A few days later, Wei Hu spotted an ox in town—a young calf that was already old enough to plow the fields. With another year or so of raising, it would be ready.

Wei Hu asked Song Ning and Chen Cuihua to go take a look; if they liked it, they’d buy it. The three of them set off for town early in the morning, full of excitement.

Wei Hu had walked around town a few times and had pretty much made up his mind about this ox. Chen Cuihua was quick with her tongue, and together they haggled over the price. The ox, which originally cost twenty-eight taels, was bought for twenty-six taels. With the few taels of silver they saved, they could even go back to the village and have an oxcart made.

Song Ning was also delighted to see the large animal at home; from now on, whenever they went to town, they could drive their own ox cart.

Wei Hu led the ox from the front, with Song Ning and Chen Cuihua walking alongside. When they pulled the ox to the village entrance, quite a crowd gathered around. “Hey, Cuihua, your family bought an ox!”

“What a fine ox! How much did it cost?” 

“Your family will be able to plow the fields with an ox this year.”

The crowd gathered around, reaching out to touch the ox, their eyes filled with envy. Not many families in the village owned livestock. Who would have thought that Chen Cuihua’s family, having just married a son-in-law last year, could afford to buy an ox this year? This family sure knows how to make a living.

Chen Cuihua smiled happily. “I emptied our savings to buy this ox.”

After watching for a while, Chen Cuihua led the ox home. From now on, farm work would be much easier. Such a large animal was a real treasure to Chen Cuihua; as soon as they got home, she mixed up some cornmeal porridge to feed it.

They had also stockpiled plenty of hay at home, so she could simply pull some over to feed it.

Song Ning watched with curiosity. The calf was quite docile; it didn’t shy away when he reached out to pet it a few times. Song Ning was very pleased—the family had finally managed to buy a beast of burden.

Wei Hu had also cleaned out the ox shed in the backyard early that morning, making it spotless and even laying down a bed of straw.

Once the calf was brought home, quite a few villagers came over to see the commotion. They gathered in the backyard, gazing at the animal with envy. Upon hearing, he came over as well. “Ning-ger, you’ve really picked out a fine ox. I wish my family could afford livestock of our own someday.”

“You and Dazhuang are both hardworking—you’ll be able to afford one someday.”

Just thinking about how much easier the farm work would be if his family had livestock, Qiu-ger smiled, revealing a row of teeth. “If we can’t afford an ox, a mule would do just fine.”

The crowd, having watched the commotion, gradually dispersed. “Chen Cuihua’s family is doing better and better these days.”

“All three of them earn their own money. If you were as restless as Chen Cuihua, you might be able to earn some copper coins, too.”

But making a few coins isn’t something you can just decide to do—for rural families, simply making ends meet by farming is already a good enough life.

People used to think the Wei family was struggling and had a bad reputation, but now their life is getting better and better—envy won’t make it any easier.

Li Guifen’s house wasn’t far from Chen Cuihua’s, so naturally, she’d heard about the ox they’d bought. It made her seethe with jealousy. Why was Chen Cuihua’s life getting better and better, while hers was getting more and more chaotic?

Inside the house, Li Xiaolian was still crying and wiping away her tears, which only made Li Guifen even more annoyed. As soon as she walked in, she snapped at Li Xiaolian, “Cry, cry, cry—all you ever do is cry! Can’t you do something useful for once?”

Li Gui’er’s daughter-in-law chimed in, “Exactly, exactly. A married daughter isn’t supposed to be coming home every other day. You’re just making us a laughingstock to outsiders. You’re so tough at home, but why are you so quiet over there?”

“All right, stop crying. When we come to pick you up later, just go home. Your husband treats you well. Who hasn’t had to put up with their mother-in-law when they were young?”

After all, she was her own daughter, so Li Guifen tried to comfort her.

“But I’ve never seen anyone treated so harshly. She wakes me up before dawn to cook. If she calls, I have to go serve her. I can’t even nap for a bit at noon. If she sees my hair’s a mess, she accuses me of slacking off. I’m running around serving her family all day long.”

Li Xiaolian had married into a family of decent means, and her husband treated her well enough. It was just that her father-in-law and mother-in-law were both difficult to deal with. Things wouldn’t have escalated to this point if not for the time Li Xiaolian made a scene by threatening to throw herself into the river, which made the elderly Shi couple dislike her. The marriage had nearly fallen through back then.

Li Guifen was furious, too. “Who can you blame? Your husband treats you well enough now. If you hadn’t caused all that trouble, none of this would have happened.”

Li Xiaolian was being harshly treated by her in-laws. Although Li Guifen was a feisty woman, she didn’t dare go to their house to confront them. The old couple from the Shi family didn’t think much of her daughter to begin with. If she had caused a scene back then, and they’d ended up kicking her daughter out of the house, that would have been a complete disgrace for her family.

Then she heard people passing by her house saying that Chen Cuihua’s family had made a good purchase with their ox, which infuriated her even more. Why on earth did Chen Cuihua’s family have it better than hers?

Just a few days after buying the ox, work in the fields began. They had three mu of land, and Chen Cuihua planned to plant wheat on all of it. Song Ning was quite excited about going out to the fields for the first time. The cart frame had been built—it was made by Master Ma, the carpenter in the village, and it was very sturdy.

The big ox pulled the farm implements and the whole family out to the fields. Song Ning sat up front, delighted. The cart was so spacious—much roomier than the ones used to haul passengers into town.

When they reached the edge of their field, Song Ning jumped down. “Mom, what should I do?”

