The anger of the people is silent and suppressed.
Ye Qingshui's well would produce water in seven days, so they could fool themselves. But when the second brigade next door also found water in three days, they could no longer tolerate this kind of stimulation.
Even though the village dug a well to alleviate the thirst for water, the members were extremely angry under the heavy blow of not being rewarded for their labor and being fooled.
They threw away their well-digging tools and surrounded Ye Laoliu and He Fang with hoes in hand.
They looked at Ye Laoliu with cold eyes, "Captain, can we dig water out of this well?"
Ye Laoliu was used to the obedience of the members and had never experienced being blocked and questioned.
"Why, why not?" Ye Laoliu blushed.
"Yes, just dig it yourself! Dig as much as you want!"
"Ye Shuiya can dig out water in seven days, and Team 2 can dig out water in three days. They make digging a well as easy as drinking water. We have sacrificed our lives but can't get a drop of water? You still dare to say that you can dig out water. Do you have any shame?"
"I think these educated youth are unreliable. I'd better go ask Qingshui Wawa."
"Bah, I think Uncle Six has lost all his dignity. He was so dazzled by the young and pretty girl that he couldn't even tell north from south when he tightened his belt."
The country woman's vulgar and unpleasant words made He Fang's face turn pale.
The villagers were furious, and the director of the Women's Federation came to mediate the quarrel, and finally persuaded the most angry people to reconcile. But there was still a lot of cursing, and the elders in the village even wanted to beat Ye Laoliu up.
He Fang and Sun Lingyu were horrified when they saw this. Although they knew that these rural people were vulgar, they were never vague when they worked together. They didn't expect that such lovely working people had such a shameful side. They could smash a person's head with a hoe. This kind of tough folk custom was really scary.
Zhou Tingting and Ye Qingshui had no work to do and did not participate in the labor, so naturally they had no chance to witness the lively scene today.
…
After the angry members had a dispute with the team leader, the previous well-drilling project was shelved and nothing was done. The educated youth lost the trust of the villagers, and even the team leader was no longer trusted. The abandoned wells were also filled up with soil by the angry villagers.
He Fang's eyes turned red when she saw this scene, and she rushed forward like crazy to stop it.
"The revolution hasn't succeeded yet, how can you give up halfway? You are disrupting production!"
The members of the commune mocked, "Kill your mother! Is this pit open for people to fall and die?"
They brought back the soil vigorously, spending a whole morning to fill up a month's labor to show their determination. Ye Laoliu was suddenly shocked when he saw this. The anger of these people who wanted to put him on the review platform and throw mud at him reminded him of those crazy years.
He took off his straw hat and clumsily tried to light a cigarette, but he couldn't do it after a long time.
The well could not be dug any further, so the director of the Women's Federation had to go to Ye Qingshui's house in person. Although she didn't quite believe that Ye Qingshui was so powerful, there was something weird about this girl.
She has been doing mediation work for many years, and she is very strict in handling relationships between men and women. This girl who looks ordinary and even shabby, who was too poor to even go to high school, actually rejected a male educated youth from the capital. She also quarreled with the female educated youth all day long. After hearing the rumors, the director of the Women's Federation was displeased from the bottom of her heart and felt that she was not a good person.
But when they went to the Ye family, the director talked about digging a well, and Ye Qingshui agreed without saying much. She led the director of the Women's Federation to check a few spots, and after measuring, she said: "I suggest that it is better to draw water from these three spots."
The director of the Women's Federation, who had taken these points, felt a little light-headed and at a loss. It was so easy... to get the water outlet?
This is different from the rigorous method of the female educated youth. Should we believe it?
Although the director of the Women's Federation was reluctant to believe it, she had to bite the bullet and drive the mule to the stage in the face of the striking members. She took Ye Qingshui's suggestion and called on the members to dig a well together.
He Fang stood aside with a hoe in hand, with a stern face, looking thoughtful.
Sun Lingyu looked a little depressed. She had never expected such a dramatic scene to happen today. She walked away from the crowd in a depressed manner and whispered to He Fang:
"If we get water from this well, what should we do?"
He Fang said: "Not very good."
Then...what about your workers, peasants and soldiers students?
Sun Lingyu looked at the paleness on her face and didn't dare to ask. She and He Fang shared the same hatred and said, "They are from the same village. Even if we break our bones, we still have tendons. We breathe through the same nostril. We just had bad luck."
"It's a pity for our wells. If we hold on a little longer, water will surely come out. It's a pity that they didn't even give us a chance. Don't agree to such things easily in the future. We worked so hard to take on the responsibility, but in the end, they took away the fruits of our labor so easily."
Sun Lingyu's words finally made He Fang's tense face relax a little.
In their hearts, they all hoped that this well would never produce water. This idea of disunity was rooted in their hearts and could not be spoken out, but at this moment, the words in their mouths were like this. The tacit exchange of glances between them was self-evident.
However, the reality went against their wishes. One day later, the third production team’s well produced water. The first production team felt encouraged and worked even harder. Two days later, the first production team’s well also finally produced water!
Although everyone was a little timid about believing the girl from the Ye family, she was only a few years old, not even 18 years old. Compared to the old members who were still swinging hoes in their seventies and eighties, Ye Qingshui was still a baby. But everyone was too desperate, and they were all holding back their unwillingness to admit defeat, working hard, and it really made people sweat!
The people in the production team rubbed their eyes vigorously, and were so excited that tears were about to fall. Without water, there was no way to farm. If the second-season rice in the second half of this year was not harvested in time, next year would be a year of hunger and cold.
With good news coming one after another, the whole village was filled with great joy.
After the joy, the village cadres and members calmed down and began to reflect on the mistakes they made in their work.
