Landlords Wouldn't Even Dare Do This

This program was produced by Tomato Listening. Episode 30: Even Landlords Wouldn't Dare Do This!

Compared to Lin Yuzhu, the female lead, Li Xiangwan, was much more high-profile. Her basket contained not only grain, but also snacks and sweets like White Rabbit Milk Candy, Walnut Cookies, egg cakes, and more.

Even more eye-catching was the huge slab of pork in her basket, weighing an estimated forty-five pounds. Zhao Xianglan and Zhang Yanqiu stood there swallowing hard. No matter how they looked at it, that pork would never end up in their stomachs, but that did not stop their minds from being filled with that piece of meat. It was enough to drive anyone crazy.

With Li Xiangwan standing ahead of them, the two of them no longer even regarded Lin Yuzhu, a small fish and shrimp, as worth noticing. Their hearts were filled with malicious thoughts toward the female lead. Was buying so much meat at once meant to show off how rich she was?

Was she mocking them for not even being able to afford a meal?

They were all female educated youths sent to the countryside, so why did they have to live such miserable lives?

Nothing was more frightening than comparison. With the female lead around, Lin Yuzhu gave up on visiting the Scrap Station. The Scrap Station was the female lead's place of fortune; she basically wandered through it every time she came to town.

Lin Yuzhu had no intention of snatching that opportunity. Deep down, she had a feeling that it was best to keep a certain distance from the female lead and avoid becoming entangled with her in any cause and effect.

She always had a feeling that if she stole the female lead's opportunity, she would lose even more in return. It was quite mystical.

She had not wanted to go to the Scrap Station to get rich, but to buy some textbooks and prepare for the National College Entrance Examination several years later.

She remembered that the National College Entrance Examination at this time required politics even for science-track students. That meant she absolutely had to read newspapers from this era, otherwise she feared her politics grades would be terrible.

For politics, it was essential to understand current affairs and the writing style of the times. The style used to answer questions was very important. As someone who had transmigrated here, she had to blend into the characteristics of this era. The best place to dig up old newspapers was the Scrap Station, where they would be cheaper.

Still, there was no rush. Getting the textbooks first was more important.

Lin Yuzhu did not want to waste any more time on the other subjects, so she went straight to the bookstore and bought the books.

When she had left the Lin Family, she had not dared take her high school textbooks with her.

As she had said before, details mattered. She could not exactly carry a stack of textbooks with her to the countryside, so it was better to leave those books at home in case someone wanted to borrow them.

When Mother Lin thought of her books, she was in luck. The bookstore had every elementary, middle school, and high school textbook she needed.

It was said that the first National College Entrance Examination had been extremely easy, roughly on par with middle school level, yet the admission rate had only been a few percent.

Out of nearly six million candidates, only a little over two hundred thousand were admitted. Faced with odds like that, Lin Yuzhu had no sense of superiority at all.

All she could do was keep studying and drilling practice questions over the next few years. Only then could she face whatever results the future brought with a clear conscience.

That was why she had been willing to spend money buying textbooks at the bookstore instead of hunting through the Scrap Station for old ones. If she could not get everything in one go, it would waste far too much time.

Aside from the villagers' gossip, Lin Yuzhu had been living quite comfortably. In one month, her space had risen to another level. Her space had leveled up another five levels, allowing her to spin the grand prize wheel once more. She drew side dishes, which fully unlocked the food section of the mall. When Lin Yuzhu opened it and looked inside, she was not all that thrilled.

There were all kinds of prepared seasonings, along with peppercorns, star anise, and other supplementary ingredients.

To put it simply, she felt the system might have mistaken her for a chef. Although she was not especially thrilled by the prize, she could now make tasty meals, which was still pretty good.

Lin Yuzhu's cooking certainly could not compare to that of a professional chef, but her dishes could still be called the kind of food children boasted about eating at someone else's home. From then on, she was truly free when it came to food.

What delighted her more was that walnuts, apples, and strawberries had also been unlocked among the space seeds. Those held a great attraction for Lin Yuzhu. Just looking at the seeds made her drool; she craved them badly.

When she went to town, she had deliberately taken a lap around the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Forget rare goods like strawberries—even the shadow of an apple was nowhere to be seen.

The moment apples hit the shelves, they would be snatched up in a frenzy.

As soon as town residents heard that something good was available, they would line up early in the morning and wait for the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to open.

How could educated youths like them, who only occasionally went to town, possibly buy any? The less she could get them, the more she wanted them.

Lin Yuzhu used to peel an apple before eating it. Now, just give her an apple and see—she could even eat the apple core. Many more vegetable seeds had been unlocked: chives, cauliflower, tomatoes, peas, peppers, celery, cucumbers, pumpkins, and so on.

There was a considerable variety, but none of them could be taken to the Black Market to sell.

Once winter came, though, chives and pumpkins could be hyped up a little.

Mm, apples had plenty of room for use. She only had to wait until after the autumn harvest. Her space would also open up a lotus pond where lotus roots could be grown.

Aside from eating some herself, for now she could only sell them to the system.

Lin Yuzhu had asked Wang Xiaomei about this time and place. No villages in the Northeast grew lotus roots at the moment—at least none within a hundred miles centered on Eelwater Village.

Naturally, it would be best not to sell that kind of vegetable at the Black Market. It was too conspicuous.

