As soon as the three of them stepped out the door, Wang Chunni hooked her arm around Chen Shuning's and said coquettishly, "Shuning, do you still have the meat sauce you ate on the train last time? You have no idea, I've been dreaming about the taste of that meat sauce for the past few days. It's so delicious. So Shuning, can you give me some of that sauce in exchange? I'll trade you some canned food, okay?"
Last time I went to town, I managed to snag several cans of food, including two of the hardest-to-find cans of yellow peaches. How about I trade you those for them later?
Looking at her friend like this, Xu Laidi helplessly covered her face with her hands. Before Chen Shuning could speak, she said with a look of disgust, "Chunni, can you embarrass yourself any more? Even the village children who are a few years old can't act like you."
After saying this, Xu Laidi ignored Wang Chunni, who was pouting and looking aggrieved, and turned to Chen Shuning and said, "Shuning, you don't know, ever since we moved out to live separately, this girl starts thinking about what to eat for lunch as soon as she gets up in the morning, and as soon as she puts down her chopsticks at noon, she starts thinking about what to eat for dinner. All the money that Uncle Wang and Aunt Wang sent her has been eaten up by her."
"That money was originally sent to me by my parents because they were worried I wouldn't have enough to eat. Besides, working is so tiring. If I don't eat more, I won't have the strength to work. If I can't work, I won't get work points, and if I don't get work points, I won't get food..."
"Stop, you've got too much nonsense to say. Hurry up and get going, or the team leader will scold you again if you're late for work."
Chen Shuning didn't say anything, just watched the two of them bickering and walking towards the brigade headquarters. Anyway, they would eat together at noon, and he would just give that girl some meat sauce then.
The three of them chatted and laughed all the way to the brigade headquarters. Chen Shuning thought they were early, but she didn't expect that the threshing ground in front of the brigade headquarters was already full of people when they arrived.
Even many elderly people and children who don't usually work are there.
Seeing that the group wasn't standing together in small teams as usual, Chen Shuning didn't separate from Wang Chunni and Xu Laidi. Instead, he pulled them to a less crowded spot and stood there chatting and laughing with the villagers, waiting for the team leader to assign tasks.
After most of the people had arrived, Chen Shuning saw the captain and a very tall, thin old man go up to the platform.
According to the old lady next to him, this is Wang Dejin, the Party Secretary of their Qingshan Brigade. Because the Party Secretary's health has not been very good, this is the first time that Chen Shuning, who has been in Qingshan Brigade for some time, has met Party Secretary Wang.
However, this Party Secretary Wang has a good reputation among the villagers. He is said to be a fairly upright cadre, but due to health reasons, he rarely takes the lead in his work anymore.
The old lady next to me said that if the village hadn't been so desperate to find someone who could command respect, Secretary Wang would have stepped down long ago.
Listening to the gaunt old man's impassioned speech on the stage, even Chen Shuning, who was usually a passive and unmotivated worker, was moved to tears. He felt that if he didn't work hard, he would be letting himself down. It's clear that this Party Secretary is quite capable.
After the Party Secretary finished speaking, it was time for the Brigade Leader to assign tasks. The Brigade Leader usually oversees production, so he was quite adept at assigning tasks and it didn't take much time.
The main food crops in Heilongjiang Province are wheat and corn. Sorghum and soybeans are also grown, but not as much as wheat and corn.
The work points during the autumn harvest are distributed according to the amount of work done, with more work resulting in more pay and no upper limit. Moreover, because the work during the autumn harvest is very tiring, the work points given during this period are more than usual.
Take wheat harvesting as an example. You get work points for every acre you harvest. If you can harvest 100 work points a day, that's your skill.
Every year, the villagers rely on these few days of autumn harvest to earn more work points to supplement their household income, so there is no question of comparing whether the educated youth do more or less work. In fact, they would be happy if you did less work so that they could earn more work points.
Also because it involves work points, in order to avoid conflicts over work points during the autumn harvest, the team leaders will not assign who to whom as usual, but will let the villagers form teams freely.
If Zhang San believes that his family can harvest 100 work points worth of land a day, then his squad leader will allocate 100 work points worth of land to Zhang San.
However, the acceptance period for the results is limited to one day. Tasks are assigned every morning, and the results are accepted by the scorekeeper or team leader in the evening.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be acceptable if someone greedily asked for a large plot of land but couldn't finish harvesting it, while others who are capable have no land to harvest. If it is discovered that someone has asked for a large plot of land but cannot finish harvesting it within the stipulated time, they will be punished, which means their work points will be deducted.
It is said that this method, which is similar to the contract responsibility system, was conceived by the Party Secretary who was in poor health. It was precisely because of this method that Qingshan Brigade was able to be rated as the commune's cash production brigade every year.
The main task of Qingshan Brigade today is to harvest wheat, and Chen Shuning and his fourth team have been weeding and catching insects in the wheat fields for a while, so they are quite familiar with this land.
Chen Shuning still covered herself up completely from head to toe, otherwise if she touched a wheat awn, it would be very itchy, and in severe cases, it would become red and swollen, making her feel uncomfortable for a long time.
Fortunately, the villagers had gotten used to Chen Shuning's attire and did not treat her like a gorilla in a zoo, as they had initially done.
Because of the house construction, Chen Shuning had become quite familiar with the brigade leader's family, so she and Wan Guihua usually worked together as a pair.
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