Chapter 51 – Cheng Yujiao’s Audacious Move
In the early morning, before the sun had risen, there was still dew on the ground. Mixed with the mud brought up from pulling out weeds, it didn’t take long for Cheng Yujiao’s little white shoes to turn into little black shoes.
She wrinkled her brow in disgust, and in no time, even her white shirt wasn’t spared.
Working was already tiring enough, and now her clean clothes had suddenly become like this.
Cheng Yujiao felt that she couldn’t bear it anymore, so she left the field without even asking for permission or asking for a break.
At first, everyone thought she had gone to the restroom or wanted to slack off for a while, but they didn’t expect her to be gone for the entire morning.
The team leader in charge of their group had a very unpleasant expression.
When they finished work, he called Lu Xia and a few others aside. “Tell that new educated youth that if she does this again, she won’t get any work points. I’ve never seen someone so disorganized and undisciplined!”
After saying that, he ignored them and walked away.
The people involved looked at each other and then turned their gaze to Gu Xiangnan.
Gu Xiangnan’s expression wasn’t good either, but he still tried to explain, “I think she probably couldn’t handle it right after arriving in the countryside. She might be exhausted.”
However, his words were quickly proven wrong.
When they returned, the person he claimed was exhausted was sitting leisurely in the courtyard, humming a song and looking content.
She had changed back into her previous fancy… bragi skirt.
Compared to them, who were covered in dirt and looked unkempt, they seemed like people from two different worlds.
Gu Xiangnan’s face turned completely black upon seeing this. He confronted her, “Where were you this morning? Why didn’t you ask for leave and just not show up for work?”
Cheng Yujiao seemed oblivious to the severity of the situation and smiled, acting coquettish. “My clothes were dirty, and I couldn’t stand the stickiness on my body. This work is really not meant for humans. Besides, I don’t care about these work points. I don’t want to work anymore.”
Her words left even Lu Xia and the others with an incredulous expression.
What kind of mindset was this? Why come to the countryside if she didn’t want to work? Was she here for a vacation?
Gu Xiangnan’s face had gone beyond black at this point and was now bordering on fury.
“If you don’t want to work, you can leave right now! Why did you come to the countryside as an educated youth? Educated youths come to make contributions to the rural areas, not for you to enjoy yourself! If you don’t want to work, go back early! Don’t affect everyone here.”
Cheng Yujiao finally realized that Gu Xiangnan was genuinely angry this time and quickly apologized. “Okay, Brother Xiangnan, I know I was wrong. But I really can’t do those tasks. It’s not like I’m intentionally refusing to do them!”
Gu Xiangnan took a deep breath, suppressing his emotions, and continued to reason with her. “There are many tasks in the countryside, not just this one. There are also easier ones. If you can’t handle this one, you can go with Comrade Su Man to cut pigweed. That one is relatively easier. But you can’t refuse to work at all. We came to the countryside as educated youths, and our household registration has been transferred here. The village leaders have the qualifications to evaluate us politically. If you offend them, it will be difficult for you to pass the political review later, and it might even be difficult for you to return to the city. Think about it seriously.”
After saying that, he ignored her and went to wash up.
Gu Xiangnan was feeling quite annoyed at this moment. If she wasn’t the sister of his neighbor, he wouldn’t have bothered saying all these things. He was also feeling a bit tired. It had only been one day, and so many things had already happened. He didn’t even know what would happen in the future.
He silently sighed and worried about the future of his life.
As for Su Man, upon hearing Gu Xiangnan suggest that Cheng Yujiao go cut pigweed with her, she was first incredulous, and then a sneer appeared on her face. Her gaze towards Gu Xiangnan also turned cold.
As for Lu Xia and the others, they didn’t bother getting involved. After all, it had nothing to do with them.
It’s just that she didn’t expect Cheng Yujiao to find her suddenly.
*
Chapter 52 – Fish in the River
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“Can you help me wash my clothes?”
Looking at the person who said these words to her without any courtesy, Lu Xia was speechless. Who gave her the courage to speak to her like this? Did she consider her, Lu Xia, as a servant?
