Chapter 1.1

In June, the southern region had already entered the season of scorching heat.

After half a month of working from dawn till dusk, the Qingyuan Production Team finally completed the harvest of rice for the first half of the year.

Busy until after 8 o’clock in the evening, each member of the team returned home from the fields.

Despite it being the season of harvest, there was no joy of abundance in the team because the yield of the early-planted rice this year was not ideal. It was estimated that after fulfilling the public grain quota, each member would receive only a small portion of grain.

The educated youth who were sent to the Qingyuan Production Team also headed towards the educated youth dormitory along with the crowd returning from work.

Although it was called an educated youth dormitory, it was actually the old grain warehouse of the team.

The old grain warehouse, which had been long neglected, was on the verge of collapse. Originally, the county allocated funds to demolish the old grain warehouse and build a dormitory for educated youth, but the money was embezzled by the former team leader, and the new dormitory had not been built to this day.

If the yield of the early-planted rice had been good, the newly appointed team leader, Lu Dazhou, planned to use the surplus of the team to build the educated youth dormitory, so they wouldn’t be ridiculed by other production teams anymore. However, in the current situation, they could only continue to be the subject of ridicule by others.

When the group returned to the educated youth dormitory, hungry and tired, there was no food to eat.

Usually, they would assign one educated youth to cook, but recently, due to the rush to harvest, even all the able-bodied children in the team went to pick rice ears. So, the energetic educated youth didn’t dare to slack off.

So, they took turns cooking, and it happened to be Jiang Yao’s turn today.

Among this group of educated youth, Jiang Yao was the laziest, but in the past half month of rushing to harvest, she had actually done some real work, although it was negligible.

However, she was too tired recently to care about the food in the educated youth dormitory. Every night, she would come back, take a shower first, then eat a bowl of sweet potato rice—there were always more sweet potatoes than rice—and then go to sleep.

But today, she didn’t even have that privilege, she could only resign herself to cooking. She had never cooked many meals in her life, but she could make a simple dish of sweet potato rice that focused more on being cooked than on taste, having watched others cook it many times.

Actually, as the most beautiful educated youth in the Qingyuan Production Team, and even in the whole Shanping Commune, her graceful figure alone could captivate countless people, and a smile from her could mesmerise anyone. Usually, there were always people coming over to help her during work, and during idle times like cooking, even more people took the opportunity to show off.

Of course, these eager demonstrations were limited to men, and not women.

Just like now, as soon as she uncovered the rice bin, the old educated youth Jiang Chao came up to her, trying to please her, saying, “Yao Yao, you’ve been working hard all day, let me help you cook.”

“No need, we take turns, if we break the rules, it wouldn’t be good if everyone had objections,” Jiang Yao coldly refused.

Actually, she didn’t care about breaking the rules or not, she just didn’t want to have any dealings with any man other than Zhao Pengfei. If he misunderstood, then she would have suffered for nothing, leaving behind the comforts of the city to come to the countryside to work.

As she spoke, Jiang Yao had already begun to rinse the rice, leaving Jiang Chao with a slender and ruthless back.

He was unwilling, but could only greedily take a few more glances before turning away.

Jiang Yao cleaned the rice and added more than half of the pot of water before putting the pot on the stove and then started peeling the sweet potatoes.

When she poured the peeled sweet potatoes into the pot, Du YueJiao quietly walked in.

“Yao Yao.” Du YueJiao walked quietly to Jiang Yao’s side and called her softly.

“Jiao Jiao, have you finished showering?” Jiang Yao smelled the familiar scent of soap on her and smiled.

“I’m done!” Du YueJiao also smiled slightly and said, “Thank you so much for the soap you gave me, it smells so good!”

“Why are you so polite? We’re good sisters, of course we should share our good fortune and help each other in times of trouble,” Jiang Yao said sincerely.

Du YueJiao sneered in her heart, but didn’t show it on her face, and moved closer to Jiang Yao.

Clearly, everyone had been sweating all day, and at this point, whoever hadn’t showered definitely smelled of sweat, but Jiang Yao didn’t have any unpleasant smell. Moreover, they all wrapped themselves tightly when they went to work in the fields, while others still got sunburned, her skin remained tender and white.

Du YueJiao was jealous beyond measure. She forcefully suppressed the discomfort in her heart and said in a low voice, “I’ve already prepared everything for you, tomorrow the team won’t be working, tonight is a great opportunity, you must seize it.”

With that, she pulled out a small package from her pocket and quickly stuffed it into Jiang Yao’s pocket.

Although Du YueJiao didn’t say it explicitly, Jiang Yao knew it was medicine.

A few days ago, when Jiang Yao made up her mind to seduce Zhao Pengfei, she was still full of confidence and spirit. Now that everything was ready, she was feeling a bit hesitant.

She glanced at the door, made sure no one was there, and then hesitantly said to Du YueJiao, “Um… do I really… have to do this?”

God knows how much effort Du YueJiao had put in to quietly bring Jiang Yao to this point, allowing her to pretend to be drugged and then take the opportunity to seduce Zhao Pengfei. If she backed out now, wouldn’t it all be in vain?

Seeing Jiang Yao’s hesitant look, Du YueJiao gritted her teeth and said with frustration, “If you don’t do this, Zhao Pengfei will really fly away.”

Realising that she was being over excited, Du YueJiao softened her tone and said, “Yao Yao, I’m just worried about you, haven’t you noticed, recently, except for going back to his uncle’s house after work, Zhao Pengfei is almost inseparable from my sister?”

Of course, Jiang Yao had noticed that in the past half month, Du Yuejia had been with Zhao Pengfei as soon as they started working. Zhao Pengfei had also helped Du Yuejia with a lot of work. Otherwise, as female educated youth, even if she was capable, she wouldn’t be able to get ten centimetres (10 work points) in a day.

[TL Note: Du Yuejia and Du YueJiao are sisters. Don’t confuse them because of their similar names.]

As for the work points, Jiang Yao didn’t care.

She didn’t rely on these work points to eat anyway. What made her most annoyed was that now the whole team was spreading rumours about them (Pengfei & Yuejia) being in a relationship.

Usually, when the women of the team joked about them, both of them neither explained nor responded, making people more curious.

“I understand, I’ll take action tonight.” Jiang Yao made up her mind.

When Du YueJiao heard this, she couldn’t help but curl her lips in satisfaction, but still pretended to be concerned and said, “Yao Yao, I know it’s too cruel for an unmarried girl like you, but you’re going to marry Zhao Pengfei in the future anyway, so consider it as advancing your first time, you don’t need to be afraid.”

“I… I’m not afraid.” Jiang Yao rarely showed a hint of girlish shyness.

Zhao Pengfei was the man she had loved since childhood, and she didn’t want to marry anyone else in her life besides him. Although tonight’s actions were unconventional and difficult to speak of, and she had heard that the first time was very painful, she wasn’t afraid at all, but rather looking forward to it.

Du YueJiao looked at her spring-like eyes, feeling both disdainful and very satisfied at the same time.