Mingzhu pouted.
"Who else could it be? It's just the same few people."
Wang Hongmei and the others relied on the two men to gather firewood and fetch water. Wang Jiancheng was willing to do it and worked hard without complaint. The female educated youth only had to cook, so they didn't even need to gather firewood, but Wang Jiancheng did it all efficiently.
As a result, those people were also lazy and dissatisfied. They became increasingly lazy. There were only two men in total, and Li Jianye didn't work hard either. He just waited to be served every day. After a long time, Wang Jiancheng wasn't stupid, so he quit too.
That's how it is now. Today they borrow some firewood, tomorrow they ask Chen Jianguo for help fetching water. They're just getting by like this, day after day. I guess even if they don't break up, they'll have to start a business sooner or later.
"Ha, do they think everyone else is stupid?"
"Who knows? Li Yan is also very worried. She was originally planning to build the house when summer was less busy, but now that things are like this, she can't wait until summer. She can't wait to get far away from them."
The two were chatting idly, but they didn't expect things to get so lively so quickly.
When they arrived, a group of villagers had already gathered outside the educated youth compound. Some had just finished dinner, while others were still eating cornbread. They had come out to watch the excitement.
It was noisy inside, and all I could hear was Wang Hongmei's voice—high-pitched and shrill.
"We just didn't have time to spare, so we asked to borrow some firewood. Is it really necessary to be so heartless?"
Jian Dan stood against the wall, protecting Mingzhu. Upon hearing this, they exchanged a glance. Who were they going against?
"Are you heartless? We didn't say we wouldn't lend it to you. We were just asking when you would pay it back. Was that wrong?"
Or is it that you never intended to pay it back in the first place?
This firewood was painstakingly collected by us. You can count it yourself—how many times have you borrowed this firewood this spring alone? With such a rude attitude, anyone who didn't know better would think it was your own property!
Don't even mention firewood. Today's firewood, yesterday's water, and what was the day before yesterday? Oh, the day before yesterday's salt we borrowed.
I'm so ashamed for you guys to even say it.
Take this firewood, for example. It should have lasted us ten days, but every time you come to borrow it, we have to go up the mountain one more time.
Okay, I'm not afraid of hardship or fatigue, but we're all poor peasants, and we all live off these work points. What, you know how tiring it is to work, but my Chen Jianguo doesn't?
Everyone is equal, and no one is more noble than anyone else.
We earned this all through our own hard work, and we're not lacking in the virtue of helping each other. If you had even a little bit of kindness, I wouldn't be saying this. Borrowing things from others so brazenly—what kind of logic is that?
"...I didn't realize Sister Yan could speak so logically!"
"I'm angry. They've been like this since the beginning of spring. Li Yan thought they probably didn't eat enough and didn't have the strength to go up the mountain, so she felt sorry for them. But they didn't appreciate it and instead took advantage of her. Now they're going to be more and more outrageous each time."
The surrounding villagers were also whispering among themselves.
Chen Jianguo's face was grim. He gently patted Li Yan and looked at the people opposite him.
"We were all sent-down youth, so we should be a whole. And these were all trivial matters. I didn't want to make it public knowledge. I would feel ashamed if I told anyone."
But what you're doing is a bit too much of a bully.
Even if you're the worst of the two male educated youths, you're still much more capable than me.
The weeding work hasn't been busy these past few days, and there's plenty of time to go up the mountain after work.
But look at your woodpile! What, you're just waiting to use ours? Do you expect me to gather firewood by myself to feed five of you? Give me a reason.”
Wang Jiancheng and the others on the other side did not expect that Chen Jianguo would be so reckless. Even with villagers present, he made no attempt to hide anything. Normally, the educated youth would be a unified group, while the villagers would be two distinct groups.
The educated youth looked down on the villagers for being illiterate, and the villagers looked down on the educated youth for being incompetent at work, lacking financial acumen, and being pretentious all the time, looking down on this and that.
The most normal state is for people to keep to themselves and not interfere with each other.
Wang Jiancheng felt embarrassed, but with so many people around, they couldn't say anything. He resented Chen Jianguo, who was also an educated youth, for not giving them face.
I also hate that those guys are too lazy; they're nowhere to be seen when I'm working, they all disappear without a trace.
With only enough work points to fill his stomach, he couldn't even maintain his daily life. He even had to borrow firewood. Thinking about it, he felt ashamed.
But now he was in a bind, and could only grit his teeth and apologize.
"I'm really sorry, we absolutely didn't mean that. Yes, it's true that we haven't had enough food lately, and we probably don't have the physical strength to go up the mountain."
It was definitely not intentional; I had no intention of getting something for nothing.
Don't worry, I'll return what I borrowed as soon as possible.
He couldn't bring himself to say anything else. He gritted his teeth and apologized, then went back to his room without even looking up. The door slammed shut, and anyone could tell he was really angry.
Wang Hongmei wasn't done arguing, but even she knew they were in the wrong. Although she resented Li Yan for making a mountain out of a molehill, she couldn't say anything more after everything had been said so clearly. She pursed her lips, glared angrily at Li Yan, and slammed the door shut.
Li Yan and Chen Jianguo didn't intend to do anything. If Wang Hongmei hadn't been so loud, they wouldn't have bothered to make such a scene. They just couldn't stand how ignorant and rude they were.
Whether he meant it or not, the couple took Wang Jiancheng's words seriously. Li Yan immediately ruffled her hair, tugged at her clothes, and picked up the things she had just thrown all over the floor.
Seeing this, the villagers all started talking amongst themselves and headed back.
"Tsk tsk, you really are something else, treating firewood like a precious commodity?"
Li Yan turned around and saw it was the two of them, so she quickened her pace.
"Come in quickly, have you eaten?"
Simplely, she helped Mingzhu walk slowly.
"We've finished eating, otherwise how could we see this lively scene?"
Li Yan laughed heartily.
"Hey, what's this? If she dares to act like that again, I'll fight her every day."
The last sentence was delivered with a raised voice, and the speaker even deliberately shouted towards the window over there; one could easily imagine what some of those people looked like.
Sure enough, a second later, the window on the other side slammed shut with a "bang".
Even the simplest person would shudder reflexively.
"Is there such a big conflict between you guys right now?"
Li Yan brought out a few stools and placed them down for them to sit on.
"So it was just that we didn't like each other? Tell me, there's no real conflict, just these trivial things that never stop bothering each other."
Even if we eat an egg, she'll make a sarcastic comment. He helps me wash my clothes, and she'll get sarcastic too, saying I don't care about him.
Mingzhu shuddered with lingering fear. Luckily, she had moved out early on; otherwise, if they had seen Lin Dongfang's behavior at home, who knows what they would have said.
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