Chapter 9: First Job

Wen Jiajia, who had been daydreaming for three minutes, was snapped back to reality by the aroma wafting from the pot.

The synthesis system wasn’t as useful as she thought. It might make her life a little better, but it wouldn’t make her rich.

Well, that’s it! Could it be worse than when I first arrived here?

If she couldn’t earn a lot of money, she could still occasionally earn a little to improve her life.

Wen Jiajia regrouped, took a deep breath, and got up to make breakfast.

The sky was brightening, but the sun hadn’t yet risen. The back door and windows had to be opened to let some light into the kitchen.

The firewood in the stove had burned out, leaving the charcoal glowing like fireflies.

If skilled, you could gather the charcoal fire and relight it without using pine wood. But Wen Jiajia wasn’t skilled, so she had to use pine wood to relight the fire.

She scooped out the charcoal from the stove with a small spatula.

When the charcoal extinguished, it could be saved for winter. Winters in the south were cold, although not to the point of needing stoves or kang beds, but still necessary for drying clothes.

Wen Jiajia also thought about making a stove from clay and then a clay pot, which would be much more convenient for cooking soup.

With a bang, the stove door shut.

With a “coax,” the fire broke out.

The warm bone broth in the pot was hot again. Wen Jiajia scooped out half of the soup and poured in the rice she had soaked the night before, planning to cook broth porridge.

As for the big stick bones, let’s boil them again; they are hard to cook.

Wen Jiajia went to the original owner’s parents’ room to get salted duck eggs.

One must praise the commune leaders—they truly did practical things for the people.

The year before last, they proposed generating income, engaging in side jobs, and improving the members’ quality of life. By early last year, they had already implemented these plans.

Thanks to the small wetland with a dense water network in the Fuyang Brigade, they could raise ducks.

Last year, they started raising ducks, and by mid-year, the ducks began laying eggs. By the end of the year, they had laid a large number of eggs, and the Wen family received at least 100 eggs. There were still one and a half jars of salted duck eggs left in the room!

The duck eggs were pickled in sake lees. Wen Jiajia removed the red wine lees and took two pieces of burning firewood from the stove to the backyard. She set up stones of the same height on the left and right, placed the freshly formed pot on them, and put the washed salted duck eggs into the pot to boil. The broth porridge was also cooked afterward.

Wen Jiajia cut some small cabbage and put it in the pot to simmer. Breakfast with oil, water, vegetables, and staple food was ready.

The two girls were so happy!

They were getting acquainted with Wen Jiajia, and their emotions were becoming more open around her.

Wen Xuan hurriedly washed her hands and ran to the stove, hugging Wen Jiajia’s legs and looking up, saying, “Auntie, what’s that delicious smell?”

“You can tell it’s delicious too!” Wen Jiajia lifted her away like a chick. “Sit down obediently, I’ll serve you porridge, broth porridge!”

She filled three bowls, one for each person, with two-thirds of the porridge still left in the pot.

She held a cloth and cracked open a salted duck egg. The duck egg was oily and golden, tasting very good.

She was in no hurry to drink porridge and first scooped a spoonful of salted egg yolk for herself to taste it.

The two girls couldn’t resist the temptation of the broth porridge. Despite the heat, they put it to their mouths, exhaling and taking sips, unable to stop.

“It’s delicious!” Wen Xuan said, her chin on the edge of the bowl, revealing a beautiful dimple.

There wasn’t much meat on the bones, but there was bone marrow.

Wen Jiajia pulled out the bone marrow with chopsticks, stirred it into the porridge, and mixed it with a small amount of lean meat. The taste was indeed much better than plain rice soup and vegetable porridge.

Wen Chun shook her legs, turned her head, and asked, “Auntie, will we have this porridge again tomorrow?”

Wen Jiajia: “We won’t have this tomorrow. We’ll eat something else.”

