Chapter 041

There is no time this week.

Chuxia and Lin Xiaohan walked side by side to their private plots and discussed the matter further.

We decided to make some preparations and find a way to invite several important cadres from the brigade together next Sunday to let them taste the food cooked by Chuxia.

Wait until they have tasted the early summer craftsmanship.

We'll see what their attitude is and then make our next plans.

As for the preparation work, it mainly involves preparing vegetables, meat and noodles.

There is no need to prepare the sauce for now. I brought a big jar of it from home when I went to the countryside in early summer. This sauce can be kept for a long time without going bad. I have only eaten it twice before, so there is still more than half a jar left.

After discussing this matter, the two of them happened to walk to the edge of their private plot.

It was about three or four o'clock, and the sun was hanging in the west. The sunlight was not as strong as at noon, but it was still quite hot on the body.

The riverbank at this moment was not as quiet as before.

Because Han Ting and the other ten people were digging holes and planting vegetables in the land they had prepared.

To be more precise, there were nine people planting vegetables, and one person, Su Yun, was sitting on the river bank taking a rest.

There were many people talking and making a lot of noise, plus occasional fights, so the river beach was very lively.

Hearing the noisy sound, Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan glanced in their direction, then withdrew their gaze and went down to their fields to pick vegetables.

Chuxia looked at the cucumber rack.

After a few more days of growth, two of the cucumbers had already grown to be quite large.

Chuxia picked the two cucumbers without much hesitation.

After simply picking some vegetables, Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan left the vegetable garden.

After walking about ten steps along the river bank, Chu Xia said, "They are really united and generous. They can tolerate Su Yun's laziness every day for so long without any emotion."

Lin Xiaohan sneered and said, "They are just trying to save face. They are not hungry now. When they can't even eat, we will know whether they are really united and generous. I don't know how Han Ting will protect his delicate girlfriend when that happens."

After hearing this, Chu Xia subconsciously turned around and looked at Su Yun.

It just so happened that Su Yun was also looking at her, and their eyes met from a distance of more than ten steps.

Su Yun didn't look away, and Chu Xia felt that she saw resentment in her eyes.

After a moment, Chu Xia turned around and muttered, "Why are you looking at me like that..."

Hearing Chu Xia’s words, Lin Xiaohan also looked back.

Su Yun still didn't look away. Lin Xiaohan glanced at her and turned his head back, saying to Chu Xia, "Maybe it's because you became a teacher and she didn't."

Chu Xia answered, "It's not like I stole her opportunity. It was originally mine."

Lin Xiaohan turned to look at Chu Xia for a while, and then said, "If you hadn't suddenly regained your consciousness, you would have given the opportunity to Su Yun when Han Ting asked you to. Maybe she was already ready to be a teacher, but you didn't."

Hearing Lin Xiaohan's words, Chu Xia subconsciously thought of the plot in the original novel.

After thinking about it, she couldn't help but wonder, could it be that Su Yun also knew the plot of the original novel?

After thinking for a while, Chuxia shook her head again.

So what if she knew the plot of the original novel?

This opportunity was not originally hers, and in the original novel, she was able to enjoy all that because of her.

So Chu Xia looked at Lin Xiaohan and said, "I worked hard to get this opportunity. I can give it to her if I want to, and I can't give it to her if I don't want to. She can only hold back her unhappiness. Just because she's pretty and Han Ting likes her, does she think the whole world has to revolve around her?"

This is indeed the case in the original novel.

But in today's reality, this is no longer the case.

No matter how frustrated and dissatisfied she felt, she had to accept her fate.

***

Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan walked away, and Su Yun turned around and retracted her gaze.

The other nine people were still planting vegetables in the field. Some of them used small shovels to dig holes, some put the seedlings in the holes and covered them with soil, and some used gourd ladles to scoop water for watering.

Guo Gai dug a hole with a shovel, raised his head to look in the direction where Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan had gone, took a breath and said, "What's the big deal? It's just growing some vegetables, a small thing. Before long, all the vegetables we planted will grow up. When the time comes, we will cook two tables of dishes for one meal, using as much oil as possible, to let them know what real enjoyment is."

Behind him, Gu Yuzhu filled the hole for the seedlings and covered them with soil.

Following up on Guogai's words, he said, "That's right. Every time Tang Chuxia cooks, she only puts in a tiny amount of oil. Without oil, how can the dishes taste good? We haven't eaten our soybeans, peanuts, and rapeseed yet. We can get a lot of oil from them at the oil mill, so we have to put in enough oil when cooking."

Pot lid: "Glittering garlic-mashed greens... wow... my mouth is watering just thinking about it..."

