Chapter 167
Although Zhou Jiani now works in the commune, letters from distant friends are still sent to the brigade. She takes things from fellow villagers and says they are sent to friends from other places, and no one will suspect anything.
Meng Yan also placed an order with her, and this order came after she had given away two woven bags. Li Jingdang asked her to ask the factory to reimburse the cost of the two bags, but Zhou Jiani refused, saying with a smile, "Those were personal gifts for friends."
Then he openly ordered ten single-shoulder woven bags from the factory in his own name and went to the finance department to pay the payment.
When placing orders for other teams, she would also buy a few more items in her personal name, such as baskets, suitcases, storage stools, storage boxes, large and small baskets, etc. Little by little, together with the dried cowpeas that were gradually completed, there would be things to sell on the shelves.
There are also some inconveniences in being a cadre and making everyone familiar with the place. For example, when going to the big market in the commune, there are only three or four stalls with one familiar person, so it is not so convenient to sell goods.
One time, she wanted to buy a batch of wooden dragon-head crutches. She was standing at the front of the stall, just as she was about to pick one up to examine it, when the old man selling earthen baskets at the stall next to her called out to her with a smile, "Team Leader Xiao Zhou, are you buying crutches for the elderly at home?"
Zhou Jiani was in charge of a wide area, and she couldn't actually remember the appearance of every fellow villager. But when someone called out "Team Leader Zhou," she obviously knew her, and she laughed dryly and said, "...Yes, uncle, you're selling baskets!" She bought one as if to cover up, and walked away with it in her hand.
Her hand-forged kitchen knives were selling very well. As she walked to the forge with her hands behind her back, several people at the nearby market greeted her, "Team Leader Zhou, are you here for the market?"
"Team Leader Zhou, are you buying a kitchen knife?"
Zhou Jiani: "...I'll just take a look."
He walked away slowly with his hands behind his back.
She glanced at the vegetable stall, and the owner said with a smile, "Team Leader Zhou manages the largest plastic greenhouse in Xihe Commune. Are you still short of vegetables?"
Zhou Jiani: “…”
After becoming a leader, she couldn't get by.
Not to mention the black market, now you don't even dare to enter it. If you are recognized, it will be a handle on them. This has caused Zhou Jiani to be a bit short of various tickets recently. Handkerchiefs, enamel products and other things are hard to get, so recently, taking orders for free has become the norm.
Fortunately, no one cared about this. She settled all the orders on the spot, which was much more convenient than the quarterly settlement by various cooperative units. No team was unwilling to see the cash on the spot, so the process went smoothly.
Since she couldn't make a living in her own area, she went to the city during her rest time, disguised herself carefully, went to all the black markets in the city, bought some tickets, and bought some flour, millet, sesame seeds, eggs, etc. from the black market.
When she returned in the evening, she was stopped by someone at the village entrance: "Zhou, Zhou Tong, Team Leader Zhou!"
"Comrade Peng Guangrong, what's going on?"
After a year of training and hard work, Peng Guangrong no longer had the recklessness he had when he first arrived, nor did he have the pampered nature of the city kids. After a year in the village, he had become darker and thinner, and even his clothes were not much different from those of the young people in the village. Only his temperament still showed the shadow of the educated youth. After all, his childhood knowledge and the confidence of the city people were there.
When talking alone with Zhou Jiani, Peng Guangrong felt complicated.
He had first met her on the train a year ago and had clearly developed a fondness for her. But when they arrived in the village, a group of people were throwing a tantrum over the hard work, and seeing Zhou Jiani not side with them, the young man's pride was a bit hurt. Furthermore, they were all from Qiyang, but Zhou Jiani had sided with the group from the capital, which made them feel even more embarrassed. Add to that Zhao Weiguo's resentment, and their relationship with Zhou Jiani suddenly frayed.