She wanted to see if there were any yellow eel loaches to catch. If not, they would have amaranth cakes tomorrow; she had found a lot of tender wild amaranth in the backyard.

After speaking, she picked a salted duck egg for each person with chopsticks and urged, “Eat quickly, and I’ll send you to school after breakfast.”

Wen Xuan immediately raised her hand: “Auntie, no need. Teacher Chen will take us.”

Wen Jiajia: “Who is Teacher Chen?”

“It’s Teacher Chen.”

Alright, she didn’t get a proper answer.

Wen Xuan hadn’t lied. When Wen Jiajia stood in the front yard and looked into the distance, she saw a girl in a white shirt and black pants with two braids approaching.

“Are you Wen Chun and Wen Xuan’s aunt?” The girl, looking very cool, spoke first, “I am Chen Ai from the Educated Youth Institute, working in a nursery school.”

Wen Jiajia immediately understood that the teacher was deliberately taking care of the two girls.

“My name is Wen Jiajia. I’m sorry for the trouble, and thank you.” Wen Jiajia smiled, thinking about sending a few salted duck eggs to the teacher as a token of appreciation.

Here, the villagers could make salted duck eggs, which was probably very difficult for the educated youth.

Salted duck eggs used wine and sake lees. It was easy for villagers to go to the winery to buy them, but it was difficult for the educated youth.

Wen Jiajia felt relieved handing over the two children. Then she put on a straw hat and went to work.

This year, there was no need to gather and lecture before work; they just went to the warehouse to get tools and worked at the designated places.

Normally, when it wasn’t harvest time, it didn’t matter if you worked fast or slowly. These tasks could be completed within the specified time.

If you scored 10 points, more work would be allocated to you. If you scored 3 points, you had less work to do.

Along the way, Wen Jiajia thought about it repeatedly and decided to set a small goal first.

Well, take 3 points to test the water for the time being.

If not, take 2 points!

“2 points!” Fang Baoguo was shocked. “Two six- and seven-year-old children in our team can get 2 points for gathering pigweed most of the day.”

“Really?” 2 points didn’t seem easy to get. Wen Jiajia hesitated and said, “Then 3 points.”

Wen Jiajia, aware of the broken window effect, first said 2 points, then said 3 points.

Fang Baoguo let out an “oops,” frowned, and scratched the back of his head. “It’s really a bit difficult. Where can I find you a job with 3 points? Let me think.”

After half a minute, Fang Baoguo pointed to the east and said, “Why don’t you go pick peanuts? Spring peanuts are blooming today, and the work is easy. Even six-year-olds and sixty-year-olds can do it.”

The work didn’t require hoeing, which sounded easy, and Wen Jiajia happily agreed.

She walked along the field path to the peanut field, observing the crops on both sides.

The Fuyang Brigade mostly grew rice, with two crops a year.

They would soon harvest summer rice. The rice was nearing maturity, the downward bend increasing daily as the grains became fuller.

Additionally, they grew crops like peanuts and soybeans.

In the distant mountains, they even planted oranges. At the bottom of the orange slope was a large sugar cane field, waiting to be harvested at the end of the year.

The peanut field was not far, on a terrace.

“Jiajia, how much land do you have?” The group leader in charge of the area asked loudly from the top of the hill.

Wen Jiajia was embarrassed. “3 points.”

“Yo! That’s really little. If you only take 3 points, this small slope can be finished in two days,” someone said.

Wen Jiajia thought it was true. She put on her labor protection gloves and got to work.

This pair of labor protection gloves was brought back by the original owner, who had worked in a furniture factory for two weeks in addition to folding matchboxes. The factory workers saw that she was young, so they gave her a pair of gloves, which the original owner had always kept.

The wetter the soil, the better.

Wen Jiajia grabbed a handful of peanut seedlings, pulled with a bit of strength, shook them a few times to remove the soil clinging to the peanuts, and placed them on the ground to dry.

