Chapter 52
All the women weaving mats in the yard felt that Xia Juhua had a sullen face and was in a bad mood.
Because Xia Juhua had so many reasons to be in a bad mood: being framed every day, and her own mother-in-law and brother-in-law taking turns to blame her, how could she be fine? The women took care of themselves and no longer cared about the Liu family. But Li Daya and An Baoling had been helping to weave mats in the yard.
Li Daya and An Baoling had actually been feeling anxious for the whole morning, and they had also heard people's whispers. They had already stopped weaving the mats in their hands, but they had to keep them in their hands to pretend they were done, for fear that people would notice. Now they finally saw Xia Juhua, and before they could breathe a sigh of relief, they noticed that she had a stern face, and the two looked at each other anxiously.
An Baoling suppressed her uneasiness and greeted Xia Juhua with a smile: "Sister-in-law, why are you here just now?"
Before Xia Juhua could react, Li Changwang's family snorted twice and rolled their eyes at An Baoling: Why are you pretending? Why did the captain come just now? Don't you, the Liu family, know what's going on?
Xia Juhua could guess why Li Changwang's family was humming. She glanced at her and responded to An Baoling's words first: "The captain just talked to me about something, so I'm late. How are your seats going?" After that, she walked to An Baoling and patted her on the shoulder.
An Baoling felt a warmth flowing from her sister-in-law's hand into her heart, and the corners of her mouth lifted up involuntarily: "It's almost done, I think several people have almost finished weaving their first mat, and Zhaodi has already started the second one."
"Well," Xia Juhua said to her, "Try to pick out the reed stems with darker colors, and be careful when you break them. We are relying on these reed stems to stand out."
An Baoling responded loudly, and even deliberately glanced at Li Changwang's face, who looked unhappy. Li Changwang pouted like a child, and continued to weave mats with droopy eyelids.
Xia Juhua saw all of this and thought to herself that she would have to have a good talk with Li Changwang's wife later - this woman is too quick to talk. It's good for controlling people, but it can easily cause conflicts. Now everyone's mind is still on learning new tricks. When the enthusiasm is over, if Li Changwang's wife still can't control her mouth and says whatever she wants, it will cause dissatisfaction among the women.
Whether I can do a good job as a production team leader depends entirely on these women.
"Sister-in-law?" Li Daya spoke to An Baoling when she saw Xia Juhua coming. She felt even more uneasy. After Xia Juhua left yesterday, she had a big quarrel with Liu Erzhuang. However, Liu Erzhuang didn't say anything else except one sentence: She is my mother, how can I really ignore her?
This morning, Liu Erzhuang actually had the nerve to not go to work. If his sister-in-law knew about this, she would think that Liu Erzhuang was being disrespectful to her! Just for that old lady, is it worth it?!
After calling "sister-in-law", Li Daya felt her whole body tense up. She didn't know whether Xia Juhua would pay attention to her and with what attitude she would pay attention to her.
Xia Juhua's attitude was the same as usual when she talked to Li Daya. She looked aside for a moment before asking her in a low voice, "After I left yesterday, Er Zhuang didn't get mad at you, did he?"
It was impossible to think about it, but Xia Juhua was willing to think of Liu Erzhuang with the greatest kindness. Because when the three of them were in the most difficult time, Liu Erzhuang helped them more than once, and she believed that Liu Erzhuang was a kind person in his heart.
It's just that honest people are too prone to making mistakes sometimes.
Li Daya was so ashamed that she didn't even want to look at Xia Juhua. "Why isn't there any trouble? He's obsessed with his mother. He was angry with me today and even refused to go to work. I would just let him get his mother back. He should also study hard."
Do you think the Red Team's study class is really for people to learn from? Xia Juhua looked at Li Daya helplessly: "If he really lets him exchange the old lady back, will you bear it?"
Li Daya stopped talking. She was angry with Liu Erzhuang, but she still felt distressed. An Baoling was relieved to see Xia Juhua's attitude was the same as usual. She smiled and joked about Li Daya: "My second sister-in-law is stubborn. She usually doesn't dare to say a word against my second brother."
