but the blankets were. A 5-jin cotton blanket cost 3 yuan, and the two bed sheets cost another yuan.

But they bought good quality items since it was a new house.

Afterward, they bought some red paper for couplets and a picture of the Kitchen God, planning to set it up at home.

After loading everything onto the cart, Lin Heng said, “Let’s go to the riverbank to check on the chicks.”

At the riverbank, vendors were selling pigs, chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep, all raised by farmers themselves, as large-scale farms were still rare at that time.

“How much for a chicken chick?” Xiulan asked a man selling chicks.

“These are black chickens, their legs are black. These are half a month old, two mao each. The ones a month old are three mao each.”

The half-month-old chicks were all fluffy and about the size of a fist, while the month-old ones already had thick feathers.

“Let’s buy the month-old ones, ten of them. They’ll be easier to raise. Do you have any bamboo cages for them?” Lin Heng noticed the bamboo cages behind the vendor.

“These cages are two mao each, or if you buy five more, I’ll give one to you for free,” the man smiled widely.

“Never mind, we’ll check out other vendors,” Lin Heng said, pulling Xiulan away.

“Don’t go, I’m just joking. I’ll give you the cage for free. My chicks are the best here,” the vendor quickly stopped them, laughing.

“We’ll see what the others have first,” Lin Heng didn’t pay him much mind and walked around to check other stalls.

“Seems like the best ones are from that guy. They’re a bit more expensive, but black chickens taste good,” Xiulan commented after looking around.

“Then let’s go back to him,” Lin Heng smiled.

“I told you, my black chickens are unique. The price is very reasonable,” the vendor said, handing over a bamboo cage.

“Others sell them for two mao each, you’re charging too much,” Lin Heng shook his head.

“One penny, one worth,” the vendor chuckled.

Lin Heng didn’t argue. The price seemed reasonable. He turned to Xiulan and smiled, “How many males and females do you want?”

Xiulan stared at him, “How can you tell male from female with chicks that small?”

The vendor didn’t believe it either, “Young man, don’t brag. You can’t tell male from female at this age. Anyone who says they can is lying to you. Don’t trick your wife.”

Lin Heng smiled slightly and looked at the vendor, “If I can explain it, will you give me an extra chick?”

The vendor pulled out a piece of paper, rolled it with some welding smoke, and confidently said, “Go ahead, if you can convince me, I’ll give you one.”

Xiulan was curious too. Catching chicks, especially those under two months old, was mostly a matter of luck, and you couldn’t tell their gender easily.

Lin Heng smiled, “You said it.”

“I said it,” the vendor replied boldly.

Lin Heng reached into the bamboo cage, flipped over one chick, and checked its backside. “This one’s a female. Xiulan, hold it, I’ll grab a male.”

After searching for a while, Lin Heng quickly found a male chick and smiled, “This one’s a male.”

The vendor was skeptical, “How can you tell?”

He lit a coal oil lighter and began puffing welding smoke, unsure whether to believe Lin Heng.

After selling chicks for so many years, the vendor was confident he could tell male from female chicks, and he wasn’t about to be fooled by two random chicks.

“It’s fine, let me explain,” Lin Heng said calmly.