Chapter 79
Liu Xiaoya got up early the next day and went back to her production team. Before leaving, she quietly told Xia Juhua that she did not plan to return to Ping'an Village on the second day of the new year, and asked Xia Juhua to let her know if she had any problems.
Xia Juhua didn't think Liu Xiaoya was so cruel. Just look at where her in-laws lived and you will know how perfunctory the in-laws that Sun found for her were. This time, Liu Xiaoya was embarrassed in front of her nephew and his wife. It would be strange if she was willing to go back to Ping'anzhuang.
Not only did Liu Xiaoya not want to bother with Sun and the others, Xia Juhua also unkindly gave the task assigned to Sun and Liu Sizhuang to Chen Qiusheng. Could Chen Qiusheng push it to someone else? It was obviously impossible, so he didn't bother to do it. Sun asked her to clean the pig pen with Chen Lusheng to prepare for the production team to raise pigs.
Liu Sizhuang was even better. He would give him all the manure collected from each household. As for Sun Guizhi, she was willing to speak. There were still five cows in the village. If she was given the job of feeding the cows in the cowshed, she could instigate the five cows to stop working.
When they heard about the work they were assigned, the Sun family members wanted to object but didn't know who to talk to: Just ask Xia Juhua, she has been discussing the spring ploughing matters with the two technicians Xue Lin these days. Before they even got close, some members stopped them for fear that they would disrupt the work and delay the work.
They wanted Liu Erzhuang to stand up for them, but Liu Erzhuang acted as if he could not hear or see Sun's crying and cursing. He went to work on time and went back to the east room to stay there after work, without even leaving the door.
After several rounds of trouble, Sun knew that Liu Erzhuang didn't like her as his own mother either, so she calmed down instead - Chen Lusheng didn't treat her as a human being. As long as she showed up in the pigpen on time every day, Sun could sit by the pigpen all day and Chen Lusheng wouldn't say a word.
Apart from being a little cold, it was no different from sitting on the kang, so Sun Shi became completely obedient. Sun Shi became obedient, so Liu Sizhuang and Sun Guizhi also became obedient without any more trouble.
Ping'an Village finally regained the peace and quiet it had when the four members of the Sun family were still in class, but Xia Juhua's heart was once again in suspense: even though the land had been turned over and the grass had grown above her feet, drought conditions were beginning to appear, and there was still no water for the first crop of sweet potato planting.
"Captain, do you want us to connect our canal and river now?" Chen Qiu Sheng, Xia Juhua, and Wu Ye had been standing by the bank of the Xihe River for most of the day, but he still disagreed with Xia Juhua's decision.
Wu Ye also felt that it was a little early to open the canal now: "We have only repaired half of it. If we open it now, it will be difficult to block the river if the water level rises. If there are two heavy rains in the summer and the fields are flooded, the sweet potatoes will be planted in vain." Originally, the seedling raising method was changed this year, and since so few sweet potatoes were used, Wu Ye felt it was unreliable.
Xia Juhua knew what the two men were worried about. She also knew that the high water level in the river would not occur this year - if there was no rain at all, the water level in the river would only become less and less, and in the end there would be only enough food for the people and livestock. How could there be extra water to flood the fields?
So she said very firmly: "Not only must it be opened, but the water supply must start tomorrow."
Each production team had to break through the barriers between the canals and the river, but it was not entirely up to them, because according to the planning of the commune and the brigade, the canals of each production team would eventually be connected together.
If a production team opens its own canal but fails to notify its neighboring production team in time, once the barrier between the two production teams is not strong, it will easily destroy the canal of the other production team.
Adjacent to Ping'an Village are Xiaozhuangtou and Team 3. The progress of the canal repair in Xiaozhuangtou is almost the same as that in Ping'an. Both teams have water outlets connected to the river. Whether Ping'an Village opens the waterway or not has little impact on Xiaozhuangtou.
However, the third team needed to connect to the canal of Ping'an Village and then connect to the river through the canal of Ping'an Village. There was still nearly two miles between the canals of the two teams, so even if a flood really occurred after the canal of Ping'an Village was opened, it would be a long time before the third team would be flooded.
