She and He Shuying didn’t even look alike, so how had He Shuying become her substitute? Ye Minglang was disgusting and stupid too.
This world was rotten as well. She hadn’t killed anyone, committed arson, or done anything illegal. So why was she the vicious supporting female character?
Would this world stop turning without her?
He He puffed up angrily, crossed her arms over her chest, and sprawled lifelessly on the bed.
Zheng Xinxin glanced at He He. So she was unhappy because she missed home. She had originally been worried that He He wasn’t feeling well today, which was why she’d picked a fight with Cheng Sulin at the dining table.
Hearing He He say that she missed home, Zheng Xinxin also let out a long sigh and said empathetically, “I miss home too. I miss my parents, and I miss the stuffed green peppers we eat back home.”
The moment He He heard “stuffed green peppers,” all her sadness flew away. The pork-stuffed green peppers that were a specialty of Xinxin’s hometown were absolutely delicious.
During the New Year this year, Chen Jingyi, Zheng Xinxin, and the others had earned money from selling spicy pickled plums. Once everyone had some money in hand, they discussed it and decided to pool their money together to buy three jin of pork so they could have a good meal for the New Year.
Zheng Xinxin had shown off her skills by making stuffed green peppers, a dish from her hometown.
Even now, He He still remembered the first time she’d tasted stuffed green peppers on the third day of the Lunar New Year. That astonishing flavor had instantly blown her away. Aside from the state-owned restaurant in the county town, it was the most delicious thing He He had eaten since being sent to the countryside.
The soft, tender green pepper was stuffed with fragrant minced pork, its outer layer pan-fried until crisp while the inside remained smooth and tender. Just one piece! With only one piece, she could eat an entire big bowl of brown rice.
He He snuggled into Zheng Xinxin’s arms and shook her arm. “Xinxin, it’s all your fault. You’re making me drool. When we get a day off, can you make stuffed green peppers for me? We’ll go to the commune’s meat processing plant to buy pork. You make them, and I’ll treat you. Okay?”
After talking about it, Zheng Xinxin’s mouth also began watering like crazy. She nodded vigorously. “Okay!”
But very quickly, Zheng Xinxin whispered again, “But will it just be the two of us eating? Should we share some with the other educated youths?”
He He shook her head very seriously. “No, no. We’re not giving them any. We’ll make them die of envy.”
Especially Cheng Sulin. She’d make him die of envy.
Zheng Xinxin didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty about eating by themselves. She believed that if something belonged to you, you should eat it openly and generously! Besides, she wasn’t the one buying the meat. Her good friend He He was paying for it. If He He said they weren’t sharing, then they weren’t sharing. She would listen to He He and get to eat a few extra pieces of meat herself. She might even get to eat more stuffed green peppers than she had during the New Year. Just thinking about it made her happy.
Zheng Xinxin beamed brightly and waved her hand with an air of generosity. “Then I’ll pay for the green peppers.”
She couldn’t afford the meat, but she could still afford green peppers. She couldn’t let He He pay for everything by herself. A person couldn’t be too greedy.
He He knew Zheng Xinxin was someone who believed in give-and-take, so she didn’t insist on paying for the green peppers too. “Okay, okay. Once the busy farming season is over, we’ll go to the meat processing plant first thing in the morning on our first day off and fight for some pork. This time, we’re definitely going to eat until we’re completely full!”
During the New Year, each person had only gotten one piece. That hadn’t been nearly enough for her. This time, she was going to eat five pieces all by herself!
Zheng Xinxin patted her stomach and imitated He He. “Completely full!”
Another female educated youth, Li Baiyun, came in after taking a walk to digest her food. She happened to see Zheng Xinxin with her right arm around He He while patting her own stomach with her left hand, muttering something about being completely full. They looked so strange that she curiously asked, “What are you two doing? What’s this about being completely full?”
He He and Zheng Xinxin exchanged smiles and said in unison, “We’re not telling you. It’s our secret.”
Li Baiyun jumped onto the bed and reached out with both hands to tickle He He and Zheng Xinxin on their stomachs. However, she was very gentle with He He, afraid of making her angry.
