Chapter 42: Big Mouth Twitching

Liu Guilan, upon seeing this, hollered, “Xia Tian, how many times have I told you? Can’t you wash your hands before cooking? Who are you trying to disgust? It’s not like you’re the only one using the spatula.”

“Got it,” Xia Tian replied in a perfunctory manner, like an old pro, still not washing her hands as she continued to stir-fry the food in the pot, while also glancing at Yang Mumu with some interest. “Oh, a new educated youth. Want to team up with me for meals? I’m all alone.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m planning to cook on my own, not team up with anyone,” Yang Mumu said with a smile, waving her hand in refusal. No way, from this moment on, she had developed a cleanliness obsession. She couldn’t use that spatula at all. She had seen a bit of the educated youth’s snot on the wooden handle of the spatula. Judging by what she said to Liu Guilan, this wasn’t just a one-time thing; it was a habit. Asking her to use that spatula to cook would make her feel like she was using a poop-scooping shovel to cook, and she wouldn’t be able to eat a bite. She needed to find an opportunity to take the stove from her space and use it herself, so she could cook with her own stuff.

“Really not teaming up? I’m a great cook, and it’s less tiring when two people work together,” Xia Tian said, unwilling to give up. Now that it was the busy farming season, cooking alone was too tiring. Finding a partner to take turns would make things easier.

“Educated Youth Xia, I’ll team up with you,” Wu Xiuli said, walking in with a few sweet potatoes, and then mocked, “Educated Youth Xia, don’t bother asking her to team up. She looks down on us. As soon as she arrived, she climbed the social ladder and became the scorekeeper. How could she still look up to us educated youths? She must despise the rest of us. Look at what she said, bringing her own pot to cook. We all team up in the big kitchen, but she wants to be special. It’s simply a bourgeois lifestyle. And she’s supposed to be our proletarian scorekeeper? Sooner or later, she’ll be dragged down from that position. She…”

Before Wu Xiuli could finish, Yang Mumu strode forward and slapped her across the face, then backhanded her as she raised her head, leaving a handprint on both sides of her face, swollen into welts. Wu Xiuli dropped the sweet potatoes on the ground, covering her burning face as she stumbled back a few steps. “Ah! Yang Mumu, you hit me! I’m going to tell the team leader. The team leader said no troublemaking is allowed!”

“I’m hitting you, and I’m hitting you lightly,” Yang Mumu said, cracking her knuckles, stepping closer, forcing Wu Xiuli to retreat in terror. Seeing the new and old educated youths from the courtyard running over after hearing the commotion, Yang Mumu slapped Wu Xiuli twice more, raising her voice to say, “I hit you again. You better go tell the team leader quickly. The scorekeeper job was personally appointed by the brigade leader, which means the brigade leader approves of me. I’m a socialist progressive youth with impeccable credentials, always rated as an advanced individual wherever I go. In your mouth, it becomes climbing the social ladder and a bourgeois lifestyle. Are you implying that the brigade leader is a bourgeois?”

“Do you need me to drag you to the team leader to talk, or should I help you go?”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I was wrong. Don’t go, I really know I was wrong!” Wu Xiuli said, hearing this, and sat down on the ground with a thud, waving her hands in panic. Seeing Yang Mumu lift her foot to leave, she quickly crawled over and hugged her leg. If Yang Mumu went out to tell the team leader today, she would be finished. She didn’t want to be sent back and shipped off to the Northwest.

“Don’t go, don’t go tell the team leader. It’s my fault, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Don’t go, I have a foul mouth, my mouth deserves to be slapped,” Wu Xiuli said, slapping her own face, begging for forgiveness.

“Remember these slaps today. If anyone talks nonsense again, I’ll hit them once every time I see them, and then send them to the team leader. How dare you slander our brigade leader who serves the commune members? As a member of the brigade, I have a responsibility to uphold the dignity of the brigade leader. My slaps are always ready,” Yang Mumu said, showing off her hand. Wu Xiuli nodded quickly and retreated to the side, covering her painful face, looking at that hand in fear.

Gu Xingzhou looked at Yang Mumu with shining eyes, his eyes full of stars. He was done for. He had completely fallen in love with this woman! She was so his type.

