The next day, the newly arrived Educated Youth were to begin working alongside everyone else.
At five-thirty, Liu Qingping went from door to door, knocking on the rooms of the new Educated Youth and calling them to get up.
Song Ziyao had gone to sleep late the previous night, and her head felt somewhat groggy. It was only after washing her face with cold water that she finally became fully awake.
Wen Xue grumbled in complaint: “We have to start working without even eating breakfast. How are we supposed to have any strength…”
Liu Qingping explained: “We’re doing the early shift. We’ll come back for breakfast after two hours, then continue with the morning shift.”
On the way to the gathering point, Wang Yiguang took the opportunity to explain the work rules in greater detail.
“A day’s labor is divided into three periods: early morning, morning, and afternoon. The early morning period counts as two-tenths of a workday, while the morning and afternoon periods each count as four-tenths. If you work a full day without absence, that’s a full ten-tenths of attendance.”
“However, that’s not the final number of work points that can be exchanged for money. It still has to be converted according to each person’s rating. For example, if your rating is Grade One, a full day’s attendance can be converted into ten work points. If you’re Grade Two, it becomes 9.5 work points, and so on down the line.”
“As for ratings, they’re determined based on your farming skills, work quality, and efficiency. There are two rating meetings every year.”
“At the end of the year, they’ll calculate how much you’ve received throughout the year. After deducting the corresponding work points, if there’s anything left over, the remaining work points can be exchanged for money.”
Zhou Shuguang rarely spoke, but this time he asked: “Does anyone in our Educated Youth Residence Compound have a Grade One rating?”
A male comrade who looked honest and simple raised his hand somewhat embarrassedly. “I… I’m Grade One.”
Someone laughed. “Brother Zhao Guangming has a whole family to support. Of course he’d work his hardest.”
The crowd’s knowing gazes landed on Zhao Guangming and Liu Qingping.
Song Ziyao instantly understood. It seemed those two were a couple.
No wonder Zhao Guangming was the only male comrade who shared meals with a female comrade.
Wen Xue foolishly asked: “Who exactly is he supporting?”
Before anyone could answer Wen Xue’s question, Liao Hongmei suddenly asked: “Why didn’t that Meng Jing come work with us?”
“Ah, it’s like this.” Liu Qingping explained patiently. “Meng Jing teaches at the Brigade Primary School, so she doesn’t have to work in the fields. Even now during summer vacation, she only follows the young women and married women in the production team doing lighter tasks.”
Liao Hongmei shrieked: “Why should she get special treatment?!”
Wen Xue frowned as well. “Exactly! We’re all educated youths. Why does she get to be a primary school teacher? Did she give gifts to the production team or something??”
An odd silence fell over the group, and no one answered.
Pointing toward the crowded area ahead, Song Ziyao asked: “That’s the gathering place, right?”
Shengli Brigade had three to four hundred people, and beneath it were four Production Teams. Each Production Team was further divided into several production groups.
All of the Educated Youth belonged to the same Production Team. When the Production Team Leader assigned work, he usually had them form their own group and work separately from the local commune members.
To take care of the newly arrived Educated Youth, the Production Team Leader assigned them a relatively easy task, weeding the peanut fields.
After carefully teaching them how to distinguish peanut seedlings from weeds and supervising them for a while to make sure they would not pull up peanut plants by mistake, the Production Team Leader finally left.
The plot assigned to Song Ziyao was on a small hillside, and it constituted her workload for the entire day.
Pulling weeds was not as easy as it sounded. Even while wearing protective gloves, it did not take long before red marks appeared around her delicate fingers from the strain.
Her legs from squatting and her waist from bending over soon became sore as well.
The sun rose over the eastern mountain, and the coolness of the morning gradually disappeared.
After working for less than half an hour, Song Ziyao truly could not endure it anymore. Not caring whether the ground was dirty or not, she plopped down onto the field ridge and let out a long sigh.
Fine, she admitted it, she could not endure the hardships of farm work.
