Chapter 17

“What’s the matter?” Captain Huang asked.

“Well, yesterday I saw you reading a newspaper, and I heard that the news about the party and the country is always in the newspapers. I’d like to know what the party’s current policies are and hear what the party has to say. I was wondering if I could borrow your newspaper to have a look and study?”

“Hey, no problem. Wait here, I’ll get it for you,” said Captain Huang, and he went into the house to bring out a large stack of newspapers. “These policies and news, it’s good for young people like you to read. If you want to read more, you can always come to me to get them. These are the last two months’ worth. Take them home and have a good read. The older ones are all gone. They’ve been taken to cover the walls by some people. But if you want to see those, you can check them out on the stove wall at their house.”

Wu Xiaoxiao gratefully took the large stack of newspapers, thanked Captain Huang, and happily went home.

She spent the whole night reading the newspapers.

There was a lot of content in the papers—articles about how different places were diligently implementing central policies and achieving great results. Some reports mentioned plans to bring back elderly cadres and comrades who had been living in difficult conditions in the countryside, which was good news.

As Wu Xiaoxiao read, she made notes of important information, planning to share the good news with Dr. Chen later.

Several articles in these last two months’ newspapers focused on the importance of learning and knowledge, suggesting that new policies might be announced soon. Based on this, reading seemed really important—otherwise, the newspapers wouldn’t have devoted so much space to learning and knowledge.

The newspapers also contained two literary papers and agricultural reports.

The literary paper featured various poems and essays, and it even had a call for submissions. If your work was published, you could even get paid for it.

The agricultural report covered agricultural development and production in various regions and offered a lot of knowledge about farming. Compared to the post-apocalyptic times, these were very basic farming techniques. However, Wu Xiaoxiao knew that, due to current conditions, many of the farming methods she was familiar with were still not feasible.

After finishing the newspapers and learning a lot about the current times, Wu Xiaoxiao was very satisfied. She even marked some useful content in the agricultural report for the production team and took it to Captain Huang to report.

Captain Huang was even happier after hearing her report. He immediately called in relevant personnel and asked if they could try the methods mentioned in the newspapers.

“This young kid is really sharp!” Wu Changfa, who was in charge of the orchard, laughed. “Xiaoxiao, how about you stop weeding and come help your uncle in the orchard? There are several methods mentioned in this paper that I don’t understand. Let’s go try them together in the orchard.”

Captain Huang smiled and said, “Xiaoxiao might not necessarily go with you. Several people have come to ask me lately if they could borrow her to help out in their team.”

“I’m at least from Wujia Village. We’re all surnamed Wu, my family should come first,” Wu Changfa said anxiously, patting his head as he hurried out the door. “I’ll go find Wu Laosan and ask him.”

Wu Laosan was also troubled. He felt that Xiaoxiao, being just a young girl, didn’t need to be overthought—she was just a kid, what kind of trouble could she cause?

He didn’t want to bother with Wu Xiaoxiao, if she wanted to work, she could work. It wasn’t a big deal, but his own daughter and wife had gotten into a tangle with Xiaoxiao.

He had already assigned the weeding teams, but his wife insisted on putting Wu Xiaoxiao in the same team as Ding Xiumei, who was lazy and always causing trouble. She thought putting Xiaoxiao with Ding Xiumei would tire her out, but unexpectedly, Xiaoxiao didn’t mind the hard work and even helped the team weed more. This made the other teams jealous, and now they all wanted Xiaoxiao in their teams.

Now, his wife was upset.

To him, this issue wasn’t important. As long as they could hold their ground on big matters, that was enough. Like him—he always looked good in front of Zhang Fang and Wu Xiaoxiao. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten all of Lao Si’s condolence money and subsidies.

“I don’t care, Dad, you need to come up with a way to put her in her place. I’m telling you, Wu Xiaoxiao is being called to the brigade office every other day by Captain Huang, and now several teams want her to join them. They even promised to increase her work points,” Wu Ningfang pouted and said, “I don’t like seeing Wu Xiaoxiao so smug.”

Wu Laosan pointed at his daughter from across the room, “You, you, what’s so great about that Gushu Youth? You’re getting all worked up over something so trivial.”

“It has nothing to do with that Gushu Youth. I just can’t stand Wu Xiaoxiao,” she snapped.

“Hmph.” Wu Laosan straightened his face, “I know what you’re up to. You’re just upset because of that Gushu Youth. These past few days, you’ve ignored the housework but went to the Youth Commune to wash clothes and cook for them. My daughter, you can’t be this eager. I’ll tell you today, I don’t like any of those Gushu Youths, so stop thinking about it.”

Having her true feelings exposed, Wu Ningfang was both angry and aggrieved. “Dad, I hate you!”

She said this and stormed out of the house.

Seeing his daughter run off in a huff, Ning Mei walked over and pinched him. “Why are you arguing with the child over something like this? It wasn’t even the time to bring it up.”