Chapter 80 Chapter 80 Chapter 80 It’s hard to come by…

Chapter 80

Summer vacation has finally arrived, but Weisheng can’t focus on it recently.

After returning to the village, Weisheng had nothing to do so he continued to make various renovations to their courtyard.

The summer in the north is very short and not as hot as in the south, but Weisheng still wants to build an ice cellar at home so that he can freeze some meat and noodles on a regular basis, and eat some ice cream and popsicles in the summer.

The ice cellar was dug in the yard. There was no special technique involved. First, a large pit was dug in the yard. Then, the bottom of the pit and the walls on all four sides were covered with steel plates and cement. After the cement underneath had dried, stairs were built up and down with cement and wooden boards.

After the ladder is built, the roof is sealed with steel plates, cement and other materials, and the ice cellar is completed.

It is difficult to store ice in the hot summer, so Weisheng directly uses the freezer in the space to store large ice blocks, and then piles them in the ice cellar outside.

While transporting the ice, Weisheng also built a small wooden house on top of the ice cellar.

There are large jars of soy sauce, pickles, kimchi, as well as dried pickled meat, cured chicken and rabbit meat dried at home.

The ice cellar was built next to the outdoor cooking shed, making it more convenient to take things out.

After nearly a year of construction and renovation, the courtyard had become perfectly habitable. Now that summer had arrived, the vegetables in the garden and the transplanted fruit trees were ready to eat. Even though life in the village was still not as affordable as in the city, the gap between Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun's hearts was narrowing.

Before cooking every day, I go to the vegetable garden to pick enough vegetables for one meal. The leftover vegetables are picked and hung in the yard to be eaten in the winter.

The same goes for fruit. Every day, I pick a batch of ripe fruit. After washing, I eat some fresh, take some out to dry, and can some for the winter.

The hens at home lay three eggs every day, so I don’t have to buy boiled eggs from others for breakfast.

If you want to have an extra meal of egg custard or something, you still need to buy some more.

However, Weisheng often took eggs and duck eggs out of his own space. He took so many that not only were there enough for them to eat whatever they wanted, but the leftovers were also pickled into salted duck eggs and salted chicken eggs by Ning Chaoyun.

While Weisheng continued to work on this small courtyard, Ming Yichen had already gone to the fields to work with other villagers.

Ning Chaoyun originally wanted to go, but Weisheng found her a good job that could earn her two work points a day.

What kind of work?

Weisheng deliberately leaked the news in the village that she had a way to make all the villagers listen to the radio every day. Then, after everyone in the village paid attention to this matter, she found the village chief and told him her method and request.

If you simply want to do good deeds, the village chief will naturally encourage you in various ways. But if you also want work points, he will definitely not make this decision.

So the whole village held another meeting to solicit the opinions of all villagers on how to enrich the lives of the members by listening to the radio.

The radio was built by Weisheng's family. The non-electric loudspeaker, which could be heard by the entire village, was also installed by Weisheng's family. After installation, the broadcast was played once every morning, noon, and evening.

Morning: 5:00-7:30

Noon: 11:30-12:30

Evening: 5:30-8:00

Two and a half hours in the morning and evening, and one hour at noon, totaling six hours a day.

For six hours of broadcasting, the village only needs to pay 2 work points.

Maybe two work points a day were not a lot, or maybe the team offered these work points, so the villagers all agreed.

The villagers agreed, and Weisheng began to take action.

She and Ming Yichen used some knowledge of sound wave conduction in physics and some small things in the Weisheng space to lay out sound transmission loudspeakers throughout the village, and then connected the terminal to a radio that Weisheng took out.

From then on, Ning Chaoyun's daily routine was to turn on the public radio at a specific time and keep track of the broadcast information on several channels.

After that, it was decided which channel to broadcast to the villagers in the morning, and which channel to broadcast at noon and in the evening.

A few days later, the village chief realized that he was only earning 2 work points a day, which was more than 700 work points a year, so he went to find Ning Chaoyun again.

The village chief wanted Ning Chaoyun to do something else so that there wouldn't be any disagreements at the end of the year. Ning Chaoyun asked the village chief if there was anything else she could do in the village. However, before the village chief could say anything, Weisheng gave her an idea.

