Song Hongrong Raises Ducks: The Disobedient Daughter-in-Law Drives Her Ducks to the Sea

This daughter-in-law is fierce and shrewish, anything but gentle and obedient. Her duck farming infuriated the whole family. See how Song Hongrong from Shandong held on to her dream against the odds, drove her ducks to the sea, and created wealth.

Her name is Song Hongrong, and today is a day of both excitement and nerves for her.

Song Hongrong: Easy now.

And for these ducks, today is a happy day. Cooped up all winter, today they get to frolic in the sea breeze and take a seawater bath.

Because this is their first trip to the sea since spring began, Song Hongrong is worried the ducks won't adapt to the seawater temperature. But seeing how happily they play, Song Hongrong gets excited too.

Reporter: I can feel how excited you are today.

Song Hongrong: Yes, today is the first day at the sea; they haven't been in the sea all winter.

Reporter: Do the ducks long for the sea too?

Song Hongrong: Yes, look how lively they are.

Herding ducks by the shore often brings unexpected rewards.

Song Hongrong: Found an egg.

Reporter: It laid an egg.

Song Hongrong: Yes. Another one.

Reporter: Laid right here on the beach.

Song Hongrong: Yes.

Reporter: Do you want to go in and take a look, see if there are any sneaky ones left behind?

Song Hongrong: I'll check the water. Another one.

Reporter: Picked up another one.

Song Hongrong: A big harvest today.

Reporter: They're all covered in sand.

Song Hongrong: These were really laid on the sand.

Reporter: Are there more in the bucket?

Song Hongrong: Let me check the bucket. Wow, there are 4 more in the bucket, 7 eggs.

Reporter: How many did you pick up on the beach today in total?

Song Hongrong: 7.

Reporter: 7 eggs.

Song Hongrong: Take a look.

Reporter: There's another one. Why is that one like that?

Song Hongrong: This is a soft-shelled egg.

Reporter: Is a soft-shelled egg good?

Song Hongrong: No.

Reporter: Look, can this egg be eaten?

Song Hongrong: It can be eaten.

Reporter: The soft-shelled one.

Song Hongrong: It doesn't affect eating.

If ducks get startled, they may lay soft-shelled eggs. So you have to be as careful as possible when herding them.

But once Song Hongrong gets excited, she gets a bit rough and careless when driving the ducks.

Reporter: Be gentler.

Song Hongrong: Gentle, huh.

Reporter: Slow down a bit.

Song Hongrong: I finally learned to be gentle. What do I do if I don't know how to be gentle? I just don't know how to be gentle. When you just told me to be gentle, I got a bit, you know.

Reporter: But you're especially gentle when handling the duck eggs.

Song Hongrong: That's different. If you're not gentle with them, they won't be gentle with you; they'll all break, and then what do you do?

Reporter: What about with your husband?

Song Hongrong: I actually feel I'm pretty gentle, but he's not satisfied.

Song Hongrong says she not only doesn't know how to be gentle, she's also hot-tempered. Over the ducks, she even scratched her husband.

Song Hongrong: Go on down and play, go. The two of us would fight, and at the worst we'd come to blows.

Reporter: He dares to hit you?

Song Hongrong: He doesn't dare hit me; I dare hit him.

Song Hongrong's husband: My face, and my body too. It was summer, so my body was all scratched.

Reporter: Are there still scars now?

Song Hongrong's husband: Yes, they shouldn't be very visible. The ones on my face have healed. Right here, you can probably still see a little. This spot, scratched.

Raising ducks is one thing, but why come to blows with her husband? To Song Hongrong, these ducks are her treasures, and they bring her more than just wealth.

At five in the morning, the reporter goes out to sea with Song Hongrong.

In one morning, they haul up a bucket of small fish and shrimp. This is the first bucket of fish and shrimp after the fishing moratorium ended, and Song Hongrong isn't eating it herself; it's for the ducks.

Even though it's only a small bucket, Song Hongrong is happy. The ducks have eaten frozen seafood all winter and are waiting for this fresh taste.

Reporter: This pile is one meal for the ducks.

Song Hongrong: Just one meal.

Reporter: I see this seafood is quite rich.

Song Hongrong: A bit of everything. Look at this small shrimp, this small crab, this fish.

Reporter: I see there's also this little mantis shrimp.

Song Hongrong: Little mantis shrimp, a bit of everything.

Reporter: The ducks grew up eating seafood.

Song Hongrong: Yes, even the eggs they lay have that seafood flavor.

The ducks eat seafood at every meal, and the eggs laid by these seafood-eating ducks are Song Hongrong's secret to wealth.

Every day before dawn, Song Hongrong has to get up to collect duck eggs.

Song Hongrong: It has to be this early, because ducks usually start laying in the early morning, from one or two o'clock to four o'clock they start laying. I generally have to get up at 5 o'clock to collect the eggs. If you're too late, the ducks step on the eggs, wandering all around, stepping on the eggs.

Reporter: I've noticed you're especially careful when you pick up the eggs.

Song Hongrong: Yes, these eggs are too fragile.

Reporter: You have to handle them gently.

Song Hongrong: Yes, it's unavoidable when collecting eggs. Even though I was this careful, just now when I was collecting I still heard a few cracks.

Usually rough-and-careless Song Hongrong is extra careful with every single duck egg. By selling sea duck eggs, Song Hongrong earns more than 2 million yuan a year, but it's also because of sea duck eggs that Song Hongrong became known among the villagers as a spendthrift daughter-in-law.

Villager: She doesn't know how good she has it. She's forgotten who she is.

Villager: Back then we felt, you've got a good life, why are you stirring up trouble, right?

Villager: What's a young daughter-in-law showing off for, right? How much ability do you have that you can do something this big?

Song Hongrong: People felt you were that kind of troublemaker, a spendthrift, a good-for-nothing spendthrift woman, just a spendthrift.

At the time, Song Hongrong's husband ran a passenger transport business, earning more than 200,000 yuan a year, and her father-in-law had been in business for years and also invested in real estate. Throughout the whole village, the family's circumstances were among the very best. But ever since Song Hongrong started raising ducks, the household never had a moment's peace. It turned out the family had always disapproved of Song Hongrong doing this line of work, and over this very issue, Song Hongrong even scratched her husband.

Song Hongrong: I was determined to do it. No matter what you said, I had to do it. And then the whole family fought over it. My mother-in-law is the peacemaker type; she was neutral anyway. My father-in-law and my husband were on one side. I'm the hot-tempered type. At the time, once we started arguing, I lost all reason. When I lose reason, I don't care. If I can't vent it, I have to scratch you. Actually, after scratching I regretted it too. I scratched your face. A man, in our village, a man can't even go out. After he went out, people asked him what happened to his face. He said his son scratched him. They said, no, your kid couldn't scratch you like that.