"Meng Yuanzheng? Why are you here?"
Lin Miaoyin rubbed her hands, trying to get the mud off them, pushed aside the corn leaves, and climbed up to the field.
The place where he was assigned to work was a while away from here, so why did he come at this time, holding gloves? These gloves were most likely given to him by Zhu Wanqin.
"Zhu Zhiqing gave me a pair of gloves. You can use them." Meng Yuanzheng handed her the gloves as if nothing had happened.
"For me? What about you?" She took it subconsciously.
"I don't need to carry a bucket."
His task today was the same as other men's. He picked up manure to make fertilizer, carried the manure bucket to the field halfway up the mountain, and then irrigated each crop a little. He repeated this process. After he finished working on his own piece of land, a scorekeeper would patrol and record his work points after inspection.
"Where did she give it to you?" Lin Miaoyin asked.
“On the mountain.”
"She ran to the mountain to give you gloves? I also saw her giving gloves to other female educated youth. Do all of you educated youth have gloves?"
Meng Yuanzheng paused when he heard this and hummed.
"Did you sneak here?" she asked.
"Well, come back to relieve yourself."
It's very particular. Most people would find a place with few people around, take off their pants and untie, then wipe it with leaves or dry grass. But this person even ran back to untie.
"That's great. Thank you. You should go back to work." She jumped off the field and waved her gloves at him. She went back to weeding after he left.
With gloves, she was able to work harder. Without gloves, she would pinch her hands if she pulled hard. In one go, she pulled out all the weeds in a field, and it was time to call it a day.
Those who had not finished their work stayed to continue working, and those who had finished went home to cook. The team leader and deputy team leaders checked everywhere. It was rare to see Lin Miaoyin, who usually worked slackingly, finished her work earlier than the other female educated youth today, and she had not been replaced by someone else. The new female educated youth were so tired that they leaned against each other, with ugly faces.
"Lao Lin, your daughter did a good job today." The deputy captain was holding a hoe and walking while checking the weeding situation in the field.
It is June now, the season when weeds grow wildly and corn begins to sprout. If weeding is not done properly, it will compete with corn for nutrients.
"Hehe, she is just lazy on weekdays. If she continues to be lazy after getting married, she won't have enough food to eat." Father Lin walked around with his hands behind his back and found that there was something wrong with the weeds pulled by the new female educated youth. Due to her lack of experience and poor control of the strength, a lot of weeds were pulled out, but the roots remained in the ground.
"I'll have someone take care of them this afternoon. We can't go on like this. I told them this morning to pull out the roots."
"Let's go up the mountain and take a look."
Niutouwan is backed by mountains and is full of hills. The vegetable fields are all on the hills. Walking along the path, I met many people who were finishing work with hoes on their shoulders and greeted them one by one.
The two men responded and continued to move forward. From a distance, they saw someone busying himself with a bent back in the field.
He scooped out a gourd of manure water from the manure bucket, poured a little on the roots of each vegetable, and poured it down one by one. If I hadn't seen clearly that this was Meng Yuanzheng, I would have thought he was some native Niutouwan person.
The two were surprised and looked at him from a distance for a while. It didn't seem like he was acting.
Everyone knows Meng Yuanzheng. He came from the city. He was handsome and gentle. When he first arrived, he was the most outdated among the group of educated youth. He wore a shirt with a woolen vest, leather shoes, a shiny watch on his hand, and had two large suitcases.
Although it was inevitable that other educated youth who went to the countryside did not know how to do farm work at first, they only needed to learn for a few days. Everyone responded to the country's call to go to the mountains and the countryside to receive re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants. The working people are the most glorious, so how can they easily say that it is hard? If they feel that it is hard, then their thoughts are not profound enough and they need to reflect on themselves. So everyone endured it and they got used to it after a few days.
How can there be someone like Meng Yuanzheng?
He can't endure hardship or fatigue, and he works very poorly. He gets lazy when no one is watching him.
It was not until he married Lin Miaoyin and became an elementary school teacher that he stopped being an eyesore to the team leaders.
This time, because of what happened between him and Zhang Hui, the team asked him to come back to work. They didn't expect him to do well, but just wanted to teach him a lesson. Who would have thought that he seems to be doing a pretty good job now.
"Yuanzheng, it's time for lunch. Go back and eat, and come back to work in the afternoon."