"Okay, go back and tell Erzhuang that the old lady is the old lady and you are you. Tell Erzhuang not to think about the old lady all the time. I'm counting on him to keep an eye on the canal construction for me." Xia Juhua once again reassured Li Daya.
Li Daya's temper was sometimes stubborn, but she could still tell the bad words were coming from him. Her eyes lit up: "Okay, sister-in-law, don't worry. If he still only cares about the old lady, I will let him go with her."
An Baoling lowered her head and couldn't help laughing. Xia Juhua also found it funny, but she could hold it back better than An Baoling. After saying a few more words to reassure the two sisters-in-law, Xia Juhua straightened up and waved towards Li Changwang's family.
Li Changwang was weaving mats while paying attention to Xia Juhua. Of course, he saw Xia Juhua's action at a glance. He put down the mat and stood up, deliberately looking at An Baoling. Unfortunately, An Baoling was talking to Li Daya and didn't see Li Changwang's show-off action, which made Li Changwang feel aggrieved again.
Since Li Changwang's family was going to be in charge of these women, Xia Juhua was careful not to embarrass her in front of others. She took her out of the reed wall and walked a few steps before stopping.
Seeing Xia Juhua so serious, Li Changwang's family's smugness slowly disappeared from their faces, and they looked at Xia Juhua with a bit of guilt. That cautious look reminded Xia Juhua of the scene they saw when they went to meet Liu Baoguo and his brothers in their previous life when they were called into the office by the teacher.
"Do you know why I asked you to come out today?" Xia Juhua's face regained its composure and she asked Li Changwang's family straight to the point.
Li Changwang's family was even more confused: "Captain, is there something I did wrong?"
Xia Juhua suppressed her expression even more: "You have been busy for me during this period of time. I remember it all." Seeing that Li Changwang's face was a little proud again, Xia Juhua didn't want to let her tail fly again:
"But it's no use if I just remember it. Do you know what the editors say?"
Li Changwang's wife was depressed after hearing this. How could she not know? Some of those gossiping women said that she only knew how to flatter Xia Juhua, some said that she was a dog trying to catch a rat, and some said that even if she tried to curry favor with Xia Juhua, she would not be taken seriously.
Precisely because she had heard these words, Li Changwang's wife wanted to act closer to Xia Juhua. She wanted to let those gossiping women see that she was not trying to curry favor with Xia Juhua, but that Xia Juhua needed her help.
It seemed that Xia Juhua really didn't need her help. Li Changwang's family lost all their strength and could hardly stand: If Xia Juhua really didn't need her help, those women would say even worse things. How could she still stay in the yard?
Seeing that Li Changwang's family had been silent for a long time, Xia Juhua asked her, "You actually did so much extra work and endured so much fatigue, but you didn't get any extra work points. Not only do I know this, but everyone else knows it. But why do they still say that about you?"
From Xia Juhua's tone, it didn't sound like she disliked him. Li Changwang looked up carefully at her and saw that she was smiling at him, which was completely different from her stern face just now. He felt even more embarrassed: "Captain, why do you say that?"
"Why? How can you not know why when you are so smart?"
In the end, Li Changwang's family is a typical thankless type. She listens to Xia Juhua's instructions. When Xia Juhua asks her to assign tasks to the women, she would like to put down her own affairs and finish them. This person is not afraid of offending others. She scolds other women for being nagging. In fact, her chatterbox is worse than anyone else.
If someone doesn't follow her arrangement, she will expose any mistakes they made after marrying into Ping'an Manor. The worst thing is that she has made mistakes as a member of Li Changwang's family, and if someone is not satisfied, she will yell at her.
So she was convinced by what Xia Juhua said. She shook her head in frustration and said, "It's not that I can grow any more, but I feel upset watching them nagging me, and I can't help but want to say something."
