After leaving Gui Po's house, Captain Lin took the educated youth to their private plots: "This is your private plot. You decide what to plant. You have to open up the land yourself. When the time comes, you can ask me for seeds to plant."

The educated youth looked at the hard land and could foresee how hard their future would be. They would have to open up wasteland, plant crops, and work... They were not here to build the country, but to do hard labor, right? They came with so much excitement, but now they were so desperate. If things continued like this, what would they do in the future? At this time, they thought about contacting their parents to get them back.

Qin Meimei: "Captain, we are here to engage in rural construction. If we are asked to reclaim wasteland, we don't know when it will be done. Will this...will it delay our rural construction?" Qin Meimei's voice was weak and sounded pitiful.

However, Captain Lin was too old to feel sorry for the little girl. He said, "Reclaiming wasteland for private plots is a rural policy. It was proposed by the national leaders in 1962. Little girl, you come to engage in rural construction, but you don't even know this? Have you really been educated? Don't deceive us people who have not been educated." Captain Lin snorted in his heart. He knew that the educated youth were unwilling to reclaim wasteland for their own private plots, but they wanted the villagers to help them reclaim wasteland? Then what were the educated youth doing? Fortunately, when discussing with Miss Yi Yi, he took some things into consideration. The answer about the rural policy in 1962 was also taught by Miss Yi Yi. Otherwise, how could he, a big boss, know how to answer with such flowery words?

Qin Meimei blushed. She had always been successful, but for the first time she failed at the hands of this old rural man.

Captain Lin snorted and said, "You are a girl who doesn't care about national affairs. It seems that you are not good at studying. You don't need to go to the elementary school teacher quota this time."

Captain Lin's words made the educated youth swallow all their excuses for not wanting to open up wasteland. They were all worried that if they continued to talk, things would get worse. The educated youth from the city were a little scared. Here, the captain was a local tyrant, and they didn't dare to offend him.

Zhang Xiaojun hurriedly said, "Don't worry, Captain. We will definitely open up the land ourselves. We just don't have enough tools, so the speed will be slow. Please don't mind."

Captain Lin glanced at him and said, "You can come to the village committee office to borrow the tools for land reclamation. Just register. But you have to pay for any damage. But if you don't want to borrow them and want to slowly reclaim the land by yourself, that's up to you. Anyway, this is your private plot, and the things grown are for you. It has nothing to do with the people in our village!"

Zhang Xiaojun: "Yes, yes, you are right, thank you for reminding us."

Fang Fang asked hurriedly: "Captain, since Qin Meimei has no chance to compete for the teacher position, does that mean the female teacher position will be given to me?"

Captain Lin said, "If you work hard every day and don't slack off, of course you will get it. We have scorekeepers who will record your work points. If your work points are very low, there will be no quota for female educated youth, and only one quota for male educated youth."

Fang Fang was somewhat dissatisfied, but was held back by Fang Cao and said nothing.

Qin Meimei looked at Fang Fang and felt very frustrated. If she had not said those words just now and if she and Fang Fang were competing for the position of female teacher, the position would definitely be hers.

Captain Lin didn't know about the little Jiujiu they beat. He went home after introducing them to everyone. As for what the educated youth wanted to do, who cared about them? Captain Lin got a headache when he saw their delicate skin and flesh, and wanted to turn a blind eye.

After Captain Lin left, everyone stood on the private plot at a loss. Zhang Xiaojun said, "How about this, let's go back now, have a good rest in the afternoon, and come to the private plot tomorrow morning. Each person will have one mu of land. In order to leave a good impression on the team, we must work hard."

Qin Meimei: "But I have never reclaimed wasteland before, and I don't know how to do it. What should I do?" She looked at Zhang Xiaojun aggrievedly, "Zhang Zhiqing, you are the best among us. Can you help me?"

Zhang Xiaojun said, "Comrade Qin, I want to help you too. We are both educated youths who have come together to engage in rural construction. We should help each other. But, if I help you, what if the captain thinks you are not only lazy but also passive? The captain already has a bad impression of you. If you do it again... I'm afraid it won't be good for you."

Qin Meimei bit her lower lip, her eyes were red.

Zhang Xiaojun sighed: "Let's divide the land and then go back." He didn't even think twice about asking him to work for others.

Soon the six educated youth divided the land and returned to the educated youth dormitory.

Zhang Xiaojun: "Fang Zhiqing, I'm going to go to Gui Po to exchange some things. Do you want to go? Or should I exchange it for you?"

