Liu Caixia was exhausted from childbirth and needed to stay home for a full month of postpartum confinement, which meant there was no one to do the work in the pigsty.

After thinking for a moment, the captain temporarily assigned the task to Xia Qingqing.

Xia Qingqing's first reaction after hearing the captain's words was to refuse: "Uncle Captain, I may not be able to do this. Why don't you find someone else?"

Team leader Zhang Yougen puffed on his pipe and waved to Xia Qingqing, "Don't be so quick to refuse. You won't be doing this job for long. Once Caixia finishes her postpartum period, this job will still be hers. She's used to taking care of all the pigs in the team. I wouldn't feel comfortable handing it over to someone else."

"But I've never fed pigs before, I'm afraid I won't do it well," Xia Qingqing said, her brows furrowed tightly as she looked at the team leader with pleading eyes, hoping he would change his mind.

"It's not difficult. You often come to the pigsty to deliver pig feed, right? You should have seen Caixia do it before. It's basically just feeding the pigs every day, cleaning the pigsty, and paying attention to the pigs' health. If a pig gets sick, just tell me immediately."

The team leader spoke very casually, as he didn't think it was a difficult task at all, especially since the pigs in the pigsty were all grown up now and not so prone to illness. He wouldn't have trusted Xia Qingqing to take care of the piglets if they were still piglets.

Xia Qingqing wanted to say something more, but the captain stopped her: "It's only a month. I believe you can do it well. It's settled then. I'm going to get busy now."

After finishing his sentence, the team leader left in a flash, secretly shaking his head. If this job didn't only take a month, Xia Qingqing wouldn't have gotten a chance. Ten work points a day—so many people would want to do it.

Xia Qingqing stood there, on the verge of tears: "Ahhh, I don't want to shovel pig poop, help!!!"

She thought she might be the first transmigrated woman to end up shoveling pig manure; her life was miserable.

But since things have come to this, Xia Qingqing has no choice but to do it. In this day and age, you have to complete the tasks assigned to you honestly. There's no room for you to be picky.

"Oink oink~ oink oink," Xia Qingqing heard the pigs in the pigpen squealing wildly and realized that these pigs hadn't eaten their feed for more than a day.

She had no choice but to resign herself to her fate, roll up her sleeves, and start working.

First, she needed to take the pig feed out of the basket and chop it up with a cleaver. She had seen Sister-in-law Caixia do this before; her movements were incredibly fast, and you could see afterimages as she chopped the pig feed.

But when it was Xia Qingqing's turn to do it herself, she found that the guillotine was not so easy to use. Because she was afraid of cutting her hand, she worked very slowly.

By the time she finally finished chopping the pig feed in her basket, she was so tired that she could barely stand up straight.

But that's not all. She also has to cook the pig feed and mix it with some wheat bran before the pig feed is ready.

As soon as Xia Qingqing poured the pig feed into the trough, the pigs, whose eyes were already gleaming with hunger, swarmed over it.

Xia Qingqing watched the pigs begin to scramble for food with a sense of accomplishment, and exclaimed with her hands on her hips, "Pigs, how could you live without me?"

Before long, the pig feed in the trough was completely gone. Some pigs, unable to compete with the others, could only lick the empty trough, a sight that Xia Qingqing found heartbreaking.

With no other option, Xia Qingqing hurriedly carried her empty basket to the mountain to gather pig feed.

This time, since she didn't have to worry about Liu Caixia's suspicion, Xia Qingqing directly filled three baskets with pig feed, put them in the system warehouse, and transported them back.

She fed them pig feed again, and only then did the pigs in the pen calm down and begin to doze off lazily.

Looking at these pigs who eat their fill and then sleep, sleep their fill and then eat again, Xia Qingqing finally understood the truth: there is no such thing as a peaceful life; it's just that someone is bearing the burden for you.

After finishing work at noon, Xia Qingqing told Zhang Hongyan and Xia Heping that the team leader had asked her to take charge of the pigsty.

As expected of Xia Qingqing's biological mother, Zhang Hongyan understood her daughter's character very well. Upon hearing this, her first reaction was to ask what to do about shoveling pig manure.

"There's no other way but to bite the bullet and do it. Anyway, it's only for a month, so I can just bear with it," Xia Qingqing said helplessly, spreading her hands.

"It's okay, Mom will help you shovel some this afternoon when she has some free time. You just need to feed the pigs properly," Zhang Hongyan said. She knew her daughter was very clean and felt uncomfortable if she didn't take a bath for a day. Asking her to shovel pig manure would be disgusting.

Xia Heping listened quietly to the mother and daughter talking. When he heard that his wife was going to help his daughter shovel pig manure, he immediately said, "No need, I can do this kind of thing. You two don't need to do it."

“Okay, let your dad go,” Zhang Hongyan agreed quickly, without a second’s hesitation.

Xia Qingqing looked at them with a mixture of gratitude and helplessness: "Mom and Dad, really, it's not necessary. You work so hard, how can we let you help me with the chores?"

Xia Heping firmly disagreed. How could his fair-skinned daughter do the work of shoveling pig manure? He even complained to the brigade leader, saying that the brigade leader really didn't know how to be considerate.

"It's settled then. Dad will come to help you this afternoon," Xia Heping said decisively, ignoring what Xia Qingqing was saying and silently eating his meal.

——

In the afternoon, Xia Qingqing took a nap at home before going to the pigpen. By then, the pigs had also had a good sleep and started squealing again.

Xia Qingqing quickly cooked a new pot of food and poured it into the feeding trough. Not long after she finished feeding the pigs, Xia Heping came over.

Moreover, he didn't come alone; Song Ze was following behind him.

Xia Qingqing looked at Xia Heping in surprise and asked, "Dad, why did you come with Song Ze?"

Xia Heping scratched his head awkwardly. He ran into Song Ze on his way to the pigsty. After they greeted each other, Song Ze, upon hearing that Xia Heping was going to help his daughter, immediately said he would go with him.

Xia Heping kept thinking about his daughter's confession of liking Song Ze, and for some reason, he didn't reject Song Ze.

He and Zhang Hongyan had different ideas. Marriage wasn't about status, but about character. Even if his daughter married a local, could he guarantee she'd be happy? Happiness was something you had to grasp yourself. He believed in his daughter's abilities, so why not let her marry someone she loved?

Seeing that Xia Heping didn't speak, Song Ze simply spoke up himself: "I just happened to run into Uncle Xia, so I came over to help out."

Upon hearing this, Xia Qingqing immediately shook her head and refused: "No need, you haven't finished your own work yet, go back and get busy, my dad can handle things here."

Xia Qingqing originally didn't want her father to come and help, but she agreed because she didn't want to let him down. It made even less sense for Song Ze to come and help.

When Song Ze saw that Xia Qingqing was refusing him, he hurriedly explained, "I'm quick, I've already finished today's task."

"Besides, I didn't come here specifically to help you. I came here to help Uncle Xia. Uncle Xia has always taken good care of me."

Sure enough, Xia Heping was even more satisfied when he heard this; he hadn't misjudged Song Ze after all.