Chapter 9: Village Gossip
Jiang Youtao raised her eyebrows. She was reading a novel last night. There were not many scenes about the educated youth centers. The people in the centers and the things that happened there were only briefly mentioned. The focus was on how Gu Nianwei took care of the children after marriage, how she loved Lin Jianzhong, and how she helped him in his career.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt like she was having a heart attack. Jiang Youtao looked at Gu Nianwei as if she was looking at a huge enemy, with a hint of disappointment in her eyes.
Gu Nianwei didn't notice the way Jiang Youtao was looking at her, and continued, "Zhou Zhenyuan has been in the countryside for quite some time. His family is not well off, with an older brother and a younger brother. It is said that both his older and younger brothers are married, leaving him alone stuck in the middle."
"I've seen him dating several female educated youth from other educated youth sites before. Sooner or later, something bad will happen to this kind of person." Gu Nianwei's dislike for Zhou Zhenfeng was written all over her face.
Jiang Youtao suddenly realized: "Don't worry, I will definitely stay away from him."
Jiang Youtao has always kept her distance from Zhou Zhenfeng, a sea king who casts a wide net and focuses on training, in her two lifetimes.
Seeing that Jiang Youtao took her words to heart, the smile on Gu Nianwei's face became even more sincere.
The two of them worked together to clean the kitchen and then returned to the dormitory for a nap.
Li Yunying was tired after this morning and had fallen asleep. Zhao Yonglan was lying in bed, reading something and laughing from time to time. Zhang Huihui had her back to her.
When Jiang Youtao woke up, Gu Nianwei and Li Yunying had already gone to work. She had nothing to do, so she sorted out her things.
She didn't bring much stuff with her when she left Jiang'an State, but Ying Caixia and Hao Juxiang prepared a lot for her, including food, daily necessities and clothes.
Jiang Youtao held the two wood carvings in her hands and played with them again and again. She felt that Ying Chaorong was really born in the wrong era. If he was born in later times, with his wood carving skills, he would have no pressure at all to support his family.
Thinking of the Ying family, Jiang Youtao remembered Ying Dexing's wheelchair with huge resistance. She always felt that she had to do something for them.
[ Ding~ The melon-eating system is at your service. We have detected that the host has a strong desire to shop. Do you want to open the mall? ]
Jiang Youtao's eyes lit up instantly. Who among the young people living in the Internet age doesn't like to browse shopping websites?
She couldn't wait to say to the system: [ Open it, open it quickly, I didn't expect you to have this function? ]
The electronic sound of the melon-eating system was filled with a hint of melancholy: [ If only you had blocked me a few times less, you would have discovered this function a long time ago. ]
Jiang Youtao didn't feel guilty at all. It was impossible for her not to block the melon-eating system. If she didn't block it, she would always feel that someone was watching her all the time and she didn't feel safe at all.
Jiang Youtao clicked on the mall button behind the bookshelf. The light screen in front of her flashed, and then a scene similar to Bing Xixi in her previous life appeared in front of Jiang Youtao.
Jiang Youtao: ...Wow, this little thing can keep up with the times?
She swiped her finger through the merchandise and soon found what she wanted, wheelchair wheels.
She immediately clicked the buy button, but then got stuck at the payment stage because the system showed that she did not have enough balance.
Jiang Youtao: [ What kind of currency is melon coins? ]
The melon-eating system was helpless. Jiang Youtao asked this question, and it was obvious that she had not read the system introduction it sent. The melon-eating system sent it to Jiang Youtao again.
Jiang Youtao looked at it very carefully this time.
As the name suggests, melon coins are coins randomly rewarded by the system after eating melons. Melon coins can be used for consumption in the system mall.
As long as you have melon coins, you can buy airplanes, cannons, and spaceships!
The things in the system mall cannot be purchased whenever you want. There is a limit on the number of times you can buy them, and you can only buy them five times a month.
Jiang Youtao with an expressionless face, was taught by the system.
Why is there such an anti-human design as purchase limit in this world?
Jiang Youtao couldn't figure it out.
She put the wheelchair wheels into the shopping cart and closed the shopping interface.
It takes five melon coins to buy wheelchair wheels, but she doesn't have any. The bright 0 in the upper right corner of the mall makes her feel particularly worried.
She had been used to being poor since childhood. After she started earning her own money, she would save a fixed amount of money every month. When she first started her internship, her salary was only over two thousand, and she was able to save two hundred. Later, her salary kept increasing, and her savings also increased. Before she traveled through time, her savings were enough for her to buy a two-bedroom apartment in a fourth-tier city.
Jiang Youtao felt very sad. The past could not be retrieved. Now, all the money she had on her did not exceed two hundred yuan.
Zhao Yonglan outside fell asleep at some point, and Zhang Huihui leaned her head over the firewall and spoke to her in a low voice.
Jiang Youtao responded casually.
At 4:30, Gu Nianwei came back to cook, and Jiang Youtao went to help as she did in the morning. Zhao Yonglan learned her lesson this time, and put more food in the lunch box than in the morning.
They fried some leeks and stewed a pumpkin in the afternoon, but there was still not much oil or water.
As soon as it got dark, everyone washed up and went to bed.
Jiang Youtao had a dreamless night, and the next day she was woken up by Gu Nianwei. She checked the system and saw the time, it was only five o'clock.
But judging from the light coming through the window, it was already bright outside.
"It's time to go to work." July is the hottest time of the year. If you go earlier in the morning, you can get more work done, and you can rest longer at noon when the sun is strong.
