Reborn in the 60s, I hunt to support my family and even seduce the village beauty.

"Anything else good?"

Liu Meifen's eyes lit up, and she reached out to snatch the sack and dumped it on the ground.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Chang Kun tried to stop his mother, but it was too late.

Splash...

As the sack was turned over, a large amount of soybeans, corn, pine nuts, peanuts, and walnuts poured out like a floodgate being opened.

Liu Meifen stared wide-eyed at the grain on the ground, mouth agape, completely stunned.

Chang Dashan didn't even bother to pay attention to the pipe that fell from his mouth to the ground, and instead reached out and grabbed a handful of soybeans.

The feeling of having food in hand is truly satisfying.

"How much is this?" Liu Meifen's mouth trembled slightly.

"Hehe, grandpa, grandma, there are seventeen or eighteen pounds of soybeans and seven or eight pounds of corn."

Zhang Quhun remembered the number perfectly, and added, "They were all taken by Brother Kun from the field mouse spirit's hole."

In the countryside, even during the most difficult 60 years, those 20 or 30 catties of grain could be exchanged for three or five young wives.

Even now, in 59, he could easily find a new wife.

Liu Meifen's eyes were a little moist.

In the past year, even when our family was at its most well-off, we had never stored this much food.

Normally, it is through her careful planning and gathering of wild vegetables that her family has been able to persevere.

"Good boy." She reached out and patted Chang Kun on the shoulder, then patted Zhang Quhun on the shoulder.

"Wait, I'll divide it up for you two brothers, you can take it home and eat it."

"Auntie, this all came from Brother Kun..."

Before Zhang Quhun could finish speaking, Liu Meifen waved her hand.

"Stop talking. You two went together, so you should share. Share the greyhound and the field mouse too, they taste really good."

She didn't invite Zhang Quhun to stay for dinner either. These days, everyone is struggling financially, and when it's time to eat, there's no reason to stay at someone else's house.

"Auntie, please... I don't have a knife at home, so I can't eat the meat." Zhang Quhun lowered his head, a little embarrassed.

Chang Kun: ...

Last year's Great Leap Forward saw many households throw all sorts of iron tools, such as pots, pans, knives, and hoes, into the furnace, only to produce a useless lump of iron.

The situation where Zhang Quhun's family didn't have a kitchen knife would sound like a joke in later generations, but it was quite common at that time.

Liu Meifen was taken aback, then instructed Chang Dashan:

"Dad, hurry up and help me kill a few greyhounds and ground rats to bring back to Quwa."

He then turned to Zhang Quhun and said:

"Kid, wait a minute, your grandpa's going to kill and chop up the greyhound and the ground squirrel for you. Take them home and cook them with a couple of handfuls of soybeans, they'll be so delicious!"

Before Zhang Quhun could refuse, Liu Meifen rushed into the yard and began to deal with the situation.

While his mother was busy in the yard, Chang Kun grabbed two field mice and led Zhang Quhun toward Liu Tiezhu's house.

On his way home, he had already decided to deliver two field mice to Liu Tiezhu's house and borrow his gun; he figured there wouldn't be any problems.

These days, meat and grain are the real hard currency.

When we arrived at Liu Tiezhu's yard, he was smoking a pipe, while his wife, Li Erniang, and their son, Liu Chuqiang, were picking wild vegetables.

As soon as Chang Kun opened his mouth to call out "Uncle, Aunt," Li Erniang's eyes were fixed on the two field mice.

"Hey, Chang Kun's here! Look at him, he's got a really good physique..."

Li Erniang was known throughout the village for her big mouth; she was the first to know anything that happened in any household, and the news would spread throughout the entire village in no time.

"Uncle, I've come to see you. I caught some ground squirrels today, I'll give you two to try."

Chang Kun didn't speak to Li Erniang, fearing she would ask about his work and marriage, which would take until tomorrow morning to finish.

"Oh, don't be so polite, you even brought two ground squirrels. Your uncle and dad go to the mountains to catch rabbits and pheasants all the time, they're as close as brothers."

Li Erniang's face lit up with a smile as she quickly took the field mouse.

