Chapter 104 Drawing Private Land
When he got home, Li Zhan was busy measuring the land, defining boundaries, and drawing a distribution map of his private plot.
On the third and fourth days of the Lunar New Year, there were no other relatives leaving, but Lizhan was still very busy. He finally measured the land before the fifth day.
The quality of the land is similar, so what needs to be determined is the question of how much to divide.
It was finally decided that adults and people over fifteen years old would each get 0.1 point of land, children between ten and fifteen years old would each get 0.07 point of land, and children under ten years old would all get 0.05 point of land.
Xia Juanjuan's family scored 0.2 points for the two adults and 0.15 points for the three children, which adds up to a total of 0.35 points.
Converted into square meters, it is about 23 square meters, which is the size of a living room in a modern commercial house. It is indeed not big and is just right for a small vegetable garden.
On the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, Xu Jiayuan took a vacation and did not return to the village. Li Zhan pretended to casually ask the village cadres a few questions about the educated youth site, and found out about Xu Jiayuan's situation. He learned that he had extended his vacation for one more day and would not return to the village until the fifth day of the Chinese New Year. It seemed that he had no intention of running away.
There's no need to rush into a fierce battle, just wait for this bastard to come back.
As expected, early in the morning on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the county's educated youth point sent a large truck to take the new educated youth to the village entrance.
There were eighteen educated youth assigned to the commune this time, six of whom went to Qingshui Village, including two men and four women, including Fu Qingye.
Except for Fu Qingye and another female educated youth who came from Beijing, the other four people's hometowns were very scattered. Two came from the northwestern Shaanxi Province, one came from the coastal Shandong Province, and one came from the closer Hebei Province.
Xu Jiayuan took a ride back to the village on a bus that was carrying newly arrived educated youth. On the way, several educated youth surrounded him and asked him about the situation in the commune.
Fu Qingye pretended to ask casually: "Brother Xu, let me ask someone, he is also from Qingshui Village, do you know him? His name is Li Zhan, he is a soldier, and his home is in Qingshui Village."
The smile on Xu Jiayuan's face froze. Seven or eight days ago, he almost got the other person's wife. How could he not know her?
However, he looked at Fu Qingye with scrutiny. Although she was not as stunning as Xia Juanjuan, who made people unable to take their eyes off her, she was still pretty. She grew up in Beijing and had an inexplicable aloof and unapproachable temperament.
How did such a person get to know a soldier who was born in the countryside and had mud legs?
Judging from what she asked, I'm afraid she came to the countryside just for a fierce battle, right?
Don't you know that the injured peasant is useless to the woman?
Xu Jiayuan couldn't help but feel jealous and excited.
"Yes, I know him. He is the only one from Qingshui Village who went to serve in the army. He just got married a few months ago and adopted three children from his eldest brother's family who died. He became a father right after getting married!"
Fu Qingye was stunned for a moment, then his brows frowned imperceptibly.
Adopted the three children of the eldest brother? Why didn't she hear about this? They weren't her own children, so why would she adopt them?
"But... this is also a common bad custom in rural areas. In a large family, if one son is unable to have children, he will adopt another son's child as his own, so that he will have a filial son to take care of him when he is old..."
Fu Qingye was stunned again: "Can't have children? Who?"
Xu Jiayuan couldn't help but laugh with a mocking tone, "Who else could it be? Just ask the person you asked! Everyone in the commune knows that Lizhan was injured in that area and can't have children anymore!"
Fu Qingye opened his mouth but said nothing.
Li Zhan was injured in that area? How is that possible? If this really happened, the Fu family would definitely not know about it!
However, she had no intention of helping to clarify.
On the one hand, although it was an arranged marriage, Lizhan was a married man after all. She knew Lizhan's privacy so well. If people suspected that there was something going on between her and Lizhan, it would not only ruin Lizhan's future, but also her own reputation. Wouldn't that mean that her and Lizhan's future would be ruined as well?
On the other hand, why would she let Lizhan's country wife know that Lizhan was not injured? If she knew, she would cling to Lizhan and refuse to divorce!
Let the rumor spread here in the countryside.
Anyway, Lizhan is going to live in Beijing in the future, so it would be best to cut off all the relationships with the poor relatives and fellow villagers here if possible!
Xu Jiayuan then asked, "You seem to have a close relationship with Li Zhan?"
Fu Qingye's face froze for a moment, then he smiled and said, "Actually... I don't know him that well. It's just that my brother and he were comrades-in-arms. When I went to the countryside, my brother heard that his family was here, so he asked him and his family to take care of me when I got there, so I thought of asking about the situation first. But I will try not to trouble his family. We responded to the country's call to go to the countryside as educated youth. Isn't it to experience the hard work of the farmers and hone ourselves? How can we always find someone to help us..."
When other people heard Fu Qingye say this, they couldn't help but look at her. They felt that this person was... quite hypocritical.
Xu Jiayuan smiled and said nothing more.
His return-to-city target should reach the village in a day or two, and he will be able to return to the city then.
These newcomers...wait for another two or three months, after experiencing the busy spring season, and then we'll see if we can still say this!
The educated youth center in Qingshui Village was built on a flat land at the east end of the village, with two rows of ten tiled houses, each accommodating two people.
The room was extremely simple, with only two beds, a table and two stools. There was not even an electric wire. At night, the only thing to do was to light a kerosene lamp. On the table was a black iron can filled with kerosene with the wick sticking out. It looked extremely disgusting.
The educated youth brought their own quilts because the village was extremely poor and there was no money to buy them new cotton quilts.
Fu Qingye felt so upset when he saw this terrible environment that he wanted to go back home immediately!
But after thinking it over, he decided to endure it and lived in the same room with another female educated youth from Beijing.
There wasn't any welcoming ceremony in the village, but the other educated youth ran out to take a look out of curiosity, which was considered a welcome.
As for the people in the cowshed, they didn't have the treatment of being picked up and dropped off. Three people came to Qingshui Village this time, two of them were from other nearby communes, Shen Wanxue was one of them, and they all walked here with their luggage. The other one came from the city, and the county sent an oxcart to take him to the town, and then someone watched him, and he also walked from the town.
The people in the cowshed lived not far from the educated youth site. There were several thatched huts built next to the cowshed, with two people in each room.
After the newly arrived educated youth and the people in the cowshed were settled, the village loudspeaker notified everyone to gather at the gate of the commune to draw lots for their private plots.
Secretary Zhao and the village chief first showed everyone the large map of the locations of the private plots that had been measured and selected in the past two days. Each plot was marked with size and number, and then plots of the same size and number were placed in a bamboo tube for everyone to draw.
In terms of order, the educated youth site was allowed to draw first, which was considered a bit of a privilege. Then each household in the village drew lots once, and then the formal drawing of lots took place.
Fu Qingye tiptoed among the villagers for a long time but didn't see any signs of a fierce battle, and couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.
She knew that Li Zhan had come back to celebrate the New Year, and she didn't know if it was because of what the country wife had been saying...
Humph! She is worthy!
If Lizhan didn't go back to the village for the New Year, he would most likely be invited by the Fu family to stay there for a few days. That way, she would be able to spend a few more days with him!
Everything was messed up by this annoying country daughter-in-law!
The fifth day of the Lunar New Year is commonly known as Po Wu, and people have to sweep the yard and so on. Xia Juanjuan was at home cleaning up, so she and Li Zhan went a little late. Most of the villagers had drawn their lots and went to check the land they had drawn happily.
She was not nervous and randomly picked one. When she opened it, she saw that it was number 31. Coincidentally, it was a piece of land by the river next to the residential land allocated to her by the village.