Chapter 7

There were many villagers following behind her. Jiang Xiaomin was carried into bed by her two aunts, shivering from the cold.

After waiting for a while, the team leader arrived. Just as he was about to ask her what was going on, Wu Cuilian spoke first.

“Jiang Zhiqing, even if you’re upset, please don’t bring disaster to our village. If I hadn’t saved you today, wouldn’t the entire village be in trouble?”

The moment Jiang Xiaomin fell, Wu Cuilian quickly pulled her out. After pulling her out, she went home, changed her clothes, and rushed over here impatiently.

Wu Cuilian is the village chief’s wife. She talks about considering this and that for the village all day long, and everyone is used to it, asked the team leader.

“Jiang Zhiqing, why are you so depressed?”

It was almost the end of the year, and their village had already won the advanced title, so they couldn’t let it ruin everything because of her.

“Captain, I’m not upset. I saw them fishing in the river, and I wanted to help.”

Jiang Xiaomin could only say this in front of everyone. She couldn’t admit that she wanted to eat it, but everyone was not a three-year-old child, so no one would believe her.

Seeing a few children, the villagers started complaining to her again.

“Jiang Zhiqing, these kids were born and raised in this village. The fish know them. If they can catch fish, can you?”

“That’s right. Fortunately, nothing happened. Otherwise, how would the village explain this to the higher-ups?”

For a moment, the villagers all blamed her, as if saying that she was so grown up but still didn’t understand things. Jiang Xiaomin felt very aggrieved, and Wu Cuilian was afraid that everyone would forget her.

“Captain, I saved her, shouldn’t she thank me?”

“What do you want to thank me for?”

The reason why Wu Cuilian jumped in so quickly to save people was that she wanted to gain benefits from Jiang Xiaomin.

“Anything is fine. Thank you is not the key, but we need to let everyone know that saving lives is beneficial.”

Although everyone disagreed with this, no one objected because she was the village chief’s wife.

Wu Cuilian went straight to the cabinet where Jiang Xiaomin kept her things, saw a bag of sweet cakes inside, and immediately took it and put it in her arms.

“Captain, I’ve received Jiang Zhiqing’s thanks. I’m leaving now. You guys handle your own affairs.”

Jiang Xiaomin saw her take away the only bag of candies and wanted to get out of bed to stop her but was blocked by someone. She felt sick in her heart and looked at Su Qingge.

“Su Qingge, tell me, did you team up with them to trick me?”

Seeing Jiang Xiaomin pointing her spearhead at herself, Su Qingge was so angry that she almost laughed, but she didn’t need to do anything, someone would take care of her.

“You’re talking nonsense. Sister Su didn’t do that. We were the ones who wanted to catch the fish and give it to Sister Su. You were so stupid that you fell into it and you blame others.”

Wangcai spoke up to defend Su Qingge, and the captain also looked unhappy. No one could bully her daughter.

“Jiang Zhiqing, you can’t talk nonsense without evidence, otherwise you will be deliberately slandering others’ reputation. I can only report this matter to the leadership.”

The villagers also thought that Su Qingge gave food to the children every now and then. Look, each of them is holding a string of candied haws in their hands. Sugar is such a precious thing. If they offended Su Qingge, no one would give them food, and they would be in trouble.

“Jiang Zhiqing, today’s incident is your own fault. Captain, let’s just let it go.”

“Captain, I was wrong.”

Jiang Xiaomin knew that she was too weak to compete with the team leader, so when she apologized, no one said anything.

After the matter was over, everyone walked out of the Youth League Home and happened to see Luo Tong and her group of three. What shocked them was that Xue Yunhao also came back on a bicycle today.

This made everyone lose their composure. These educated youth were really great. They even bought another bicycle. Some people’s attention was on Luo Tong. Seeing the large piece of pork tied to her bicycle, everyone gasped.

The villagers looked at Luo Tong thoughtfully, and the team leader told them to go back quickly and take their children with them before going back.

That night, bursts of meaty aroma emanated from the Youth League compound. Needless to say, it was coming from Luo Tong’s room.

Jiang Xiaomin lay on the bed and swallowed her saliva. With the aroma of Luo Tong’s meat, the taste of the braised fish that Su Qingge brought out from the small world was ignored by everyone.

In the middle of the night, when everyone was fast asleep, Jiang Xiaomin went out to the bathroom. As soon as she left the house, she was put in a sack and Su Qingge beat her up.

