Facing a stranger named Sun Hongmei, and the sixty yuan that might not be returned, Liu Zhishuang took a step forward uncontrollably and raised his hand to slap her. However, before his hand landed, he was stopped by Captain Sun, who was bringing Sun Hongmei to handle the formalities. Captain Sun quietly reminded Liu Zhishuang that he was about to divorce Sun Hongmei, and it would be illegal to hit her again.
Even though she had not been slapped, Sun Hongmei sat on the ground and started crying, asking the people from the commune to judge whether she could keep the man who was still cheating after being divorced.
The crowd who didn't know the truth saw Sun Hongmei crying and started to blame Liu Zhishuang, and Liu Zhishuang, who was right, became wrong. Captain Sun, who came with Sun Hongmei, couldn't stand it, so he pulled Sun Hongmei up and whispered to Liu Zhishuang: "Forget it, forget it, you are still young, you can't make a fortune with that 60 yuan, and you can't be poor without that 60 yuan."
Liu Zhishuang's heart was bleeding, how could he not be so poor? Now the production team only earned so many work points a day, without these sixty yuan he would be penniless!
He wanted to argue again, but Captain Sun motioned him to look at the crowd and continued in a low voice: "It's already like this, what else can you do with her? Just think of it as spending money to buy peace of mind. If she keeps yelling, you won't be able to get married in the future."
Liu Zhishuang wanted to ask Captain Sun, "How can I marry if I don't have any money?" However, because Xia Juhua had been raising them for many years, she always adhered to the principle of avoiding trouble and taking a step back, which made Liu Zhishuang and his brother less resolute, so he never asked the question.
In the end, Sun Hongmei patted her butt and got a divorce certificate as if she had won the first battle. People who didn't know would think that it was she who didn't want Liu Zhishuang, rather than Liu Zhishuang who took the initiative to propose a divorce.
With the divorce certificate in his arms, Liu Zhishuang felt more and more upset. When he got home, he told Xia Juhua that he was divorced, and then went back to his room and lay down. He was too embarrassed to tell Xia Juhua that he had lost his money, and he was even more embarrassed to say that he was insulted and scolded by Sun Hongmei again, and was pointed at by people in the commune.
Liu Zhishuang, as her son, knew better than anyone how much Xia Juhua didn't want people to talk about her family. The more he knew, the more he felt that he was holding his mother back. He was even more afraid that the rumor would spread to Ping'an Manor and be known by Xia Juhua.
With so much on his mind, Liu Zhishuang couldn't eat. His depression was normal in everyone's eyes - for a newly divorced man to eat and drink happily as if nothing had happened, he had to be very generous.
Liu Zhiquan did share some news at the dinner table. The production team had notified all members that they would not work in the afternoon and would go to the production team to participate in the election of the new production team leader. Xia Juhua felt that she had already had a chaotic morning, but she didn't expect that the production team was not much better than she was:
It turned out that after Sun said that she had reported him to the brigade, Liu Erzhuang thought about it carefully and discussed it with Li Daya. He felt that it would be better for him not to be the production team leader. In the past, Sun had always asked Liu Erzhuang to assign light work to Liu Sizhuang and his wife because he was the production team leader. The members of the commune did not say it to his face, but they were quite dissatisfied.
Now that the family business has been divided, Liu Erzhuang will certainly not listen to Sun anymore. By then, the old lady will sit at the door and curse or cry three times a day. It would be better for Liu Erzhuang not to be the production team leader.
So Liu Erzhuang went to the brigade himself and asked to quit his job as production team leader. The brigade leader Li Changshun scolded him but failed to change Liu Erzhuang's mind. Considering his mother and brother who were holding him back, Li Changshun had to agree to Liu Erzhuang's request.
