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Everyone was stunned; Li Ming's outburst left Li Jingfeng completely speechless. He never expected that this child, who had been considered slow-witted since childhood, would say something like this. Yet, it was precisely such words that were the most genuine. In his and Li Yan's hearts, they were not family to Xiao Zhi and the others; they were truly not their family in any meaningful sense.
"Didn't you hear what Mingming said?" Li Yan said while soothing Li Ming, his earlier anger gradually subsiding. He had been furious just moments ago; if he had really killed that woman, they would likely no longer be able to stay in the Safe Zone. There would be plenty of opportunities to deal with Li Jingfeng later; it wasn't worth ruining everything over this moment. "If you continue to cause trouble in my house, I can report you to the Safe Zone. Mr. Li, your wife is brazenly stealing my brother's food in broad daylight. Such shameless and despicable behavior has already jeopardized my family's safety. I'll let it go this time, but if it happens again, I will set my dogs on you. I believe even the District Chief would agree with me, after all, you were the ones who intruded into my home first."
Jiang Yuejiao finally realized what a foolish thing she had done. Ignoring Li Yan's insults, she hurriedly tried to make amends.
She had come over intending to get closer to Li Yan and the others because she sensed that he had some abilities. Otherwise, they wouldn't have so much food and wouldn't have been among the first to settle in the countryside; there must have been some background she didn't know about. However, during this time, she had suffered a lot—being looked down upon was one thing; not being able to eat well or dress properly was another. Seeing Li Ming's food now made her long-standing sense of superiority and disdain for him boil over, causing her to lose control of her temper.
"Wonton! Dumplings!" As soon as Li Yan called out, Wonton and Dumplings rushed out of the room with a whoosh. With their gaping mouths and sharp fangs aimed at Jiang Yuejiao and Li Jingfeng, they lunged forward. If those two hadn't run quickly, they might have had their bones bitten off. When Jiang Yuejiao returned home, she discovered a tear in her pants, which left her pale with fright.
"That child's father, Li Yan and Li Ming are both lunatics! Lunatics!" Jiang Yuejiao screamed inwardly, trembling at the mere thought of those two dogs. "No way! I need to tell my dad to have them arrested; they are dangerous lunatics who will kill us—really!"
"Enough!" Li Jingfeng's mind was a chaotic mess. His feelings of disappointment, guilt, and anger all swirled together until he just wanted to be alone for a while.
Seeing that Li Jingfeng was genuinely angry now, Jiang Yuejiao fell silent. However, the anger and fear inside her surged like a tide, crashing against the reefs of her heart with each wave fueling her rage. She had never felt so humiliated in her life! She needed to find her father; Li Yan had to be dealt with.
After soothing Li Ming for quite some time, Li Yan finally calmed him down. However, this incident served as a wake-up call for him. Jiang Yuejiao needed to be eliminated eventually; it just couldn't happen right now. He needed to plan carefully step by step. Her father wouldn't fall easily; thus, he had to be even more cautious in his actions.
The Li family was already quite adept at farming. Li Yan and Zhou Miao sowed seeds while wearing plastic fertilizing suits made from raincoats that covered their entire bodies including gloves. These suits were handmade by Zhang Dazhen from the village; the craftsmanship was good but expensive—it cost them one and a half pounds of sweet potato. Yu Tian watched for a long time and thought maybe he could try making one himself; of course, that was a matter for later.
Now that chemical fertilizers were gone, only household latrines remained available for use. The Li family fared better than others since they raised a few rabbits; rabbit droppings were far superior to human waste as fertilizer. They used some during planting season to ensure good nutrition for their fields. However, handling this task wasn't something just anyone could endure; thankfully, with those fertilizing suits on, once they got home, Li Yan and Zhou Miao immediately took them off because while these suits were highly waterproof, the smell of the fertilizer was unbearable. But there was no choice—everything now was natural; they would have to wear these special outfits again tomorrow.
Many people saw this outfit and thought it looked good, so they made a few outfits using raincoats from home. Surprisingly, it turned out to be quite useful. Those from the city were reluctant to wear them, saying all sorts of things. Basically, they expressed their disgust, claiming that country folks are just country folks and it was utterly disgusting. They couldn't believe that rice wouldn't grow without fertilizer.
Li Yan found it amusing after hearing this. Without fertilizer in the rice fields? Well, if you have the ability, why not produce chemical fertilizer yourselves in the future?
Zhou Grandpa seemed to be in a good mood lately; he got up early to bond with Wonton dumplings. The two Tibetan Mastiffs finally found their leader and were barking at Grandpa Zhou as if they had suffered a great injustice. Seeing his grandson still acting smug brought some comfort to the old man. His decision to let them go was indeed correct; although the children's parents were gone, at least one could be saved.
