Chapter 050
After leaving the brigade yard, Han Ting, Chaozi and Guogai did not return to the mill.
The three of them found a place to squat for a while and lit up the cigarette that Liang Youtian had not taken.
After taking two puffs of his cigarette, he felt a little more relaxed. Guo Gai spoke up, "The cadres in the brigade are so fucking cruel and have no humanity at all. The brigade clearly has surplus food, but they can just watch us run out of food. How can we survive without food?"
Han Ting smoked and said nothing.
Chaozi added: "If the brigade doesn't give us advance grain, we can only borrow it. But none of us have any relatives in this country, so who can we borrow it from? The villagers are all very stingy."
Guo Gai agreed, "I can't even borrow from the brigade, let alone from the villagers."
Han Ting couldn't help but take a deep breath and crushed the cigarette on the stone.
Unable to come up with a good solution, the three fell silent again.
After a moment of silence, Guo Gai remembered something and suddenly said, "Brother Ting, how about... we ask Chu Xia for help... I think she can help us..."
Han Ting raised his eyes and looked at him without saying anything.
Chaozi said, "She has no food, how can she help us? She only has enough food for herself. Not to mention that she can't lend us any, even if she gave us all the food, we wouldn't be able to survive for a few days."
Guo Gai: "Who says we have to borrow food? We can borrow money from her. We can't go to the grain station to buy food without food coupons, but there is still the black market. Some villagers who are short of money will take their food to the black market to sell it secretly, but the price is slightly higher than the market price."
Neither Han Ting nor Chaozi said anything.
Guo Gai continued, "Think about it. Chu Xia gets ten work points a day, which she cannot use up by herself. She also gets a five-yuan subsidy every month, and every Sunday she goes to the market to sell noodles. We saw her noodle stall doing so much business last week, so she must be making a lot of money."
After Guogai finished speaking, Chaozi and he looked at Han Ting together.
The friendship between the two of them and Chu Xia is naturally not as good as that between Han Ting and Chu Xia.
But Han Ting still didn't say anything, just took another deep breath.
Seeing that Han Ting hadn't said anything, Guo Gai couldn't help but said, "Brother Ting, why don't you say something?"
Han Ting was silent for a moment before he spoke: "She has been in cahoots with Lin Xiaohan for a long time, and we have parted ways a long time ago. Do you think I can talk to her about this?"
Guo Gai said anxiously, "Why not? She and Lin Xiaohan have only been together for a few days? She has been friends with us and you for eighteen years. I don't believe that she would forget the old friendship and watch us starve to death just because of a small conflict."
Han Ting thought about it and said, "Don't bother her."
Guo Gai was a little annoyed, and his tone was also a little bit annoyed, "No, Brother Ting, we can hardly eat now, what's the point of saving face? If you can't bring yourself to do it, then let Chaozi and I go. We can bend our waists and lower our heads."
Han Ting suddenly became emotional and said in a serious tone: "I said you are not allowed to go, so you are not allowed to go!"
The pot lid was instantly pressed down by him. He suppressed his emotions, turned his face away and kept silent.
Chaozi raised his hand and patted Guogai's shoulder, comforting him with his gesture.
Guo Gai suppressed his emotions for a while, then turned back and said, "Then what do you say we should do? This problem has to be solved, right? If you don't agree to borrow money from Chu Xia, then we can only go back and tell the others that we can't find food, so we'll do as Liang Youtian said and dig wild vegetables to eat porridge."
Han Ting was very upset.
He didn't say anything more to the pot cover, he just stood up and said, "Let's talk later."
After saying this, the man left, without giving Guo Gai a chance to continue speaking.
Chaozi did not follow Han Ting.
Guo Gai watched Han Ting walk away and muttered again: "Talk about it later? Is there still time to talk about it?"
Chaozi was more calm than Guogai and said to him, "Don't be so anxious. Let Brother Ting think of a solution."
There was no way to relax the lid on the pot, "What else can I do? Steal? Rob?"
