During the drought, villagers only had the energy to tend to their own vegetable gardens and plots after irrigating the fields. The vegetables didn't grow well, and the cabbages planted in the fall were all small. But the villagers were already quite satisfied. Even without anything else, they could get through the winter by pickling a large vat of sauerkraut.
When a few educated youths went to ask, they were quite happy, saying they'd exchange it for some money or even just some things.
As for our own family, putting aside everything else, every family here has a large plot of land. If we plant so much, and we exchange the big ones, there are still so many small ones that don't look good. Why be so picky when it comes to our own food?
All year round, they rely on this little bit of land and these few work points; they might not even be willing to go to the commune once.
This is a rare opportunity to exchange things; who knows what usable items we might get in return?
That's not quite right. Given the current situation at home, we should say that everything we have is usable and nothing is wasted.
He gave a brief reminder to a few people, then left it at that and went home, bypassing the village chief and his group.
The small house was right at the entrance of the village, and it was quite conspicuous. Anyway, when she opened the door and went in, Secretary Lin saw her.
He had been to Liujiatun before and had some impression of it.
"Hey? Old Liu, I remember that house was empty, wasn't it? Is it inhabited now? I think the walls have been raised."
Liu Weimin looked in the direction he was being pointed at.
"Oh, that one, people live there now."
Seeing the curious look on Secretary Lin's face,
“Isn’t there two batches of educated youth here? The first batch was just a little girl who said she was scared because she was living in such a big courtyard as the educated youth compound.”
When I saw that the house was small, it was perfect for one person, so I took a liking to it, bought it with my own money, renovated it, and now I live there by myself.
You know what, that young lady is doing quite well all by herself. She grows vegetables in the garden, does all the chores just as well as anyone else, never complains of being tired, and she's even quite adept at climbing mountains. Compared to us old farmers, she's no worse off than us.”
Secretary Lin looked at him.
"It seems you two get along quite well."
Liu Wenming paused, sensing something was amiss. Seeing no one around, he tentatively asked,
"What's wrong, bro? What did the educated youth do wrong?"
Secretary Lin shook his head, a hint of worry in his expression.
“People from the city don’t adapt well to rural life, and their habits are different from those of the villagers.”
Liu Weimin, I understand now. They're being so tactful; it just means there's another war going on.
I originally wanted to praise Xiao Jian, the educated youth, to make him happy, but the words were on the tip of my tongue when I suddenly swallowed them back.
No, that won't do. What if he finds out how good and capable Xiao Jian is? What if he gets transferred to another village?
No, no, Uncle is right. We can't show off outside; we have to keep it hidden.
"Brother, look at your life of worrying."
They came to the countryside to support our rural development, so adapting to rural life is the first step. If they can't adapt, then there's another problem: they're too idle.
If every day were like the autumn harvest, with people getting up before the rooster crowed, busy all day long, having to eat in a rush, and wanting to collapse into bed as soon as they got home at night, do you think they could adapt?
Secretary Lin still felt a little reluctant.
"This is the same level of hard work as the autumn harvest every day. Can they handle it?"
Liu Weimin is a complete scoundrel.
"I can't stand it, but this way they have even less time and energy to think about things. Every day they wake up thinking about how to finish all this work, whether they can finish it early so they can rest a little longer, and how they can get enough to eat."
Unlike now, when you're so free, thinking about all sorts of trivial matters, it's no wonder you get into trouble.
Secretary Lin shook his head.
"No, no, no, that would be maliciously undermining the unity between the educated youth and the villagers. You're always coming up with bad ideas."
Liu Weimin said,
"Look at what you're saying, is it inappropriate to do this normally, and also inappropriate to do this to those who have made mistakes?"
Secretary Lin suddenly realized,
"You little rascal, you're something else! You're so tired you don't have time to think nonsense, huh?"
"Then you see, what I said wasn't wrong, was it?"
The educated youth came to the countryside to support rural development, and we should treat them the same as commune members. So we should treat them equally, and there should be a rule for making mistakes, right?
Those are our own members, our own villagers. If they make a mistake, they will be punished, right?
Does going to the countryside mean we're being given special treatment? Wouldn't that go against the leaders' instructions? Don't you think that makes sense?
Secretary Lin was both amused and exasperated.
"Old Liu, what's wrong with you? You've gone astray now. How could you come up with such an idea?"
"You bunch of educated youth, aren't you disobedient?"
Liu Weimin waved his hand.
"No, they didn't. The autumn harvest was over when they came, and they didn't dare to cause any trouble. They were very obedient."
Who knows what next year will be like? Anyway, I'm not afraid if they disobey me, so let's just get to work.
If you ask me, those people are just bored and have nothing better to do. Once they can't afford to eat, they stop thinking about anything.
Secretary Lin nodded without saying anything, but stared blankly at the direction of the mountain.
Judging from the way the mountain is being closed, it seems we won't be able to go up the mountain for a while, at least not openly. So we'll have to clean up the garden.
The cabbages and radishes she planted when she first arrived grew very well. She didn't lack water, so these vegetables were the most nutritious in the whole village. Their size and appearance were quite impressive in this year.
Fortunately, only a few educated youths would occasionally come over to sit here, and very few other people would come. These plants were all planted in the garden behind the house, which was relatively hidden and did not attract attention.
The Chinese cabbages need to have their roots cut off with a knife and then stacked to one side. Each head of cabbage weighs about six or seven pounds. Even Jian Dan was a little bewildered. These things are completely unfit to be seen by others, aren't they? Taking them out would scare people.
"Why,"
She was originally thinking of finding someone to learn how to pickle sauerkraut, but now she's not going to learn it.
After they were all cut down, Jian Dan couldn't help but feel relieved. Thank goodness, the ones on the edges and corners were probably not noticed when watering, and they were more ordinary than these.
Although it's much more vibrant than the small, withered saplings in the village, at least its size is acceptable; it's not as frighteningly large as some others.
Radishes are similar, but not as exaggerated. Some are as thick as an arm, while others are as thin as a wrist. Apart from the exceptionally good ones, the rest are presentable.
Fortunately, she has recovered a lot of her strength and health; otherwise, she would have been helpless to watch this garden full of giant cabbages grow.
She stacked the presentable ones under the windowsill and put away the unpresentable ones. She went back to the base and searched around twice but couldn't find the large vat she needed. Then she remembered that her base didn't have the habit of pickling sauerkraut at all.
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