Reborn in the 1980s: Nine Stunning Beauties Get Pregnant Before Marriage

When Chen Yongqiang returned home, he took the old bird gun down from the wall, sat on a small stool in the yard, found a thin iron bar, dipped it in some oil, and cleaned the barrel.

He knew in his heart that it would be a stretch to deal with the tough-skinned wild boar with just his old gun. If he asked for help, he would get less meat.

Just as I was pondering this, Lin Xiulian returned from the riverbank carrying the washed clothes.

Seeing Chen Yongqiang fiddling with a shotgun, she asked, "What did they talk about at the village meeting today?"

Chen Yongqiang continued with his work and gave a simple reply: "There are two main things. First, it has been decided from above that production will be contracted out to individual households. The land will be distributed to each family to cultivate themselves. After paying the grain tax, the rest is theirs."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xiulian's eyes lit up immediately; this was a matter of life and death: "How much land will our family get?"

Chen Yongqiang put down the iron bar, picked up a cloth and wiped the gun barrel. "It's not decided yet. There are good and bad plots of land. How to allocate them is up to discussion. We'll decide by drawing lots in a few days."

Lin Xiulian, hanging up the laundry, glanced back at the bird gun. "And what about the other thing?"

"Another thing is that wild boars from the mountain are coming down and damaging the crops. The village chief asked me to lead a team to protect the crops." Chen Yongqiang weighed the tool in his hand.

"You're going to take the lead?" Lin Xiulian was somewhat surprised, then a look of worry appeared on her face.

"Won't that... be very dangerous? Relying on this gun?"

"Of course, this alone won't do." Chen Yongqiang stood up, put the musket against the wall, and began to think about where to get some more weapons or how to make some traps.

"But someone has to do the work. Besides, I get to process the game I hunt, which is a kind of income."

Seeing his composed demeanor, Lin Xiulian's worries eased slightly: "No matter what, you need to be extra careful."

Chen Yongqiang responded and checked the gun one last time. The farm protection team was just the beginning. He had to take advantage of this opportunity as soon as possible to obtain more resources and system blessing points in the mountains.

[System notification: The system has detected that the host is about to launch a forest protection operation. Temporary mission issued: Drive away or eliminate at least three adult wild boars.]

[Mission Rewards: 50 Fortune Points, Special Item, 1 Type 56 Semi-Automatic Rifle!]

The system notification sounded at the right time, and Chen Yongqiang was overjoyed: if he had a semi-automatic rifle, he could take down even the biggest wild boar.

Meanwhile, at the home of village chief Yang Dahai.

Yang Dahai talked all morning at the village office, and his throat was so dry it felt like it was on fire.

He went back inside, picked up the enamel mug on the table, and gulped down several mouthfuls of cold tea before he felt a little better.

At this moment, his wife, Li Caifeng, hurriedly walked into the yard from outside, carrying a basin of washed clothes.

Without even bothering to let it air dry, he shoved the basin on the ground and rushed over to Yang Dahai, shouting, "Old man, something's happened!"

Yang Dahai put down his teacup: "What happened? Why are you in such a panic?"

Li Caifeng's expression was a mixture of worry and concern, the kind typical of a rural information disseminator: "It's about Chen Yongqiang's family! Didn't his wife, Lin Xiuzhen, run away a while ago?"

Yang Dahai was taken aback: "No, I went to his house yesterday morning and saw Xiuzhen busy in the kitchen with my own eyes."

"Oh dear! That's not Lin Xiuzhen at all!" Li Caifeng retorted to Yang Dahai.

"That's her sister, Lin Xiulian! I just heard it from someone while I was washing clothes by the river, and it's absolutely true! Lin Xiulian is now living in Qiangzi's house, and judging from the way she looks, she's going to live with Chen Yongqiang!" She ran into Lin Xiulian when she went to wash clothes by the river that morning.

At first, she was also wondering why Lin Xiuzhen looked so young, but after chatting with her, she learned the reason.

She gasped for breath: "Tell me, what kind of mess is this? The older sister just ran away, and the younger sister moved in right after, taking her sister's place!"

"What's going on here? The villagers are all talking behind our backs, saying really nasty things! They're saying all sorts of things, some saying Qiangzi is dishonest, others saying the Lin family's daughter is immoral. What will we do if these rumors spread!"

Yang Dahai listened as his wife, Li Caifeng, rattled off her words.

He waved his hand, interrupting her as she was about to continue: "Alright, alright, that's enough!"

"Yongqiang, that kid, it hasn't been easy for him either. He's the only son left in the Chen family. After that accident a few years ago, and then Xiuzhen... sigh, he doesn't have a woman in his house now, life is really tough for him."

He picked up his teacup and took another sip: "As long as they are both willing and live their lives steadily without causing any more trouble, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing."

Li Caifeng, after being told this by her husband, muttered softly, "That makes sense, but it just doesn't sound very nice. You can drown someone in spittle!"

Yang Dahai didn't want to discuss it any further: "What's there to say, good or bad! Living a good life is more important than anything else! Just ignore the gossip and don't get involved!"

Seeing that her husband was getting angry, Li Caifeng finally fell silent, picked up the wash basin, and quietly went out to hang the clothes to dry.

As evening fell, Chen Yongqiang carried his old musket and walked along the ridge of the fields at the east end of the village.

This place is right next to the foot of Qinglong Mountain. Wild boars usually come down the mountain at night, leaving very clear tracks along the way.

Several corn stalks were knocked askew, the soil was turned upside down and messy, exposing the roots of the crops underneath, and some scattered hoof prints.

Chen Yongqiang crouched down, rubbed the turned-up soil between his fingers, and carefully examined the size and depth of the hoof prints, getting a rough estimate of the number and size of the wild boars. "They've caused quite a bit of damage..."

He was unaware that the rumors about him and Lin Xiulian had already spread throughout the village.

Several gossipy women started chatting at the village entrance:

"Are you really living together?"

"How could it be fake? Everyone washing clothes by the river has heard the news!"

"Tsk tsk, what kind of talk is this!"

"Xiuzhen has only been gone for a few days."

...

Chen Yongqiang stood up at the edge of the field, patted the mud off his hands, picked up his musket, and continued walking along the field ridge toward the edge of the forest.

As Chen Yongqiang walked towards Ding Wanru's vegetable garden, he could hear her cursing loudly from afar:

"That damned beast! It ruined all the vegetables I worked so hard to grow! How can anyone live like this?!"

"Wanru, what's got you so angry?" Chen Yongqiang asked as he approached.

Ding Wanru turned around at the sound and saw Chen Yongqiang. She was even more furious and pointed at the messy vegetable garden in front of her:

"Brother Yongqiang, look! Look! The vegetables I just planted a while ago, they finally sprouted a few seedlings, and that damned wild boar ate them all! Not even a few roots were left for me! What am I going to eat now?"