Chapter 17 First Day at Work
When the first wake-up bell rang in the morning, Li Ruolan and the others got up one after another, and then lined up to get water to wash their faces and brush their teeth.
Today, the old educated youth are still cooking, because today is the first day of work for the new educated youth. When they come back at noon, they are probably too tired to get up and cook lunch.
So in the first two days, the old educated youth took turns cooking. On the third day, starting with Zhou Shengnan and Zheng Fanghua, the new educated youth also began to take turns cooking.
Breakfast was very simple, with a pancake and a bowl of rice porridge for each person. Li Ruolan had eaten a pancake with great effort yesterday, and her throat still hurts now.
While no one was paying attention, Li Ruolan put the pancake into the space, took a white flour bun and swallowed it in three or two bites, and took two boiled eggs and put them in her pocket.
Deng Minghao did the same thing as Li Ruolan. He really couldn't get used to eating coarse flour pancakes.
After breakfast, it was time to go to work. Li Ruolan and other new educated youth put on straw hats and gloves, wore old clothes they brought from home, carried water bottles, and followed the old educated youth to the fields.
Li Ruolan and Deng Minghao's water bottles are filled with spiritual spring water, so they can drink some to relieve fatigue when they are tired.
When they followed the old educated youth to the fields, they saw that the villagers had also come. Deng Minghao and Li Ruolan would take the initiative to greet the older sisters and aunts they met yesterday.
"Look, these are the two new educated youth we met yesterday. They are dating. They are both nice, open-minded and good at dealing with people."
"The man has long arms and legs, and he looks capable. Although the female educated youth is a little thin, she looks pretty when she smiles."
"If you ask me, the best-looking ones are still the two female educated youth."
Among the new educated youth, the best looking ones are undoubtedly Qin Wan and Guo Xiaoya. They are neither fat nor thin, both have healthy bodies, are tall, and most importantly, have fair skin, which makes them look naturally better.
Li Ruolan had not had enough to eat at home all year round. Although she had the spiritual spring water, she had only been drinking it for more than ten days, not even half a month. She was still thin and seemed to be lacking in energy and blood, but her foundation was better.
The new educated youth felt a little uncomfortable being stared at by the villagers, but fortunately the team leader came soon and assigned them tasks immediately.
Li Ruolan was assigned to the same group as the round-faced lady from yesterday. Her name was Zhao Guihua and everyone called her Aunt Guihua. Li Ruolan followed suit.
"Aunt Guihua, I really came to see you. You have to teach me well." Li Ruolan smiled and moved closer to Aunt Guihua.
Aunt Guihua smiled and joked, "Don't worry, if you have any questions, just come and ask me. I promised Xiao Deng yesterday that I will definitely take good care of you."
There were six people in their group. In addition to Li Ruolan and Aunt Guihua, there were two aunts who were similar to Aunt Guihua. Both of them were women who had just gotten married not long ago and were about the same age as Li Ruolan.
One is called Wang Xiumei and the other is called Yang Dan.
Li Ruolan quickly became familiar with them, calling them aunt and sister. The atmosphere in their group was very harmonious.
It is now August, a critical period for the growth and development of corn. Not only is the corn growing rapidly, but there are also a lot of weeds.
In order to prevent the grass from absorbing nutrients from the corn, some weeds must be pulled out. Li Ruolan and her colleagues' job today is to go into the cornfield and pull out the weeds.
Weeding is a job that does not require any skills. Aunt Guihua just told Li Ruolan some precautions and she was able to do it.
Li Ruolan was indeed tired when she first started doing farm work, but when she was tired she would drink a few sips of spiritual spring water, take a break and continue weeding.
The speed was neither fast nor slow. He just followed Aunt Guihua and the others a little behind, closely following their progress.
During this time, Li Ruolan heard the sound of quarreling not far away, but because the corn had risen very high, Li Ruolan and the others had no idea where exactly.
"He must be a new educated youth who couldn't stand this kind of hardship and went to ask the team leader to change jobs." The speaker was Aunt Cuihua. She and Aunt Guihua were neighbors and they had a good relationship.
Another Aunt Wang Si, who was not far from Li Ruolan, heard Aunt Cuihua say this and immediately helped explain: "Every time the new educated youth start work on their first day, there will be a scene like this. We are used to it."
Li Ruolan wiped the sweat off her head and said with a smile: "None of us have ever been to the fields. Some people will definitely not be able to bear it. Even I am exhausted now."
Wang Xiumei smiled and said, "You are much better than the new female educated youth. We are all familiar with the work in the fields, and it is not easy for you to keep up with us."
"That's right. The new educated youth this time include you and the educated youth Li from yesterday. You two are different from the other new educated youth. You can tell at first glance that you are the ones who usually do housework." Yang Dan also interrupted.
Most of the newly arrived female educated youth had to go through more than ten days of training and acceptance before they could slowly adapt to working in the fields.
When the female educated youth first arrived, most of them did not get enough to eat when the food was distributed for the first time. Later, because they were hungry, they started to work hard in the fields, and slowly they were able to earn enough to eat.
"For the new educated youth, the female educated youth could only earn three or four work points a day at the beginning, while the male educated youth could earn five or six work points at best.
However, after staying for a long time, the work points would slowly increase. As long as the female educated youth could get six or seven work points a day, they could almost support themselves.
The male educated youth had to earn seven or eight work points a day to barely have enough to eat.
After hearing this, Li Ruolan asked curiously, "How many work points can you get per day now?"
Wang Xiumei pointed at Yang Dan and herself and said, "The two of us basically earn seven work points a day, but Aunt Guihua and the others are quite capable and can earn eight or nine work points a day.
Sometimes, during the busy farming season, some aunts could earn ten or twelve work points.”
Li Ruolan looked at Aunt Guihua and the other three with admiration: "As expected of you aunts, you work better than us young people. It's true that old ginger is still spicy."
After hearing Li Ruolan's praise, Aunt Guihua and the others were so happy that their faces were full of smiles.
Knowing how many work points Wang Xiumei and her colleagues could earn every day, Li Ruolan decided to just do the same thing in the future, nothing outstanding or eye-catching. Anyway, she and Deng Minghao didn't rely on work points to make a living.
During the subsequent weeding process, Li Ruolan followed behind Wang Xiumei and Yang Dan. When the two of them sped up, Li Ruolan also sped up a bit.
When the two felt tired, they slowed down, and Li Ruolan also slowed down. In this way, they were busy for a while and rested for a while, and Li Ruolan did not feel very tired.
However, it is very likely that the spiritual spring water has subtly improved Li Ruolan's physical fitness, so she can keep up with the speed of the two.
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