On the afternoon of March 1st, Mingwu and the other five returned. Based on their county assessment results, Hanchen and Mingwu were officially appointed as official tractor drivers for Liujia Village, while Shengnan was selected as the village's backup tractor driver. The next day, Hanchen and Mingwu went to the machinery factory to bring the tractors back to the village for spring plowing.
At the beginning, many people in the village disagreed with Shengnan being the village's substitute dragger, thinking that she was just a girl and so what if she was strong? She would still get married and have children in the future.
Later, Liu's father publicly stated the attitude of the county and the commune. The leaders of the county and the commune saw on the list that there was a girl from their village participating in the tractor driver selection. The last time Liu's father went to the meeting, the leaders specially praised the members of Liujia Village for their high ideological awareness, and said that they would often ask Liu's father about Comrade Liu Shengnan's situation in the future.
When the village cadres heard this, they were a little shaken, but still not very happy. They suggested that during the busy farming season in the future, the two tractor drivers in the village would be very busy working day and night, and a substitute tractor driver would be needed. But what if Liu Shengnan was married and pregnant at this time, and her belly was too big to be suitable for driving a tractor?
Father Liu thought about it, then stepped back and said that if Shengnan was not suitable to play, the other two male comrades who participated in the assessment last time, Zhou Bing and Liu Chuanlai, would come up to help.
In the end, the selection of tractor drivers in Liujia Village ended with two official tractor drivers and three reserve tractor drivers.
On the fifth day of March, Xuemei took a day off to go pick someone up at the commune station with the village uncle Niu. The village had been busy with farming lately, so Liu's parents left at dawn and returned after dark. They'd come back for lunch, spend an hour preparing it, and before they'd even had a chance to sit down and rest, they'd be back to work. Liu's father couldn't spare the time, so Xuemei went to pick up the two military doctors on his behalf.
After breakfast around 7:00 this morning, Xuemei went up the mountain to gather grass for the pigs. Ruirui and Feifei were going to junior high school in the second half of the year, so the family only had one pig. As soon as Xuemei reached the mountain, she met Li Quanmin. Li Quanmin's legs were almost fully healed, so he had caught two pigs and had also been assigned to the village to gather grass for the pigs, earning four work points a day.
"Quanmin, you're up the mountain so early!" Xuemei said to Li Quanmin, who was hunched over and cutting grass for pigs in front of her.
"Sister Xuemei, I come early because I walk slowly. Now I have pigs at home, and I have to collect five or six baskets of pig grass a day, plus the grass given to the villagers!" Li Quanmin turned around and said.
"Okay, then you take your time here, I'll go over there and see if there are any ferns!" Xuemei said and walked to the other side.
After Xuemei filled a basket with pig grass, she secretly put about another basket into the space before starting to pick ferns. After picking a sack of ferns and filling about half a sack into the space, she hurried home.
It was almost twelve o'clock when she got home. Xuemei put the things in the space out and pushed them to the corner of the kitchen, then started to cook lunch.
Xuemei was still cooking when Liu's father and mother came back.
"Xuemei, did you go to pick ferns today?" Liu's mother said as she filled a basin with water.
"Well, we've almost eaten up the ones we dried last year! Hey? Mom, you picked some Chinese toon today! Let's cook them together tonight." Xuemei looked up and saw a handful of Chinese toon leaves on the table.
"Your stepmother gave it to me. Your father plans to entertain the two military doctors tonight. You can fry an egg with Chinese toon sauce and some bacon, and then you can supervise the cooking of some vegetables!" After washing her hands, Liu's mother handed the basin to Liu's father.
"Xuemei, make another steamed egg custard. They brought a child with them!" Father Liu reminded.
"Okay, Dad! Mom, please bring the rice out first! We can eat after I finish cooking this dish!" Xuemei nodded and said.
…
At around 1:20 in the afternoon, Uncle Niu called Xuemei outside the house. Xuemei took the kettle that had just been filled with boiling water, closed the door and went out.
Xuemei and Uncle Niu waited at the commune bus station for more than ten minutes before the bus arrived.
When most people had gotten off the car, I saw two people, one old and one young, of similar height, each wearing an old military uniform, getting off the car.
Xuemei and Uncle Niu hurried forward. When Xuemei got closer, she found that the old man looked to be about sixty years old, with a crew cut, and most of his hair was white. He had a tall and straight figure and moved with agile movements. He held a wicker box in each hand and carried two iron pots, one large and one small, on his back.
The younger one was about 1.73 meters tall, with short hair, fair skin, and delicate features. He looked like a handsome young man. He was carrying a package in one hand and had a child tied to his chest.
The child's face was facing Xuemei. She was wearing a red hat and sleeping soundly. Her little face was white and chubby.
Xuemei stepped forward, extending her hand, and said, "Hello, comrades! Are you coming to Liujia Village to join the production team? I'm Liu Xuemei, the daughter of the village chief. Spring plowing is underway, and my father really can't spare the time to come pick you up. So, Uncle Niu and I are here to take you back to the village!"
The younger one put down the two packages, reached out and shook Xuemei's hand, saying, "Hello, Comrade Liu Xuemei. I'm Wu Yuezhu, and this is my daughter, Wu Xingqiao."
Wu Yuezhu released Xuemei's hand and pointed at the old man next to him and said, "This is my grandfather, Wu Jianye."
Xuemei only realized it was a girl when she heard Wu Yuezhu's voice. No wonder she had felt strange and out of place. Didn't Liu's father clearly tell her there were two military doctors, one male and one female? It turned out she had been mistaken, mainly because it was the first time Xuemei had seen a girl that tall.
"Comrade Liu Xuemei, Comrade Niu, hello! Farming is the most important thing, we understand, thank you for coming to pick us up!" Wu Jianye said kindly.
"It's okay, Grandpa Wu, Sister Wu, if you don't mind, I'll call you that. You can just call me Xuemei. We'll help you carry your things up!" After saying that, Xuemei went to take the two boxes from Wu Jianye's hands.
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