Cutting Pig Grass or Pulling Weeds? Pulling Weeds, of Course

The villagers were used to having work and tools assigned to them, so they carried on chatting and laughing as usual.

That would continue until they reached the fields.

Of course, if they were assigned together, they would keep chatting while they worked.

Today was a little different, though. The village chief had personally brought the new educated youths to have their tasks assigned, which was quite rare. None of the villagers were in a hurry to leave, wanting to see what was going on.

How could Zhao Jianguo not know what they were thinking? He glared and shouted, "You've got your tools, so why aren't you leaving? Want more work?"

At that, everyone hurried off. If they stayed and got more work, that would never do.

Although doing more work earned more work points, it was so hot that if they suffered heatstroke, the points they earned wouldn't even cover the cost of treatment.

After Zhao Jianshe finished speaking, he strode toward a field. Bai Yao and the others hurried after him, and after several minutes of walking, they finally saw a familiar face.

It was none other than the village chief's wife, Li Cuihua.

"There are two kinds of easy work available now: cutting pig grass and pulling weeds in the fields. Cutting pig grass takes two people. Two baskets earn two work points. As for weeding, two mu of land earns ten work points, and three people can share the job," Zhao Jianguo said. (Author's own setting; don't take it too seriously.)

It sounded like very few work points, but Bai Yao and the others understood that this was already Zhao Jianguo looking after them.

Cutting pig grass wasn't troublesome. It was work normally given to the village children, who could easily finish it in a morning while playing around, let alone two adults. So filling two baskets was an easy task.

Weeding earned a few more work points because they had to squat the whole time, which was tiring, and the sun was strong. It was only natural to give them more.

Giving them ten work points was also a matter of fairness.

A person working at a normal pace could weed about two mu in a day. Now that one person's job had been divided among three, Zhao Jianguo wasn't afraid of the villagers saying he was unfair.

But Bai Yao and the others weren't blind. They could naturally see that the two plots assigned to them had relatively few weeds. If the three of them worked seriously and put in some effort, they could finish the two mu in about two hours.

"Whoever's cutting pig grass, I'll find some village children to take you there in a bit. Those who choose to weed can follow my wife," Zhao Jianguo said.

As for who would cut pig grass and who would weed, Zhao Jianguo didn't assign them. He let Bai Yao and the others choose for themselves.

In such hot weather, cutting pig grass meant they could find a shady spot out of the sun, so it was naturally the best choice.

But Bai Yao thought weeding suited him better.

Although it was hotter here, there weren't that many weeds. Even if he slacked off, he could finish in a morning.

Besides, he thought cutting pig grass was the sort of thing meant for a protagonist.

That was right. He had a feeling that choosing to cut pig grass would definitely bring trouble knocking.

He trusted his feelings, so while the others were still deferring to one another, Bai Yao said outright, "I'll weed."

Before his words had even faded, Kong Wu spoke up right after him. "I'll weed."

As long as they weren't separated, cutting pig grass or pulling weeds made no difference to Kong Wu. Either way, the work was easy.

In an instant, only one spot remained for the less popular weeding job.

After looking at the situation, Hu Yang decided he'd better go find his little companions.

"I..."

"I'll weed too," Jiang Rou said before he could finish.

Hu Yang: ...

He'd clearly gotten the better job of cutting pig grass, so why did he feel like he'd gotten the short end of the stick?

Zhao Jianguo had no time to worry about any of that. Once they had chosen, he left the three weeders behind and took Hu Yang and Gu Yang away.

As soon as Bai Yao and the others came over, Li Cuihua smiled and said, "Educated Youth Bai, Educated Youth Kong, Educated Youth Jiang, there's nothing difficult about weeding. Just be careful not to pull up the corn seedlings thinking they're weeds. There's nothing else to it."

"I'll be working in the field next to yours. If you need anything, just call me."

"Okay, we understand. Thank you, Auntie Cuihua," Bai Yao replied.

To put it this way, anyone who wasn't a fool wouldn't mistake corn seedlings for weeds.

