Chapter 125 Take Back the Money That Belongs to Lizhan
After the Great Strange Stories, there is a solar term every half a month, namely the Spring Equinox and the Pure Brightness, and the next one is the Grain Rain.
The farm work from the Spring Equinox to the Qingming Festival is relatively not that heavy. It mainly involves weeding the wheat that has survived the winter, sowing spring corn and potatoes, and raising seedlings of sweet potatoes, cotton, etc. to be planted around the Grain Rain.
The real busyness starts around the Grain Rain season when sweet potatoes need to be planted in time.
In those days, grain production per mu was not high, and "one season of sweet potatoes provided half a year's grain." If you missed the planting time, the sweet potatoes would only grow vines but not sweet potatoes, and that season would be wasted.
In addition, crops such as cotton, millet, sorghum, and mung beans should be planted in time before and after the Qingming and Grain Rain seasons.
Not long after the shock, the commune began to draw lots to allocate farm work on a village basis.
Xia Juanjuan got a job breeding cotton and sweet potatoes.
This is an easy job, the seedbeds are ready, and the area is only one or two mu, unlike other crops such as early corn, early potatoes, and soybeans, where one mu is half an mu and eight mu per person. But correspondingly, the work points earned in a day are also less.
The work to be done is to plant the cotton seeds and the sweet potato tubers selected for seedling cultivation into the soil to prevent drought and pecking by birds. Also, check the germination status every day and replant the dead seedlings in time so as not to miss the opportunity to transplant them into the field later.
Xia Juanjuan had never done farm work before she traveled through time, but the original owner had done everything. Although there is still a gap between her memory and reality, relying on these memories and experience, Xia Juanjuan still completed the task very well and could earn six work points a day.
After completing the farm work in the commune, Xia Juanjuan went to grow vegetables in her private plot.
The spinach planted in winter can be grown until March or April, so Xia Juanjuan left a small plot of spinach field and picked all the rest. She gave some to Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru, and also sent some to the cowshed.
The vacant land was turned over and irrigated, and then planted with green vegetables, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, romaine lettuce, onions, garlic sprouts, eggplant, leeks, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. Not much of each was planted, mainly to have a name, so that they could be supplemented later by taking out supplies from the space.
In addition, two fields were reserved for planting cowpeas, sword beans, winter melons, pumpkins and the like later. They would be planted around the Qingming Festival, which is the so-called "planting melons and beans".
The three little guys were not idle either. Xia Juanjuan didn't need the one or two work points they earned, so she didn't let them go to the fields to water the plants.
When she was tending to her private plot, these three would help sow seeds, water them with buckets, cover the seeds with soil, etc.
There was also a person who took a small hoe and carried a small bamboo basket to dig wild vegetables on the ridge of the field.
Shepherd's purse, amaranth, wild sesame amaranth, etc. have gradually grown.
There are also ferns that are only found in the mountains, but this year Xia Juanjuan was afraid that it would be dangerous for them to go into the mountains, so she didn't pick any.
Anyway, with the addition of spring ploughing, the days in summer are not much different from those in winter and are still quite comfortable and fulfilling.
On the contrary, Liu Lan and Li Qiaoqiao are quite miserable.
Liu Lan was reluctant to give up the five yuan a month, and finally, under the witness of the commune, her second son Li Qiang separated from her.
As a result, she and Li Qiaoqiao could only do the farm work assigned to them.
Their luck was average; they drew lots for seed potatoes, half an acre each.
This job is not difficult, just tiring.
Potatoes are easy to grow. Just plow the land with a hoe, cut the stored potato seeds into several large pieces, bury them in the soil, and then water them.
How many years had they not done farm work? Especially Li Qiaoqiao, who had been spoiled by Liu Lan since she was little, and didn't even know what to plant and harvest throughout the year, she only knew how to eat.
Now when she was asked to turn the soil with a hoe, her movements were so stiff and ugly, and she kept hitting her feet, causing her to jump and scream in pain!
The mother and daughter had not been working for a while when they started complaining about being tired and sat down to rest.
