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Chapter 133: Chapter 227 Who Stole the Lamb
"What did I do wrong, what did I say that was incorrect? Big brother, even though Yunfang is our own family, there’s a saying that the Prince breaks the law and faces the same punishment as the commoners. She’s just about to drag me down with her, and now I can’t even speak out? Big brother, you’re the leader of everyone here; you can’t show favoritism just because Yunfang is family. Am I right or not?" Shen Erzhu was still somewhat afraid of Elder Shen, especially when Elder Shen glared, so she quickly dragged someone nearby to bolster her courage.
Stirred by her words, the others began to discuss among themselves.
"Exactly, my family has been poor for eight generations."
"Hey, what about this ’new rich farmer’? Does that make her one of the black categories?"
"Gosh, we can’t have someone like that in our village, it would be shameful."
"You know, I also find today’s event odd. I’ve lived in our community for so many years and never heard of anyone losing anything. Not even the Brigade had such issues, so why did it happen today?"
"Do the math, how much money can Yunfang girl make in a year? The two pigs she slaughtered the other day, if one weighs 150 pounds, that’s two pigs at 300 pounds, making 150 yuan right there."
"And that’s not even all of it. I heard her family raises more than twenty chickens. Not overstating it, twenty eggs a day, that’s one yuan, thirty in a month, and in a year... My goodness, I don’t even dare to calculate."
The gasps grew even louder.
The villagers began to look at Shen Yunfang with strange eyes.
Shen Yunfang stood expressionless, wanting to say they had calculated too low—her family actually had over fifty hens, and she could now collect about fifty eggs every morning. Once the next batch of chickens grew up, it would be quite a sight.
Even though Shen Yunfang was envied, she still felt slightly relieved in her heart; her secrecy efforts had been quite effective, and keeping a distance from the villagers was indeed necessary. At the very least, not many knew the truth about her family’s situation.
Shen Yeqing, watching Shen Fuzhen’s smug face, was so furious that his temples throbbed. With a sharp crack, he struck the table hard with the smoking pipe in his hand, breaking it in half, and it bounced far away.
"I’ve never seen anything like you, ever! Why do you enjoy putting the blame on your own heads for no reason?" Shen Yeqing shouted with all his might.
Upon hearing his words, everyone looked at each other, confused. Wasn’t it said that Shen Yunfang was a ’new rich farmer’? Why were they being implicated now?
"Normally, I tell you all to gossip less about your wives and learn more, but you ignore my advice. Now that it’s come to the crunch, you’re all clueless. Hmph, let me ask you, are you trying to pin the label of ’new rich farmer’ on Yunfang girl, right?"
Everyone shrank back, none wanting to be the one who offended others.
"Big brother, it’s not us who are labeling her, she really did that..."
"Nonsense, the things she did, you’ve done the same, haven’t you?" Shen Yeqing glared fiercely at Shen Fuzhen, then looked around at each person, "Let me ask you, which household in our village doesn’t raise pigs? If I recall correctly, doesn’t half of the village have at least two pigs? And Fuzhen, your family raises two pigs as well, right?"
Hearing this, everyone fell silent; indeed, in recent years, their village had responded to the national call to start raising pigs. This year even more families had raised two.
"I’m asking you again, which of you doesn’t raise chickens? When the inspection team came to our village, didn’t each family get docked for capitalist tendencies? Have you all forgotten that event already? If we were to calculate it like you do, you’d all be ’new rich farmers,’ not a single one of you would be exempt," Shen Yeqing said bitterly.
Everyone fell silent then.
"Look at you all, why are you like this, why can’t you stand to see others do a bit better, Yunfang is responding to the national call, where has she done wrong, why do you still pick on her, and besides, today we’re discussing the issue of the lost sheep, let’s focus on the matter at hand."
"Exactly, exactly, whoever you are, do you even have a clue when you speak, you’re leading everyone astray."
"I’m not one of those shallow people who can’t stand to see others live well, Yunfang has abilities, I admire her."
The villagers’ tone of voice began to change again, intermittently.
Having listened for a while, Shen Yeqing’s expression finally eased,
"Quiet, quiet, I want to emphasize again, all those things you’ve said are outdated. Our village has been implementing the country’s new policy for two years now. When it was time to study the directives from above, none of you took it seriously, and now you are bringing up irrelevant things. Now that everyone is here, Accountant Li, will you please repeat the top directive for our Wuxing Brigade so everyone hears it clearly."
Accountant Li next to him coughed twice, cleared his throat, and then spoke: "In response to the national call, every family in Wuxing Brigade should vigorously develop pig raising to support the country’s construction. As for chickens and ducks, one can raise as many as one wants, listen carefully, you can raise as many as you like without any limits, but pigs must be raised, and each household must sell one qualified fattened pig to the state every year. The standard for qualification is to reach at least 135 pounds and to sell it to the commune’s meat station. Do you understand?"
Shen Yeqing took up the thread again, "Our village has already turned in the task pigs for the last two years, how can we still be talking about those useless things? You should know that we ought to align ourselves with the advanced collectives, not always focus on those lagging villages—what kind of life are they living, do you still want to go back to those times? What’s more, raising chickens and pigs is for the country, for making contributions to the country, the more we raise, the more glorious it is. Everyone here counts, if anyone wants to raise more pigs or chickens and ducks, as long as you can keep them alive, I support it."
Many members thought of the days when they couldn’t get enough to eat or wear and nodded in agreement.
"Alright, quiet, we’ll have a dedicated meeting to discuss this matter later. Now let’s continue with the lost sheep issue." Shen Yeqing tapped on the table a few times with the end of his cigarette pipe to refocus everyone’s attention here.
No one dared to speak out of turn anymore, they all kept silent, listening to what others had to say.
"I smelled meat cooking at Shen Yunfang’s house today," someone in the crowd suddenly shouted.
Shen Yunfang couldn’t see who the speaker was, probably someone who didn’t think highly of her.
"Oh my, I smelled it too, that aroma, there must have been meat."
"Yeah, I smelled it too."
"What else is there to say, she must have stewed the sheep herself, the perfect way to destroy the evidence." Shen Fuzhen quickly took up the cue.
"How can you say that just because Yunfang ate some meat, it proves that she stole the sheep? Then, according to that logic, anyone in the village who ate meat today would be a sheep thief," said Erzhu’s wife.
She was friends with Dashuan’s wife and got along well with Yunfang’s girl too, so she couldn’t help but speak up for her.
"Exactly, you just said she keeps this and that, she eats meat every day, she wouldn’t miss that bit of meat," Dashuan’s wife chimed in.
Instantly, the yard was in chaos again, truly a situation of ’to each his own,’ with no one able to persuade the other.
