Chapter 9

In the threshing ground in front of the brigade headquarters, the production team leader Nie Hongshan, wearing a half-new dark gray Zhongshan suit and a gray-blue worker-peasant hat, stood in the field, smoking a pipe slowly. Beside him followed a pretty little girl holding a scorebook, wearing a white Dacron shirt with small flowers.

That was Nie Hongshan’s youngest daughter, Nie Xiaoyu, a scorer who had not gone to high school after finishing junior high school in the county. She was seen standing next to Nie Hongshan in an orderly manner with a dull expression on her face. When members of the commune greeted her, she just nodded slightly, neither smiling nor speaking, like a proud little duck.

But she was the daughter of the team leader and the scorer, and they were from the same village. As the saying goes, if you don’t see her when you look up, you will see her when you look down, so the members just endured it and let it go.

Members came to the threshing ground one after another, and Yan Mingli also walked to the brigade headquarters at this time.

According to regulations, members need to gather before 8 o’clock, and then the production team leader will assign tasks to the members of each production team. The scorekeeper will record the year, month, day, “what kind of work is done”, and “working hours” in detail in the work point book. After work, he will fill in the work points obtained in the “assessed work points” column.

Work points are assessed based on a 10-point system, which fluctuates according to labor intensity, different divisions of labor, and length of working hours. Tongzi Commune currently adopts a segmented work point system, which means 4 points in the morning and 6 points in the afternoon.

The third production team had a total of 152 members, including 57 strong laborers, and the rest were the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled, and the young. After a day’s work, those people could only earn five or six work points at most, so the farm work of the production team basically fell on the strong laborers.

Of course, there are also strong laborers who are unwilling to work, such as Er Laizi and others. Tongzi Society will first let the production team leader or deputy team leader persuade them. If they still refuse to work after persuasion, either other people in the family will be willing to do the extra work and record it in their name, or they will use cash to offset the work points.

The third production team had no side jobs, and one work point was only 3 cents. A strong laborer who worked all year round and earned full work points would only get 109.5 yuan a year. However, it was possible to get full work points during the busy farming season, but not during the slack farming season. Therefore, when the year-end dividends were distributed, the member with the most work points would only get 60 or 70 yuan.

Because of his family background, Yan Mingli did the hardest, most tiring and least willing work, but he could not get full work points. He was able to get 53 yuan last year because he never took a day off and repaired ditches, ponds and roads during the slack season.

Before the time came, the members gathered in groups of three or four to chat. Yan Mingli walked from a distance, like an invisible barrier. Most members would consciously stay away from him wherever he passed, and only a few would occasionally cast a slightly kind look at him.

“Captain, I have to go to the county town in the morning and would like to ask for half a day off.” Yan Mingli walked up to Nie Hongshan and said in a neither humble nor arrogant manner.

“As the team leader, I have to say that you are about to start planting autumn potatoes. How can you ask for leave and go to the county town?” Nie Hongshan said with a frown after taking a few puffs of his pipe.

Nie Hongshan did not like Yan Mingli.

On the one hand, it was naturally a problem of his background, and on the other hand, his little daughter had some inappropriate thoughts about him. Xiaoyu happened to be there, so he naturally had to seize the opportunity to give him a warning, so that he would not recognize his own identity and harm his daughter.

“Captain, I will finish all the work and won’t delay.” Yan Mingli didn’t know what Nie Xiaoyu felt about him, but he knew that Nie Hongshan didn’t like him.

But how many people in this commune like me?

He is busy at work every day, and after work he is busy going home to take care of his younger siblings. He knows his own limitations and won’t make things difficult for himself.

As for liking her, he had fantasized about it in the first one or two years, but he no longer dared to do it in recent years.

There were people in the commune who had expressed their desire to live with him, but what kind of people were they?

Either it was a widow with a child who wanted to find a husband to adopt her son, or it was an ugly girl who wanted him to abandon her relatives and marry into her family, or it was some bad woman who just wanted to hide in the haystack with him.

The later years of those who marry and raise children are usually miserable, and he absolutely cannot abandon his relatives and marry into another family. As for hiding in a haystack, he feels sick just thinking about the looks in those women’s eyes.

They lived with him not because they loved him, but because they coveted his body and work points, and wanted to squeeze out all his value.

“Be polite! The Chairman said we should cheer up and work hard…” Before Nie Hongshan finished his words, Nie Xiaoyu beside him couldn’t help but pull at his clothes. Nie Hongshan’s breathing stagnated, and he wished he could beat this clumsy girl to death.

“Captain, I won’t affect the production progress.” Yan Mingli knew that the captain was making things difficult for him, but he was not as cruel as he was to Yang Goudan. He still expressed his meaning politely.

“A group of educated youth will arrive at the commune today. When you come back from the county town, please pick them up from the brigade headquarters.” Nie Hongshan would never agree to be allowed to go to the county town without doing anything.

“Captain, I have to rush back to work in the afternoon.” He only asked for half a day off and had no time to go to the commune to pick up the educated youth.

Besides, he only had this pair of straw sandals on his feet. Picking up the educated youth meant walking on the gravel road from the commune to the village. The road was full of stones, and his straw sandals could not withstand the wear and tear.

Besides, the team leader didn’t really want him to pick up the educated youth. Which production team would send a “five-category element” with a bad background to the commune to pick up people? The team leader just wanted to use him to vent his dissatisfaction.

Although he didn’t know where this dissatisfaction came from, hadn’t it been like this all these years? Poking at his spine, gossiping about his family, and trying to trip him up in various ways?

“Come back this afternoon and water the land in the duck forest on the north slope. We must not delay in planting autumn potatoes tomorrow. I’ll give you five work points.” Nie Hongshan said sanctimoniously.

The land in Yazilin? The members who heard about it couldn’t help but gasp. That was five or six acres of land. How could he, alone, carry manure and water the land in just half a day?

“Okay!” Yan Mingli did not refuse this time. If he couldn’t finish work on time, he would work a little longer. If it really didn’t work, he would finish it before work tomorrow morning. He could always find a way to finish it. After all, he would get five work points.

“Go! Come to work on time this afternoon.” Nie Hongshan approved the leave, and Yan Mingli did not delay. He turned around and walked out of the village.

He was walking so fast that he didn’t realize the aunties and sisters behind him were talking about him loudly. Even if they knew, what would it matter? The mouths were on other people’s bodies. Could he really hit a woman?

This was contrary to what his father had taught him since he was a child. Thinking of his father, Yan Mingli’s eyes became dim, but he did not stop.