Chapter 10

“I got married and divorced, and after the divorce I came to the countryside.”

After listening to what Li Fang said, the three of them fell silent. Seeing that they didn’t say anything, Li Fang became anxious.

“What’s wrong? Do you dislike me?”

The three of them looked at each other, gave her a big hug, and Lin Mo patted her and said.

“It’s not your fault. Don’t worry about the past. Just live a good life now.”

Su Qingge also thought so. Everyone has a past. Li Fang was very moved to see how nice they were.

“It would be nice if Yang Zhiqing could think this way.”

Su Qingge looked at her in confusion. Seeing that she didn’t know, Lin Man and Lin Mo told her about Li Fang and Yang Jingyuan.

Half a year ago, Li Fang was molested by an old widower in the village when she returned home from work. Yang Jingyuan rescued her at that time, and the old widower was also sent to a farm for reform.

From then on, Li Fang had a good impression of Yang Jingyuan. Unfortunately, Yang Jingyuan only saved her with a small effort. He just held a book in his hand every day, giving people the impression that he was oblivious to the world outside.

“Li Fang, you should read more books in the future. If you have common topics, you can talk more.”

Su Qingge gave her some advice, saying that it would not be a bad thing to read more books. Li Fang thought about it and clapped her hands.

“Why didn’t I think of that? I’ll go read a book now.”

Li Fang pulled Lin Mo and Lin Man back to the front yard. Su Qingge served the stewed food and started making cornmeal pancakes.

At night, while everyone was asleep, Luo Tong and Zhao Yancheng took their things and set off. In the darkness, Jiang Xiaomin saw two shadows going out.

She originally wanted to wait for Su Qingge to fall asleep and then steal the meat, but she didn’t expect to see these two people. She pretended that she didn’t see anything and went back, but she kept this matter in mind.

The next day, the village chief notified everyone to gather at the threshing ground to discuss the land reclamation. When everyone arrived, the village chief spoke.

“We’re going to be exploring this wasteland for seven days. During these seven days, we’ll eat from the same pot. Now we need to choose four people to cook. Who do you want to choose?”

“Village Chief, last year Cuilian and Peizhen brought their daughters-in-law, so why not just them this year?”

“Okay, everyone has no objection, right?”

“No.”

“Next, we will count the number of people participating in this land reclamation.”

As soon as the village chief finished speaking, Jiang Xiaomin came over holding her stomach. Seeing her weak face, the village chief asked.

“Jiang Zhiqing, what’s wrong with you?”

“Village Chief, I caught a cold last night and had diarrhea all day. I won’t be participating in this land reclamation.”

Don’t think that everyone can’t see that she wants to pretend to be sick to avoid the wasteland. Ever since Jiang Xiaomin heard from the old educated youth how hard it was to open up wasteland, she didn’t want to go anymore.

There was no need for her to suffer for a little bit of food. Although the village chief was not happy, he thought that land reclamation was not a collective labor like autumn harvest, so he waved his hand and asked her to go back and rest.

“Jiang Zhiqing, then you don’t need to go. Stay at the Zhiqing camp and have a good rest.”

“Thank you, village chief.”

After counting the number of people, the village chief let everyone disperse and set out to open up the wasteland together tomorrow morning.

In the evening, Tian Xueyue took the initiative to give the cooking quota to Su Qingge. She herself was capable of doing farm work. Su Dajun and Sun Peizhen both felt very relieved.

“Xueyue, it is a blessing for our Su family to have a daughter-in-law like you.”

“Mom and Dad, my little sister gave Wangcai so much meat, how could I let her suffer any loss?”

“Wife, you are so nice.”

Su Shengli looked at Tian Xueyue with admiration. Tian Xueyue smiled and said, “Shouldn’t a family take care of each other?”

The next day, the educated youths from the Youth Institute followed the main group to open up wasteland. Seeing that everyone had left and she was the only one left, Jiang Xiaomin thought that she could now steal food openly.

But when she saw that the houses in the backyard were locked and the cabinets in the front yard where food was stored were empty, her eyes went dark. How could she survive these seven days without food?

On the way to the land reclamation, Sun Peizhen told Su Qingge that Tian Xueyue gave up the cooking quota to her. Su Qingge knew her good intentions and nodded in agreement.

Sun Peizhen was excited thinking about cooking with her daughter for these seven days. After arriving at the reclamation site, everyone went to work.

The four of them first set up the cooking area and placed the food in a simple tent. There was also an earthen stove built last year in the tent. The four of them put the big pot on it and started cooking.

This time, the reclamation team brought a total of 40 kilograms of cornmeal, 30 kilograms of cornmeal, 20 kilograms of sweet potato flour, and 10 kilograms of cabbage and radishes. They had to rely on these foods to survive for seven days, and cooking was not an easy job.

“Why is there only so much food this time? What are we supposed to do? Isn’t this clearly making things difficult for us?”

Wu Cuilian’s daughter-in-law Fang Qiaoling was the first to complain. Sun Peizhen knew that the brigade also had its own difficulties, and it was already very good that they could provide these grains.

Other teams have to bring their own food when they go to open up new land. Looking at the food, Su Qingge quickly came up with an idea.

“Today’s lunch is vegetable dumplings and sweet potato porridge.”

The three of them had no other ideas and just listened to Su Qingge. The four of them had a clear division of labor, two of them cooked sweet potato porridge, and two of them made cabbage dumplings.

When it was time for lunch, everyone brought their bowls to get their meals. When they saw that there were vegetable dumplings and sweet potato porridge, everyone’s faces were filled with disappointment. They had thought they could eat some meat after clearing the land.

The first one ordered two vegetable dumplings and a bowl of sweet potato porridge, then squatted beside to eat. After taking a bite of the vegetable dumpling, his decadent face suddenly became serious.

He took two more big bites, revealing the cabbage and radish inside. He finished a vegetable dumpling in just a few bites and quickly ate another one. Seeing how relishing he was eating, the others asked.

“Gouzi, it’s not like you haven’t eaten this kind of vegetable dumpling before. Is it really this delicious?”

“This is the best vegetable dumpling I have ever eaten.”

After hearing what he said, the villagers asked for a few more vegetable dumplings with some doubt. Gou Zi took another sip of the sweet potato porridge and felt very satisfied.

After the villagers tasted the vegetable dumplings, the situation became out of control and everyone started scrambling for the vegetable dumplings.

“Everyone, listen to me. Each person can only take five vegetable dumplings. Come back for more after you finish eating. Don’t waste them.”

Su Dajun stepped forward to maintain order. The villagers each took five vegetable dumplings and began to eat. Su Qingge saw Li Fang and the other three coming over and divided the vegetable dumplings among them.

“Qingge, I’m so tired, look at our hands.”

“This is more tiring than our previous autumn harvest.”

Su Qingge looked at the hands of the three people, all of which had blisters. The others were not much better. Luo Tong and Zhao Yancheng also looked haggard.

Su Qingge quietly gave gloves to the three people. The gloves were prepared by her for herself, but now she didn’t need them, so she lent them to the three of them.

“Qingge, I know you are the best.”

“Let’s eat.”

Sun Peizhen had already left some sweet potato porridge for Su Qingge. The two of them squatted down to eat. Fang Qiaoling saw that everyone was eating, so she took ten vegetable dumplings and left.

Wu Cuilian knew that she had sent the wild vegetable dumplings to her parents’ home again. Her parents were reclaiming wasteland in the next brigade. It was really hard to describe her daughter-in-law, who was always thinking about her parents’ home.

Su Qingge was about to speak when Sun Peizhen gave her a look, telling her not to worry and that someone would take care of Fang Qiaoling.