After all, corn seedlings looked very different from weeds, especially at this time of year, when the corn had grown fairly big and was visibly different from the weeds in the field.

Once Li Cuihua had finished speaking, she went to attend to her own work, and Bai Yao and the other two began weeding.

Compared with Kong Wu and Jiang Rou, though, Bai Yao was truly slow, moving at a tortoise's pace.

Today, he had to get the rumor that he was a sickly weakling circulating. Failing that, he at least had to get a bad reputation for being lazy and gluttonous, so no one else would take a fancy to him.

As for whether Jiang Rou would object to Bai Yao working so slowly?

She wouldn't, because when they first started working, Kong Wu had said he would do Bai Yao's share too.

So Jiang Rou was still only responsible for her own share and didn't have to do any extra work. Naturally, she had no objections to him.

Squatting for a while, standing for a while, and taking a while to pull a few little weeds, Bai Yao soon let more than half an hour slip by.

When he stood up again, Bai Yao stopped Kong Wu, who was about to move on to the next mu of land.

"Don't rush, don't rush. It hasn't even been an hour yet. What's the hurry? Let's take a break first."

"I'm not tired," Kong Wu said, glancing at Jiang Rou. He thought she was the one who ought to rest.

"No, you're tired. You need to rest for half an hour, have something to eat and drink some water." With that, Bai Yao grabbed him and pulled him toward a shady spot beneath a tree by the roadside. As they went, he didn't forget to call for Jiang Rou to follow.

Bai Yao understood what the two of them were thinking.

But if they finished the work in one go and went back early, someone would surely grow jealous.

He didn't know about anyone else, but he was certain there would be someone like that among the veteran educated youths at the educated youth compound.

If their jealousy led to something bad happening, even if it was dealt with afterward, they would still be the ones who suffered.

The human heart was hard to fathom.

Of course, he also knew that those two, like him, didn't care about such things. But if they could spend the next few years comfortably, why create difficulties for themselves?

So, on the way to rest, Bai Yao laid out for the two of them why it was right and necessary to slack off at appropriate times. In the end, they both chose to listen to him.

Jiang Rou: It was two against one from the start. What could I say against it?

"Here, thanks for your hard work. These are the buns I had left over from breakfast. You can have them." Bai Yao took two large buns from his shoulder bag—or rather, from System Space.

The sight of the buns reminded Kong Wu of how delicious they tasted, and he couldn't help swallowing.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony."

If it had been any other food, Kong Wu would have refused, but these buns really were delicious, and he really wanted them.

Taking the buns wrapped in paper, Kong Wu immediately began eating them in great mouthfuls.

As for Jiang Rou, who was eyeing them hungrily, Kong Wu ignored her.

They were his buns. No one but Bai Yao could even think of taking them.

And Bai Yao?

Bai Yao: I'm not looking at Jiang Rou.

As long as he didn't look, he didn't know.

The two buns were large, but that was no problem for Kong Wu.

He didn't wolf them down, but even so, the two buns lasted only two minutes.

After he finished eating and drank some water, the three of them rested for quite a while longer. Only when the work-point recorder came looking for them did they get up and go back to work.

Bai Yao continued to drag his feet. Jiang Rou followed his example, though not to the extent of moving once every few minutes like Bai Yao.

No one said anything about it. After all, Jiang Rou had nearly finished her own share of the work.

Just like that, another hour passed, and the work on the two mu was finished.

They found the recorder to register the three of their work points. Kong Wu and Jiang Rou each got four, while Bai Yao got two.

He should actually have gotten only one, but Kong Wu gave him one of his.

Kong Wu had wanted to give him more, but Bai Yao hadn't accepted. Two work points were enough for him to get by on the surface.

"Let's go home. Kong Wu, is there anything you want to eat? I'll make it for you at noon." Bai Yao was very satisfied with today's work, so he decided to thank Kong Wu.

Kong Wu: "Let's have buns."

"It's so hot, let's not eat hot food. I'll make you some noodles, then cook some toppings for noodles with gravy. Diced eggplant and minced meat gravy noodles—how does that sound?"

"Okay, whatever you say."