Yuan Chun struggled to get up, took out a small bag of rice from the chest of drawers and handed it to her eldest son, "Cook it thick, Mom still has some eggs here, steam a bowl of egg custard."

Yuan Chun, like a magician, took out seven or eight eggs from the cabinet.

Da Qiang’s eyes lit up, "Mom, so many eggs, we can save them and steam one egg custard a day, it’ll last us many days."

"No need, Mom will exchange some more eggs from others tomorrow, and guarantee that you four kids can eat one a day. Mom will buy some chicks from Auntie’s home at the village head. You guys should work hard and catch more bugs for the chicks to eat. By the second half of the year, when the chickens lay eggs, we won’t need to buy eggs anymore."

Da Qiang nodded excitedly, "Mom, let’s raise more chicks at home. I’ve heard there’s no limit now, and the team leader’s family has raised over ten chicks and three pigs."

"Alright, we’ll raise more, let’s raise twenty chicks. By then, if we have too many eggs, we can sell them for money."

"Yes, yes, during the New Year, we can also sell chickens to make money." Da Qiang suddenly felt that without Dad, life seemed not so hard, "Mom, are we going to raise pigs? Erqiang, Sanqiang, and Ya Ya all know how to gather pigweed to feed pigs."

Yuan Chun shook her head, "No, we won’t raise them. We don’t have grains at home, we can barely feed ourselves, what would we use to feed the pigs? Pigs can’t just eat pigweed, they need grains."

Da Qiang immediately wilted, "Then... when I’m a bit older and can earn more work points, we’ll raise pigs."

"Alright, Mom will go along with you."

By then, she’ll take the kids to the county town to make a living, earn a lot of money, and not worry about raising pigs.

In the evening, the other three children came back.

Looking at the three little children, each dragging a small bundle of firewood into the yard, their little hands were red from the strain, but they didn’t cry out in pain, Yuan Chun’s heart ached, "Tomorrow Mom will buy firewood, you kids shouldn’t go to the mountain to collect firewood anymore, even though it’s at the foot of the mountain, there are wild boars up there, sometimes they come down from the mountain, it can be dangerous."

"Mom, no need to worry, many kids from the village are on the mountain digging wild vegetables and cutting pigweed. I even cut a full basket of pigweed today, and the record keeper gave me two work points. Mom, I can earn work points too from now on."

The seven-year-old Erqiang replied sensibly and obediently.

Look at this sensible and obedient child.

Yuan Chun’s maternal heart softened into a puddle of water.

At night, the mother and four children enjoyed a delicious meal of white rice porridge mixed with egg custard, and Yuan Chun secretly took a Revitalizing Pill.

In the middle of the night, Yuan Chun felt hungry. She sneaked into the space, drank a bottle of milk, ate a portion of beef risotto, freshened up in the space, exercised for a while, then came back to continue sleeping.

The next day, Yuan Chun, full of energy, went to the kitchen, cooked a large pot of rice, and also fried some wild vegetables with eggs.

After eating heartily, she went to work.

The team leader saw her and was somewhat surprised, "Daqiang’s mother, your body is still unwell, just rest at home for a few more days, it’s only the beginning of spring and the team doesn’t have much work."

In early March, as the land had just thawed, crops couldn’t be planted yet, and villagers were idly digging wild vegetables on the mountain.

Yuan Chun smiled bitterly, "There’s no work in the fields, so I’ll take the job of gathering pigweed. Although it doesn’t pay much in work points, my family will rely on me alone to raise four children, I want to earn more work points. Team leader, do you think that’s possible?"

Gathering pigweed was usually the children’s job in the village.

No adults competed with the children for the job.

But the team leader knew about the Mei Family’s situation, so he agreed, "Alright, you can gather pigweed, we’ll take whatever you gather. Two work points per basket."

"Thank you, team leader."