A shrewish old woman scolded, "What work do we have to do? We're being bullied to death, and you still want us to work? How can you be a brigade leader? You bring all sorts of dirty and smelly things to the brigade, don't you find it disgusting?"
Captain Huang was inspecting the work of his team members when he heard Erdan shouting that someone was going to beat up Yu Zhiqing.
Yu Rujia had been working very hard since she came to the brigade, and she was very conscientious. Brigade Leader Huang had a good impression of her. When he heard this, he immediately came over, followed by several followers.
Lu Kuohai was one of them. After all, Yu Rujia was an educated youth, and as one of the educated youth, he was naturally more concerned about what happened to the educated youth.
When Captain Huang walked up to him, he didn't understand why he was being scolded so harshly when he hadn't done anything. He had come to resolve the matter.
Yu Rujia seized the opportunity to rush in front of him and said indignantly, "Captain, you be the judge. This comrade came up and said that I, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, am a stinking intellectual and should be criticized and denounced."
"They say that educated youth are scum who can't survive in the city and have to beg for food in the countryside. We educated youth chose to go to the countryside with the intention of building up the rural areas. I never expected that the people in the brigade would think of us like this."
Even the usually composed Lu Kuohai couldn't help but darken his face upon hearing this. They had indeed come to the countryside to develop their careers because they couldn't find work in the city and had heard some passionate pronouncements, but they hadn't reached the point of begging for food.
Lu Kuohai was so angry that he said directly, "Captain, we came to the brigade and worked diligently, but we never expected that in other people's eyes we are beggars."
“I’ll go and report this to the educated youth settlement right away. Shangfen Brigade doesn’t welcome us, and we’re not the kind of people who have to stay here shamelessly.”
With Yu Rujia's complaint in front and Lu Kuohai's questioning behind, Captain Huang was so angry that he wanted to beat Wan Qiuju up. He silently recited "Impulsiveness is the devil" several times in his heart before he could suppress his anger.
Captain Huang: "We never thought of Yu and Lu as educated youths. Our Shangfen Brigade welcomes educated youths. This is just Jingbei's nonsense. I will find Huang Jingbei and make him come to apologize."
“Jingbei’s family is from the city. They’ve only been in Shangfen Brigade for a few days, so they’re not considered part of the brigade. We’ve known each other longer, and we all know the character of our team members. We can’t let some dubious person ruin our friendship.”
Shangfen Brigade was lucky; the educated youth who came over in recent years were either people with special skills like Yu Rujia and Gao Shujing, or honest people like Lu Kuohai.
It can only be said that before the forced rural relocation, some of the educated youth initially carried a sense of superiority from their urban backgrounds, but faced with the harsh realities, most settled down to do their jobs, and few caused trouble.
Even if someone were to cause trouble, it was mostly people in the team with ill intentions. The atmosphere in Dongyuan Commune was relatively good. There were some private clashes, but nothing came of it. In most people's eyes, the relationship between the educated youth and the brigade was still quite harmonious.
Having never experienced anything messy, Captain Huang naively believed that the educated youth settlements were set up with people who were carefully selected, and that those city people with bad character would not be sent to the countryside.
Having tasted the benefits, Captain Huang still longed for more educated youth to come. Even if only one out of ten educated youth was a technician, the Shangfen Brigade would still have made a profit.
Captain Huang, who had such thoughts, valued the educated youth highly and would not allow Wan Qiuju to ruin the reputation of Shangfen Brigade.
The local team members also felt insulted; they never considered the educated youth to be beggars.
Huang Guihua, standing in the crowd, said, "We never thought that way. Jingbei's family even said that we country folk are all peasants, and we are the ones being insulted."
Upon hearing that someone was hitting Yu Rujia, Huang Guihua, who was on good terms with her, came out of the field and mingled in the crowd to see how things were going, preparing to lend a hand if Yu Rujia couldn't handle the situation.
Unexpectedly, before he could even help Yu Rujia, he had to save the reputation of his own brigade first.
Other team members shouted, "That's right, Jingbei's family isn't from our brigade, kick her out!"
The crowd was agitated. Even if Wan Qiuju was stupid, she knew she had angered everyone. She shrank back like a quail, trying to run away when no one was looking.
Gao Shujing, holding several newspapers, stopped the man: "The matter hasn't been explained clearly. Where does this comrade intend to go?"
Wan Qiuju, though foolish, retorted: "Where I go is none of your business."
Gao Shujing: "You instigated the conflict between the educated youth and the brigade, and you think you can just walk away? It's not that easy."
When Captain Huang heard this, he felt that Gao Shujing was indeed a considerate person, and did not attribute Wan Qiuju's nonsense to the brigade.
Captain Huang: "Jingbei's family, you caused this mess. You can't go anywhere until things are cleared up."
Gao Shujing handed the newspaper to Captain Huang: "Captain, this comrade previously slandered Yu Zhiqing, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, as a stinking intellectual, which is wrong."
"Even the country recognizes the status of traditional Chinese medicine and strongly supports it. There have been many articles about traditional Chinese medicine in the newspapers. You can take a look at them, Captain."
"You know Yu Zhiqing's medical skills. She has the ability to report to the government and get a job. She gave up her job in the city and stayed in the countryside for the sake of rural development."
"I hope the brigade leader can clarify this point to the brigade members, so that no one is unaware of the country's policies and will arbitrarily slander traditional Chinese medicine."
After Captain Huang arrived, Wan Qiuju had someone to deal with her, so there was no need to worry about Yu Rujia suffering a loss. Gao Shujing then took the time to flip through the newspaper that Duofu had brought out.
Several newspapers that published articles on traditional Chinese medicine were found to add credibility to Yu Rujia's identity as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner.
Captain Huang took the newspaper and quickly glanced at the area that Gao Shujing had specifically circled. He found that, as Gao Shujing said, Yu Rujia's identity as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner was indeed very popular outside.
Considering Yu Rujia's medical skills and her expertise in making medicine, Captain Huang believed that Yu Rujia would receive much better treatment from the government than she would from their Shangfen Brigade, and he felt even more strongly that such a talent should be kept in the brigade.
Team Leader Huang: "We've known for a long time that Yu Zhiqing is a good person. Everyone in the team hopes that Yu Zhiqing will stay in the team. Apart from Jing Bei's wife from the city, no one will talk badly about Yu Zhiqing."
"Of course, the educated youth in Gao and the educated youth in the educated youth institute are all good. I will ask Huang Jingbei for an explanation for today's incident."
If Huang Jingbei doesn't make a statement, Captain Huang wouldn't mind making a bigger scene and kicking the whole family out. The Shangfen Brigade doesn't need someone who causes trouble every day.
Captain Huang's public statement softened the expressions of Lu Kuohai and Zhang Zhaodi, who arrived later after receiving the news.
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