Chapter 126 Thinking about Xie Zhongming
The sun had just risen halfway up the mountain, shining warmly on the half-cultivated wasteland deep in the mountains.
The fields smelled strongly of dew in the early morning.
The air was originally fresh, but after this group of excited educated youth members gathered around, it suddenly became mixed with the smell of sweat and foot odor.
Qiao Xingyue, who was already pregnant, couldn't stand the smell and felt nauseous.
Even though she felt nauseous and her chest felt tight, Qiao Xingyue remained calm and composed as she looked at the educated youth members surrounding her, already having a plan in mind.
Before the group even spoke, she knew what was going to happen. It was nothing more than the group feeling jealous and envious because they had just arrived at the Tuanjie Brigade and earned more work points than them. They wanted the brigade leader to deduct their work points.
Huang Guilan and the boys in the family stood in front of her, afraid that she would be accidentally hurt. Shen Liping and Chen Jiahui also gently tugged at her arm and whispered a reminder, "Xingyue, you are pregnant, don't get so close."
Sun Xiuxiu rolled up her sleeves and stood in front of Huang Guilan, speaking loudly, "What are you doing? Nobody's doing any work, just crowding around our whole family, young and old. What do you want?"
The bespectacled male educated youth, his forehead taut, said in a harsh tone, “You still know that your whole family, young and old, has earned more work points than anyone else. You people who got in through connections should be dragged to the threshing ground to be criticized and denounced.”
"Let me do it." Qiao Xingyue pulled Huang Guilan and the children behind her. Although her voice was not loud, it carried a powerful force that drowned out the noise of the educated youth.
She took a half step forward, shielding her family behind her, and her sharp eyes swept over the educated youth blocking her way. "Which of your eyes saw us using connections? Do you have any evidence? Show us the evidence. If you can't produce any evidence, then you're just making false accusations and labeling people randomly. Those who should be drying grain and being criticized are the ones who randomly label people, don't work hard, only know how to gossip, and only know how to cheat and shirk their responsibilities."
The bespectacled male educated youth was somewhat flustered by Qiao Xingyue's words. Wasn't this exactly what she meant by cheating and shirking responsibility? Feeling guilty, he gripped his hoe tighter, but stubbornly retorted, "Who knows if you got it through connections? Otherwise, why do you, all newcomers from the city, earn more work points than us veteran members?"
The female educated youth with braided pigtails, leaning on a hoe, muttered sourly, "That's right, she must have pulled some strings. I heard you and the brigade leader have known each other for a long time, and you even saved his wife. The brigade leader is an old friend of yours, he must have pulled some strings for you and given you extra work points. Today we must make the brigade leader return your work points."
Qiao Xingyue suddenly realized.
No wonder Lao Dahong was whispering with these people on the ridge of the field. It turned out that Lao Dahong had told these educated youth members about how she had saved Captain Liu's wife.
This Lao Dahong is here specifically to stir up trouble.
Qiao Xingyue's eyes turned cold. "You need to provide evidence to support your claims. You keep saying we got in through connections, but where's the evidence? As for work points, the team's scorekeeper is here every day. It's clear who did how much and how many work points they earned. You can't just make up stories like that."
Lao Dahong, the buck-toothed woman who had been dawdling with a sickle in hand, stood up and joined in the commotion as it grew. "Qiao Xingyue, what you said is indeed true, but who knows if the scorekeeper gave you extra points because of the brigade? You can't be sure, after all, the scorekeeper is a relative of the brigade leader."
Lao Dahong's words made the educated youth and villagers even more excited.
Two of the male educated youth even rolled up their sleeves, looking ready to fight.
Chen Jiahui and Shen Liping quickly stepped in front of Qiao Xingyue. Chen Jiahui's voice trembled with fear, but she straightened her back and spread her arms to protect Qiao Xingyue tightly behind her. "Don't do anything reckless. Group fighting is a crime. If you want to return to the city peacefully in the future, behave yourselves and don't try to hit anyone."
"What, you want to report me for hitting someone?" A tall, burly educated youth took two steps forward, gripping a hoe in his hand.
Just then, a series of steady footsteps came from the edge of the field, accompanied by a loud shout, "What are you all doing gathered here? Don't you need to go to the fields to earn work points?"
Everyone turned around and saw the brigade leader walking over, carrying a hoe, his face full of seriousness.
The educated youth and villagers immediately began to complain.
"Captain, Qiao Xingyue and her group are clearly newcomers, but they've earned more work points than us veteran members. She must have pulled strings. Did you give her preferential treatment?"
