Chapter 46: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 46: Shanggou Village 46

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Li Xiulan brought two children to a wasteland overgrown with thorns.

She put down her basket and gave Wang Erhai and Wang Xiaohua each a green bean popsicle.

The two children ate their popsicles, very happy.

She herself held one, sitting in the shade of a tree eating quietly.

Memories of the past surged up in Li Xiulan's heart.

Previously Li Xiulan thought Niu Chunsheng was just her younger brother, and she firmly believed she would never have any improper thoughts about him.

But now that she had lost him, she only belatedly realized how good this man was.

Especially set against the unfaithful man Wang Zhanggen, the radiance on Niu Chunsheng shone even brighter.

It was a pity that nothing belonged to her anymore.

Many things, once missed, could never be possessed again.

After finishing the popsicle, Li Xiulan rolled up her sleeves and started working.

No matter what, life had to go on.

She had to be strong enough not to be crushed by life.

Time passed day by day.

Before long it was winter.

The cassava Li Xiulan had reclaimed land to plant reached harvest season.

The cassava leaves had completely withered and fallen, leaving only bare stalks.

Li Xiulan held a tool specially for pulling cassava, a wooden lever, pulling the cassava plants out of the ground one by one, harvesting the cassava roots.

Pulling cassava was hard work, especially cassava grown on dry land.

Wang Dashan, Wang Erhai, Wang Xiaohua, and other little brats all came to the field to help.

Among the three children, only Wang Dashan could barely pull the cassava; Wang Erhai and Wang Xiaohua did not have the strength to pull it, so they were responsible for breaking off the cassava roots and putting them in the basket.

The harvested cassava roots still had to be taken back to scrape the skins clean, slice and dry them before they could sell for a good price.

Scraping cassava skins was a childhood shadow for Wang Dashan and his two brothers.

They scraped them one by one, scraping until their hands were covered in cassava juice, turning black and hardening.

The cassava at home seemed to never end.

That day Li Xiulan and the three children scraped cassava together in front of the courtyard gate at home.

Village Party Secretary Liang Yuanchao suddenly came to find her:

"Xiulan, there's something I want to talk to you about."

Li Xiulan hurriedly put down the scraper in her hand and stood up to welcome Liang Yuanchao:

"Secretary Liang, come inside for tea!"

Liang Yuanchao waved his hand, with a kind smile on his face:

"I won't drink tea; I just wanted to tell you that the ten mu of wasteland at Shanbei, you probably can't continue farming it next year."

Li Xiulan was stunned, surprised:

"Why? That land was reclaimed by me with great hardship; I only planted it for one year, how can I not continue planting it? I've already saved the cassava stalks for next year!"

Planting cassava only requires leaving some cassava stalks; no seeds are needed.

Liang Yuanchao gave a dry, bitter laugh:

"I also want you to continue planting it, but others won't allow it. That piece of land, although previously used by the production brigade to grow tea leaves, was actually distributed to each household when they started working separately. Now several households have come to me to complain, saying they want to take the fields back."

Li Xiulan immediately felt very indignant:

"Why didn't they say anything when I reclaimed the land? Now that I've reclaimed it, they speak up!"

Liang Yuanchao sighed:

"Sigh, some people in the rural area are just like that. Seeing your good cassava harvest this year, they turned red-eyed and want to take the land back to plant it themselves."

Liang Yuanchao hurriedly apologized:

"Xiulan, I'm really sorry. Before, I didn't know those lands had already been distributed to each household. I always thought they all belonged to the production brigade. That's my fault. Now there's no choice; since they want them, they must be returned to them. Although it's unreasonable, it conforms to the law. Even if you make a scene at the Town Police Station, I estimate the result would be the same..."

Li Xiulan said nothing more.

She only felt that her life was so bitter.

In these past few years, how had everything gone wrong?

Previously, partnering with Niu Chunsheng to open a convenience store had been messed up, and now even reclaiming land to plant cassava had been messed up.

Those wastelands had been redeveloped by her with great effort.

Cassava planted for only one year could not be continued.