After saying this, he actually swallowed a big mouthful of saliva, and everyone else started laughing.

Li Qiao and Chen Sisi were watering the plants at a distance.

Li Qiao finished laughing, with a smile still on his face, but he whispered, "Annoying."

Only Chen Sisi could hear these words.

Chen Sisi looked at her and asked, "We'll have food to eat soon, why are you so upset?"

Li Qiao continued watering and whispered, "Speak softly, don't let them hear. We haven't touched the oil since we started working independently. Of course I'm happy to have vegetables to eat. I'm not talking about the vegetables, I'm talking about Su Yun."

Hearing this, Chen Sisi subconsciously raised her eyes and glanced towards the river bank.

Li Qiao motioned her not to look at him any more, and whispered, "I'm getting more and more annoyed with her. She looks like she's dying every day. She's been in the countryside for such a long time, but she still hasn't gotten in touch with the ground. She's been living on cloud cloud all day. She's already dizzy after just a few minutes in the field. She steps on two seedlings for every one she plants. When I politely ask her to take a rest, she won't be able to sit still. I can't stand it."

Chen Sisi naturally whispered, "She just can't adapt, there's nothing we can do about it."

Li Qiao: "We have adapted to it. Who doesn't work hard every day? The work points she earns in a day are not as good as those of a seven or eight-year-old child in the village. Now she is growing vegetables in her own plot, but she is still like this. Why does she deserve such treatment?"

Chen Sisi whispered the reason again: "Han Ting is protecting her."

Li Qiao glanced at Han Ting, then looked away and took a deep breath, then continued, "So I said she has no self-awareness at all. Doesn't she really think it's inappropriate? She said Han Ting did her work, but if Han Ting did it again, wouldn't he only get ten work points that day?"

Chen Sisi didn't dare to cause trouble, let alone Han Ting.

She whispered, "Forget it, just bear with it, it's not a big deal. There are so many of us planting together, and it won't have much impact if she's missing. Others have no objections, but if we do, they will definitely think we are petty and that we are making a fuss over nothing. If we get upset again, won't Lin Xiaohan and Chu Xia be made a fool of themselves?"

Li Qiao really didn't intend to say it.

Although she often talked about Su Yun behind her back, she never said it to her face.

Say a few words behind someone's back to vent your emotions, and then don't mention it again.

She and Chen Sisi continued watering.

When watering the plants, she changed her tone and said, "Little seedlings, little seedlings, we are watering you, you should drink more water, drink enough water, and grow taller and bigger quickly. For the sake of our hard work, you must strive to make us proud. Do you see the vegetables in the two plots of land next to you? You must grow faster and better than those vegetables, and surpass them all, understand?"

There was a breeze blowing over the river, and the young seedlings shook their heads in the wind.

The small shadows cast on the ground swayed along with the sun. As the sun continued to set, the shadows on the yellow earth became longer and longer, and finally disappeared into the night along with the small seedlings.

The moon rises in the dark blue sky.

After the moon disappears, the sun rises again from the east.

The transition from morning to evening.

The small vegetable seedlings on the ground stand upright and sway in the wind...

On the vegetable racks in the field next to it, cucumbers grow bigger every day, green tomatoes gradually turn red, and leeks continue to sprout after being cut...

Once again, the sun dispelled the darkness and illuminated the earth little by little.

On the yellow land, the small vegetable seedlings all drooped their heads...

***

In the evening after school.

Chuxia finished the last bit of work at her desk, then raised her hands and stretched lazily.

When I was about to put away the homework book in front of me, I suddenly saw Wang Xiaoyan standing outside the door.

Perhaps because Lin Xiaohan was there, Wang Xiaoyan didn't dare to knock on the door or come in.

Chu Xia saw her and called her, "Come in if you have something to say."

Wang Xiaoyan's face was full of restraint.

She didn't dare look at Lin Xiaohan, nor did she hesitate to waste Chuxia's time. She trotted into the office, went straight to Chuxia's desk, and put down the comic book in her hand.

She whispered, "Teacher Tang, I have finished reading these two books and am here to return them to you."

Chu Xia smiled and asked her: "Have you finished reading it? Do you understand it?"

Wang Xiaoyan nodded and whispered: "Well, it's just a little stupid, it took a long time."

Chu Xia still smiled and said, "You are not stupid at all."

As she spoke, she took the two comic books back into the drawer, took out two new ones, and handed them to Wang Xiaoyan, saying, "Here, I'll give you two more."

This time, Wang Xiaoyan hesitated for a moment before reaching out to take it.

After accepting it, she said, "Thank you, Mr. Tang. I will definitely be faster this time."

