Chapter 8 Chapter 8 The important thing is not to wave the flag for you when others do it for you...
The members had no objection to the brigade's decision, and those who were more knowledgeable told their fellow villagers about the benefits of having a health station in the village.
Uncle Cen, a temporary worker on the county construction team, was better informed than anyone else. He said, "If our Buxiantun Production Brigade can get approval to build a health center, it would be a real boon! It's not just about getting medical treatment—did you know that the county hospital allocates medicine to the health centers every year? When they're short on medicine, they can even file a request for more!"
Some members of the cooperative didn't understand and said, "The medicine in the county hospital is nothing special. It's not as good as the ones prescribed by the old fairy." Moreover, it is very expensive. The money they, the farmers, saved up pennies from the chickens.
"Idiot!" Uncle Cen was very disdainful: "Who dares to say that the old fairy's medicine is not good. But no matter how good the old fairy's medicine is, if you are scratched by a sickle while harvesting rice, you have time to go home and boil medicine, wouldn't that just delay things! If there is a health station, you can prescribe some red medicine and wrap it with gauze, hey! It won't delay your work and the wound won't be rotten. If the wound is big, you can go home and boil some medicine from the temple after you are done, and it will be fine after you drink it and apply it. There are also painkillers and so on, which are medicines that work immediately. Anyway, we can treat the symptoms of the patient, and we can rely on the medicine from the temple to treat the root cause." There have been cases in the past where minor injuries were delayed and turned into rotten injuries, which caused a lot of suffering.
"That's just a small benefit. What's the big benefit? Even brown sugar will be distributed!"
"What! Brown sugar is also considered medicine?"
"How can brown sugar not be considered medicine? When you feel dizzy and dazed, drinking a bowl of brown sugar water will make you feel better? Whenever your wife is in pain, if she can bring a bowl of brown sugar water to warm her stomach, will she not be happy to give you a face?"
Uncle Cen was particularly proud: "Not only do we have brown sugar, we also have glucose water, packed in glass bottles. In the county, you can't drink it, you only use it for injections! I have a co-worker who had it injected, and he said he secretly drank a sip, and it tasted sweet too."
"Now that the health station is built, can you give our family a bag of brown sugar?" Brown sugar is a good thing that you can't get even with money. Not only do you need a ticket, but you also have to rely on luck to find it in the county department store! If a city-dwelling relative gives you half a bag of brown sugar as a gift, you'll definitely be bragging about it for two months.
"Get lost! What the hell are you thinking? I told you brown sugar is medicine, you need a doctor's prescription." Where can I get that much? Uncle Cen only makes one or two bags a year.
The old branch secretary said with a smile: "Everyone is right, building a health station will be of great benefit to our village. Not only medicines and supplies, but the health station also has the right to purchase medicinal materials! In the future, everyone can take the herbs they pick to the health station to exchange for money, and they don't have to worry about the small opening of the commune supply and marketing cooperative! The health station is directly connected to the superior county hospital. This level is like food. It is collected and dispatched uniformly by the higher-ups. The medicinal materials here are in short supply in the south." The commune supply and marketing cooperative only occasionally collects some medicinal materials, and there are also quantity regulations. As soon as the news came out, more than a dozen brigades rushed to deliver them. If they were a little late, they would have collected enough and would not be able to buy them anymore.
When the commune members heard this, they immediately erupted in discussion: Farmers had very few ways to earn money. Besides the small amount earned from work points at the end of the year, every household now relied on their two chickens to save eggs and exchange them for cash at the supply and marketing cooperative. The members jokingly called it the "Chicken Butt Bank." But there were so many other ways to spend money: salt, kerosene, matches, the children's notebooks and textbooks... Every family counted on their fingers, and year after year, they were still short of money.
There are so many medicinal herbs in this mountain. Even a kid can pick some dandelions, hanging beans and so on in places like the west slope. If the whole family works hard, they can always fill the gaps.
This is a great hope!
The old Party Secretary gave a heads-up: "The quantity is large, so the price of the medicine we purchase can't be high. We can't compare with the supply and marketing cooperatives!"
Everyone said, "I know! Every penny we can earn is a penny! It's better than the supply and marketing cooperative only asking for the same few items every year. Besides, our village is far from the commune, so eight out of ten years we can't compete with other brigades."
"The health center doesn't need all medicinal materials. We will send a notice when the time comes. However, the number of samples we collect is much larger than that of the supply and marketing cooperatives." said the old branch secretary.
