1940s: I supported my wife and sister-in-law by hunting.

With the crops in the fields all harvested, the farm work in the village was finally over.

They've finally made it through this difficult period. The villagers, young and old, the aunties and wives, and the young wives of each household are all free from the daily toil of working in the fields under the scorching sun.

When they had nothing to do, they would wander from house to house, chatting and gossiping under the walls.

During the busy harvest season, everyone works like crazy, eating three meals a day without fail, making sure they have enough to eat each time, otherwise they simply can't handle the heavy work in the fields.

Now that all the work is done, the villagers have switched to eating only two meals a day, saving every last bit of food. Farmers have always been this frugal in their daily lives.

With the arrival of winter, the days become exceptionally short, and it gets dark early, so we eat earlier as well.

It was just past three in the afternoon, and the sun was already setting in the west, with smoke billowing from the chimneys in the village.

Wang Er's family had finished eating long ago, and had cleaned up all the dishes and chopsticks.

His son, Qiangzi, is dim-witted and doesn't know anything. He just runs around aimlessly in the village all day long, wandering around without a care in the world.

But there's one thing about this kid that makes things easy for everyone: no matter how wildly he plays or how far he runs, he always makes sure to come home before dinner or dark. He knows when to eat and when to sleep; he knows his home and his neighborhood.

Based on this alone, Aunt Wang felt much more at ease.

These days, it's freezing cold in the dead of winter, but at least my silly son knows his way home and won't freeze to death out in the fields.

The swallows suffered terribly during the recent corn harvest.

Squatting by the furrow in the field, he vomited so badly that he couldn't hold anything in his stomach, and he was completely listless and lacked energy.

The people in this village are all incredibly shrewd and perceptive, with eyes as sharp as needles. They can spot anything, from gossip to even the sex of a fly buzzing around them.

If there's any trouble in someone's village, you don't even need to ask around; just the old woman's words will spread throughout the whole village in less than a day.

Widow Li from next door was also bending over in the field picking corn at the time. She was the kind of person who would want to taste the saltiness of someone who was shoveling manure.

She had sharp eyes and spotted the swallows squatting by the ditch at a glance. Her eyes darted around and she immediately had a wicked idea.

He casually tossed the corncob in his hand into the basket on his back, then, swaying his muscular hips, he swaggered over to Qiu Yanzi.

"Hey, I say! You've been throwing up every day, could you be pregnant?"

At this moment, Qiu Yanzi was feeling extremely unwell, and she was vomiting so much that she almost vomited bile.

She stared at the little bit of sorghum rice she had just vomited on the ground, feeling heartbroken. What a waste of grain!

I've been doing heavy farm work every day lately, and it's only a hard time getting enough to eat and keeping up with my physical strength. But these past few days I've been feeling nauseous and vomiting up everything I've eaten.

She raised her hand and wiped her mouth haphazardly, not even hearing what Widow Li was muttering.

"What happened?"

Seeing that she was pretending to be confused, Widow Li smiled so hard that her eyes and brows were crooked, and moved even closer with winks and exaggerated expressions.

"Are you still playing dumb with me? You're a seasoned mother of two daughters, don't you understand this little trick? I bet you're pregnant!"

After saying that, she became even more unrestrained, making jokes that were neither crude nor vulgar.

"I saw it in the summer, your silly Qiangzi went to bathe in the Hetao River. His strength, his physique, his manhood—we all saw it when we were washing clothes in the Hetao River! Tell me the truth, does this silly boy ever manage to feed you properly at night?"

Actually, during the busy farming season, Widow Li's family was short of labor, so she asked Sha Qiangzi to help her twice.

She always rewarded him with big white steamed buns. Although Sha Qiangzi didn't understand why, she was happy nonetheless.

Although Sha Qiangzi was a bit slow-witted, he was strong and energetic, and his tongue was also powerful.

He carried corn and hauled crops, saving Widow Li a lot of effort.

Qiu Yanzi saw Widow Li winking and immediately realized what was going on.

I remembered what happened in the cornfield.

Just then, Aunt Wang, who was some distance away, saw Qiu Yanzi squatting on the edge of the field, not doing any work but just chatting with Widow Li, and she immediately got angry.

She shouted in a loud, rough voice, cursing as she hurried toward them.

"You lazy bum, always dawdling! You dawdle and complain of being tired after only a short while! Hurry up and finish harvesting all the corn from these two acres!"

"What terrible things have I done in my life to deserve such a miserable fate! My Qiangzi has ended up with three freeloaders who are just collecting debts, and two penniless girls who are just good for nothing!"

"Qiu Yanzi! What are you standing there for? Stop wasting your time! Stop chatting with her and get back to work! What? You want to learn those bad things too? My silly Qiangzi is still alive here, so don't you dare cause any trouble and embarrass the Wang family!"

Widow Li saw that it was Aunt Wang Er rushing over, her mouth full of veiled insults.

Wang Er wasn't exactly healthy either; half of his family's land was only cultivated thanks to Wang Er's help.

Why pretend with her? We all know each other perfectly well.

"Wang Er's wife, who are you cursing at? Don't you even think about it and do something good for your silly Qiangzi! We all know you're straightforward, but you can't just spout whatever comes to mind, saying the most nasty things."

"I'm disciplining my own daughter-in-law, what's it to you? What, you think you can challenge me? Bah! Qiu Yanzi, come here right now!"

Widow Li waved her hand, too lazy to argue with her.

"I'm not going to waste time with your idle chatter today. I've seen Qiu Yanzi vomit several times; there's a good chance your wife is pregnant. You're always spouting nonsense; aren't you afraid your child will be born with a cleft lip?"

"Holy crap?..."

Aunt Wang Er's curse words were about to come out, but she swallowed them back down.

He stared at Qiu Yanzi's belly for a long time.

"You're pregnant? Was it the time I made the big dog braid stew for Qiangzi the other day?"

Qiu Yanzi thought to herself that she hadn't had her period for two months, and immediately realized that she was probably pregnant.

"Mom, I think I'm really pregnant. I've been feeling hungry a lot lately, and I feel nauseous and vomit whenever I smell something strange."

"Oh! That matches the date perfectly!"

Aunt Wang stopped arguing with Widow Li and hurriedly led Qiu Yanzi to see Doctor Zhou for a pulse diagnosis.

A pulse diagnosis confirmed it was a pregnancy pulse, and the timing was exactly the same as when we gave Sha Qiangzi the folk remedy and Da Gou's braid.

The old lady was overjoyed. Her seemingly simple-minded son turned out to be quite capable. Now she could finally hold her grandson and become a grandmother.

That evening, she even pulled Sha Qiangzi aside and asked him, worried that he might have given birth to a bastard for the man who was keeping him.

"Qiangzi, tell your mother, do you remember that time you were so hot last time?"

Qiangzi thought for a while and then nodded.

"Then tell me, have you forgotten what I told you last time? Men are clever, women are nests. Have you gone where your cleverness lies? Have you gone where your nest is?"

Silly Qiangzi stood there dumbfounded for a long time, then nodded foolishly.

"I've crawled in! I've crawled into a nest! Qiangzi, you taught me how to do human pyramids, and I did it obediently."

He yawned as he spoke. "Qiangzi is sleepy, he wants to cuddle with his wife and sleep, and eat a big steamed bun."

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