Perhaps it was her overly smooth and efficient movements while threshing corn, or her excessive excitement while arguing with the old ladies over melon seeds, that made her look anything but sick.
This time, even with her head bandaged, standing before the team leader, the team leader didn't let her continue doing the kind of work where she could sit and easily do the work, and even eat melon seeds with the old ladies.
"Is Song Zhiqing's head almost better?"
Song Wei blinked, wondering whether to nod or shake her head.
"Then go work in the field, plant cabbage seedlings with everyone." The team leader didn't give her a chance to argue.
Song Wei: "...Oh."
Whatever, it's work!
Planting vegetables requires two people to work together: one digs the soil and the other plants the seedlings. Two acres require ten centimeters of seedlings, and two people need to collect the seedlings for four acres to get full work points in a single day.
Since this was Song Wei's first time planting vegetables, she needed to be paired with an experienced vegetable grower.
But Song Wei was delicate and frail, unable to lift heavy objects, clearly not someone who could do manual labor. When it came to work points, no one in the brigade who could farm wanted to be assigned to her.
The team leader pointed to two women, but both refused.
The people waiting for their turn stood far away from Song Wei, as if she were some kind of plague.
Song Wei: *smiling*.jpg
The team leader was exasperated seeing her still smiling despite being so disliked; this educated youth Song seemed a bit off.
Finally, the team leader, exasperated, simply paired her with Gao Le: "You two are both educated youth, so it'll be easier for you to communicate."
Then he found an auntie to teach them how to plant vegetables and hurriedly left.
Ping'an Brigade had four teams, and the educated youth were distributed among them.
In their third team, including her, there were three educated youth; the other was an older educated youth who, although not as hardworking as the villagers, could still earn six or seven work points a day.
But Gao Le, this guy probably ate well at home, so he was tall and strong, over 1.8 meters tall and a little chubby, looking like he could do a lot of work, as did Zhao Su.
But neither of them could do the work that required their physiques.
The third team leader, who was so happy to have snatched Gao Le, regretted it immensely afterward.
He really wanted to slap himself a few times to wake up.
The villagers who were paired with Gao Le were also full of resentment. This guy was not only incompetent himself, but he also dragged everyone down!
The key is that they had talked to him, scolded him, and couldn't hit him. This guy had a thick skin and was still slow as ever, working for an hour or two as if he might die at any moment.
A grown man, yet he acted like someone had bullied him, his eyes red and on the verge of tears.
Now that everyone saw Gao Le had been thrown out, they no longer had to worry about being forced to be paired with Gao Le by the team leader, and they all immediately beamed with joy.
"Song, Gao, you two better get to work!"
Song Wei and Gao Le exchanged bewildered glances.
"You've been planting vegetables for a few days now, you should be able to manage, right?"
Seeing the gloating and relieved expressions on the faces of the older men and women, Song Wei had a bad feeling.
Gao Le, a grown man, looked a little embarrassed.
"I'm a little bit capable."
He gestured with his hand to indicate a little bit.
Song Wei hadn't yet realized the seriousness of the situation. After watching the neighbor's demonstration, she realized it wasn't too difficult.
Gao Le, being a man, took responsibility and picked up a hoe to dig holes.
Song Wei followed behind, holding the seedlings, watching helplessly as he raised the hoe high and brought it down.
"Holy crap, I almost lost my foot!"
Looking at the hoe that had just hit his foot, grazing his shoe, Gao Le patted his chest in relief, looking like he'd escaped a close call.
Song Wei: ...
As expected, karma came back to haunt her, and in such a vicious way.
She took a deep breath: "Didn't you say you could do it?"
Gao Le pouted and shrank his neck: "I did say, just a little bit."
He raised his hand, his thumb and forefinger pinched together to show the thickness of a coin.
Song Wei: ...You really are exaggerating.
"Get up, I'll do it."
She really wanted to roll her eyes; this guy was such a big guy for nothing.
Gao Le obediently handed over the hoe.
"How many work points can you get in a day like this?"
Song Wei asked curiously.
Gao Le held his head high and proudly held up two fingers.
"I earned these myself!"
Song Wei's lips twitched: "Hehe."
After that, everyone around was vividly shown what it means to judge a book by its cover.
Song Wei quickly started digging the holes with the hoe.
By the time Gao Le, that big guy, squatted on the ground and slowly planted a cabbage seedling, he looked up and saw that Song Wei had already run five meters away.
The hole in the soil wasn't exactly neat, but it was enough to plant vegetables.
Gao Le's jaw almost dropped.
"Song, you educated youth, slow down!"
You're really making me look useless.
Song Wei: I hate it! Why wasn't this a solo task? Why did they have to send me someone who'd drag me down?!
I was planning to go hunting in the mountains, exchange some money at the black market, or find some dried meat from the villagers to send to my brother.
If I help Gao Le, I'll suffer
a huge loss. Song Wei can eat anything, just not this much!
But if I don't help, how long will this drag on? The brigade has rules: all the work must be completed before points are awarded and we can leave.
So Song Wei gripped the hoe, her gaze towards Gao Le growing increasingly dangerous.
Gao Le shuddered, trembling under Song Wei's sinister gaze.
"Sister, what do you need? Just say so,"
he said with a fawning smile, afraid that Song Wei might slip and hit him on the head with the hoe.
"Hurry up and finish this quickly, I still need to go to the mountains."
Gao Le was on the verge of tears: "I want to, but my body won't let my mind control it."
"Then you should just give up your body."
"No, sister, let's talk this out. I'll see if I can talk to the squad leader. I only need two work points, the rest is fine with you, okay?"
Seeing that Gao Le was sensible and wouldn't take advantage of her, Song Wei nodded aloofly.
Gao Le left happily, but soon he returned dejectedly.
"Sister, the squad leader said no."
Song Wei:…………
Under her increasingly dangerous gaze, Gao Le, his survival instinct kicking in, pulled out a coupon from his pocket.
"Sister, do you need a national meat coupon?"
Song Wei looked down; it was a ten-jin pork coupon.
In this era of scarcity, pork was something that everyone rushed to buy when it appeared.
But to buy pork, you needed a meat coupon, and she really didn't have one.