Chapter 9 Slacking off at the threshing floor is no good, someone's watching; being diligent isn't good either...

Each production team has a threshing ground that is large enough. All the harvested crops are taken to the threshing ground for threshing. After processing, part of the grain is handed over according to the proportion of cultivated land area, part is kept as seeds and feed, and the rest is distributed as rations to the members of the production team.

The threshing ground of the Tonggan production team was located at the entrance of the village, next to the village school, adjacent to the livestock shed where the production team raised pigs, cattle and donkeys, and beyond that were the fields of crops along the river.

When Zhong Ying arrived with the big black dog, there were already several people in the threshing ground. She quickly let Hongtang play by the side of the threshing ground while she hurriedly walked into the crowd.

Liu Qiang was a tall, robust, dark-skinned middle-aged man. It was said that his ancestors had the blood of foreign servants, which was why he was taller than average. Even his sister, Liu Hongyan, was tall. All three sons and one daughter he bore for the Li family were tall.

Liu Qiang looked at the row of people standing in front of him and felt a headache coming on.

If it weren't for the fact that the production team leader was his brother-in-law, and Li Ming had personally asked him for help, Liu Qiang wouldn't have wanted to take on the responsibility of being the "head" of the threshing ground.

Look at the people in front of him.

My aunt is almost seventy years old, and most of her hair is white. How could I let her do any heavy work?

Nie Jinlong's mother, Hu Datong, got her nickname because she loved to gossip. Even in such a short time, she couldn't stop, pulling her wife Lin Shuhong and Fan Wu's Nie Ying together to whisper and chatter.

Lai Hunzi can be summed up in one word: "hun" (meaning lazy or irresponsible). He was always dawdling in the fields, which is why Captain Li sent him to the threshing ground.

Zhong Lao Er's son, Zhong Xiao Er, and Zhong Xiao Er all lived in the same village, so everyone knew each other. Liu Qiang had watched all the children grow up. Zhong Ying, this daughter, was spoiled rotten by her parents. She was only willing to contribute six out of ten parts of the effort.

And those two female educated youths, well, that's all for naught.

With a serious expression and a tense face, he called out to Yang Meijuan. She had the attitude to work, but she had absolutely no ability to do the work.

The fair-skinned, thin girl named Chen Na was someone who always said, "Big brother, I don't know how to do this, can you help me?"

Looking at the "soldiers" assigned to him, Liu Qiang felt even more troubled than when dealing with his five sons and Sai Xiaozi's daughter.

He longs to go back to the fields and work; all his strength should be dedicated to the land, not left here helpless.

Liu Qiang couldn't help but glare at Lai Hunzi, recalling the nonsense this man had spouted at his nephew's funeral. How could he not have contributed to his brother-in-law's family? He had gone to such lengths!

Reluctantly taking on the job, Liu Qiang, with a stern face and a loud voice, assigned tasks: "Today, the main task is to remove the excess wheat stalks from the crops on the threshing floor, and then we'll 'pluck the grains.' Lai Hunzi, you come and cut the wheat stalks with me, and the other women will pluck the grains."

Lai Hunzi let out a reluctant groan.

Liu Qiang glared at him. "What are you 'huh' about? You're a grown man, do you expect to do women's work? Come here right now, I'm working with you to keep an eye on you!"

Lai Hunzi could only go to work with a long face. If he could, he would of course want to do the women's work. The wheat stalks had to be chopped in half with a chaff cutter, leaving the part with the wheat ears. The remaining wheat stalks were usually distributed to the commune members for firewood. Using the chaff cutter required a lot of strength. Some thick wheat stalks even required a strong laborer to stand on tiptoe and press down with his whole body weight, and then chop them down several times.

Liu Qiang dragged Lai Hunzi off to do the hard work, but he didn't forget to give the remaining women a few words of advice: "I won't be watching you work, but don't let any of you keep thinking about the chickens or kids at home and sneak back halfway. If I catch you, I'll wipe out your work points for the whole day!"

Several women quickly offered their own explanations, one after another.

