Chapter 3: Farming Won’t Make You Rich, It Can’t Even Make You Wealthy
“Eat your meal, I’ll carry our daughter and go fetch pig feed. After you’re done eating, we’ll go up the mountain to gather mushrooms.”
Wife Chen Xiulan said to Lin Heng, hoping he wouldn’t just eat and then run off.
She strapped their daughter onto her back and carried a bamboo basket to fetch pig feed.
“Give me the daughter, I’ll carry her. You’re getting too tired carrying her!”
Lin Heng shook his head, put down his rice bowl, and walked over to take their daughter, Lin Xiaoxia, into his arms.
Lin Xiaoxia was wearing a red floral cotton jacket with a split in the back. Her little face was rosy, and because she was used to being carried, she wasn’t too noisy.
Chen Xiulan stood a bit stunned. How had her husband suddenly become so considerate, acting so differently today? He’d never really held their daughter before and had even seemed somewhat reluctant.
“Take care of her. She can’t walk well yet, don’t let her fall. I’ll be back soon.”
“Don’t worry.” Lin Heng smiled, his face full of happiness as he gently touched Xiaoxia’s little face.
In his previous life, he hardly ever took care of Xiaoxia, and didn’t have the money to send her to school. After his wife Chen Xiulan died, their daughter even stopped recognizing him.
This time, he was determined to be different and to start making changes from now on.
Chen Xiulan took the bamboo basket and left, still feeling somewhat unreal. Even when her husband had promised to take care of their family before, he rarely held their daughter and never smiled so genuinely.
She just hoped that this time, he would stick to it and that it would last longer. That would be enough for her.
“Call daddy!”
Lin Heng smiled and teased their daughter as he held her.
“Mom… food… food…”
However, their daughter could only call “mom” and smiled happily, revealing two little dimples, her mouth open, wanting to eat, and her hands and legs flailing in the air.
Lin Heng knew this was because he hadn’t been close to her before, so he took a big bite and fed her a little bite.
“Wow, the sun must be setting in the west for you to know how to take care of a child.” Lin Heng’s mother, Lin Mu, said in surprise when she saw this.
“Mom, can you stop being sarcastic? I’ve told you, I’ve really turned over a new leaf and am going to live well.”
Lin Heng replied helplessly, feeling his mother was too critical of him.
“Hmph, you’d better prove it first.” Lin Mu glanced at him, clearly not believing him.
Lin Heng had disappointed her too many times.
After that, Lin Mu went to the fields with a hoe. It was the busy season in April, when it was time to repair the paddy fields and prepare for transplanting rice seedlings.
It had just rained, and it was the perfect time to plant sweet potatoes, and corn and soybeans could also be planted. Lin Heng’s father and older brother had already gone to work in the fields.
Lin Heng helplessly carried his daughter and walked out of the yard gate.
Not far outside the gate was their vegetable garden, which covered about two acres, and next to it was a wooden pigsty.
Inside, a small pig, weighing about thirty pounds, saw them and grunted, hoping for food.
Lin Heng’s house was located at the foot of the Qinling Mountains. The area was fairly flat, and not far away were other houses in the village.
Fengshu Village, like every other household, had houses built against the Qinling Mountains. The houses were made with yellow earth compacted into thick walls, supported by oak tree trunks as frames, and the roofs were covered with blue slate.
This place was far from the city center, and at that time, there was no electricity, only kerosene lamps. Lin Heng remembered that electricity would only come the following winter.
The main reason was that a national road connecting the south was being built nearby, otherwise, they might not have gotten electricity until the 1990s.
“Why are you here?”
Chen Xiulan, who was gathering pig feed in the fields, saw Lin Heng coming and asked curiously.
“Are you having trouble holding her? Here, give her to me.”
She thought her husband couldn’t hold the child anymore, so she clapped the dirt off her hands and reached out.
“No, I just came to see if there’s anything I can help with.”
Lin Heng shook his head. Little Xiaoxia in his arms was laughing and being teased by him.
Chen Xiulan froze a little when she saw this scene. Her husband was doing quite well taking care of the child.
In the distance, Lin Heng’s mother, who was planting sweet potatoes, saw him and called out, “Aren’t you turning over a new leaf? Give me the child, you go dig the holes.”
Lin Heng glanced at his mother and obediently handed his daughter to her, then went to dig the holes.
His mother had clearly seen that he was at home and wanted to find him something to do.
Lin Heng picked up a hoe and began to dig holes. His sister-in-law was planting sweet potato slips, pressing them into the ground to ensure they would take root. Sweet potatoes were very easy to grow.
After the rain, the soil was soft, but it was still tiring work.
After just half an hour of digging, Lin Heng was already sweating.
“Ah, this is so tiring!”
Lin Heng sat down on the edge of the field, wiping his sweat and sighing, “Farming really doesn’t make sense. After working all year, you don’t make much money.”
His body wasn’t built for hard labor, and he felt that farming just couldn’t make someone rich. It seemed impossible to get ahead in life.
His father and many of the farmers from that generation believed that as long as they worked steadily and farmed well, life would improve. But twenty years later, they were still farming and barely getting by. Life was tough for farmers.
“If you don’t farm, what will you eat? You just want to eat and do nothing. Look at your older brother, he can dig an acre of land without even breathing heavily.”
His mother, Lu Hongmei, glanced at him and gave him the child before going back to her work.
She knew her younger son wasn’t capable of much, but she still had to make him do something to keep him grounded.
Otherwise, when they split the family, they’d all be relying on his wife, Xiulan, and would end up exhausting her.
“Yeah, Lin Heng, you really need to work harder. Otherwise, when the family splits, no one will help you.”
His sister-in-law, Liu Juan, said with a smile. She didn’t like Lin Heng, who didn’t work and just mooched off the family while her husband worked hard to harvest the crops.
“Farming won’t make you rich. I want to do something that will make money.” Lin Heng responded with a smile.
“Hmph, what have you done to get rich all these years? In the end, you’re still eating and drinking at home?”
His mother, Lu Hongmei, couldn’t contain her anger when she heard this. Their second son, the one with the most education, had gone to middle school but turned out to be the most unambitious.
Three years after graduation, two years of marriage, and he still hadn’t earned a single penny, always dreaming of getting rich quick.
His sister-in-law also frowned, not believing his words. She just felt sorry for her sister-in-law, Xiulan, who had married such a man. It would be a difficult life for her.
“Wipe your sweat, give me the child.”
Chen Xiulan didn’t comment on Lin Heng’s big talk. She handed him a handkerchief and took their daughter from him.
The handkerchief was already worn thin and had no fragrance. Lin Heng wiped his sweat and helped her carry the pig feed.
“Mom, Xiulan and I are going up the mountain to see if we can find some mushrooms.”
“As long as you don’t go out with those useless friends of yours, I don’t care what you do.”
His mother coldly said, her disgust for Lin Heng’s friends obvious.
Lin Heng nodded, acknowledging her words, and walked home with his wife.
His mind was still occupied with memories from his past life, trying to think of a way to make his first bucket of gold quickly.
“Got it!!”
Suddenly, a look of surprise crossed his face as he remembered something.
End of Chapter