Xia Juhua smiled, "Didn't we agree beforehand that the old mat weavers would work one mat every two and a half days, and would be recorded as six hours. The new learners would work one mat every three days, and would be recorded as four hours at first. If anyone is making trouble, why don't you just not record her work? Isn't that better than offending others by saying something?"
After saying this, he even tried to make amends with fear: "But we have to make it clear that you have to inspect together with Baoling and Zhaodi. Don't just not record someone's work because you don't like them. Do you understand?"
Hearing that he was still allowed to manage those women, Li Changwang nodded quickly: "Captain, don't worry, I'm not a petty person. I'm learning from you. As long as they do a good job of weaving mats, I won't bother them. I'm scolding those who don't do a good job of weaving mats and want to slack off to get work points for nothing."
"Well, just remember it. Also, you and your sister-in-law should not dislike each other every day, so that those men will think that we women are not united. Look at Daya and Baoling, they always say hello to me when they see me." Xia Juhua mentioned Li Changwang's family again.
There are only four or five Li families in Ping'an Village. Although Li Changwang and Li Changman are cousins, they are both the only sons of their respective families. The two brothers originally got along well with each other, but the two sisters-in-law just couldn't get along.
These two people are obviously quite capable, but they just don't like each other. Xia Juhua is not worried about the Liu family or the Chen family, but she has to find someone among the mixed family with a convincing statement.
From the beginning to the end, she didn't dare to ask Li Changwang's family to do this, but she was afraid that if she went to Li Changman's family, Li Changwang's family would think too much, so she could only give her a hint first.
It seems that Li Changwang's family is really in conflict with Li Changman's family. When Xia Juhua mentioned her, she started to curl her lips. Xia Juhua looked at her as if warning her, and she said unwillingly: "It's obviously her who doesn't like me. If she was like you and acted like a sister-in-law, would I treat her like that?"
"Okay, go and ask her to come over. You have to speak nicely to her when you call her. If I'm unhappy when I see her come out, I will deduct your work points today." Xia Juhua had to threaten Li Changwang's family.
That's right, among all the people with the same surname, the one Xia Juhua wanted to find was Li Changman's family. But when she saw Li Changman's face as if he had seen a ghost, she began to wonder if she was wrong to ask Li Changwang's family to call for help.
"Mrs. Liu, what did you just say to Chang Wang's family?"
"What's wrong? Did she say something unpleasant to you?" Xia Juhua really wanted to ask Li Changwang's family right away if she didn't understand what she said, and she just finished talking to her and went to annoy Li Changman's family again.
Li Changman quickly shook his head and said, "No, it's just that she spoke so nicely today that I got goosebumps all over my body. I wonder if she is thinking of some trick to deal with me."
Okay, no wonder Li Changwang’s family never said a good word to you.
Xia Juhua looked at Li Changman's family, wondering if she should take this risk. Li Changman's family had just been frightened by Li Changwang's family, and now being looked at by Xia Juhua again, she was so scared that her voice was trembling: "Sister Liu, did I do something wrong? Just tell me, as long as I can still weave mats, I don't mind if I lose one or two jobs a day."
What a promising guy!
Xia Juhua glanced around to make sure no one could hear her talking to Li Changman's family. She motioned for her to stand closer and whispered, "Just now the captain came to me and said that the grain station is calling on everyone to hand in surplus grain. The price of staple grain is three cents higher than the public grain, and the price of miscellaneous grain is two cents higher. What do you think?"
"So much higher?" Li Changman's family is a people who live by their daily needs. When they heard about serious matters, they didn't care about the strange attitude of Li Changwang's family. They calculated in their hearts how much surplus food their family could come up with.
No matter how she calculated it, being able to take out 200 kilograms was already the limit, but she was a calculating person, so she asked Xia Juhua, "Captain, how much are you going to pay?"
Xia Juhua's voice was just loud enough for the two of them to hear: "We are all adults in our family. We eat a lot of food, so we don't have much left. Besides, if we sell 100 to 200 kilograms of food for a few dozen yuan more, we won't be able to make ends meet by April or May next year. Everyone has already handed in their surplus food, so we won't be able to find anyone to buy some. What can we do?"
