Chapter 151
It was not until it was completely dark that Deng Chunlin showed up at the brigade headquarters. He looked very tired, but his spirits were very high. He spoke to Xia Juhua with a sense of pride:
"Captain, you have heard that the country is going to resume the college entrance examination. After the college entrance examination, we educated youth will no longer trouble Pingan Village, and the members of Pingan Village will not feel that we educated youth..."
Xia Juhua didn't want to listen to his smug words, so she coughed to interrupt Deng Chunlin's show-off and said, "I do understand what you're talking about. I called you here today to hear your opinion as the leader of the educated youth group. I think most of the educated youth want to take the college entrance examination, so what are you going to do with the land you planted? Do you have any plans to study or harvest first?"
"No, captain, the country has resumed the college entrance examination, so of course we have to review. This is a major national policy, and we are reviewing to respond to the country's call." Deng Chunlin looked at Xia Juhua with a look that said, "Are you making trouble?" He hoped that Xia Juhua would understand that they might pass the college entrance examination, return to the city, and become national cadres. Why should they still be responsible for those acres of land that can't grow any crops?
Xia Juhua did not do as Deng Chunlin wished. A trace of shame appeared on her face. She said with a straight face as always: "Of course I know that the country has resumed the college entrance examination. If you want to pass the college entrance examination, you must have time to review. But that land has always been cultivated by you educated youth, and the harvest is your food for the next year. If you let it go now, the harvest of the year will be wasted. What will you eat next year?"
He had already told Xia Juhua that the college entrance examination would be resumed soon, but she was still busy with the harvest of crops in the fields. Deng Chunlin felt unprecedented contempt for her in his heart. Rural women are rural women, and she probably doesn't even know what the college entrance examination means.
Thinking of this, Deng Chunlin felt that he was wasting his time talking to Xia Juhua, and said impatiently, "Didn't we say that the college entrance examination will be resumed soon? By then, we educated youth will all become college students. Will the government still ignore us?"
When you are young, sometimes your name is innocence.
Xia Juhua looked at Deng Chunlin's smug face speechlessly and asked, "Are you so sure that you can get into college? What if you fail?"
This sentence made Deng Chunlin feel offended. Did Xia Juhua, a rural woman, know what she was talking about? She actually dared to question whether he could not get into university. Did she look down on him?
Deng Chunlin was angry: "How do you know we can't get into university? I tell you, Xia Juhua, we can definitely get into university! You don't have to look down on us and think that we, the educated youth, owe you Ping'anzhuang Brigade. Are we willing to go to the countryside? Am I willing to farm? Just wait, you will regret it when we get into university."
Xia Juhua looked at the young face twisted with anger and felt that Li Changshun's decision to concentrate the educated youth in the educated youth center and prevent them from mixing with the Ping'anzhuang members was absolutely correct.
She answered Deng Chunlin in a somewhat cold voice: "People in Ping'an Village have never felt that the educated youth owe us anything. But if you feel that you do, we don't object. After all, the educated youth have done so much work, harvested so much food, and borrowed so much food from the brigade over the years, and they still haven't paid it back. You educated youth know the details, and the brigade's account books also record it clearly."
"I called you here today because you are the leader of the educated youth group. I want to ask you what the educated youth think, not to quarrel with you. If you think you can make decisions on behalf of the educated youth, then I will go with you to the educated youth site and ask the educated youth together to see if they agree with your decision." Xia Juhua was very disgusted when she heard that Deng Chunlin was still trying to pull all the educated youth to his side to build up his courage and wanted to label her as someone who looked down on all the educated youth. Naturally, she didn't give him any mercy.
As Xia Juhua's voice got louder, Deng Chunlin's arrogance died down a little. He suddenly thought of a problem, that is, if the educated youth wanted to take the college entrance examination, they had to get the approval and seal of the brigade before they could register.
He just said that to Xia Juhua, Xia Juhua could definitely find a reason not to stamp his registration form, so that he could not register. If he can't even register, how can he take the college entrance examination, become a college student, and then become a national cadre, and finally make all the members of Ping'anzhuang Brigade regret not building a good relationship with him in advance? !
Thinking of this, Deng Chunlin forced a smile on his face: "Captain, you see, my attitude just now was not intentional. It was because we went to the county town to look for books today, and we didn't find any, so we were a little anxious. I was angry and said something aggressive. Please understand that we educated youth are eager to respond to the country's call and hope to take the college entrance examination. Don't be angry with me."
Xia Juhua had experienced Deng Chunlin's face-changing skills during the Spring Festival holiday, so she didn't care at all now: "Do you know that your attitude is bad? I can ignore your attitude, but the crops in the fields can't wait, and the educated youth must have an attitude. Let's go to the educated youth site now."
