Chapter 19
In the afternoon, Zhou Jiani was assigned to work in the sweet potato field. The person in front was responsible for cutting, and she was responsible for gathering the potatoes with a rake, carrying them to the edge of the field, and then transporting them to the site for drying.
She was working here, and two young men who were responsible for digging sweet potatoes not far away kept looking at her, whispering something to each other and laughing. After a while, one of them walked towards Zhou Jiani.
"Comrade, you are the new educated youth who just arrived a few days ago, right? What's your name?"
Zhou Jiani straightened up and looked in the direction of the voice. She could recognize this person as a veteran educated youth from the previous two classes, but she couldn't match the name. She nodded politely and said, "Hello, just call me Comrade Zhou."
"My name is Yan Mancang." Yan Mancang asked with a smile, "Are you from Qiyang? Are you adapting well here? If there's anything I can help you with, please let me know."
Some familiar scenes flashed through her mind, and Zhou Jiani's scalp tightened. She said quickly, "Thank you for your kindness. I don't need any help at the moment."
Yan Mancang thought she was embarrassed and said quickly, "It's okay. We are all educated youth. It's only natural for us to lend a hand. Besides, I have plenty of strength. You..."
"Comrade Yan, there's really no need!" Zhou Jiani quickly picked up a bunch of sweet potato vines and carried them to the edge of the field.
Yan Mancang then realized he had been rejected and went back in frustration. Zhao Cong came over and whispered to him, "How's it going? Is it that?"
Yan Mancang nodded and said, "That should be right. I can't imagine what someone prettier than her looks like."
I just heard yesterday that there was a very beautiful person among this group of new educated youth. I didn’t expect to meet her today. But she didn’t seem to be interested in her.
"You must be shy." Zhao Cong winked at him and urged, "Don't give up so quickly. It's easier to pursue someone who's new here. Show them more warmth and care. Think about how we felt when we first arrived. Once they've adapted to the situation, it won't be your turn..." He was about to say something else when he saw Zhou Jiani return and hurriedly said, "You're back."
Zhou Jiani took two steps and stopped, spread out her palm and grabbed a red envelope. She swiped the interface and looked at the information in the group. Arctic sweet shrimp, frozen durian meat, and large yellow croaker were not what she wanted. She closed her palm regretfully and went back to work.
Just as he picked up the rake, Yan Mancang came over again and said more attentively than before: "Comrade Zhou, let me do it. You go and rest over there. I'll do this little job for you."
The aunt who was cutting sweet potato vines in front turned her head and looked over, giving me a knowing and meaningful smile.
Zhou Jiani thought her actions had made her stance clear. She wondered if Yan Mancang hadn't understood or was just unwilling to give up. She took a deep breath and said directly, "Comrade Yan, this is the task assigned to me by the captain. I'm fully capable of it. Besides, your behavior has a very bad influence on female comrades."
Yan Mancang's face gradually turned red, and he returned to Zhao Cong with some disappointment.
Seeing that he looked unhappy, Zhao Cong didn't dare tease him and quickly comforted him, "Forget it, forget it. Good-looking people are arrogant and may not be suitable for life. How about we go back to the one from yesterday? I think that girl from yesterday is also okay. Didn't you two chat for a long time?"
Another energetic face appeared in Yan Mancang's mind. The girl had slightly dark skin and bright and lively eyes. Communicating with her made people feel like being bathed in spring breeze. Although she also rejected him tactfully, she did not embarrass him like the girl just now.
At the very least, I talked to him a lot about the situation of this group of educated youth.
But… Yan Mancang couldn’t help but glance at Zhou Jiani again, saying, “Let’s talk about it later!”
After the wheat is planted, the educated youth site will be expanded and all new educated youth will have to move there. Maybe there will still be a chance if they are closer.
In the evening, Zhou Jiani and Zhao Mei collected more than 20 kilograms of fresh cowpeas from the homes of three fellow villagers.
More than 20 kilograms may seem like a lot, but it takes about 9 kilograms to dry one kilogram. But when you want to eat, you can just soak a little and stir-fry a large dish, which is quite a lot.
Not only were there fresh cowpeas, but we also harvested five pounds of dried ones, which were last year's stock.
Fresh cowpeas are 1.8 cents per pound, and dried cowpeas are 0.2 cents per pound. It's a great deal at Zhou Jiani's place.
In addition to cowpeas, Zhou Jiani also bought three pounds of rice noodles, seven pounds of raw peanuts, and two pounds of fresh dates from a fellow villager. The fresh dates were grown on the date trees in the fellow villager's home. The taste was not particularly good, but they were eaten for their freshness.
Yu Wanxia and Sun Ping were somewhat moved by her behavior.
The two of them didn't want to eat it in the winter, but wanted to send some back to their families.
But they didn't want to start with the fresh cowpeas, so one of them made a bowl of malted milk for Zhou Jiani, and the other one shared the little remaining fermented tofu with Zhou Jiani. They also helped her wash the clothes she had changed that day, and then divided the five pounds of dried cowpeas among them.
Zhou Jiani laughed and scolded: "You two lazy girls, you can just ask your fellow villagers and buy it yourself, but you insist on buying it from me."
Yu Wanxia said bluntly, "It's so delicious to pick up something ready-made."
Sun Ping nodded beside her.
Zhou Jiani was very happy.
But these two people helped her do a lot of work later.