I really can't think of a solution.
Chaozi and Guogai didn't say anything else.
After a moment's silence, Guo Gai suddenly looked at Chao Zi and said, "This matter is by no means a small matter. I don't think we three can handle it. Even if Brother Ting is very capable, he can't handle such a big thing. We can't just bear it for the sake of face. We have to let others know and let them solve it together."
Chaozi said: "I'm afraid Brother Ting won't agree."
Pot Cover said, "He doesn't agree with this or that. Is there any other way?"
***
The other seven were grinding flour at the mill.
After the flour was ground, Han Ting and the other two did not come back, so they went back to the educated youth site first.
The boy spent some effort pushing the mill and complained of being tired. After returning, he put down the flour in the kitchen and went straight to the dormitory to rest. The girl stayed in the kitchen to prepare dough for steaming buns.
Li Qiao took a large basin and put it on the table.
Chen Sisi had just scooped up half a spoonful of sorghum flour with the gourd ladle and hadn't poured it into the basin when she suddenly saw the pot lid coming in from outside the door.
Guo Gai asked, "Are you going to steam the buns?"
Gu Yuzhu brought half a basin of water to the table and responded, "Yes, the steamed buns we made this morning will be gone if we eat another meal tomorrow morning, so now is a good time to make up for it."
There was a look of hesitation on Guo Gai's face.
But after hesitating for only a moment, he said, "Don't steam it yet. If all the noodles are steamed into buns, the ten of us can only last for three days at most."
When the four girls heard what Guo Gai said, they were all stunned.
Li Qiao looked at him for a moment and said, "No, what do you mean?"
Guogai has decided not to handle this matter alone.
He simply didn't beat around the bush and said directly: "We went to Liang Youtian to ask for an advance on grain, but the brigade refused to give us an advance. If we asked other villagers to borrow from us, we couldn't get any."
Does this mean that they will have no food to eat next?
The four girls all frowned slowly, and Gu Yuzhu said again: "No, didn't Han Ting say that he would find a way? What does this mean now?"
Guo Gai said, "I've thought of a solution, but it doesn't work. The brigade cadres said that not only will they not give us an advance on grain, but when the next grain distribution comes, if we don't earn enough work points, they won't even give us next year's grain. We'll get it when we have enough."
These words were said by Liang Youtian before, and everyone has heard them.
But at that time, they didn't think that far, nor did they take it to heart, let alone think that Liang Youtian would really do it. These words just sounded like scaremongering, and they were not brought up to be scared.
Chen Sisi was already extremely nervous.
She looked at the pot lid with a worried look on her face and asked, "What should we do? Without food, won't we starve to death? Are they just going to ignore us?"
Guogai said, "They told us to dig wild vegetables and cook porridge, but we can't eat tree bark."
Gu Yuzhu's voice suddenly rose: "Eating wild vegetables and gnawing on tree bark? Is that what people say?"
Guo Gai and the four girls were talking too loudly in the kitchen, and Hu Yang and the others in the dormitory could hear them even though they didn't want to. Although I only heard the general idea, I could still tell what it was about.
Naturally, they were all very concerned about this matter and hurried over to the kitchen to ask what was going on.
Now that I have explained everything clearly to the four girls.
Guo Gai naturally repeated what he had just said to the three boys.
After saying this, the eight people sat at the table, all with their heads down and eyes sad, and kept silent.
After a moment of silence, Gu Yuzhu looked at the pot cover again and said, "Didn't Han Ting say before that he would find a way to deal with this matter? What does this mean now? Doesn't he care anymore?"
Pot Cover said, "He didn't intend to let you worry about this, but this matter is different from what happened before. Two months' rations for ten people is not a small matter. Do you think he can handle it alone? He didn't let me tell you, I want to tell you myself."
Gu Yuzhu said: "What's the point of you telling us? What can we do?"
