Chapter 139 Educated Youth in the 1970s (Part 3) I Want to Build! I Want to Learn...

Song Ce smiled upon hearing this and explained, "This is jujube cake, made by my mother herself. She told me to keep some on hand for the journey. But I was so excited on the train that I fell asleep and didn't have time to eat it. Since we'll be living together from now on, we'll definitely have to take care of each other." He felt happy as he watched Jiang Zhangjun eat with relish.

After finishing their meal, the two quickly washed up and then turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Song Ce closed his eyes and lay on the bed, thinking about what to do next.

Actually, this mission is quite simple in a way. As long as he doesn't deliberately interfere in Song Fei and Qi Ziling's relationship, all problems can be easily solved. Most importantly, Song Ce has 100% life experience in this mission; he can do whatever he wants without any other restrictions.

However, as a qualified mission taker, Song Ce couldn't act recklessly and arbitrarily just because there were no restrictions. He knew that each world was a completely new experience, so he treated this "job" as a form of self-cultivation. Although he didn't agree with the rules of some worlds, he always managed to adjust his mindset, and this time was no exception.

The tragedies of Song Fei and Qi Ziling both stemmed from the original owner's ruthless methods. If Song Ce hadn't deliberately approached Qi Ziling, none of this would have happened. His life had only just begun; making it meaningful was paramount.

The next day, before sunrise and while the morning mist was still thick, someone started broadcasting through the village loudspeaker.

"New educated youth, please assemble at the entrance of the brigade headquarters at the west end of the village. The brigade leader is having a meeting. New educated youth, please assemble at the entrance of the brigade headquarters at the west end of the village. The brigade leader is having a meeting..."

Song Ce had been awake for a while. He glanced at his watch; it was only 5:15...

"Sigh." He sighed softly, turned around and woke Jiang Zhangjun, then began to wash up and get ready. In no more than ten minutes, the two of them were out of the house together. Jiang Zhangjun was so sleepy he kept yawning. He took out the lock his mother had prepared for him from his pocket and locked the door with a "click."

In the neighboring room of the female educated youth, Qi Ziling was carefully tying her braids tight, while Jian Fangning rubbed her eyes as she buttoned her coat. Wu Wangliu looked at the two girls' pretty faces and couldn't help but purse her lips. She glanced at her own braids and then tucked the stray hairs behind her ear in front of the small mirror on the wall.

Soon, the three girls came out of the house one after another, stood in a row at the gate of the courtyard, and smiled and nodded at Song Ce and Jiang Zhangjun who were coming towards them.

The group waited at the courtyard gate for a full ten minutes before they saw Chen Shi and Zhang Shuda rushing out. Both of them stuffed some food into their mouths, and seeing that everyone was waiting for them, their eyes flashed, and they quickly covered their mouths and chewed rapidly.

Wu Wangliu glanced at the two of them with a subtle look in his eyes, opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

By this time, the entrance to the brigade was already surrounded by curious villagers. Seeing the educated youth arrive, they spontaneously parted to make way for them, allowing the group to walk to the front of the platform.

Standing on the earthen platform was a burly, middle-aged man. He first tried speaking into the tin loudspeaker twice, saying "hello, hello" to make sure everyone could hear him, before he opened his mouth and said loudly, "Hello, comrades! I am the brigade leader, Qin Guangde. Thank you for coming all this way to our Xinhe Village for construction! Now that you've all come to our Xinhe Village, we're all one family from now on!"

Qin Guangde wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued, "Right now is the crucial time for wheat harvesting. Cutting wheat, bundling wheat, stacking wheat stacks, winnowing wheat grains, and drying grains are all exhausting! After the wheat harvest, we'll immediately have to plant corn, pick corn cobs, peel corn husks, gather straw, and clear away stubble! Every single task is urgent!"

After saying this, Qin Guangde glanced at the diverse faces of the young people below the stage and softened his tone, saying, "I know you're all city kids, most of you have never touched a hoe or sickle, or done farm work. So! This morning you'll learn from the experienced workers, and tomorrow you'll officially start working and earn work points! Let me make this clear from the start: Xinhe Village doesn't support idlers! Comrades, since you've raised the slogans, you'd better show your skills and strength!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the educated youth stood rooted to the spot. Before them stretched an endless expanse of farmland, golden waves of wheat reaching to the horizon. So much land—when would it ever be finished?

Song Ce was also stunned. He wasn't afraid of hard work, but the workload was just too much! He had been to so many worlds, but this was the first time he had encountered a job that required heavy physical labor!

He took the straw hat distributed by the brigade and put it on his head. It seemed that he needed to make some plans... Instead of exhausting himself every day, he should change his mindset, become a rare technical talent, and do his best to make the most of his abilities.

"You're all new here, so how about the three of you women form a group, and the remaining four men split into two groups?" Qin Guangde called everyone over and said with a smile.

"No problem, Captain!" the seven educated youths said in unison.

After the team was formed, Qin Guangde waved to the villagers who were watching the excitement and said, "Old Xu, Old Li, and Aunt Xu and Aunt Ma, you guys take care of these young kids! You'll all get ten work points today."

The villagers who were called upon were overjoyed and all smiled as they agreed.

The experienced man who led Song Ce and Jiang Zhangjun was Old Xu. He stepped forward with a sharp sickle in his hand and said with a smile, "Kids, just call me Uncle Xu!"

"Uncle Xu." "Uncle Xu."

Uncle Xu smiled and responded, showing the two the sickle he had sharpened. Then he bent down, grabbed the wheat stalk with his left hand, placed the sickle at the base of the stalk with his right hand, and with a grab and a pull, the wheat was cut down.

