The poor girl from the 1970s was forced to kiss by the damp educated youth.

Chen Zhi was catching fish in the underground river and lost track of time, accidentally catching too many.

The basket was full, as were the two burlap sacks, which were strung together with vines and hung on the shoulders. Nowadays, it's rare to see fish weighing over 100 pounds in the underground river. The ones Chen Zhi caught today ranged in size from 80 to 90 pounds to 30 to 40 pounds.

Chen Zhi didn't get home until dark, and the three pigs were so hungry they wanted to tear the house apart.

She had to feed the pigs first, then change into dry clothes, and finally rush to cook dinner for herself. Dinner consisted of noodles with a few slices of smoked meat, two eggs, and a handful of greens.

After eating the noodles, my stomach started to feel warm.

After washing the pots and pans, Chen Zhi immediately began cleaning the fish. She placed the fish scales in a separate wooden basin, roasted them over a fire, ground them up, and used them to mix with chicken feed. The gills and intestines were kept to feed the chickens. The fish maw was pickled to be used in hot pot the next day.

There were so many fish that Chen Zhi had to use all the wooden basins and buckets in the house to barely fill them all.

The salt shaker at home is almost empty, and if we catch any more prey in the next few days, it probably won't be enough.

We're also out of Sichuan peppercorns; I'll have to buy some next time I go to the market.

Chen Zhi silently counted the things her family was missing, and before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

When she woke up the next day, she was busy with work again.

After finishing her housework, she started tidying up the vegetable garden.

"What do you plan to plant on this land?" Zhao Jinbao asked as he fetched water.

Chen Zhi didn't even look up. "Plant cabbage, mustard greens, and radishes."

As winter approaches, these are the vegetables that people usually grow in their gardens.

On the other half of the vegetable garden, the sweet potatoes and corn are growing well and should be ready for harvest by the end of November. Then we'll plant some romaine lettuce and lettuce.

Zhao Jinbao: "We also plan to grow these vegetables. However, we will also grow some celery, scallions, and garlic."

Celery, scallions, ginger, garlic, and dried vegetables are all grown in the field. The planting area is not large, but it is lush and green, and she can't eat it all by herself.

Chen Zhi: "If you are short of scallions, ginger, garlic, and celery, you can come here and pick some."

Zhao Jinbao shook his head. "We have a lot of people, so our needs are huge. It's embarrassing to admit, but even with so many of us, the vegetables in our garden don't grow as well as yours, and the variety isn't as rich."

Chen Zhi smiled but remained silent. She had only awakened this talent in the last few months. Before, when she was growing vegetables at the Chen family's house, her vegetable-growing skills were only average.

"Oh right, Li Zhou'an asked me to give you this, saying it's a thank-you gift for what you did for him yesterday." Zhao Jinbao took out the two bars of soap.

Chen Zhi declined, saying, "It was nothing, no need to thank me."

Zhao Jinbao: "But it's true that you protected his money. If you don't want it, you can take it and return it to him yourself."

Chen Zhi didn't want to have anything to do with Li Zhou'an. After getting married, Chen Xiuzhen kept a very close eye on Li Zhou'an. She would even be unhappy if Li Zhou'an went back to the educated youth settlement. If she went to see Li Zhou'an, Chen Xiuzhen might even think that she was after him.

She thought for a moment, "Do you have salt at your educated youth settlement?"

Zhao Jinbao: "I just bought five jin yesterday."

Chen Zhi: "Then I'll trade these two bars of soap for salt with you."

Soap requires coupons, which others lack, but she truly doesn't; Shi Xin has given her quite a few.

Zhao Jinbao: "So how much do you want to exchange?"

Chen Zhi: "You can change it as you see fit. I'll go back and get the salt shaker for you."

Zhao Jinbao: "You might suffer a loss."

Chen Zhi: "It's alright. When exchanging items, it's impossible to be completely fair."

