Chapter 69 The Duck's Cry "Okay, then I'll ask your fourth cousin to go find it tonight..."

The production team was a small circle with few secrets. Not long after the new batch of educated youth arrived, the people in Tonggan Production Team spread the word that the new educated youth and Li Linshi were college classmates!

What does this mean? It means they can also make farm tools!

When they had free time, the Liu brothers came to the educated youth settlement to help repair the leaky roof, busying themselves with various tasks.

Yang Tongjie poured water for them with a thermos, his eyes welling up with tears of gratitude.

He specifically arranged to switch places with someone to come to the Tonggan production team so he could rely on Li Linshi. They were roommates in college, so it wouldn't be a problem for him to protect him for a year, right? But as soon as Yang Tongjie arrived in the countryside, he received a devastating blow: his patron was gone!

He was saddened by Li Linshi's passing, and also saddened that he had no acquaintances in the production team and worried about how difficult things would be in the future. But the villagers warmed Yang Tongjie's heart with their hospitality, like a timely rain from heaven.

Yang Tongjie thought to himself, "What a simple and lovely person they are!"

Liu Fushun picked up the cup and took the water Yang Tongjie had poured for him. "Young Yang, our production team has been clearing wasteland recently, hasn't it..."

Yang Tongjie assumed the other person wanted to chat, so he immediately nodded, "Don't worry, we're a little unaccustomed to things at first, but we'll try our best to catch up with everyone as soon as possible!"

"No, no, what I meant was, you and my fourth cousin are classmates, so you must know how to make farm tools too," Liu Fushun looked at Yang Tongjie with eager eyes, somewhat embarrassed, "Could you make us a farm tool for clearing land in the mountains?"

Useful farm tools are always welcome!

Yang Tongjie was dumbfounded, "Huh?"

For some reason, he inexplicably recalled the mountain god temple he had visited when he first came to the production team. Yang Tongjie felt that the scene at this moment was very similar to the scene he had seen people making wishes to the mountain god.

...

"Help! Help!" Yang Tongjie saw Han Yanqun returning from bathing in the river and jumped up from his chair. "The villagers need farm tools to clear land!"

Han Yanqun, drying his hair, was also taken aback.

As a result, the people in the production team who modified farm tools changed from Zhong Ying to three new educated youths.

Zhong Ying didn't mind at all that the task she used to be doing had been taken over by someone else. Her strength was ultimately limited, even with Li Linshi's help. Besides, she wanted to be the production team leader, not a technician.

Having already gained people's favor, it is reasonable for him to step down and hand over the task of modifying farm tools to more professional people.

After listening to Zhong Ying's words, Li Linshi stared at her expressionlessly, "You just don't want to bite the bullet and study those farm tools you've never touched before, right?"

Zhong Ying chuckled and stepped forward to hug his arm, saying, "You see through it but don't say it out loud."

Physical labor during the day is exhausting, and all she wants to do at night is sleep. Please, have mercy on her for staying up late to work or using her brain.

The combined strength of the three was indeed formidable. Soon, Yang Tongjie, Han Yanqun, and Yu Jing created a double-wheeled plow consisting of two plowshares. It could turn two furrows at once, plowing deeper and more efficiently than by hand, and could be pulled by oxen.

With the help of tools, before the autumn harvest in September, this 11-acre mountain gully with even worse geographical conditions was leveled into farmland by the Tonggan Production Team.

It seems that several educated youths have been completely reduced to technicians.

"Young Yang, what farm tools can you use to harvest corn?"

"Yu Zhiqing, do you know any farm tools that can be used to weed?"

"Han, young educated youth, what farm tools are useful for sowing wheat...?"

At the dining table in the educated youth settlement, all the educated youth sat around a square wooden table eating lunch.

Today it was Qiu Yucai's turn to cook. All he could do was stir-fry the vegetables and make a noodle soup. Compared to Yang Meijuan's delicious river fish soup and flatbread the day before, it was like night and day.

Everyone ate with difficulty, but didn't say much. However, Qiu Yucai still felt embarrassed. He smiled awkwardly and apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm not even very good at cooking."

“I can’t compare to you,” Qiu Yucai said, his gaze sweeping over Cheng Bin, who was sitting to his right. “You are now the production team’s scorekeeper.”

He then looked at Yang Meijuan and Chen Lina, "You two work at the team's nursery."

Qiu Yucai's gaze then fell on the three newly arrived educated youth. "You know how to make farm tools."

