At the frontier farm, Jiang Shengli was currently reclaiming wasteland with other labor reform prisoners, wielding a pickaxe.

Although he was doing the same work, his workload was twice that of others. If he didn't finish, it meant he wouldn't get to eat that day.

On his very first day here, Jiang Shengli offended the farm manager over a food issue.

From then on, Jiang Shengli never ate a full meal again. Even when he did the hardest and most tiring work on the farm, he could only eat half a meal at most, barely enough to keep himself from starving to death.

Ten years!

That must have taken countless days and nights; given Jiang Shengli's character, he must have suffered a great deal.

Every minute of this was torture for him. His former arrogance, recklessness, and disdain for others were all worn down in every minute of these ten years until nothing was left.

I wonder if he will be able to leave this labor camp alive ten years from now!

Every morning, all the workers would gather at the threshing ground of the Progressive Brigade.

"Unite and strive forward, work hard and make progress, be down-to-earth and enjoy labor!"

As soon as Li Tiejun appeared, everyone shouted slogans in unison. Only after the slogans were finished did the official proceedings begin.

After reciting two quotes from the Chairman, the group began to assign tasks for the day.

In the production brigade, children under the age of six were not allowed to participate in labor.

Children aged six to ten can do small chores, such as cutting pig feed or picking up cow dung, earning one to three work points.

Children aged ten to fifteen can get out of bed and help out.

However, the daily tasks cannot exceed five work points, which is another form of protection for minors.

In rural areas, people are generally considered adults at seventeen or eighteen. Those from well-off families usually start looking for partners around seventeen and can get married at eighteen.

If you're over twenty and still not married, people will start gossiping. If you're over twenty-two and still not married, you're considered an old maid.

Of course, these all apply to native villagers, excluding educated youth.

After all, the age of the educated youth sent to the countryside was basically seventeen or eighteen, although some were slightly older, but no more than twenty.

The educated youth came from the city, and unless there was a special reason or purpose, they were generally unwilling to marry into the village.

Of course, the villagers were not very willing to marry an educated youth as their daughter-in-law, or to let their daughters marry an educated youth.

Although most of the educated youth were well-educated, came from the city, and had seen the world, rural people valued practicality.

Nowadays, the educated youth who have come here also rely on work points for food, just like them, so there is not much difference.

On the contrary, many of the educated youth were reluctant to do anything and were physically weak. They earned less work points than an old woman in the countryside, so they were naturally looked down upon.

Of course, a few educated youth were quite efficient at their work and were able to adapt to the environment quickly, earning full work points. However, they were a minority, and a very small minority at that.

After studying the two long passages of quotations, everyone lined up to go to the warehouse to collect the tools they needed for work.

The six newly arrived educated youth, including Jiang Xile, were naturally assigned to the same group of educated youth, with older members mentoring newer ones, men mentoring men, and women mentoring women. This was to avoid any unnecessary trouble.

Jiang Xile was assigned to Su Jinxiu's group, and her initial impression of Su Jinxiu was quite good.

Today's task is to weed. Since they are new employees, they were only assigned five work points on their first day of work, and they just need to finish it before dark.

Jiang Xile noticed that Su Jinxiu was assigned a task worth eight work points. Seeing how the others seemed to take it for granted, she could tell what Su Jinxiu's previous work routine was like.

Each person received a hoe, and Jiang Xile took out the gloves she had prepared from her pocket. These gloves were not commonly available now, as they required a ticket to purchase them.

At the very least, only a few people in the educated youth settlement could afford this thing.

"Wow, you've done a great job preparing!"

Su Jinxiu looked at Jiang Xile teasingly and said.

"Sister Jinxiu, you're joking. I just happened to have some tickets, so I bought two sets just in case. I didn't expect them to come in handy."

Su Jinxiu nodded.

"Even if you're wearing gloves, be careful. There's an adjustment period at first, so don't push yourself. Take it one step at a time!"

"I understand, thank you for your reminder, Sister Jinxiu!"

Walking along the edge of the field, the two arrived at the mission site one after the other. The surrounding area was full of comrades from the educated youth settlement, and everyone was assigned to the same area.

As for the villagers, they were naturally assigned to the other side because conflicts had occurred between the educated youth and the villagers when they worked together before.

Later, in order to facilitate management and to better distinguish responsibilities, the brigade leader made this arrangement, and it has been like this for the past two or three years.

"Your task area starts from the eighth row on the east side. There are five rows in total. If you finish early, you can leave work early."

However, before leaving, the scorekeeper must come and check to confirm there are no problems and record the work points before you can leave.

Jiang Xile listened attentively to every word Su Jinxiu said, because it concerned her future food supply. Although she didn't lack these things, they were still the fruits of her labor, so she naturally had to take them seriously.

"I understand, Sister Jinxiu, it's one work point per row!"

"That's how it is for now. Weeding isn't heavy work, but it's a bit tiring on the back. Let me demonstrate for you first, so watch carefully."

"Um!"

Under Su Jinxiu's careful guidance, Jiang Xile quickly learned to distinguish between weeds and rice seedlings.

At first, because I wasn't very skilled, my movements were a little clumsy, but after finishing one row, my speed started to increase.

However, this ridge is actually quite long. Two ridges make up one acre, so this ridge is about 800 meters long.

At Jiang Xile's current pace, she'll probably finish these five rows by the afternoon. Even though she's very strong, she can't keep up with bending over all the time!

After finishing each row, he needed to rest for a while to recover, but of course, Jiang Xile was still fast.

Looking back at Zhou Caixia and Li Xiaojuan, who were not far from her, she realized that although they were used to doing chores at home, there was a big difference between housework and farm work.

Jiang Xile's second row is already dry, while the other two have only gone halfway through their first row. At their current pace, they probably won't finish before dark.

Before she knew it, the morning had passed, and her clothes were soaked with sweat. As the work bell rang, Jiang Xile had just finished the third row.

The fourth row on Su Jinxiu's side has also been completed.