The harvest of Qingshan Brigade is usually quite good. Although Brigade Leader Song Guangming doesn't like the educated youth in the educated youth settlement, he has never deliberately withheld their rations.

Basically, as long as you work on time and don't deliberately slack off, he will still give you the corresponding work points.

Moreover, unlike some villages that only distribute grain twice a year, once in spring and once in autumn, the Qingshan Production Brigade distributes grain four times a year, once in each of the four seasons.

Therefore, the time it took for the educated youth to receive their food was not long, only about a week ago.

But in just one week, these people had already eaten an entire sack.

In the original owner's memory, apart from the original owner, the educated youth at the educated youth settlement rarely went hungry.

Unlike the villagers who time their meals carefully, they eat more when they are hungry, otherwise they say they can't work. What, someone asks what to do if there isn't enough food?

Don't we still have money and food coupons?

If all else fails, we can just go to the city and buy some more.

What's there to be afraid of!

Perhaps because of this sense of security, the grain they received during the last spring planting season was gone in just two months. They had to use the original owner's money to buy more grain in the city for the last half month to survive until this grain distribution.

If Xu Yan continues to eat with them, what will happen if they run out of food? Will she pay for it or not?

If I pay...

Why should she support them?

If you don't pay...

That will definitely lead to a lot of troublesome issues.

She simply didn't have the energy to get entangled with this group of people.

Therefore, it's better to nip the trouble in the bud from the very beginning, so that no one can take advantage of her anymore.

"Xu Yan, do you really want to go this far?" Qin Li stood beside Xu Yan, her eyes red and swollen, probably from crying that afternoon.

Xu Yan glanced at her briefly upon hearing this.

"Qin Li, stop talking to her," Zhou Jingjing pulled Qin Li to her side. "What's the point of talking to someone as heartless as her!"

Xu Yan was trying to convince herself not to argue with a lunatic.

Hearing her say that, I immediately lost my temper.

Isn't it just going crazy?

Anyone can do that!

"You call me heartless?" Xu Yan suddenly sneered, his gaze sweeping over all the educated youth's faces before finally settling on Zhou Jingjing. "If I were heartless, you, including all of you, would have starved to death long ago. The fact that you're still standing here talking is already a testament to my great kindness!"

Zhou Jingjing didn't expect Xu Yan to retort, and she was even more surprised that the usually taciturn and reserved person would directly swear.

He stared at her in astonishment.

The others were also taken aback, their faces filled with confusion and disbelief.

“I’ve seen plenty of shameless people in my life, but I’ve never seen anyone as shameless as you. It’s truly an eye-opener,” Xu Yan continued to curse.

"You say I'm ruthless? Who's more ruthless than you? I was rescued from the water, dizzy from hunger, and you wouldn't let me eat. What, are you secretly regretting that I didn't just drown?"

Zhou Jingjing's face turned deathly pale when her secret was exposed.

"Xu Yan, aren't you going a bit too far with what you're saying—"

“And you,” Xu Yan said, turning his gaze to Ye Wei before she could finish speaking, “you always pretend to be a good person who sacrifices yourself for the greater good, but you’re the most shameless one.”

Ye Wei's eyes immediately reddened.

"You really have the nerve to use my things to do favors?" Xu Yan said sarcastically, then suddenly gave her a strange, fake smile, as if she had just thought of something.

"Oh, at noon you said that I was trying to force everyone to their deaths by taking my things back. Well, now is your time to save the day."

"What do you mean?" Although Ye Wei didn't know what Xu Yan was going to say, she was already feeling uneasy.

She always felt that Xu Yan seemed to know something.

No, that's impossible.

She couldn't possibly know!

She had just calmed herself down when she met Xu Yan's gaze.

Xu Yan looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

It was as if it was saying, "I was going to let you off the hook, but you had to come back. Now, I'm sorry, I'm not in a good mood."

Ye Wei's expression froze instantly.

"Don't you understand what I mean?" Xu Yan scoffed.

Then, avoiding Ye Wei's gaze, she glanced at the little leather shoes on Ye Wei's feet and said, "Five hundred yuan is indeed a huge sum of money, but when it's divided among more than a dozen people, and some of it is used to buy food, I don't need to calculate for you how much each person will actually get."

"But these new shoes you're wearing cost twenty or thirty yuan. Where did you get that much money?"

Ye Wei panicked a little when Xu Yan looked at her feet.

Seeing that the others had actually listened to Xu Yan and were looking at her feet, she wished she could wrap her shoes in a cloth.

“Your family is so rich,” Xu Yan continued, ignoring the stares of those around her, “so does that mean you can pay back my mere five hundred yuan all by yourself without anyone else having to chip in? At that time, the educated youth at the settlement will definitely be grateful to you, even better than to their own ancestors.”

As soon as she finished speaking, it was obvious that the educated youth looked at Ye Wei with even more fervor.

It seems they are genuinely considering the feasibility of this matter.

Xu Yan looked at their expressions, her eyes growing even colder.

What a shameless bunch of parasites.

"I don't have any," Ye Wei said, breaking out in a cold sweat. "How could I possibly have any money!"

"Oh?" Xu Yan didn't refute her words, but instead turned his gaze to Zhou Jingjing beside him and asked, "Is what she said true?"

Zhou Jingjing was also considering what Xu Yan had said earlier, thinking that even if Ye Wei didn't help others pay back their money, it would be fine if she only helped her pay it back. Unexpectedly, she met Xu Yan's eyes, which seemed to be smiling but not smiling.

She paused for a moment, then quickly shook her head. "It's true."

Xu Yan burst out laughing.

Ye Wei's expression grew increasingly grim.

You idiot, you didn't expect that, did you? I've read the book.

Xu Yan looked at Ye Wei's expression, which seemed to be asking her how she knew, and silently cursed in her heart.

Having spent several years as a corporate slave in another world, she had developed a good temper. She had to be patient with difficult and capricious bosses for fear of losing her job. She couldn't scold or hit two-faced colleagues for fear they would do something even worse next time. Now that she's here, she has nothing left.

What's there to be afraid of!

Let's do it!

But honestly, it feels really good to vent all the anger that's been building up inside; it feels like my soul has been purified.

The others were initially skeptical of Xu Yan's words, but after seeing the expressions on Ye Wei and Zhou Jingjing's faces, they began to believe him.

"Ye Wei, is your family really that rich?" Wang Wenwen asked tentatively.