There were still about six hundred pounds of food at home, enough for a family of seven to eat for half a year. In the storage space, there were over two thousand pounds of high-quality White Rice, each grain plump and glossy. Compared to the rice grown outside, it was hard to believe they were even the same variety.
The supplies in the storage space were plentiful and should last for several decades. Li Yan had stocked up on these items himself, received some from the old man, and bought more after arriving in Zhangjia Village. These provisions basically met all their living needs. However, Li Yan never considered living in the space with Li Ming; after all, humans are social creatures, and being away from a group for too long is not good. Moreover, Zhou Miao and the others couldn't stay in the space for long; it seemed that the space had a kind of resistance to outsiders. So Li Yan felt that although life outside was tougher, as long as people were happy, that was what mattered.
As the weather warmed up, Yu Tian took Li Ming to tidy up the yard and plant some cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes as a way to blend in. Li Ming also planted some flower seeds that Li Yan had left in the space; since the child liked them, they planted some in the space as well.
Li Yan also fenced off several areas in the yard and exchanged some food with villagers from Zhangjia Village for a few ducklings and chicks. Although he had chickens and ducks in his space, the villagers had never seen them before. Now that they were raising chickens in the yard, if he later took out a few more from the space, no one would suspect anything. As for rabbits, Li Ming had insisted on raising one in the yard to see what rabbits looked like outside of the space. Now everyone knew he had a pair of rabbits; otherwise, they wouldn't be openly using rabbit droppings as fertilizer. Sometimes Li Xiaoming's playful nature did come in handy.
The yard became lively; Wonton loved to jump around and make noise, which startled Chick into frantic chirping. Wonton happily ran over to Grandpa Zhou to show off. There was a stone table and chairs in the yard; Grandpa Zhou would lounge on his chair with a pot of tea while watching everyone bustling about, feeling much more spirited himself.
One day Yin Le came over from town and asked Li Yan and Zhou Miao to meet someone. When they arrived at town, they realized it was Zhang Agou's son and his wife. They didn't seem very old and appeared to have been through quite an ordeal. The elderly man looked dazed with red eyes as if he had just been crying.
"Are these people really from Zhangjia Village?" Yin Le looked skeptically at Zhang Agou's son and daughter-in-law. The Safe Zone also had its difficulties. Currently, there weren't even half as many genuine farmers inside; however, they couldn't just let anyone into the Safe Zone without scrutiny. Therefore, leaders discussed that if it could be confirmed that they were original villagers with registered household status in the village who hadn't sold their houses before—provided there was a guarantor within the Safe Zone—they could enter.
This was also to ensure an increase in labor capacity within the Safe Zone; if everyone were wealthy landowners who couldn't farm, would everyone end up eating dirt?
The land department and housing management office in town helped arrange housing and land for Zhang Agou's son’s family while reiterating the rules. Zhang Agou's son Zhang Yi nodded repeatedly; no matter what the staff said, they had no objections at all.
"Thank you." Zhang Yi sincerely thanked the two people. Although it was out of respect for his father, at this moment, no one wanted to get involved in others' affairs. He was already immensely grateful that they were willing to stand up as guarantors.
"No need for that. What about your sister's family? Didn't you say they would come back when the situation outside got bad?" Zhou Miao asked curiously.
Zhang Yi glanced at his elderly mother, let out a deep sigh, and spoke through gritted teeth with hatred. "Heavenly Father is blind; people with a conscience are doomed to die."
It turned out that initially, the old lady had been living with her daughter, and her granddaughter was only thirteen years old but exceptionally bright. When the weather improved, they discussed coming back. That day, Zhang Yi notified his sister's family to prepare, and he planned to pick them up the next day to go to the Safe Zone together.
The lady and her daughter were in good spirits thinking about going home. However, at that moment, someone knocked on the door. Their guard had been high all along, but perhaps thinking they would be leaving soon, their defenses were lowered. They saw five or six men outside, one of whom was lying on the ground and occasionally moving. The others were crying and begging them to save the man on the ground, even offering a bowl of rice soup.
The old lady and her daughter thought they were leaving soon, and saving a life was better than building a seven-story pagoda, so they compassionately took them in. During their conversation, they inadvertently revealed their situation. Later that night, those men killed her son-in-law. The thirteen-year-old niece cried out for help while her mother rushed in but was torn apart by those men and forcibly assaulted… The old lady grabbed a wooden stick and tried to rush in, but the door was locked. She could only listen helplessly to the sounds of those beasts committing atrocities inside. At first, her daughter and niece shouted and cursed, but eventually, there was no sound…
When Zhang Yi went to pick up his sister's family, he found his elderly mother sitting there in a daze. For days she had been alternating between crying and causing a scene; she hardly had any moments of clarity. Zhang Yi, a grown man, couldn't help but cry. His sister and that child had died too tragically; even he couldn't bear to look at it. In the end, he burned their bodies; in this world where anything could happen, burning them… burning them made it clean.
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