Xia Juhua said it very generously, but once she and Deng Chunlin returned to the educated youth camp and explained the situation, would the educated youth not think about the pros and cons? Deng Chunlin, who was already unpopular, once again exposed his true colors in front of the educated youth.
Even if he wanted to drag the educated youth to fight against the production team, would he still do as he wish after the educated youth once again recognized his hypocrisy?
Not all educated youth were like Deng Chunlin. For example, Hu Zhongshan and Li Youguang said that they still had to harvest the crops in the fields, otherwise if they failed to get into university, they would have nothing to eat the next year.
Half of the educated youth followed Hu Zhongshan's lead. Even if they were still teenagers when they first went to the countryside, with all those years of experience, no one was a fool and would not be unaware of the importance of food.
However, there were people like Deng Chunlin who felt that they were about to become successful. They said that they wanted to read books well and did not want to waste their limited time on harvesting crops. They also wanted the members of Ping'an Village to help them harvest the crops.
Xia Juhua had nothing to say to these people. She told them that if the members helped to harvest the crops, they would have to exchange them for food. These people disagreed. They thought that if they could get into college, they would bring endless benefits to Pingan Village in the future. Now the members should not haggle with them.
Not to mention Xia Juhua, even the educated youth who agreed with Hu Zhongshan and the others were amused by this: They were clearly taking advantage of the members, but they were also trying to make big promises for them. Did they really think the members had no sense at all? Not to mention others, Xia Juhua, who was standing in front of them, had been to Guangzhou and the provincial capital, and had never met the great leaders. How could they care about the illusory benefits in the future?
The gap between the educated youth and Pingan Village is not a small one. If there are college students among the educated youth, it is unclear whether they can return to Pingan Village to take a look and bring benefits to Pingan Village. Unless the people of Pingan Village are daydreaming together.
Xia Juhua, who was not a daydreamer, was distressed about the crops growing in the fields. She agreed to let the members take over the autumn harvest for the educated youth, but they would have to collect a quarter of the output as labor fees. In the end, the educated youth voted under Xia Juhua's supervision, and Hu Zhongshan and others actually took the majority. Those educated youth who disagreed had no choice but to agree.
It was not difficult for a team from Ping'an Village to harvest their dozens of acres of land. Even though most of the people from the production teams were now repairing roads, a production team could easily take out a dozen people to harvest the land.
The members who helped to harvest the crops were delighted to see a quarter of the harvest stored in the brigade warehouse. Without a single complaint, they ran to the road construction site to lay the roadbed.
At this time, the roadbed from Ping'an Village to the county town had been paved to the fourth level. Xia Juhua led the production team leaders to observe the growth of crops in the fields and decided to withdraw half of the people to harvest in autumn. The rest of the people continued to lay the roadbed, and after the harvest was completed, they could lay asphalt in two days.
As for the sweet potatoes from Ping'an Village, it had been agreed upon the last time Lin Hongliang came that they would be purchased at market prices and handed over to the Ping'an Village vermicelli factory to be produced into hot and sour vermicelli. This saved a lot of time and transportation costs, which was equivalent to increasing the income of each production team in Ping'an Village by one season.
Technician Xue also called to talk about the machine for producing instant noodles. He has already started testing it and is just waiting for the test results to come out before it can be shipped to Ping'an Village for installation and production.
The plan to build an instant noodle factory had to be put on the agenda.
With the example of the vermicelli factory, the construction plan of the instant noodle factory was supported by all the brigade cadres and production team cadres. However, they had to wait until after the autumn harvest to organize the members to make adobe bricks and tiles, otherwise there would be no way to allocate enough manpower.
When the autumn harvest was over and the production numbers of each production team were tallied, the members were all grinning from ear to ear. They felt that under Xia Juhua's leadership, although the work was much harder than in previous years, the results were very satisfying:
The late sweet potatoes that were planted early had another good harvest after the wheat, with an average yield of 2,200 catties per mu. Even if we calculate it at 4 cents per catty, the income per mu has increased by nearly 90 yuan. This 90 yuan income will be distributed to the members in the form of dividends. How can everyone not be happy?
Xia Juhua really wants to tell everyone that there is no need to be happy so early. In a few years, high-yield sweet potato varieties will be widely promoted, and the yield per mu can reach more than 3,000 kilograms, or more than 6,000 kilograms. By then, Ping'an Village will grow wheat and sweet potatoes every year, and use them to produce instant noodles and hot and sour rice noodles. It will be hard not to get rich.
In the end, the words were not spoken, because the fourth layer of roadbed had been completely paved, and it was time to lay asphalt. The project that had taken several months was about to produce results, and none of the members could notice Xia Juhua's hesitant expression.
