Bai Jiaojiao found it amusing: "What complaints could I possibly have? The autumn harvest is something everyone does together. Village chief, what kind of person do you take me for?"
The ambiguous meaning in Bai Jiaojiao's eyes made Li Lide choke for a moment. She didn't say it outright, but she was subtly mocking Li Lide for judging others by his own petty standards.
Li Lide cleared his throat and said, "That's the right way to think. These days, we prioritize the collective over the individual. Your personal honors aren't important. Anyway, you'll definitely get a share of this award from Shili Village."
Li Lide's words made Bai Jiaojiao very uncomfortable. These words were unnecessary to say, but after his persuasion, it seemed as if Bai Jiaojiao was being petty.
Bai Jiaojiao's face fell: "Village chief, if there's nothing else, I have things to do in the kitchen. Heng-ge will be back soon, and he'll get angry if he doesn't get to eat."
As soon as Shen Heng reached the door, he heard his wife badmouthing him in front of outsiders again.
Whether he's reasonable or not, when has he ever lost his temper with her?
We really spoil her!
Shen Heng now has to go to the health center every now and then to get family planning supplies. If he doesn't get them from the black market, he has to get them with his marriage certificate, which is a lot of trouble.
He asked for too much, but people weren't willing to give it to him.
Shen Heng, carrying a small oil paper packet in his pocket, glanced briefly at Li Lide's face after entering the courtyard, ignoring him, and said gruffly to Bai Jiaojiao, "What are you standing there for? Is the food ready?"
Bai Jiaojiao wanted to laugh when she saw Shen Heng standing with his hands on his hips, but she pouted and said, "It'll be ready soon, just wait a moment."
Bai Jiaojiao entered the kitchen, and Shen Heng seemed to have just noticed Li Lide: "What are you doing here, Village Chief? What do you want? Don't come here again while I'm not home."
Shen Heng didn't care about the listener's thoughts at all when he spoke, and Li Lide was too lazy to argue with Shen Heng. He had said what he needed to say to Bai Jiaojiao and didn't want to stay: "If there's nothing else, I'll leave now!"
As soon as Li Lide stepped out the door, Shen Heng slammed the gate shut behind him. Li Lide heard the loud bang of the door closing behind him and his temples throbbed with anger.
"What's he doing here?" Shen Heng sneaked into the kitchen, reached out and picked up a slice of radish that Bai Jiaojiao had cut, and put it in his mouth. The radish wasn't very big, but it was very thirst-quenching.
“He’s here to give me a lecture,” Bai Jiaojiao said, both amused and annoyed. “He’s afraid I’ll be angry if he doesn’t acknowledge my contributions, so he’s here to lecture me about not caring about personal honor. He’s meddling in other people’s business. I haven’t said a word.”
Shen Heng, who was eating a radish, stopped and scolded Bai Jiaojiao, "That idiot, I should have beaten him up earlier."
"Alright," Bai Jiaojiao glared at Chen Heng, "Didn't you get enough of showing off your power just now?"
"What did I do to show off? Didn't you tell him that I'd get angry if I didn't have food to eat?" Shen Heng couldn't help but laugh. "He probably thinks I'm some kind of glutton who only knows how to eat."
"That's not what I meant at all! Hey, Heng-ge, stop messing around, the pot's still hot!"
Bai Jiaojiao was picked up by Shen Heng and begged for mercy in a soft voice.
"You dare to speak ill of Heng-ge outside? Beg me now, hurry up."
"Brother Heng, please," Bai Jiaojiao, who was always flexible, pouted, "The pot is going to burn."
"It's burnt, so be it," Shen Heng said, looking at the sweat on Bai Jiaojiao's forehead. He put her down and reached out to wipe it off for her. "Just make do with whatever you have. You don't need to use so much oil and salt every day."
Now that the weather is hot, the kitchen needs to be heated, making it even hotter.
Nowadays, most families just make a cold dish to get by, or reheat the same dish for several meals. Nobody does it like their family, who prepare a variety of dishes every day with meticulous care.
"How can you skimp on food? You work so much every day, how can you manage without good food?"
"I've managed to fool everyone all these years, how am I any worse than others?"
Bai Jiaojiao glanced at Chen Heng, who was deliberately straightening his back, and followed up on his words: "Maybe you could have grown to two meters tall, but you only grew to this size because you didn't eat well."
Shen Heng laughed along: "What's the point of growing two meters longer? Are you going to poke a hole in the sky and then come and fix it?"
Bai Jiaojiao did not answer his unreasonable question: "Wait two more days and I will pull out all the radishes in the yard, pickle them, and keep them to eat slowly."
"Let's pickle some more duck eggs. I thought the duck egg rice dumplings you made were alright. Next time, I'll just mix the salted duck egg yolks with rice."
Shen Heng rarely asked what he wanted to eat, and Bai Jiaojiao immediately agreed.
Bai Jiaojiao didn't take Li Lide's visit to them seriously at all.
But who knew that less than half a month later, Zheng Xu received another certificate, this time for Li Lide, praising him as an outstanding village cadre.
This is rather intriguing.
Apart from Bai Jiaojiao, no one else thought it was anything special. Even Zheng Xu, the brigade leader, felt that it wasn't strange for Li Lide, as the village leader, to receive a certificate of merit on his own.
Otherwise, why would everyone want to be an official? It's all for those little benefits.
However, considering that Li Lide had suddenly come to her that day to give her some advice, Bai Jiaojiao felt that his behavior that day was a bit like a guilty conscience, like he was trying to hide something obvious.
Bai Jiaojiao frowned. She didn't crave credit, but she also didn't want to be someone else's stepping stone.
Bai Jiaojiao was cautious, so she found Zheng Xu and asked him about the fried noodles.
Zheng Xu replied, "Don't worry, the village chief is personally in charge of the fried noodles. The town's market department has already collected the money, but the payment hasn't been settled yet. Anyway, it will definitely be settled by the end of the year."
Zheng Xu didn't find it strange that Bai Jiaojiao asked this question. After all, it was Bai Jiaojiao's idea to make fried noodles in the first place, so it was normal for her to check on the progress.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
