After returning home, Tian Cai prepared food and money, and planned to go to Zhang Defa after dark. The work points for those two months were 310 points. She would take half as food and the other half in cash. Before leaving, she thought about it and decided to take some more money, just in case she could give it all in cash.
After dinner, they waited for a while. It was completely dark and there were almost no people outside. Only then did Tian Cai carry the bamboo basket and go out.
When they arrived at Zhang's house, the family of four had just finished their meal. Gao Huijuan was washing dishes in the kitchen. When she saw Tian Cai coming, she wiped her hands on her apron and came out to greet her, "Xiao Tian is here. Have you eaten yet?"
"Auntie, I've eaten. Is the captain home?"
"Here she is," Gao Huijuan's eyes swept over the bamboo basket that Tian Cai was carrying behind her. The basket looked heavy, and she suddenly felt that this girl was indeed capable of handling things. So she shouted towards the backyard with a smile, "Dad, Xiao Tian is here to see you!"
Zhang Defa heard the sound and quickly came out from the backyard. Tian Cai followed him into the main room.
There was no one in the main room. She hadn't seen the old couple of the Zhang family and Zhang Baocai since she entered the yard. She didn't ask much, but just put the bamboo basket she was carrying on the table, and then talked to Zhang Defa about the work points for the two months of training.
"Uncle Captain, I know you and Captain Li are both concerned about me and feel that I'm having a hard time living alone. I appreciate your kindness, but I think there must be someone in our team who needs this food and money more, so I'm sending it back to you."
Zhang Defa's face was slightly gloomy. He felt something was wrong the moment he heard the reason from Tian Cai. There must be a problem in some link. Because in his and Li Tiegang's opinion, those two months' wages should not be counted into Tian Cai's daily work points and they were not going to be counted. But they were paid to her today. Thinking of the consequences of making this matter public, Zhang Defa felt a chill down his spine.
Tian Cai guessed something was up when she saw Zhang Defa's expression. Just in case, she pretended not to understand and said, "I'm not sure if my calculations are correct. How about we ask the accountant and scorekeeper to recalculate? Should we also change the signature?"
Zhang Defa also knew that now was not the time to pursue responsibility. The most urgent task was to first sign and correctly claim the work points, and then hand in the re-signed account book to the commune.
Fortunately, it was already quite late today after the grain was distributed, and the notebook was still at the brigade and had not been handed in. However, the brigade was not the one in the village, but Li Tiegang's.
"Wait for me for a moment, let's go to Qingshan Village." Zhang Defa went straight into the house, took out a flashlight, and came out pushing a bicycle. He sat astride the bicycle with one leg supporting the ground, and let Tian Cai get on the bike.
Tian Cai glanced at the bare back seat, shed a tear for his poor butt, put the bamboo basket on his back, and the two of them headed towards Qingshan Village.
When Gao Huijuan heard the sound of the door, she had just finished cleaning the kitchen. She came out and found that the house was empty. The child's father was not at home, and the bicycle was not there. Most importantly, the bamboo basket that Tian Cai was carrying was not there!
When they arrived at the Li family's house in Qingshan Village, Tian Cai deliberately fell behind and secretly rubbed her butt before entering Li Tiegang's yard. She didn't need to say the rest. Zhang Defa and Li Tiegang went into the house to talk, and Tian Cai chatted with Li's aunt outside.
"Auntie, I heard that the educated youth in our team are going to hold a party?" Tian Cai asked curiously. Like ordinary girls of her age, she liked the hustle and bustle.
Aunt Li was stunned for a moment when she heard this. Tian Cai reminded her twice before she reacted and said with a smile, "Has this spread around your village and turned into a party?"
Tian Cai was stunned. Isn’t this a party?
"It's not a party," Aunt Li shook her head, barely suppressing her laughter before continuing, "In the city, it's called a social gathering, right? Do you know what a social gathering is?"
Do you know? How could you not know? Someone who was a single woman in their previous life wouldn't know what a social gathering is. It's basically a large-scale blind date event.
Seeing her slightly embarrassed expression, Aunt Li wanted to laugh even more. "This is Secretary Huang's idea. He thinks the educated youth are all of similar age, so we can organize a get-together before the New Year. The educated youth from several brigades in the commune can get to know each other. Even those who are not of the same age can go. Maybe there will be someone they like. The educated youth in our team are distributed in two villages and don't know each other. We can try to organize it in advance."
When he talked about the right age, his eyes deliberately lingered on Tian Cai for a while, and she pretended not to understand.
Tian Cai thought to herself: My age is not suitable. She is already so old. It would be awkward enough for her to find a boy of eighteen, nineteen or twenty years old as a partner.
Tian Cai was awkwardly trying to find a topic to change the subject when the two captains came out of the house together. This time it was Li Tiegang who had a sullen face, while Zhang Defa looked much better.
Li Tiegang nodded towards Tian Cai. If Tian Cai had not taken the initiative to explain what happened today, they would not know how they would have died in the future.
However, Li Tiegang is also a ruthless person. If someone dares to do this to him behind his back, he will not be a pushover. It is impossible to ask all the team members to press their fingerprints again, which will easily alert the enemy. It is better to do so on the surface and secretly find Accountant Li and Yan Xudong, the few people who have no contact with the work points calculation, to sign a new written statement, which he will directly submit to Secretary Huang.
He wanted to see who was the one who would reveal his true colors in the end!
"Mother, go to Guoqing's house and ask him to come over. Do it quietly and don't disturb anyone." Li Tiegang ordered calmly, turning to look at Zhang Defa, "What about Yan Xudong?"
"I'll go back and call him." Tian Cai took the initiative to step forward.
Li Tiegang nodded.
Zhang Defa pointed to the bicycle by the wall and said, "Go ride it, quick!"
Tian Cai nodded, put the bamboo basket aside, pushed Zhang Defa's bicycle and went out.
Both captains forgot to ask her whether she could ride.
Tian Cai also thought that riding a bicycle was just a matter of how difficult could it be. Then when she accidentally hit the wire for the third time, she had to grit her teeth and admit that it was indeed quite difficult.
She remembered how she had secretly ridden her grandfather's 28-inch bicycle when she was little. Because her legs were not long enough, she had to ride by pulling her legs out from under the frame. Now it was late at night and no one was watching, so after trying twice she was able to barely maintain balance and rode away crookedly.
By the time she arrived outside the Youth League Home in Kaoshan Village, sweat had already broken out on her forehead.
Tian Cai waited outside for a while, thinking about how to call Yan Xudong out without alerting his roommates, when he saw Liu Yanlin coming out to pour foot washing water. Tian Cai immediately stopped him and asked him to secretly call Yan Xudong out.
The look Liu Yanlin gave her at that time was exactly the same as the one he gave to that infatuated girl Qiu Xiaohuan. Tian Cai was so angry that he gritted his teeth secretly, fearing that he would accidentally punch her.
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