Chapter 31 Passerby A in the 1970s Rural Life Story 5
Now that Jiang Yue has returned home, the matter of the educated youth is no longer her concern. After having dinner, she looked around her yard and decided to tidy it up after the autumn harvest. The two rooms are enough for her now, but the shed on the south wall needs repair. Jiang Yue also plans to find some stones to pave a path in the yard so it will be easier to walk on when it rains.
Jiang Yue plans to tidy up the vegetable garden, dividing it into smaller plots for easier management. She will also rebuild the bean trellis, as it currently looks messy with just a few long branches stuck in it. She also checked the firewood, fearing it might not be enough for the entire winter, and she will need to collect more firewood during this period.
When Jiang Yue was planning the courtyard, the educated youth settlement started making a fuss again. There were already a lot of people building the educated youth settlement, and when the courtyard was built, they didn't expect so many people. The brigade leader looked at them noisily and said, "Stop arguing. The conditions are like this now. The autumn harvest is coming soon, and we don't have time to build for you. Just squeeze in for now. We'll build another room for you after the autumn harvest. Just make do for now."
Hearing the brigade leader's words, the new educated youth were still somewhat dissatisfied, but they could only accept it helplessly.
After the brigade leader left, Su Yao walked over to the old educated youth and said softly, "Everyone, don't be angry. The brigade leader has his difficulties too. Let's make do for now, and we'll have new rooms after the autumn harvest."
Lin Xiao, standing to the side, sneered, "Hmph, that's easy for you to say. What if you keep refusing to solve our accommodation problem? I think the brigade leader is just deliberately giving us the runaround."
Su Yao frowned and said, "Lin Xiao, how can you say that? The captain seems fair and just; he will definitely give us an explanation. We should trust him."
Lin Xiao curled her lip in disdain: "I don't believe it. If you ask me, we should report this to our superiors and ask them to solve our problem as soon as possible."
Su Yao shook her head: "Isn't that a bad idea? We've just arrived and haven't achieved anything yet, so it's not appropriate to bother the higher-ups. Besides, the brigade leader has already promised to build us houses after the autumn harvest, so let's wait a bit longer."
As for Liu Ruyan and Li Mengqi, they had already followed the person in charge into the house to pack their things. Both of them planned to build their own houses and would only be staying for a few days, so there was no need to do anything unnecessary. They would just wait until after the autumn harvest.
Jiang Yue didn't care what kind of trouble the educated youth caused. She was cooking for herself, making a corn porridge and a stew of green beans and eggplant. Most of the food in the space was only for satisfying cravings or when she didn't have time, in case she was in a post-apocalyptic world and had no food. If she were allowed to eat three meals a day, the space wouldn't be enough to last long.
After finishing my meal, I tidied up, boiled some water, and washed myself. While washing, I remembered that I didn't have a place to take a bath. I thought about building a house after the autumn harvest to make a bathroom and shower room. After thinking about these random things, I went to sleep.
The next morning, Jiang Yue went to work early as usual. A new batch of educated youth had arrived, and the people around them watched them closely, hoping that these new young people would not be as useless as the previous two batches of educated youth.
Jiang Yue prepared the registration book, then opened the warehouse and distributed sickles to each of the educated youth. The autumn harvest season should have been a time of joy and celebration, but for these young educated youth, it was not a good thing. They were immediately faced with the highest level of difficulty without any gradual process. The other educated youth watched them with schadenfreude.
After Jiang Yue handed the sickles to them, the brigade leader explained some precautions to them. In the end, they were divided into several groups. The original group members were unwilling, but the brigade leader suppressed them. After the brigade leader finished speaking, everyone went to the fields, wanting to do as much work as possible while the weather was still not hot.
Once they arrived at the field, the group leader of the new educated youth group explained what they needed to do. Li Mengqi and Liu Ruyan were coincidentally assigned to the same group, and the two stood together listening to the group leader's explanation: "When you are picking corn, there's nothing to say, just follow everyone. But when it's your turn to cut the corn stalks, be very careful with the sickle. I'm not asking you to work fast, I just hope you don't end up like that Liu educated youth from last year, who almost cut off his own foot."
Now everyone in the village knows what educated youth are like. New educated youth, don't expect too much, just don't cause any trouble. After resting for a while, he said to them, "You get work points for every bit of work you do. Our village doesn't force you to do a certain amount of work. As long as you don't have to ask the village for grain if you do too little, it's fine. If you can earn enough work points to support yourself, then you can decide what to do."
"Let me make this clear from the start: if you're lazy and don't work, we won't lend you any grain. Even if you make a scene at the commune, it won't do you any good. We remember all your behavior. Last year, there was that educated youth Wu who was lazy during the autumn harvest. He only got two work points a day and even borrowed grain in the winter. In the end, he made a scene at the commune."
“Other brigades may be afraid of this or that, but our brigade is not afraid. If you want to go to the educated youth office, go to the educated youth office; if you want to go to the commune, go to the commune. We can accompany you.”
After the team leader finished speaking, he looked at Li Mengqi and Liu Ruyan. Seeing that they had taken it to heart, he said, "Well, it's good that you understand. This is probably your first time doing farm work. Each of you can carry two rows."
Fearing they might not understand, he gestured to show them how much it was after he finished speaking, and finally said, "That's settled then, I'm going to work now, I still need to earn work points."
After the team leader left, Li Mengqi and Liu Ruyan exchanged a glance. They both felt that they had arrived at a good brigade. Neither of them were the type to live off work points. As long as they had some income so that others wouldn't suspect them, they would be fine. They discussed it and decided to take it slow and not try to earn too many work points.
Su Yao, on the other hand, acted like a little princess, dressed in polyester and leather shoes, as if she were on a picnic. She couldn't even cut a single ear of corn before she was exhausted. She was paired with Wang Zhiqiang and was hoping he would help her, without even knowing who Wang Zhiqiang was.
In the end, the two of them just dawdled over there. Their team leader told them that Su Yao wasn't short of money, but Wang Zhiqiang wasn't. However, this guy was a bit clever. He rolled his eyes and decided to hook up with Su Yao. He started helping Su Yao with her work and said a lot of nice things to her.
Wang Zhiqiang thought Su Yao was easy to fool, but little did he know that Su Yao had never spent a penny or done anything for anyone in her 18 years of life, relying entirely on her words. How could someone like her be fooled by him? As soon as Wang Zhiqiang's eyes darted around, Su Yao guessed what he wanted to do, but she didn't expose him. She would take the bait and get the bullet back.
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