However, Xia Juhua still rode her bicycle to the brigade headquarters to find Li Changshun and told him that the Ping'an Village production team wanted to open up the waterway. Li Changshun looked at Xia Juhua several times and asked, "Are you worried that it won't rain and you won't be able to water the sweet potatoes?"
Because the production teams themselves had proposed expanding the sweet potato planting area, Xia Juhua nodded without hesitation and said, "Captain, the two snowfalls in winter didn't even cover the ground. I'm afraid that if we don't open the waterway now, if the upper team starts diverting water in a few days, there will be no water in the Xihe River to flow into the fields of Ping'an Village."
Li Changshun was silent. He knew that sweet potatoes were drought-resistant, but they had to be watered when they were first planted, otherwise it would be useless no matter how well the seedlings were grown. So he asked Xia Juhua a question that had nothing to do with waterways: "How are your sweet potato seedlings growing?"
"It has already grown seven or eight leaves."
"If seven or eight leaves grow so early, will they survive if planted in the ground?" Li Changshun was a little worried. Even if the waterway was opened and the sweet potatoes were planted in the ground, the weather was still a bit cold and the sweet potatoes might survive.
The situation this year is not optimistic. Losing even a little bit of food is heartbreaking, and it is something that the production teams cannot afford. Therefore, Li Changshun wants to ask whether the sweet potato seedlings in Ping'an Village can really supply all the production teams in the brigade.
Xia Juhua had planted sweet potatoes in her previous life, so she nodded to Li Changshun with certainty and said, "I heard from Technician Lin that it is not the time to plant sweet potatoes yet. We have to wait until the sweet potato vines grow longer."
Since the sweet potato vines still need to grow, there is still time to clear the waterway. Li Changshun nodded: "Okay, I will also notify the small village head and let them work with you to clear the waterway. It's just that the third team is a problem. It can't be connected to the canal of your production team at all."
This made Xia Juhua feel awkward again. It was already spring ploughing time, not a good time to build a canal. Besides, the canal in Ping'an Village was built according to the plan of the brigade, not on its own initiative to build it towards the third team.
Li Changshun knew that Xia Juhua would not say anything she was not sure about, but he still warned her: "You have to be careful with the sweet potato seedlings. This is the first year I planted sweet potatoes like this, and I have no confidence at all."
Seeing Xia Juhua nod and leave, Li Changshun called her back again, and the look of wanting to speak but not knowing how to speak made Xia Juhua nervous: Li Changshun showed this expression several times, wanting Ping An Zhuang to share the benefits with other production teams. Ping An Zhuang was not stingy with the benefits it could share, and Xia Juhua also refused the benefits it could not share.
Could it be that they want Pinganzhuang to give up something now? Xia Juhua thought quickly about what else Pinganzhuang had that the brigade or other production teams would be interested in. She was afraid that it was only Technician Xue and the tractor he brought with him - using a tractor to turn the soil was too easy, and other production teams had already made sour comments.
Unexpectedly, Li Changshun asked after a while: "Did your Zhishuang see each other again?"
Xia Juhua was stunned by the question: "These days, I've been busy tilling the soil after I finished my powder leaking, so I don't have time to look after him. It's up to him. It's useless if I think he's good but he doesn't want to."
"How can we let him do it on his own?" Li Changshun disagreed: "Last time, he chose the girl himself. She was not someone who could live a good life. You are not careful this time. You married another girl like that. Are you still following them to hunt for gods?"
How did the topic change from a serious matter of clearing the waterway to a leader caring about his family's private affairs? Xia Juhua couldn't figure it out, so she could only say vaguely, "That's something that needs to be done. The production team is very busy right now, and Zhiquan's wife is in confinement after giving birth, so she can't take care of Zhishuang."
Li Changshun thought about it for a while, then he said with determination: "Someone asked me to ask, but I don't know if you agree or not."
What? The team leader wants to be a matchmaker for Liu Zhishuang?
Li Changshun looked at Xia Juhua, who seemed to be followed by someone, and shook his head helplessly. He said to the accountant who came out with him and watched Xia Juhua go away, "Xia Juhua may not be able to make decisions for her son. She ran away as soon as I mentioned it." He then asked, "Why did you choose Liu Zhishuang? He has been divorced once."
It turned out that the person Li Changshun wanted to introduce was the daughter of the brigade accountant. The brigade accountant himself had chosen Liu Zhishuang, but because he was not familiar with Xia Juhua, he asked Li Changshun to introduce her.
