Rebirth in Famine: She Thrives by Lucky Space

Li Yungui nodded excitedly. ”That’s great. Today Wang Shulin hauled away four units, we still have three at home.”

”We’re not at the point where we can mass‑produce threshers yet, so there’s no need to be too high‑profile.”

Li Yungui understood that too, but as long as there was money to be made, that was enough. Good stuff of course had to be kept a bit under wraps.

Li Cunshan was busy directing the sowing for the late crop, so busy his feet barely touched the ground, but it was a pleasing kind of busy.

Once all the late sowing in Li Family Village was finished, Wang Shulin came over again and took away four tractors; he was thinking of finishing all the late sowing within three days.

With the same idea in mind, Zheng Jixian intercepted two units halfway.

There was nothing Wang Shulin could do; they were all villages within ten li or so, and everyone got along well. He couldn’t hog all the good things for himself.

”Your wheat isn’t in the grain depot yet, what are you rushing for?”

”These two units will work in our village first. Don’t think I don’t know—you’ve got threshers now. I’m heading straight to Li Family Village to look for Li Yungui.”

Wang Shulin had no choice and could only leave with two tractors.

But he was secretly a bit excited: with his own four threshers he’d save sixteen hundred yuan, which meant more than one extra thresher’s worth left over.

Wang Shulin walked off in high spirits, and Zheng Jixian headed straight for Li Family Village.

He was coming prepared today. He saw they’d already started pouring wheat grain.

”Yun Gui, are you getting ready to hand in your public grain?”

”Yeah, better get it handed in quick and have one less thing on my mind, right? What brings you over?”

”I ran into Wang Shulin on the road, grabbed two tractors off him and sent them straight back to his village.”

”And he was willing to give them to you?”

”He didn’t have a choice. These are for your own village, I can only drool over them, but Wang Shulin’s already gotten four threshers. We can’t let him have every good thing.”

”How’s your wheat?”

”We’ve only cut half, still some green. I came for threshers—don’t tell me you gave them all to Wang Shulin. If there’s some for him, you have to think of us too. You may be in‑laws, but our relationship isn’t bad either.”

”I can only give you two units, that’s the most. We’ll do it this way for this year. After autumn you can come haul again, and I can still give you two.

It’s really hard to juggle this. Honestly, those four units for Wang Shulin are what our own village was going to use.”

”Alright, I get it. Two it is. How much? I’ll pay you, and hurry up and find someone to load them for me, there’s still too much work in the fields.”

”The ones for Wang Shulin are old, and those machines were used last year. The purchase price was a bit lower—gave them to him at one thousand one each. But the new machines are fifteen hundred.”

Li Yungui still spoke honestly. There’s no wall that doesn’t let wind through; even if Wang Shulin didn’t mention it, the village accounts would show it, and once word spread it’d be ugly. Everyone’s on good terms.

”Alright, fifteen hundred it is. I was wondering why Wang Shulin was so easy to talk to today—you must have told him the price of the new machines, huh?”

”Yeah, he still wanted more, but how could there still be any for him? Our village has to get our own done too. We can’t end up with nothing to use next year—that’d be a joke.”

Zheng Jixian didn’t waste words. He pulled out three bundles of cash from his coat and handed them to Li Yungui.

The two of them walked and talked, especially about this recent accident.

”Let Yun Qiang come to our village and teach us.”

”Alright, then we won’t go hand in the public grain today. Your timing is perfect.” After sending off Zheng Jixian, Li Yungui, smiling from ear to ear, took the money over to Jiang Xinyu.

”Village Chief Li, Red Army is going to buy fish bone powder tomorrow. Our soybeans aren’t quite enough either.”

”I know. Tomorrow I’ll go ask at the grain depot, see if we can trade wheat for soybeans.”

Li Yungui had already thought about this and figured it should work. Wheat was more in short supply than soybeans.

”Mm, okay, then the oil mill can be put into use too.”

The soybean oil coming out of the oil mill could be distributed to everyone, and they could also use it to curry favor with the supply and marketing cooperative. Pigs and chickens could eat some soybean cake as feed.

”Mm, actually my big brother has already contacted grain depots in other counties. If things don’t work out here, we’ll just go buy outside. Either way we won’t delay things.”

Li Yunqiang arrived at Zheng Family Village and started tinkering with the machines; Zheng Jixian found four people.

He taught them hand‑in‑hand and told them how serious things could get. They tried it out; the four were all clever and handy villagers. In no time they could operate it; honestly there wasn’t much to it—main thing was to pay attention to safety.

Watching the wheat grains come out and the husks being blown away, clean as if they’d been winnowed, everyone was delighted.

”Yun Qiang, come on, let’s go home and eat.”

”Brother Zheng, I’ll pass, it’s so busy right now, we’ll talk about it another time.”

How could Zheng Jixian possibly let him go hungry at mealtime? So he dragged him back home. The food at home was already cooked—just big steamed buns and steamed pickles. Seeing a guest come, they went and fried some eggs.

Li Yunqiang felt terribly embarrassed, like he was making trouble for them.

Yue Lanfeng came home to get the meal. She was no longer that cheerful girl anymore, because under Zheng Jixian’s guidance she’d seen how vile Yin Zhijun really was. She realized he’d never liked her from beginning to end—she’d been played. But her body was already his.

So now she was living at her uncle’s house, and she’d suddenly grown up. That drifting, floaty feeling she used to have was completely gone.

Zheng Jixian’s wife had already laid out lunch.

Li Yunqiang finished eating; two buns were enough. He really didn’t have the nerve to eat more—if he ate more, that meant less for them. He’d come without any preparation.

”Yun Qiang, you’re only eating that much?”

”Brother Zheng, that’s fine. I’ll come again when there’s a chance. It’s the busy season right now.”

He saw the mother and daughter picking up the lunch baskets and casually asked if they needed help carrying it over.

Yue Lanfeng looked up at this middle‑aged man. The Li Family men all had decent looks, and most importantly, there was a scholarly air about them. Even Third, who was in the army, had that bookish kind of face.

”No need, no need.”

”Auntie, who’s this?”

”The accountant from Li Family Village, Li Yunqiang. He came to our village to teach us how to use the threshers.”

”From Li Family Village?”

”Mm, he’s Village Chief Li’s real younger brother.

He’s not someone with good luck either—divorced from his wife. Now he’s at home alone with two kids, and the two older ones are working in the city.”

Yue Lanfeng started to have ideas. This man fit her taste, and he was divorced too, so he wouldn’t care that she wasn’t ”intact,” right? Even though living at her uncle’s place no one said anything, she still felt like she was living under someone else’s roof. Now that there was this opportunity, if it worked out, she could have a home of her own.

But she knew now wasn’t the time to talk about that. She pressed down her thoughts and asked around about this Li Yunqiang.

In a small place like this, gossip spreads fastest. So all the way there, Zheng Jixian’s wife was talking about Li Yunqiang’s situation.

Yue Lanfeng had a sense of it now. This man should be a good match for her; she just didn’t know if he’d like her. Better wait until this busy stretch is over and then ask her uncle’s opinion.