Li Changman didn't say anything, but kept looking at Xia Juhua. Xia Juhua felt a little unsure, but fortunately she managed to hold herself together, and let Li Changman look at her with an honest face.
"Mrs. Liu, tell me the truth, did you also believe what Chen Qiusheng's family said? Did she really find someone who could see it and see if there would really be a disaster next year?"
Chen Qiusheng’s family!
Xia Juhua shook her head helplessly: "What's the use of seeing or not seeing? We are all revolutionary members. We can't believe in superstitions, okay? I just counted the number of people in my family, and I really don't have any extra food."
Li Changman lowered his head in thought and didn't say anything for a long time. Xia Juhua felt that she had done her best. If she really didn't listen, she couldn't blame herself if she went hungry in the future.
"Come on, look at what Chen Qiu Sheng's family is doing and let her come over." Xia Juhua didn't intend to say more since she couldn't understand - she would see that someone would mention it again, and she would have to knock on Chen Qiu Sheng's family in person - did they really think that the members of the Red Team were just going through the motions every time they came to Ping An Manor?
Li Changman's family turned around and walked away obediently. When they reached the reed wall, they looked back at Xia Juhua before entering the yard. Soon, Chen Qiusheng's family came over. She looked very excited and shouted to Xia Juhua from a distance: "Captain, do you have any tasks for me? Don't worry, I promise to complete them."
You just did a great job, completing all the tasks that were not assigned to you. Xia Juhua watched her approach, and watched the expression on her face gradually change from excitement to trepidation, and then asked: "Qiu Sheng's family, do you feel that life is too easy, and you dare to say anything?"
Chen Qiusheng's family was obviously frightened: "What did I say?"
"What did you say? Who can see it? Where is the person who can see it?" Xia Juhua didn't hold back and said directly, "Now even the brigade knows that you are practicing feudal superstition. Let's see what you can do."
Chen Qiusheng's face turned pale: "Captain, I just said that because I wanted more people to believe me and save you from trouble next year. How did the team know about it? What should I do? They won't let me join the Red Team's study class, will they stop Qiusheng from being an accountant?"
If you knew you were afraid, why would you dare to say that? Xia Juhua slapped her and said, "The captain told you to be careful these few days and not to tell anyone about this. Also, the grain station wants to collect surplus grain. Other families can choose not to pay, so your family must pay some."
"Why?" Chen Qiusheng's family was a little unconvinced: "If there is a disaster next year, what will my family do?"
"You didn't say anything else, but insisted that you asked someone to look at it yourself. You say you are usually very smart, how come you don't know what you can't say?" Xia Juhua was grateful to her in her heart, so she said everything clearly: "As long as you pay a little surplus, other people in the village don't pay or pay less, and someone wants to use what you said as a handle, you can shut them up."
"Think about it, compared to going to class, which is better, being hungry or being bitten by someone?"
Chen Qiu Sheng's family was dumbfounded: "Do we have to pay?" She had heard Chen Qiu Sheng say that the captain and the fifth master were thinking of ways to save food. Others could not save as much as they did, but their family had to pay for food. The thought of it made her heartache.
Xia Juhua had to continue to warn her: "You really can't say that again. You have to warn everyone you told it to before, and don't let it slip to outsiders."
Chen Qiusheng nodded woodenly and walked towards the reed wall step by step. When he was about to go in, he looked back at Xia Juhua and asked pitifully, "Captain, what about you?"
What else could Xia Juhua do except nod to her? She had just told Li Changman's family that her family would not pay the grain, which was a signal to Li Changman's family. However, as the production team leader, she had to pay some of the remaining grain.
With this accountant in Chen Qiu Sheng's family spreading feudal superstition, Xia Juhua had to hand in more surplus grain than she had originally planned.
So going to the noodle factory to buy wheat bran was not only Li Changshun's request to Xia Juhua, but also her own urgent need. People really should never be too sure of what they say.