The production team leader said that the cadres were not cadres, but their ability was related to the dividends and food of every family in a production team. Didn't Ping'an Village get the job of carrying food packages at the grain station? Other production teams had to just watch? To be a production team leader, one had to be upright and have some prestige. Otherwise, if the wife of the eastern family didn't work and the brothers of the western family didn't get along, the production team leader wouldn't be able to calm them down.
Therefore, the brigade wanted to let the members of the Ping'anzhuang production team elect a production team leader themselves, so as to avoid the brigade designating someone to go to the commune to report the wrongdoings - the Ping'an brigade had Liu Sizhuang, and Li Changshun had already lost face in the commune, so he did not want to go to the commune for a lecture for the time being.
Hearing that they could elect their own production team leader, the people of Ping An Village thought it was a new thing, and they arrived early and in a very orderly manner. Xia Juhua never came forward, and she found a corner with a shoe sole and slowly started sewing.
After a while, Li Changwang's family came over and asked, "Mrs. Liu, who do you think is suitable to be the production team leader?"
Xia Juhua looked at her in surprise and said, "It doesn't matter who is the production team leader." She was just someone who did what she was told.
Seeing her reaction, Li Changwang's family was very worried about Xia Juhua: "How can it be the same? If Liu Erzhuang is still the production team leader, you can still be credited with eight points for making mats, and we can also be credited with six points. If it were someone else, who knows if the work points would be reduced."
Xia Juhua felt that no matter who became the production team leader, Li Changwang's family would have no reason to worry - the current production team's tasks included repairing the canal and weaving mats. Whether the canal repair was useful or not would only be known later, but weaving mats could bring in cash. As long as the new production team leader was not crazy, he would not dare to offend these women who weaved mats.
If the work points are really reduced, the women may not dare to refuse to be included in the work, and they may slack off on work or take a few more days off. The accountant of the production team will settle the account for the team leader.
Soon, Xia Juhua was surrounded by several women who were weaving mats together. Everyone had the same worries as Li Changwang's family. They talked about who in the production team was willing to work hard, who was good at farming, and who was selfish and wanted to move all the reserve grain back to his home if he became the production team leader...
The women insisted that she say who was more suitable, as if they would choose whoever Xia Juhua said. Xia Juhua couldn't figure it out. She didn't join the women's topic, so why did they keep coming to her to talk about this matter? They were so annoyed that they couldn't sew the soles of their shoes. They had to wrap the hemp rope around the soles neatly. After thinking for a while, they said, "In the end, it will be decided by the whole team."
Li Changwang's wife snorted in disappointment: "The brigade has decided. Since we are allowed to choose for ourselves, it depends on whether the members support it or not." She rolled her eyes and said something that made Xia Juhua uneasy:
"In fact, you are more capable than anyone else. I would say you should be the production team leader. Anyway, you have done a lot of men's work in the past. You are good at everything. You are also good at weaving mats for women. You can do the work of both men and women. No one is more suitable than you."
Originally, Li Changwang's family just said this out of courtesy, but the women who heard it looked at Xia Juhua with shining eyes: Why didn't they think of this? If Xia Juhua became the production team leader and she also helped to weave mats, she would definitely not reduce her work points for weaving mats, and she might even increase them.
The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. The women all clamored that they would choose Xia Juhua, which made Xia Juhua laugh and cry: "Please don't make it difficult for me. When a team leader is really chosen, he will hate me to death and make things difficult for me. Besides, the production team leaders in the eight villages are all men. There is no woman who can be a production team leader."
"Old people also say that women can hold up half the sky. Don't forget that you are Xia Juhua." Li Changwang's wife remembered the first sentence the most, because she always won with this sentence when she quarreled with Li Changwang. The second sentence was added by her on the spur of the moment. She had no intention of mocking Xia Juhua at all. Instead, she hoped that Xia Juhua would remember that she was no worse than men at work.
The other women gradually came over after hearing what they were saying. They were surprised at first, but then they thought it was a good idea: everyone already knew that the women who weaved mats would earn work points, and everyone wanted to earn those six work points that day, but not everyone knew how to weave mats.
