The male educated youth spent the whole afternoon collecting firewood for everyone to share, but when they came back and saw Zhang Xiaojun resting at home, they were of course unhappy.

Seeing them, Zhang Xiaojun said, "You guys are back? I've prepared the meal and some meat."

The angry male educated youth were stunned.

Fang Cao said, "Brother Xiaojun, where did you get the meat?"

Zhang Xiaojun said, "I sent Qin Meimei back this afternoon, and I thought the three of you would have enough firewood, so I went fishing for shrimps. These are a kind of shrimps that we have here, they are very big and have a lot of meat. They are already cooked and can be eaten."

Zheng Wangming: "Thank you, Brother Xiaojun." After hearing what Zhang Xiaojun said, everyone had no idea about picking up firewood.

Zhang Xiaojun joked, "You're welcome, but the food used for dinner is mine, so you have to pay it back, or I won't have enough food to last a month."

Fang Cao: "Of course." When they came back from collecting firewood, they found that someone had prepared dinner, and they breathed a sigh of relief.

Zheng Wangming said, "I will give the food to Brother Xiaojun first."

Ren Qing also went to get food.

The food was sweet potatoes. Everyone gave the food to Zhang Xiaojun and started to eat dinner.

Fang Cao: "Brother Xiaojun, do you have any extra food? I want to bring some to my sister."

Zhang Xiaojun: "Yes." He took out two bowls and said, "It's ready." One bowl contained egg custard, and the other bowl contained lobster and a small sweet potato.

Fang Cao: "Thank you, Brother Xiaojun." After she brought dinner to Fang Fang, the male educated youth started eating. It was also their first time to eat lobster. Although it was just lobster boiled in salt water, the meat inside was indeed chewy and delicious.

Ren Qing: "I haven't eaten meat for a long time. Today I am able to have meat thanks to Brother Xiaojun." They were all around 17 or 18 years old, and many of them were rather simple.

Zhang Xiaojun: "You're welcome. We are all educated youth who went to the countryside to build the city. Of course, we should help each other and unite with each other."

The male educated youth were having dinner, Fang Fang had just had dinner, but Qin Meimei didn't. Qin Meimei was lying alone in the room. When Fang Cao came over just now, she heard the noise. She was upset. She was sick, why didn't these people prepare food for her? Qin Meimei walked out of the room, pretending to have just woken up, and came to Fang Fang's door: "Fang Fang, I'm a little hungry, I'm going to cook, do you want to join me?"

Fang Fang: "No, my brother will make it for me. Her food is with my brother, and he will prepare it for me every time he cooks! You don't need to call me when you cook for yourself in the future."

Qin Meimei's heart sank when she heard this, but she still kept a smile on her face: "Okay." Fang Fang was so lucky that her brother accompanied her to the countryside. But what about her? Did she have to collect firewood, fetch water, and cook by herself? Thinking of this, Qin Meimei felt weak for a while. Collecting firewood in such a hot day? She didn't want to. And fetching water, how could she, a female comrade, have the strength to fetch water? No, she had to find someone to help. Who should she find? Qin Meimei thought about it and decided that it would be better to find a male educated youth.

Although she was not familiar with the male educated youth, he was an educated person from the city after all. Qin Meimei felt that it was more reliable than looking for a peasant from the countryside. The peasants were too scary. After thinking it over, Qin Meimei began to look for targets. Among the four male educated youth, Zhang Xiaojun was ruled out. Today's events were still vivid in her mind. When she fainted, Zhang Xiaojun even took into account the relationship between men and women and asked a woman to carry her. It can be seen that Zhang Xiaojun is a smart man. Such a person is not easy to fool. Fang Cao said that Fang Fang was there, and it was estimated that she would not benefit from it. Then there were only Zheng Wangming and Ren Qing.

No one knew about Qin Meimei's plan. The male educated youth finally had a good meal. They hadn't eaten or slept well on the train in the past few days, and they hadn't had a good meal in the village. Today's lobster whetted their appetite.

"Are you all here?" Captain Lin came in holding a cigarette holder.

Everyone looked at Captain Lin, and Zhang Xiaojun stood up: "Captain, you're here?" Zhang Xiaojun really knew how to behave. Although his adoptive parents had lived a better life than the country people in the past few years, in his heart, he was also a dependent, so he was very good at reading people's faces.

Captain Lin said, "It's like this. You educated youth are all from the city. People in the city are different from us country folk. I'm afraid that you won't get along well, so I decided to select a team leader from among you educated youth to be responsible for and manage you educated youth. From now on, I will hand over the affairs of the educated youth to your team leader. As for your team leader, the brigade will give him five kilograms of food as a subsidy every month."

As soon as these words came out, the male educated youth were all tempted. Five kilograms of grain aside, the team leader was at least a small leader, and people of this era valued appearance more than substance. Five kilograms of grain was not as good as the reputation of team leader.

