At five o'clock in the morning, the sound of the gong rang on time. Shen Anning resigned herself to her fate, got dressed, and took Shen Anxuan to the bathroom first. She cooked three boiled eggs in the kitchen, took out six buns, and cut some pickles that Qi Wanli had sent her yesterday. The simple breakfast was ready.
After returning from the county town yesterday, Shen Anning installed locks on several doors in the house. The two front rooms were not in use, so they were locked directly. The door to the courtyard was bolted shut. The side door was locked with the large yellow lock taken from the space. There were three keys, one for each of them. Shen Anning was afraid that her younger siblings would accidentally lose them, so she specially made a rope to hang around their necks.
On the first day, we must find a way to leave a good impression on everyone. Shen Anning grabbed a handful of cheap fruit candies for each of his younger brother and sister. They were not stupid kids and should know what to do.
It was still early, and his younger brothers and sisters could still stay in bed for a while. He told them to remember to lock the door when they went out. Shen Anning went out first to meet up with the educated youth, and prepared to go to the threshing ground together to wait for the assignment.
Arriving at the threshing ground, this was also the first time that Shen Anning met the village chief of Wangtu Village, Wang Zhoushan.
There are a total of seventy-eight households in Wangtu Village, and including children, there are about five hundred people in the village, divided into four production teams. They are all educated youth from the fourth production team because the fourth team has fewer people and most of them are elderly and weak.
It was also today that Shen Anning learned that the village committee system was quite complete, with a village head, a village party secretary, an accountant, a women's director, four production team leaders, four scorekeepers, and two warehouse keepers, who were also responsible for distributing farm tools. These people received a monthly subsidy, more or less. There was also a village cadre, but he usually worked at the commune and came over every month to provide guidance and inspections.
The production team leader of the fourth team is named Li Xuan, who is in his early forties. He is one of the few people with a different surname in Wangtu Village. Eighty percent of the people in Wangtu Village are surnamed Wang, and the rest are outsiders.
On the first day of the new educated youth, the team leader did not assign them any difficult tasks. The female educated youth worked with the village aunts and grandmas to pull weeds, while the male educated youth plowed the soil.
Each person is given a fixed number of points every day. They can leave work early after completing their tasks. Men get a full 10 points, and women get a full 8 points. Two more points will be added during the autumn harvest.
Shen Anning had already asked the old educated youth yesterday, and after careful consideration, she only accepted the task of weeding six centimeters today, totaling six mu of grass.
However, looking at the area of about 400 square meters marked out in front of him, Shen Anning exclaimed in his heart - careless!
Can she still regret it?
In her previous life, she had been sent to the countryside in the northwest, mainly to open up wasteland and plant trees. She ate with everyone every day, and she was never starving. She didn't really have much idea of the size of this land.
Resigned to his fate, he put on his work gloves and went out to work.
When the land was divided, it was separated by educated youth and villagers, because the villagers were supposed to guide the educated youth. Shen Anning didn't learn what different grasses looked like. She only needed to recognize wheat seedlings, and the rest were grasses.
Half squatting on the ground and walking forward, he had to keep pulling out weeds. After just ten minutes, Shen An Ning couldn't help but stand up and move around.
The aunt next to Shen Anning was the wife of the fourth team leader, Wang Guilan, and also the village chief's niece. Seeing her like this, she smiled and said, "Shen Zhiqing, there is a technique to pulling weeds. When you squat down, spread your feet a little smaller and don't let your lower body touch the ground. This will save effort."
After listening to this, Shen Anning tried it according to this method, and it was indeed much easier. "Thank you, auntie. This is my first time here, and I really don't understand these things."
After pulling weeds for more than ten minutes, standing up to move around, and chatting with a few aunts nearby, Shen An Ning soon became one of them.
Through chatting, Shen An Ning found that there was indeed no impenetrable wall in this village, and the aunties were indeed the ones at the forefront of gossip. Listening to them chatting, Shen An Ning really suspected that they had climbed over other people's walls at night, and knew too many details.
Shen Anning herself was naturally also a member of the public opinion center, because the noise of building a house was too loud. With a wage of fifty cents a day, a strong laborer earned four yuan in eight days. You should know that now a family in the village only earns a few dozen yuan a year.
"Chen Zhiqing, I heard that your younger brother and sister came here with you. Where are your family members?" When someone asked this, the aunties nearby looked over and pricked up their ears to listen.
Shen Anning knew that she had to explain it well. If she couldn't explain it clearly the first time, there would definitely be a lot of trouble in the future. "My parents have a special job, and I'm not very clear about the details. There is no school where they work, and my younger siblings are old enough to go to school. When I was studying, my aunt and uncle took care of me. My uncle is a soldier and my aunt is a doctor. They are too busy with their work. Besides, there are two cousins at home who need someone to take care of them. My eldest brother also joined the army this year. I had no choice but my younger siblings had to come to the countryside with me. Here they just happen to have company and can study together."
pretty!
Shen Anning was not afraid of being checked at all. After all, her household registration was from the Beijing Military Region.
Sure enough, after hearing this, the aunties and grandmas next to them felt that Shen Anning's family was really capable. In their opinion, if they didn't know, it was just a secret. Well, they couldn't ask too much.
Because Shen Anning was sweet-mouthed, she gave two pieces of fruit candy to each of the aunties next to her during the break, and everyone took good care of her.
At half past eleven, it was finally time to get off work. Shen Anning had been keeping a pace similar to that of Aunt Guilan and Aunt Dashuan next door. After a morning of chatting, she had almost figured out the population distribution of Wangtu Village.
The village was first developed by four large families with the surname Wang. However, they were all from the fifth generation. Later, during times of war and famine, many people fled here and settled down. Even now, the majority of the people are still surnamed Wang.
Aunt Dashuan’s husband is Uncle Dashuan, but his name is Wang Shuanzhu. He is the eldest son, so everyone calls him Dashuan. He has a younger brother named Ershuan, so he is also called Aunt Ershuan.
They met up with Xu Hongxia and the others at the edge of the field. Except for Qi Wanli and Qian Hui, the others were not wearing gloves. Xu Hongxia stretched out a pair of hands that were badly beaten by the grass, looking pitiful.
Xu Hongxia looked distressed. "My mother said there were hoes and other tools in the countryside, but she never thought of preparing gloves for me."
Shen Anning thought of the labor protection gloves in the space grocery store, but they were sold in dozens and dozens, a lot.
After thinking for a moment and choosing his words, he said, "My family prepared a lot for me when I came here, but I can only give each of you a pair. Three cents, no tickets required. Do you want any?"
Although they cost five cents more than what the supply and marketing cooperatives sold them for, no ticket was required, so no one had any objections. Even Li Meng, whose family didn't seem to be well off, bought a pair.
Qi Wanli looked at the gloves on her hands that had been worn out of shape, and looked at Shen Anning, "Anning, do you have any extra? If you still have extra, I want a pair too."
Shen Anning agreed readily, "Okay, I'll bring it to you when I go to work this afternoon."
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