Afterwards, their protest was successful, but before they could savor the joy of victory, they were punished to carry manure. After the embarrassment, the young men felt even more humiliated and their pride was crushed. I don't know if something was wrong with their minds at that time, but instead of reflecting on whether their actions were right or wrong, they actually harbored even greater resentment towards Zhou Jiani because of this incident.
Maybe she had tried to stop it, but no one listened to her, and as a result she was punished, and everyone felt embarrassed.
The momentary loss of face completely destroyed the friendship we had when we went to the countryside together.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Ailing's image collapsed, and the people on their side began to reflect on their impression of Zhou Jiani and felt a little embarrassed.
But everyone was concerned about Zhao Weiguo's reputation and was reluctant to seek reconciliation with Zhou Jiani. After all, Weiguo had been disgusted with Zhou Jiani for some reason during that time, and he would take every opportunity to belittle her. Everyone felt that they were on Zhao Weiguo's side, so it was definitely too embarrassing to repair their relationship with Zhou Jiani.
I thought we should wait a little longer and find a suitable opportunity for everyone to sit down and talk. After all, we came from the same group and from the same place... But what we got was Zhao Weiguo's report on Zhou Jiani.
What awaited them next was the increasingly dazzling light from Zhou Jiani. If they approached her at this time, it would seem a bit... how should I put it, like they were trying to curry favor with her because she was in a powerful position. No one was willing to bring up the matter.
As Zhou Jiani became more and more dazzling, everyone secretly regretted it and felt more embarrassed to approach her.
In the first half of this year, Zhou Jiani was transferred to urban household registration due to her dazzling performance. Everyone was secretly jealous and envious, but it was not a big deal. However, Qiu Zeming's recent departure really shocked everyone.
It is not denied that there was jealousy, but several people had a serious discussion in private. Zhou Jiani was promoted because of her achievements, and Qiu Zeming thought so.
Now everyone wants to achieve something so that they can have the opportunity to return to the city.
"Comrade Zhou, I would like to apply to participate in this quarter's Canton Fair and contribute to the team and the factory." Peng Guangrong was no longer shrinking, and he couldn't shrink anymore. What was face important? His self-esteem had been gone when the team leader blocked their family visit quota. He met Zhou Jiani's polite but puzzled gaze and made his application openly.
Zhou Jiani was surprised for a moment, then asked, "Has the factory already started recruiting publicly?"
The formal cadre meeting has not yet been held and the selection of personnel has not yet begun.
Peng Guangrong blushed and smiled shyly, "No, I heard that the factory was going to participate in the Autumn Canton Fair, so I wanted to come and ask."
He was immediately preoccupied with the news as soon as he heard it. He tossed and turned all night thinking about it and couldn't sleep. He suddenly thought of Bai Haoyang and Wang Qianjin who came down with Qiu Zeming. One of them became a cadre in the factory, and the other went to raise pigs. I heard that he was aiming to be a breeding technician.
They were all running and working hard, but what had he done in the past year? He was crouching, embarrassed to save face.
I can't hide anymore, so today I'm going to make Zhou Jiani embarrassed and wait for someone here.
Zhou Jiani smiled and nodded. "Your spirit is commendable. It's a good thing you have such a heart. But..." She changed the subject and continued, "Selecting personnel is not my responsibility. If you have any ideas, you can ask the factory secretary or the factory director."
"Thank you, thank you, Team Leader Zhou." Peng Guangrong felt relieved. It didn't matter whether Zhou Jiani cared or not. He came here just to express his attitude and take this opportunity to solemnly apologize to Zhou Jiani for the stupid things that happened last year.
Zhou Jiani waved her hand. Apart from the mean and confused ones, she and Peng Guangrong and the others had only disagreements at most, but no particularly big conflicts.
She is not so narrow-minded.
After riding away again, Peng Guangrong slowly let out a breath and then headed straight for the brigade headquarters.
Jiani didn't interfere with the selection process last week. Since then, each brigade has expanded slightly, either by adding staff or expanding its processing workshops. Furthermore, influenced by the Qianjin Brigade, each brigade has also begun to grow raw materials.