眼看着就要通車，夏菊花的心情與所有社員一樣激動，把給知青們蓋章的活都交給了常會計，自己早早來到了三隊村口——路的起點并不是大隊部，而是三隊，為的就是要讓所有平安莊的生産隊，都能走上自己修的柏油路。
三隊的村口站滿了人，見夏菊花過來都跟她打招呼，夏菊花看着滿面紅光的牛隊長，笑呵呵的問：“咋都出來這麽早呢，人家交通局運瀝青的車得上班才從縣城出發呢。”
“我先帶着大夥看看，有不平整的地方，或是沒墊均的地方，趁沒鋪路面找補找補，省得耽誤交通局的同志幹活。”牛隊長的嘴巴一直沒合攏，說話的時候，因為激動都帶着點兒顫音。
夏菊花理解他的心情，畢竟最後鋪瀝青的活，還是交給了交通局。交通局派來幹活的人，在社員們看來，都是吃公家飯的工人，跟他們說話辦事，社員們心裏不大有底氣。
可那些交通局來的工人裏，很多人一個月掙的錢，可能并沒有三隊的社員高，只是大家沒有想過在這上面比較罷了——現在的時代，一般人眼裏工人的收入，總是高過農民的，比較起來只能讓自己更自卑，那還比較啥。
“來了來了。”有人高聲提醒大家，伴随而來的是瀝青特有的熏人味道，車還沒到就已經傳了過來。
牛隊長沒好意思捂鼻子，不過還是跟夏菊花說了一句：“咋這麽大味呢，咱們去縣裏走的馬路，也沒這麽大味呀。”
夏菊花心想，縣城裏的馬路都修多少年了，要是還有味的話質量得次成啥樣？現在不是給牛隊長解釋的時候，只沖他搖了一下頭，便帶頭向駛來的車迎去。
一碰面，夏菊花發現，交通局帶隊的還是那兩個幫着平安莊勘測的技術員，不由笑了起來：“這次又麻煩你們了。”
技術員見到迎上來的夏菊花，也十分高興——夏菊花現在在平德縣的名氣不小，能親自上前來迎接他們，讓他們覺得臉上有光。
為了讓光輝更閃亮，兩位技術員把夏菊花介紹給了所有參加鋪瀝青的工人們，順帶着還說了些平安莊的變化，引得工人們一起沖着夏菊花拍上了巴掌，還有人起哄讓她給大家講兩句。
那就講呗。
夏菊花召開社員大會都不知道召開過幾回了，站在人家講話早已經不打怵：“交通局的同志們，感謝你們來幫助平安莊鋪路。這條路通了，不光是平安莊的社員們出行更方便了，你們來平安莊換粉條、換雞蛋，同樣方便。所以這條路不止是造福平安莊社員的，也是給你們帶來方便的，大家說是不是？”
把幫助修路說成雙方有利，這角度有些新奇了。交通局的工人們都聽得一愣一愣的，腦子裏回響的是換粉條、換雞蛋，心裏疑惑的是平安莊的粉條和雞蛋能随便換嗎，又是咋換的？
正疑惑着，夏菊花話風一轉：“當然，這路最主要的，還是方便了我們平安莊大隊的社員，所以我代表社員們在這裏感謝工人同志們的幫助，感謝工人老大哥，幫助我們農民兄弟解決出行難的老問題。來，讓我們以熱烈的掌聲，對工人同志們無私幫助表示感謝！”
夏菊花自己帶頭鼓掌，三隊的社員們跟着把巴掌拍得山響，讓剛剛回過味來的工人同志們，跟着拍不是、不跟着拍好象也不好。
還是技術員們反應的快，上前一個準備接過夏菊花的話頭。他用力把手向下壓了壓，再壓一壓，總算止住了雷鳴般的掌聲：
“農民同志們，老人家說過工人農民是一家，今天我們一家人能一起把平安莊的路修通，是我們交通局工人的光榮，也是平安莊社員的光榮。請你們放心，我們一定會扞衛住這個榮譽，把平安莊的路修得又平又快！”
“好——”牛隊長叫了一聲，再次帶頭鼓掌。
光鼓掌路是修不起來的，夏菊花見好就收，讓牛隊長快些回村組織人燒開水送來，好給工人們解渴，自己則坐到了頭一臺灑瀝青的車上。
技術員有些擔心的說：“夏大隊長，瀝青的味不好聞，聞時間長了容易頭疼，你怕是受不了。你放心，這次的瀝青質量很好，我們帶的機械也都是交通局最好的，鋪出來的路質量肯定沒問題。”
夏菊花向他點點頭：“有你們兩在，我肯定不擔心質量。只不過這是平安莊修的頭一條路，我想看着瀝青咋鋪平的，咋一點一點通向縣城的。”
親眼看着自己的勞動轉化為成品，是每個人都會有的心理，技術員便不再勸，囑咐司機把車開得穩當些，自己卻站到車後，随時觀察瀝青的鋪撒情況。
夏菊花只跟了一車便下來了，實在是瀝青味聞多了，真的讓她有些頭疼。不過她進一步體會到了鋪路工人的辛苦，讓人叫來常會計，安排他一定要供應好工人們的夥食。