He lowered his eyes, raised his hand to adjust his glasses, concealing the jealousy in his eyes, "Only me, I have no skills at all, I can't even cook for everyone properly."

Seeing this, the others quickly comforted Qiu Yucai. These young people had no bad intentions, but little did they know that someone was already psychologically twisted in the shadows.

"Everyone goes through a process of going from unfamiliar to skilled; it's all about practice, so don't be discouraged..."

"It wasn't that bad, we could all eat it, right? Don't blame yourself too much..."

"You just haven't unleashed your 'light' and 'heat' yet..."

Even Yu Jing, who wasn't the closest to Qiu Yucai, comforted him, "Actually, it was Han Yanqun and Yang Tongguang who made the farm tools. That's not my major. I was just helping them out."

A glint flashed in Qiu Yu's eyes behind her glasses, and she looked up, feigning a touched expression.

Before long, people in the Tonggan production team started discussing it privately.

"The new educated youth Yu is just pretending! What a waste of all the respect we have for her. She doesn't know how to make farm tools at all. She relies entirely on the other two male educated youths who came with her to teach her!" Liu Fengshou squatted at the entrance of the village, speaking enthusiastically, spitting everywhere, his face full of contempt.

The men gathered in a group looked surprised upon hearing this.

"I always felt she wasn't a decent girl!" Lai Hunzi said with an air of "I know best." "She's always going in and out with two men. That Han educated youth clearly likes her! Yu educated youth might like another Yang educated youth. Tsk tsk, eating what's in one bowl while eyeing what's in another, this woman really knows how to do things!"

Fan Wu couldn't help but say, "So this girl is pretending to know how to modify farm tools just to avoid being lazy?"

"What do you mean by shirking responsibility? When did Yu Zhiqing ever miss a day of work? He sacrificed his rest time to help modify farm tools. What kind of shirking responsibility is that?"

A clear female voice suddenly broke into the men's conversation.

Zhong Ying rolled up her sleeves, a slight smile on her face, and said the truth in a joking manner, "Uncle Fan, what you said was a bit unethical."

Fan Wu felt embarrassed and ashamed that he had been gossiping about people behind their backs and that someone had overheard him and called him out on the spot.

Zhong Ying then looked at Lai Hunzi, still with a fake smile, "You should worry about yourself first, instead of making up rumors out of thin air. I see that the private plot behind your house has been overgrown for more than half a year. Uncle, is there enough food at home?"

The arrow pierced Lai Hunzi's heart. He glared, wanting to retort, but remembering that he had never gotten the better of Deng Xia and Zhong Ying, those two fierce women, with their sharp tongues, and that he always ended up getting angry instead of winning the argument, Lai Hunzi reluctantly shut his mouth.

When Liu Fengshou saw Zhong Ying looking at him again, his scalp tingled, but he forced himself to maintain his male pride. "What do you want? I only heard this from others. If you don't believe me, go ask Yu Zhiqing herself and see if she dares to say that she studied the same major as my fourth cousin! Don't try to lecture me just because you're my fourth cousin's wife!"

Zhong Ying readily agreed, "Okay, then I'll have your fourth cousin come find you tonight and teach you a lesson."

Standing next to her, Li Linshi couldn't help but glance at Zhong Ying, unsure whether she was telling the truth or not. Was he really going to go see Liu Fengshou that night?

Liu Fengshou knew rationally that Zhong Ying was just trying to scare him, but he still felt a chill run down his spine and forced himself to be defiant, saying, "Do you think I'm still a three-year-old? Afraid of being scared! Besides, do you think my fourth cousin will listen to you and do whatever you tell him to do?"

Li Linshi turned his head and looked at Liu Fengshou again, his gaze calm and unwavering. If Zhong Ying asked, he would really teach this disrespectful and unruly cousin a lesson tonight.

Liu Fengshou was shouting, but he felt a chill in his heart, as if a coldness had crept over him. He forced a "humph" and said, "I won't argue with a woman like you."

After saying that, he quickly stood up and left.

When Zhong Ying looked at them again, the other men who hadn't said a word scattered like sparrows.

"Where's my pipe? Hey! I forgot it in the field!"

"My husband should have finished cooking by now..."

Zhong Ying looked at the empty space in front of her, which would soon be deserted, and couldn't help but purse her lips. Who said that those who gossip at the village entrance are all old and young wives? They could also be gossipy men.

"Liu Fengshou must have heard some nonsense from someone and is spreading it around here," Zhong Ying muttered under her breath. "You and the other new educated youths are classmates, how could Yu, the educated youth, be lying to you?"

