Chapter 63: Ransacking the Field Mouse’s Lair, Catching Them All in One Net!

Madam Huang looked utterly astonished. “Of course I want to! I dream of it! But just look at how little food we have—it's clearly impossible!”

Mingdai glanced outside to make sure only Zhou Sinian and Liu Guoqiang were there—the latter so intimidated by Zhou Sinian’s stare that he dared not move. Mingdai lowered her voice.

“Zhou Sinian and I found quite a few rat nests up in the mountains. There’s grain and dried fruit inside them!”

Madam Huang shot her a surprised look. “How did you even find them? Rats are clever when it comes to burrowing!”

Mingdai had long prepared for this question, her big eyes blinking innocently. “It wasn’t me who found them—Zhou Sinian did.”

Madam Huang suddenly understood. “Oh, him! Makes sense. He’s the one, after all, who could always find the things that troublemakers hid from the lunatic. The lunatic would go searching after a fight, and he’d always find them—never failed.”

Mingdai was speechless. What kind of people are these?

She hurried to steer the conversation back. “Exactly. He’s really good at finding them, and there’s quite a lot of food inside. If we could get it, wouldn’t that help us out a bit? The workers can’t keep going on such thin porridge.”

Madam Huang nodded in agreement. “You don’t know what it’s like in my house—every year, people come back from the fields and have to lie in bed all winter, and even then, they might not recover.”

As she spoke, Madam Huang slapped her thigh, suddenly inspired.

“That’s right! Not just the grain, but the rats themselves are meat! We could use the meat to help people regain their strength!”

Mingdai’s cheerful face froze instantly. “Sister-in-law… rats? We can eat those?”

Madam Huang burst out laughing at her awkward look. “You don’t know? There are all kinds of rats. The ones you found are field rats—they’re edible and don’t carry poison. There’s a field nearby, belongs to Lower Hollow Village. Otherwise, where would the rats get all that grain? Don’t worry, when we’re working in the fields and catch a fat rat, we bring it home to stew. Tastes amazing—just like chicken.”

Mingdai had a sudden realization. Right, there’s no way the mountains could have so much grain.

Madam Huang grew excited. In these times, no one dared touch even a single grain from the collective fields, yet the rats could steal enough to feed their whole families—where’s the justice in that? No, it had to be dealt with!

Mingdai still hesitated. In her mind, rats were no better than walking disease factories. The only ones she’d encountered were laboratory white mice or the huge, black creatures that sometimes darted through city sewers.

But then she remembered—the rats she saw in the mountains looked nothing like sewer rats. The difference was vast. Perhaps it was worth a try; after all, the locals’ experience was usually the most reliable.

“All right, Sister-in-law, let’s go this afternoon. Let’s ask Accountant Liu to come along too.”

Madam Huang nodded eagerly. “Sounds good to me!”

With the plan settled, Mingdai found herself looking forward to this afternoon’s rat-nest raid. It wasn’t really about the grain—she simply loved the thrill of a treasure hunt.

In her past life, she’d loved to venture into the mountains for herbs, catch fish in the rivers, and sometimes even go to the coast just for fun. It wasn’t about the reward; she just enjoyed the experience. Even if she couldn’t go, she’d watch videos of mountain hikes and seashore scavenging at home to satisfy the craving.

Madam Huang banked down the fire in the stove, then, seeing Zhou Sinian being called away by Mingdai to stack kindling, came out to find Liu Guoqiang, who looked as though he’d just survived a disaster, and told him the plan.

Liu Guoqiang was still young, and such adventures thrilled him. He was overjoyed when he heard the news. “Sister-in-law, is it true?!”

Madam Huang grinned at him, amused by his youth. “Ming the Educated Youth said it herself. Would it be fake? Keep your afternoon free—I’ll take you rat-hunting!”

Liu Guoqiang agreed with a big smile.

Meanwhile, Mingdai was coaxing Zhou Sinian, persuading him to serve as cover and lead the team for the rat-nest raid. Zhou Sinian seized the chance to ask for another taste of lamb—he still hadn’t forgotten the flavor of the mutton soup from the last time. He was far too impatient to wait for the lamb to grow up and have lambs of its own; he wanted to eat it now!