Jiang Youtao wiped her face and said, "I'll get up right away."
She put on her clothes, folded the quilt, took the basin and toiletries and went to the well to wash up. Li Yunying was busy in the kitchen.
It's her turn to cook today.
Not long after she came out, Zhang Huihui also came, yawning as she walked.
After they washed up and went back, Zhao Yonglan was still sleeping soundly on the kang with her quilt in her arms.
Jiang Youtao walked past Zhao Yonglan's kang without looking at her. Zhang Huihui had to wake her up by herself. As expected, Zhao Yonglan took out her grumpiness on her.
Zhang Huihui was angry but dared not speak out.
Jiang Youtao sighed inwardly and took her lunch box to the kitchen. In the morning, she had corn porridge and coarse grain steamed bread, two for each person, each as big as Jiang Youtao's fist.
Jiang Youtao didn't eat in the kitchen, but took it back to the dormitory.
Gu Nianwei was there too.
Jiang Youtao took out the pickles that she didn't finish on the train and shared them with her. Gu Nianwei was not stingy either, she took out mushroom sauce.
The mushroom sauce is spicy. It is especially fragrant when you scoop a spoonful of it and put it into the steamed bun.
The two of them quickly finished their breakfast, eating a mouthful of steamed bread and porridge.
At this time, Zhang Huihui and Zhao Yonglan also came back, and they also came back to have breakfast.
Jiang Youtao nodded to Zhang Huihui and went to wash the dishes with Gu Nianwei.
At six o'clock, all the educated youth at the educated youth point gathered in the yard. Seeing that everyone was there, Wang Shanxi took them to the wheat field.
The wheat field is at the entrance of the team office. There is an open space here that is half the size of a basketball court. The soil is compacted very firmly, and there is basically no dust when you step on the ground.
Many villagers were already standing on the threshing floor.
They looked at the educated youth as they came towards them and commented on them.
"These educated youths don't look very old. Look at their tiny arms and legs. They can't do anything. When the sun comes out, won't they cry because of it?"
The incident of the educated youth crying in the sun on the first day of walking on the ground happened two years ago, but the educated youth had already returned to the city with the help of her family connections.
There was nothing serious about her leaving, but every time a new educated youth came, the villagers would talk about the incident in which she cried because of the sun while working in the fields.
"Cry if they want, it has nothing to do with you. But these new female educated youth are really good-looking." The person who spoke first was retorted, and then what this person said was supported by many people.
That's right. Among the three female educated youth who came this time, each of them was good-looking, and Jiang Youtao was the most outstanding among them.
"How long do you think they can hold on?" Except for a few stubborn ones, most of the female educated youth who went to the countryside got married locally.
In Liushugou Brigade, there were two families who married educated youth as their daughters-in-law. Putting aside other things, the children in the family were different. Children of the same age were running around outside all day, but their family could already count.
On the one hand, the villagers felt that studying was useless and that if these educated youth were useful, why would they go to the countryside to compete with the common people for food? On the other hand, they wanted their own children to read a few books and learn to read.
Who wants to be blind when they have the opportunity to read and write?
"Who knows. What's the matter, Xu Dazui? Do you want to find an educated youth wife for your son?"
Xu Dazui was in her forties and wore a green headscarf. She spat at the person who was talking: "If you don't spit shit, no one will know that you have a hole on your face! What are you talking about?"
Xu Dazui's yelling had just begun when she was interrupted by the captain coming out of the team headquarters.
"Let's go weed the fields today. Besides that, we will assign several new educated youths. Group two, three, and four, each of you will choose one person to lead." What the team leader meant by this was that the group leaders of several groups would each lead a female educated youth.
No matter which group Liu Yingjun joins, everyone will welcome him. At least he is a man, right? Even if he is useless, he is better than those female students, right?
The team leaders who were called by the captain stood out from the crowd, all with some reluctance on their faces.
Jiang Youtao was called over by the leader of Group 2.
"Just come with us. Aunt Xu, you take her." The Aunt Xu called by the leader of Group 2 happened to be the Big Mouth Xu who had just been arguing with someone.
Xu Dazui was not dissatisfied when she saw that the second team leader asked her to lead the educated youth, and she even smiled at Jiang Youtao.
Group three and group four also wanted Zhao Yonglan and Zhang Huihui respectively.
Liu Yingjun was asked by the leader of Group 3 to go to the same group as Zhao Yonglan. When he saw this assignment, his face turned green.
When the new educated youth joined the team, the team leader came out carrying a red flag. He placed the red flag on the open space in the front and after reciting some quotations, he walked in the front carrying the flag with a heroic and high-spirited look.
The villagers consciously lined up in two teams and followed him.
When they arrived at the field, the team leader found a high place to plant a red flag, and the team leaders took their respective team members to the mission fields of each group.
Gu Nianwei was in Group 1, and their task field was a bit far from Group 2's, so Jiang Youtao could only greet her from a distance.
Xu Dazui took Jiang Youtao to find her group of sisters in a familiar manner. They squatted together, constantly pulling the grass on the ground with their hands, and their mouths were not idle either, gossiping about other people's affairs. Jiang Youtao was amazed on what she heard.
What Xu Dazui and the others are talking about now is the story of a daughter-in-law in the neighboring Xiaonancha village who had an affair with her father-in-law.
Jiang Youtao was listening with great interest when Xu Dazui stopped talking.
The heart of the melon eater was itching, scratching her heart and liver and feeling very uncomfortable. She couldn't help but asked, "What's next?"