Within a few days, he became the laughing stock of the entire commune and was criticized by the village brigade cadres.
In addition to making fun of the two lazy guys, the villagers also spread rumors about Li Qiaoqiao.
Li Qiaoqiao started hooking up with Xu Jiayuan at the end of last year. It has been three or four months now. Isn't she starting to show signs of being pregnant?
"Oh my! An unmarried girl, with such a heavy body, has no shame in not thinking of a way to beat her!"
"That's right! Even a child can see it now. I'm afraid no man will want her in the future!"
"I heard that the seed in her belly is from the educated youth who was arrested some time ago? Sigh... What's the point of keeping the seed of a labor camp prisoner? How stupid...!"
Li Qiaoqiao was extremely anxious when she heard the rumors pointing fingers at her.
The child cannot be aborted. She was still hoping to use the child to force Xu Jiayuan to marry her and take her back to the city to work as a worker!
Now Xu Jiayuan has been arrested, but Wang Dajun, the educated youth at the educated youth point, said that he could be rescued for 200 yuan!
If she really rescued Xu Jiayuan, wouldn't he be grateful to her and marry her immediately?
She had to get the two hundred yuan quickly, otherwise she would get married with a big belly. It didn't matter what the villagers thought of her, but what would her future mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and neighbors in the city think of her? !
Thinking of this, Li Qiaoqiao glanced at Liu Lan gloomily.
Liu Lan had been working on the farm for a long while and was already so tired that her back and waist ached. She did not notice the look in Li Qiaoqiao's eyes and cried out "Ouch, ouch," saying, "Qiaoqiao, you take care of the rest! I'm really exhausted! I'm going home to rest first..."
As he said this, he was about to get up and slip away.
Li Qiaoqiao couldn't bear this loss, and immediately pulled Liu Lan to stop her from leaving: "Mom! What are you talking about! You are tired, but am I not tired too? Others don't know, but you don't? I am pregnant with your future grandson who will live in the city! You push all the responsibility onto me, aren't you afraid that I will be so tired that you will lose your eldest grandson?!"
Li Qiaoqiao's voice was quite loud, and all the villagers who worked with them heard it and were stunned.
It would be fine if others spread rumors in private, but Li Qiaoqiao didn't hide it herself and loudly publicized her own scandal in public?
What kind of weird idiots are these? If word gets out that there are such shameless people in their commune, everyone in the same commune will be ashamed!
Liu Lan was also furious. Whose IQ did this idiot inherit?
With a "slap" sound, he slapped Li Qiaoqiao without thinking and scolded her in a low voice: "Shut up! Aren't you ashamed?"
Li Qiaoqiao was stunned by the beating, and then her face was twisted with anger. She grabbed Liu Lan's hair and scolded, "Okay! I tolerated your beating last time, but now you're beating me again! Your second brother separated from you, and the other two sons don't care about you anymore. You don't have the guts to settle accounts with them, so you beat me, right? I'm telling you, I, Li Qiaoqiao, am not someone who can be easily bullied!"
As he said this, he wrestled with Liu Lan without caring about his image.
"Ouch, ouch! You little whore, I raised you up just to beat me? I'm going to beat you to death today..." Liu Lan also screamed in pain and started to grab and pinch Li Qiaoqiao.
Villagers: “…”
After being stunned for a while, he quickly went over to pull the two weird mother and daughter apart. The two of them were fighting so hard that their hair was disheveled and their faces were no different from a fight between chicken eyes...
After hearing these jokes, Xia Juanjuan was speechless.
She had always believed that Liu Lan was a sinister person, but she was still a respectable person. Now she had become the laughing stock of the whole commune...
Well... you deserve it.
However, Xia Juanjuan did not get involved in their bad affairs, but just paid a little more attention to Li Qiaoqiao's whereabouts.
A few days after the fight with Liu Lan, Li Qiaoqiao indeed went to the educated youth center from time to time, or the educated youth at the center named Wang Dajun also frequently made appointments to meet with Li Qiaoqiao.
Xia Juanjuan guessed that Li Qiaoqiao might take action in the next few days.