Guo Gai was a little unhappy after hearing this, "No, what do you mean by that? This matter is not just about Brother Ting, right? This is about all of us, right? Why do you feel so at ease and take it for granted that you let Brother Ting shoulder it all by himself?"
Gu Yuzhu added in a low voice: "Isn't that because he is capable..."
Pot Cover asked, "How capable is he to provide two months' worth of food for ten people?"
Everyone was annoyed, and Gu Yuzhu spoke with emotion: "If you can't solve it, then why are you talking big? We didn't force him to say it. He said he didn't need us to worry about it."
For the first time, Guo Gai felt that these people were truly fucking heartless.
They have been in partnership for such a long time, and Han Ting has taken care of almost everything. He has never asked them to bear any pressure or worry about anything, big or small, and yet they have this attitude now.
Guo Gai was about to say something else when he suddenly heard someone outside the door calling his name loudly.
He looked up and saw Han Ting standing outside the door.
After Han Ting called him, he didn't say anything. He turned around and left with a dark face.
Guo Gai choked back what he was about to say, and Su Yun quickly stood up from the table and went out to chase Han Ting.
The kitchen became quiet.
None of the remaining seven people spoke.
***
They were arguing quite loudly in the kitchen. Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan were in the dormitories on either side, so they didn't hear everything they said, but they could roughly understand the situation.
After the kitchen became quiet, Lin Xiaohan suddenly sneered.
And he was not the only one in the dormitory, Chaozi was also there.
Chaozi heard the voice and looked at him, unable to help but said, "Is it funny?"
Lin Xiaohan didn't look at Chaozi, and asked directly: "What do you think?"
Chaozi took a deep breath, then sneered: "Laugh as much as you want, a cold-blooded, heartless and inhuman person like you, what good end can you have in the future!"
Lin Xiaohan: "Mind your own business. We can't say for sure whether you will have a future or not."
Chaozi didn't say anything else. He clenched his teeth, clenched his fists, stood up and walked out.
***
Although the seven people in the kitchen stopped arguing, they couldn't talk about this matter calmly, so after sitting in silence for a while, they all dispersed and returned to the dormitory.
After Li Qiao, Gu Yuzhu and Chen Sisi entered the dormitory, they sat down and remained silent.
Chuxia lay on the bed with her eyes closed, making no sound and treating herself as air.
Li Qiao, Gu Yuzhu and Chen Sisi were obviously having trouble breathing, and their breathing became heavy after a while.
Chen Sisi was very upset and couldn't help but say, "If Han Ting can't solve this problem, what should we do? We won't really starve to death here, right?"
Li Qiao and Gu Yuzhu remained silent and did not respond immediately.
Then Li Qiao suddenly said, "If we really can't solve it, then let's just break up. The more I think about it now, the more I feel that we are in this situation today because of our partnership."
When Gu Yuzhu heard this, he looked at Li Qiao.
After thinking for a while, she also said aloud: "If you put it that way, I suddenly feel that it is true. It seems that there are many advantages to being a partner. No matter what happens, Han Ting and others are there to support us. But in fact, we have been in partnership for such a long time, and we have never encountered any major problems. Now we have really encountered a major problem, but he can't solve it at all, and he can't handle it. It's obvious that he wants to give up. We have been in partnership for such a long time, and we listen to him in everything. Almost all of the decisions are made by him. How can it not be his responsibility that our life is like this? Before, I was afraid of offending him and being excluded and having a hard time. Now I feel that I am not afraid anymore. It can't be worse than it is now."
Li Qiao went on to say, "I think it's too unfair. I kept it in my heart and didn't dare to say it before, for fear that you would say I was stingy and that I would be excluded. Now I really can't hold it back anymore. Let's talk about food first. We share our food, but the boys eat much more than us, almost twice as much as we do. Although they earn more work points, compared to the food they eat, we are obviously the ones who suffer. Let's talk about work points. From what Guo Gai said, the work points we earned in the past six months should not be enough. We have to make up the work points first when we divide the food. If we still have to split it equally, I will definitely not be happy. In the past six months, how many work points has Su Yun earned? She has held us back so much, why should we make up for it?"