"Don't the villagers write propaganda slogans regularly? You can give that to my mother."

Another thing is that my family can publish a newspaper.

Every week we go to the town to pick up the previous week's newspaper, then copy the contents of the newspaper and post it regularly in the village committee compound.

The village chief thought that newspapers and the paper and ink used to copy them would cost money, so he agreed.

The slogans in the village are only written once every one or two months, and each time they are written, they are not used for a day.

Both Ming Yichen and Weisheng worked together with Ning Chaoyun on this.

As for copying the newspaper, although it seemed a bit time-consuming, Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun read books and newspapers every day, and they were both used to writing. Adding Weisheng, the three of them copying the newspaper together really wouldn't take much time.

Another thing is that she only said she copied the newspaper, but she didn't say she copied the entire newspaper.

If that's the case, it would be better to just stick a newspaper on it.

Every day I pick out the front page or some content that I think is good and copy it. It only takes an hour at most to finish.

The villagers get up early and stick together in the village committee compound before going to work, and the rest of the time is theirs.

…

Ning Chaoyun could stay at home every day and still earn work points. Although Ming Yichen went to work with the villagers every day, he did not earn as many work points as the villagers.

The work points given by the scorekeeper were almost the same as those of the educated youth who went to the countryside to work last year.

However, since he started working in the fields every day, Ming Yichen had eaten more and was healthier than before. Because the couple felt confident, they didn't care about the number of work points and continued to live a comfortable life.

After considering for a while, Weisheng finally accepted the invitation from the town high school.

Firstly, after a period of large-scale bloodbaths, there were no longer many people in the town who were rebelling. Secondly, she had nothing to do in the village every day. If she didn't go out to work, she would be bored and have no freedom.

Third, she stayed in the town, and if those people with red sleeves showed signs of resurgence, she could "extinguish" them in the first place.

After accepting the offer from the town high school, Weisheng specifically chose physics as his subject, and then all the teaching materials and lesson plans prepared by Ming Yichen came in handy.

For Ming Yichen, this was quite comforting. In order to make Ming Yichen happy, Weisheng even let Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun attend her first physics class.

Teacher salaries at the town's high school weren't high, and Weisheng was able to get the job because many teachers had been persecuted in the past, leaving many intimidated. Even though the situation wasn't as bad as before, they still didn't dare take risks. As a result, the job benefited Weisheng, a recent graduate.

The yard that he rented before in the town is still rented, but Weisheng rides a bicycle to and from the town and the village most of the time, and only stays in the town when the weather is bad.

There's no Gaokao these days, so high school graduation is the end of the story. So the workload isn't heavy, and there's no requirement for further education. As a result, both faculty and students have an easy life.

Weisheng also graduated from a teacher training program and later worked as a university lecturer for many years, so his work experience is undoubtedly impressive. As for lesson planning and so on... so why did Weisheng choose to teach physics?

Weisheng has two classes in the morning and one in the afternoon. Since physics isn't as important as Chinese and math in this small town, her class usually falls in the third or fourth of the four morning periods. She also doesn't get off work too late in the afternoon, which allows her to commute back to the village frequently.

Although it was a devastating start, Weisheng still managed to live a smooth life, and Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun also adapted to life in the countryside and were working very hard to manage their current lives.

There are some annoying things though.

For example, after Weisheng got a formal job, many people came to the foot of the mountain to propose marriage.

The villagers in the village who had little education, the educated youth from the city who were not good at anything, the workers in the town who only had a junior high school education, and the sons of the employees' families in this factory and that unit...

Not to mention Weisheng, even Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun felt deep down that the candidates they proposed were not suitable.

At this point, Weisheng didn't hide it anymore. She told Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun that the college entrance examination would be resumed in 1977, and that she would not only go to college, but also study the major she wanted. If she really wanted to get married, she would find someone who was suitable for her in every way and was her equal, not someone who was less compatible.

Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun were both thrilled to hear the exact time. They calculated Weisheng's age in 1977 and realized she was only 25. They themselves were only in their 50s or 60s, which reassured them.