Then weren't all her previous efforts wasted?

"Xiulan, it's all my fault. I didn't clarify the situation before and let you go reclaim the land..." Liang Yuanchao's face was full of guilt. He suddenly took out a red envelope and stuffed it into Li Xiulan's hands. "Take this. Those ten mu of wasteland cannot let you work for nothing."

"Secretary Liang, how can this be done?" Li Xiulan hurriedly pushed the red envelope back.

But Liang Yuanchao insisted on giving it to her:

"A small token of thought. Just accept it. If you don't accept it, I won't feel at ease. It's a loss caused to you by my work mistake!"

Finally Li Xiulan accepted the red envelope Liang Yuanchao gave her.

Liang Yuanchao apologized repeatedly, then took out a statement and had Li Xiulan sign it.

"Sign your name on this statement. If you don't sign, they won't believe you're willing to return the land, and they'll keep coming to me to make trouble."

Li Xiulan didn't think much of it; in the end she signed and pressed her fingerprint.

Because she had accepted Liang Yuanchao's red envelope, she didn't want Liang Yuanchao to get into trouble because of her.

She was just like that—willing to wrong herself rather than cause trouble for others.

After Liang Yuanchao left, Li Xiulan finally opened the red envelope to look.

Inside was three hundred yuan.

Li Xiulan showed a bitter smile.

Ten mu of land, several months of hard work clearing it, and in the end all she got was this three hundred yuan.

She could only comfort herself in her heart: actually, not just this three hundred yuan, this year's ten mu of cassava had a good harvest—one mu of cassava dried into cassava chips was about five hundred jin, so ten mu was about five thousand jin.

Cassava prices had risen quickly in recent years; a few years ago it was two fen per jin, then it rose to five fen per jin, then later to one mao per jin, and it was said that this year it had already risen to two mao per jin.

If calculated at two mao per jin, these five thousand-plus jin of cassava chips could bring Li Xiulan over one thousand yuan in income.

This harvest was already considered quite good.

Li Xiulan no longer complained about anything.

However, what she didn't expect was...

Only a month passed before she discovered that Liang Yuanchao had brought outsiders to the village to inspect that cassava field.

Li Xiulan didn't understand, and only found out after inquiring.

It turned out Liang Yuanchao wanted to lease out the entire cassava field at Shanbei to someone else to grow cassava!

Li Xiulan was extremely angry upon learning this.

It turned out Liang Yuanchao had been deceiving her all along!

Others never even thought about taking back those fields to farm themselves—he wanted to take them back and resell them for profit!

She said, those fellow villagers who wanted to take back the land—why didn't they come to her personally, instead of having Liang Yuanchao come and tell her?

It turned out everything was Liang Yuanchao stirring things up behind the scenes!

"Liang Yuanchao, get out here!"

Li Xiulan rushed straight to the Village Committee Office and shouted shrilly across the entire Village Committee Courtyard.

Today she was going to come here and demand an explanation!

Everyone inside the Village Committee Office was startled by Li Xiulan's shouting and came out to see what was happening.

At this time, Liang Yuanchao was in the office signing a contract with the contractor.

He heard Li Xiulan's shouting and was stunned too.

But he didn't immediately go out to see; instead, he urged contractor Liu Datian to sign quickly.

"Old Liu, sign quickly. After signing I still have to go out and handle some things. This contracting price is very cheap—that field is very suitable for growing cassava. If you contract it, you're sure to make a profit without losing!"

Liu Datian thought it over and finally signed.

The contracting fee was twenty yuan per mu; ten mu for a year was only two hundred yuan. If he grew the cassava well, he could definitely make a good profit, after all cassava prices had been rising these past few years.

Liang Yuanchao saw Old Yang sign and press his fingerprint, and a smile appeared on his face.

The matter was settled.

Liang Yuanchao then went out to deal with Li Xiulan.

"Li Xiulan, what are you running to the Village Committee to shout about?!"

Liang Yuanchao wore an arrogant expression, forming a sharp contrast with his courteous and kind image before Li Xiulan.