Chu Xia said: "It's okay, just watch it normally."

She mainly relies on herself to learn. It is normal to be slow in the early stage, but she will be fine once her literacy and vocabulary improve.

Wang Xiaoyan felt sorry to waste Chuxia's time.

After saying thank you to Chuxia several times, she carefully took the comic book and left.

After Wang Xiaoyan left, Chuxia tidied up her desk.

After finishing cleaning up, he turned to Lin Xiaohan and asked, "Are you done?"

Lin Xiaohan remained silent.

He had finished his work by now, and after responding, he got up and left work with Chuxia.

After get off work and before leaving school to return to the educated youth site, the two of them went to the vegetable field first.

Sunday was coming soon, and as they walked on the road, they talked about inviting the brigade cadres to dinner on Sunday.

Chu Xia said, "I will go find Aunt Jin Feng tomorrow and ask her for help."

This time, he was not asking Chen Jinfeng to borrow money or anything, but he wanted her to help arrange it and invite all the brigade cadres together.

As they were talking they arrived at the vegetable garden.

When Chuxia raised her eyes, she was suddenly stunned on the river bank at the edge of the field.

Seeing that she was suddenly stunned, Lin Xiaohan looked in the direction of her gaze.

When he saw it, he was not stunned nor surprised, but smiled silently.

Chu Xia was stunned for a moment and looked at Lin Xiaohan: "Why did they all die suddenly?"

Yes, all the vegetable seedlings in Han Ting’s field died in the ground, and it seemed that not a single one was alive.

Lin Xiaohan went straight to the vegetable field and said in a completely unconcerned tone, "Who knows."

Whatever the reason, it's normal for this to happen to them.

Chu Xia was about to step into the vegetable patch in confusion when she suddenly heard a scream from behind her: "Ah!"

She was startled and immediately turned around to look.

It turned out that Han Ting and the others had come over, and the one who was screaming should be Gu Yuzhu.

Chuxia came to her senses and quickly walked down to the vegetable garden.

Under such circumstances, she should quickly move away and not get close to them.

Han Ting and the other ten people all looked extremely unhappy and quickly ran to the edge of their vegetable patch.

Gu Yuzhu shouted anxiously at the withered and yellowed vegetable seedlings on the ground: "Help! What's going on? Why are all these vegetables lying on the ground? Why are they all yellow?! What's going on?!"

No one responded to her.

After a long while, Li Qiao mumbled, "Are they all dead?"

As soon as these words came out, the hearts of the other nine people fell into an icy hole.

Even Han Ting, who was usually carefree about everything, now had a serious look on his face and even had trouble breathing.

Han Ting was the first to go down to the vegetable field to check on the young seedlings.

The others followed behind and also bent down or squatted to look at the seedlings.

Naturally, they couldn't tell what was going on.

Gu Yuzhu suddenly whispered, "Isn't there someone behind this?"

Otherwise, why were the vegetables still intact yesterday, but all dead today?

It was obvious who she was talking about.

But speaking out about something without evidence is bound to cause trouble.

So Li Qiao and Chen Sisi next to her didn't respond and just shook their heads.

I walked around the field, but couldn't see anything.

Han Ting called Chaozi and Guogai in a steady voice, "Go find a fellow villager to come over and take a look."

Chaozi and Guogai responded and ran ashore.

Not long after, they brought a fellow villager who was in his forties.

When the fellow villagers saw the vegetables in their fields, they immediately said with a distressed tone: "Oh, so many vegetables, why are they all dead?"

Han Ting looked calmer than before and asked politely, "Can you tell what's going on?"

The fellow villager looked at the land for a while and said, "Although there are stones and tiles in the land that have not been cleaned up, it shouldn't have such a big impact. The soil looks fine, and there are no diseases or insect pests on the vegetables. Did you not water the vegetables these days and let them die? It's been very hot these days."

Han Ting immediately said, "Impossible, we just watered it yesterday at noon."

Because the temperature has been high these days, they were afraid that the vegetables would dry out, so they deliberately watered them more.

Hearing this, the villager suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, my fellow educated youth, who taught you to water the vegetables in the hot sun at noon? The sun was so hot yesterday at noon, and you watered the vegetables. Wouldn't they have died?"

Guo Gai was puzzled and asked, "The sun is so strong at noon, the vegetables must have wilted and the soil is dry. We are afraid that the vegetables will die, so we water the soil to moisten the soil, cool them down, and let them drink enough water. Why did we kill the vegetables by watering them?"