"No way! We'll keep an eye on each other and we definitely won't do anything like that!"

"Exactly, exactly. Just wait and see how much we've accomplished."

"Yes, who isn't worried about the grain? We need to winnow the wheat and store it in the granary as soon as possible. If we delay and it rains, all our hard work will be for nothing. We're not incapable of distinguishing between good and bad grains..."

Only then did Liu Qiang feel at ease handing over the task of harvesting the grains to the women.

The job of pruning grains is cutting wheat ears. Women can sit on the stalks of grain, hold a handful of grains in their left hand, and hold a small knife between their right thumb and forefinger. Once they master the technique and become skilled, they can quickly cut off the ears of grain.

Zhong Ying had previously worked in rice harvesting. Recalling the techniques from her memory, she quickly went from being a little rusty to being able to do it, although she was still some distance from being proficient.

An elderly woman whom Zhong Ying should call Third Aunt, and Liu Qiang's wife, Lin Shuhong, were teaching two female educated youths what to do.

Bundles of chopped wheat stalks were moved over, the sun rose higher and higher, time passed slowly, and more and more ears of wheat were chopped.

When people do repetitive physical labor for a long time, they inevitably get bored and lose focus. They might have been confidently asking around about old habits, but then they start chatting with the women on either side about everyday matters, getting more and more excited as they talk, and naturally their work speed slows down.

My third aunt is getting old, and she's tired from working for so long, so her movements have slowed down.

The two female educated youths struggled and never got to work quickly.

Without anyone watching, the spontaneous drive gradually disappeared, and the initial enthusiasm on the threshing ground turned into slackness over time.

Only Zhong Ying knew that it wasn't that no one was watching, or to be precise, it wasn't that no ghost was watching.

Zhong Ying stopped what she was doing and looked up. Her gaze met the other person's. Under a willow tree by the river, a ghostly figure stood silently. His pale, handsome face was expressionless, but he stared at the threshing ground with a chilling gaze, as if he were staring at prey.

Even being stared at coldly like that would make one feel uneasy, let alone a real ghost. Zhong Ying's palms were sweating profusely from his gaze, and she stiffly chopped the wheat in her hand, almost cutting her hand several times.

But after a while, the ghost didn't come forward to claim her life. Zhong Ying couldn't figure out if it was trying to play the cat-and-mouse game, wanting to play with its prey until it was half dead before killing it, or if it wanted to scare her with its eerie, shadowy presence, making her scare herself half to death.

Zhong Ying wasn't that deadbeat, so she didn't know what he was thinking.

Even now, with everyone else slacking off, Zhong Ying's movements became hesitant. She glanced at the ghost on the riverbank. Given the original owner's personality, she would naturally slack off like everyone else at times like this. But Zhong Ying had told the ghost she wasn't the original owner, so it was best to do the opposite—the more diligent, the better. But then another problem arose: with so many people in the threshing ground, wouldn't her sudden change in behavior and increased diligence arouse suspicion?

Being lazy is no good, or someone will be watching; being diligent is no good either, or people will become suspicious.

When all her efforts seemed to fail, Zhong Ying decided to give up and do whatever she wanted.

She has already spent twenty-seven years cautiously trying to meet other people's expectations. There's no need for her to maintain her persona or show her difference from the original owner in front of the vengeful ghost just because she's been given a second chance at life. She's just doing things for the sake of doing things.

After the event started, Zhong Ying felt lighter and lighter. Once she stopped caring about the invisible burdens she carried, they could no longer weigh her down so heavily.

The big black dog was chasing a small flying insect on the grass not too far away. Regardless of what the ghost was thinking, since he wasn't coming over now, Zhong Ying calmed down. Even if she really didn't have many more days to live, at least in the limited time she had, she didn't want to live in fear and trembling. She would follow her heart.

Unlike others who slacked off, and without forcing herself to be diligent, Zhong Ying maintained her own pace, continuing to do her work at a moderate speed.