“Well, look at you two! I knew you were the closest. You’re leaving Jingyi and me out, aren’t you? I’ll show you what I’m capable of!”
He He nimbly rolled away toward the wall, escaping Li Baiyun’s clutches.
Zheng Xinxin wasn’t so lucky. Li Baiyun pinned her down and tickled her until she couldn’t stop laughing foolishly.
He He launched a sneak attack from behind, tickling Li Baiyun until she had no time to deal with Zheng Xinxin. Zheng Xinxin retaliated by tickling Li Baiyun, but accidentally tickled He He instead. He He immediately reached toward Zheng Xinxin’s waist and tickled, tickled, tickled.
The three of them continued their chaotic battle on the bed until they collapsed from exhaustion. Only then were they willing to call a truce and quietly lie down on the communal sleeping platform for their afternoon nap.
Chen Jingyi still hadn’t returned by the time they fell asleep. Li Baiyun even asked where Chen Jingyi had gone.
But sleepiness soon overtook them, and the question went unanswered. None of the three noticed that Chen Jingyi only returned shortly before it was time to wake up for work.
That afternoon, the group from the educated youth station set out in a mighty procession. They first went to the warehouse to collect their farming tools, then headed to the fields the brigade had assigned them.
The educated youths formed one small team. The men, as heavy laborers, were responsible for cutting the rice, while the women followed behind to gather it. Male heavy laborers could earn ten work points a day, while female light laborers earned seven.
However, the daily quota was one mu of rice per person. If they failed to finish cutting or gathering their assigned amount, the work-point recorder would deduct points.
Work points were the lifeline farmers used to exchange for grain. Strong adult men in the brigade could generally earn ten work points a day. Among the male educated youths, those who had been in the countryside for a long time and had developed strong endurance could also earn ten work points if they completed their daily quota on time.
Chen Jingbai was one of those who could earn ten work points.
Besides completing his own task, he could even help He He finish hers.
However, He He didn’t have high expectations for work points. The money her family gave her was more than enough to cover her food and other expenses, so she only required herself to earn three work points a day, the same as the children in the brigade.
The other female educated youths worked diligently. Although they weren’t as physically capable as the young women in the brigade who had grown up doing farm work and could earn seven or eight work points, Zheng Xinxin and the others were still far better than He He. They usually earned five or six work points a day and could sometimes earn seven.
There were also women in the brigade who could earn ten work points. Their task was likewise to cut one mu of rice a day, so they could earn the full ten points.
Other than He He, the female educated youths admired these brigade women the most. They were incredibly capable, even stronger than some men.
Women could hold up half the sky. That was absolutely no empty saying. What the great Chairman said was the truth.
The sun hung high overhead. Small figures bent over in the fields, sickles in hand. Row after row of golden rice went from standing straight in the fields to lying flat on the ground.
He He followed behind Chen Jingbai. After gathering rice for a while, she hugged a large bundle of stalks, bent over, rested against her thighs, and glanced left and right as she secretly slacked off for a while.
Actually, she couldn’t even be said to be following behind Chen Jingbai anymore. Chen Jingbai worked quickly. Unlike her, who gathered for a while and slacked off for a while, he had already left her far behind.
He He carried the rice to the designated place where the harvested stalks were piled. Once her hands were free, she looked around and saw that all the other educated youths were focused on harvesting, with no one looking her way. She secretly pulled a sweet fruit candy from her pocket, peeled off the wrapper, and stuffed it into her mouth.
Her mouth was sweet, but her heart was bitter. Looking at the rice stalks piled up to her knees on the ground, He He sighed repeatedly.
Couldn’t she be like the rice and lie comfortably in the field too?
She was so envious of the rice.
Standing beneath the blazing sun, He He suddenly regretted what she’d added at noon. She really wanted to slap her own mouth for speaking so quickly. She had said Cheng Sulin’s mouth was useless, but her own mouth was useless too!
She shouldn’t have acted so tough at noon and blurted out that she didn’t need Chen Jingbai to help her with her work.