Xia Juhua wished so much that when Li Changwang's family took the lead in nominating her to be the production team leader, she had not said the two words "give it a try". That way, not only could she have secured food for her family, but she would have had to worry less!
Even though she was regretting it, Xia Juhua was still quite energetic and ran to the canal repair site again. She found that the 30-man canal repair team had actually made smooth progress even though she had not been there for two days.
"Did anyone send you ginger soup in the past two days when I was not here?" Xia Juhua asked Chen Dongsheng who was doing the bulldozing. Chen Dongsheng grinned and said, "We don't let them send it. Women are busier than us now, so we don't have the nerve to ask them to make ginger soup for us."
That makes sense. It seems that the status of women in Pingan Village has improved. Xia Juhua smiled and said, "I've been drinking ginger soup for several days, but I suddenly stopped drinking it. Isn't it because I'm not strong enough?"
"No." The two brothers Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhi shouted at the bottom of the canal, and someone laughed and scolded them: "You knew your mother was coming, so you didn't need to tell her so loudly what you were doing."
Liu Zhiquan chuckled twice and continued digging the soil. Liu Zhishuang added, "Can't I let my mother see me working so that she can make me something delicious in the evening?"
Chen Dongsheng was amused. Seeing Xia Juhua setting up a cart, he took the initiative to help her put soil into the basket and asked in a low voice, "Captain, is what Qiu Sheng's wife said true?"
Xia Juhua didn't want to hear anyone mention Chen Qiusheng's wife at all, and said impatiently, "If you want to go, go by yourself."
Chen Dongsheng, an honest man, just couldn't figure it out, so he asked Xia Juhua. Seeing that she was impatient, he didn't rush to get the answer, but thought of letting his wife go to the captain to ask the truth in the evening.
Who made his wife have such a good relationship with the captain?
Xia Juhua pushed seven or eight carts of soil and stopped when she felt she could not push any more. She thought to herself that she had done too little heavy work recently and she should do more work in the future. She used to be able to push soil for half a day in a row, but now she was out of breath after only seven or eight carts.
"Er Zhuang didn't come, right?" Xia Juhua calmed down and asked Chen Dongsheng who was doing the bulldozing with her. Seeing Chen Dongsheng nod, she said, "Watch the weather for a while. You don't have to wait for Qiu Sheng to blow the whistle. Go back to the production team. I have something to tell everyone."
I guess, by now, Li Changman's family has already started to explain the benefits to the wives of the mixed-surname families, right? Even if not, when everyone hears about the grain station collecting surplus grain, they will think of the one who suddenly mentioned by Chen Qiusheng's family.
Should I thank Chen Qiusheng's family, or blame her for causing trouble for me? Xia Juhua couldn't tell how she felt about Chen Qiusheng's family. However, this did not prevent everyone in the Ping'anzhuang production team from finishing work early and gathering in the production team yard.
"The brigade notified us today that the grain station will begin purchasing surplus grain from each. The price of staple grain household is three cents higher per catty than the public grain, and the price of miscellaneous grain is two cents higher per catty than the public grain. Everyone go back and calculate the food rations at home. If there is any surplus, take the initiative to go to the commune grain station to hand in the surplus grain. The production team will give everyone leave. If it is really inconvenient for you to take leave, wait for two days. The comrades from the grain station may come to the village to collect the grain." Xia Juhua announced the news to everyone calmly and said nothing else.
The women who had already received the news had some excited and some thoughtful expressions. Few men knew the news, and except for a few with the surname Liu, the rest all had excited expressions.
Although the fifth master did not go to work, he came over after hearing the news. Hearing the men discussing how much surplus food their families could pay, how much more money they could make from selling, and what they should use the money for, he could not help but snort:
"Think carefully, how many people are there in your family, how much food do you eat in one meal, how much grain do you need in a year, don't you have an idea in your mind?" They are a bunch of short-sighted people, saying every day that women have long hair and little knowledge, but in the end they are not as patient as those women.
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