If Xia Juhua became the production team leader, would she not teach someone who wanted to learn how to weave mats? Wouldn't a production team leader be selfless?
Besides, Xia Juhua is a woman, and people are more tolerant towards women. If I want to ask for leave, it would be more convenient to tell her than to the male production team leader.
Just like that, the women unexpectedly came to the same conclusion. Some of them even secretly told their husbands to choose Xia Juhua as the production team leader.
When Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang heard the news, several members had already agreed to their women's request. The reason was that they had worked with Xia Juhua before and knew that she was proficient in all kinds of farm work, no worse than male laborers, and was a decent person with no selfish motives. Instead of choosing someone with strong selfish motives, it would be better to let Xia Juhua be the production team leader:
If Xia Juhua does not meet their expectations in any way, they can still say that a woman knows nothing and should just listen to them. Wouldn't that be like them becoming the production team leaders themselves?
The Liu brothers looked at each other in bewilderment. Their mother wanted to be the production team leader, and few of them objected? But their mother was a woman, and it was fine for her to be the head of the family, but could she be the head of a production team?
When the brigade cadres heard the members say Xia Juhua's name one by one, they were stunned. They wondered if the members of Ping'an Village were crazy to choose a woman as the production team leader.
As more and more people proposed this, those who were not used to women being production team leaders gradually became silent, and everyone waited for the team to make a decision. Li Changshun's face was very unpleasant, and he directly called Xia Juhua's name:
"Xia Juhua, everyone has chosen you to be the production team leader. Can you do it?"