There was also something else that gave her a headache: red roses had been unlocked among the seeds.

Lin Yuzhu wondered what she needed red roses for right now.

And what did Caesar Continent need red roses for?

To give to lovers, of course.

The little system continued using its gentle tone to disparage her narrow-mindedness.

Roses had many uses. They could be used in food, clothing, housing, and transportation.

Lin Yuzhu clicked her tongue. It was making her seem increasingly shallow.

Red roses also fetched a pretty good recycling price. Great, absolutely great. She could use them to farm Contribution Points.

At the moment, Lin Yuzhu's space was flourishing, and her purse was gradually filling up. She was looking forward to the future more and more.

Yet before she could be happy for two days, the village chief returned with another batch of educated youths. There were actually five of them: three men and two women.

The assignment of those five educated youths made the village chief's face darken beyond measure.

The moment he entered the courtyard, he called Lin Yuzhu and the other two living in the back courtyard to the front courtyard.

Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan could not help frowning, while Wang Xiaomei asked the village chief in confusion, "Village Chief, why did you specifically call us over?"

If it was just to introduce them, there was no need. After living in the same courtyard long enough, they would naturally get acquainted.

Sure enough, just as Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan had expected, things were not that simple.

The village chief put on an official tone and said, "A few more educated youths have come to our village. You old educated youths need to help one another. Don't be so selfish. Learn from exemplary people, always maintain a spirit of dedication, and do more good deeds."

The moment she heard that, Wang Xiaomei bristled and said unhappily, "Village Chief, it's almost the autumn harvest. The grain we got last year is barely enough for ourselves. How can we spare any for others?"

"If we can't eat enough during the autumn harvest, how will we have the strength to work? Without strength, we can't earn work points. Without work points, there's no money or grain. Without money or grain, aren't we just starving ourselves to death?"

The village chief pressed his lips tightly together, veins bulging on his forehead.

Thinking it over, these educated youths truly could not spare any grain. But the grain in the village Warehouse was also scarce, and he wanted to save it for the villagers.

The autumn harvest was coming soon, and households without grain would all come to borrow food from the village.

There was plenty of work during the autumn harvest, and it demanded a great deal of physical strength. Naturally, food had to keep up.

Without labor, there was no productivity. Asking the village chief to spend grain on the newly arrived educated youths was a losing proposition no matter how he thought about it.

Those five educated youths ate a lot, but they might not necessarily work much.

At that thought, the village chief could not help cursing the Educated Youth Office in town again. "This time, we've got three more male educated youths, and the front courtyard can't fit them anymore. How about you let out one room in the back courtyard?"

The words the village chief had rehearsed all the way back finally came out.

His face was both dark and thick-skinned, so no redness showed at all.

Lin Yuzhu gave a cold laugh, and the vein on the village chief's forehead twitched.

Wang Xiaomei's firecracker temper exploded again.

"What?"

"Let it out?"

"How are we supposed to let it out? I spent a damn fortune building this house, and you think you can just take it because you say so? Are you trying to force me to die?"

Wang Xiaomei's words immediately left the village chief unable to save face, while also sobering him considerably. The thoughts in his heart faded somewhat.

Lin Yuzhu could see that the village chief had been harboring some petty intentions regarding the house they had built. If they gave up one room today, he would demand two rooms tomorrow. Eventually, it was entirely possible that he would take everything.

She looked down on the village chief a little, but this was his territory. They absolutely could not let him lead them around by the nose. "I assume the village chief doesn't mean to seize our house. Even landlords wouldn't dare do something like that nowadays."

Lin Yuzhu comforted Wang Xiaomei, then turned to ask the village chief, "Perhaps we misunderstood. Village Chief, you want us to give up a room, so does that mean the new educated youths will compensate us for all the money we spent building the house?"

"Do they want the things we furnished the room with, too?"

"Or will the village compensate us like before?"

"Anyway, the kang in my room only fits one person. I spent at least seventy or eighty yuan buying this and that, and close to a hundred altogether. Is the village going to pay to buy the house?"

The village chief's mind cleared considerably after hearing Lin Yuzhu's words.

If he dared seize their house now, these educated youths would dare report him all the way to the commune. She had practically compared him to a landlord.

The village chief was annoyed, but also somewhat frightened afterward. Luckily, he had not continued being muddleheaded.

"But we can't let the newly arrived comrades have nowhere to sleep!"

Zhang Yanqiu muttered softly from the side, but everyone in the courtyard heard her.

Lin Yuzhu gave her a cold look and said, "Wouldn't it work if the male and female educated youths switched rooms?"

The village chief's eyes lit up at once.

"That's right. The female educated youths' room is bigger. We can build another kang there."

"Exactly. It could fit even two more male educated youths."

"Pah! Don't let any more come!"

Zhao Xianglan's expression changed, and she said fearfully.

"How can we switch rooms?"

"Then I'll die, Zhao Zhiqiang. That feudal superstition nonsense won't do!"

After repeatedly losing face, the village chief was thoroughly irritated. He immediately made the final decision. "You male and female educated youths will switch rooms. Half a day is enough. If it doesn't work, start work later this afternoon. You male educated youths can squeeze in for now, and after work tonight, we'll build a kang in your inner room."

Having said that, he lifted his leg and left, afraid someone might chase after him.