Scoring 

At two in the afternoon, the sun was at its peak. Even standing in the shade of a tree made you sweat lightly. 

Lin Miaoyin tugged at the shirt that was clinging to her body and then looked around the scene where only three female educated youths had shown up. A surge of anger welled up inside her. 

Just now, she had called out loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear. They were all weeding in the same area, so if they weren’t slacking off somewhere, they were deliberately pretending not to hear her.  

The three female educated youth who came looked at each other, and there was a clear sense of awkwardness in the air. 

Xu Liwen tugged Zhu Wanqin’s sleeve and silently pointed toward Lin Miaoyin. 

“Miaoyin, maybe they went to the bathroom and didn’t hear you. Why don’t you call them again?” Zhu Wanqin said with a faint smile. 

“Newly arrived female educated youth, come and gather under the big poplar tree!” Upon hearing this, Lin Miaoyin put her hands on her hips and shouted at the top of her voice. 

After waiting for about five minutes, the remaining three finally arrived together.  

All three of them were pampered girls from the city. Their families were government officials, and they came to the countryside to secure spots for university admissions. They thought it was enough to go just for the sake of appearance. Besides, since they were girls, who would let them do heavy work? 

Little did they know that even the simplest task of pulling weeds left their arms sore and their backs aching after just one morning. 

On top of that, the living conditions here were really bad.  

Most villagers lived in houses with mud walls that crumbled at the slightest touch, leaving dirt and dust all around. At night, the sound of rats gnawing on furniture kept them awake, and during the day, they could see holes in the roof if they looked up.  

Meals were another problem. They didn’t need to cook but used their ration tickets to eat with the villagers. However, the food—was it even fit for humans? It consisted of coarse grains and vegetables, with no refined grains in sight. The food felt like it scraped down their throats, leaving them hungry again in no time. To make matters worse, they had to fight for their food; otherwise, the villagers’ kids, as if they hadn’t eaten in ages, would snatch everything in an instant. On top of that, they didn’t care about hygiene, and their clothes were covered in dust and dirt, which was truly disgusting. 

After working in the morning, their stomachs were growling from hunger. After barely filling half their bellies at lunch, they would lie down for a short rest, only to be called back to work. The team leader even criticized their efforts and assigned a village girl to guide them how to weed that afternoon. 

What’s so difficult about pulling weeds? Did they really need someone to teach them? They felt insulted. 

Just now, the village girl was calling them to gather. She probably wanted to show off in front of them, with such a mean look on her face. They were not happy about it and pretended not to hear her. They only came over reluctantly after she called them the second time. 

“You’re finally here? I just called you and you didn’t show up. I thought you were slacking off somewhere.” 

Lin Miaoyin was upset, and her words weren’t very pleasant 

“Look at what you’re saying, we just went to relieve ourselves.” 

“That’s right, what, are we not allowed to even do that?” 

The three female educated youth muttered under their breath, clearly not taking Lin Miaoyin seriously. 

Lin Miaoyin gritted her teeth and held back. 

“Fine. Now that you’re here, let’s get started.” 

She jumped down from the field and squatted down. “You all come down too.'” 

After they all gathered around, Lin Miaoyin reached out and pinched the root of a stalk of goosegrass. 

Goosegrass had tough stems and leaves, with long roots. Its stems and leaves were scattered, and if you pulled them, they’d easily snap, leaving the root still buried in the soil. 

“When pulling weeds, you must remove the roots; otherwise, they will grow back in a few days. If you only pull out the leaves, they will break, and the roots will stay stuck in the ground.” 

As she spoke, she gathered all the stems and leaves together, pinched the roots, and placed her fingers close to the ground. “Pinch all the stems and leaves together like this so they won’t break. Then shake them left and right to loosen the soil around them, and then apply force, and it’ll be done.” 

 Following her demonstration, a blade of goosegrass was pulled out completely.  

“Have you learned it?” she asked, looking up. 

“Oh, I see now! No wonder I kept breaking them this morning,” Zhu Wanqin said with a smile.  

The three female educated youths looked indifferent and said with a little disdain, “It’s just weeding. We just got here and don’t know much. Of course, we are not as good as you, who were born in the countryside.” 

Lin Miaoyin dropped the grass in her hand, stood up, and gave them a slight smile, “Alright, since you think it’s so simple, just do it well. Don’t let yourself get criticized again at the end of the day. 

