Chapter 6: The Spirited Child of the Seventies (6)

With Chen Zhiqing’s help, Liu Suisui no longer needed to do any heavy labor herself.

For example, purchasing boxes for storing items, wooden basins for washing face and feet, and a chair for her own use. These could be custom-made by the village carpenter, and she didn’t have to worry about carrying them back.

Moreover, after being assigned to a group, she didn’t have to work like the others; she only needed to go about her own business as usual, and Chen Zhiqing would take care of things for her.

This brought great convenience to her life.

Although she knew others might have some opinions or thoughts, this was a matter of mutual consent — one willing to hit, the other willing to be hit — and they could only watch helplessly.

If anyone dared to report her, they would be making enemies of the entire educated youth group.

The educated youth were already unwelcome in the village; such a report would trample their dignity into the dirt.

It was astonishing how they could even bring themselves to do that.

Therefore, Liu Suisui did not feel there was anything wrong with her approach. If they had the courage, they could go ahead and report her. She was not without ways to handle it.

What troubled her, however, was going to work.

It was summer, and there was plenty of fieldwork; the scorching sun made it even worse. Wrapped in a headscarf, pulling weeds in the field felt like one of the ten tortures of the Qing Dynasty.

Lacking experience, she couldn’t distinguish weeds from seedlings. After being scolded a few times by an aunt in her group, she finally learned to tell the difference.

But because she didn’t wear gloves and pulled the weeds by hand, her hands turned bright red after pulling just a few.

“It hurts so much.”

Squatting on the ground, she felt a fiery pain in her palms.

She wanted to cry.

“You’re so pampered. You’ve only pulled a few weeds? You educated youth are useless at work but eager to eat. I don’t know if you’re here to help or just to make trouble,” an aunt nearby rolled her eyes in contempt.

She had disliked this little girl for a long time—inept at work, wasting food—and took every opportunity to scold her. With such words, she, a local villager, seemed to elevate herself above the city folk.

Liu Suisui pressed her lips tight, tears in her eyes, and looked at the aunt with a choked voice, “Auntie, I’m just slow because I’ve never done this kind of work before, so mistakes are inevitable. But do you have to say those things to me? If others hear, how am I supposed to live?”

Already on the verge of tears, she took this opportunity to let herself cry freely.

The tears came swiftly, without hesitation.

Some people can’t be confronted with force; you can’t be hard on them, only soft. So this was her tactic of retreating to advance.

Whatever the method, as long as it works.

Seeing this, others in the group quickly came to mediate.

“Dazhujia, you better keep quiet. This city girl has never done farm work before. It’s her first day; what good results do you expect?”

“Exactly. This little girl is quite good. Although she’s not good at it, she’s not lazy. She works seriously. Better than your eldest son, who’s never seen and no one knows where he’s hiding to slack off.”

People tend to sympathize with the weak, so sometimes showing vulnerability can be a good choice.

Liu Suisui wiped away her tears. “Thank you, aunties, for speaking up for me. But this auntie is probably just angry because I wasted food, not trying to make things difficult. We’re all in the same group; we should unite, not ruin your relationships because of me.”

First, she dug a pit to push someone in, then reached out to pull them out.

This made several people lose their anger and even think she was quite reasonable.

Teammates in the same group had to maintain good relations, or at least not become enemies. Though she didn’t like this auntie much, she had to endure for survival.

On the first day of work, Liu Suisui worked until almost everyone else had finished and started preparing meals.

The others in the group had completed about eighty percent of their assigned fields.

She had barely finished twenty percent.

If she didn’t finish pulling weeds in the afternoon, she might only earn one or two work credits that day.

“It’s so hard! I’m so tired. I don’t want to work anymore.”

Liu Suisui squatted on the ground, crying hard, not daring to look up — the sunlight was too dazzling.

007 comforted her, “How about I reward you with a popsicle? Consider it a reward for your hard work.”

“I don’t want a popsicle; I want Haagen-Dazs.”

“You’re so picky… Fine, you get it!”

Liu Suisui got up, dusted off her hands, and decided to go back.

Her earnest attitude was already evident; although she hadn’t finished, no one could fault her.

No work credits, so be it. She just had to endure these two years. She was confident her business acumen would earn her money.

Besides, if she could latch onto Li Xiangyang, maybe she wouldn’t have to struggle so hard.

After she left, a figure appeared in the field; he squatted down and began to work.

Lunch consisted of millet porridge and two small plates of boiled vegetables, no meat at all. Oh, and one corn bread roll per person, limited to one.

Liu Suisui stared at the food in her lunchbox for a long time but had no appetite.

Though she had eaten diet meals before, this was extreme. Eating like this, without any fat, would lead to outright malnutrition.

Besides, didn’t she know how bland boiled vegetables were?

Chen Zhiqing, who liked this little girl quite a bit, came over and gently comforted her, “When I first came, I was just like you—I couldn’t eat it. But here, this is all we have. We have to save our food. Over time, you’ll get used to it.”

“You have to eat something. You still have to work this afternoon. If you don’t eat, you might faint in the field.”

Liu Suisui felt her future was bleak, but she summoned her strength and smiled at Chen Zhiqing, “Thank you, I understand.”

Then, she forced herself to eat the food in her lunchbox.

While eating, she repeatedly told herself,

“This is a dream, just a dream. It’s only a dream.”

Boiled vegetables—nothing mysterious or horrible. How could she not eat them?

When you’re hungry, you can eat anything!

While others finished lunch in ten minutes, she took nearly twenty.

Chewing slowly and deliberately, one might think she was savoring a gourmet meal.

She washed her own lunchbox—mainly the eating utensils—because she felt more comfortable doing it herself.

There was a short rest at noon, but it wasn’t long. Just as she lay down to nap, the bell rang for work to resume.

Dragging her heavy steps back to her “post,” she found her assigned area had been completely cleaned!

All the weeds were pulled and piled along the field’s edge.