This was exactly what Li Changshun couldn't understand. The brigade accountant had been his partner for more than 20 years. He was a man who only spoke half of what he said and never spoke the full amount. He also loved young girls the most. Many people wanted to matchmake young girls for him, but he refused to accept any of them. Yet that day, the accountant asked him to matchmake the young girl with the divorced Liu Zhishuang.
When the accountant Chang Yuqing heard that things were not going well, he wanted Li Changshun to speak for him again. He sighed and said, "It's not just that I chose Liu Zhishuang, but mainly because Liu Zhishuang's mother is Xia Xiaohuo."
Only then did Li Changshun understand that Chang Yuqing first picked a capable mother-in-law for his daughter, and then chose Liu Zhishuang, who was divorced but had a rich family background. Yes, just hearing about Wang Caifeng's confinement, many people envied her for having a good mother-in-law. Those who really loved their daughters would definitely choose Liu Zhishuang - he was so good to his eldest daughter-in-law, so he would be no worse to his younger daughter-in-law.
Xia Juhua, who was riding a bicycle back to Ping'an Village, felt halfway that her behavior of almost running away was a little ridiculous - it is said that once bitten by a snake, one will be afraid of the rope for ten years, but she could not let anyone introduce a girl to Liu Zhishuang, so she was so scared that she didn't even dare to ask who the girl was.
Not all daughters raised by families are the same as the old Sun family. Birds of a feather flock together. People who can be introduced by Li Changshun must have a good relationship with him. Although Li Changshun sometimes has the idea of "robbing the rich to help the poor", his character is beyond reproach.
Thinking all the way while riding, Xia Juhua put the matter out of her mind when she returned to Ping'an Village - since the brigade had agreed to open a waterway in Ping'an Village, she had to get the matter done quickly so that she could feel at ease.
The barrier of the waterway was not thick, and it took more than 20 strong workers less than an hour to open it. At the beginning of spring, the water in the Xihe River was not large, and it flowed slowly along the canal, and soon filled the canals connected to Ping'an Village.
Together with the canal built a few years ago, fully half of the land in Ping'an Village can be irrigated with water from the Xihe River. Even though Xia Juhua knew that the river water would not be used for long, she was still happy in her heart - with water soaking, the wild vegetables along the canal would grow faster and longer than elsewhere, and the people of Ping'an Village could pick more to eat.
Even now, the Liu family couldn't find anyone to pick wild vegetables: Xia Juhua was busy with the production team, and the two brothers Liu Zhiquan had to do their own work and also look after others for their mother. Wang Caifeng was still in confinement after childbirth, and Liu Baoguo? Liu Baoguo himself still needed someone to keep an eye on him from time to time.
"Auntie, this is the Chinese mackerel that Hongcui and I dug. Give it to you to eat with sauce in the evening." Liu Hongling called out as she walked into the yard, handing over a basket of fresh and tender Chinese mackerel that had been picked and washed.
Xia Juhua couldn't help but say to her, "What can you and Hong Cui dig? Bring it all to me. What are you going to eat tonight?" The vegetables in the private plots have just started to poke their heads out. If they want to eat some greens, they can only count on the wild vegetables that the children dig in the fields.
Hong Ling smiled and handed the basket forward: "We dug this next to the canal that was built last year. It's a very large area. Auntie, don't go digging wild vegetables by yourself in the future. Hong Cui and I can provide you with them."
"Hongling, you're here too." Xiaoman, who had a small basket on his arm, greeted Hongling with great joy when he saw her: "Are you here to bring some wild vegetables to the captain, too?"
Hongling nodded, took the basket from Xiaoman and carried it to the kitchen. When she came out, she said, "That's just right. I have a lot of radish, and you have a lot of shepherd's purse here. You can change the look for my aunt."
The two girls had made the arrangements very clear. Xia Juhua hadn't thought of any way to refuse yet. She let them finish their talk before instructing them, "You have to work in the fields during the day and weave mats at night. When you have time, take a rest at home. Don't just dig wild vegetables."
That being said, in the unplanted fields and beside the canals built last year, rows of people are carrying baskets, digging wild vegetables in a hurry. It is impossible for the girls to stay at home and rest when there is no food to eat.