She did not forget the consequences of Jiang Xiaomin’s nonsense during the day. After knocking her unconscious and calming down, Su Qingge went back to sleep. She never delayed her revenge until the next day.

Jiang Xiaomin was not discovered until the second half of the night. Fortunately, Wang Shufang was kind enough to help her inside. Looking at her injuries, she sighed silently. She thought that something could happen even when she went to the toilet. She was so unlucky.

Jiang Xiaomin told the team leader about this the next day, but because she didn’t see anyone at the time, the matter was left unresolved.

For several days in a row, the Youth League compound was filled with the rich aroma of meat. Luo Tong and Zhao Yancheng enjoyed the meal to their heart’s content, but soon they were no longer happy.

Because Luo Tong found that the young men in the village would always approach her intentionally or unintentionally, help her collect firewood in the mountains, and bring her food.

This made Luo Tong have to be vigilant. She knew that if she got involved with the villagers, her reputation would be ruined. Not to mention Zhao Yancheng, even Xue Yunhao would dislike her.

Just when she couldn’t stand their pestering anymore, Xu Tingzhou and Wang Shufang’s marriage was decided, and the two of them planned to invite all the educated youth to have a meal at noon tomorrow.

Because it was a wedding between two educated youth, the villagers were not invited. The educated youth compound was particularly lively today, and even Jiang Xiaomin, who had been unable to get out of bed for several days, got out of bed.

Wang Shufang was wearing a bright red coat, a flower on her hair, and smiling shyly. Xu Tingzhou was a good man and treated her very well, so she was very satisfied.

Xue Yunhao also lent his bicycle to Xu Tingzhou to make it easier for him to pick up the bride. There was a red flower tied on the bicycle. Xu Tingzhou rode the bicycle and took Wang Shufang around the village, and then returned to the educated youth site.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Qiao Song was the first to give a gift. He had a good relationship with them, so he gave them a pair of red pillowcases. Then it was Li Fang’s turn.

Li Fang is usually very stingy, but she was very generous to Wang Shufang and took out two brand new enamel cups.

Then came the twin sisters Lin Man and Lin Mo, who gave a bar of soap and a soap box.

The rest of the people pooled their money to buy a flowered shirt. When it was the turn of the new educated youth, Luo Tong gave them a red washbasin, and Su Qingge gave them half a pound of White Rabbit milk candy.

Xue Yunhao borrowed the bicycle, leaving Jiang Xiaomin alone. She had nothing to give as a gift, so she could only give away her own leather shoes, hoping to get a free meal.

As it turned out, Xu Tingzhou and Wang Shufang were not very rich, and they had spent all their savings on building the house, so today’s meal only consisted of vegetarian dishes.

No one said anything about this, but Jiang Xiaomin felt that she had lost out. After dinner, everyone went back to their own rooms, leaving the space to Xu Tingzhou and Wang Shufang.

The weather was getting colder, and the people at the educated youth site were trying to find ways to exchange for cotton. The villagers didn’t have much cotton, so Li Fang turned her attention to the newly arrived educated youth.

“Let’s go ask them if they have any cotton tickets.”

Lin Mo and Lin Man nodded. They came here last year. They were cold all winter because they couldn’t get cotton. If they hadn’t helped each other, they didn’t know what would have happened.

They didn’t want to suffer from the cold this year, so they had to prepare early. After making the decision, they first went to ask Luo Tong. She was annoyed by the villagers these days and ignored them.

In desperation, they could only find Su Qingge again. After they told her their purpose, Su Qingge asked them to go into the house and talk.

When they entered the house and saw how cozy it was, they immediately wanted to move out.

“Su Zhiqing, we can trade with you. You can get anything you want.”

“I don’t have any cotton here, I only have cotton tickets.”

There are a lot of tickets for Su Qing’s singer competition, many of which are about to expire, so they need to sell them quickly. This is what several people are waiting for.

“Su Zhiqing, can you give us the cotton coupons?”

“Okay, just pay me according to the supply and marketing cooperative price.”

This made everyone very happy. They quickly exchanged their money for tickets. They were very grateful to Su Qingge in their hearts. After thanking him, they hurried to the county town to buy cotton. If they went too late, they would not be able to get it.

In the following days, Luo Tong found that the villagers finally stopped bothering her, and she breathed a sigh of relief. When she was about to continue trading on the black market, rumors about her started again in the village.