The brigade leader dispersed the new Educated Youth, assigning the old Educated Youth to lead them in work.
Ning Xuan and Huang Xiaomei were placed in the same group, responsible for the current plot of land.
Weeding was actually relatively easy work, but it required squatting while gradually moving forward. With the hot weather, prolonged work made hands, neck, and especially the back ache.
Ning Xuan kept changing her posture, trying to find a more comfortable squatting position. When tired, she simply plopped down on the ground, not caring about the dirt.
However, she did use the pulled weeds as a makeshift cushion, so her pants didn't directly touch the mud. Still, after a round of work, she was quite dirty.
Huang Xiaomei reminded her, "Don't work too hastily, or you'll exhaust yourself quickly. Take it slow—it's your first day anyway. No need to rush to earn full Work Points."
Ning Xuan widened her eyes, "Sister Xiaomei, you overestimate me. With this frail body of mine, I'm hardly cut out for earning full Work Points."
Huang Xiaomei glanced at Ning Xuan's thin, gaunt frame and fell silent. In recent years, this was the first time she'd seen a city kid so skinny right after arriving in the countryside. How poor must her family be?
Others might be thin too, but they still had energy and spirit. Ning Xuan, however, was so thin she seemed on the verge of fainting at any moment.
In truth, the Ning family wasn't poor at all. Her scumbag father and stepmother both had jobs, and Ning Xuan's biological mother had also worked before, so the family actually had some savings.
But Ning Xuan had lost her mother at a young age. Her stepmother appeared kind but was cruel at heart, putting on a front while scheming behind her back. Not long after the stepmother arrived, Ning Xuan was molded into a timid, weak, and overly sensitive child.
When the family ate meat, if Ning Xuan showed any intention of reaching for it, her stepmother would give her a subtle glare, and Ning Xuan would immediately withdraw her hand.
At first, her scumbag father would ask why she wasn't eating meat, to which the stepmother would claim she was picky and didn't like meat.
Ning Xuan didn't dare refute this, and from then on, she never got a share of the meat at home. Her father merely marveled that someone could dislike eating meat and never bothered about it again.
Whether her father was neglectful or deliberately turning a blind eye, it signaled to the stepmother that she could continue her behavior. Thus, the stepmother grew increasingly harsh, not only depriving her of proper food but also providing the worst clothing and belongings.
The cotton quilt Ning Xuan used at home was an old, discarded one from the family, with the cotton clumped into hard lumps. As for her clothes, while city folks also wore patched garments, it was rare to see someone from a dual-income household dressed as poorly as Ning Xuan.
To outsiders, the stepmother had a plausible excuse: she claimed Ning Xuan missed her biological mother and insisted on wearing altered hand-me-downs from her.
When others asked why Ning Xuan never wore new clothes, the stepmother would say Ning Xuan only wanted to wear her mother's old clothes, as it made her feel her mother was still with her, so she refused to wear anything else, let alone new clothes.
This way, people merely pitied the child for missing her mother, and some even felt sorry for the stepmother, thinking Ning Xuan was ungrateful and hard to raise.
Of course, some shrewd individuals saw through the act, but they had no time to meddle in others' affairs—especially since Ning Xuan herself never complained, leaving them no grounds to intervene.
Ning Xuan was exasperated by the original owner's personality—so meek and passive. While understandable given the circumstances, it was truly frustrating to see someone so unable to stand up for themselves.
While pulling weeds, Ning Xuan recalled the miserable experiences the original host had endured at home, and her weeding became more forceful.
Then it suddenly struck her—wait, now that she had transmigrated into this body, why should she continue to endure injustice? Why let her stepmother withhold her Educated Youth subsidies while refusing to provide money, ration coupons, or supplies for her rural assignment? The original host didn't dare to confront them, but she had no such reservations.
She decided to find an opportunity in the next couple of days to call her scumbag father.
With this plan in mind, Ning Xuan set aside the messy family matters of the original host. Let her stepmother and scumbag father continue their antics for a few more days.
At dinner that evening, there were no flatbreads, but there were coarse grain steamed buns. Though Ning Xuan was very hungry, she still saved half a bun.
Later that night, she traded with Wang Er Ya: two coarse grain flatbreads, half a steamed bun, and a glass bottle of water.
She didn’t have a water bottle yet, so she had borrowed Huang Xiaomei’s thermos for her own drinking water. Since she had no extra boiled water to trade with Wang Er Ya, she continued to trade untreated water.
Surprisingly, Wang Er Ya didn’t offer copper coins in return this time but instead traded a very beautiful jade bracelet.
Though curious, Ning Xuan didn’t ask any questions. After the trade, she was exhausted and quickly went to sleep.
On Wang Er Ya’s side, her hands trembled uncontrollably after the trade.
Earlier that day, their group had been attacked by Mountain Bandits. Fortunately, there were several strong fighters in their ranks, and the leader demonstrated excellent command, directing everyone to fight back bravely.
The frightened refugees, hearing the leader’s words, realized they had already suffered so much. If they didn’t resist and lost their food and money, they would surely lose their lives as well. It was better to fight with all their might.
So everyone united in resistance, using whatever they had—wooden sticks, kitchen knives, hoes—and struck fiercely at the bandits.
Wang Er Ya, who was protecting two children, had initially tried to hide within the crowd. But suddenly, someone targeted her.
To defend the children, she quickly picked up a knife that someone had dropped nearby and desperately slashed at the nearest bandit. In a chaotic, unskilled flurry, Wang Er Ya actually managed to injure two bandits.
When the skirmish ended, although there were casualties among the refugees, they had managed to kill all the bandits.
The leaders searched the bodies and distributed the money they found among everyone instead of keeping it for themselves.
Because Wang Er Ya had contributed to the fight, she received one tael of silver.
The bracelet was something she had picked up in the chaos. Just then, Ning Xuan initiated a trade. Not daring to keep the bracelet and feeling grateful for the food and water the System had provided through recent trades, Wang Er Ya decided to trade the bracelet away.
This shared experience of resisting the bandits helped Wang Er Ya integrate more into the refugee group.
However, she had her secrets, so she still kept some distance from others while resting and eating.
Since Ning Xuan had been providing coarse grains lately, which were difficult for Niu Niu to eat, Wang Er Ya saved the last bit of steamed bread for Niu Niu, while she and Da Niu ate the coarse grain flatbreads and steamed buns.
Of course, they still didn’t dare to eat their fill, but their situation had improved significantly.
Over the next few days, after several more days of weeding, Ning Xuan finally found an opportunity to go to town.
She went straight to the machinery factory where her scumbag father worked to make a phone call.
She intended to ask him: In a dual-income household with a combined monthly salary of nearly one hundred yuan, was it really acceptable to give her only ten yuan to take to the countryside?
If he said yes, Ning Xuan wouldn’t hesitate to share her grievances directly with the factory leadership.
At Anshi Mechanical Factory, Fifth Workshop, Ning Kang received news of a phone call from his family. Fearing something had happened at home, he rushed anxiously to the union office.