The mother-in-law who was left by Xia Juhua to take care of Wang Caifeng during her confinement took out two empty baskets from the kitchen and handed them to the two girls with a smile: "You are both careful children. The vegetables are picked very cleanly. I can see that they have been washed several times. There is not even a blade of grass."
Xia Juhua nodded and said, "The girls in our Pingan Village are all careful children."
The mother-in-law smiled and said jokingly: "That's right. Now people from other production teams all want to marry girls from Ping'an Village." They even wanted to marry into Ping'an Village. Unfortunately, this was a bit taboo in the Liu family, so the mother-in-law didn't say it out loud.
The previous words were enough to make the two girls blush, and they snatched their baskets and ran away. Xia Juhua thought about Liu Hongling's age, and it was really time for them to get married. She looked a little dazed:
"In the blink of an eye, Hongling has grown up so much. Two years after I had Zhishuang, Daya gave birth to Hongling. She didn't get pregnant for two years after she got married, and her first child was Hongling. She was often scolded by Zhiquan's grandmother, and she didn't even have time to take care of herself during the confinement period."
My mother-in-law felt that she had a say in this matter: "People like you see granddaughters as more precious than grandsons, but there are not many of them." Every family hopes to have as many grandsons as possible.
Xia Juhua couldn't talk about her grandchildren in her previous life. She loved Lele especially because she had been in poor health since childhood. So when she grew up, even though her mother always said bad things about her grandmother, this girl was closer to her than to others.
Now I can only smile and say, "We are women ourselves. If you dislike my granddaughter, it is not the same as disliking myself."
Of course, no one despised Xia Juhua. Now, everyone in Ping'an Village called Xia Juhua "Captain". Knowing that no one in her family dug wild vegetables, people sent her dug and picked wild vegetables every day, for fear that her family would lack food.
Xia Juhua couldn't refuse everyone's kindness, so she and her mother-in-law put the extra wild vegetables in a large basket to dry, so that they could be soaked for a while when there was no food to eat. The weather was getting drier and drier. Since the beginning of spring, there have been only two sporadic rains that didn't even wet the ground. The drought that Xia Juhua had been worried about was getting closer and closer.
Zhao Xianzhi looked at the reed pile that was getting shorter again and came to find Xia Juhua: "Captain, we have already made enough reed mats, why hasn't the supply and marketing cooperative come to buy them? And the reed poles are almost used up, do you want to buy more?"
Xia Juhua also felt that Director Lin came too late this time. In the past, he would run back twice before Pingan Village finished weaving the mats to see when it would be appropriate for him to come and pull the mats. This time he didn't show up. If something unexpected happened and he didn't organize the mats, the enthusiasm of the women in Pingan Village, who had worked so hard to mobilize, would be frustrated.
So he nodded to Zhao Xianzhi and said, "Let's not weave it for now, and there's no rush to buy reed stalks. They'll change color if left out for a summer, and the mats weave will look old and ugly."
Zhao Xianzhi looked at Xia Juhua with some embarrassment and said, "Ever since the reed wall was torn down, everyone has been waiting for the supply and marketing cooperative to come and hold the banquet. If they don't come, I'm afraid no one will be able to sit still."
Xia Juhua couldn't sit still either, so she rode her bicycle to the county town early the next morning. Halfway there, she met Technician Xue who had just finished filling up his gas tank at the Farm Machinery Station. He stopped his tractor and asked Xia Juhua what she was doing. When he heard that she was going to the county town, he insisted on sending her there himself, but Xia Juhua refused:
"Even though the land has been turned over, Technician Lin still wants to try out the seed-sowing device you made. You should go and get busy with it right away." If that device works, Ping An Village will save a lot of trouble.
Technician Xue was always no match for Xia Juhua, so he had no choice but to sit back in the driver's seat and yell at her, "Captain, don't worry. If you have any problems, go to the county agricultural machinery station to find my senior brother."
It turned out that Technician Xue's senior was also from the Agricultural Machinery Station, but he was in the County Agricultural Machinery Station, and Technician Xue had to stay at the Agricultural Machinery Station in Hongxing Commune because of his family. Fortunately, he was in the Commune Agricultural Machinery Station, otherwise Ping'an Village would not have received the help of such an enthusiastic technician.