From then on, whenever someone came to the foot of the mountain to propose marriage, Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun would find a reason to reject them without thinking.

Others only thought that the Ming family was well-off and that the girls were good-looking and had good jobs, so they were more picky. Although over time, there were still people who said that girls should not be too picky or they would not be able to get married, but the Weisheng family still did what they were supposed to do.

After a few years, Ming Yichen still couldn't earn many work points from farm work, but he still insisted on working six days a week.

He worked six days a week and then had one day off. On his day off, he would stay at home all day to organize his physics books.

Ning Chaoyun spends three hours every day reviewing English and French, and translates some famous works into both languages.

All the translated books were handed over to Weisheng for safekeeping, in preparation for publication in the future.

In comparison, there is nothing much to say about Weisheng's life.

Apart from going to the town high school for classes, I would wander around the back mountain, and then go to the city every now and then to take a walk. If I met someone with a bad memory, I would throw a huge rock at him.

Occasionally, I would go to the scrap recycling station to look for items, and with the knowledge of antique identification that I learned for decades in my previous life, I would pick out some good things and put them away.

Once, when Weisheng was in the city, he overheard a group of red-sleeved men planning to burn down the ruins of the former Qing imperial palace. Without waiting for them to act tomorrow, they had their legs broken one by one with rocks that very night and were thrown at the gate of the ruins.

Since then, no one has thought about these cultural relics anymore.

Weisheng would occasionally go to places near the sea and buy a few baskets of seafood to take home.

Seafood and river fish are always different, so after eating seafood, Weisheng wanted to eat river fish again.

So, near the vegetable garden, they dug a small, not-too-deep fish pond. They used no cement or bricks, but some rubble from the cave blast. The cracks in the rocks were perfect for growing water plants and lotus seeds. They also got some fish fry, river shrimp, and crabs from the space and threw them in. From then on, the family dinner table became more plentiful.

However, as life becomes more and more convenient, the yard, which was originally quite large, has become more and more crowded.

By the way, because the village chief knew that Weisheng had some medical skills, one night someone in the village fell seriously ill, and the village chief asked Weisheng to go and see him.

Weisheng dabbled in both Chinese and Western medicine, and had also researched local diseases and folk remedies. The village chief summoned him to see a doctor, and he managed to save the man. Word spread quickly, and more and more people sought Weisheng's help.

Weisheng treats patients and does not charge money, only gifts.

Weisheng helped the village repair tractors, but he didn't charge anything, only work points.

Ever since the Du Chunni incident, life in the village has been as peaceful as it can be. But after a few years, a new educated youth came to the foot of the mountain to look for Weisheng. When he saw the courtyard that Weisheng had carefully tidied up, he started to cause trouble.

Hui Chengye had just come from the city and was having a hard time adjusting to village life. Today, he asked for leave from the production team leader, saying he felt unwell. The team leader told him not to go to the town hospital and to visit Mingjin at the foot of the mountain; she could treat any illness.

When he arrived at the small courtyard surrounded by high stone walls at the foot of the mountain, Hui Chengye realized that even among those who went to the countryside to work in the fields, some people lived more comfortably than in the city.

I saw some people setting up mosquito nets in their yards, and while others were working, they were still sitting in rocking chairs eating fruit and listening to the radio... My heart was broken.

After returning to the educated youth camp, I asked the old educated youth about the Ming family. I heard that they were also educated youth who went to the countryside to work in the fields a few years ago. I felt even more sad and jealous.

After a few days of forbearance, Hui Chengye suddenly jumped out during the villagers' meeting. He first spoke of this spirit and that instruction, then pointed at Weisheng and Ming Yichen sitting below and said that their yard was full of the shadow of capitalists.

Ming Yichen was stunned for a moment, about to retort, but Weisheng pulled him back, tilted his head, and watched the passionate speaker on the stage with a half-smile.

When Hui Chengye finally stopped, Weisheng didn't stand up but sat there clapping and cheering at Hui Chengye, "Good! Well said!"