The other new and old educated youths looked on in stunned silence, looking at Wu Xiuli’s face, swollen like a pig’s head, and listening to these words, they all silently came to a conclusion. This Yang Mumu was not to be trifled with. Her combat power was off the charts, and her temper was explosive. The key was that she was also the scorekeeper, so they couldn’t afford to offend her at all. The new educated youths didn’t understand, but the old educated youths knew best. The scorekeeper was in charge of the lifeline of the entire team. Work points were recorded by her. If you offended her, she could be a little stricter when assessing the value of your work, and you would be in trouble. It was just a matter of the scorekeeper’s word. She could say you didn’t do well, deduct a few points, or make you redo the work, and you wouldn’t be able to argue back.

Liu Guilan stood up and pointed at Wu Xiuli, saying, “Wu Xiuli, you deserve to be hit. How can you casually slander our brigade leader? The brigade leader appointed Mumu as the scorekeeper, so Mumu is excellent. If you’re jealous of her, don’t cause trouble in our educated youth courtyard. If you cause any more trouble, I’ll report it to the brigade leader truthfully.”

“Alright, everyone, go back to what you were doing,” Liu Guilan said. Because the candy that Yang Mumu gave her had worked, Liu Guilan thought that she still had to inform the team leader about Wu Xiuli’s slander of the team leader as a capitalist in private.

“Mumu, let’s go, I’ll take you to see other places. I haven’t finished yet.”

“Okay, let’s go, Sister Guilan,” Yang Mumu said, smiling again, and left the kitchen, arm in arm with Liu Guilan. As soon as she stepped out, she heard Xia Tian’s voice shouting from inside.

“You idiot, don’t implicate our educated youth courtyard with your nonsense. You still want to team up with me to cook? Dream on. I’m afraid I’ll die of stupidity if I eat your food. Get lost.”

“Xia Tian is just a little unhygienic, but she’s still a good person, with a carefree personality.”

Hearing the sounds from the kitchen, Liu Guilan smiled and said something to Yang Mumu, then pointed out the bathing area and the toilet to her, and also pointed to a large piece of land next to it for Yang Mumu. “This is the private plot of our educated youth courtyard. Whoever reclaims it owns it.

Each person can have at most one point of land. You can plant grains or vegetables, whatever you want. No one will care.” As she spoke, Liu Guilan walked into one of the plots and picked four eggplants and a handful of peppers, handing them to Yang Mumu.

 “Take these. You just arrived, and you don’t have any fresh vegetables to eat tonight. Just eat these. Come find me to pick more when you’re done.

This plot is where I grow my vegetables. There’s a lot that can be eaten.” “Sister Guilan, then I won’t be polite and accept them today.” Yang Mumu saw that there were indeed many vegetables in her garden and had an idea.

She took the eggplants and whispered in her ear, “But you don’t have to later. I want to seriously discuss with you. It will take a long time for me to reclaim land and grow vegetables before I have any, at least two months or so.

During this time, if I want to eat fresh vegetables, can I exchange things for vegetables with you? I brought a lot of things to the countryside, this is also okay.” Yang Mumu rubbed her thumb and forefinger together.

Liu Guilan’s eyes lit up. Seeing her serious expression, she nodded in agreement and lowered her voice to a level that only the two of them could hear, saying, “Okay, do you have brown sugar? I want to drink some when I have my period. If you do, two ounces of brown sugar will cover your vegetables for two months.

 If not, then give me one yuan.” Yang Mumu readily agreed and shook hands with her, “Brown sugar deal. I’ll get it for you in a moment.”

“Okay.” Liu Guilan was beaming and pulled Yang Mumu towards the house, “Let’s go, Mumu, I’ll take you to see the rooms again. Our rooms are large shared sleeping platforms, with heated brick beds. Three people per room. Some of the old educated youths have left, some have married, so there are now many empty bunks.

 The other new educated youths have all chosen their spots.” “Now there’s one room left with only one person missing, and there’s a whole room next to it that’s empty. The team leader said that there are plans for another batch of educated youths to come after a while, and they will move in then, but for now you can live alone.

Which one do you choose?” Liu Guilan opened the door and pointed to the two rooms. One was a three-person room with one bunk left, and the other was an empty three-person room. Obviously, she would choose the latter.

 “Then I’ll live in the empty room over here first.” Yang Mumu walked into the room and looked around. There were windows in the front and back, and the light transmission was very good, but there was a musty smell from the room being closed for a long time.

She went to open the front and back windows to air it out and let the air circulate to get rid of the smell.

When she opened the back window, she saw a detached small house behind it. The house looked newer than the educated youth courtyard. “Hey, Sister Guilan, what is that small house over there?”