Chapter 62: The '60s Farm System (28)

After the Fu family left, the work whistle blew.

Xie Yang brought her water bottle and called for Lai Zhaodi to head out together.

Other Educated Youth also walked out of the Youth Hostel in twos and threes.

"What exactly did Xie Yang help Fu Rongrong with? Why send so many gifts? They must be worth quite a bit of money!"

"Xie Yang has hit the jackpot! That raincoat is only available at the Foreign Exchange Certificate store, and you have to use a Foreign Exchange Certificate to buy it."

"The Malt Extract isn't cheap either!"

Zhao Wanqing listened to everyone's speculations without saying a word.

In her heart, she actually felt a little disappointed.

That night, she was also present, and she had a part in sending Fu Rongrong home later, so why didn't the Fu family mention her at all?

Even if there was only one raincoat and one tin of Malt Extract, there were two bottles of Canned Food and a basket full of eggs; wouldn't it have been simple to share a little with her and say a few words of thanks?

The more Zhao Wanqing thought about it, the more upset she felt.

Since Heaven let her be reborn and even gave her such a magical treasure, why not just make her life go smoothly? Why keep making her feel stifled everywhere! Everything is so frustrating! Why!!!

"Wanqing—Wanqing—"

Something even more frustrating had arrived!

While passing a paddy field, Fang Yongqiang—whom Zhao Wanqing had kept on a string before her rebirth, hoping to get him to do chores for her—ran over.

He hadn't taken to heart what Zhao Wanqing said on the eve of spring plowing, when she asked him out to say they weren't a good match and that she wanted to draw a line between them.

The reason he hadn't come to find her during the spring plowing was, first, that he intentionally wanted to give her the cold shoulder so she wouldn't think he was cheap.

Second, he was also very tired during the spring plowing and didn't want to go help her with chores after finishing his own work.

It was like that during last year's autumn harvest; she would say she didn't need his help and could handle it herself, but when was it not him who helped her finish?

Without his help, would she have been able to get enough rations to eat for the New Year?

As for the third... his mother had recently entrusted a matchmaker to find him a girl in town who ate commodity grain and had arranged a time for him to go see her.

He went, but that girl was too ugly; facing a dark, pockmarked face, he almost couldn't even eat the shredded meat noodle soup at the State-run Restaurant.

Once he thought about having to eat under the same roof and share a bed in the future... he couldn't stand it and ran back, only managing to get his mother to agree to let him marry Zhao Wanqing after much persuasion.

Although Educated Youth weren't good at farm work, they were pretty and educated. He was thinking of the future generations of the Fang family. Yes! That was it!

Fang Yongqiang nodded secretly, then raised a smile he thought was handsome: "Wanqing! Why haven't you come to find me lately? Are you afraid of the dog at my place? Don't be afraid, I've tied it up. Come over quickly, I brought the fried rice popcorn you like; I even snuck it out behind my mother's back..."

Zhao Wanqing's face turned black.

Did she care about that mouthful of damp, stale fried rice popcorn?

The money she earned selling Bok Choy a while ago was enough to buy herself a whole basket of fried rice popcorn!

What could she do to make him stop pestering her?

"Huh? Why is the Brigade Leader driving an ox cart? Who is that on the cart?"

"The Brigade Leader went to the Commune for a meeting this morning. I heard the higher-ups assigned a few bad elements over, and our brigade got two of them."

"What? There's such a thing? Let's go! Let's go see!"

Seeing this, Zhao Wanqing took the opportunity to squeeze into the crowd of onlookers and ran off.

Xie Yang heard the commune members chatting as they passed by and guessed who the two people brought back by the Brigade Leader were—Song Shuhe and his grandson, who in the original world would be taken into Zhao Wanqing's Farm Space in two months.

When the cattle shed collapsed and Song Shuhe broke a leg saving his grandson, leading to a persistent high fever, Zhao Wanqing used a piece of Analgin to get close to them, and later found an opportunity to take them into her Farm Space.

In Zhao Wanqing's view, she was saving them.

Even if the cattle shed hadn't collapsed and Song Shuhe hadn't broken his leg and developed a fever, life for the grandfather and grandson in the Yuewan Brigade wouldn't have been easy.

Although the commune members didn't beat or scold them, they dumped the dirtiest and most tiring work of the entire brigade on them, making them carry manure, wash manure buckets, and clean the Pig Pen and cattle shed...

Yet their living conditions were the worst: they ate hard-to-digest black steamed buns and lived in an abandoned cattle shed that could collapse at any time.

And in her Farm Space, although they still had to get up early and work in the fields, at least the space was like spring all year round, and the climate was much better than the outside world.

As for food, she fed them whatever was in the fields.

As long as they helped her upgrade more Black Soil and plant more crops, she wouldn't let them go hungry, and there would definitely be no cattle shed collapse accidents.

But people crave and pursue freedom.

The Farm Space, at first glance, looks like a secluded paradise, but in reality, what is the difference between it and a prison that imprisons people?

Life outside is certainly hard, but the darkness will eventually pass, and dawn will come sooner or later.

But once you enter her Farm Space, don't even think about coming out for the rest of your life.

No wonder those people would eventually turn against her.

Give me liberty, or give me death.

Xie Yang felt that this kind of space that could take people in at will shouldn't have been invented.

Main System: 【...】

Actually, humans in some planes quite like this kind of space system that can bring people in and out at will.

"For example?"

Xie Yang asked it to give an example.

【The apocalypse plane.】

"..."

"Xie Yang—"

"Xie Yang—"

Lai Zhaodi cupped her hands into a megaphone shape and shouted to her across a paddy field.

Xie Yang waved at her.

Lai Zhaodi bypassed the paddy field, ran over along the ridge path, and after reaching her, held her knees, panting as she asked: "Why didn't you go watch the excitement?"

Xie Yang: "..."

What kind of excitement is that?

She would be better off finishing the work assigned to her quickly, and then going to fleece the mountain.

Lai Zhaodi clearly did not come specifically to ask her this question, but was running an errand for the Brigade Leader: "The Brigade Leader has an urgent matter to discuss with you and wants you to go to the brigade office."

"What urgent matter?"

Lai Zhaodi shook her head: "I'm not sure, anyway, he wants you to go to the brigade office as soon as possible."

Xie Yang walked quickly, and in less than five minutes, she arrived at the brigade office.

Upon arriving, she discovered that the Brigade Leader had called more than just her; besides the brigade Cadres, there were also the team leaders and key members of each Production Team.

From the Youth Hostel, she and Li Chengguo were present.

Xie Yang understood in her heart: the Brigade Leader had listed her as a key member of the Youth Hostel.

She glanced at those key members from the Production Team; every one of them was a sturdy man with broad shoulders and tight muscles, looking at a glance like someone who earned full work points.

It seemed the Brigade Leader judged key members based on work points.

"Xiao Xie, you're here? Come over and sit."

Before Xie Yang arrived, the only female comrade in the room—Women's Director Zhou Shenzi—waved at her enthusiastically.

Zhou Shenzi was Gouwa's mother; ever since Xie Yang helped the brigade take down a thousand-jin wild boar, and having heard from Gouwa that she often shared wild fruits picked in the mountains with the brigade's children, she had held great affection for Xie Yang.

Xie Yang walked over and sat down beside her.