Before long, a tall figure emerged from the dense forest.
It was Chu Yan!
He was also carrying two wild pheasants with their necks wrung.
He walked straight over to Luo Xi and stopped in front of her, lifting the two pheasants in his hand.
“Want to eat chicken? I can give you one.”
Luo Xi stood up and brushed the grass off her pants.
“That would be embarrassing. How much?”
Chu Yan didn’t stand on ceremony either.
“Just give me whatever you think is fair. Actually, I should be thanking you. You drove the pheasants in my direction, so I caught two while I was at it.”
Luo Xi: “…”
Was he bragging?
Or showing off?
Why was she suddenly a little annoyed?
“I’ll accept your thanks. You don’t need to say anything else.”
Chu Yan readily complied.
“Thank you for helping me catch two wild pheasants.”
Luo Xi silently pulled a crumpled two-yuan note from her pocket.
“Will this do?”
Chu Yan casually took it.
“Sure.”
“What are you doing?” He looked at the mulberry tree she had nearly chopped down.
Luo Xi smiled.
“This tree is far too stubborn. I’m planning to give it a little life lesson and chop it down.”
The corner of Chu Yan’s eye twitched.
“Need help?”
Luo Xi shamelessly replied, “Since you’re sincerely offering, I won’t be polite. Go ahead and chop it.”
Chu Yan silently picked up the axe and began chopping.
His strength was on an entirely different level from Luo Xi’s. Before long, the tree was swaying precariously. With one final push, the mulberry tree slowly toppled over.
Luo Xi very naturally prepared to ask him to chop off all the unnecessary branches as well.
Chu Yan shook his head.
“These branches can be used as firewood. I’ll just drag the whole thing down for you.”
By the time they returned home, it was already getting dark.
Chu Yan helped Luo Xi drag the tree into her courtyard.
“Do you need me to chop off the branches too?”
Luo Xi checked the time.
“It’s too late. No need. You should go home.”
Chu Yan hesitated, but eventually couldn’t help asking, “Do you know how to clean a pheasant?”
Only then did Luo Xi remember one of her weak points.
“I… apparently don’t.”
Chu Yan was helpless.
“How about you heat up some water? I’ll clean both pheasants for you.”
While Luo Xi heated the water, Chu Yan chopped off the unwanted branches from the mulberry tree. Following Luo Xi’s instructions, he also cut the trunk into sections of different lengths.
Just as he finished, the water boiled.
Chu Yan then diligently cleaned the pheasants while Luo Xi stood beside him and watched, learning as he worked.
After Chu Yan left, Luo Xi stared at the cleaned pheasants in confusion.
Come to think of it, she didn’t know how to cook them either.
After thinking for a while, she decided to make soup.
It was all food anyway.
She happened to have some red dates, goji berries, dried mushrooms, and other ingredients she had bought earlier, so they could finally come in handy.
The next day at noon, after finishing work, Luo Xi went to the brigade leader’s house.
“I want to make a crossbow. Is that okay?”
Weapons in this era weren’t things that could be casually made. Her identity was already somewhat sensitive, so she figured it would be better to report it beforehand.
Guo Jiandang was stunned.
“A crossbow?”
Some families in the village did own bows and arrows. Such weapons were fairly common in rural areas.
But as for crossbows, he had never heard of anyone owning one.
In fact, he had never even seen one.
Still, he considered himself fairly knowledgeable. He had heard stories about the Three Kingdoms and knew about a weapon called the Zhuge repeating crossbow.
Luo Xi nodded.
“I know a little bit. I want to study it and try making one when I have time.”
At that moment, Guo Jiandang had no idea that Luo Xi’s definition of “a little bit” actually meant an astronomical amount.
“What do you want to make that thing for?”
Luo Xi helplessly played the poverty card.
“Brigade Leader, you have no idea how poor I am. I can’t afford to buy meat, and I’m just a weak woman. I can’t outrun wild pheasants or wild rabbits, so I have no way to catch any wild game.”
“So I thought I’d make a crossbow. Then, whenever I have time, I can go into the mountains and look around. Don’t worry. If I catch any large game, I’ll definitely hand it over to the collective. As for the smaller stuff… hehe…”
Technically, everything on the mountain belonged to the collective, but normally, if someone caught small game, they would keep it for their own family.
Of course, they couldn’t be too conspicuous about it. They had to do it discreetly, otherwise someone might report them.
Guo Jiandang was a decent man, which was why Luo Xi was willing to tell him the truth.
When Guo Jiandang heard her call herself a “weak woman,” the corner of his mouth twitched.
As the brigade leader, he was very close to his old friend Guo Ziqiang, the Party secretary, so he knew about the exhibitionist incident.