The fellow villager said helplessly and anxiously, "I don't know how to tell you. It's okay if the vegetables wilt for a while at noon. Generally, they won't die. After the sun goes down, just water them. Let me tell you this. Under the scorching sun like yesterday, watering the vegetables was like pouring boiling water. Such small seedlings, whose roots haven't even taken root, were scalded to death."

Gu Yuzhu then continued: "We use water from the river, which is very cold."

Before the fellow villager could say anything else, he suddenly heard laughter coming from the side.

Han Ting and ten other people, along with his fellow villagers, turned around and looked at Lin Xiaohan who was laughing.

Gu Yuzhu was in a bad mood and asked unhappily, "What are you laughing at?"

Lin Xiaohan said: "I'm just laughing at your stupidity, what else can I laugh at?"

Gu Yuzhu was so angry that she clenched her fingers and was about to curse back, but before she could say anything, the fellow villager next to her suddenly said, "By the way, Teacher Lin, you are a teacher, you should understand, why don't you tell them what the reason is."

Lin Xiaohan looked directly at Han Ting, smiled and looked him in the eye, "From a scientific point of view, when watering under the scorching sun, the water droplets falling on the surface of the plant leaves are equivalent to convex lenses, which will focus the sunlight to produce a higher temperature, causing the water on the leaf surface to evaporate quickly, causing the plant to lose water. The water poured into the ground will also be quickly evaporated by the sunlight, and the small seedlings can't stand it at all."

Han Ting looked at Lin Xiaohan without saying anything.

Lin Xiaohan looked at him and smiled again: "Do you understand?"

The fellow villager didn't understand anyway, and he had never even heard of some of the words.

But he thought that these educated youths were all high school graduates and would definitely understand, so he said, "How is it? Comrade educated youths, do you all understand? You must remember that in the future, when you grow vegetables, you must not water them at noon in the summer."

Whether they understood or not, Han Ting and the other ten people remained silent.

After a moment, Han Ting's expression relaxed slightly. He looked at his fellow villager and said, "Uncle, please make this trip for me."

The fellow villager didn't think it was a problem, but he was worried: "Comrade educated youth, you can't do this. It's almost halfway through the year, and you haven't even grown a vegetable in your fields. How are you going to live?"

Han Ting and his friends would never accept such concern from others.

Chaozi and Guogai politely and warmly saw their fellow villager off.

Send the fellow villagers back.

Ten people stood together and looked at the seedlings in the field, none of them saying a word.

***

Twenty minutes later.

In the kitchen of the educated youth center.

Han Ting and ten other people all sat around the table with gloomy expressions.

After a moment of silence in the almost stagnant atmosphere, Guo Gai suddenly spoke in a relaxed tone: "Hey, it's no big deal, isn't it just that some seedlings died? We can just replant them, right?"

As he spoke, everyone else looked at him.

Gu Yuzhu complained in a low voice: "It's easy to say, other people grow vegetables to improve their lives, but we grow vegetables just to waste effort and lose money. If we tell others about it, people will laugh to death."

Li Qiao also whispered: "Then just stop talking..."

Behind the earthen stove, Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan sat side by side.

Because the stove was quite high, Chuxia couldn't see anything when she sat inside.

Hearing these words, she couldn't help but stick her head outside to see if they were going to quarrel.

The head stretched out until it arrived in front of Lin Xiaohan.

Lin Xiaohan raised his hand and pushed Chu Xia's head, pushing her back.

Then he moved the small stool under his butt out.

Chuxia understood and quickly moved the small stool.

Then she sat next to Lin Xiaohan, behind the stove with him, and looked at Han Ting and the other ten people silently with the same expression as him.

After looking for two seconds, Chuxia suddenly reached into her pocket and grabbed a handful of melon seeds.

After catching it, she placed it in front of Lin Xiaohan with her palm facing up.

When Lin Xiaohan saw the claw, he raised his hand and naturally pinched a small handful in her palm.

Then the two of them continued to watch Han Ting and the other ten people while eating melon seeds.

Li Qiao finished speaking.

The ten people fell silent again.

Han Ting has calmed down now, but he doesn't seem to be in the mood to talk.

He raised his eyes boredly and glanced unconsciously behind the stove.

As soon as they looked over, they saw Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan sitting behind the stove, eating melon seeds and looking at them.

“…”

Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan looked at him for another two seconds and then caught a glimpse of Han Ting's gaze.

The moment they met Han Ting's gaze, Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan tacitly and calmly concealed their behavior of watching the fun.

The two of them lowered their eyes at the same time, and naturally picked up a melon seed and put it into their mouths.

After cracking the melon seeds together, they threw the shells into the stove together.

Han Ting: “…”