Chapter 48 I was bullied

Molly thought they had arrived early enough, but she didn't expect there to be others even earlier; several neighboring teams had already arrived.

"Old Zhao, how many head of cattle are you planning to raise this year?" The captain of the neighboring brigade came over to greet him.

The commune gate was not open, and everyone chatted and probed each other outside.

Zhao Weiguo shook his head, "Let's take a look at the piglet first, and then decide."

Molly silently observed her toes. On the way here, the captain and the accountant had already agreed to raise eight animals.

"We should take a look first and see if the piglets are any good. If they are a good breed, raising more would be fine."

"We can't afford to raise too many." This is Zhao Weiguo's honest opinion. "There isn't enough grain to feed people, and pig feed takes time to grow. If pigs eat too much, it's better to set a suitable number and raise them to be big and fat so that we can get more fat meat at the end of the year than to raise too many pigs that are not well raised."

"What you said makes sense."

"......."

In the crowd, one gaze swept over Molly no less than twenty times. Molly turned her head and saw Mo Weimin's face from the Mo family brigade. Molly smiled shyly at him and nodded, "Uncle Weimin."

"You are... Molly?" Mo Weimin was not quite sure.

"It's me. Long time no see, Uncle Weimin." Mo Weimin had shown kindness to Mo Li before. He genuinely felt sorry for Mo Li and her two siblings, but his abilities were limited, and there was only so much he could do to help.

"You've grown so tall! You've gained weight, gotten fairer, and become even more beautiful," Mo Weimin exclaimed. "It seems the three of you sisters are doing well in Xiaonan Village."

“It’s good,” Molly said. He then asked, “How’s my home?”

"It's all good." Mo Weimin sighed. "Mo Zhong got married, and your family is even more lively than before. Mo Liang has lost weight and gotten darker. Your father has blamed your stepmother a lot for this, blaming her for not raising Mo Liang properly. Your stepmother says outside that you children are unfilial, that you died outside and didn't come home to see your father. But no one in the village listens to her. Everyone in the village knows that you three siblings were driven away. Your eldest brother and his wife are lazy and good-for-nothing, only earning five cents a day. Your family still has to rely on your father, so life is just so-so. There's a small argument every two days and a big argument every three days. You siblings shouldn't come back; you'll only cause trouble for nothing."

Molly nodded in agreement, “No, we won’t go back. If we live our own lives well, my mom will be at ease. It’s just that my younger brother’s household registration is still in Mojia Village. When he grows up, I want him to go back to Mojia Village to build a house and live there.”

“That’s no problem at all. I’ll approve the land for him when the time comes.” Mo Weimin agreed readily. “We are of the same lineage and share the same blood. Even if we’re outside, we should remember that we are from Mo Family Village.”

Molly obediently agreed, "I will tell Xiao An what you said."

Before long, the commune gate opened, and everyone rushed in.

Aunt Fang grabbed Molly's hand and led her toward the pigpens. As they walked, she instructed Molly, "I'll come and choose in a bit. I'll take the pigs out, and you put them in the cages and stay there so they don't run away."

Molly readily agreed. She had a cheat code for raising pigs, while Aunt Fang had gained experience through real trial and error. There was still a lot for her to learn.

Today it's the communes that are making purchases; tomorrow it will be the individual members' purchases.

Molly was in charge of watching over the piglets that Aunt Fang, the team leader, and the accountant brought over. Before long, there were six piglets in front of her, stuffed into a pig cage, grunting and squealing.

They originally planned to raise eight pigs, but on the last trip out of the pigsty, the team leader, the accountant, and Aunt Fang each carried a pig, making a total of nine.

"One more is fine too," the captain said.

Next came the weighing, filling out forms, signing, paying, and finally leaving with the piglet.

Molly had never been to the pigsty, only knew its approximate location.

While returning the piglets to their pen, she took the opportunity to familiarize herself with the area.

“There are two pigsties, and this is the stove. These two large aluminum pots are used to cook pig feed,” Aunt Fang and Molly explained. “Our daily work is to cut pig feed, cook pig feed, feed the pigs, and clean the pigsties. The pig feed is collected by the elderly and children of the brigade. A full basket of pig feed is worth one work point, and we are in charge of recording the work points.”

Molly silently noted it down, her eyes scanning her surroundings. In front of the pigsty were farmlands, to the left was a road, and to the right and behind were boulders and weeds. There were so many stones, large and small, some with very sharp edges, making one's heart tremble.

No wonder this land has been abandoned.

Otherwise, with so many rocks, it would be almost impossible to clear the land by manpower alone.

"Aunt Fang, I'd like to plant some sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and winter melons behind here to feed the pigs. Do you think that's feasible?" Molly asked.

Aunt Fang paused for a moment, turned her head to look, and hesitated. "There are stones over there, and some soil in the cracks between the stones, but weeds and saplings have grown there. It would be very difficult to clean them up. Do you have the time?"

Clearing land is tiring and causes a lot of wear and tear on tools, especially in places like this, so everyone would rather the tools be worn out.

"I'll give it a try." Even with her as a source of contamination, it's not easy for pigs to grow very big and fast just on pig feed. They still need some supplementary food; sweet potatoes and pumpkins would be good choices, as they are high-yielding.

"Go and talk to the captain first, otherwise clearing land without permission is a crime," Aunt Fang reminded Molly.

Molly nodded. "I'll go right away."

Aunt Fang added, "I'm busy at home and don't have time to help you clear the land. You'll have to do it yourself."