雖然現在天開始涼了，可鋪瀝青的滋味并不好受多少——鋪的過程中，要一直燒着火把瀝青烤融，瀝青才能更好的貼合路基，此時的氣味比鋪到路面上之後更加刺鼻。
夏菊花跟一車就受不了，人家工人卻要一整天重複同樣的工作，所以給人吃好一點，才能讓工人有精力鋪路不是嗎？
得了吩咐的常會計，沒有親自去買肉，而是讓工地上的社員代勞了一下，一次性買了十幾斤肉回來，下鍋做成紅燒肉，再加上三隊送過來的土豆，很快紅燒肉的香氣就混合到了瀝青的臭氣之中。
來鋪路前，工人們都得到通知，他們要自己做飯解決中午飯，所以沒到十一點，就有兩個工人停下手裏的活，想去搬帶來的炊具。
沒等到放炊具的地方，便聞到了肉香，兩人不由同時抽了抽鼻子，一個對另一個說：“早聽說平安莊生活好，這是誰家炖肉呢，真香。”
“嗯，聽說他們的口糧都是小麥，時不常的全家都吃大白面饅頭呢。”
“全家都吃呀。”聽的人咽了一下口水：“那他們的生活可比咱們強多了。咱們說是有供應糧，一個月只有二斤白面。那點白面得給老的小的留着，自己一樣得吃玉米面餅子。剛才他們大隊長不是說了嘛，可以跟他們換粉條換雞蛋，不知道能換白面不能。”
“這平安莊人也不大懂事兒，自己吃肉也背着點兒人，整得味都飄過來了，讓人中午咋咽得下幹糧。”最後一個人抱怨完，發現牛隊長向他們走過來，趕緊閉口不言。
牛隊長卻笑呵呵的跟兩人打起了招呼：“兩位同志，你們是要做飯吧？快別忙活了，累了半天坐下歇會兒。我們大隊長說了，你們來幫着我們修路，咋也得盡盡我們的心意，以後你們每天的中午飯，平安莊包了。”
啥？兩名工人以為自己聽錯了——現在大家的口糧都不寬裕，瀝青也不是一天半天就能修好的，咋也得個十來天，平安莊竟然要管他們的中午飯？他們這一次可是來了十好幾個人呢。
來之前領導并沒提平安莊管中午飯的事兒，還給他們額外補貼了一點糧食。工人們因為這一點補貼，幹活已經十分賣力氣，沒想到平安莊竟然還要管飯。
這讓工人有些不安的推辭：“不用了，我們都帶了糧食，也帶了鍋。你們借點柴火給我們就行。”
牛隊長多犟的一個人，上前就攔住想搬炊具的工人，說啥也不松手：“你們來幫我們修路，也不收工錢，我們都不知道咋感謝你們才好。就中午一頓飯的事兒，要是還讓你們自己做，我們平安莊成啥人了？”
見牛隊長态度誠懇，兩名工人有些拿不定主意，心裏其實是願意嘗嘗平安莊的飯：就算同樣沒肉沒菜，能省下自己的口糧，家裏人就能多吃一口，對于吃供應糧的人來說是很大的誘惑。
于是他們找到了負責的技術員，把牛隊長攔着不讓做飯的事兒說了一下，技術員有些無奈的跟他們走到牛隊長面前，開口便說：“我來之前就怕是這樣，才想着自己帶鍋，不沒敢讓大家去村裏借竈，結果還……”
牛隊長就有些得意：“我們大隊長知道你們肯定客氣，所以沒敢提前跟你說，其實早就安排好了。技術員，你跟我們大隊長打交道不是一天兩天了，應該知道她那個人不會來虛的，說包大家的中午飯，就包大家的中午飯。”
技術員想了想說：“那行，夏大隊長的好意我們領了。不過局裏給我們每天補貼了糧食，這一定得交到平安莊。”
補貼的糧食不算在供應糧裏，技術員覺得這麽安排兩頭都不吃虧。不過牛隊長看出兩名準備做飯工人的臉上，現出心疼的表情，更覺得要把夏菊花的安排說到明處：
"Technician, you are slapping our team leader in the face. When our team was repairing this road, we had already taken this item into account, so you should take your food back with you." Whether the food is taken home by individuals or handed over to the Transportation Bureau, Ping An Village will not interfere.