She had to find a way to avoid working in the fields.
After resting for a while, just as Song Ziyao was preparing to continue, she saw someone walking down the path over there.
The distance was considerable, yet Song Ziyao recognized him at a glance.
The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
“Tan Jinhe!”
Tan Jinhe’s figure paused, and then he slowly turned around.
“How do you know my name?”
Song Ziyao froze for a moment, then quickly reacted. “I heard it from someone.”
Tan Jinhe said nothing more and prepared to leave.
“Wait!” Song Ziyao hurriedly tried to stand up, but a sharp soreness struck the bend of her knees, and she fell back down again.
She looked both fragile and bedraggled.
Tan Jinhe frowned and looked over the peanut field.
So delicate. When would she ever finish her work?
But then he lowered his eyes again.
He was not the Production Team Leader, so why was he worrying about such things?
By then, Song Ziyao had already used her hands to push herself up from the field ridge. She revealed a bright smile to Tan Jinhe.
“I stopped you because I wanted to ask, when will the tractor be going to the town or the county? I want to go along and buy some things.”
Tan Jinhe fell silent for a moment before answering: “This afternoon. We’re going to the county to haul fertilizer.”
Song Ziyao immediately asked expectantly: “Can you take me along?”
Since the tractor also served as a means of transportation, Tan Jinhe could not refuse.
“Wait at the Brigade Office after lunch.” he said before continuing on his way.
It was only when Tan Jinhe’s departing figure had shrunk to a tiny corner in the distance that Song Ziyao remembered something and loudly called out: “Tan Jinhe, my name is Song Ziyao!”
As soon as she finished speaking, his figure disappeared completely.
She had no idea whether he had heard her or not.
Still, they had finally spoken, and Song Ziyao’s mood greatly improved.
Not long after Tan Jinhe left, Song Ziyao encountered another familiar-looking person.
Several teenage boys in the distance secretly glanced at Song Ziyao, whispering among themselves and giggling.
Whenever Song Ziyao looked their way, they would immediately blush and turn their heads aside, pushing and shoving one another while pretending to play around.
The oldest of the boys looked no more than seventeen or eighteen, while the youngest was only fourteen or fifteen.
One of them was Tan Jinhe’s biological nephew, Tan Xuesong.
Looking at the lively and energetic Tan Xuesong, Song Ziyao’s expression became somewhat complicated.
Tan Jinhe had not started out on the right path. Although he later successfully cleaned up his image and became President Tan, people from the underworld still addressed him respectfully as Fourth Master Tan.
His dark past had indeed brought him wealth and status, but the pain and injuries earned while living on the edge of a knife had remained with him for life.
Aside from those illnesses, there was also a gunshot wound on his body. It had been only three centimeters away from his heart, and every rainy day caused him to break out in cold sweat from the pain.
The reason he had embarked on that path was related to Tan Xuesong.
When Tan Xuesong was nineteen years old, he offended someone over a certain matter and was beaten into a vegetative state. The mastermind’s family possessed some influence, and even though the evidence was conclusive, the Tan family had no avenue through which to seek justice.
Tan Jinhe had been young at the time. Acting impulsively, he went to confront the mastermind and crippled him. The mastermind’s family then loudly threatened to kill him.
Left with no other choice, Tan Jinhe sought refuge under a powerful figure in the underworld.
That powerful figure helped him settle the legal case and taught him how to make money. In return, Tan Jinhe worked for him and thus stepped onto the wrong path.
With Tan Jinhe supporting him, Tan Xuesong survived in his hospital bed for many years. He did not pass away until the second year after Song Ziyao met Tan Jinhe.
The Tan Xuesong lying in the hospital bed looked very different from the boy standing here now, but Song Ziyao had seen his photographs before, so she still recognized him.
Tan Jinhe had never once said that he regretted his impulsiveness back then.
But Song Ziyao could not possibly allow all of that to happen again.
A smile appeared on her face as Song Ziyao waved toward the group of boys.