Captain Lin looked at them and asked, "Do you have a suitable candidate in mind?"

The four young men looked at each other. Of course, they all wanted to recommend themselves, but young people were not so shameless. For a moment, everyone remained silent.

Captain Lin looked at them and said, "How about this? I will recommend someone and let him do the job for a month. If he doesn't do a good job as a team leader, I will appoint someone else. What do you think?"

Everyone nodded, and there was no objection to this.

Captain Lin was very satisfied with their obedience: "Then let Zhang Xiaojun be the team leader first."

When the name of the team leader came out, even Zhang Xiaojun himself was stunned, and then he immediately reacted: "Thank you for your trust, Captain. I will not let you down."

the next day

Because the farmers were idle and there was no work, the educated youth did not have to work. But not having to work meant no food, so the private plots were very important. So Zhang Xiaojun, who served as the team leader, borrowed tools such as hoes from the brigade and took the educated youth to open up the private plots.

Of course, the private plots belonged to them, so if they did not want to go, they did not have to go. After all, the food they grew belonged to them. As for the partnership between male and female educated youth, Zhang Xiaojun never considered it. He thought that women were not good at doing the work.

Zhang Xiaojun had just become the team leader, so he put the matter of going to the town police station to get his identity certificate on hold, because it would not look good to ask for leave right after becoming the team leader. In addition, he had been reclaiming wasteland on his own land these days and had no time to go to the Lin family, so the Lin family had been very quiet recently.

Lin Sijun: "Sister, Zhang Xiaojun has recently become the leader of the educated youth group. He leads the educated youth to open up their own land every day. He hasn't come to our house. It's so strange."

Lin Yiyi was also surprised to hear this. Zhang Xiaojun was so scheming when he was only 13 years old. He would not give up just because Lin Sijun kicked him out of the Lin family. For Zhang Xiaojun, profit is the most important thing. He is a very selfish person. Therefore, Zhang Xiaojun's current behavior makes Lin Yiyi feel incredible.

Lin Sijun: “Sister?”

Lin Yiyi said: "Don't worry about him. If he doesn't do anything, we can just pretend he doesn't exist. But we still need to pay attention to his every move."

Lin Sijun: "I'm watching." That ungrateful person told others that shrimps are edible, and they will never forget it for the rest of their lives.

In the blink of an eye, it was September and Lin Wudi returned to the island to study, but those who had been sent down had not yet arrived.

That day, Lin Yiyi was picking peanuts. These peanuts were pulled from the ground by Qin Xiangju, and they were different from the aged, sun-dried peanuts that Liang had given her before.

Little Eleven squatted on the side, his hands were covered with dirt: "Yiyi." He handed the peanuts he picked to Lin Yiyi. The child was weak, and it took a long time to pick a peanut, but after picking the peanuts, his little face was full of bright smiles, and his little chest was puffed out, like a little hero who had driven away a monster.

Lin Yiyi took the peanuts and said, "My little Eleven is really amazing." She wiped the dirt off her son's face and said, "Keep it up."

Little Eleven: "Come on, come on Eleven, come on Yiyi." Xiaowu went to school, Lin Sijun went to school, Xiaojixiang went to school, and now Little Eleven has no one to accompany him. Every day he follows his mother like a little puppy. When his mother washes clothes, he also wants to wash clothes. When his mother washes vegetables, he also wants to wash vegetables, and he seems to find fun in it.

In fact, he just wanted his mother to praise him.

Xiao Shiyi: "Okay..."

When the mother and son were picking peanuts, someone came and asked, "Is Comrade Yi Yi here?"

This sound...then, the other party also walked into the yard.

Lin Yiyi was a little surprised: "Director Yang, why are you here?" Isn't this Director Yang from the commune?

Lin Yiyi: "Please take a seat. I'll get you some water."

Director Yang: "No, I'll be leaving soon. I'm here to give you something."

Lin Yiyi was a little confused: "Are you delivering something to me?"

Director Yang: "Do you remember that you gave the president a plan for a woodworking factory?"

Lin Yiyi said: "I remember, but the commune has never had any plans to open a carpentry factory, right?" It has been several years, and the commune still doesn't have a carpentry factory, so the commune probably doesn't plan to open one.

Director Yang: "The commune discussed this plan for a long time and decided not to open it because planting trees is a troublesome thing if we want to open a woodworking factory. It cannot be planted in one or two years. Besides, the trees on the mountain are owned by the state and we cannot use them as woodworking materials. So the commune did not open a woodworking factory. But this is not the point. The point is... do you know the Canton Fair?"

Lin Yiyi nodded: "I know." How could she not know about such a famous Canton Fair.

Director Yang said, "That's good to know. Take a look at this." As he spoke, he took out a document from his briefcase.