I had just turned a corner when I bumped into someone and saw stars.
"ah!"
“Ah~!”
Jiang Henian sat down on the ground, holding his forehead and groaning in pain.
"You have no eyes!"
A sharp and pretentious curse was heard.
Jiang Henian looked up and saw that there were quite a lot of people on the other side.
She rubbed her forehead and climbed up. "Sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't see you."
"What's the point of apologizing? You knocked me down! My clothes are all dirty!!"
Wang Meiyu stamped her feet and pointed at her trouser legs that were covered in dirt, yelling angrily.
Jiang Henian saw that she didn't fall and was supported by someone, but he was anxious and had no time to argue.
He casually picked up the herbs that fell on the ground and stuffed them into Wang Meiyu's hand, saying "This is a hostage", walked around a few people, and ran to the right.
“What—” Wang Meiyu lowered her head without reacting, “Ahhhhhhhh!!!”
She saw at a glance that there were several fat cicada shells nested in the black bunch of weeds in her hand, with several pairs of stiff brown legs pointed towards her. She was so scared that she almost broke her arm.
"She, she, she! Her name is Jiang Henian, right?!"
She widened her eyes, stamped her feet, and trembled her hands. She pointed angrily in the direction where Jiang Henian had already run away, and asked Si Yuzhen.
Si Yuzhen let go of the hand that was supporting her, looked away, and said nonchalantly, "Forget it, she fell too."
"Yuzhen! Why are you speaking for outsiders? If you hadn't held me up, I would have fallen!"
Wang Meiyu refused to give in. "She—"
Si Yuzhen pulled back her arm that was being pulled again, her tone indifferent.
"Wang Meiyun, if you continue to be annoying, go to another production team."
Wang Meiyun's face froze. She glanced at the female educated youth around her and said with a forced smile:
"Yuzhen, what are you talking about? I came here because I was assigned by the Educated Youth Office. If Uncle Si knew, he would definitely be happy that we could keep each other company."
Si Yuzhen glanced at the pearl hairpin on her head, her shoulder-length hair, and the light-colored plaid shirt, black pants, and shoes she was wearing that were almost identical to hers. She felt that her good mood for the lunch break was ruined.
"We're not that familiar."
She said this lightly and walked to the left first.
"Si Zhiqing, didn't you say you were going to the sales outlet to buy soap?" Zhang Xiaoyan followed.
Si Yuzhen didn't even turn her head and said, "No, I'm going back to rest for a while before going to work."
Zhang Xiuting hesitated for a while and followed him. The few female educated youth who stayed behind looked at Wang Meiyu with inquiring expressions.
Wang Meiyun withdrew her gaze from Si Yuzhen, smoothed her newly cut shoulder-length hair as if to cover up, raised her chin and smiled: "If Yuzhen doesn't want to go, then we will go!"
"What brand of soap does she like? I'll buy two of the same kind and bring one to her. If you guys want to buy any, I'll give them to you!"
The two female educated youth, who had originally wanted to go back, immediately brightened up when they heard this and took her arms affectionately.
"Really?! Meiyun, you're so generous! Let's go then!"
Wang Meiyu raised her head and led a few people away.
A female educated youth saw Hou Wenying turn and walk to the right, and asked casually.
"Sister Wenying, where are you going?"
Hou Wenying casually lifted her curly hair that was tied in front of her and said, "Let's walk around."
"Oh, the way Hou Zhiqing speaks makes my scalp tingle."
"You don't know what they call it in the city, womanly!"
"Hey, hey, aren't you ashamed to say that? Let's go, let's go with Wang Zhiqing to the sales outlet."
Wang Meiyu secretly glanced in the direction where Hou Wenying left, and wanted to raise her hand to touch her hair, but she touched nothing.
Then he remembered that he had asked the village barber to cut his hair according to Si Yuzhen's style the day before yesterday. He coughed quietly and brushed the dust off his shoulders.
"Let's go."
＊
To the west of Huagou Village, near the junction with Shuiquan Village, there is a small brick kiln that looks like a small hill. It is not large in scale and was jointly built by the two villages.
The production teams of the two villages arranged people to work separately, and work points were calculated in their respective teams. The green bricks produced could be purchased at a discount by villagers in the village. The income from the brick kilns was divided equally between the two villages and used to improve the lives of the villagers.
Originally, the two villages were too poor, so they planned to build it together, but they never expected that there would be many conflicts in the past two years.
At noon that day, the kiln that had been burning day and night for several days was finally ready to be opened.
Buckets of water were poured in from the top of the kiln, and the red-hot bricks sizzled like meat frying on an iron plate.
Hot steam gushed out, and the entire kiln was filled with white smoke and hot steam.
"Alright! It's green now, let's clean the kiln!"
A group of shirtless young men walked into the steamer-like kiln with their heads down and their backs bent. In an instant, their skin felt like it was burned by fire, and it was so hot that their hairs curled up.
The hot blue bricks were piled up high and carried out on wooden boards with ropes tied on both sides.
The hot bricks hadn't even cooled outside when someone came to "claim" them.
The adobe house of the Zhang family at the south end of Huagou Village has been in disrepair for many years. Two nights ago, the corner of the wall collapsed and almost buried the whole family who were sleeping in the dormitory.
The Zhang family gritted their teeth and took out their savings to buy some blue bricks to repair the house before winter. The next day, they told the Huagou Village team that they wanted to buy 1,000 bricks after the kiln was opened.
After enduring the cold wind at night for two days, the kiln was finally opened and the family immediately borrowed a cart to move bricks.
Unexpectedly, before they could move two bricks, another group of people came to grab the bricks.
"Why should you just take it? It's first come, first served. This brick has already been reserved by my family."
Zhang Huichan stood in front of the pile of bricks with his arms outstretched, while his daughter-in-law, children and the old lady in the family protected the cart and prevented anyone from moving it.
"Oh, why?"
A portly man with a slicked-back haircut patted his waistband and said arrogantly, "Everyone knows that I, Qian Dahai, am going to build a new house and get married. All the bricks produced in this kiln must belong to me. Do you understand the rules?"
"Nonsense! You didn't apply to the team. These bricks are on a first-come, first-served basis. We bought some first, and you can buy the rest. Why are you trying to snatch them from us?"
Zhang Huichan, who was thin and wearing a shabby patched cotton shirt, looked completely powerless in front of Qian Dahai, who was big and strong and dressed in Dacron.
Qian Dahai had a rude attitude and was followed by a group of people pushing carts waiting to pull bricks. He waved his hand and the group of people wanted to grab the bricks directly.
The old lady of the Zhang family stood in front of the cart with her thin body hunched over.
"This is for repairing our house! We paid for it! You can't steal it!"
The people from Huagou Village who were working in the brick kiln came forward to help and said, "Don't do it!"
Qian Dahai easily pushed Zhang Huichan away, stepped on the pile of bricks, shook his head, took off his sunglasses, and pointed at his feet with the temples of his glasses.
"Come to think of it, I haven't bothered you yet. Where did you take those thousands of bricks I gave you a few days ago? Hurry and return them to me! If you delay my house building, I'll kill you Huagou—"
Before he could finish his words, a broken brick flew accurately and hit his flashy leather shoes.
"Who to kill?"
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