Chapter 31: Is Zhao Xiulan Intentionally Slacking Off?

Zhao Xiulan may have been born into an educated family, but due to family circumstances, she ended up in the countryside.

She didn’t reveal everything to them, keeping a certain degree of reserve, mainly to stay cautious. In this era, many things are sensitive and shouldn’t be casually mentioned, as it could invite trouble.

Jiang Cheng fell into contemplation for a moment, showing increased interest in Zhao Xiulan.

Meanwhile, Zhao Xiulan, carrying her basket, quickly arrived at her doorstep.

Upon returning, she took out some corn and sorghum flour from her space and put them in the basket.

Although not much, just two catties of each, for rural people, being able to beg several catties of grains is already quite good. Even working in the production team to earn work points, at the end of the year, a day’s worth of work may not yield as much as this.

Especially since natural disasters began last year, the team’s grain harvest was not as good as before. When dividing grain at the end of the year, each family’s share was not enough for a year’s worth of food.

If it weren’t for the fact that people in the production team could still dig wild vegetables in the spring or think of other ways, I’m afraid few households wouldn’t be able to get through the year on the meagre grain distributed by the team.

When Zhao Xiulan returned, the production team had just finished their morning work, and everyone was resting at home for a moment before they had to continue in the afternoon.

Seeing Zhao Xiulan returning so early, Li Lijuan couldn’t help but sarcastically say, “Zhao Xiulan, how was it? Did you go to the county town and fail to beg for food? You came back so early, looks like you didn’t get anything, right? Hehe, got nothing, and even slacked off the whole morning instead of working for points!”

Li Lijuan didn’t have to work originally, but because of Zhao Xiulan, she had to go to work today.

Under the scorching sun, her skin was hurting, and she was so tired!

Li Lijuan blamed everything on Zhao Xiulan. If it weren’t for Zhao Xiulan’s mouth, Zhao Weiguo wouldn’t have made her go out.

So now seeing Zhao Xiulan returning, she immediately started criticizing.

Zhao Xiulan looked at Li Lijuan as if she were an idiot.

“Li Lijuan, shut your mouth! You accuse me of slacking off, but haven’t you been lazy for so long at home? You’ve never done any work, and yet I went to beg for food for a whole morning, and you say I’m slacking off? Do you have any shame saying that?”

Ma Yumei came out of the house to help Li Lijuan and said sarcastically, “Lijuan is taking care of me, how can she be slacking off? At least she worked all morning today, while you did nothing and wasted time earning work points, but got nothing.”

Hearing the commotion, Zhao Weiguo coughed lightly and said to Ma Yumei, “Alright, stop it. Why argue among family members?

“Xiulan just went to try her luck, see if she could beg for some food. If she couldn’t, it’s fine, she won’t go next time, it’s just one morning. If you feel sorry for the few work points Xiulan earned less today, why don’t you, Lijuan, work harder and earn a few more work points to make up for it?”

In the past, Zhao Weiguo would definitely have sided with Li Lijuan and would never have spoken up for Zhao Xiulan like this.

(End of Chapter 31)