Several shepherds and pig farmers in the village who had been granted permission to raise sheep and pigs were also excited. When they consulted the fairy lady, she had told them about piggrass, which is also a medicinal herb, but it just takes a little more effort to harvest. These few members who could raise sheep and pigs all had special family circumstances. Some had no strong labor force and a large number of elderly and young people. Others had been pig and sheep farmers before liberation and were not good at tending crops. Don't think these people were wealthy; on the contrary, they had even less money. Each household was allowed to raise only one pig or sheep. At the end of the year, a portion of the slaughtered sheep had to be given to the collective, and only the remainder could be purchased by the supply and marketing cooperative. The money they received was barely enough to keep them warm, so they had to trade it with the brigade for food. After the autumn harvest, the brigade distributed food based on a "three points per person, seven points per work" system. They had low work points, and the supplies they collected themselves from the various teams organized by the brigade before winter were meager. So they were left with nothing. Every family had to save money to buy piglets and lambs for the next year, so they had to tighten their belts and live a harder life than other families.
"Okay, now that we've explained the situation, let's disperse. Those who need to gather firewood, gather firewood. Those who need to prepare, prepare." A smile crossed the old Party Secretary's face. The health station offered more than just superficial benefits. They could also raise chickens and ducks openly, without being subject to capitalist restrictions. These eggs didn't need to be sent to the supply and marketing cooperative, nor were they considered part of the designated chickens and ducks. They could all be left for the villagers. No one had to spend any money, just work points. They just had to keep a close eye on the eggs at first, and the eggs had to be cooked before they were exchanged. Two military dependents could even be assigned to look after the chickens and ducks, so they could provide for the children in the village.
The more the old branch secretary thinks, the better it becomes.
Seeing that everyone seemed to have forgotten that she had just raised her hand to apply to join the Autumn Hunting Team, Lin Xinghuo couldn't help but call the team leader Huang Dazhuang: "Captain!"
Huang Dazhuang was about to turn around when Wang Huzi grabbed his neck with such force that he tilted his head.
Lin Xinghuo clearly heard Wang Huzi whispering, "Don't look back, don't look back, hurry up and go! The little fairy used to be a golden baby, and now she's a little bodhisattva! What if we don't agree to her joining us and she cries? Even if we just wander around the periphery like we're on an autumn outing and agree to her joining, think about it, we won't be able to say anything once we enter the forest. What if something unexpected happens and the health station can't be built, and there's no one to see a doctor, the people in the village will eat up our team! Think about your mother, Aunt Huang was the first one to beat you!"
Hey! This bearded uncle! He looks down on people. And who wants to be a Bodhisattva? She is a Taoist!
Lin Xinghuo was just about to apply loudly: she had set her sights on Da Shu Dunzi and wanted to perform a "thousand-pound lift" to prove herself.
Then I heard a voice from the crowd shouting, "I don't agree!"
"I strongly disagree! Why recommend Lin Xinghuo for barefoot doctor training without a public election? This is unfair and deviates from the feudal bureaucracy of 'fairness and justice'!"
The villagers, who had not yet fully recovered from their excited discussion, suddenly became angry and looked at the person who was talking with their eyes as if they were eating people.
The educated youth, Wei Bu Shun, flinched, then clenched his fists and summoned his courage to shout, "Aren't we educated youth considered members of the Buxiantun Production Brigade? Why didn't anyone tell us about the health station?"
One member shouted back even louder: "You don't agree? Why don't you agree? How does building a health center in our village bother you? You're confused. Let me explain it to you!"
Seeing that the other educated youth hadn't left, including the most stable and reserved Yang Weibo, Wei Bushun felt more confident. "It's not that I disagree with building a health station, but I disagree with giving this opportunity directly to Lin Xinghuo!"
"Hey! What kind of bullshit is that? The only one in the village who knows how to heal illnesses is Xiao Xian... Comrade Xiao Lin. If not her, who else could it be? If I let you go, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between wheat seedlings and weeds!"
Seeing the fist as big as a bowl waving in front of him, Wei Bu Shun took another half step back: "Everyone should have equal opportunities for training and further study!"
The old branch secretary took a quick look around and saw that the educated youth who usually gathered in groups of two or three were now all standing together. His heart sank. "Stop arguing. It's getting late. Let's get to work while the sun is still shining. We can talk about it together in the evening."
Webshun was very good at finding faults and assuming the worst of people, and he immediately muttered, "Are they discussing countermeasures behind our backs?"
Chang Qing, the educated youth team leader, had previously been frightened by Da Huang and had already shied away from Lin Xinghuo, but the allure of "a training opportunity as a barefoot doctor" was too great. Ever since her first day in Buxiantun, she'd been searching for a chance to return to the city. Repeated hopes were dashed, and the tension between her desires and reality drove her mad: Four years had passed, and her actual age was almost twenty-two. She'd even changed her age by three years, so her household registration showed her as twenty-five! In a rural society where marriages were common at sixteen or seventeen, she was already old. Could she really marry locally and end up with a miserable fate, never being able to return to the city? She was pretty, and from childhood, she'd dreamed of climbing to a higher social status through marriage. If she didn't return to the city now, it would be too late. Even returning wouldn't achieve her goal—she needed the status of a worker, a legitimate job, to secure a good marriage.