Father Lin greeted him with a pleasant expression.
When Meng Yuanzheng saw his father-in-law coming, he quickly put down the dung shovel, stood up and said, "Dad, Uncle Chen."
"Yuanzheng, you did a good job today. Who gave you guidance?" asked Lin's father.
"No one taught me. I saw everyone doing it, so I followed suit." Meng Yuanzheng said honestly.
Father Lin was surprised. If this kid had learned by watching others work, would he have cried in the middle of the night?
"Very good, very good. If you keep up the good work, I will give you ten work points next month." Father Lin praised.
Meng Yuanzheng smiled shyly.
"Hey, I've seen that you've finished the work assigned to you this morning, this piece of land, and that piece of land." Deputy Captain Chen pointed at two pieces of land and asked, "This piece is not yours to do now."
When Father Lin took a look, he realized that it was true. He had just been focusing on watching him work and had not noticed this problem.
"What's going on? Did someone deliberately exchange land with you?" Father Lin frowned and asked suspiciously.
This piece of land is on the top, and the land assigned to him is a little lower, so he doesn't have to carry the manure so high, which is naturally easier. There are some old rascals in the team who like to bully the new educated youth in this way.
"Of course not!" Meng Yuanzheng said seriously, "I have already watered those two plots. This plot was given to Uncle Zhou San. I just saw that he is old and hurt his waist while carrying manure, so I lent a hand."
"Where is that old man Zhou Laosan?" When Father Lin heard this, his eyebrows jumped. The newcomer didn't know him, and they had lived in the same team for decades, so how could they not know each other?
Zhou Laosan is a typical old fox who is very good at pretending to be miserable. He is obviously only in his early fifties, but he makes himself look like he is in his seventies or eighties. He also takes advantage of the sympathy of young people and often asks others to do work for him.
"Uncle Zhou San has gone home to rest." Meng Yuanzheng said, bending down, picking up the dung shovel and starting to irrigate.
"I think he's probably hiding away." Deputy Captain Chen muttered.
"Yuanzheng, you are not allowed to help others with work in the future, do you hear me?" Father Lin said sternly, with his hands on his hips, "Go and help Miaoyin with some work when you have time. I'm marrying my daughter to you, so can't you take care of her a little more?"
"Dad, I understand." Meng Yuanzheng said sincerely.
"Okay, take this and come back with me. Let Zhou Laosan make up the rest himself. This old guy has been slacking off all day long. If I catch him cheating again, I'll deduct his work points!" Father Lin walked back with his hands behind his back, and Meng Yuanzheng hurriedly picked up the dung bucket and followed him.
The three men went down the mountain and went home. The dung bucket belonged to the team. Meng Yuanzheng returned the bucket and carrying pole first, then went to the river to wash his hands and feet, and made sure that there was no smell of dung on his body before returning.
Lin Miaoyin had already prepared the meal, with fried eggplant and pickled vegetables covering the noodles.
"Eat quickly, then take a nap."
Lin Miaoyin handed him the chopsticks. They were both hungry and ate everything in the bowl in big mouthfuls. After washing the bowl, they fell down and slept for half an hour before it was time to go to work again.
The work in the afternoon was the same as in the morning, except that some adjustments were made for the female educated youth. Because Lin Miaoyin did a good job in the morning and her assigned area was next to the other female educated youth, the team assigned her to lead them in weeding in the afternoon.
Originally, they had a team leader for the educated youth, but he was a man, and the female educated youth had other tasks. Weeding was just a very simple and unskilled labor, so there was naturally no need to bother changing the morning schedule.
Lin Miaoyin didn't have any objection, as she had to work anyway. However, some young girls and wives were not happy about it and grumbled in private that Lin Miaoyin had always done her work perfunctorily before, but now she was sent to lead others, just because her father was a team leader.
You can get one more work point by leading others. After all, you have to complete your own tasks and guide others. Currently, Lin Miaoyin and the female educated youth all have eight work points, and the young girls also have eight. Only female full-time workers have nine.
Following the captain's order, everyone went to the fields and started working.
Lin Miaoyin very diligently called the newly arrived female educated youth together and prepared to teach them first. However, after calling out a few times, only two or three people, including Zhu Wanqin and Xu Liwen, came slowly, and the other two or three were nowhere to be seen.
The author has something to say: Happy New Year and all the best to you. May all your wishes come true and your family be happy!
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