On the first day of official labor, Ye Qiu and Qu Tong were led to a plot of land by Zhao Yuanchao.
Glancing at the two female educated youths, Zhao Yuanchao’s brows furrowed into a knot. “Today is for working in the fields—what kind of getup is this!”
Ye Qiu was fine; her long sleeves and long pants covered her skin, but Qu Tong was wearing a short-sleeved top, and not a single patch could be found on her clothes.
“I’m wearing normal clothes. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Qu Tong looked down at her outfit, failing to see the problem.
“Suit yourself, then.” Zhao Yuanchao waved his hand helplessly and shifted to a serious tone. “The brigade captain said that you are to pull weeds with the village aunts today. I will be checking when work finishes, and if it’s not done properly, you don’t get your work points.”
After speaking, he took out several pairs of gloves, intending to look after the two newcomers, and let them choose first. “Which pair do you want?”
They certainly weren’t high-quality gloves. Although they had been washed, they were stained with various unidentified colorful liquids. Qu Tong took one look and turned her head away in disgust. “I don’t want them.”
When it was Ye Qiu’s turn, she smiled and pulled a pair of old gloves from her pocket. “Thank you, Brother Zhao, but I have my own. You can give these to someone else.”
Finally seeing an educated youth who seemed reliable, Zhao Yuanchao put the gloves away with satisfaction. “Fine. Watch closely how others do it and learn well.”
After distributing the gloves, Zhao Yuanchao took the other villagers to collect farm tools. The people assigned to pull weeds in this plot were either old or young—an assembly of the weak and vulnerable. Ye Qiu and Qu Tong, the two young people, stood out like sore thumbs and were watched in turn by the group.
Ye Qiu ignored the others, pulled Qu Tong down, and began to pull weeds.
“Oh my, look at that female educated youth; she’s dressed so nicely,” Li Mei pointed at Qu Tong and remarked to those beside her. “I saw her on the hillside yesterday, and that outfit was even prettier. Tell me, do young girls from the city have an endless supply of fabric?”
Old Woman Wang curled her lip in disdain. “What good is looking pretty? Wearing such nice clothes to work—she’s just a wasteful brat.”
She hadn’t managed to take advantage of Qu Tong yesterday, so naturally, she didn’t want to say anything nice. In her eyes, a new educated youth from the city who was so precious about her things would eventually be taught a lesson.
Li Mei was dissatisfied with her words. “How is she a wasteful brat? Her family is well-off, so she chooses to wear nice clothes. What does that have to do with you?”
Someone mocked Old Woman Wang. “Li Mei, you don’t know—yesterday, when we went to town, we ran into those new educated youths. Old Woman Wang tried to bully them because they were new, asking to borrow the girl’s clothes, but she got shut down and didn’t get what she wanted. Isn’t that why she’s unhappy?”
“If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll tear your mouth open!” Having been exposed, Old Woman Wang’s face turned pale with rage.
The person wasn’t afraid at all and chuckled. “If you keep slacking off, Zhao Yuanchao will catch you later and deduct your work points.”
Hearing that Zhao Yuanchao might be coming, Old Woman Wang stopped slacking and pretended to work hard, while continuing to gossip with the people around her from time to time.
Listening to the rustling conversation not far away, Qu Tong straightened her upper body in curiosity to look, but she didn’t hear anything clearly and was forced to squat back down in disappointment. “Ye Qiu, what do you think they’re talking about?”
Ye Qiu looked up, as if observing something novel. “You weren’t like this yesterday.”
Qu Tong laughed and said righteously, “I didn’t know you guys before, so I had to put on an act. Now that I know you’re a good person, I feel relieved. Naturally, I want to do whatever I please.”
Ye Qiu couldn’t help but laugh. “Your acting is pretty good, then.”
“Of course, it was a performance based on my true nature.” Qu Tong proudly puffed out her chest. “Seriously though, don’t you feel scared being here all alone?”
Ye Qiu shook her head. Why be scared? Everything about this era was unfamiliar to her; if that was the case, going to the countryside wasn’t so bad—at least life in the village was freer.
Qu Tong looked at her with admiration, then suddenly sighed, lowered her head, and said gloomily, “I think I might regret this a little…”
Ye Qiu heard her self-talk but said nothing. The system had already finished collecting the exotic energy from Qu Tong. Judging by the surge in points, Qu Tong definitely knew much more about the future than Ye Xia did. If she could abandon the better conditions of the city for the countryside, Qingshan Brigade must contain something that would bring her even greater benefits.
Ye Qiu wasn’t curious about it. After all, regardless of what it was like originally, with Qu Tong added as a variable, the known future had long since changed.
…
Dong dong… clang! The sound of a gong rang out.
“Work is over.”
“Let’s go, time to go home and eat.”
“I’m exhausted; my waist is about to snap.”
“I saw you didn’t do much work all morning, and yet you’re complaining about your back? Are you not fit enough?”
“Get lost! You’re the one who isn’t fit!”
The people who had been bending over in the fields just moments before were now in groups of three or five, and soon, no one was left in the fields.
The few educated youths also followed the crowd and gathered together.
“My waist, it really feels like it’s going to snap.”
“I didn’t think fertilizing would be this tiring.”
“Tired is one thing, but the smell! I feel like I’ve been marinated in it.” Su Qing lifted his hand to smell the odor on his body, his eyes rolling back as if he were about to faint from the stench.
“Weeding and fertilizing are okay; digging and hoeing are the truly exhausting parts.” Yuan Chao joined their conversation. Weeding and fertilizing were just for the new educated youths to adapt. Unless one was willing to coast through life earning three or four points, one would eventually have to do heavy labor; that was when a day’s work would truly tire a person to death.
“Hmph, pretentious.” Chen Zhongshi cast a disdainful look at them, dropped that one sentence, and walked away.
Having worked for a whole morning, Su Qing and Hu Kang were too tired to speak and couldn’t be bothered to deal with someone looking for trouble.
“Ye Qiu, do you have extra gloves? I’ll buy them from you!” Qu Tong looked at her palms—which were scratched and covered in grass juice—with heartbreaking regret. “I’m going to change clothes this afternoon. Short sleeves aren’t cooling at all; the sun is about to peel the skin off me!”
“Huh?” Ye Qiu had been lost in thought and hadn’t heard what she said.
“I asked if you had extra gloves.”
“Yes, I’ll give you a pair when we get back.”
“What were you thinking about just now?”
“Thinking about what to have for lunch.”
The image of the sweet potato rice—which held zero appetite—instantly flashed through Qu Tong’s mind. She deflated and said, “I’m so hungry, but I don’t want to eat.”
Yuan Chao laughed loudly. “Don’t be so picky. Nowadays, you only get enough to eat if you work in the fields. If you don’t work, you won’t get this much sweet potato rice. Young people, you need to learn to cherish what you have.”
Realizing that even the sweet potato rice wasn’t enough to fill them, the new educated youths looked as if they had been struck by lightning, feeling as if their lives were utterly hopeless.