Whether it was Sun Zhaodi or Li Changwang's family, they were all nudging Xia Juhua with their elbows. Xia Juhua herself was very unsure. She looked up at Li Changshun and Liu Liqun who were smoking behind the table and asked pitifully, "Can I do it?"
It's not okay at first glance!
Li Changshun had never dealt with Xia Juhua. He had only heard about her separation from the Liu family and her nickname "Xia Xiaohuo". Now he saw that she couldn't even speak a complete sentence. She shook her head and said, "Xia Juhua herself thinks..."
“要不，我試試？”夏菊花在李常旺家的提出讓她做生産隊長的時候，頭一個想到的不是麻煩事多了，而是明年的旱災，如果自己當了生産隊長，讓大家早做準備的話，說不定信的人能多一點兒。
她嘗過挨餓的滋味，太知道餓狠了的人，為了一口吃的，啥臉面、啥羞恥都能不在乎。小偷小摸算什麽，那三年連為了搶一塊饅頭打死人的事都出過。
夏菊花知道明年的旱災跟那三年沒法比，可別人不知道。那三年對饑餓的記憶，刻進了經歷過的人的骨頭裏，有一點兒征兆就能讓人不顧一切去搶、去奪。她不想再看到那樣的場面，所以兩輩子都不肯出頭的夏菊花，試探的說出一句“我試試”。
說這三個字的時候，夏菊花真是抱着試試的心态，大隊不同意，将來鬧災她可以對自己說自己努力過，是大隊不同意。等到說出口之後，她倒希望大隊能同意了。
不就是幹活嗎，她還能幹！
夏菊花心裏猛的升出一股子豪情來：比起上輩子，這輩子好些事都在往好了變，說不定能變得更好呢。變差，差還能差過上輩子喝藥去？！
夏菊花絕不肯承認，教給婦女們編新席讓她們長了工分，眼看着上輩子曾對自己指指點點的婦女們，在孫家人找她麻煩的時候，那麽實心實意護着她，讓她不忍心眼睜睜看着她們為一塊餅子、一個紅薯犯愁。
李長順則以為自己聽錯了，問：“你說啥？”
夏菊花的聲音變得堅定起來：“既然大夥信任我，我想試試。”
全場靜默了下來，包括剛才鬧着推舉夏菊花當生産隊長的婦女們。在場的大隊幹部可能不知道，社員們從夏菊花嫁到平安莊，已經跟她打了二十多年的交道，都知道她有多不願意招惹事。
除了劉大壯死那年，她帶着兩個兒子背着幾個破包袱離開老劉家，很少聽到她說話說的這麽硬氣。
剛才夏菊花說話的口氣，跟她離開老劉家院子前說的那幾句話的口氣一模一樣。那時聽到的人都以為夏菊花在賭氣，用不了多久，不是把兩個孩子推還給老劉家自己回娘家，就是領着兩個兒子拉棍子要飯去。
十年過去了，在平安莊的人看來，夏菊花家的日子不說是一等一的，也不比別人家差。是，她小兒子剛離婚了，可那是孫紅梅不着調，跟夏菊花有什麽關系。
想到這些的人，都覺得夏菊花說的試試，似乎很可行。竟然是男人那頭不知誰喊了一句：“我覺得該讓夏小夥試試。”
劉志全和劉志雙兩個四下轉着腦袋，想看看是誰喊的，偏偏身邊的人一個跟着一個喊着夏小夥，上哪兒找頭一個喊的人去。
可是他們的娘能行嗎？
劉家兩兄弟覺得夏菊花不行，大隊同樣覺得讓夏菊花當生産隊長就是個笑話。李長順黑着一張臉拍着桌子喊：“安靜，都安靜點兒。生産隊長是鬧着玩兒的，生産任務那麽重，大冬天的都得修渠，夏菊花一個婦女能安排好生産？”
“大隊長，夏小夥能行。她就是今年兩個兒媳婦都娶到家了，才沒去修渠，往年她都跟着我們一起修渠呢。”
“她不光會修渠，犁地、打壟、下種、看天時，夏小夥樣樣都會。”
“人家夏小夥編的新席，供銷社一張多給五毛錢，從我們生産隊一下訂了二百張。”
“夏小夥可會算計了，她們家樣樣都不落後，日子越過越好，說不定她當了生産隊長，我們大家都跟着越過越好呢。”
劉力群天天各生産隊走動，因為劉大壯的關系一直關注劉家，對夏菊花的情況知道的不少，趁着大家給夏菊花評功擺好，湊到李長順耳邊說給他聽。
李長順還是有些不信，不高興的問：“光會算計自己家的小日子有啥用，一個小家能跟生産隊比？”平安莊是不大，可也有百來戶人家，夏菊花一個婦女能支應得動？
下頭李常旺家的還在捅咕夏菊花，想讓她再跟李長順表一表決心，好讓李長順同意她真當生産隊長。夏菊花卻又沉默下來，只看着已經急的站起來繞着桌子轉圈的李長順。
