Chapter 36 Listening to gossip makes eating more enjoyable
The brigade secretary Zhou Ping'an is a middle-aged man under 40 years old. He is not tall, has regular features and dark skin, which is a mark left by years of hard work. He looks in good spirits and loves to laugh.
He said, "Well, even if you don't tell them, these kids won't slack off." He smiled proudly and said, "If you go to the next few brigades, you will find out how worry-free these educated youth in our Five-Star Brigade are."
Accountant Ye also nodded: "It's true. The educated youth in our brigade are really obedient and don't cause trouble. Although they work slowly, they are diligent. You don't know that a few days ago when I went to my mother-in-law's house, I passed by their brigade's educated youth site and found several educated youth fighting."
"Their captain and secretary are almost dying of worry."
Zhang Tiesheng translated for everyone on the spot, and after listening to him, the educated youth all looked like they wanted to hear some gossip.
Yu Wanqing smiled and said, "Accountant Ye, what are they fighting about?"
Listening to gossip makes meals more enjoyable.
Accountant Ye sighed, "It seemed that it was the turn of a female educated youth to cook, but the male educated youth did not go into the mountains to chop wood, and the female educated youth did not have wood to cook. When everyone found out that there was no food to eat after work, they quarreled, and then they started fighting."
After listening to Zhang's on-the-spot translation, Guo Hongying was shocked: "So, it was a fight between male and female educated youth?"
Accountant Ye nodded and said, "There are seven female educated youths and three male educated youths in their educated youth center. Usually, the male educated youths are responsible for chopping wood and fetching water, while the female educated youths are responsible for cooking."
Wang Yuping whispered, "It's obviously the male educated youth who is wrong. Since you chose to carry water and chop wood, you have to do your job well."
"That's right, how can we cook without firewood?" He Xiaoyuan frowned: "Fortunately, there is no such thing in our educated youth camp, otherwise how can we live?"
Gao Qingmei hummed and said, "Everyone has to go to work. It's impossible for one person to do all the work at the educated youth point."
The youth camp arranged one person to cook every day. Everyone knew that they couldn't handle it, so they would come back early to help after work at noon. As long as they had time, everyone would go to the foot of the mountain together to get some firewood.
With the mulberry branches cut at the end of last year, they will not be short of firewood.
As for fetching water, it was done by the male educated youth, and the female educated youth never had to worry about it.
It is said that male educated youth did more than female educated youth, but who said this?
Sometimes when the male educated youth had torn clothes, they would take them to the female educated youth to help mend them. No female educated youth would refuse, and no one would tell anyone about these things.
We are a group. If we are divided internally, we will have no way to live and every day will be a torment.
The team leader said, "I know you are all good people. From last year when you went to the countryside until now, you have not caused us any trouble."
They just worked too slowly, so slowly that he wanted to rush over and help them.
After a year, the male educated youth only did seven or eight work points of work.
Female educated youth were paid five or six work points each.
After the captain and the others had left, Yu Wanqing helped to clean up the dishes. Guo Hongying whispered, "Finally, I can sleep alone tonight."
"Every day at the educated youth center, I faced Gu Xiaoru's gloomy face. I was afraid that she would kill me while I was asleep."
Zhang Hongqi snorted coldly: "She dares."
In fact, she didn't dare to sleep soundly at night, for fear that Gu Xiaoru might do something.
"You don't have to worry about it after you move out." Yu Wanqing looked at Guo Hongying: "You can't cook, how are you going to eat in the future?"
Ever since Li Wenzhou started dating Ye Shulan, he would go to Ye's house to have meals together.
Huo Lanci went out to have dinner with him.
Guo Hongying smiled and said, "Hongqi, Chuan Ming and I are having dinner together."
"I will learn how to cook from Hongqi. Comrade Chuan Ming will be responsible for fetching water, and we will chop wood together."
Yu Wanqing nodded when she heard this. It turned out that everything had been arranged. This was better than going back to the educated youth spot to cook for so many people.
On the first day of the double grab, all of them gathered at the brigade headquarters' sun-drying field for a meeting. After the meeting, the double grab officially began.
All the female educated youth were assigned to harvest rice. Each of them was given a piece of land. The secretary's daughter-in-law, Aunt Zhou, came to teach everyone how to harvest rice. She was very careful and told everyone everything they needed to pay attention to.
Yu Wanqing learned it after watching for a while and hurried back to her own field to work.
The fields of several female educated youth were allocated together. Next to Yu Wanqing were Guo Hongying and Zhang Hongqi, and behind her was Wang Yuping. She could still talk to them when she was tired.
Captain Lu is a man who knows how to allocate tasks.
After bending over to work for less than an hour, Yu Wanqing felt like her waist was going to break. If she hadn't done farm work in the previous month as a foundation, she would have to sit down now.
It's not that I can't do it, but my waist is very tired and uncomfortable.
This takes time to get used to.
She looked at Guo Hongying and saw that she had already squatted down and was cutting slowly, but her hands did not stop moving.
She moved her neck, arms and waist and continued to work.
Around eight o'clock, Huo Lanci came to find Yu Wanqing: "Are you hungry?"
Yu Wanqing shook her head: "Not hungry yet."
She had eaten two meat buns and drank a glass of milk before going out, and now she didn't feel hungry at all.
"Are you tired?" Yu Wanqing looked at him with a faint smile.
His job was to put the harvested rice on a wooden cart and then take it to the production team's threshing ground.
Huo Lanci shook his head: "I'm not tired."
"You sit down and rest for a while." After saying that, he took her sickle and bent down to cut the rice.
Seeing his skilled movements, Yu Wanqing couldn't help but ask, "Have you done this before?"
This guy just went to the countryside this year and it was his first time to participate in the double grab. How come he did it so well?
Huo Lanci said, "I've done this kind of work before."
When Yu Wanqing returned home at noon, Huo Lanci had already arrived home. Rice was cooking in the pot and he was washing vegetables: "You go and have a rest, I'll cook."
Yu Wanqing shook her head: "Let's do it together, it will be faster this way."
At noon, they had a steamed pork belly, a vegetable, and a boiled egg, and they finished the meal.
Only then did Yu Wanqing feel that she was alive.
"Is there any food in Beishan?" She was exhausted, and the scholars and old people in Beishan must have had a harder time.
Huo Lanci nodded: "There is food."
He asked someone to get more than ten kilograms of rice, a few kilograms of flour, and two cans of maltose and send them to Beishan.
Huo Lanci said, "Let's go into the mountains and get something tomorrow night."
Whether it is the people of Beishan or Wanqing, they all need to eat something nutritious.
Yu Wanqing frowned: "It's dangerous to go at night."
"It's okay. Chu Ming and I will go together." Huo Lanci said while washing dishes, "Chu Ming is quite skilled. It will be fine for the two of us to go into the mountains together."
That night, Huo Lanci and Chu Ming went into the mountains, but they were not there for long and returned around midnight.
When Yu Wanqing woke up, she saw two killed pheasants on the stove.
When Huo Lanci saw her wake up, he quickly said, "Go brush your teeth and wash your face first. I've already prepared breakfast. Eat a little before going to work."
Yu Wanqing nodded, and stupidly went to brush her teeth and wash her face. When she sat down to eat, she asked, "Didn't you say we would go into the mountains tonight?"