14
She Blushed Her Earlobes
Sun Xiaoyue forced out a faint smile and boldly extended her hand to Jiang Donghua: “It’s not that I can’t endure hardship, I just feel a bit unwell from the ride. I’ll be fine after some rest. Thank you, comrade. I’m Sun Xiaoyue, from Beijing’s Xiangshan Compound.”
Jiang Donghua was momentarily taken aback, then politely reached out for a light handshake: “I’m Jiang Donghua, from Tianjin Province.”
He then gestured toward the two girls beside him: “Chen Shuangyan and Li Simin. We all came from the same place.”
Sun Xiaoyue hadn’t expected there would be three of them together, and she noticed that the short-haired, round-faced girl named Li Simin was looking at Jiang Donghua with a different kind of gaze!
However, none of that mattered. She had been reborn and knew many things they didn’t. She could help Jiang Donghua review properly and get into university in the very first year after the college entrance exams were reinstated.
Just with these advantages, she could make Jiang Donghua view her in a new light!
Thinking this, she instantly became confident, warmly greeting the two female comrades and enthusiastically pulling them along to choose their rooms.
…
Jiang Zhizhi walked around the village and also went to see the small river. The river wasn’t wide, but the current was swift. However, its low position posed challenges—there was no electricity here, no electric pumps for drawing water, and the traditional water-lifting windmill wasn’t suitable for the location either.
After walking along the river for a while and forming some ideas, she headed back, planning to discuss them with Old Liang.
When she returned, Yang Fengmei was peeling potatoes in the yard, while Liang Dazhuang was chopping firewood.
Seeing Jiang Zhizhi return, Liang Dazhuang dropped his axe, lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, and smiled happily: “Comrade Jiang, where have you been? Mom said you didn’t come back for lunch either?”
Jiang Zhizhi had gone out in the morning, wandered around the area, and spent a long time studying the riverbank. Unconsciously, it had become mid-afternoon.
She looked apologetically at Yang Fengmei: “I went to look around the area. It’s a pity that with such a good river nearby, the crops on the slopes still depend on rainfall for water.”
Yang Fengmei curled her lip, snorted coldly, and turned her head away, ignoring Jiang Zhizhi.
Liang Dazhuang shook his head helplessly: “There’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t channel the river water up. We originally wanted to build a reservoir upstream, but the commune there refused, saying it was their territory. During severe droughts, the whole village has to carry water from the river to irrigate the fields.”
Jiang Zhizhi asked curiously: “Haven’t you thought of using other methods?”
Liang Dazhuang’s mind was limited. Hearing Jiang Zhizhi’s question, he looked completely bewildered: “What methods?”
Jiang Zhizhi pulled a few crumpled papers and a fountain pen from her pocket, smoothing out the papers: “My left-handed drawing isn’t very accurate, but please bear with it for now.”
She knew Liang Dazhuang wouldn’t understand the diagrams anyway—she just wanted to practice her explanation on him first. When Old Liang returned later, she would be more fluent.
Just as she expected, Liang Dazhuang couldn’t make sense of the crisscrossing lines on the paper at all. As she explained, he remained utterly confused, as if listening to incomprehensible theories, occasionally scratching his head until finally his expression turned troubled.
Hearing movement at the gate, he looked up to see Old Liang entering with Zhou Xiye. Liang Dazhuang seemed to have spotted a savior and quickly called out: “Dad, Dad, come quick! Comrade Jiang says her method can channel the river water uphill!”
Jiang Zhizhi turned around and saw Zhou Xiye beside Old Liang. It was too late to hide the papers.
Isn’t he from the military? Why does he keep visiting civilians’ homes every day?
Old Liang became quite interested upon hearing this. Since Jiang Zhizhi was an expert from the provincial capital, he figured she must know a lot. If she claimed she could bring water uphill, it might actually be possible.
Without bothering to attend to Zhou Xiye, he hurried over: “What kind of method is it? Let me see.”
Jiang Zhizhi had no choice but to brace herself and explain to Old Liang: “This is the principle of a water hammer pump. It uses the force of flowing water to create pressure at this point, thereby lifting water from a lower elevation to a higher one…”
Under Zhou Xiye’s intense gaze, she stumbled through her explanation.
Old Liang glanced at his son, then at Zhou Xiye, feeling rather confused himself: “Will this really work?”
Jiang Zhizhi nodded: “It will work.”
Zhou Xiye stared at Jiang Zhizhi’s diagram – he actually understood it. But how did she know such advanced physics principles?
Looking down at Jiang Zhizhi’s slightly reddened earlobes, he realized she held too many secrets. She knew martial arts, could repair tractors, could draw blueprints for water diversion projects – she was clearly a strong-minded person, yet she had attempted suicide by wrist-cutting.
Now she was even impersonating an expert from the provincial capital. Just what was she trying to achieve?
Old Liang still couldn’t understand the diagram and looked up at Zhou Xiye: “Captain Zhou, what do you think? Will this work?”
Zhou Xiye nodded: “This method is indeed very suitable. If implemented, all the land on your slopes could be irrigated. However, it would require a lot of steel pipes.”
Old Liang pulled out his dry tobacco pipe, lit it, took a couple of puffs, and frowned in thought: “If it really works, the steel pipes aren’t a problem. But all these years, no one has ever come up with this method. Captain Zhou, give me your honest opinion – will it work or not?”
Only if Zhou Xiye said it would work could he believe it. After all, someone of Zhou Xiye’s high position must have seen much more of the world and was certainly more capable than some young girl.
Zhou Xiye watched Jiang Zhizhi for a few seconds: “The method is indeed good. But I’ll need to see detailed blueprints to know for sure whether it will work.”
Jiang Zhizhi looked up at Zhou Xiye, revealing her little canine teeth in a bright smile: “Of course, but I’ll need paper and a pencil.”
Since she kept running into Zhou Xiye anyway, it would be wise to maintain good relations with him.
Zhou Xiye nodded: “Fine, I’ll have Xiao Zhang bring them to you tomorrow.”
Seeing Zhou Xiye’s approval, Old Liang became happy: “Comrade Jiang, if this method really works, our team would like to hire you as a technician. What do you say?”
Liang Dazhuang was delighted: “Dad, are you serious? You’d really let Comrade Jiang work as a technician here?”
Old Liang shot his son an annoyed look: “Do you think I’d go back on my word at my age?”
Liang Dazhuang grinned widely and said to Jiang Zhizhi: “Comrade Jiang, didn’t you want to stay long-term in our village? If you become our team’s technician, you can live here permanently. You’d receive monthly Food Stamps, along with oil and cloth coupons.”
Old Liang was momentarily confused: “What do you mean? Comrade Jiang wants to live here long-term? Why?”
Jiang Zhizhi thought to herself – this is bad. That fool Liang Dazhuang isn’t going to blurt out all the lies she made up right in front of Zhou Xiye, is he?
Before she could finish her thoughts, Liang Dazhuang had already spilled everything like beans pouring from a bamboo tube: “Dad, you have no idea how pitiful Comrade Jiang is. Her family is forcing her to marry an abusive old scoundrel. That old man’s previous wife was beaten to death. Comrade Jiang refused, and her parents even broke her arm to force her into the marriage.”
Jiang Zhizhi: “…”
Liang Dazhuang certainly knew how to embellish a story—”old scoundrel” indeed! It made her even more afraid to meet Zhou Xiye’s gaze.