Chapter 4.1

Jiang Yao remembered that when her grandmother was still alive, her grandfather was often scolded for secretly eating leftover pig fat residue with rice. She never understood why the greasy pig fat residue was considered delicious, but now she finally understood.

During the meal, she poured a small spoonful of pig fat residue into her sweet potato porridge, and the taste was simply amazing. Of course, only those who had truly experienced hunger could understand this feeling.

Everyone watched the pig fat residue in her bowl with envy, their eyes almost popping out. However, today, they each got a small piece of pigskin, which also satisfied them.

Du YueJiao also got to eat pigskin, but she was more interested in the pig fat residue.

Everyone was enjoying their meal when suddenly there was a ‘bang’ from outside.

Jiang Yao looked up at the sound and saw Zhao Pengfei and Du Yuejia walking in quickly, one after the other. Zhao Pengfei’s face looked very serious.

“Where did you go?” Zhao Pengfei walked up to Jiang Yao and pulled her up by the hand.

Caught off guard by the sudden pull, some sweet potato porridge spilled onto Jiang Yao’s wrist. The freshly cooked sweet potato porridge was still steaming, and the splattered skin immediately felt a burning pain.

“Are you crazy?” Jiang Yao said angrily.

She took the bowl with her other hand, placed it on the nearby table, and forcefully shook off Zhao Pengfei’s hand.

Her tone was full of disgust, and her expression clearly showed her displeasure.

This version of Jiang Yao was very unfamiliar to Zhao Pengfei. She usually appeared cold and arrogant to others, but in front of him, she was always sweet and obedient, occasionally showing a bit of playfulness.

“Where did you disappear to early in the morning? Everyone was searching for you everywhere, and you still have the nerve to be in a bad mood?” Zhao Pengfei said with a serious face.

“I didn’t ask you to come find me,” Jiang Yao said coldly. “Zhu Xia and the others care about me and are willing to go out of their way for me. I am very grateful to them. As for you, if you’re not willing, then don’t come. What’s the point of throwing a tantrum here with me?”

“….” Zhao Pengfei felt like he was about to explode with anger, but Jiang Yao’s words were all valid, and he couldn’t refute them, so he could only hold it in.

“Alright, everyone stop arguing. Jiang Yao is fine now, which is more important than anything else,” Zhu Xia, the leader of the youth dormitory, stepped in to defuse the situation.

With a dark face, Zhao Pengfei cursed Jiang Yao once more with “You have no conscience” before leaving, and Du Yuejia hurried to catch up.

After they left, Jiang Yao continued to enjoy her meal leisurely. Du YueJiao had been silently observing Jiang Yao’s every move from the corner. Jiang Yao’s attitude towards Zhao Pengfei was now extremely bad, and it didn’t seem like an act. 

What had happened to make someone change so drastically overnight? Could it be that she had been rejected by Zhao Pengfei after offering herself to him last night, leading to complete disappointment and a transformation from love to hatred?

Du YueJiao was truly regretful now. Last night, she had intended to wake up after sleeping for an hour, but she ended up sleeping until almost dawn because she was too tired. When she saw that Jiang Yao hadn’t returned yet, she assumed she must be at Zhao Pengfei’s house and deliberately shouted that she hadn’t returned all night, claiming that Zhao Pengfei was her good friend and must be notified first.

But when she arrived at Zhao Pengfei’s house, there was no catching them in the act, only Zhao Pengfei sleeping soundly.

She must have a good chat with Jiang Yao to clear things up.

Of course, Jiang Yao also noticed that Du YueJiao wanted to talk to her alone. This talk was inevitable, but she didn’t want to give her the chance. For the whole day, she stayed with Zhu Xia, asking her how to study literature.

As a model of literary learning, Zhu Xia was naturally happy to discuss with her and even called the other two female educated youths, Zhou Qiong and Wen Qian, to study together. Originally, she wanted to invite Du YueJiao as well, but she could see that Jiang Yao was not in a good mood towards Du YueJiao today, so she didn’t invite her to avoid upsetting anyone.

The next day, everyone was about to start working again.

Although the previous period of rush harvesting was hard, they earned a lot of work points. For the next two months, it was the agricultural slack season for the production team. Not to mention being tired from work, many times there wasn’t enough work to go around, so they had to take turns.

For the next two days, Jiang Yao was assigned to take care of the sugarcane fields, working from 7:30 in the morning to 11:00, and then from 2:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon, a total of six and a half hours a day. Compared to her previous work schedule of occasionally working all night and day, it was much more humane.

However, if she could choose, she would still choose the occasional all-night work schedule. Her life in the summer depended on air conditioning. Without AC, she felt like she was dying after working for two days.

On the third day, it was finally her day off, coinciding with the market day in the county.

Most of the people living in the county were workers who ate rationed food. Without land, they had no self-sufficient agricultural products. Although collective economy was advocated now, vegetables and fruits grown by farmers on their own land, as well as small amounts of poultry and eggs at home, were still allowed to be exchanged for money on market days.

Jiang Yao planned to take a stroll around, inspecting the current situation in this era firsthand. If she could buy something to improve the food, it would be even better.

Being hungry day after day was truly distressing. Thinking about the food she had wasted before, she felt extremely guilty.