As I was thinking along the way, the car went faster and faster. The scenes in the fields on both sides quickly receded, but the summer chrysanthemums still filled my eyes: sweeping in the distance, the green of the fields gradually deepened, some small figures wandered around, squatting from time to time, they were children digging wild vegetables. Many people working in the fields looked weak and powerless when they turned the soil.
The people in Ping'an Village are really hardworking. Even though they have a tractor to help turn the soil, they can still show how hard they work from the patting of soil and making ridges. The work that other production teams can finish in two days can be finished in one and a half days by the people in Ping'an Village.
The weather is bad, and if people don't work harder, life will be even more difficult this year.
Before Xia Juhua could even worry about others, they had already entered the county town. There were obviously fewer people on the street than before and after the New Year, and there were few people buying things in the supply and marketing cooperative. She had been to the supply and marketing cooperative before, and knew where Director Lin's office was. She thought she would not bother others and could just go to him directly.
Just as she was about to head to the office, someone called out to her impatiently: "Hey, lesbian, you are not allowed to enter the office area. If you want to buy something, pick it up outside."
Xia Juhua turned around and looked at the salesperson who was shouting at her and said, "I'm not here to buy anything. I'm here to talk to Team Leader Lin about something."
"Looking for Team Leader Lin?" The salesperson looked at Xia Juhua in disbelief, and suddenly remembered that he had seen this rural woman before: "You are the leader of the Ping'an Village production team, right?" After saying this, a smile appeared on his face.
Being recognized, Xia Juhua had nothing to be proud of. She smiled and nodded and said, "It's me. I wanted to ask Team Leader Lin when we can go to pick up the mats now that our production team has finished making them."
The salesperson's expression changed. He took Xia Juhua to a deserted place and whispered to her, "Team Leader Lin hasn't come to work for a few days. I heard something happened at home."
Xia Juhua's face changed when she heard this: "What happened?"
The salesperson shook his head and said he didn't know, so Xia Juhua had to ask, "Is Director Zheng here?" Director Zheng should know about the last batch of orders. Since Director Lin was not here, she had to get some accurate information today.
The salesperson nodded and said, "Director Zheng is here, but he doesn't look well these days."
Xia Juhua couldn't help but frown when she heard this. She followed the salesperson's instructions and found Director Zheng's office. She knocked on the door and pushed it open when she heard someone let her in. "Director Zheng."
Director Zheng looked up at Xia Juhua, greeted her with a smile on his face, asked her to sit down, and then said: "You must be anxious waiting. Something happened to Team Leader Lin at home, and he didn't go to your production team to serve the banquet in time. I think you should be anxious. I was thinking of sending someone to your production team to serve the banquet in the next two days."
Xia Juhua did not hide her anxiety: "It's not that I'm anxious. We have been preparing for this for a long time, and seeing that the supply and marketing cooperative has not been there to hold banquets, we are worried."
The supply and marketing cooperative was also waiting for this batch of mats. When Director Zheng saw Xia Juhua coming, he immediately decided to send someone to collect the mats the day after tomorrow. After Xia Juhua finished her business, she asked carefully, "Director Zheng, I don't know what happened to Team Leader Lin at home. I heard that he hasn't been to work for several days."
Director Zheng took a look outside, stood up and closed the door, then whispered, "You have known Team Leader Lin for quite some time, and you know what kind of person he is, so I dare to tell you." Seeing that Xia Juhua was staring at him intently, he lowered his voice:
"His brother was arrested by the Red Team. I heard that he was caught with his belongings in the black market. Someone reported that the things his brother was selling were brought by Team Leader Lin while he was purchasing for the supply and marketing cooperative. I was afraid of the bad influence, so I let him rest at home for two days."
Xia Juhua blurted out: "Impossible, Team Leader Lin is not that kind of person." If he was really that kind of person, that thing should have been available on the black market when Xia Juhua was frying sugar-coated peanuts, otherwise Qi Weidong's fried peanuts would not have sold so well.
Director Zheng sighed: "Of course I know that Team Leader Lin is not that kind of person. If he were that kind of person, I could transfer him back to the county. But it's useless for me to believe in him. The people in the Red Team must believe in him too."
After hearing this, Xia Juhua asked Director Zheng thoughtfully, "Did his brother admit it?"
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