Liu Qiang came over carrying a large stack of wheat straw, but when he saw everyone's expression, he frowned and shouted angrily, "What are you doing if you're not working? Stop asking questions! You're just stirring things up and making trouble for others, delaying their work!"

Hu Da Ting curled his lip and muttered, "It takes two to tango. I can say whatever I want, but others might not listen. Just talk about me..."

Upon hearing this, Liu Qiang agreed, and then proceeded to give each person a thorough critique.

Everyone stood beside the fruits of their labor from the morning, as if being called on by a teacher, to be inspected by the supervisor.

Liu Qiang frowned. "Hu Dating, look at you all morning! You haven't even processed as much wheat as your third aunt. She's almost seventy, and you're only in your early fifties. Don't you feel ashamed?!"

"I understand that you two educated youths came from the city and had never done farm work before, but you came to the countryside to help us build up our rural areas, not to hold us back. I hope you can both make some progress this afternoon and tomorrow..."

Everyone remained quiet and obediently accepted the criticism.

Zhong Ying stood quietly, waiting for Liu Qiang to come over and check. She glanced around casually and suddenly saw two strange figures appear on the dirt road at the village entrance.

A man dressed in a black Zhongshan suit, looking every bit the respectable intellectual of the time, but with a rough bull's head on his neck, eyes as big as copper bells, and two curved bull horns on his head, the tips of which looked like sharp weapons.

Another farmer was dressed exactly like the ones in the fields, wearing a button-down cloth jacket, but instead of the dirt-resistant blue or gray, it was white, a color no one would wear. Combined with the horse head on his neck, he looked eerie and terrifying.

The two inhuman figures were carrying an iron chain in one hand and a plain-colored notebook in the other.

The moment Zhong Ying saw them clearly, she guessed their identities. She subconsciously took a step back and wanted to turn around and run away. After all, just as she had told Li Lin, as a ghost who had "borrowed a body to return to life," how could she not be flustered when she saw Ox-Head and Horse-Face?

However, after taking a step back, Zhong Ying quickly regained control of her foot, which was trying to escape.

Just like those police and gangster movies she'd seen in modern times, running away at the sight of the police is no different from confessing without being hit, so she can't run. She's a human now, and there are ghosts around in the Tonggan Production Team; maybe they're not here to arrest her.

Zhong Ying suppressed her wildly beating heart and tried to calm herself down, pretending not to see the two ox-headed and horse-faced demons, just like the people around her.

The best way to hide a drop of water is to pour it into the ocean.

Instead of retreating, Zhong Ying moved closer to the crowd, bowing her head and making a humble expression as she listened to Liu Qiang's reprimand, while glancing at the two figures that had suddenly become much closer.

"Hey, don't run away!"

The black-clad figure with the bull's head shouted, like a thunderclap, making Zhong Ying's heart pound and her whole body freeze.

Fortunately, the sound wasn't directed at Zhong Ying. In the blink of an eye, the two figures had already swept across the threshing ground and rushed straight towards the riverbank.

Zhong Ying's legs went weak, and she took several deep breaths to recover.

With the crisis over and no longer seeing the two headless figures challenging her sanity, Zhong Ying's rationality returned. Suddenly, she realized that since Ox-Head and Horse-Face weren't there to capture her, but instead rushed towards the river, they must be there to catch that dead ghost.

Thinking of this, Zhong Ying felt as if her blood was boiling, and an indescribable excitement and thrill surged into her heart. It was wonderful that she could survive!

Thank you, People's Police!

Even if they were underworld officials, how could helping her resolve the great thorn in her side, the guillotine hanging over her neck, not be considered serving the people? Zhong Ying unilaterally bestowed the honorary title of "People's Police" upon the two people in her mind, and for a moment, the figures of those two seemed to reflect a red light in her mind.

Zhong Ying clasped her hands tightly together, trying to control her emotions, while silently praying that the two "people's police officers" would succeed in the arrest. She hoped she would never see that dead guy again.

A note from the author:

----------------------

Zhong Ying (excitedly): I, Hu Hansan, can live again!