He had heard that this seemingly delicate girl had knocked the man down with three strikes of a brick.
And her mouth was just as formidable. She had managed to make the man lose his nerve with just a few words.
“Fine. Make it. Make whatever you want.”
Guo Jiandang waved his hand indifferently.
In the blink of an eye, July arrived, and the weather grew increasingly hot.
Water in the fields was becoming more and more scarce, and the nearby brigades occasionally got into disputes over water.
Just as work ended that day, Guo Yuanyuan waved at Luo Xi.
Luo Xi was a little surprised.
“What’s up?”
Guo Yuanyuan looked around. After making sure nobody was nearby, she finally spoke.
“We’re going to guard the irrigation water tonight. It counts as ten work points. Do you want to come?”
“If you go tonight, you won’t have to work tomorrow during the day,” she added.
This was a cushy assignment, and she had gone to quite some trouble to secure one of the spots for Luo Xi.
Luo Xi’s eyes lit up.
“I’m going. What time?”
Guo Yuanyuan grinned.
“No need to leave too early. We’re setting out at eight-thirty.”
Luo Xi looked at Guo Yuanyuan gratefully.
“Thanks.”
Being looked at by Luo Xi’s beautiful eyes for some reason made Guo Yuanyuan blush.
“No need to thank me. I’ll come find you at your house tonight.”
Luo Xi waved her off.
“No, no. I’ll wait for you guys at the fork in the road.”
The place where they would be guarding the irrigation water was called Xinshu Woods.
There was actually no forest there. Instead, there was a small hillside with tea trees planted on the slope.
Four people were assigned to guard the water that night.
Besides Luo Xi and Guo Yuanyuan, there was Guo Aimin, the brigade leader’s eldest son, and another villager named Guo Guoyuan.
Before they reached their destination, Guo Aimin turned off the flashlight because they could already see faint lights in the distance.
Guo Guoyuan said angrily, “The Maotou Village Brigade really doesn’t keep its word.”
The water allocation had actually been settled between the two brigades after work.
But after several days, Wushan Village discovered that although the water had been divided fairly, there was barely any water reaching their fields the next day, while the fields in Maotou Village were filled to the brim.
There was no need to think too hard about it.
The people from Maotou Village were obviously sneaking out at night to divert the water, then restoring the waterway to its original state before dawn.
That was why the brigade had decided to establish a night-watch team for the irrigation water.
Xinshu Woods was quite far from Wushan Village. And to guard against a surprise attack by the people from Maotou Village in the middle of the night, Luo Xi and the others had brought mats and were prepared to stay there all night.
The four of them stopped by the roadside.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, they watched from afar as the flashlight beams over there moved away, gradually getting farther and farther.
Only after the lights disappeared completely did Luo Xi and the others continue forward.
To be safe, none of them turned on their flashlights this time. They traveled by the faint light of the moon.
After stumbling along for quite a while, they finally reached their destination.
Sure enough, part of the earthen embankment of the irrigation ditch had been dug open, allowing all the water to flow toward the farmland of Maotou Village.
Guo Yuanyuan was furious.
“The people from Maotou Village really are despicable!”
Holding a hoe, Guo Aimin quickly blocked the breach where the water was gushing toward Maotou Village, then opened the breach on their own side.
The water soon began flowing toward Wushan Village’s fields.
After everything was taken care of, it still wasn’t too late.
The four of them weren’t sleepy yet, so they sat on the ridge between the fields and chatted casually.
The fields were actually quite cool at night, but there were countless mosquitoes and insects.
That was one of the reasons the brigade awarded ten work points for guarding the water. Staying up all night under those conditions wasn’t easy.
But Luo Xi wasn’t about to make herself suffer.
She had brought a mosquito coil.
In an era when every penny had to be stretched as far as possible, farmers with few sources of income generally weren’t willing to spend money on mosquito coils.
There weren’t many people as “extravagant” as Luo Xi.
The mosquito coil produced quite a bit of smoke, making it suitable for outdoor or spacious, well-ventilated areas.
Luo Xi had originally bought it for use in her courtyard because she liked sitting outside to enjoy the cool air after dinner.
Now, it happened to come in handy.
When she lit the mosquito coil, Guo Yuanyuan and the other two felt a little embarrassed, as though they were taking advantage of Luo Xi.
“Educated Youth Luo, how much did this cost? Should we split the cost?” Guo Aimin asked.
Luo Xi shook her head.
“No, no. It’s not worth much.”
“Comrade Guo, I’ve noticed you’ve been carrying this stick around lately. Is there some particular reason?” Luo Xi poked the stick Guo Yuanyuan had placed in front of her and asked curiously.