Snow Province was bitterly cold, with winter lasting half the year. To return to the city, educated youth from other brigades took ephedra, some even vomiting blood, others deliberately fell into a ravine and broke their legs. Chang Qing refused to resort to such damaging measures, driven by his obsession with "climbing the ladder."
Ever since she was a child, her grandmother had been scolding prostitutes and sluts who had turned to good deeds, but secretly she envied her junior sister who had turned from an actress in the old society into the head of an art troupe: both were once famous actors on stage, one accepted her fate and married an honest man with a clean record and lived a trivial life from then on, while the other shamelessly married a widower official and helped herself to an official position; Chang Qing's grandmother had carefully concealed her past as an actress all her life, while the head of the troupe used her experience as an actress as an example of exploitation in the old society to confess her own experience and educate others, and successfully transformed it into political capital, and was highly regarded by the higher-ups.
Chang Qing was unwilling to give up. She thought this might be her last chance and she had to get the training qualification.
"Why don't we just talk it out first? It won't take long. It would be too troublesome to hold a meeting in the evening."
Chang Qing's speech as the leader of the educated youth team was greatly endorsed by Wei Bushun.
The old secretary glanced around, looking at Yang Weibo and the others with particular attention, and sighed, "Then come back and do your work. Let's have the meeting now!"
The brigade accountant brought out a small blackboard and altered a few words: "The Sixth General Meeting of the Bushantun Production Brigade in 1972."
"Please invite the commune members' representatives and the educated youth representatives to the stage." The so-called commune members' representatives were also representatives of the commune members' congress, formerly the representatives of the township people's congress. They were primarily composed of elderly poor peasants and lower-middle peasants, and were re-elected every two years. The educated youth representatives were a result of Chang Qing's leadership. She shouted slogans that rivaled the commune's, and the old branch secretary wouldn't stop her, but in reality, it was just a makeshift group. However, there were only a few educated youth, and the brigade didn't bother to waste time with them, so they added this sentence to every meeting.
Lin Xinghuo saw Chang Qing and Yang Weibao sitting on the same bench between two skinny old men. Grandma Wei and Aunt Cen were sitting on the other side. There was also an unknown member of the Autumn Hunting Team sitting upright on a small stool. He looked like a retired soldier.
Wei Chunfeng pulled her onto the stage as well: "After all, this is about our future, so let's go on stage too!"
Lin Xinghuo is not a timid person. It doesn’t matter whether he is a barefoot doctor or not. What is important is that he cannot back down when others are cheering for him.
She walked onto the stage confidently, and Grandma Wei quickly waved to her and asked her to sit next to her.
Lin Xinghuo heard someone below him suggest, "Next year we'll be electing member representatives. We should nominate Comrade Xiao and Comrade Xiao Lin."
"That's right!" The grandmother who had come to ask Lin Xinghuo to perform a ritual on her pig echoed loudly, and even lowered her voice to mutter to the others, "I've seen enough of those old faces up there; they don't even like to look up. But when our little fairy comes on stage, she's so fresh and young, like a new sprout in spring, full of life, and it's so relaxing to watch!"
"Your words are well said, very cultured indeed! But don't utter the words 'little fairy' at the election meeting. It would be disastrous if the people from the commune who come to monitor the election heard them."
"Hey, I just said it casually. From now on, I will definitely call you Comrade Xiaolin!"
“…”
Comrade Kobayashi is not grateful at all and she doesn't want to be a representative.
The expressions of the people in the stands below were as if they were watching a big show. Master Lin, who had been on stage in his previous life only to give lectures and share his cultivation experiences and had only received serious and respectful feedback, really declined the offer.
Besides, she is only half a step away from being an innate being, so becoming a doctor can barely be considered as increasing her worldly experience and improving her state of mind; and electing a member representative is really a misjudgment of priorities and a dereliction of duty, isn't it?
At the beginning of the meeting, Chang Qing stated the reasons for his disagreement, and his arguments were well-founded, which made the member representatives who were determined to criticize these ignorant educated youths speechless.
Chang Qing said, "Comrade Lin may have medical skills, but she has no academic qualifications. Barefoot doctor training should only be for people who have at least graduated from high school, right?"
Lin Xinghuo suddenly realized: Yes, it seems that I am still an illiterate in this life.
Illiterate? I can’t stand it!
On the other hand, wouldn't participating in training give me a legitimate chance to take the diploma exam? — It seems that in my past life, a master of mine directly obtained an elementary school diploma by passing the school exam.
The author has something to say:
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Please give me a work to finish~
Thank you to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution for me from 2023-10-22 19:36:40 to 2023-10-23 19:15:00~
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Nan Nan Hu Tu, Xiao Lu Yao Jing Ya, Macabaka 10 bottles; Xiao Keai 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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