At noon, Chen Zhi ate a spicy fish maw hot pot with a basket of green vegetables, and was very satisfied.

For dinner, we had mutton hot pot, which consisted of a pot of mutton and a basket of green vegetables.

The people at the educated youth settlement lost their appetite.

Zhu Yuan: "I thought that Chen Zhi wouldn't be able to afford meat anymore since Xi Lang wasn't around, but it turns out she still eats meat every day."

Zhao Yiqing: "The villagers even felt sorry for her, saying she had been abandoned and that she was pitiful. But who's pitiful enough to eat meat every day?"

Yang Wenyu: "It seems she ate fish for lunch, and now it's mutton. Did she go to the market to buy mutton and fish yesterday?"

Zhou Zhengping: "The mutton was sold out as soon as it arrived, and Li Zhou'an couldn't buy any. As for fish, I didn't see any for sale."

Sandong Village has no shortage of water, but unfortunately the water is cold and the river is shallow, so it can't raise any large fish. There are almost no large lakes or fishponds.

Zhao Jinbao: "When I went to her house to fetch water today, I smelled a very strong fishy smell."

All the educated youth looked at Zhao Jinbao in unison. "Then why didn't you buy it from her?"

Zhao Jinbao: "..."

Zhao Jinbao, carrying money, was pushed out by the educated youth to find Chen Zhi. Chen Zhi was eating mutton and greeted him when she saw him, "Come and have some with me."

Zhao Jinbao shook his head; he wouldn't live off a woman.

Even though he really wanted to.

But that would only happen after it was legitimate, and then he could live off his wife.

Do you sell fish here? We'd like to buy some.

"Well--"

She knew she couldn't hide it; the house smelled too strongly of fish.

Now that the free market has been established, people are less hesitant to mention the words "buy" and "sell" anymore.

Chen Zhi hesitated for a moment, "How many do you want?"

Zhao Jinbao swallowed hard. Why did these words sound like she would give them as much as they wanted?

So he countered, "How much can you give?"

"I'll give you forty jin," Chen Zhi said.

Gudong!

Zhao Jinbao swallowed hard, his eyes shining brightly. "Okay."

Chen Zhi: "No coupon needed, it's ninety cents a pound; if you need a coupon, it's fifty cents a pound."

Zhao Jinbao agreed without hesitation. Fish sold in town were about the same price, and they were rarely available. Large fish were especially expensive, so this price was actually low.

Chen Zhi brought one over from the wooden basin in the room. "Forty catties, no less. You can weigh it if you don't believe me."

"Of course I believe you," Zhao Jinbao blurted out. He counted out thirty-six yuan and gave it to Chen Zhi. He took the fish from Chen Zhi's hand and thought to himself that it was more than forty jin, it must have been fifty jin.

Chen Zhi: "It's already been salted, so you don't need to add salt when you cook it."

Zhao Jinbao suddenly realized why she was suddenly short of salt. He had thought she had forgotten to buy some from town, but it turned out she had used too much and run out.

When Zhao Jinbao walked into the educated youth settlement carrying such a large fish, the educated youth who had been waiting for a long time immediately surrounded him, all of them dumbfounded.

Zhou Zhengping: "My God, this is the first time I've ever seen such a big fish."

The others nodded in agreement; it was the first time they had seen it before as well.

Zhao Jinbao: "Chen Zhi said there were forty jin, and each jin cost nine mao, so I gave her thirty-six yuan."

Zhu Yuan: "Is it that heavy?"

She has no concept of weight.

"We have a scale, let's weigh it," Yang Wenyu said, turning around and going inside to get the scale.

When weighed, the fish weighed far more than forty jin (30 kg), clearly fifty-one jin (25 kg).

They made a fortune!

"How about we make up the price difference?" Zhao Jinbao asked.

Zhou Zhengping: "The transaction is complete, there's no going back, and no additional compensation is needed."

