Chapter 283 Cleaning Up
“Commander’s wife, these people are going to tear down the wall we just built. You said before that there was no document that explicitly said we were not allowed to build a wall around the courtyard.”
Song Lubai carried the earthenware jar to the front and bowed her head to let Chen Dongyang carry the other jar home first.
Song Lubai felt that no matter how many times she corrected them, the neighbors would only ever call her "the regimental commander's wife".
Song Lubai was surrounded by the crowd and led to a group of young people.
The young men looked her up and down. Seeing that Song Lubai was not very old, they felt that they could easily control her.
"Even if you're the regimental commander's wife, you can't condone the neighbors' behavior. They only dare to build a wall because you're backing them up, right? Regimental commander's wife, my foot! Your thinking is flawed!"
"We have to push them all down, otherwise everyone will follow suit and the atmosphere of our group will be ruined!"
Once the blame was placed on them, the neighbors didn't dare to utter a sound.
Looking at the agitated young man in front of her, Song Lubai asked calmly, "Do you have a courtyard wall in your hometown? Where is your hometown? Judging from your accent, you are from Henan Province, just like me. If you say you don't have a courtyard wall, then I will send a telegram back to my hometown to have someone verify it. Don't try to show off here. This is not a place for you to show off your power."
The angry young man said, "What? Just because you're the regimental commander's wife doesn't mean you're so great. Does being the regimental commander's wife give you the right to distort the truth and do things that violate the rules? You have a problem with your thinking. People are influenced by their surroundings, so your husband's thinking must be problematic too."
Song Lubai said firmly, "Stop talking nonsense, just tell me where you're from?"
The hot-blooded young man, eager to "make a name for himself," seized on Song Lubai's identity and wouldn't let go: "Stop arguing with me! You think you can do whatever you want just because you're the regimental commander's wife!"
Song Lubai raised her voice to interrupt, saying, "Does every household in your hometown's commune have a homestead? Do they have a fenced-off yard? Why don't you dare say where your family is from?"
The angry young man said, "Times have changed. Things are different now than they were before. Can we compare things now to the past?"
Song Lubai asked, "Why can't we compare? What's the difference?"
The man looked at the aggressive Song Lubai, his face flushed red, and he stammered, unable to give a coherent answer.
Song Lubai felt a pang of regret; she was about to press him on the topic, but he stopped talking.
Song Lubai snorted and said, "You all know that the homesteads of every household in our hometown commune belong to the brigade, not to individuals, right?"
The man stubbornly retorted, "Building a wall circle is a manifestation of a problematic ideology!"
Song Lubai put her hands on her hips and said, "What nonsense are you spouting? The houses we live in are not our own. We only have the right to use them. We just put some things in the yard after we build a wall. The land is not ours. How come you say that building a wall makes the land ours? Who is out of their mind?"
“The soil used to build the wall belongs to the farm. After the wall is built, the land and the wall still belong to the farm. We only have the right to use it. What belongs to us? The things inside that we bought with our own money and ration coupons belong to us! When we move, we can only take away our own things. How did the land become private property?”
The angry young man Chen Weiguo retorted, "That's a fallacy!"
Song Lubai looked at the neighbors around her and asked, "Once the wall is built, the land in the yard is yours?"
Song Lubai's gaze fell on Zhao Hongying's face.
Zhao Hongying shuddered, remembering how she had been scolded for being a coward at the last wedding banquet. She said in a trembling voice, "How could that be? Any bastard who dares to treat the farm as his own should stand up, and we'll drown you in our spittle!"
Someone chimed in, "Exactly! Anyone who dares to have such thoughts, don't blame us for being impolite."
Someone whispered, "Who would dare to have such thoughts? On the contrary, these young people are obviously out of their minds. We haven't even thought about it that way. Who would dare to treat the yard as their own? They dare! Who's really out of their mind?"
"Who else could have a problem with their thinking? It's just a few of them. The regimental commander's wife asked them where they were from and whether they had a courtyard wall, and they didn't dare to answer. They're covered in white hair, yet they openly call others monsters. I don't know how young people like them are thinking these days."
"How did it grow like that? Did its head fall into its crotch?"
The more these people listened, the darker their faces became, and they broke out in a cold sweat. They opened their mouths and cursed, "Your heads are the ones that are stuck in your crotches! You bunch of uneducated people! We're correcting your mistakes, so don't try to evade responsibility by saying irrelevant things."
"Who's at fault? We wouldn't dare treat this land as our own. Who knows how long we'll live here? We can't take it with us when we move, and we can't sell it. We never thought about what you were thinking from the beginning. Who needs you to correct our mistakes?"
"That's right, it's clearly you guys who have something wrong with your brains!"
"Commander's wife, is there anyone who can do something about these people? We can't let these self-righteous people criticize other people's hard work!"
As they talked, they made the encirclement even smaller.
"Even if we're uneducated, we all know we can't do such despicable things!"
A group of young people had just arrived from the countryside and had been active members of the community all year. However, when they arrived in this new place and were preparing to make a name for themselves, they encountered a major setback.
Song Lubai said, "You guys hurry up and tell me where your hometown is!"
The group exchanged nervous glances, their mouths tightly shut.
Fearing a beating, the leader of the angry young men pushed through the crowd and ran away.
The other four followed suit.
The neighbors stopped the two.
The two people who were stopped were so frightened that they broke out in a cold sweat. When they saw Song Lubai looking over, their eyes darted away guiltily.
Song Lubai asked, "Are you aware of your problem?"
The two looked at each other and nodded in unison.
Song Lubai then asked, "Which unit are you from?"
While they were arguing, the neighbors had already surrounded them.
Faced with overwhelming numbers, Chen Weiguo and his companions began to feel intimidated.
Based on their past experience of scheming against people in their hometown, as long as there are people in the crowd who agree and create momentum, the plan can succeed.
But today these people are unusually united, no one is listening to them, and the regimental commander's wife is leading the opposition against them. The smaller side is isolated and helpless, and there is no way they can get things done.
One of them pleaded in a low voice, "We know we were wrong, please let us go."
Their future living conditions were uncertain, and they hadn't been assigned to any company yet. But the place was so desolate that all they could see was yellowish-brown. They were afraid of being persecuted again, which would only make things worse, so they had no choice but to back down.
Someone in the crowd said, "They look like newly arrived educated youth. A new batch of people was sent here today, and they all sound like they're from Henan Province."
Song Lubai, speaking with a Henan accent, said to the two men, "How come our land produces people like you? Who has an easy life? We eat chaff and wild vegetables every day and still have to guard against people like you. What? Have you had too many good days? You're here to fix up the earth. Learn from the old soldiers of our Production and Construction Corps the spirit of hard work and struggle. Stop trying to show off your old ways here. Let's see if we can even get enough to eat in the future."
"Everyone write a self-criticism tonight and bring it over, and that'll be the end of it."
"Everyone will remember your faces. If you cause trouble again, you'll really get a good lesson."
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