Su Weiye opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word. He felt his heart pounding and his palms sweating.
Su Wanshan immediately instructed: "Don't talk about it after you go down the mountain. No one is allowed to tell anyone."
He lowered his voice but spoke sternly, his gaze sweeping over the four men carrying the chickens with a sharp, knife-like look. They included Su Weiye, Su Qingzhi, Shen Jinhe, and the village's youngest brother, Liu Ge.
He was afraid that the news would get out and cause unnecessary trouble, especially with someone as envious and ruthless as Wang Chunhua, who might cause trouble.
The four of them then quietly carried the pheasant down the mountain.
They walked along secluded paths, skirting the ridges of fields and hugging the edge of the woods at the foot of the mountain, their footsteps so light as if afraid of disturbing the soil.
I walked carefully, afraid of disturbing the barking dogs guarding the village entrance, or running into any villager who was returning home early.
"My God!"
Someone couldn't help but scream, the sound suddenly breaking the afternoon silence.
That was Li's wife from the east end of the village, carrying buckets of water back from the well. She looked up and saw four people carrying a large flock of pheasants tied with hemp rope, it was like a dream.
She immediately threw down the carrying pole, her eyes wide like copper bells, staring intently at the chickens in Su Wanshan and Su Weiye's hands, her lips trembling.
"This...this is really a live pheasant? Am I seeing things?"
"Village chief, this...this is really a pheasant?"
Li's daughter-in-law stammered, her voice filled with disbelief.
Su Wanshan ignored her, but gave Su Weiye a wink, signaling him to hurry up.
But the news spread like wildfire.
"My goodness, so much! Can we share the meat now?"
A burly man rubbed his hands together excitedly, his face flushed, and his eyes gleamed.
He does heavy labor year-round and rarely gets to eat meat. The mere smell of pheasant makes his stomach rumble.
He rubbed his hands together, muttering, "A chicken can yield at least three to five pieces of meat; each bite is delicious!"
Even Yin Hua rushed over, not even wearing shoes properly, completely unaware that he was barefoot on the muddy ground.
She was cooking pig feed at the stove when she heard the commotion outside. She was startled, fearing that something had happened to her daughter and daughter-in-law.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Su Qingzhi and Shen Jinhe standing there unharmed, with rosy complexions and neat clothes, and her shoulders slumped.
She hurriedly asked, "Ningning, Xiaohe, are you alright? What happened? Where did you go? How did you manage to catch so many chickens?"
After thinking about what Su Qingzhi had said to the village chief earlier, Shen Jinhe didn't dare to say that the two of them had caught the culprit.
She remembered Su Qingzhi whispering to her, "We can't say that we caught it ourselves. If people find out that young girls like us can catch pheasants with our bare hands, there will definitely be gossip, and they might even say that we are possessed by a monster."
She whispered, "Mom, my sister-in-law and I went up the mountain to cut pig feed and accidentally found a chicken coop with more than a dozen pheasants inside."
Her voice was soft, as if afraid of startling someone, "My sister-in-law has sharp eyes. She spotted the movement in the grass at a glance and called Uncle Village Chief and Sixth Brother. That's how they caught them together."
"You weren't pecked, were you?"
Upon hearing this, Yin Hua was both surprised and heartbroken, and her voice even changed tone.
She knew that pheasants were fierce, with beaks as hard as iron pincers, and that a single flap of their wings could draw blood.
These days, encountering a pheasant is practically a stroke of luck.
Normally, if someone finds a nest of wild eggs on the mountain, they can brag about it for half a month at the dinner table, let alone catching a whole nest of chickens alive.
"No, nothing's wrong at all."
Shen Jinhe quickly shook her head, reached out to smooth the hair that had been ruffled by the mountain wind at her temples, and slightly curled the corners of her mouth.
She knew perfectly well that the fiercest spotted hen in that brood of chickens was kicked to the ground by her, and that's how Sixth Brother caught it with a sack.
But of course, you can't say that.
These words were spoken neither too loudly nor too softly, and everyone around heard them clearly.
Some people stared at Shen Jinhe's face, trying to find a flaw in her eyes, but she remained calm, as if it was just good luck she encountered while cutting pig feed.
The news spread like wildfire, and before long, the whole village knew about it.
Even the bedridden old man had to be helped to his feet, leaning on his cane as he peered towards the entrance of the team headquarters, muttering, "Really? A pheasant? Alive?"
Someone sighed, "Oh my, they're so lucky! Why didn't my family members run into them?"
This is Aunt Wang from the west end. Her tone is sarcastic as she fans herself with a palm leaf fan while glaring at the chicken in Yin Hua's arms.
“We searched the mountain and didn’t see a single chicken feather, but they caught a whole nest of them.”
She grew angrier as she spoke, and her voice rose, "Could it be that you already knew the location and deliberately kept it from me?"
Su Wanshan cleared his throat, stood on the stone pier at the entrance of the team headquarters, leaned against the wall with one hand, and pressed down with the other to signal everyone to be quiet.
He said loudly, "These pheasants were found by Ning and He. I'll decide that their family gets two."
He paused, then raised his voice, "The rest will be distributed among the entire village according to the number of people. Anyone who wants meat, come to the team headquarters after get off work and line up; one piece per person."
He added, "Those who don't want to share the meat will each receive one work point. However..."
His cold gaze swept across a corner of the crowd. "Nothing is allowed to be distributed to Wang Chunhua's family."
After saying that, he picked out two chickens, one of which was plump, with glossy feathers and thick legs, clearly the best quality among the hens.
The other one was thinner, but its feathers were intact, and it was also worth a lot of food stamps.
He shoved it directly into Yin Hua's arms, his tone leaving no room for doubt: "Zhiyu is still lying down recovering from his injuries and needs to nourish his body."
He lowered his voice and added, "This chicken was originally found by your family, so it's only natural that you keep it to eat."
Then he raised his voice to the crowd and said, "If anyone disagrees, then they'll end up like Wang Chunhua—don't even think about it."
A few people in the crowd who were muttering something immediately turned pale.
Wang Chunhua, who had just been standing on the sidelines sneering, turned red-faced when she was called out. She turned and left without daring to utter a single harsh word.
The others, though not daring to openly oppose the village chief, were inwardly seething with turmoil.
Why should their family get two?
There were more than a dozen chickens and sixty households, but each person couldn't even get a piece of meat the size of a fingernail!
The meat wasn't even enough to fill a tooth gap, but it benefited the Su couple.
But since the village chief had already said all that, who would dare to utter a word?
They could only grit their teeth and wait until dark to come to the team headquarters to collect that small piece of chicken breast.
But as soon as they heard "If you're not satisfied, you'll end up like Wang Chunhua," no one dared to utter a sound.
Those words were like a cold needle, instantly piercing through the wishful thinking of everyone present.
Wang Chunhua had just been standing arrogantly in the crowd shouting, but in the blink of an eye, she was publicly refuted, and even the village chief refused to give her face.
Now who would dare to say another word?
They all lowered their heads and held their breath, afraid of getting into trouble.
"I'll have someone clean the chicken later, stew it in a pot, and then we'll divide it up."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com