Yang Wenyu glared at Zhao Jinbao and said, "You're just burning money."

Zhao Yiqing: "It was Chen Zhi herself who said it was forty jin, not us."

Zhao Jinbao: "Chen Zhi did say it was at least forty catties, which means she knew it was more than forty catties, but she still sold it to us for forty catties. Sigh, Chen Zhi is so generous. We got to eat the fish and made a good deal, so don't go around reporting us after you've already benefited. That's unethical. Anyone who does that will become my enemy, and I won't fetch water anymore!"

Zhao Yiqing: "Only a fool would report her. If we report her, how are we supposed to eat fish anymore?"

Zhu Yuan: "What's the benefit of reporting her? I won't do anything that doesn't bring me any benefit."

Yang Wenyu: "Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't dare. With Xi Lang's abilities, if he knew we were bullying Chen Zhi, he could kill us without anyone knowing, and the police wouldn't even be able to find any evidence."

Zhou Zhengping: "Chen Zhi is generous and righteous. I'm not the kind of person who repays kindness with enmity. Jinbao, try to get closer to Chen Zhi in the future. Whether we can eat meat depends on you."

The educated youth settlement cooked the fish overnight. When the aroma of the fish wafted over to Chen Zhi's place, Chen Zhi was already asleep.

Today, Chen Zhi was going into the mountains again. She woke up earlier than usual, cooked pig feed, watered the vegetables, and fed the chickens. When Chen Da came to call her, she carried her basket and went out.

The morning dew was heavy; after walking in the mountains for a while, my trouser legs got wet.

Many small paths have been worn into the mountains, indicating that quite a few people have been going into the mountains these past few days.

Chen Da: "We went into the mountains yesterday, but we only caught two mountain rats. We also only found a few chestnuts. My younger brothers fared even worse; they only picked some wild fruits and didn't even see a chestnut or a rat."

Chen Zhi wasn't surprised at all. "With more people coming into the mountains, everything will eventually be harvested."

Chen Peng: "So everyone should be prepared that we won't gain much today."

Chen Ergou: "There's nothing left in the mountains. I'm planning to go to the fields tomorrow; there are still rat holes there. Chen Zhi, are you coming?"

Chen Zhi shook her head, "I need to go into the mountains to cut pig feed."

She had just picked two rows of vegetables, and there weren't enough vegetables left in the garden for the three pigs to eat.

Chen Xiaoshuai: "The river level has dropped, it's about time to dig for lotus roots. If there are no rats, we'll go dig for lotus roots."

Everyone thought it was a good idea, so they decided to go dig for lotus roots tomorrow.

As they expected, they climbed several mountains today but found few chestnuts; instead, they discovered some wild fruits.

Chen Zhi's wild grapes were used to make wine yesterday. Some of these wild fruits can also be used to make wine, but they need to be added to the wine. Since Chen Zhi didn't have any wine, she didn't pick too many.

"Let's go to the bamboo forest. I found bamboo rats there in March and April," Chen Zhi said.

Bamboo rats are much larger than regular mountain rats, and their meat is just as good.

Upon hearing that there were mountain rats, everyone's eyes lit up, and they rushed towards the bamboo forest.

These past few days, everyone's been going into the mountains to find chestnuts, so not many people have come to the bamboo forest. Bamboo shoots grow all year round, but there are fewer shoots this season. As Chen Zhi searched for bamboo shoots, she listened intently, and suddenly, a chirping sound reached her ears.

Chen Zhi took out her slingshot, aimed, and before anyone else could react, she had already stuffed a large bamboo rat into a sack.

Chen Zhi: "There is a hole here, but I have already dug one out. I am not sure if there are any bamboo rats inside."

"We'll know once we start fumigating. Everyone, sweep up the bamboo leaves nearby first, so they don't catch fire later," Chen Peng said.

Last year's wildfire taught everyone a lesson, and no one dared to be careless.