After hearing what Li Qiao said, Gu Yuzhu lowered his brows and thought carefully for a while.
The more she thought about it, the more upset she felt. She clenched her fingers and said, "I shouldn't have partnered with them in the first place!"
Speaking of the past, I think of the past.
Chen Sisi couldn't help but add, "Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan are still the ones who have foresight."
But Gu Yuzhu and Li Qiao were not happy to hear this.
Gu Yuzhu said emotionally: "Can we not mention them now?"
He glanced at Chu Xia who was sleeping on her side and lowered his voice, "They still don't know how to laugh at us... They are not good people..."
After being scolded by Gu Yuzhu, Chen Sisi naturally pursed her lips and said nothing.
After a moment's pause, she saw that Li Qiao and Gu Yuzhu were no longer talking, so she asked again, "So what should we do now? Should we just go and ask them to break up?"
Li Qiao said, "Why rush? Let's wait and see. What if they can solve it?"
Chen Sisi nodded again and didn't ask any more questions.
Chuxia lay in bed, neither asleep nor moving.
Li Qiao and Gu Yuzhu were filled with anger, so they naturally didn't stop talking. They then complained about many things that happened during their partnership that made them unhappy.
When people get along with each other, especially when so many people get along, frictions and conflicts are inevitable.
At the beginning, they were talking about whoever they thought of, not letting anyone off the hook, but later on, the topic basically focused on Su Yun alone.
After all, among the ten people, Su Yun was the one who took advantage the most and paid the least.
Chuxia heard them wash up and go to bed.
After they lay on the bed and chatted for a while, Chuxia fell asleep.
The same scene happened in the boys' dormitory.
Han Ting, Guo Gai and Chaozi were not there, and the remaining three boys complained about everyone except themselves. They felt that Han Ting, Chaozi and Guo Gai were not as reliable as they had imagined, and that it was a disadvantage to partner with girls. Girls had less strength, did less work, earned fewer work points, had more things to do, had many problems, and were fussy. No matter what happened, they would push the boys forward, and this was even more so now.
Lin Xiaohan was too lazy to listen to their complaints.
In his eyes, they are all trash, regardless of who is more trash or less trash.
The funny thing is that they usually worked together when they excluded him and Chu Xia, but now that they really encountered big problems and difficulties, they scattered. Not only did they not work together to think about how to solve the problems, they also started to blame each other and shirk responsibility.
Ten people who claim to be passionate, righteous and loyal.
This is even more petty than him, a selfish, cold-blooded and narrow-minded person.
Han Ting, Chaozi and Guogai were out until very late and did not come back.
The other three boys had finished complaining and grumbling, so they went to bed.
Lin Xiaohan didn't sleep.
He waited until Han Ting came back, stopped him outside the dormitory door, and said to him: "You said before that even if you, Han Ting, wanted to beg, you would not come to my door, Lin Xiaohan, to beg. Do you remember?"
Under the current circumstances, Lin Xiaohan specifically mentioned this sentence, which was undoubtedly a great humiliation for Han Ting.
He did this as if he had deliberately chosen this moment to provoke Han Ting and slap Han Ting in the face.
Han Ting stopped and looked at Lin Xiaohan, saying coldly: "Don't worry, I won't take it even if you give it to me!"
Lin Xiaohan didn't mean to provoke Han Ting, but looked at him and continued, "There's one more thing to say. I said I'll take care of Tang Chuxia's affairs, and I'll keep my word, so you'd better not cause trouble for her."
Han Ting stared at Lin Xiaohan, his momentum not weak at all: "I also said that it is not your turn to intervene in her affairs!"
Lin Xiaohan: "Really? Then I wonder if it's my turn to take care of the matter of you and Su Yun pretending to be a couple and going to the commune clinic to get... condoms?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