“Now that we have an ox this year, there’s no need for the two of us to do anything. Just let your brother Wei Hu drive the ox to plow the field.”

In previous years, Chen Cuihua and Wei Hu would have had to turn the soil bit by bit with their shovels; it would take the two of them three to five days to finish three mu of land.

But this year, with an ox at home, they could simply have the ox pull the plow through the fields—and it would be much faster.

It was the height of spring plowing season, and the fields were bustling with activity. There weren’t many paddy fields in their village—most of the land was dry fields. Not far from their village, however, there were plenty of paddy fields, as well as the estates of the wealthy landowners.

Wei Hu unhitched the ox cart, harnessed the plow to the ox, and drove the ox to begin plowing the field. Wei Hu stood behind, steadying the plow, while Chen Cuihua walked in front, urging the ox with a whip. Song Ning followed alongside, lending a hand to steady the plow.

Wei Hu chuckled. “We don’t need you for this. Come tomorrow when we’re sowing the seeds, then you can join in.” 

“Alright.”

Today was the first time her family’s ox had been out in the field, and it was quite obedient, pulling the plow steadily forward. Chen Cuihua was overjoyed. “Ning-ger, we don’t need you right now. Go home and bring some sugar water over.”

“Alright.”

Since Song Ning couldn’t help much with plowing right now, he decided to go home and make some sweet soup. When Song Ning first arrived in the village, he didn’t know how to cook, but now he could manage a simple stir-fry. However, neither Chen Cuihua nor Wei Hu wanted to put him to work in the kitchen, so he’d hardly ever cooked.

However, he knew how to make sweet soup. During the winter, while warming himself by the fire in the main hall, he’d made plenty of it.

Song Ning went home and got to work. He lit a fire in the stove. There was some cassava flour at home, so he mixed some up, rolled it into small dumplings, and boiled them in an earthenware pot. He added some red dates and dried longan and finished it off with a small spoonful of brown sugar.

Song Ning poured the sweet soup into a basket and carried it out to the fields. The weather had warmed up considerably; tender buds were sprouting from the willow trees by the roadside, and little birds were chirping merrily in the branches.

Song Ning walked briskly, carrying the basket to deliver the sweet soup. When he arrived, he saw that Wei Hu had already taken off his thin outer jacket because of the heat. Song Ning stood at the edge of the field and called out, “Mom, Brother Wei Hu, come over to the field and take a break.”

“Okay, we’ll be right over after we finish this round,” Chen Cuihua replied.

When Song Ning arrived, he noticed quite a few people were looking over at his family’s field. Almost every household was turning the soil bit by bit with iron shovels, but his family was the only one using an ox-drawn plow. Song Ning felt more and more that buying the oxcart had been worth it; though the plot wasn’t large, farm work was still surprisingly exhausting.

The oxen pulled the plow around the corner. Song Ning served himself a bowl of sweet soup. Wei Hu was sweating profusely on his forehead, so Song Ning pulled a handkerchief from his waistband and wiped his brow. “Brother Wei Hu, are you tired?”

“The ox is doing the work—I’m not tired.”

Chen Cuihua added, “Having an ox makes things so much easier than before. I reckon we’ll have these three mu of land plowed by tomorrow morning.”

The two sat at the edge of the field to rest for a while before heading back out. Song Ning thought herding the ox didn’t look too hard, so he eagerly said, “Mom, let me try herding the ox.”

“Sure, go ahead.” 

“Alright!”

Song Ning imitated Chen Cuihua, holding the ox’s lead with one hand and the whip in the other. He tugged the ox forward, but it wouldn’t budge. He cracked the whip twice, and the ox shifted slightly but still wouldn’t move. “Brother Wei Hu, why won’t this ox move?”

“Maybe it thinks you’re an easy target,” Wei Hu said with a smirk.

Chen Cuihua laughed too. “Let me handle it. There’s a trick to leading an ox. If it won’t listen, you have to use the whip—but if you hit it too lightly or too hard, it won’t work.”

Song Ning wanted to help, but couldn’t. Seeing that weeds had grown at the edge of the field, he grabbed a small trowel and went to weed there, planning to bring the greens back for his family’s ox to eat when he returned home at midday.

Ever since the family got some livestock, his mother would get up early every morning to take the ox out to graze. Song Ning had gone along with her a few times. While the ox grazed nearby, they’d stand by watching or gather some grass to bring back—it wasn’t exactly hard work.

Their ox wasn’t fully grown yet—it was still just a calf. Chen Cuihua didn’t want to overwork it, afraid it might get worn out, so before noon, she had Wei Hu unhitch the ox and take it home, planning to come back in the afternoon after the ox had rested.

Song Ning had already gathered a basketful of grass. Since it was spring, the grass wasn’t very tall yet, so he even dug up the grass from the riverbed, gathering enough to feed his family’s big ox.

Right now, the villagers are still busy working in the fields. Someone spotted Wei Hu and his group packing up to head home and called out from a distance, “Huzi, heading home already? It’s still early!”

“Going home to rest.”

On the way back, none of the three wanted to ride in the ox cart, afraid of tiring the ox. Besides, it wasn’t that far from home.

On the way back, Song Ning saw an old woman carrying a meal out to the fields. He asked, “Mother, do we have to bring food out to the fields when we’re busy too?”

“Of course. It’s the height of the farming season now. Since we have an ox, we’re not in a rush to get the work done, but families without oxen are in a hurry—they’re afraid of missing the best time to work the fields.”

Song Ning nodded. So that’s how it was.

After lunch, the three of them didn’t rush out to the fields but rested at home instead. They rested for nearly an hour before heading out to continue plowing the land.