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From far away, Xu Zhaoying shouted loudly, “Captain! I want to report something!”
In her mind, she was already fantasizing about being rewarded for her righteous report. She just didn’t know what the captain would give her as a reward.
Well, even if it wasn’t anything big, getting a full work point today would be good enough.
She had heard that the newly arrived educated youth, Lin Ting, and the commune member Yuan Xiang’e had both gotten full work points just this morning!
Someone nearby asked curiously, “Granny Xu, who are you reporting?”
Xu Zhaoying deliberately kept them in suspense. “I’ll tell the captain first. But I’ll say this—once you hear it, you’ll be furious!”
Li Lijuan looked visibly uneasy and tugged her collar up nervously. “Mom…”
Before she could finish speaking, Xu Zhaoying darted past her and rushed to the captain. Li Lijuan panicked and quickly followed.
Could it be that someone had seen her rolling around in the woods with that man today?
Everyone in the brigade loved gossip—it was impossible to hide anything here!
When the brigade captain saw Xu Zhaoying rushing over so anxiously, his brows furrowed. “Granny Xu, what are you reporting?”
Xu Zhaoying blurted, “I want to report the three new educated youths!”
“They’re skipping work as a group!”
The captain had a rough idea of what was going on. But since he wasn’t yet sure whether Lin Ting could actually make fertilizer, he didn’t dare inform everyone prematurely. If it failed, he wouldn’t know how to explain it.
After a pause, he said, “Them? I gave them a different task to work on.”
“You seem to have too much free time, always watching what others are doing. Want me to assign you some work?”
Xu Zhaoying’s expression changed instantly. Meanwhile, Li Lijuan quietly sighed in relief beside her.
“No need! I’m too old—I can’t lift or carry anything. Better not drag you down,” Xu Zhaoying said before quickly turning to flee, running off with a speed that defied her age.
The captain clicked his tongue and turned to Li Lijuan. “You needed something too?”
“Nope.”
Li Lijuan quickly made her escape as well.
The captain shook his head, hands behind his back. “Like mother, like daughter,” he muttered.
—
Meanwhile, Lin Ting was busy collecting wood ash.
Every household had some, so gathering 50 jin (25kg) of it wasn’t too difficult.
But no one knew what she needed it for, and whenever they asked, she told them to ask the captain.
While the brigade leader was overwhelmed with curious questions, Lin Ting had already started preparing the wood ash formula—potassium dihydrogen phosphate, which is great for preventing aphids.
Zhong Shuhe cleaned out a discarded, broken water vat and asked uncertainly, “Lin Ting, are you really using this stuff to make fertilizer?”
“Mhm. We don’t have much to work with, so we have to make use of everything we can.”
“First, mix 10 jin of wood ash with water. Then, soak the rest of the ash in the mixture for a day—that gives us an effective pesticide fertilizer for aphids.”
“If your home-grown veggies get attacked by fruit flies or whiteflies, just sprinkle some ash—it’ll help. It even increases yield.”
The others listened in awe and finally asked, “How do you know all this?”
Lin Ting thought for a second, then replied, “I had a relative who worked in agriculture. After I got sent down, he taught me a lot of farming techniques.”
“I didn’t expect it to come in handy so soon.”
As she finished speaking, she guiltily avoided their eyes and quickly changed the subject. “We also need to collect bones, chicken feathers, eggshells, fingernails, and hair to make phosphorus fertilizer.”
Yu Mo asked, “What’s phosphorus fertilizer good for?”
“It’s incredibly useful—it promotes root growth and improves flowering and fruiting. It’ll help the brigade tackle low yields and planting delays.”
As Lin Ting explained, she seemed to shine with enthusiasm, which made Yu Mo admire her even more.
When the brigade captain heard all this, he felt both impressed and helpless. “Educated Youth Lin, you’ve got good ideas—but our brigade is so poor. We barely get to eat meat a few times a year. When are we supposed to gather all those bones and feathers?”
“Eggshells and hair are no problem, though.”
“I’ll tell everyone to start saving that stuff for you starting tomorrow,” said the captain.
Lin Ting nodded. “Then I’ll trouble you with that, Captain.”
“By the way, what’s going on with the new kitchen we requested? When can we start?”
The brigade captain quickly replied, “I’ll have people work on it starting tomorrow.”
“We already have bricks and timber stored up—we can move some over to get you started.”
Lin Ting smiled. “Thank you, Captain.”
Before leaving, the captain turned back and asked, “Is there anything else I can help with?”
“Yes. Our brigade only has one cow. There’s no way we can get 50 kilograms of fresh cow dung. Do you know where we might get that much?”
The captain choked a little. Even if they pooled together all the cow dung from neighboring brigades, they wouldn’t gather that much in a day!
He rubbed his hands together and asked curiously, “What do you need fresh cow dung for?”
“Mixed with soybean powder and gypsum, it can make ammonia water fertilizer. And it’s even more effective than store-bought chemical ammonia fertilizer.”
The captain’s eyes widened. “Seriously?!”
Where were they supposed to buy ammonia fertilizer in the first place?
He certainly couldn’t get his hands on any!
Now there was a homemade formula more effective than chemical fertilizer—this was gold. He’d rack his brains if he had to.
“Educated Youth Lin, give me a little time. I’ll definitely find a way to get you that cow dung!”
The captain left, full of hope.
—
Lin Ting returned and shared the good news with her roommates. “The captain said he’ll have people start building our new kitchen tomorrow!”
“That’s amazing! Now I don’t have to worry about those old educated youths staring at me while I cook,” Yu Mo said happily.
Lin Ting boldly pulled out a chunk of cured pork. “What’s there to be afraid of? We’re going to make them drool!”
It was normal for new educated youths to bring some food from home, right?
Some with wealthy families even had food mailed regularly!
As long as it was obtained through legitimate means, eating meat wasn’t something to be ashamed of.
Yu Mo cut off three slices, and only after Lin Ting insisted did she cut three more.
Her brother worked at a meat processing factory, so she’d have to find a way to get him to mail some cured pork too. Otherwise, she’d feel bad eating off Lin Ting all the time.
She was also glad she had accepted her brother’s money earlier—otherwise, she wouldn’t have had the confidence to support building the new kitchen.
—
The smell of meat quickly spread through the courtyard, and the old educated youths couldn’t stop salivating.
Newly arrived educated youths eating meat every day—who could endure that?!
Wen Chunlan muttered quietly, “Fried eggs at lunch, cured pork at dinner… Are these girls from rich capitalist families or what?”
The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became. These new educated youths must have bad political backgrounds—they were probably sent here to “lay low.”
Damn capitalist class!
Always making her drool!
Wen Chunlan decided to share her theory with those around her. And after hearing it, everyone found her reasoning quite convincing.
Zhao Weidong added, “We should take the lead in isolating them—don’t let them drag us down.”
Jiang Yanmei agreed, “Being from a capitalist family isn’t a good thing. We need to warn the commune members.”
Thanks to Jiang Yanmei’s stirring words, news began to spread:
The new educated youths are from capitalist families!
They have problematic backgrounds!
Stay away from them!!