Driving Ducks to the Sea: The Disobedient Daughter-in-Law Raises Sea Ducks

This daughter-in-law is fierce and sharp-tongued, anything but gentle and obedient. Raising ducks angered the whole family. Watch how Song Hongrong from Shandong persists in her dream against all odds, driving ducks to the sea and creating wealth.

Her name is Song Hongrong. Today is both an exciting and nerve-racking day for her.

Song Hongrong: Slowly.

But 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 it is their first time in the sea since the start of spring, Song Hongrong is worried the ducks will not adapt to the seawater temperature. But seeing how much fun the ducks are having, Song Hongrong gets excited too.

Reporter: I can feel you are quite excited today.

Song Hongrong: Yes, today is the first day in the sea, they have not been in the sea all winter.

Reporter: Are the ducks also eager to get into the sea?

Song Hongrong: Yes, look how lively they are.

Herding ducks by the seaside often brings unexpected rewards.

Song Hongrong: Picked up an egg.

Reporter: It laid an egg.

Song Hongrong: Yes. Another one.

Reporter: Laid right on the beach.

Song Hongrong: Yes.

Reporter: Do you want to go in and take a peek, see if there are any that slipped through the net?

Song Hongrong: Let me go check in the water. Another one.

Reporter: Picked up another one.

Song Hongrong: A bumper harvest today.

Reporter: They all have sand on them.

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 is 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: Just the soft-shelled one.

Song Hongrong: It does not affect eating.

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

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

Reporter: Be gentler.

Song Hongrong: Gentle?

Reporter: Slow down a bit.

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

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

Song Hongrong: That is different. If you are not gentle with them, they will not be gentle with you. If they all break, what do you do?

Reporter: What about with your husband?

Song Hongrong: I actually feel I am quite gentle, but he is not satisfied.

Song Hongrong says she not only does not know how to be gentle, she also has a quick temper. Because of the ducks, she even scratched her husband.

Song Hongrong: Go down and play, go. The two of us would fight, and at the worst we would get physical.

Reporter: He dares to hit you?

Song Hongrong: He does not dare to hit me, but I dare to 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 should not be too visible. The ones on my face have healed. Right here, you should be able to see a little, right here, scratched.

Raising ducks is raising ducks, so why get physical with her husband? To Song Hongrong, these ducks are her treasures, bringing her not just wealth.

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

In one morning, they bring up a bucket of small fish and shrimp. This is the first bucket of fish and shrimp after the fishing ban ended. Song Hongrong does not eat it herself, but feeds it to the ducks.

Even though it is only a small bucket, Song Hongrong is happy. The ducks ate frozen seafood all winter and have been longing 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: There is everything. Look at this small shrimp, this small crab, this fish.

Reporter: I see there is also this small mantis shrimp.

Song Hongrong: Small mantis shrimp, there is everything.

Reporter: The ducks grew up eating seafood.

Song Hongrong: Yes, the eggs they lay even 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 eggs in the early morning, from one or two o'clock to four o'clock. I generally have to get up at 5 o'clock to collect eggs. If you are too late, the ducks step on the eggs, wandering all over the place, stepping on the eggs.

Reporter: I notice you are 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 is unavoidable when collecting eggs. Even though I was so careful just now, I still heard a few cracking sounds while collecting.

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

Villager: She does not appreciate the good life she has. She does not know who she is anymore.

Villager: At that time, we felt, you have a perfectly good life, why are you stirring things up, right?

Villager: What is a young daughter-in-law showing off for, right? How capable do you think you are that you can pull off something this big?

Song Hongrong: They felt you were the kind who stirs up trouble, a spendthrift, a 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 also been in business for many years and invested in real estate. Throughout the whole village, the family's conditions were among the very best. But ever since Song Hongrong started raising ducks, the household had not had a moment of peace. It turned out the family had always disagreed with Song Hongrong doing this line of work. It was over this very matter that Song Hongrong scratched her husband.