When Han Chen helped Xuemei walk to the threshing ground, most of the villagers had arrived. Han Chen helped Xuemei to the side of Liu's mother and Liu Xiu, and then went to look for Qingya at the queue.
Liu Xiu also came today. Shengnan was due to give birth within a few days, and Liu Xiu and his family were worried about leaving Shengnan alone at home, fearing she might give birth suddenly, so they asked Yanan to stay home to watch over her. Liu Xiu had someone take over today's shift, while he and Yang Wanlin were there to divide the food and money.
Xuemei sat on the chair that Liu's mother and Qingya had brought in advance, looking for the position where Qingya and the others were queuing. After finding them, she glanced towards the back of the line.
At the back of the team were Li Hua from the Youth League Institute, other educated youths, and Liu Laizi. Liu Laizi was actually working seriously now, but no one wanted to get close to him. He had a gloomy face and didn't speak every day, and the children in the village were afraid of him.
Xuemei glanced at Jiang Xue, the female educated youth standing behind He Jing, and Li Fangyang, the male educated youth standing beside her. They had stood out from the others when they arrived, wearing brand-new military uniforms, and it was clear they came from well-off families. Jiang Xue was a lively, somewhat spoiled girl, but not one for scheming. On her first day in Liujia Village, she had made it clear why she was there: she and her fiancé, Li Fangyang, were participating in rural development, and she had also urged others not to take advantage of her fiancé.
Li Fangyang is a very aloof person. He did not deny Jiang Xue's statement, but he was not as enthusiastic towards Jiang Xue as other people.
Although Jiang Xue is a spoiled girl, she is obedient and will ask questions if she doesn't know how to do something. If she can't do it, she will receive fewer tasks every day. Her family sends her things every month, and the villagers also know that she can eat her fill without relying on work points.
Li Fangyang and the other two new male educated youth quickly became familiar with farm work, and during the autumn harvest, they earned more work points every day than Dai Dongfeng, the old educated youth.
But at the beginning of last month, the little girl Jiang Xue came to Liu's house crying and said she wanted to ask for leave to go back, saying that she had something to do at home. Following behind her was Li Fangyang, who looked anxious.
Liu's father asked her about the details, but she didn't say anything. Liu's father remembered that the commune director asked him to help take care of the two of them, and finally decided to give her and Li Fangyang a fifteen-day leave to return to the northern province to visit relatives. However, this vacation was used in advance for the educated youth to visit their relatives next year, so they could not go back next winter.
After returning in the middle of last month, Jiang Xue and Li Fangyang brought back a lot of things, but both of them had lost a lot of weight. Jiang Xue also changed a lot. She was no longer laughing every day. She talked less and became more and more silent.
Li Fangyang was much more enthusiastic towards Jiang Xue, but he was still as cold towards others. However, the two of them also became more low-key. After returning from the Northern Province, they went to the brigade headquarters to apply for a house on the other side of the vacant land on the other side of the Youth House.
A month later, at the beginning of this month, Jiang Xue and Li Fangyang's new house was completed. It was a one-and-a-half-story structure built of adobe bricks and wood, with two main rooms and a main hall. Next to the main hall was a small kitchen and firewood shed, and a small toilet at the back. The main rooms were small, each measuring 15 square meters.
After Li Fangyang and Jiang Xue’s house was repaired, they went to the county to get the certificate the next day, and then held a small banquet in the village.
A few nights ago, when Ruirui got up at night, he found Jiang Xue and Li Fangyang. The two of them were not sleeping in the middle of the night, sneaking around with a bag of things. He didn't know what bad things they were trying to do, so Ruirui secretly followed them and found that the couple went to the house in front.
This is a mud brick house with only two rooms on one floor. Each room is 15 square meters. There are only a few wooden boards, two clay pots, and a broken water tank with a slightly rotten mouth. These were deliberately thrown in by Liu's father.
It was for the two old men who were sent down from the village half a month ago to live in. The two old men were taken to Liujia Village and paraded around the threshing ground that day.
Ruirui was also at home that day and saw the people from the commune criticizing them, saying that the two old men, as veteran revolutionaries, abused their power for personal gain, and that was why they were sent here for reform. But Ruirui heard Liu's father say that the family should just ignore the two old men, not provoke them, and not hurt them.
What Ruirui didn't know was that before the two old men were sent down, Liu's father held a meeting with the village cadres and told them that the people above them should not be too harsh on the two old men. After Liu's father said this, everyone knew that the two old men were just temporarily in trouble.
Therefore, the people in the village now ignore these two bosses, do not talk to them, and do not get close to them, as if they were avoiding the plague god.
Liu's father and the other village officials didn't dare to be too obvious. Therefore, every quarterly review meeting, the two old men had to attend. Their daily tasks were numerous and tiring, like shoveling and carrying manure. They both had to go. Liu Laizi, who had a bad background, was also involved, but he had no daily work point limit and earned whatever he worked. The two old men, on the other hand, only earned six work points each, just enough to fill their stomachs with some wild vegetables.
Ruirui didn't see where they went, but decided not to follow them. She carefully returned home and told her family about it while having breakfast the next morning.
Upon hearing this, Father Liu immediately put down his bowl and said to everyone in a serious tone, "Listen carefully, Ruirui, you must pretend you didn't hear what you said today. Also, Ruirui, you must not tell anyone about this matter in the future. Keep it to yourself. You must know that we don't know whether they were wronged or not. Our family cannot get involved, but we cannot persecute them either. From now on, you should avoid them and ignore them if you see them! Just pretend you didn't see them."
Seeing that everyone nodded seriously, Father Liu went out after dinner. He went to Wu Yuezhu's house and called Wu Jianye out, asking him to persuade the young couple Jiang Xue and Li Fangyang to be careful.
However, after this incident, Xuemei's family also knew that there was a relationship between Jiang Xue and Li Fangyang, and they became more careful when interacting with the couple.
Father Liu knew that Wu Jianye must know the two old men, because during the parade, he noticed that Wu Jianye stared at the two old men for a while. Although Wu Jianye concealed it very well, Father Liu also noticed Jiang Xue's abnormality that day, and later asked Wu Yuezhu to take her away quickly so that no one else knew about it.
Xuemei glanced at Jiang Xue a few times, and when she found that she was about to discover something, she quickly looked at the people behind her. Jiang Xue and Li Fangyang found that she was looking at Lanhua and Dai Dongfeng, so they were relieved, because they knew the relationship between Xuemei and Lanhua.
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