Sure enough, a few days later, in the middle of the night, Xia Juanjuan noticed that Li Qiaoqiao secretly opened the door and went out.
She followed quietly.
Li Qiaoqiao carried a small bag on her back and walked carefully to the village entrance. As expected, Wang Dajun was already waiting. When he saw her coming, he came out from the dark and asked in a low voice, "Did you get the money?"
Li Qiaoqiao lifted the bag on her shoulder, looked around nervously, and said, "I got it."
"Where is it? Let me see!" Wang Dajun stretched out his hand and asked anxiously.
Li Qiaoqiao frowned and whispered, "I'll give it to you when I meet Brother Jiayuan, otherwise..."
Wang Dajun interrupted her impatiently when he heard it: "Stop talking nonsense. If you don't take it out now, go back and pretend I didn't say anything! Humph! If you don't show it to me, how would I know if you tricked me into running errands for you in vain!"
Upon hearing this, Li Qiaoqiao had to rummage in her bag for a long time before she took out a thick bundle of ten-yuan bills.
"Wang...Brother Wang, this is three hundred yuan, and the other hundred is to thank you for helping save Brother Jiayuan..."
Wang Dajun snatched it away, counted it with trembling hands, and took another greedy look at Li Qiaoqiao's bag.
However, he did not make any other moves, but said with a big smile on his face: "Wouldn't it have been done if you had taken it out earlier? Why bother! Let's go! Someone I know is waiting for us in the county, and it's Xu Jiayuan who will take us to Jincheng!"
When Li Qiaoqiao heard this, she was delighted and said, "Really? That's great! Brother Wang, let's go!"
Xia Juanjuan was speechless when she saw how stupid Li Qiaoqiao was.
Xu Jiayuan's crime was a serious crime, which was punishable by death. It was probably because his sister had some connections, and because it had happened a long time ago, the evidence the police found was not sufficient, so he was sentenced to more than 20 years of hard labor.
If Wang Dajun really had the ability to find someone to overturn Xu Jiayuan's case, why would he not only go to the countryside to work, but also come to Qingshui Village as an educated youth?
However, Xia Juanjuan didn't care how Li Qiaoqiao was deceived. She followed him just to get back the money that belonged to Li Zhan.
The two of them left the village and walked towards the town for a long time. Li Qiaoqiao realized that they seemed to have taken a wrong turn, so she asked, "Wang, Brother Wang, this doesn't seem to be the way to the town. Did we take a wrong turn?"
Wang Dajun frowned and said vaguely: "We are going to the county! This is a shortcut to the county, of course it is different from going to the town!"
Li Qiaoqiao just said "Oh" and didn't dare to say anything else.
After walking for a while, they went further and further away, when suddenly two or three men emerged from a small wood beside the road and blocked their way.
Li Qiaoqiao was startled. Wang Dajun turned around and said, "Li Qiaoqiao, these are people I know. Go with them. They will take you to Jincheng to find Xu Jiayuan."
No matter how stupid Li Qiaoqiao was, she could tell something was wrong. The men in front of her looked like they were all wearing patched clothes. How could they look like city people?
If he is not from the city, how could he possibly have the connections to rescue Xu Jiayuan?!
Three men approached Li Qiaoqiao. Li Qiaoqiao didn't see what was wrong and immediately started shouting in fear, then turned around and ran towards the village!
Unfortunately, how can you outrun three big guys?
They caught up with her in no time and slapped her hard several times, making her head buzz. Then they stuffed a rag into her mouth, tied her hands behind her back, and threw her directly onto an ox cart they had pulled and covered her with a felt cloth.
Wang Dajun picked up Li Qiaoqiao's bag, then reached out to take the fifty yuan handed to him by one of the big men, and said, "Brother, you promised me that you would kidnap her to another city! You must not break your promise! If she escapes and comes back, I will be finished!"
The big man said impatiently, "Why are you talking so much nonsense!"
Wang Dajun watched the men pulling the ox cart away, then he opened Li Qiaoqiao's bag with satisfaction. When he saw that it was not tightly tied, his legs went weak!
"My dear! ..."