Li Linshi unexpectedly said, "Yu Jing is indeed not in the same major as me."

Zhong Ying asked in surprise, "Huh? Aren't you classmates?"

Li Linshi shook his head, "We didn't even go to the same school."

Zhong Ying blinked, only then realizing that she and the others in the production team had fallen into a misconception. All three were acquaintances of Li Linshi; Han Yanqun and Yang Tongjie were his classmates in the same major. Therefore, people easily and subconsciously assumed that these three new educated youths were all Li Linshi's classmates, and that they knew each other because they went to school together.

Li Linshi told Zhong Ying that Yu Jing was his teacher's daughter, but a teacher's daughter is not necessarily his classmate. This was Zhong Ying's habitual way of thinking.

“I misunderstood. What is Yu Jing studying—” Zhong Ying was saying when she suddenly heard a sound like a duck quacking. She stopped speaking and asked in confusion, “Was that a duck quacking?”

But nobody in the production team raises ducks.

Zhong Ying suspected she was hallucinating.

But then came an even clearer "squeak".

Zhong Ying turned around at the sound, but instead of seeing the duck, she saw her brother Zhong Xin.

"Sister," Zhong Xin called out again.

Zhong Ying suddenly realized that it wasn't a duck calling, but her brother calling her.

It's not "ga", it's "jie".

"Pfft—" Zhong Ying couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Why are you laughing like that? Have you gone through puberty?"

Zhong Ying came out to find her brother to go home for dinner, which is why she came to the place where men were gathered. Unexpectedly, she overheard them gossiping.

After Zhong Xin returned home, he heard from his mother that his sister had come looking for him, so he went to find Zhong Ying instead.

Seeing his sister unable to suppress her laughter, Zhong Xin's face and even the tips of his ears turned red. He pursed his lips, turned around and left without saying a word.

Zhong Ying followed behind him, feeling that she should take care of the teenager's self-esteem, but she couldn't help but laugh when she thought of the "duck quacking" just now.

At the dinner table, Zhong Ying even mischievously turned her head away and pretended to talk to Old Man Zhong when Zhong Xin was about to hand her a steamed bun.

Zhong Xin had no choice but to call out to her, "Sister."

Zhong Ying lowered her head, her shoulders shaking with laughter.

Deng Xia glanced at the siblings and said, "Alright, stop teasing your brother and eat!"

Even after finishing dinner, on the way back, Zhong Ying couldn't help but laugh, "I remember my brother's voice didn't sound like this when he went through puberty, hahaha..."

How come her brother Zhong Xin's voice suddenly became so rough, it's like a duck that has come to life?

Zhong Ying raised her hand to wipe away the tears she had laughed out loud, then asked with some curiosity, "Did you also have a duck come to life during your voice change?"

Li Linshi remained silent; he refused to answer.

After laughing enough, Zhong Ying remembered the topic she hadn't finished discussing earlier. "Oh right, I haven't finished asking yet, what did Yu Zhiqing study?"

Li Linshi answered this question, "If I remember correctly, she studied water conservancy engineering."

Zhong Ying stopped abruptly.

Li Linshi asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

Zhong Ying turned and left, her pace quickening until it almost turned into a jog.

Three female educated youths, having washed their clothes by the river, picked up their washbasins and headed back to their educated youth settlement.

Zhong Ying searched around and, upon spotting them, immediately ran towards them.

“Yu, the educated youth,” Zhong Ying stood in front of Yu Jing and asked her again, “What did you study in college? What was your major?”

Yu Jing was puzzled, but still answered truthfully, "I studied water conservancy engineering."

Upon receiving confirmation, Zhong Ying, her heart pounding and her hands trembling, grabbed Yu Jing's hand, which was slightly chilled by the river water, and held it tightly. "Sister!"

Yu Jing's shoulders trembled, somewhat bewildered by this more intimate term of address than "comrade".

Zhong Ying looked at Yu Jing as if she were a dazzling treasure, so much so that her own eyes became exceptionally bright. "Let's build a hydroelectric power station!"

Don't let one man stand between them affect things. Let's reject female competition and progress together!

Yang Meijuan, who was a step behind, whispered in Chen Lina's ear, "I bet Xiao Yu is going to get on the 'pirate ship' too. Zhong Ying really... I was called 'sister' by her back then, and I inexplicably followed her."

Chen Lina smiled, "Perhaps she has this magical power that makes people feel close to her and unable to refuse her."

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Author's Note: Zhong Ying (in a hungry wolf state): I want electricity, I want light!