In fact, there isn’t much technical skill required for this work, but it is labor-intensive.

The first ridge is easy to handle, and there is still room for the second ridge, but when she reached the third ridge, Wen Jiajia began to experience back pain, and her feet were numb and weak.

Due to repeated bending over and exerting force on her feet for a long time, these two parts of her body suffered the most.

“Hey!”

She squinted, sweat pouring from her temples into her eyes. Wanting to rub them with her wrist, she realized her wrist was also sweaty.

Wen Jiajia had no choice but to sit down and rest. She took off her gloves and wiped her face with the towel hanging around her neck.

She was so prescient to bring a towel.

Wen Jiajia drank some water, which was light salt water, very suitable for drinking after sweating.

The villagers on the slope next to her were very happy.

The peasants did not delay their work even as they chatted, bending over to talk:

“Wen San, this kid is quite capable. Anyway, she’s more capable than the newly arrived educated youth,” someone laughed and said. “She does farm work well, plowing three ridges in one go, and it’s stable to get five points.”

Don’t underestimate five points. At this time, the men in the team generally earned eight to ten points, and those with weaknesses earned six or seven points.

For women, it was five to eight points. On the one hand, women’s strength was indeed inferior to men’s, and on the other hand, women were tied to childbirth and housework. There were also a good number of women in the village who got five points. What do five points mean? It means it is completely enough to support oneself, and one could stop arguing with their husband, saying, “I don’t rely on you to live; I earn enough for me to eat!”

“Fang Duotian’s group leader owes a lot of money, but this time he owes benefits. If you only take three points of peanuts and can finish them in three days, he doesn’t mean two days.”

“Look at what you said, young people should be encouraged to improve.”

“How else can I say that she is a sibling? Wen San’s work is quite similar to her second sister’s.”

“Hey, where is her second sister’s previous fiancé? Xuanxuan of the Wen family should be raised by him according to reason.”

“Who knows? If you want to know, you have to go to the Youth Office. The Wen family is kind; could I let him go if it were me? Not unless I broke his leg with a stick.”

That’s the rabbit that got away and didn’t come back.

They chatted happily, and their voices were so loud that Wen Jiajia could hear a few words from time to time.

Is this gossip about me or about my family? They didn’t even lower their voices.

Wen Jiajia was annoyed, and her speed at picking peanuts increased.

The original owner’s body was far better than she thought. Although she was exhausted, she could still manage.

Wen Jiajia even had time to think: Can you tie a stool to your waist? This way, you could sit while picking peanuts, saving at least half the effort and reducing the soreness in your waist and legs.

Don’t dismiss it; you really have to think about it when you get home.

The sun broke through the clouds, and the dew drops on the peanut seedlings disappeared after a while.

This peanut field is in a windy spot, and with the straw hat on, the wind felt nice despite the heat.

By noon, she was hungry.

The two bowls of meat porridge she had in the morning couldn’t sustain such heavy labor. Wen Jiajia drank all the water in her pot, and it has lasted until now!

Look, it’s a five-liter kettle, and she filled it up! But it wasn’t enough. After drinking it, she didn’t even go to the toilet in the morning; it all metabolized into sweat.

Otherwise, it’s true that the hardest workers in every era are farmers, enduring more hardship than soaking in bitter water.

“Wen San, go home for lunch!”

Someone called her.

Wen Jiajia sat half-dead under the big tree nearby, leaning her back against the trunk, not even having the strength to respond.

An uncle passing by said, “What a worker! You’ve covered forty percent of the ground in one morning.”

An aunt added, “In the end, she’s the child of farmers, born capable! In the afternoon, work hard to finish this piece.”

Fang Duotian came down last, smiling: “Yes, you did 6 points worth of work for 3 points. Young people can get motivated. From now on, you’ll be counted as 6 points.”

Wen Jiajia was dumbfounded: “That’s not good!”

If the old lady doesn’t die, she’ll be depressed!