The next morning, Zhao Mei washed the cowpeas she had harvested the day before, boiled them in coarse salt water until soft, and then hung them to dry. She took another morning off and returned to her parents' home with the two dollars Zhou Jiani gave her. At noon, she brought back ten kilograms of fresh cowpeas and three kilograms of dried cowpeas. In the evening, she took Zhou Jiani out again and collected more than twenty kilograms of fresh cowpeas and more than seven kilograms of dried cowpeas.
Her brother also came over in the dark and brought more than 30 kilograms of fresh cowpeas and more than 10 kilograms of dried ones.
He heard from his sister that Comrade Zhou also wanted dried cowpeas, so he asked his uncles and neighbors to collect some for him. If Comrade Zhou didn't want them, he would return them.
Zhou Jiani kept it all, and after settling the bill, she gave Brother Zhao a dime as a reward for his hard work.
It is a spectacular sight to see so many cowpeas drying in the sun, but it is not uncommon in the countryside. Every year, someone dries a yard of cowpeas, and then distributes them to sweet potatoes and corns a few days later. The roofs of every house are covered with sliced sweet potatoes, which is truly spectacular.
Zhao Mei was particularly concerned about this matter. She looked up at the sky every morning and evening, fearing that the weather would be bad and the cowpeas would become moldy. Unexpectedly, the sun was shining brightly for four or five days in a row, and the cowpeas grew very well.
Finally, when they were all weighed, the total was 8.5 jin. Together with the ready-made ones, the total was 30 jin and 9 liang.
After drying this batch, they stopped harvesting for the time being. As the rush to harvest was nearing its end, the members began to busy themselves with their own private plots, while also thinking about the upcoming grain distribution.
Calculate the work points of your family members, how much you can get in total, clean up the cellars, etc., no matter how big the task is, it is not as important as distributing grain.
There were some additional items included in the grain distribution, such as sweet potato vines, corn stalks, corn bones, sorghum stalks, bean vines, etc. The team kept a portion as feed, and the rest was distributed to the members. Some were used as firewood, and those who raised pigs at home could also use them as feed.
Even the corn stubble that is dug out will be distributed after being dried.
The educated youth, young and old, also got involved.
Not only were the new educated youth eager to buy grain from their fellow villagers, but some of the older ones were also eager to do so. At this time, if they could avoid owing the production team and still have some money left to buy grain from their fellow villagers, they were considered lucky.
While spreading the corn to dry in the field, Qiu Zeming rakes back and forth with a bamboo rake, slowly moves to Zhou Jiani's side, and whispers, "I can give you another ten kilograms of fine grains. How much coarse grains do you want?"
Last time, I had already settled the payment with Qiu Zeming, and this time the payment and bills will be calculated separately for cooperation.
Zhou Jiani whispered back to him: "How much can you give? I want as much as you give me!"
Qiu Zeming glanced at her, and Zhou Jiani said, "I'm not going to eat it myself, I'm going to send it to the provincial capital."
This is not just an excuse. Her family tightened their belts to save various tickets for her. Now that she can find some food, of course she has to send some home.
Qiu Zeming said, "I'll give you thirty catties of coarse grains and ten catties of fine grains."
Zhou Jiani nodded, and Qiu Zeming continued, "We need fresh coarse grains. Wait a few more days. If they're not dried enough, we'll suffer."
"clear!"
Zhou Jiani took advantage of her familiar face from buying cowpeas and made an appointment with someone to buy more than 40 kilograms of corn. She paid extra money and didn't need a ticket, but she had to wait a little longer. She would also inspect the goods when the time came. She would not accept those that were not dried or mixed with stones to increase the weight.
In addition to corn, we also asked for dozens of kilograms of sweet potatoes. These were grown in the private plots of a fellow villager's home, so there was no need to wait for the team to distribute them. I will pick up about twenty kilograms tonight, and another household will pick them up tomorrow.
She will get the sweet potatoes tonight and can start a group again.
Han Yang brought another old educated youth, Wu Lihua, to Qiu Zeming and said, "Comrade Qiu, I'd like to discuss with you whether you can help our educated youth camp solve the vegetable problem."
Zhou Jiani was nearby. When she heard this, her mind buzzed. Just as she was about to hide, she heard Han Yang call her, "Comrade Zhou."
I had no choice but to come here.
In order to solve the problem of food for the educated youth, the village allocated private plots for them, one plot for each person.
Zhou Jiani and other new educated youth do not have this. Starting next year, they will earn their food rations based on work points, and the village will also allocate a piece of land for them to grow their own vegetables.
The first few batches of educated youth were too lazy to take care of their private plots at first and asked their fellow villagers to buy them. Later, they found that they had overestimated their ability to support themselves. They could not earn enough food to feed themselves and had to buy food. They could not eat vegetables after buying food, and the village aunties and uncles were always nagging them, so they started to take care of their private plots.
This year, several crops of vegetables grew well. Before the autumn harvest, the educated youth followed their fellow villagers to set up stalls at the market.
Now that grain distribution is imminent, the old educated youth are busy cramming to earn work points. None of them want to ask for leave to go to the market, but they are all anxious to exchange their vegetables for money so that they can pay off their debts to the brigade or buy grain from their fellow villagers. So they turn their attention to the new educated youth, hoping they can help solve the problem.
Han Yang smiled and said, "Comrades Zhao Weiguo and Wang Changzheng, who are with you, each bought ten kilograms to support us. Would you two also like to show your support?"
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