Molly nodded again. "I know. I'll do a little bit every day, it won't interfere with feeding the pigs."

Molly went to the brigade leader to discuss the land reclamation. The brigade leader and the accountant were looking at the nine piglets when they heard Molly's words and were both taken aback.

“There are rocks on the right and behind. When we built the pigsty, we could only dig down half a meter before we couldn’t dig any further. The bottom is also rocks. It’s not worth clearing this land.” The brigade leader refused.

The accountant also said, "Next, we need to plant rice seedlings, but we can't find anyone to help you clear the land. Besides, the farm tools used by the brigade are precious; we can't possibly use them to hoe these stones."

“I know. I won’t ask anyone else; I’ll do it myself. I plan to plant some sweet potatoes and pumpkins, which don’t require much soil,” Molly said. “If I succeed in growing them, the pigs in the brigade will have a better diet.”

Zhao Weiguo noticed that the girl's eyes were bright and sparkling, and he didn't refuse. "Alright, if you want to do something, go ahead. But let me make this clear: even though this land is all rock, it still belongs to the production team. The grain you grow on it belongs to the production team, not you personally, understand?"

“Understood. I have sweet potato vines at home, but we’re out of pumpkin seeds. Captain, could you go and find me some?” Molly said with a smile.

"Okay. I'll find it for you. Besides pumpkin seeds, what else do you need?"

"Winter melon, loofah, gourd, snake gourd, anything will do. Also, if we have taro, I'd like to try planting it too."

"You have quite the heart."

"Hehe, take whatever you want, I'm not picky."

Molly also felt that she wasn't picky, but when she went to the commune the next day and the cadre refused to let her choose piglets, her face darkened. "What do you mean by this?"

"Oh dear, little girl, don't be angry. I just asked you to go upstairs for some tea, why are you getting so worked up?" Zhang, the clerk, cursed inwardly. What was the boss doing? Wasn't this bullying a young girl? But he couldn't disobey his boss's orders.

"I don't want tea, I just want to go downstairs and choose a piglet," Molly said, turning to leave.

"Wait a minute." Officer Zhang called out to the person, "No rush, no rush, have some candy and cookies first. This is White Rabbit milk candy, it's on me."

Molly could only sit down again, looking at the candy and cookies on the plate on the table, her face still grim. "If you don't let me downstairs now, other people will take the good ones, and you'll just push the rest of the mediocre ones onto me?"

Zhang's face stiffened, his eyes filled with guilt. He dared not look Molly in the eye and said without much confidence, "How can they be considered ugly? They are all good piglets, carefully selected and transported back by the commune."

“In that case, I’ll go down now.” Molly made a move to get up.

"No, sit a little longer." Zhang pushed the teacup towards Molly. "Actually, there's something else I need to do."

Molly straightened up. "I'm all ears."

"A piglet weighs around thirty pounds. According to the commune's debt to you, the commune should give you ten piglets, which far exceeds the regulations. A commune member can only raise a maximum of two pigs, do you know that?"

"have no idea."

"Now you know."

"You didn't mention this when you made the promise."

"It's not too late to bring it up now."

“There are two people in my family, my brother and me, and together we can raise four pigs. Plus, there are losses from raising pigs, so it’s normal for a few to die. So, all things considered, it’s not impossible for me to take ten back.” Molly didn’t think there was anything wrong with her calculations.

Officer Zhang's mouth twitched, and he said helplessly, "That really won't do. So many eyes are watching, we can't dare to do such a thing."

Molly was furious. She slammed the signed form on the table. "It's right here in black and white. Are you trying to renege on your promise?"

"The rules are there, we have no choice, there's nothing we can do." Officer Zhang wasn't nervous at all. "We can give you money and tickets."

Molly narrowed her eyes. "It really won't work."

Officer Zhang gritted his teeth and said, "No, I can only let you raise four at most."

Molly was angry, but she knew she had no choice but to accept her fate. "I want the money, and I want the tickets too. I only want cloth tickets and industrial tickets."

"We don't have that many cloth coupons and industrial coupons, but I'll give you some grain coupons." Zhang, the clerk, breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that they could negotiate; otherwise, if word got out that they were oppressing the rural areas, things would be difficult to handle.

Molly rolled her eyes, and right in front of Zhang, stuffed all the White Rabbit candies and cookies from the plate into her pocket, leaving none behind. "There's no one downstairs anymore, can I go down now?"

Officer Zhang looked at the CD, speechless. "Alright, you can go now."

The two went downstairs together. At this time, there were only five shriveled piglets left in the pigpen, which looked to weigh just over 20 pounds.

Molly glared at Zhang, the clerk, and said, "You have a really black heart."

Officer Zhang: "..."

Unable to refute it, he admitted it.

Molly grabbed four at random and said to Zhang, "Weigh them."

"Why don't you take the other one too?" Officer Zhang said with a fawning smile.

Molly sneered, "Didn't you just say I could only keep a maximum of four?"

"It's all gone, how pitiful. Don't you agree?" Officer Zhang's smile became even more obsequious.

“I want the industrial version,” Molly said, seizing the opportunity to make her request.

"I can only give you twelve at most, I don't have any more than that." Officer Zhang looked heartbroken.

"OK."

Molly picked five piglets to take home. On her back, she also carried a thermos, a sickle, five pounds of flour and ten pounds of rice. In her pocket were one hundred and fifty yuan, White Rabbit milk candy and two boxes of biscuits.