Although they were the head of the brigade, they hadn't eaten meat in a long time. Their son, Liu Chuqiang, was only fourteen years old and at the age when he could eat the most. He kept pestering his father to go hunting.

Unfortunately, the hunters in the village are really bad at it; they haven't caught anything for a long time...

Liu Tiezhu glared at his wife, who had accepted the gifts without asking any questions.

He turned to Chang Kun and asked, "Xiao Kun, just say what's on your mind. What's the relationship between our two families? Don't beat around the bush."

Chang Kun explained his purpose, and Liu Tiezhu took a deep drag on his pipe and frowned.

"Xiao Kun, do you know how to use this gun? This is no joke."

Chang Kun smiled slightly, "Uncle, bring it here and I'll show you, then you'll know."

Watching Chang Kun skillfully handle his family's Water Chain Beads, Liu Tiezhu nodded in approval:

"Well done, Xiao Kun, your handlebars are almost as good as mine."

"Take the gun, you can use it for three days, with five bullets. I can't afford any more than that."

Chang Kun took the water beads, thanked Liu Tiezhu, and led the silent Zhang Quhun out of the courtyard.

Li Erniang pressed Chang Kun through the fence, asking, "Little Kun, Qu, what are you borrowing guns for?"

"Let's go into the mountains and hunt wild boar."

"Huh? Hunting wild boar?"

Li Erniang turned to look at Liu Tiezhu.

"Honey, have you ever hunted a wild boar before?"

"You definitely haven't fought one. Since you were born, I've never seen you bring home a single wild boar hair."

"With your lips clamped shut, you wouldn't even know where the wild boar is. These two lads just went into the mountains to mess around."

Liu Tiezhu's face turned bright red, like an air force veteran whose wounds had been exposed.

"Who cares if we can catch wild boar or not, I'll have ground squid to eat anyway."

Li Erniang hummed a little tune, picked up the ground rat, and became happier and happier as she looked at it.

Liu Chuqiang licked his lips. "Pork tastes better than rat meat. Why didn't Brother Kun take me? Why did he take that idiot Zhang instead?"

"Trying to hunt wild boars with an idiot like that? Brother Kun isn't exactly smart either."

Liu Tiezhu and Li Erniang nodded in agreement.

When Chang Kun returned home, he secretly hid the gun in the west room so that his parents wouldn't see it.

If they knew I was going to bring a gun into the mountains, I'd worry about them nagging me.

Liu Meifen and Chang Dashan had just finished skinning and chopping two squirrels when it was already getting dark, and there wasn't enough time to kill them.

Liu Meifen packed squirrel meat for Zhang Quhun, and after much persuasion, she also put five or six handfuls of soybeans in his clothes.

Chang Kun originally thought that since Zhang Quhun's family didn't have a knife, it would be fine if he didn't share the squirrels and field mice with him for now, but the soybeans, corn, and other grains should be divided equally between the two of them.

But Zhang Quhun resolutely refused, saying that without Chang Kun to take him along, he wouldn't get a single soybean, and he was already very satisfied to be able to have a good meal.

With so many prey caught by Chang Kun, and wild boars to hunt next, the good days are yet to come!

Chang Dashan, puffing on his pipe, watched Zhang Quhun's departing figure and said, "That second son of the Zhang family isn't stupid."

Chang Kun chuckled and looked at him with an idiotic expression.

The villagers thought he was stupid, and so did his family.

Only Chang Kun knew that this man was just simple-minded, but not stupid.

……

Zhang Quhun returned home excitedly, carrying squirrel meat and a bag of soybeans.

There was only a bowl of cold wild vegetable soup on the stove, with a few wild vegetables floating in it, and not a single bit of cornmeal in it.

"Dad, is there no cornmeal left at home? Why didn't you put any in?" Zhang Quhun called out into the house.

Zhang Quhun's father, Zhang Pianxin, lay motionless on the kang (a heated brick bed), humming something under his breath.

"I've sent all the cornmeal to your older brother. Your nephew is at the age where he can eat a lot, and his family is short of food."

Zhang Quhun looked down at the soybeans and corn he had stuffed in his clothes, and suddenly felt a chill in his heart despite the hot summer weather.