The rice was still cornmeal mixed with a little bit of white rice, cooked into a thick porridge with two extra ladles of water, and the vegetables were still the pickles bought from Grandma Yan's place.
If you want to eat well, you either have to pay for it yourself or eat what you bring from your hometown.
However, Ye Chen'er still took out a small packet of braised meat, a specialty of Shanghai, which only needed to be steamed in a bowl for twenty minutes.
There were four pieces of braised meat in a packet. Ye Chen'er gave the meat to the four male educated youths, one piece for each of them. Wang Yan and the others couldn't help but secretly swallow their saliva.
It wasn't that Ye Chen'er was stingy; her family had gone to great lengths to get her two packs of food so that she could have some extra nutrition when she couldn't take it anymore.
Tomorrow we'll be picking sweet potatoes. Li Qiang, Ye Chenming, and the other three male educated youths will be the main force. They probably won't be able to keep up without eating some meat. As for the four girls, they can only do their best.
Liu Limin and Zhang Dali were very grateful. They quickly finished the food in their lunchboxes and went to get water to wash themselves, as they were extremely dirty.
Tian Fang quickly stopped her, saying that the weather had turned cold and it was not suitable to wash with cold water anymore; boiling a pot of water would not take long.
Seeing the group leave, Li Ping said, "Chen Ming, let's separate from them next month. That Wang Yan is really outrageous."
Ye Chen'er glanced at Li Ping, seemingly lost in thought. However, Wang Yan always dawdled while working, displaying a bit of cunning and slyness.
Li Qiang glanced at Ye Chenming and said, "Why don't we just break up to avoid future trouble?"
Ye Chenming shook his head: "There are only eight educated youths. During the busy farming season, the most important thing is for everyone to work together to complete the task."
Otherwise, let alone earning work points, they might not even be able to repay the grain provided by the village. Besides, they couldn't let the harmony and unity of the entire educated youth settlement be affected for the sake of Wang Yan.
Anyway, these busy farming seasons only happen a few times a year. Once everyone is familiar with farm work, the speed will naturally increase, and the work points will also increase, allowing everyone to improve their meals.
Li Ping nodded. Now that she was in the countryside, she had to prioritize the collective and couldn't be petty anymore. However, she hated Wang Yan the most.
To improve work efficiency, the eight people were divided into two groups: Ye Chenming and his sister and Li Qiang and his sister were in one group, and Liu Limin and his group were in another group.
The next day, when the educated youth arrived at the fields, the villagers were already busy working in the fields.
Ye Chenming and the others were somewhat surprised. Wasn't work supposed to start at six o'clock? They seemed to have arrived quite early.
Ye Chenming was unaware that during every busy farming season, the villagers would go to the fields early as soon as it was dawn.
The Yan family only had a little over half an acre of land left. Yan Xiaonan and Cuihua finished it all in one morning, and then helped Beinan pick all the sweet potatoes and put them into bamboo baskets.
The rest were to be selected by his two older brothers and his father, and after that, their family's contracted land would be finished.
After lunch, Yan Xiaonan and Cuihua arrived at the assigned farmland of the educated youth. After glancing at the area planned by Ma Hui, Yan Xiaonan estimated the completion time.
Cuihua warned Yan Xiaonan that he absolutely could not use magic here, or she would not let him get down to earth.
Yan Xiaonan wasn't stupid; how could she risk her life under everyone's watchful eyes? She obediently began hoeing the ground.
But Cuihua forgot Yan Xiaonan's superhuman strength. With one stroke of the hoe and one pull, all the sweet potato roots were dug out.
Her movements were swift and decisive, like those of a seasoned farmer who had done farm work for many years. Cuihua was a little stunned; Nannan probably hadn't used any magic.
Yan Xiaonan really didn't use any special abilities; he could dig out sweet potatoes simply by swinging the hoe down hard.
Yan Xiaonan swung the hoe vigorously, hoping that if he did more work, his mother would have less to do.
Ye Chenming and the others felt like they were seeing things. Even a young girl in the countryside was so good at farm work. They were really too incompetent.
Ye Chen'er's eyes lit up. What amazing skills! So young and already so talented, she'll definitely be a model worker when she grows up.
Ye Chen'er urged Ye Chenming to hurry up and get to work, to show the young lady what it means to be a man, that they too are good helpers in building the countryside.
These words not only boosted Ye Chenming's morale, but also made Li Qiang extremely excited, as if he had been injected with chicken blood.
The two men each took a carrying pole and, imitating Yan Xiaoqiang and his son, secured the ropes from the two bamboo baskets to the carrying poles.
He half-squatted, placed the carrying pole on his shoulders, spread his arms out in front and behind, each holding a rope on the bamboo basket, gathered his energy in his dantian, and with a shout, the two of them fell to the ground.
"Brother, what happened to you? Are you hurt?" Ye Chen'er was startled and quickly ran over.
Attracted by Ye Chen'er's shout, Yan Xiaonan turned around and felt a surge of laughter. He took a few deep breaths and finally suppressed the urge to laugh.
The bamboo baskets were full of sweet potatoes, weighing at least 200 jin (100 kg). Two baskets of sweet potatoes would weigh 400-500 jin (200-250 kg). Even my own father couldn't carry them, so how could they possibly carry them?
Wang Yan also rushed towards Ye Chenming, grabbing his arms with both hands: "Ye Chenming, are you alright? Should we go to the hospital to get checked out?"
Ye Chenming was thrown quite hard by the force of his own fall. His left hand was grabbed by his sister, and his right hand was held by Wang Yan. He couldn't get up for a moment.
Ye Chenming was enraged and looked coldly at Wang Yan: "Let go!"
Wang Yan was startled by Ye Chenming's cold gaze and involuntarily let go of his hand.
Li Ping stopped running. "Wang Yan, you shameless woman! Just wait and see how I deal with you later!"
Ye Chenming told Ye Chen'er to let go of him, then pushed himself up with his hands on the ground, patted the dirt off his bottom, and carefully observed how the villagers carried their loads.
After watching for a few minutes, Ye Chenming took half of the sweet potatoes out of the basket, squatted down, put the carrying pole on his shoulder, grabbed the rope on the bamboo basket with both hands, and stood up with all his might. He finally managed to lift the bamboo basket.
After standing for a while, feeling that he could walk, Ye Chenming took a step. Although he walked unsteadily and his route was not straight, he was able to lift himself up.
The villagers watched with delight, after all, they were just teenagers whose bodies hadn't fully developed yet.
Following Ye Chenming's example, Li Qiang removed some sweet potatoes and tried several times before finally managing to lift the load.
The burden on his shoulders was manageable at first, but later it became excruciatingly painful. Ye Chenming gritted his teeth and persevered, hoping that calluses would form on his shoulders.
Feeling sorry for her cousin, Ye Chen'er picked up her basket, put the sweet potatoes in one by one, and then carried it on her back, not forgetting to hold a few more sweet potatoes in her arms as she followed behind Ye Chenming.
Upon seeing this, Li Ping quickly got to work, taking out about half of the sweet potatoes from each basket to reduce the weight of the bamboo baskets.
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