Chapter 14: My Goodness, Old Iron, What a Strong Man!

The team leader returned from supervising work and happened to pass by Huang Yuelan’s house. He saw Wang Jianguo and Huang Yuelan, the young couple, cultivating a small patch of wasteland outside their yard.

Needless to say, they were obviously planning to grow some vegetables.

Upon seeing Wang Jianguo working efficiently and powerfully, the team leader immediately had an idea.

Before, he hadn’t wanted to assign Wang Jianguo any private plots or work in the production team. He’d considered that Wang Jianguo, having lived in the mountains since childhood, wasn’t used to the work of the production team. Furthermore, his previous attire was so different from the villagers’; he was afraid the villagers would laugh at him and make fun of him.

Now, things were different. Team leader Fan Ming discovered that Wang Jianguo was quite capable of working, and after getting a haircut and trimming his beard, the young man was quite handsome, even better-looking than Sun Gousheng in the village.

Since he was no longer dressed like a wild man, had married a wife, and was reportedly supporting Huang Yuelan’s two younger brothers, his character seemed quite good.

The team leader thought he should arrange some farm work for Wang Jianguo so he could earn some work points to better support his family. He also planned to allocate them some private land to grow melons, fruits, and vegetables, which would ease their financial burden.

After all, as the team leader and the provider for everyone, he should alleviate the worries of each villager.

Besides the collective farmland of the production team, there were also some small plots of land on the edges. This land couldn’t be wasted and would be allocated to each household as private plots based on the number of people.

Generally, a strong laborer could get one fen (a unit of land area) of private land; children and the elderly received none.

Although the private plots weren’t large, villagers clearly worked harder on them than on the collective land.

The team leader saw that Wang Jianguo was strong, worked diligently, and wasn’t lazy. He thought assigning him work with more work points would be no problem.

In a short while, Huang Yuelan and Wang Jianguo had cleared the small vegetable patch in front of their house. All they needed to do was buy some seeds.

While Wang Jianguo went to buy seeds, Huang Yuelan shook the soil off the weeds and laid them out to dry.

It would be a waste to throw away the weeds. After drying, they could be used as firewood, and they burned quickly as kindling.

After drying the weeds, Huang Yuelan looked towards the village. This glance startled her; her heart skipped a beat.

Her two younger brothers were playing with their friends by the large water pool. Many children had already jumped in, and her brothers were about to jump in as well.

Huang Yuelan remembered that her brothers couldn’t swim at all. The pool was over ten meters deep; if they fell in, they could easily drown.

Without even bothering to lock the door, Huang Yuelan dropped her tools and ran towards the large water pit in the village.

The water pit was used by the production team to store water. Because they were in a mountainous area and relied on the weather for their crops, water was scarce. Following a government initiative, many large water pits were dug to store rainwater, which could be used for washing clothes or irrigating fields.

Running all the way, Huang Yuelan finally arrived at the water pit. Yueqiang and his brother, unable to resist the temptation, were about to jump in when Huang Yuelan grabbed them.

Yueqiang thought someone was playing a prank. Turning around, he saw his sister: “Sister?!”

“Can you two swim? You were about to jump in with everyone else,” Huang Yuelan asked.

Huang Yueqiang replied, “Sister, look how much fun everyone’s having; I want to play too.”

“Don’t you dare! The water is so deep; there might be water snakes. If one bites you, you won’t be able to escape,” Huang Yuelan said. She remembered that she had also grown up in the countryside. Adults were busy working and didn’t have time to look after the children, who ran all over the village. Many children fell into the water pits and were found dead.

At first, Huang Yueqiang and his brother didn’t take it seriously. Everyone else was playing without incident, but shortly after Huang Yuelan finished speaking, a child started splashing in the water, yelling for help, with blood appearing around him.

The other children quickly climbed onto the bank, all terrified.

Huang Yuelan saw a rope nearby, picked it up, made a large loop, threw it over the child’s head, and pulled him to the shore.

When the boy reached the bank, the other children were stunned.

The boy’s leg was bleeding profusely, clearly bitten by something.

It wasn’t the time to worry about what bit him; they needed to take the child to the village doctor, the barefoot doctor.

Everyone took the injured boy to the doctor. The experienced village doctor immediately recognized a water snake bite. Although non-venomous, if the child hadn’t been rescued in time, he could have drowned.