After saying that, she walked away with a cold look on her face. Hmph, she wasn’t going to say anything else. If it came to it, she’d just give up that one work point. 

She returned to her allocated land, put on her gloves, and started pulling weeds. 

It was so hot and sunny in the afternoon. She had a straw hat on and could feel the sweat running down to her chest, while her back was drenched with sweat.  

Whenever she got tired, she’d sit down, take a break, drink some water, fan herself with her straw hat, and then get back to work. Four hours passed like this, and it was almost time to finish for the day. 

She had finished her work and was about to head up to the field to find the scorer when she noticed a familiar figure walking toward her. 

Could it be that Meng Yuanzheng had also finished his work and came to pick her up? Or was he here to help her with her work? 

But before Meng Yuanzheng could reach her, someone called out to him. 

“Meng Yuanzheng, are you here to pick up your wife from work?” A female educated youth stood with one hand on her hip, the other fanning herself with a straw hat. Her rolled-up sleeves revealed two fair, delicate arms.  

The female educated youth next to her smiled and said, “I heard that Meng Yuanzheng was from Shanghai too. That means we’re from the same place!'” 

Out of courtesy, Meng Yuanzheng stopped and nodded slightly. “Hello. I’m here to help Miaoyin with her work.” 

“Your wife sure knows how to work, doesn’t she? We can’t even pull weeds properly. I guess she’s got it easy, being from Houtouwan and all.” 

The female educated youth said this with a smirk. She acted like she was praising Lin Miaoyin’s work skills, but in reality, she was hinting that she was just a village girl.  

It was rumored that Meng Yuanzheng couldn’t stand his “village wife” and instead got along well with the other women in the team. 

Even though his behavior isn’t ideal, he’s pretty good-looking. Compared to the other men on the team, just looking at his face makes you want to talk to him.  

Unexpectedly, Meng Yuanzheng’s face suddenly turned serious. He looked at them and said, “Are you proud of not even knowing how to pull weeds?” 

After saying that, he walked toward Lin Miaoyin without stopping, leaving behind the two female educated youths whose faces turned red and white. 

Lin Miaoyin pretended not to see what was happening over there and focused on clearing some small weeds she had missed on the ground. 

A figure squatted next to her, carrying the faint smell of manure. Lin Miaoyin didn’t mind and cheerfully asked, “Finished with your work?” 

“Mm. You take a break. I’ll handle the rest.” Meng Yuanzheng extended his dirty hand and swiftly pulled out the rest of the grass. 

“Actually, I can do it myself…” Lin Miaoyin stood aside, watching him work, but couldn’t help out. 

“Okay, time to go home.” He jumped up, clapped his hands, and with a long stride, he was already standing on the field. He stretched out his hand, signaling for Lin Miaoyin to grab it and join him. 

At this time, the scorer came. He was an old man with an injured leg and could not do heavy work, so he served as the scorer. He had a high seniority in the team, so no one dared to question the fairness of his scoring. 

“What time is it? The sun has already set, and there’s still this much left to do! Honestly, I don’t know where you’re all hiding to avoid working.” 

The old man looked at the plots of the female educated youths unhappily, and said while counting the points, “Zhu Wanqin gets seven, and the rest just five!” 

“We weren’t used to everything on the first day, so we were a bit slow. We’ll make sure to do better next time,” Zhu Wanjin said softly, her voice showing a bit of regret.  

The other educated youths face darkened. This old man’s words were really harsh; they hadn’t been slacking off at all! They had clearly worked all afternoon.”  

The old man, however, paid no mind to any of that. He continued looking ahead and, upon seeing Lin Miaoyin’s assigned spot, he nodded and said, “Miaoyin gets 8 points, plus the guidance she gave them in weeding, making a total of 9 points.”  

He then pointed to the cornfield below and said to several female educated youth, “Come and take a look. This is what proper work looks like— no weeds, all cleared. Compare this to yours— not only isn’t it finished, but there are broken stalks everywhere, and you even snapped some corn stalks. I’m not sure what happened here.” 

Lin Miaoyin was a little embarrassed. If the old man continued talking, she would become a public enemy. After all, what people fear most is comparison. 

“Grandpa, let’s go check out someone else’s work. So we can head back and eat soon,” Lin Miaoyin said at just the right time. 

After the old man left, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and was about to go home when one of the girls pointed at her gloves and asked, “How did you get Wanqin’s gloves?”