“我們就想讓夏菊花當生産隊長，別人幹都不行。”又有人見李長順一直不同意，起哄似的喊了一句，竟然得到了一片應和聲。
李長順黑着臉看着社員們，慢慢的起哄的人不敢出聲了：生産隊長拿工分卡社員，大隊的章則決定你家的孩子能不能參軍招工。就連開個結婚證明，都得大隊蓋章呢，得罪了大隊長，不給你蓋章，看你小子咋辦。
“夏菊花，你覺得自己真能當好這個生産隊長？”李長順看了看自己腕子上的表，覺得平安莊這個生産隊長選的時間有點兒長，又把皮球踢到夏菊花腳下。
夏菊花還是那句話：“要是大家夥相信我，我就試試。”
李長順一咬牙：“行，我讓你試試。咱們可說好了，要是修渠的任務你們生産隊完成不好，那就再選別人。”
反正修渠就是一冬天的事兒，工分随着任務量走。就算平安莊一個生産隊完不成任務，其他生産隊大隊幹部盯緊點兒，對全大隊的任務量也沒什麽影響。現在平安莊的人一股腦的認下一個夏菊花，就讓他們知道知道生産隊長不是誰都能幹的。
“好哦——”愛起哄的人又喊了一嗓子，大家嘻嘻哈哈的看着夏菊花的方向，跟着拍起了巴掌，仿佛真心歡迎夏菊花這個新任生産隊長。
李長順冷笑了一下：“那好，就讓夏菊花給大家講兩句，說說她要咋幹這個生産隊長。”他是要趕鴨子上架，劉力群不是說夏菊花少言寡語嗎，他非得讓她上臺講兩句，也讓平安莊的社員看看他們選了一個什麽樣的人當隊長。
在大家都以為夏菊花要推辭不敢上前的時候，夏菊花竟一步一步走到了桌子邊上，四下裏看了看社員們，馬上低下了頭。看得出她在努力讓自己鎮靜，臉上已經有些發紅，聲音也打着顫：
“老人家說，婦女能頂半邊天，我不敢說自己能頂半邊天，可我願意跟大家夥一起，把生産搞好，把日子過好，多打糧食，多交公糧。”
李長順意外的看着夏菊花，見劉力群也在看她，小聲問：“她是不是用老人家的話壓我？”
劉力群搖了搖頭，覺得夏菊花沒那麽多心思，你聽，現在她說的是：“是大家夥非要選我，我才想着不能讓大家失望，試一試的。既然大家選了我，就是相信我，以後我派工也好，讓誰幹啥也好，跟會計兩個計工分也好，大家可以監督我，但是不能張口就說我不公平，是不是這個理兒？”
這就讓劉力群有些不确定了，李長順倒覺得挺意外——當生産隊長的威望從哪兒來的，最要緊的一條就是公平，最難做到的一條也是公平。
天底下就沒有真正的一碗水端平的事兒，絕對的公平從來都不存在。尤其是生産隊裏的活零碎又繁重，誰都覺得自己活累想多計兩個工分，可還有更累的活，都多計了年底分紅的時候反而亂套。
夏菊花拿着社員們推舉她說事兒，就是把社員們架到半空中：不相信我，你選我幹啥？既然相信我，那我說的話你就得聽。
李長順聽懂了夏菊花的意思，社員們也都聽懂了，那個好起哄的人又頭一個喊：“放心吧夏小夥，我們都聽你的。”
編席的婦女們一下子跟打了雞血似的，喊的聲音比起哄的人還大：“聽你的，誰不聽你的我們一起跟他說道。”
說完一大段話的夏菊花，好象把能說的話都說完了，站在桌子前不說話也不看下頭的社員，更不看大隊幹部，低着頭象等着挨□□一樣沉默。
看把人給逼成啥樣了，社員們心裏的想法出奇的一致，都覺得是自己剛才推舉夏菊花，她不願意讓社員們給大隊幹部留下不好的印象，才被迫答應做生産隊長。
要不人家夏菊花平常幹的活，跟生産隊長同樣能記十個工，還不用擔責任，圖啥當這個生産隊長？
李長順也在反思，自己是不是說話太重了？咳嗽了一聲說：“行了，人是你們自己選的，聽生産隊長的話也是你們說的。要是哪天你們隊長說誰不服從安排，那可別怪大隊不客氣。”
夏菊花有些詫異的擡頭看了李長順一眼，又飛快的低頭，還是讓李長順看到了她不敢相信的目光，心裏更覺得尴尬了，擺了擺手說：“那就到這兒吧，明天等你們生産隊長給你們安排任務。”說完看了夏菊花一眼，和劉力群一起離開了平安莊生産隊。
桌子邊只剩下會計和夏菊花兩個人，社員們卻沒散，也沒人開口，就那麽看着他們。
Accountant Chen Qiusheng saw that it was not a big deal and asked quietly, "Captain, how much time do you think we have left?"
"Ah?" Xia Juhua raised her head and forced a smile at the members, saying, "Since you said you won't be working in the afternoon, then go home and get busy. Everyone should be on time tomorrow and give me some face and no one should be late."