Su Qingluan was absolutely right. Picking "Baby's Breath" was indeed much more difficult than the originally designated wild fruits. The most intuitive manifestation was that the "team leaders" who had originally completed the picking of wild fruits had a considerable probability of picking "defective products" this time.
Some people are calmer and will continue to practice step by step even if they are not very skilled. However, some people are more impatient and are very anxious as they see others’ speed increasing while they themselves are always lagging behind. As a result, they fail to control the strength properly and the purple juice inside the berries splashes all over their bodies.
Although there was not much damage, some people had a mental breakdown and started throwing the picked fruits on the ground and stomping on them, saying "I quit" and leaving.
Su Qingluan naturally had no intention of keeping such an emotionally unstable person as a time bomb, but since they had already agreed in advance that she would pay the first day's wages even if he quit midway, she would not break her promise.
So even though the other party had given up, Su Qingluan asked Liu Yunniang to catch up with them one by one and pay them a hundred coins as "temporary wages".
Su Qingluan had originally been determined to keep her promise, believing that "once spoken, it is water spilled." However, this incident unexpectedly brought her and her "Su Ji" jam shop a good reputation, which was beyond her expectations.
But this is something that will happen in some time, so let’s put it aside for now.
Now, three people have left because of their unbalanced mentality. Even if each team leader assigns four people to the remaining people, there will still be two extra people.
Su Qingluan looked at the two people. One was a little girl in her early teens, dark and thin. However, unlike Liu Yunniang, who was lean and strong, she was the kind of thin that would be blown away by the wind. The other was a slightly older, but also slender middle-aged woman with a slight stutter.
Su Qingluan had seen these two people from afar, but had never greeted them and had no interaction with them.
The little girl's name is Zhaodi. You can tell from her that her family favors boys over girls, so she probably doesn't have an easy life. The other one is called "Dumb Aunt" by everyone. In fact, her vocal cords are not damaged, but she has a severe stutter. Because her jaw was injured by a beating from her husband, her pronunciation is unclear, so she rarely speaks.
Su Qingluan felt that even though she was used to being called that, the name "Dumb Aunt" was still unpleasant and difficult to say, so she asked her last name and was told it was Zou, so Su Qingluan called her Aunt Zou.
Su Qingluan knew that this village was not only populated by kind people, but also by those who were not so kind, and even those who were evil. She could not control too much and could only do what she could.
So she put all the others, both men and women, into small groups and let the "group leaders" lead them respectively, while she led these two people herself.
Liu Yunniang doesn't need to do anything special, but she is usually behind everyone. If someone wants to cause trouble or slacks off for a long time, she can see it clearly from her position.
After all, Su Qingluan wasn't in the front correcting everyone's fruit-picking movements, observing whether everyone was conscientiously completing their tasks. Although there was a team leader watching over them, Su Qingluan needed someone to supervise them along with the team leader—not for any other reason, but simply because she was afraid that these people would "take advantage of their position as team leader" and bully others.
Bringing Zhaodi and Aunt Zou with her, Su Qingluan began to teach them the key to picking fruit. Then Su Qingluan discovered that although these two people were not fast at work, they were careful and steady. Even if speed was not a factor, they were more meticulous than the other team leaders.
After thinking about it carefully, Su Qingluan understood the various reasons - one of them faced a family that favored boys over girls, the other had a husband with a bad temper, and she herself was in a vulnerable group that had been disliked for a long time.
Under this premise where you cannot resist, if you want to avoid being scolded and beaten as much as possible, you must be extremely careful in your daily life, in your movements, sitting, and lying down, and in every move, and not make any wrong steps.
Because they are always in an environment where they need to "protect themselves", they have to be very careful in completing any assigned "tasks" - because they will be beaten and scolded if they are not careful.
Su Qingluan understood that this habit would probably be difficult to change in a short time, but when she carefully held the hands of the two men and corrected their posture in picking fruits, and one of them was shaking with fear and the other stammered and couldn't say a word, Su Qingluan still felt a pang of heartache.
They weren't supposed to be like this.
Knowing that she currently had no power to protect these people, Su Qingluan forced herself to put away her sympathy and told them the key points of the actions in a very strict manner.
However, Su Qingluan unconsciously lowered her voice to the softest level, fearing that she would frighten them both again.
After teaching them for a while, Su Qingluan let them practice on their own and said to Liu Yunniang, "Yunniang, you stay here and watch for a while. I need to go home. It won't take long, at most half an hour, and I'll be back soon."
Liu Yunniang looked at the place and saw that it was only a quarter of an hour's walk from Su Qingluan's home, so she nodded and said, "You go ahead, I'll watch over it."
Su Qingluan nodded, turned and left.
Sure enough, less than half an hour later, Su Qingluan returned. Looking at the sky, it was almost time for everyone to prepare dinner.
Su Qingluan clapped her hands: "Everyone, please keep the fruits you picked here!"
Looking around at each group of picked "Baby's Breath", Su Qingluan nodded:
"Sure enough, they're much better than those crushed fruits at the beginning. It seems that with diligent practice, everyone will quickly master these fruit-picking tasks. In that case, everyone will gather at the gate of the Su family's courtyard at 1:00 AM tomorrow morning. I will provide everyone with unified tools to store the picked fruits. These fruits need to be carefully stored, so everyone must be extremely careful!"
"Got it!" Everyone responded.
"Well, everyone has worked hard all day. Please come in order according to the order of your groups to receive your wages for today."
Upon hearing that money was being distributed, the people around who had back pain from squatting to pick fruits immediately perked up and lined up hurriedly to receive their money.
"One hundred and ten coins?" The young man who first received the money scratched his head. "Madam Liu, did you count the money wrong?"
The job of distributing the money was managed by Liu Yunniang, so that's why the young man asked this question.
Su Qingluan shook her head: "Yunniang counted correctly. Although today is not your official start of work, you are officially hired. Naturally, you will be paid more than those who were dismissed halfway. And the team leaders will be paid an extra ten cents each because they have to work extra hard to teach the team members." She explained with a smile.
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