Hui Chengye didn't expect Weisheng to react like this. He was a little confused but still asked Weisheng, "So you admit that there is a capitalist shadow in your family?"

Weisheng smiled, "That's not important. What's important is that you can speak. Then you should speak more. After all, you don't always have the chance to speak."

After saying that, Weisheng applauded Hui Chengye again. While clapping, she looked at the villagers around her and raised her eyebrows, her meaning was self-evident.

Then those villagers who wanted to watch the fun and also wanted to do Weisheng a good deed began to applaud Hui Chengye.

Even when a naughty child grows up, he is still a naughty child.

Hui Chengye: Is she sick?

We will soon know whether someone is sick and who is sick.

Just when everyone in the village was waiting for Weisheng to fight Hui Chengye, and Hui Chengye felt that Weisheng would not give up, Hui Chengye suddenly became speechless.

I was speechless when I woke up in the morning.

He pointed at his half-open mouth and hummed, but no sound came out.

When the male educated youth saw him like this, they knew something was wrong and immediately ran to find the village chief.

When the village chief heard this, he thought of Weisheng, and then asked his grandson to go to the foot of the mountain to see if Weisheng was there, and then tell her about Hui Chengye. If she could not be cured, the village would arrange a car to take Hui Chengye to the town hospital.

The village chief's grandson ran and jumped to the foot of the mountain, but unfortunately Weisheng had gone up the mountain to collect herbs, so the child ran to tell the village chief the news.

When the village chief saw that Hui Chengye was unharmed and unable to speak, he suddenly thought of the swindler who had been blinded by Weisheng's needles. When his grandson came over and said that Weisheng had gone up the mountain to collect herbs, the village chief understood everything.

No wonder she said, "There aren't always opportunities to speak."

Although he knew what was going on, the village chief still asked someone to harness the car and take Hui Chengye to the town hospital.

The medical level of the town hospital is there for everyone to understand, and there is no way to figure out why Hui Chengye suddenly became unable to speak.

The village chief followed him to the town hospital, and when he saw that they couldn't find anything, he asked Hui Chengye again what he wanted to do.

If you go to the city to seek medical treatment, the village will give you a letter of introduction. If you don't want to see a doctor, then we can go back to the village together.

Of course I have to continue seeing the doctor!

So Hui Chengye took the letter of introduction from the village chief and bought a ticket to go to the city to see a doctor immediately.

It’s a pity that even though I spent a lot of money, my speech problem still hasn’t been cured.

When he had spent all his money, he returned to the village and found that everyone in the village, young and old, looked at him with a look of gloating.

Sure enough, the opportunity to speak is not always available.

←_←

Everyone guessed that Weisheng was behind the murder, but no one had any evidence to prove her death. Since they couldn't prove her death, they could only let her go.

So everyone once again made it a standard not to provoke naughty kids, and then silently watched Hui Chengye, a good man, suddenly become mute.

Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun heard about this and asked Weisheng if Hui Chengye would be able to speak in the future. Seeing Weisheng nod, they breathed a sigh of relief and said, "We should teach him a lesson so that he won't always keep an eye on other people's families."

Hui Chengye was mute for two months. In the third month, he finally heard the "guessed truth" from other people's conversations. He was angry and resentful at first, but then he finally learned his lesson and wrote a very sincere apology letter, which he asked someone to read out in public at the villagers' representative meeting.

He apologized to Weisheng in front of the whole village and said that his handling of the matter was too foolish and ignorant.

Weisheng continued to smile, neither accepting nor rejecting it. But on the second day of the villagers' meeting, Hui Chengye suddenly spoke again, and everyone knew Weisheng's attitude.

She accepted the apology.

Being silent for three months not only made Hui Chengye realize what it means to speak out of turn, but also made other villagers witness the power of naughty children again.

After that, there were really no more troubles in Weisheng's family's life in Hujia Village.

Ten years passed in a flash, and the time finally came to 1977.

In July 1977, before summer vacation, Weisheng submitted his resignation from the town high school. Since teachers in the town had not been persecuted in recent years, his resignation was quickly approved.

So after quitting his job, Weisheng didn't go anywhere and stayed in the village to prepare for the exam.