Absolutely ridiculous!
Lu Xia flatly refused, her expression turning cold. “No!”
Seemingly surprised by her straightforward refusal, Cheng Yujiao hesitated for a moment but didn’t give up. “I won’t let you help for free. I’ll give you a dime!”
But Lu Xia still refused. “No need, find someone else.”
Then she simply walked away.
This made Cheng Yujiao seething with anger.
However, during lunchtime, when the female educated youths went to the riverside to do laundry because of the hot weather, they noticed that Yu Fang was washing Cheng Yujiao’s clothes, the same outfit she had worn in the morning.
Lu Xia raised an eyebrow upon seeing this. It seemed that after being rejected by Lu Xia, Cheng Yujiao had sought help from Yu Fang. Well, it made sense. Offering a dime just for washing clothes, it was no wonder Yu Fang agreed. Cheng Yujiao had found herself an easy target.
There were two reasons why Lu Xia refused: one, she didn’t need the money, and two, she didn’t want to have too much contact with Cheng Yujiao, who seemed to attract trouble.
So, Lu Xia shook her head and stopped thinking about it.
She raised her head and looked at the small river in front of her. The river wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small either. It was probably twenty to thirty meters wide, not deep either. Lu Xia estimated that the deepest part of the river reached up to her thighs.
She wondered if there were any fish in it.
With that thought, she directly asked Shen Qingqing, who was next to her.
Shen Qingqing thought for a moment and said, “There should be. I’ve seen the village kids catch some, but they were small.”
Lu Xia was pleasantly surprised to hear this. She carefully looked into the river and saw schools of fish about the size of her thumb swimming by, and there were quite a lot of them, swimming in groups.
“Are these the fish?” Lu Xia asked.
Shen Qingqing shook her head. “No, those are reed fish. They’re too small. You can’t catch them without a net, and no one in the village has a fishing net. Plus, they don’t have much meat. What I’ve seen are larger fish, about the size of a palm. I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re definitely bigger.”
“They’re that big?” Lu Xia exclaimed, surprised. “With the river being so shallow, it’s amazing that it can sustain such large fish!”
Shen Qingqing laughed. “This section of the river looks shallow, but there are deep spots upstream and downstream. I heard that people have drowned there before!”
As she mentioned that, she became afraid that Lu Xia would be scared, so she quickly changed the topic. “I heard that there are big fish in the deepest part upstream, but no one has ever caught them.”
Lu Xia listened with a pensive expression.
She didn’t dare to go to the mountains without the protagonist halo, but it should be safe in the river. After all, she could swim.
When she had the chance, she could try catching a fish to improve her diet. Eating the same food every day at the educated youth spot had made her palate dull. Even the provisions she had stored in her space were nearly finished.
She wanted to eat some meat!
In her storage space, she had a little bit of pork, but not much. It was only a few kilograms. She hadn’t been willing to eat it yet, but now her attention had shifted to the fish in the river.
Lu Xia didn’t expect her plan to be realized so soon.
Because their weeding work had finally ended, the next day, apart from Su Man and Cheng Yujiao who were cutting pigweed, the others were assigned miscellaneous tasks.
The men were given tasks like fetching and watering the fields, which required physical strength. The women were tasked with helping the village tend to the collective vegetable garden, planting and organizing the crops.
The workload wasn’t much, and once they finished, there wasn’t much else to do.
They finished work early in the afternoon. Some rested in their rooms at the educated youth spot, while others went for a walk. Lu Xia remembered her plan and went out for a stroll.
Thanks for the chapter (-ㅂ-)/ ♥ ♥ ♥
Did Lu Xia already forget about her original self’s fate in the novel? She drowned herself in the river. It’d be quite a feat to accomplish such a thing if there were no deep waters, so obviously there would be fish around.
That being said, I’d be leery about playing around with the river too much if I were her. Transmigrating into a novel is already a supernatural event that’s impossible to understand, who knows what kind of hidden forces there are to enforce the plot? What if she tried to swim and suddenly found herself inexplicably unable to since she’s supposed to drown later on?