“Captain, what you’ve done has chilled the hearts of us old commune members. Qiao Xingyue’s group is a mix of old and young, with only a few women having any physical strength. How could they possibly earn more work points than us men? If we make a big fuss about this and take it to the town, it will surely affect the captain, won’t it?”
"Captain, if you deduct the work points from Qiao Xingyue and her group, we'll pretend nothing happened."
Everyone chimed in with their own comments.
The brigade leader frowned as he looked at Qiao Xingyue and the others, then glanced at the educated youth and villagers. His expression was serious. "I know very well what happened to Comrade Qiao Xingyue and the others' work points. Although they go to work in the fields at about the same time as everyone else, they leave half an hour later than everyone else, and they do just as much work as you strong laborers. You still have the nerve to call yourselves men? Look at yourselves..."
The brigade leader pushed through the crowd, grabbed the tall, burly male educated youth, looked at the plot of land where he had worked yesterday, and said sternly, "This is the work you did yesterday, from dawn till dusk. Look for yourself how much 'revolutionary grass' you cut?"
“Captain, how can you blame me? This revolutionary grass is very resilient; its roots are deep in the soil, so it’s not easy to cut.” The tall, burly male educated youth replied defiantly.
This large area of land was all wasteland, which the production team planned to reclaim for planting corn in the fall.
It was covered with revolutionary grass.
This revolutionary grass is incredibly resilient, with numerous roots and stems. Even if there's a year-long drought, it won't die. The following year, as long as there's a single rain, it will grow wildly, multiplying and multiplying.
The brigade leader taught these educated youths from the city how to completely eradicate these "revolutionary weeds": first, cut them; second, dig them up; and third, pick up the roots. The cutting must be ruthless, the digging deep, and the roots must be picked cleanly. If the roots weren't picked clean, the land would be overgrown with "revolutionary weeds" again next year, growing even faster than crops, and then there would be no harvest at all.
Liu Zhongqiang kicked the tall, burly educated youth in the soil he had dug.
With that kick, the roots of the revolutionary grass were exposed.
As Liu Zhongqiang bent down, he casually plucked a handful of roots and handed them to the tall, burly educated youth. "Jiang Dazhuang, take a look for yourself. You've dug up the ground, but have you dug it clean?"
Liu Zhongqiang picked up his hoe and dug deeper, finding the roots and stems of the revolutionary grass underneath. "At this rate, do you think you can expect a good corn harvest next year? Before the corn seedlings even grow, the revolutionary grass will have already covered the whole mountainside."
The educated youth named Jiang Dazhuang, seeing that he hadn't cleared the weeds properly, lowered his head and didn't dare to say another word.
But the bespectacled male educated youth chimed in, clearly unconvinced, "Jiang Dazhuang didn't clear the weeds properly, but Qiao Xingyue and the others did?"
"You still have the nerve to criticize others." Liu Zhongqiang pulled the bespectacled educated youth towards the patch of weeds he was weeding. After walking about ten meters, he stopped. "Look at yourself. Have you even cleared the weeds? Forget weeding, you haven't even turned over this hard soil properly."
As he spoke, Liu Zhongqiang called the educated youth and farmers to the plot of land that Qiao Xingyue and the others had dug.
He easily turned the soil with his hoe, and the land he had dug was loose and soft, with the soil scattered and without any clumps.
Bending down and scooping up a handful, the soil slipped through my fingers like sand; there wasn't a single weed or a single remnant of the revolutionary grass roots in it.
"This land looks like it has been turned over and scoured many times."
Liu Zhongqiang pointed to the large area of wasteland where Qiao Xingyue and the others had cleared weeds and dug up the soil, "Look, Comrade Qiao Xingyue and the others even picked out all the stones in the soil, let alone the roots and stems of the revolutionary grass."
He pointed up the hillside again, "Also, look at the wasteland that Comrade Qiao Xingyue and the others reclaimed. This whole area was outside their assigned tasks; it was all extra work they did. Whether they should be credited with work points or not, you can decide for yourselves."
When the educated youth and villagers saw that the wasteland cleared by Qiao Xingyue and her group had not a single extra weed or root, and the soil was loose and soft, they all lowered their heads and could not find any fault with it.
"Now you know why Comrade Qiao Xingyue and the others have more work points, while you have fewer?" Liu Zhongqiang shouted, his voice sharp and piercing.
He swept his gaze across the group of people who were bowing their heads and said with utmost seriousness, “Instead of wasting your time finding fault with others, you should be more diligent and do more work yourselves. There are techniques to working in the fields. Revolutionary weeds are hard to cut and hard to remove by the roots, but you can’t. Why were Comrade Qiao Xingyue and the others able to remove them cleanly? We are all human beings, with the same two pairs of legs and two arms. Why can’t you do it?”