The Youth League Secretary of the brigade calculated the cost of digging the well. Not counting the wasted labor, the cost of renting the tools for digging the well alone was several hundred yuan. It was still possible to dig a well ten meters deep with manpower, but if it was more than ten meters, every meter down would cost money.
He sighed and said: "This time it is necessary to hold a mass review meeting."
The other two captains said nothing and looked at Ye Laoliu.
The director of the Women's Federation said bitterly, "It's all the fault of these educated youth. If they had known that wells were so easy to dig, would they have wasted so much money?"
Because she got the water outlet easily, in her eyes, digging a well was not a difficult task. It was just that those educated youth were too stupid and misled people. She put the blame on the educated youth for wasting funds. If they had avoided their mistakes, wouldn't it have been easy to dig a well?
After hearing this, the three captains had different expressions on their faces.
"Isn't it difficult to dig a well?" Ye Xianjin said.
"Yes, it's all the fault of those educated youth!" Ye Laoliu said angrily.
"Let's not go on that subject anymore. Let's discuss who should make the self-criticism," said the Party branch secretary.
After all fifteen new wells in Yejia Village were dug and the bricks, tiles and cement at the wellheads were neatly repaired, the first mass review meeting of 1976 was held.
…
Both Sun Lingyu and He Fang received instructions to review their own behavior.
He Fang's face turned pale and then blue.
Sun Lingyu had already prepared to make a self-criticism. She bit the tip of the pen while writing the self-criticism. As she was writing, she buried her head in tears on the table. At first, she didn't cry, but later she felt more and more wronged and cried until she was out of breath.
Nowadays, everyone cares about reputation. Although a good reputation is not very useful, a bad reputation is absolutely unacceptable. If a person has a bad reputation, all recommendations, honors, and future job opportunities will be gone. Reputation is a person's face.
He Fang comforted her and said, "We are just having a self-criticism meeting. It won't be recorded in the files. You are not a bad element. You are a good working class person. Don't be afraid."
Sun Lingyu thought that He Fang's family had some overseas connections because of their work, and they were even worse off than she was. But she seemed stronger than she was. She had already written a self-criticism, and her words were sincere, and her attitude of admitting her mistakes was very good.
Sun Lingyu wiped away her tears, stopped crying, and wrote her self-criticism neatly, stroke by stroke.
After she finished writing, the village postman called her to collect the letter.
Sun Lingyu opened the letter and saw a piece of yellow writing paper inside the letter from home.
"Lingyu: Zhan Xinjia! Are you doing well in the countryside? I miss you so much, and think of the days when we were volunteers together. My brother hasn't sent a letter home for a long time. I don't know how he's doing. My parents are very worried about him. If you run into my brother, please tell him that his parents are looking forward to his reply."
The signature is Xie Dongmei.
Sun Lingyu had just finished crying and was in a bad mood. She threw the letter on the table after reading it. He Fang picked it up and said to Sun Lingyu: "People have written to ask, so just write a letter to reply."
Soon, a mass review meeting was held in Yejia Village.
This review meeting concerned the entire production team. The members of the first brigade felt that they had been cheated for more than a month and were very angry. An unprecedented number of people came to watch. The venue was set up on the open space on the playground of the village primary school.
Five or six educated youths, led by He Fang, went up one after another to read their self-criticisms, and accepted the angry looks of the audience as if they were stripped naked.
After the self-criticism, the angry masses still did not let them go easily. Finally, Ye Laoliu also went on stage to self-criticize. After the self-criticism, a group of more than a dozen people stood still and endured the insults from the villagers.
The village cadres decided to cancel He Fang's qualification as a worker-peasant-soldier student, and deduct thirty work points from the rest of the people. Since Ye Laoliu was a poor leader, the members of the first production team decided to recommend a deputy team leader.
This punishment was not satisfying enough, so a woman whose husband broke his leg while digging a well found a bucket of urine and poured it over his husband with a spoon.
Sun Lingyu and He Fang were standing nearby and were inevitably implicated, with a few drops of liquid getting on their clothes.
Zhou Tingting, who was standing in the audience, widened her eyes and called Ye Qingshui to look, "It's rare to see them in such a mess, come and take a look."
After the review meeting, Sun Lingyu ran into Ye Qingshui and said angrily, "I didn't lose to you."
"I lost to Xie Tingyu, don't think I don't know he's helping you in private. What's the point of relying on a man?"
Ye Qingshui frowned when she heard this. She was surprised by Sun Lingyu's unconvinced look. She said calmly:
"You've said all the good and bad things about me. When you failed, instead of looking for the reasons in yourself, you kept making excuses for yourself. Is it difficult to acknowledge the excellence of others?"
"Your well really doesn't produce any water."
Sun Lingyu was very dissatisfied after hearing this. She firmly believed that her well could produce water, so she wanted to argue with her. Ye Qingshui shook her head and left after saying a few words.
A few days later, Sun Lingyu understood what Ye Qingshui meant.
She saw a whole page of introduction to the "Natural Electric Field Water Finder" in the newspaper sent by the postman. The title in big black font read: "Knowledge is power - Ye Qingshui, a young intellectual from G Province, and Zhou Cunren, an intellectual, successfully developed the 'Underground Clairvoyance' water finder based on the principle of electric pulse natural electric field method."
Sun Lingyu quickly browsed through the information. "Since ancient times, my country's vast lava areas have suffered from the problem of 'water shortage'. Water shortage and difficulty in getting water, however, lava areas are not short of water. Clear water gurgles under the rocks, and it continues. Therefore, a pair of 'underground clairvoyance' that can detect water under the rocks has become the common aspiration of the middle and lower poor farmers..."
She read the entire page over and over again, with a very complicated expression on her face.
The author has something to say:
The water-finding instrument has a prototype, which comes from an edition of the People's Daily in October 1976.
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