There was more than one way to improve her relationship with him.
Yet she’d chosen the stupidest and most exhausting method.
If she could go back to noon, she would definitely grit her teeth and keep her mouth firmly shut.
Chen Jingbai was so annoying. Why had he agreed so quickly? Couldn’t he have declined a few more times so they could go back and forth about it?!
It was all Chen Jingbai’s fault. It was definitely his fault.
He He thought bitterly.
While He He was slacking off, Chen Jingbai had already finished harvesting one row and started working his way back.
The moment he raised his head, he saw He He squatting on the ground with a rice stalk in her hand, sweeping it back and forth across the field. Her mouth kept moving, and from time to time, a small round bulge appeared against her cheek.
She had barely gathered any of the rice on the ground and had spent all her time playing around. Yet she’d said she would do her own work that afternoon and didn’t need his help.
At noon, Chen Jingbai had actually believed He He’s nonsense and genuinely thought she’d changed her ways. It turned out she’d merely switched tactics and come to the fields to slack off instead.
An extremely cold laugh escaped Chen Jingbai’s thin lips.
She might as well not have come at all. She was wasting time and interfering with everyone else’s rice harvesting.
Even when squatting down, she couldn’t choose an empty patch where the rice had already been harvested. She just had to squat with her back facing the unharvested rice. Wasn’t she afraid that whoever was harvesting wouldn’t notice her and would swing a sickle straight at her?
Looking at Sun Jiabao, who was only a few zhang away from He He and vigorously swinging his sickle as he harvested the rice, Chen Jingbai felt anger surge inside him. He strode over to He He with his long legs.
He He suddenly felt the sunlight in front of her disappear, leaving her in cool shade. Then a rough, forceful hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet.
Pain shot through He He’s wrist. Her face immediately fell in displeasure, and she had just fiercely snapped, “Who dares pull me? I’ll tie your hands up with hemp rope!”
When she looked up, she saw Chen Jingbai wearing an even darker expression than hers.
It was the first time He He had ever seen Chen Jingbai look so serious, his expression so dark. She was startled, and her body trembled. Even the messy tuft of hair sticking up on top of her head swayed with the movement. Her voice trembled as she spoke.
“W-What are you doing?!”
Chen Jingbai was still holding her wrist. He He didn’t dare wrench it away too forcefully, so she could only twist her wrist, trying to escape his grip. Once she steadied herself, she was just about to speak fiercely when she suddenly remembered:
She needed to build a good relationship with Chen Jingbai. She couldn’t speak to him fiercely.
He He could only soften her voice slightly. “Chen Jingbai, let go. You’re hurting me to death.”
Chen Jingbai dragged He He away from that patch of field, pulling her along until they reached an empty area with no rice growing within several chi of them. Only then did he release her hand.
His tone was fierce. “Turn around and look for yourself. What kind of place were you squatting in just now?”
He He stared blankly before turning around as Chen Jingbai had told her to.
She saw that Sun Jiabao’s sickle was already about to swing into the patch of field where she had just been.
If Chen Jingbai hadn’t pulled her away, if he hadn’t taken her away from that spot, and if Sun Jiabao hadn’t noticed someone squatting there, wouldn’t that sharp sickle have swung straight toward her?
He He had a vivid imagination. An image instantly appeared in her mind of her body covered in blood, lying on the ground.
Her face immediately turned pale.
In her imagination, she really had ended up lying on the ground just like the rice.
He He turned back toward Chen Jingbai. “I… I didn’t know… I was standing somewhere so dangerous.”
She lowered her head, not daring to look at Chen Jingbai, feeling terribly guilty.
He He hadn’t expected that she had misunderstood him. She had thought Chen Jingbai had seen her slacking off instead of working and had dragged her up to teach her a lesson. But in reality, he had saved her life.
She had mistaken his good intentions.
He He’s nose twitched, her face crumpling miserably. “Thank you, Chen Jingbai. I shouldn’t have yelled at you just now.”
Chen Jingbai’s aloof expression darkened even further.
“If you want to die, don’t drag Sun Jiabao down with you.”