"Kids, did you see clearly?" Uncle Xu asked.

Song Ce and Jiang Zhangjun nodded and took turns picking up the sickles to try it out. Uncle Xu watched carefully; although their posture of bending over to cut wheat wasn't very neat, their serious expressions showed that they had indeed put their heart into it.

Uncle Xu put the wheat stalks in his hand on the ground, and then repeated the cutting. Soon, a small pile of wheat stalks had formed at his feet.

“Look, once you two have cut enough for one bundle, tie the wheat up like this. Old Zhou will come with his oxcart at noon, and you can carry the bundles to the edge of the field to load them onto the cart. After the wheat is brought to the threshing ground, harness the donkey, spread it out, and then walk around the stone mill to grind the grains.” Uncle Xu put down his sickle, picked out a few ears of wheat from the ground, and neatly tied the stalks into a bundle. With a twist and turn, the knots formed by the stalks tightly bound the wheat together.

Looking down at Uncle Xu's skillful movements, Jiang Zhangjun couldn't help but ask, "Uncle Xu, how much grain can we harvest from this acre? Such a large area, are you harvesting it all by hand?"

Uncle Xu was secretly pleased to see the two educated youths. Other educated youths had come to the village in the past two years, but regardless of gender, they would only work for a quarter of an hour before retreating to the shade to fan themselves with straw hats, and they knew absolutely nothing about farming. Later, the production brigade, finding them unproductive, transferred them to other production teams.

"Hehe, the harvest depends entirely on the weather. In a good year, an acre can yield more than 200 catties; in a bad year, we'll be content with a harvest of about 100 catties! We're all kids who grew up on the land, so we rely on our own two hands!"

Song Ce silently calculated in his mind that the harvest of one or two hundred catties, after deducting the government's grain allowance, would only be enough for everyone to barely have enough to eat. Looking at the endless wheat field, he couldn't help but sigh deeply.

"Uncle Xu, when will we start planting corn after the wheat harvest?" Jiang Zhangjun wiped the sweat from his forehead and straightened up to ask.

"Well, we can plant it after the plowing is done," Uncle Xu said.

Seeing their silence, Uncle Xu grinned and comforted them, "Don't worry, kids! Farming is tiring, but as long as you put in the effort, you'll definitely have enough to eat." As he spoke, he patted his back, his eyes crinkling with laughter. "Back when your aunt and I first got married, life was much harder than it is now. We couldn't even afford a decent meal! Look at us now, haven't I gritted my teeth and made it through?"

Song Ce and Jiang Zhangjun exchanged a glance, nodded, and gritted their teeth to begin cutting wheat. The sickles rustled as they sliced ​​through the wheat stalks, and soon blisters formed on their palms.

As the sun rises in the east, sweat streams down everyone's faces, dripping onto the wheat field and disappearing without a trace.

As Uncle Xu cut wheat, he taught the two boys how to adjust their sickle grip. "Kids, don't be too stiff in your wrists. Let the momentum flow; it'll save you a lot of energy!" Just as he finished speaking, Aunt Xu, carrying a basket, came over from the field and said with a smile, "The team leader thought these kids probably didn't have time for breakfast, so the team will provide you with food today. Don't forget to eat before you go out tomorrow!"

"Why!"

Song Ce and Jiang Zhangjun wiped the sweat from their faces and followed Aunt Xu to the edge of the field.

In Aunt Xu's bamboo basket were six cornbread buns and a dish of pickled vegetables. The two were very hungry, so they each picked up a cornbread bun and started eating.

In those days, cornbread was simply plain cornbread, without any refined flour added to balance the texture; it was truly coarse grain. Song Ce took a bite of cornbread with some pickled vegetables, looked up at the vast, unharvested wheat fields in the distance, and suddenly felt the dry, hard cornbread in his hand become quite heavy.

Without tools or fertilizer, the villagers relied entirely on their own hands to till the land and cultivate the crops. It's easy to imagine how difficult it was to obtain the food.

Song Ce bit into his cornbread, the coarse cornmeal making his throat slightly sore, but he still swallowed it down in large gulps. Seeing his slightly furrowed brow, Jiang Zhangjun reached out and handed him a water bottle, saying in a low voice, "Eat slowly, don't choke. This cornbread may be a bit rough, but it's really filling."

"Yes, thank you."

Uncle Xu watched the two young men squatting on the edge of the field, wolfing down their food. He walked over and sighed, "Uncle knows you might not be able to handle it since you've just arrived in the countryside, but we villagers rely on this small plot of land all year round to make a living. If we don't work, what will we eat? Crops won't grow on their own! Take my advice, work hard, and having enough to eat is the most important thing!"

The two nodded silently after hearing this, keeping Uncle Xu's words in mind.

After a quick breakfast, the two returned to the wheat field and continued to follow Uncle Xu, wielding sickles to harvest the wheat. Gradually, the sun rose higher and higher, its rays scorching the earth like a raging fire. There wasn't a breath of wind in the wheat field, making it stifling and difficult to breathe.

Jiang Zhangjun felt sweat pouring down his body, his outer clothes repeatedly soaked and dried, leaving visible rings of white salt stains. He rubbed his aching lower back, looked at the vast wheat fields before him, and couldn't help but ask Song Ce, "When do you think we'll be able to harvest all this wheat?"

Song Ce was also exhausted. His arms felt numb, sore, and swollen. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said in a low voice, "I don't know either."

"Sigh, let's harvest the wheat first..."

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Author's Note: I consulted my elders about planting and harvesting wheat. Please feel free to point out any errors. [Applause]