After the team leader left, Ning Xi opened the bag and found a lot of miscellaneous things inside, including dried soybeans, mung beans, rice, and dried sweet potatoes.
Among them, rice is the least, and dried sweet potatoes are the most.
"You must be a new educated youth. Where are you from? Maybe we are from the same hometown!" An unfamiliar tall and thin male educated youth leaned over to look at Ning Xi's food.
"From the north." Ning Xi tied up her pockets and replied indifferently.
The way this man looked at the food was so dazzling that she was afraid he would come up and snatch it away next.
"My name is Tang Shibin, and I'm from Harbin. So, we're half-hometown people anyway. Come on, let me help you carry it. You girls don't have enough strength to carry it."
The male educated youth snatched the food from Ning Xi without saying a word and ran to help her carry it to the door.
Ning Xi:......
If someone is too nice to her for no reason, he is either a traitor or a thief. Maybe he is after her food?
"It's time to cook. How about I help you steam the rice?" Tang Shibin tightly grasped his pocket and looked at Ning Xi expectantly.
Ning Xi pulled the bag over and refused, "Thank you for your kindness, but it's not necessary. I can do it myself."
No matter how you look at it, it seems that this male educated youth is trying to steal her food.
"Well, can you lend me some food? The rice harvest has started now, and the food will be distributed in two days. I will return my new rice to you then." Tang Shibin said hesitantly.
Last year, Tongxiang County was hit by floods. It rained heavily for a full half month, and all the paddy fields were flooded. Some crops died, and some fell down. In the end, the harvest was very little, and the farmers still had to rely on relief food to survive.
Now the food has been eaten up long ago, and only a little dried sweet potato saved from last year is left. We can't borrow any food from the production team. How can we feel full just by eating this every day? Our stomachs are full of sour water.
"I have written a letter home asking them to send some food. It will arrive in two days. Can you lend me some? My fellow villager, is that okay?" Tang Shibin clasped his hands together and bowed to Ning Xi, trying to borrow some food.
"I'm sorry, this is not enough for me to eat. You should ask someone else." Ning Xi walked into the house with the food without looking back and closed the door.
"You stingy thing! You're so ugly. No man would want you if you look like this!" Tang Shibin was turned away and cursed in a low voice.
"So what if I'm stingy? It's none of your business that I'm ugly! You care about men wanting you, but I don't. Do you think everyone is like you? What, do you think having a man wanting you is the goal of life?"
Ning Xi opened the door with a bang and barged in with a barrage of attacks, shocking Tang Shibin so much that he subconsciously took two steps back.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Who cares if a man wants her!" Tang Shibin reacted belatedly.
"If you don't care, why do you keep saying this? If you like men, then so be it. No one is restricting you. Go away and don't get in my way."
I really didn't expect that this person is so shameless. He started cursing when he couldn't borrow food.
We have to start harvesting rice now, wait for the rice to be threshed and dried, and then distributed after paying the public grain tax. We don’t know when it will be distributed. If we lend our own food rations to others now, what else can we do but be crazy?
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Tang Shibin muttered a few words. Afraid that others would say he was bullying the new female educated youth, he lowered his head and walked away.
"What's wrong? I just heard that there's some unhappiness here?" Qu Hua finished taking a shower and walked into the house while drying his hair.
Yan Jing heard it clearly from behind and helped Ning Xi explain: "Tang Shibin wanted to borrow food from Ning Xi just now, and when he didn't get it, he started cursing."
"Did you borrow it?"
Ning Xi looked at Qu Hua and shook her head: "No, this little food is not enough for me to eat."
"You're right. You can't lend it to him." Qu Hua lowered his voice. "Last year, someone lent him grain, and not only did he not return it, he even insisted that it was someone else who lent it to him."
Although there are no witnesses, who would give food to others in this situation?
"Then you didn't pursue him anymore?" Food is life. Ning Xi didn't understand. Anyone who dared to plot against her food would have to fight with his life.
"without......."
"Who picked cucumbers from the vegetable garden and ate them? How shameless, aren't you a cheapskate?" A scream from outside interrupted Qu Hua's words, and she hurried out.
Ning Xi and Yan Jing were left looking at each other in silence. They had not expected that the truth would be revealed so soon.
"What happened? Who stole the cucumbers?" Qu Hua was also anxious. This vegetable garden was cultivated by the educated youth. When food was scarce, vegetables were also needed to fill their stomachs.
The key point is that this is everyone's collective property, and it is agreed that no one can take it privately.
Especially this batch of cucumbers has grown more, with eight large ones in total. Qu Hua said yesterday that he would wait for the new educated youth to arrive and exchange them for some eggs to fry and have some meat.
On the one hand, we can do something good to welcome the new educated youth, and on the other hand, we can replenish our bodies as the busy farming season is about to begin.
"Sister Qu, I just went to pick cucumbers, and guess what, there are only six left out of eight! How can that be enough to eat? That heartless person even took away the two best ones!"
"That's right, aren't they deliberately trying to make the new educated youth laugh at us?" Another male educated youth who was in charge of cooking also looked furious.
Who doesn't want to eat those juicy cucumbers? We all tried to hold them back, but they were picked by someone else.
"Call everyone here." Qu Hua was also angry. If everyone picked the fruits secretly like this, wouldn't people with good moral character suffer?
"Let's go out and take a look." Ning Xi heard some noise outside, and she and Yan Jing quickly put the food away and went out.
Qu Hua saw that everyone had arrived and his expression was serious:
"Whoever stole the cucumbers from the vegetable garden today, please come out and apologize immediately, or we won't blame you for disliking him! We don't welcome people who destroy our unity like this."
The educated youth looked at each other and shook their heads.
"I didn't pick any. I'm still looking forward to eating scrambled eggs with cucumbers in the evening."
"I didn't pick any. I went to work early in the morning and came back at noon and night. How could I have the chance to steal some cucumbers?"
"Yes, we were together all day, and we can prove to each other that we definitely didn't eat the cucumber."
Anyway, no one came forward to admit it.
"Is it possible that someone outside stole it?" Zhang Guangji had an idea. If he put the blame on the villagers, wouldn't the scope of suspects be even wider?
One of the educated youth immediately objected: "Impossible, our educated youth site is in a separate area, and every family in the brigade has their own private plot of land. The vegetables they grow there are much better than ours."
"Maybe he just can't bear to eat his own food." Xia Zhiwei also chimed in.
"You two are so active, could it be that you two are cheating?" Tang Shibin felt that there was something wrong with these two guys when he was watching from behind.
The other newcomers didn't say a word, but these two kept complaining. Could it be that they are just naturally kind-hearted?
He had been craving this cucumber for a long time, but unfortunately he wanted to save it for a dish, but he didn't expect someone to get it first.
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