Chen Hong hesitated at the thought of writing an IOU. She glanced around, but there was no one she could consult. Her intuition told her something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"If you don't want to write it, that's fine. But you can pay me back right now, in front of the whole village. Then we'll be even."

Compared to repaying a debt, writing an IOU is obviously easier. Chen Hong looked at the black Hero fountain pen, reached out her hand, and then clenched it again.

Xu Keke readily agreed and reached out to take the paper and pen back. Her quick action made Chen Hong hesitate, and she quickly reached out to stop her.

"It's not like you're paying back money, it's just an IOU and you're dragging your feet. It seems like you don't want to pay it back."

"Seriously, if you can't even get a proper loan, it's no wonder you'll have to pay back the money so easily."

Chen Hong was a woman of pride. She had overheard what the villagers outside were saying. Feeling wronged, she lowered her head, picked up her pen, and wrote an IOU on the letter paper.

She had just finished writing when she heard Gao Zhe calling from outside, "Chen Hong!"

Before Chen Hong could even look up, Xu Keke had already taken the stack of letters into her hands.

Gao Zhe, accompanied by Gao Jie and Xiao Han, pushed through the crowd and strode in.

"Bai Lu, what do you mean? Why can't we educated youth resolve our own problems? What do you mean by inciting the villagers to bully our own people?"

Xu Keke carefully tore the IOU from the letter paper, folded it meticulously, glanced up at him, and said, "Gao Zhe, what do you mean by 'one of us'? I've always considered myself a member of the working people. If you want to stand on the opposite side of the people, then go ahead, but don't drag me into it."

“You…” Gao Zhe pointed at her angrily.

"Also, stop acting like everyone's after you. Who do you think you are? These people are just too reasonable and don't want to argue with you. If they really wanted to, they could put a sack over your head and beat you up at night, and you wouldn't even know who did it. You even went to the commune to cause trouble. Do you believe it? They could cripple you and you wouldn't even know who did it."

Gao Zhe's hands were already trembling with anger.

"Also, stop speaking on behalf of the educated youth every day. We're different. I'm an educated youth, and I came to this vast countryside voluntarily, following the country's arrangements. I've asked myself honestly, the villagers of Chenjia Village haven't treated me badly. Compared to educated youth in other places, both the brigade and the villagers have taken good care of us. They didn't give us the easiest jobs, but they didn't use us for the hardest and most tiring ones either. When it came to distributing grain and calculating work points, we were treated the same as all the villagers, and no one mistreated us. To put it bluntly, if they really treated you badly, would you have been making a scene and demanding that your sister be transferred here?"

Damn it, finally someone's speaking up for us. Chen Jianguo's gaze towards Xu Keke changed.

"Gao Zhe, let me give you a piece of advice: while people still treat you like a human being, just act like one."

Xu Keke's words made Gao Zhe's face turn red and white, and his outstretched fingers clenched into fists and fell down.

"Chen Hong, what's wrong? Why are you crying? Didn't you ask the brigade leader to help you?" Gao Jie hurried over to Chen Hong's side, her eyes full of concern. "We rushed over as soon as we finished work. We're not late, are we?"

Chen Hong, “…”, felt as if it was already too late.

“Chen Hong borrowed a hundred yuan from me, and I made her write an IOU. Is that what you’re talking about? The IOU has already been signed.” Xu Keke said to Gao Jie with a smug look, waving the folded square in her hand.

"But this isn't over yet, Chen Hong. How do you plan to repay this money?"

"Why do I have to pay it back? Didn't you say I didn't have to?" Chen Hong stared wide-eyed in surprise.

The villagers outside stirred. A hundred yuan wasn't returned. These days, you have to remember to pay back even a penny you borrow. That was a loan given out of kindness.

In the eyes of these villagers, of the four educated youths who came to the village, Bai Lu was previously quiet and unsociable. Gao Jie was beautiful and dressed fashionably, and with her brother, the villagers kept their distance, no one daring to approach her. Wu Wanyi looked formidable and spoke sharply; everyone knew she was difficult to get along with. Only Chen Hong, although also from the city, always spoke gently and softly. Occasionally, she would ask the villagers for small favors, and over time, the villagers all liked her quite a bit.

If you were never good to begin with, and then suddenly become good, others might not notice. But if you've always been good, and then suddenly change in a way that everyone expected, then people's reactions will be much stronger.

The villagers never expected that someone they considered such a good person could have such a bad character. They started gossiping about it outside the village.

Xu Keke: "Borrowing money and paying it back is a matter of course, isn't it? What do you mean you don't have to pay it back? There are so many people watching, when did I ever say you don't have to pay it back? If you don't have to pay it back, why write an IOU?"

Chen Hong was dumbfounded. She knew writing this IOU was wrong; it was all Gao Zhe and the others' fault for insisting she come first, saying they would arrive later and help her. Now look what's happened.

"Captain, you heard that too, right? Didn't she just say she didn't want the money? She said she wouldn't take it as long as she wrote an IOU, right?"

Chen Hong grabbed Chen Jianguo's sleeve and looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"No, I didn't hear Bai Zhiqing say that. You misunderstood." Chen Jianguo removed Chen Hong's hand from his arm and looked at Xu Keke, hoping she might know that he was on her side.

Xu Keke didn't care at all. What Chen Jianguo said made no difference to her. If he dared to say he heard it, she could accuse him of favoring Chen Hong. She wasn't worried at all.

"This isn't a small amount; no one's a fool to give it up," Chen Baocai shouted from the crowd. Xu Keke had said that if they got the money back, they would spend it on their family.

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