Seeing this, Huang Yueqiang and his brother admired their sister even more.

Their sister was right; they shouldn’t swim in such a deep pool. There were water snakes, and what if they were bitten?

The child was lucky to have encountered their sister, but not everyone was so fortunate.

They should listen to their sister. They shouldn’t go near any large water pits or reservoirs, let alone swim in them.

“You must never swim in large water pits or reservoirs. Do you understand?” Huang Yuelan warned her brothers.

Huang Yueqiang and his brother nodded vigorously. “We understand, sister. We’ll never go swimming again. That place is too dangerous. Even if you gave us money, we wouldn’t go.”

Seeing their sincere attitude, Huang Yuelan felt relieved.

Preventing childhood drowning was a top priority in later school safety education. Warnings were given every summer vacation, yet children still drowned every summer.

Now, it was even worse. There were so many water pits in the village, and parents were busy, so children ran around, and many drowned in the pits.

Her parents were dead, and she only had these two brothers. She couldn’t let them drown.

Although her brothers promised not to play in the water pit again, Huang Yuelan remembered something important: her brothers ran around because they weren’t in school.

They were of school age. If they went to school, they would study and wouldn’t run around with idle children.

“Yueqiang, you two are of school age. I’ll send you to school when it starts in September,” Huang Yuelan told her brothers.

Huang Yueqiang and his brother looked at Huang Yuelan in disbelief. “Sister, are you joking? With our family’s circumstances, can we even go to school?”

Most people in the village didn’t go to school, especially girls. Two out of ten girls attending school was considered good; there were many illiterates.

Although it was said that women could hold up half the sky, many elderly people still favored sons over daughters. Boys could go to school, but girls had to work and earn work points; schooling was a waste of money. For example, all five of Sun Gousheng’s sisters were illiterate.

Yueqiang and his brother had never thought about going to school. They just wanted to eat eggs and meat; going to school was a dream.

The annual tuition and book fees were a considerable sum.

“Sister has never lied to you two. I’m serious. I’ve thought about it. I’ll use the compensation money Grandma gave me for your tuition. Over one hundred yuan is enough for you to graduate from junior high,” Huang Yuelan said, secretly marveling at how cheap schooling was now.

“Wow, Sister is the best sister in the world!”

“Sister, we love you!”

They knew that if Grandma had the money, she wouldn’t let them go to school; she’d buy meat and wouldn’t let them know.

Because there was a lot of extra fabric, and her brothers were thin, after making three sets of clothes with twenty-five feet of fabric, there was still plenty left. Huang Yuelan thought the scraps could be used to make school bags for her brothers, ready for the start of school.

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After several days of publicity, the autumn harvest battle finally began!

For farmers, what was the point of working all year round? It was to have a good harvest.

With a good harvest, they could pay their public grain, and the remaining grain would be enough to feed everyone.

Seeing that the crops were growing well and the grains were full, it was a good year for harvest. They had to harvest the grain quickly and store it in the granary to be safe.

Otherwise, even if the crops grew well, if there was a heavy rain or other extreme weather, the grain would be ruined.

The team leader had observed Wang Jianguo working. His strength was extraordinary. Others had to rest after each shovelful of earth, but he didn’t stop, shoveling continuously and digging deep.

Given Wang Jianguo’s great strength, the team leader assigned him a crucial task: transporting the grain.

The grain from the fields was put into sacks, then onto wheelbarrows. Wang Jianguo was responsible for transporting the grain to the threshing ground. It had to be dried before being stored to prevent mildew.

Everyone was curious to see Wang Jianguo working.

“What’s the team leader thinking? This wild man has always been in the mountains; he’s not cut out for this work. It’s good enough that he’s not causing trouble.”

“Isn’t it because our team leader is kind and wants to take care of him now that he’s married?”

As soon as they finished speaking, a figure flashed before their eyes, like something ‘whooshing’ past, bringing a gust of wind.

When everyone turned to look, they were stunned.

It wasn’t a gust of wind; it was Wang Jianguo pushing the grain!

Others could only push three to four hundred jin (a unit of weight) with a wheelbarrow, even with two people, one pulling and one pushing. But Wang Jianguo didn’t need help; he pushed incredibly fast. The grain on the wheelbarrow weighed seven to eight hundred jin, yet he pushed effortlessly, going uphill as easily as on flat ground, leaving the other workers dumbfounded.