The next day, Yun Yan was woken up by the sound of gongs before dawn. She quickly packed up and followed the group to the fields.
It was another busy day. During lunch, Yunyan met Pandi's parents.
While other children followed adults to pick up rice from the ground, Pan Di had to cut rice like the adults and go home to prepare three meals a day.
If she was a little slow or the meal was delivered late, her mother would call her a money-loser and a bitch, and sometimes even hit her.
Yunyan felt that such a person was not worthy of being a parent, but fortunately Pan Di had seen through his own family of origin early on and knew how to plan for himself.
After two weeks of summer harvest, Yunyan felt she had lost at least five kilograms. Not only her, but all the villagers and educated youth had lost weight and become darker.
The busiest time of summer harvest has passed. Taking into consideration that Yunyan and other newly arrived educated youth were participating in such high-intensity labor for the first time, the team leader specially approved them to rest for two days.
Yunyan slept at home for a day and a night. The next day, she was so hungry that she got up from the bed and cooked something to eat.
After resting for two days, Yunyan regained a lot of energy. She wanted to continue to work on collecting grass for pigs, but the team leader did not agree.
Although the busy farming season was over, the corn still needed to be broken off from the dried corn kernels, so the three of them still had to break off the kernels.
Although cracking corn kernels is not as tiring as harvesting rice, it is not easy either.
Yun Yan saw Qian Qian and Li Shuwan while they were cracking corn kernels. They had both lost weight and darkened their complexion, and they looked listless. Li Shuwan, in particular, must have been exhausted.
Yunyan's hands were covered with blisters after breaking corn kernels all day. She returned home and found a needle to prick the blisters.
Looking at her hands, Yunyan thought of the corn peeler she had seen online before.
I took out a piece of paper and a pen and drew a picture of a corn peeler. The next day, I shamelessly went to the team leader and asked for a morning off.
I rode my bicycle to the county town and remembered there was a blacksmith shop there.
After riding for a while, Yun Yan found the blacksmith. She paid a bag of brown sugar for a spot in the queue and had the blacksmith make two corn peelers for her according to the pattern.
The corn stripper was simple to make and took the blacksmith less than an hour to make.
Yun Yan took the corn peeler and rode her bicycle back to the Red Flag Brigade.
After returning to the team and seeing that it was still early, Yun Yan went to the place where they gathered to crack corn kernels and tried out the magic weapon she brought back.
This corn peeler is much better than peeling it by hand, and it is also much faster.
After returning home for lunch, Yunyan came to the assembly point with two corn peelers and two pairs of labor gloves.
She deliberately sat next to Qian Qian, gave her gloves and a corn peeler, and taught her how to use the corn peeler.
Qian Qian learned it in a short while: "Yun Yan, you are amazing. This makes it much faster than peeling with your hands."
Two hours later, Yun Yan and Qian Qian had peeled thirty kilograms of corn kernels, which is what one person usually needs to finish in a whole day.
Yun Yan took the corn peeler in her hand and went to find the team leader. If the team could make a few more such corn peelers, it would save the team a lot of time.
When we arrived at the brigade office, the brigade leader and several other brigade cadres were there.
When the captain saw Yun Yan, he thought she was asking for leave again: "Yun Zhiqing, why are you here? Are you asking for leave again?"
Yun Yan found the captain's gloomy face amusing; she knew why he was unhappy. In the afternoon, she went to the gathering point and found Li Shuwan absent. After asking Qian Qian, she learned that Li Shuwan had noticed she hadn't gone that morning, so she pestered the captain to grant her the afternoon off.
"Captain, don't be worried when you see me. I came here today to tell you something good."
"What good news can you tell me?" The captain looked completely unconvinced.
"Captain, I took a leave this morning to do some serious work. Look, this is the corn peeler I came up with. I specially asked a blacksmith to make two today." As he said that, he handed the corn peeler in his hand to him.
Liu Defu took the piece of iron that Yun Yan handed him, but he couldn't figure out what it was after looking at it from left to right.
"Can this thing really crack corn kernels?" He looked incredulous.
"Have two corn cobs brought over, and I'll show you how."
Soon the corn cobs were brought, and Yunyan put on gloves and began to demonstrate to them.
The team leader and the others were in disbelief when they saw Yun Yan break two corn cobs in just three minutes.
"Is this thing really that effective? I don't believe it. Come on, get a few more corn cobs so I can try it myself," said Deputy Captain Liu Dexi.
After a while, the corn cob was brought to him. He followed Yun Yan's method and soon broke off all the corn kernels on the cob.
"This thing is really useful! With it, our team can save a lot of time."
The team leader and the accountant were holding corn peelers and laughing.
"Yun Zhiqing, how did you come up with this?"
"I just felt that it was too much trouble for our team to crack the corn cobs by hand, so I thought about whether we could make something to help crack the corn kernels."
"I drew a corn peeler like this on paper yesterday, thinking of making two to see how it turns out."
"No, I'll tell the captain as soon as I get the results."
"These educated people are really smart. We've been breaking corn cobs for decades and never thought we could make something to help with it."
"That's right, but it also requires Yun Zhiqing to be thoughtful and think about the villagers."
Several people's favorable impression of Yun Yan suddenly increased a lot. They felt that she was not only good-looking, but also had a good personality. Unlike other educated youth who always looked superior, she was not like them.
The team leader immediately decided to ask someone to find a blacksmith to make a few more corn peelers like this.
When Yun Zhiqing returned to the gathering point, several middle-aged women were surrounding Qian Qian and looking at the corn peeler in her hand.
Qian Qian saw Yun Yan coming back as if she had seen a savior: "Hey, Yun Yan is back, Auntie, you guys can ask her."
Several women immediately came over and surrounded Yun Yan: "Yun Zhiqing, that thing for cracking corn kernels in Qian Zhiqing's hand was really your idea."
"Yun Zhiqing, is that the same thing you have in your hand as Qian Zhiqing? Please lend it to me."
Yun Yan was not stingy and gave them the corn peeler in her hand.
Several aunties and sisters took turns trying it out and said: "This thing can save us so much trouble."
"That's right. Why didn't we think of it before?"
"They say scholars have good brains. Oh, don't grab it. I haven't used it all yet."
"You've been taking so long, it's my turn."
Seeing a few women about to fight over the use of the corn peeler, Yun Zhiqing quickly said, "Don't worry, ladies and aunts. The team leader has just decided to have the blacksmith make a few more of these corn peelers. We will ensure that everyone can use them soon."
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