Fang Cao thought: "Then let's go together, I also want to change something, wait for me."

Zhang Xiaojun: "Okay, I'll go ask the other two."

After hearing what Zhang Xiaojun said, Zheng Wangming and Ren Qing said they wanted to go too. Although they didn't know what to exchange for, they could go! Let's go and take a look.

So the four of them went to ask the female educated youth next door.

Fang Fang: "I'm not going. I'm exhausted and need to rest. Brother, can you help me change something? I want to eat rice, not sweet potatoes or potatoes."

Fang Cao: "Okay, I'll change it for you."

Then, when several people went to Gui Po's house, Zhang Xiaojun led the team and deliberately turned to Lin's house, but he turned to the old house of the Lin family, which had not been lived in for several years, so he saw that there was no one in the Lin family.

Gui Po's family conditions were poor. Her husband died early, and she had only one son. Before liberation, her son was killed by the Japanese, and she became a lonely person. She survived the famine, and now she has her own private plot, so she has survived. However, because she is old, she can only earn two or three work points from work, so the food distributed by the team is not enough for her to eat, and she relies on her own private plot to support herself. However, because she is the only one in her family, the empty room in the house is used to grow vegetables, so her family has a lot of vegetables. She also raised chickens and pigs, and her life gradually improved. Captain Lin said that her conditions were poor, but in fact her conditions were not bad, at least she ate well. Captain Lin sent people to change her food purely to take care of her age.

Granny Gui is quite old, almost seventy this year. She cultivates her own private plot of land and spends twice as much time as others, so her life seems good, but it is actually very hard. But some people are just tough.

Zhang Xiaojun: "Is Mrs. Gui here? Let's exchange things."

After Zhang Xiaojun and others came in, Gui Po asked, "What do you want to exchange?"

Everyone looked at each other, and Zhang Xiaojun was the first to say, "Mrs. Gui, I want to exchange some eggs and vegetables. How do I do that?"

Grandma Gui said, "You can exchange grain with me, as well as cotton, bills, sugar, and the like. We have a commune trading day on the 15th of every month. At that time, everyone in the commune will go to exchange. There will be more things to exchange at that time, so you can exchange more."

Zhang Xiaojun came from the countryside. After arriving in the countryside, the things he brought were more practical, such as grain coupons, sugar coupons, cloth coupons, sugar, flour, etc. After he was named to go to the countryside, he asked his adoptive parents for a lot of good things. After getting the things, two days before leaving, he also registered Zhang Xiaohong, who was also an adopted son. He was not a fool. If he went to the countryside and didn't know when he would come back, wouldn't all the Zhang family's things be given to Zhang Xiaohong? So he was determined to take Zhang Xiaohong away even if it meant being embarrassed by his adoptive parents. As for the things he had already obtained, he would not return them.

Zhang Xiaojun exchanged half a pound of brown sugar for half a pound of eggs and two cucumbers.

After Zhang Xiaojun changed his clothes, it was Fang Cao's turn. He asked, "Gui Po, do you have any fine grains? Rice or millet will do."

Fang Cao: "Which Lin family? There are many Lin families here, right?"

Grandma Gui: "Look at me, I'm talking about Lin Dajun's family. The Lin Dajun family has the best conditions in our village. They have eggs, meat coupons, and rice."

Zhang Xiaojun's heart skipped a beat: "Gui Po, why does Lin Dajun's family have all these things?" You have to know that when he left, his family was so poor that they couldn't even afford to eat. Later, they found the big shrimp and told others about it. It is estimated that the big shrimp can't support it for long. This time, because he was afraid of revealing his identity, he didn't ask Captain Lin, but he didn't expect to hear about the Lin family from Gui Po. His heart skipped a beat. The reason why he came here to work in the countryside was because the Lin family was his last choice. If he couldn't live here anymore, he could win sympathy from the Lin family.

Everyone in the entire brigade knew about the Lin family's affairs. When Zhang Xiaojun asked, Gui Po also told him that from growing vegetables on the stove to raising a pig farm to being the president's assistant, among these things, the only thing that did not happen was making money from royalties. Because the news that Lin Yiyi made money from writing royalties was only spread in September and October 1960, and it was not spread after that, and no one mentioned it. So this matter was not spread anywhere else except in the Datang Production Brigade. Besides, even if someone knew about it, it was only two months, and this unstable matter was not worth mentioning compared to such a big thing as growing vegetables on the stove. Over time, even the Xiao family forgot about it.