Chapter 5: You Used to Be Lazy

Inside the house, Wang Fengmei looked at her son’s injured leg, her eyes red.

Her youngest son wasn’t home often, and now his leg was like this. How could a mother not feel heartbroken?

Especially seeing his silent expression, it made her even more distressed.

She knew her son well, he was clearly reluctant to leave the army.

It was only because of his leg injury that he had to come back.

But in her heart, Wang Fengmei was more grateful that he was alive.

Suddenly, she remembered the rumors she had heard in the team recently. After a pause, Wang Fengmei said:

“She’s young and inexperienced. You’re back now, and she’ll settle down when she becomes a mother.”

Hearing this, Qin Shuo frowned, and the image of that disgusted face from his previous life flashed through his mind.

“You’re a cripple, how dare you?”

“That educated youth Gu knows how to play the harmonica and write poetry, what can you do?”

But this image quickly turned into another face, one of shame and embarrassment.

It was the same face, but it felt like two different people.

“Don’t listen to the gossip in the team, this child is not bad at heart.”

Her son had been away from home for so long, Wang Fengmei felt a little guilty towards Xu Jiaojiao.

“I know what I’m doing.” Qin Shuo didn’t want to say more.

Seeing his expression, Wang Fengmei sighed and didn’t say anything else.

The affairs of the young couple had to be worked out by themselves.

Outside, Xu Jiaojiao had only heard a couple of sentences before she was about to leave.

But as she turned around, she bumped into someone.

Already feeling guilty, she was so startled that she almost jumped out of her skin.

But Ding Xiujing didn’t seem to care.

Her gaze seemed to be mocking Xu Jiaojiao for being so useless.

Xu Jiaojiao: …

You’re brave, I’m not as good as you, okay?

The cowardly Xu Jiaojiao picked up her broom and was about to leave, but the next moment, the door creaked open.

The tall figure of a man emerged from the narrow doorway.

Their eyes met, and the air grew thick once again.

“That… I came to get the broom.”

Xu Jiaojiao said, awkwardly raising the broom in her hand to show that she wasn’t eavesdropping.

Someone else was eavesdropping.

But when she looked to the side, Ding Xiujing was nowhere to be seen.

Xu Jiaojiao: …

What a jerk! She ran so fast!

Qin Shuo didn’t say anything, but his expression wasn’t good. He turned and walked towards the kitchen.

Unexpectedly, even getting a broom had offended him, Xu Jiaojiao felt a little helpless.

After a moment, she turned and walked towards her room.

The large furniture had already been cleared out, leaving only some trash. It would be fine to just sweep it up.

Without hesitation, Xu Jiaojiao picked up the broom and was about to start.

But before she could sweep, she heard Qin Shuo’s voice.

“Wait.”

Xu Jiaojiao: ?

She turned to look at him with a puzzled expression.

She saw him carrying a bucket and sprinkling water in the room.

…

Xu Jiaojiao finally remembered that sweeping the floor required sprinkling water first.

Otherwise, the compacted dirt floor would be covered in dust when swept.

Qin Shuo moved quickly, and in a few moves, he had sprinkled the entire room.

This strange couple, one sweeping and the other cleaning up trash.

The atmosphere was undeniably heavy.

But their movements were strangely synchronized.

Xu Jiaojiao was an orphan, and she had been independent since she was young. These tasks were nothing to her.

Soon, the entire room was spacious and clean.

Looking around, Xu Jiaojiao’s eyes sparkled, she was very satisfied with the fruits of her labor.

But before she could admire it for a while, she heard Wang Fengmei’s fierce urging voice from outside.

“Hurry up, all of you, don’t be late!”

Hearing this, Xu Jiaojiao quickly picked up her water bottle and went out.

As for the man in the room, she had automatically ignored him completely.

As for the task, she would deal with it when she came back.

The yard was bustling with activity, the children were all staring expectantly at the kitchen door.

Inside the kitchen, Wang Fengmei had already divided the sweet potato porridge into two portions.

One was in a large pot, the other in a small pot.

The porridge in the large pot was thicker, while the one in the small pot was thinner.

It was called sweet potato porridge, but there was more sweet potato than rice.

The larger portion was taken by the workers to the mountain, while the smaller portion was eaten by Wang Fengmei and the children at home.

Life was hard here, even the Qin family could only barely eat their fill.

It was easy to imagine what life was like for the others.

The Red Flag Brigade didn’t have much flat land, and outside the village, it was either hills or mountains.

Xu Jiaojiao carried a basket and followed Ding Xiujing, while Liu Zhaodi carried the porridge in front.

The tea picking place was a bit far, and the mountain path was not easy to walk on, so everyone brought food.

It would save them from having to run back at noon.

The entire mountain path was bustling with people.

Although this wasn’t the first time Xu Jiaojiao had participated in collective labor, it was her first time picking tea.

But the rugged mountain path didn’t pose a challenge to her.

She walked along, looking at the surrounding scenery with interest.

It has to be said that although the Red Flag Brigade was poor, the scenery was still quite good.

The terraced fields, layer upon layer, were like a thousand-step silver ladder, following the mountain contours, stretching from the foot of the mountain to the top.

It was unknown how long they walked before they reached the tea garden.

A vast expanse of green met their eyes, the rows of tea leaves were like green ribbons.

The girls picking tea were chattering away, a lively scene.

“I’m telling you, you need to pluck faster, you only earn a few work points each time, even Dani earns more than you, how can you be so shameless?”

As soon as they entered the tea garden, Ding Xiujing’s two hands started working simultaneously, her movements were incredibly swift.

Seeing Xu Jiaojiao still standing there, she couldn’t help but glare at her.

Hearing this, Xu Jiaojiao couldn’t help but remain silent, remembering how the original owner only earned four or five work points each time.

It wasn’t that the original owner’s family was so well-off that she didn’t need to work.

On the contrary, the Xu family had been struggling since Xu’s grandfather passed away.

And Xu’s father was the worst off among his brothers, simply because he had five daughters.

Who didn’t mock him for being a man with no future?

The original owner was the youngest at home, with many older sisters, and she did a lot of work.

She was small but cunning, and she was used to pretending.

She didn’t suffer much at home, and when she married into the Qin family, Wang Fengmei didn’t make things difficult for her.

It could be said that her life was really good.

As long as she didn’t cause trouble, she could live a good life here for ten years.

“……Pick faster like this, understand?” Seeing her spacing out again, Ding Xiujing was furious.

She didn’t know what had gotten into her today, she had said so much to her.

But the other person didn’t appreciate it.

“I understand, is it like this?”

Xu Jiaojiao said, reaching out and grabbing the new shoot to be picked at the internode, pulling it upwards.

Her two hands alternated, her movements were fast and efficient.

She surprised Ding Xiujing, who almost popped her eyes out.

“You little Xu Jiaojiao, I knew you were lazy all along!”

Ding Xiujing was furious, this lazy woman had been slacking off for four years.

“Ha! You just realized? She was very efficient when she was helping our Comrade Gu!”

Suddenly, a mocking female voice came from outside the tea garden.