Now that the weaving industry has become a public affair, everything related to weaving needs to be reported to the commune. Zhou Jiani was worried that someone would conceal the truth and deceive them, so she led her team to measure step by step, calculate the area, estimate the output, and record it.
Wei Xiangyang has always wanted to join them, but has never found a suitable opportunity. Now he forces himself to join and follows the three people into the team.
The data that Song Chao had secretly investigated before came in handy now. When facing the village cadres with ulterior motives, Zhou Jiani just raised her eyelids and started to find out the loopholes and fill them in.
"We asked you to report it, but we didn't ask you to confiscate it all. What should be left for the members should be left for them. The complete data is only for the convenience of adjustment in special circumstances. If it was really distributed to the members at that time, could they still force the harvest? Why hide it? They must have underreported two or three acres of land."
The accompanying cadre chuckled and said, "I didn't mean to underreport. I just forgot, I really forgot. We planted them on the mountain, with patches here and there, so it's easy to miss them when counting... hehe."
For more than half a month, I went up and down the mountains and ditches every day. My legs were so tired that they couldn't bend, and I even wore out two pairs of cloth shoes.
After this work was completed, there were several days of hot weather. Not only did the cowpeas dry well, but the corn and sorghum also ripened quickly. The autumn harvest officially began.
The new educated youth who went on strike last year because of exhaustion from the rush to harvest are now quick and self-conscious this year. They dare not slack off for the sake of work points, if for no other reason. At the end of the year, they will have to earn every bite of food they eat with their own hands.
This year's new educated youth have enough buffer time, so although they are tired now, they can still hold on.
Zhou Jiani and her work group would help out in any brigade they went to during the day, and would also go to the fields to work as long as it was not dark after get off work in the evening.
All the cadres in the factory would first go to the factory to sign in every day, arrange production tasks, say a few words of encouragement, and then leave the work to Zhang Laosi. They would carry a basket and a sickle on their backs, find a cornfield and go in, and be busy all day long.
But no matter how busy he was, he couldn't miss the Canton Fair, so Li Jingdang took a man named Zhang Wenfeng with him to the south in advance. Judging from his previous experience, playing forward alone was a bit too much, so he had just found a suitable candidate in the past six months and wanted to take him out to broaden his horizons.
Zhang Wenfeng is from this village, a young man in his early twenties. He is smart and eager to learn, so we plan to train him.
Zhou Jiani didn't rush to the fields after returning from the commune today. Instead, she took Yu Wanxia and Zhao Mei to count and collect the samples that were to be sent out in advance.
When Sheng Manliang saw her coming, he took out a drawing she had submitted a few days ago and asked for details.
Comrade Xiao Zhou's painting style has changed, and the old men are not used to it at first. How should I put it? The pictures are better looking than before, but also more complicated.
Zhou Jiani also receives a salary from the factory, and she has to be worthy of this income. During this period, she has not forgotten to do design and has been drawing.
As for the style that Zhang Laosi and the others complained about... well, it's not that her style has changed, but she has been learning from the sketching book in the group. No matter how busy she is, she has to practice a few strokes after finishing the exercises before going to bed at night. She thinks the effect is remarkable, and the pictures she draws are full of three-dimensionality, and she also divides the steps in detail. However, she is also disliked by the fourth uncle and the others, and complains that she can't understand it.
"In the past, you just had to draw a few lines and gesture a little bit and everyone would be able to guess what it was. Now... it looks good, but you have to use your brain to figure it out." Sheng Manliang laughed.
Zhou Jiani: "...Uncle Sheng, please don't discourage me. I'm working hard every day to improve my drawing skills."
"Learning is a good thing. It's never a bad thing to study at any time." Sheng Manliang rubbed his hands together, unwilling to dampen Xiao Zhou's enthusiasm for learning. He chuckled and said, "How about you draw a picture like this and another like that from now on?"
Zhou Jiani: ...
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