Mingdai recalled that she still had a large leg of lamb, a reward from the village, stored away. She was craving roasted lamb herself, so she agreed.

The work bell sounded, and Mingdai’s spiced ginger tea was ready. Each person queued up to receive a serving, and then the villagers saw a huge basin of cold pickled radish and another filled with dry cooked rice. Excitement swept over them.

Even at home, they might not have such a meal! It was still mixed-grain rice, but it was dry, not gruel—something they only got during the busiest times in the fields.

After eating, the four split up their tasks, tidied up quickly, and made their way up the mountain.

At the site, Mingdai gave a nod, and Zhou Sinian took the lead digging. Liu Guoqiang stood by with a spade, and Madam Huang held a sack ready to block any escapees.

Zhou Sinian was both strong and precise. A few shovelfuls and he’d reached the nest. Soon, startled field rats began to flee. Zhou Sinian dispatched each one with a single blow, killing several large rats as they emerged. Liu Guoqiang and Madam Huang barely had a chance to help.

Madam Huang laughed and held up a fat rat with its skull crushed. “Just look at this glutton! Fat as a bamboo rat!”

Bamboo rat?

Mingdai’s eyes lit up. She’d never eaten field rats, but she’d had bamboo rat before—delicious!

She’d have to ask more about that later.

After piling the dead rats together, the four set about taking inventory of the loot: peanuts, soybeans, wheat, sweet potato tubers, and assorted dried fruit—a hodgepodge totaling over ten kilograms.

Madam Huang ground her teeth in fury, especially when she saw the perfectly good grain gnawed and scattered everywhere. Her heart ached.

“Damn beasts! Let’s see how you like having your nest cleaned out!”

With that, she smashed the pink baby rats in the nest to bits.

Mingdai felt queasy, but she fully understood the farmers’ hatred for the grain-wasting rodents.

“All right, let’s move to the next one—Zhou Sinian says there are plenty more nests on this hill!”

Madam Huang instantly broke into a grin again. “Good, good! Onward, onward!”

So the four began their rat-raid campaign, scouring every inch of the hillside, leaving no rat nest unturned.

At first, Zhou Sinian needed Mingdai to point out the exact locations, but soon he could pinpoint them himself, working just as fast as Mingdai—making her once again question what on earth he used to do before.

By the end of the afternoon, the four had dug up forty-four rat nests and gathered nearly three hundred jin of grain!

(A note from the author: this is based on my own childhood experience. My uncle used to take me around the village fields digging up rat nests; there really is a surprising amount of grain inside, though we never ate it ourselves—usually, it went to feed the chickens.)

Of the four, Zhou Sinian alone remained standing; the rest were exhausted.

But gazing at those two bulging sacks of grain, they all felt a deep sense of satisfaction. With this much, there was hope for real meals again!

Seeing that dusk was approaching, Mingdai waved her hand. “Down the mountain!”

Zhou Sinian, still in high spirits, thought this rat-hunting game could go on forever. Happily, he slung both sacks of grain over his shoulders, while the others trailed behind, dangling a string of rat tails apiece as they trotted along.

Soon, the workers on the reservoir project saw the madman with a red kerchief, grinning, striding toward the communal huts with a massive sack over his shoulder. Behind him, three others jogged, each carrying a haul.

The villagers from Liu Family Bay recognized their own—Ming the Educated Youth, Madam Huang, and Accountant Liu.

But when they saw what the trio were carrying, they gasped in shock.

Heavens! Field rats! Huge, fat field rats! Each of them must have twenty or thirty—and with three people, how many is that in total?

What a haul!

The villagers exchanged excited glances and threw themselves into their work, eager to finish and rush home for dinner.

The old educated youths were delighted, while the newcomers looked completely bewildered, having no idea what was going on.

As for the people from the other villages—they were in an uproar!

They recognized the madman up front and quickly deduced that the people trailing behind were from Liu Family Bay.

How on earth had the Liu Family Bay villagers managed to get so many field rats?

And just think of all the grain that must have come with them!

No, they had to go take a look!