Liu Zhongqiang then adopted a more earnest tone, "I know everyone is worried about not getting enough work points and thus not receiving enough grain. If you're afraid of not getting enough grain, then you should work harder. Instead of causing trouble here, you should focus on working hard and earning more work points! Everyone, disperse and get to the fields!"
Seeing that no one had moved, Liu Zhongqiang glared at the group of educated youth and said, "What are you all standing there for?"
The educated youth reluctantly made way, muttering complaints under their breath, but dared not linger any longer, dragging their feet toward their respective fields.
Lao Dahong, with his buck teeth, quickly grabbed his sickle and disappeared in a flash.
The fields were quiet again, then the sounds of everyone hoeing the ground could be heard.
Qiao Xingyue, Shen Liping, Sun Xiuxiu, Chen Jiahui, Wang Shufen, Huang Guilan, and the four boys also began to divide the work.
Liu Zhongqiang glanced at Qiao Xingyue and said, "Dr. Qiao, don't take it to heart. Those educated youths have never experienced hardship; they're just envious and jealous, and they feel resentful."
"It's alright, as long as we get justice."
"Then I'll go get to work too. If you need anything, just let me know."
"Okay, thank you, Uncle Liu. As long as these people don't cause trouble, I'll usually be fine."
After Liu Zhongqiang left, Shen Liping breathed a long sigh of relief. While cutting the revolutionary grass with a sickle, she said, "Xingyue, I was so scared. I thought they were really going to attack us."
Qiao Xingyue squatted down next to Shen Liping, cutting weeds together. She moved quickly, cutting a large bunch at a time. "It's okay, don't be afraid. Even if they really start fighting, we won't suffer any losses."
Sun Xiuxiu laughed from the side, "Sister-in-law, have you forgotten what our Xingyue is best at? With just a silver needle in hand, she can make the other person's hands and feet go numb and unable to move."
“That’s scary, Xingyue is pregnant.” Shen Liping sighed. “They only see us because we’re all women. Even though Zhiyuan, Mingyuan, Chengyuan, and Boyuan are with us, they’re still just kids. If only Zhongyi, Zhongjie, Zhongwen, Zhongming, and Zhongyan were here.”
With those five brothers around, how dare these educated youths bully them?
Speaking of his five brothers, everyone thought of the people still being interrogated, and their expressions of relief had just returned.
Seeing everyone sighing, Qiao Xingyue quickly comforted them, "Don't think too much about it. Maybe Songhua and Beiyang will send a telegram in a few days. Let's get back to work. Right now, let's focus on making the best of our lives and earning more work points so we can have food when winter comes. The jealousy in the hearts of these educated youth and villagers won't be so easy to dispel. There will probably be more trouble in the future. Let's take care of ourselves and our children first."
As she spoke, Qiao Xingyue glanced at Lao Dahong, who was digging two hoes in the ground and then stretching lazily for a while, not far away. This buck-toothed woman only knew how to cheat and sly, and was always causing trouble behind people's backs.
The discontent among the educated youth today was all stirred up by her.
In the future, we still need to be wary of her and be more cautious.
As the saying goes, it's better to offend a gentleman than a petty person. Lao Dahong held a grudge against the whole family simply because Ningning didn't let her grandson Xiaoguang play with the tin frog on the tractor.
This is such a trivial matter, it's like a persistent leech.
Just thinking about it makes me feel depressed.
When they went to the fields in the morning, Qiao Xingyue and the others each brought a steamed bun and a pot of water.
That canteen was a military canteen brought from the army; it could hold quite a lot.
They didn't go back for lunch. Instead, they sat on the edge of the field, drank some water, took a bite of a steamed bun, and then prepared to continue working.
Huang Guilan was worried that Qiao Xingyue, who was pregnant, wouldn't have enough to eat, so she broke her own steamed bun in half and handed it to her, saying, "Xingyue, this steamed bun is too dry. Mom can't finish it. You can have it."
It wasn't that the steamed buns were too dry; it was clearly that she wanted to save them for herself.
How could Qiao Xingyue not understand?
This is all physical labor, and there's no oil or meat involved. If we don't eat enough, we won't have the energy to work in the afternoon.
Qiao Xingyue pushed the half-eaten steamed bun back to Huang Guilan and said decisively, "Mom, you don't need to save food for me. I drank some sugar water before I left this morning, so I can handle it. This is much better than when I was pregnant with An'an and Ningning, so don't worry about me."
Upon hearing this, Huang Guilan choked up. She had originally planned for Xingyue to peacefully return to her family, remarry Zhongming, and live a good life. But instead, Xingyue was sent to the countryside with the Xie family—what a miserable life she'd been living!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com