A woman with sharp ears stood up holding a half-sewn piece of clothing and said, "Oh, the captain and his men are back. I heard the sound of iron lumps rattling."

Upon hearing this, the others also stood up and tiptoed to look forward, but saw nothing.

"That's impossible. In previous years, we were considered early if we could get back before dark. It's only afternoon now and the sun is still shining directly overhead." Her husband went with her to pay the grain tax every year, and sometimes he would not return until the next afternoon.

The woman with sharp ears retorted, "If you don't believe me, forget it. If I lie to you, can I get an extra two kilograms of food?"

Not long after, the rumbling sounds became louder and louder. Everyone ran out from under the banyan tree regardless of the scorching sun. They saw Gu Anxi coming back driving a tractor, and their husband was standing on the truck bed with his mouth grinning from ear to ear.

"You're back, everyone's back. I have to go and take a look." A woman who asked her husband to buy some brown sugar trotted over with a basket.

Gu Aiguo shouted loudly, "Don't block the way, stay away." These old women are too rude. They have only been separated for a short time and they are already so impatient.

Fortunately, those women didn’t know what Gu Aiguo was thinking, otherwise they would have spit in his face.

Before the tractor could stop, the women rushed forward.

"Dad, did you buy the brown sugar?"

"Master, have you bought the needle and thread I asked for?"

"Did you buy the cloth I asked you to buy?"

…

Gu Aiguo walked out of the crowd, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and weighed the half pound of brown sugar in his arms. Well, he had to go home quickly and give the brown sugar to Xiaowu's mother.

"Captain, when are we going to distribute the food? The rice jar at home has been empty for a long time. If you don't distribute the food, I will bring my whole family to your house for dinner."

Gu Aiguo waved his hand as he walked back, "I'll give everyone two days off. You don't have to work during these two days. The brigade will distribute some food in three days."

The brigade cadres, especially the accountants and scorekeepers, had to spend time calculating everyone's work points and food rations.

The grain from the brigade was not something that could be distributed immediately. The best grain had to be kept for seeds first (well, the grain for the next crop had already been planted), and then the sacred public duty of paying the public grain was fulfilled (this was also completed today).

Another thing is to set aside reserve grain and feed grain (this is to prevent any natural disasters or man-made disasters and to leave enough food for the team's livestock), and then the remaining food will be distributed according to the ratio of seven to three for people.

The saying "seven points for each person, three points for each labor" can be simply described as taking out seven points out of ten points of grain and distributing them equally among people, and the remaining three points are distributed according to work points.

Because the scorers of Huaihua Brigade were changed again and again, when calculating the work points, not only all the brigade cadres were present, but Gu Linger and the old scorer were also present. Gu Annan followed behind the old scorer.

While Gu Ling'er was studying at Shengli Primary School and during the double harvest season, Gu Aiguo asked the old scorer to come out and take on the position of scorer again.

But the old scorer is really old, and he is unable to do what he has done now.

The old scorekeeper turned his shoulders 360 degrees, making a crackling sound as he moved. "Once the rations are distributed to the team, I'll have to quickly select a new scorekeeper. My old bones can't do it anymore."

Gu Aiguo said, "Well, please work for two more days. Once the food is distributed, we will make arrangements immediately."

The old scorer glanced at Gu Annan and said, "I think the scorer standard can be lowered a bit. Elementary school graduates are also acceptable. Few of the young people in our team have graduated from junior high school."

The old scorer naturally knew why Gu Annan had been busy with him all this time regardless of the hard work. Anyway, the boy who graduated from junior high school in his family had already found a job in the commune, and the relaxation of the examination conditions would not have much impact on his family, so he simply did a favor.

That's right. Liang Xiaoman has gone to the county, Gu Ling'er and Liu Da have become primary school teachers, and the boy from the old scorer's family, I heard, got a job in the commune through connections. If you calculate it this way, there are really not two people who graduated from junior high school.

Gu Annan looked at the old scorer with gratitude, thinking that all the time he had been busy following the old scorer was worth it. Then Gu Annan looked at his father expectantly.

Gu Aiguo seemed not to notice his second son's gaze. He glanced at the other cadres and asked, "What do you think?"

Gu Geming, Accountant Liu and the director of women's affairs looked at each other and said, "I think it's a good suggestion." Who doesn't have one or two children who graduated from elementary school in their family?

Seeing everyone raise their hands in agreement, Gu Aiguo nodded, "Alright, then I'll relax the requirement until you've graduated from elementary school. Let's finish the work at hand first. Then I'll go to the commune and ask the leaders for a math test."

Gu Annan was trembling all over with excitement. He had been busy following the old scorer for a while and it was not in vain. When he was in school, he failed to pass the junior high school entrance examination not because of his poor math grades, but because of his poor Chinese grades. He would fall asleep as soon as he opened the Chinese textbook.

During this period, he first worked hard to finish his work, and then followed the old scorer to help him, picking up most of the knowledge he had learned before. As long as it was a fair exam, he was very confident that he could succeed.

In order to become a scorer, Gu Annan took every risk and borrowed math textbooks for grades one to six from Gu Linger, reading and doing exercises day and night.

Whenever I encounter something I don’t understand, I will ask Gu Linger. Sometimes, I even scare Gu Linger with my questions.

Seeing her second son so motivated, Liu Jinhua was both happy and distressed. "You little brat, if you had this much drive to study when you were little, you would be working in a cannery like your older brother by now."

Gu Annan smiled awkwardly. Didn't he not know the benefits of studying before? It was too late to know later.

H Province Provincial Hospital.

Huang Hongquan was helping his apprentice pack his things. "Rest for a while, I'll go get you discharged."

It's good to be young. After two days of observation in the hospital, Huang Hongquan found that Gu Anyang was fine except for shoulder pain.

The parents and grandparents of that gang of thugs made a scene at the Public Security Bureau for a few days, but when they saw that there was no effect, they came to their senses and went to the hospital to make a scene.

They have to leave quickly, otherwise they won't be able to leave even if they want to.

Gu Anyang touched his head and said, "Okay, thank you, Master. You have worked hard."

What Huang Hongquan could think of, Gu Anyang could certainly think of as well. He himself grew up in the countryside, so he naturally knew the methods these people used, such as crying, making a fuss, and even threatening to hang themselves.

Huang Hongquan returned to the ward a short while later and picked up his luggage. "The formalities are complete, let's go."

Huang Hongquan took Gu Anyang and quickly left the hospital through the back door. He had just seen several old women asking the doctor about the people who had been hospitalized two days ago.

When the old women arrived at Gu Anyang's ward, it was empty. Their crying and shouting at the door was of no avail.

Huang Hongquan drove slowly all the way back to Nanshi, and the Huaihua Brigade also began to officially distribute grain.