Truly Hopeless

This program was produced by Tomato Listening. Episode 38: Truly Hopeless. The bell at the Summer Palace rang as usual, but barely anyone had completed their assigned work.

For the harvest, the Production Team Leader shouted himself hoarse. "Folks, let's all work a little harder and finish today's tasks. Otherwise, when the rain comes, the grain will rot in the fields, and all our hard work this year will have been for nothing."

Without grain, what would the whole family eat next year?

Where would they get money to send the children to school?

Just endure these next few days. Better days are coming.

Those words tightened everyone's hearts. Rations were no small matter, and no one complained. They all lowered their heads and worked hard.

Lin Yuzhu had already cut and bundled all the wheat on her side. All that remained was loading it onto the cart for someone to haul away.

Aunt Li still had children waiting at home for her to cook. She was beginning to regret it. She had underestimated this Educated Youth Lin. The girl might be young, but she had plenty of tricks up her sleeve.

Aunt Li's eyes darted around as she came up with a plan. "Lin Zhiqing, I need to go home first to cook for the family and bring them food. Why don't you keep working for now? Once I'm done cooking, I'll come back and move this wheat."

It was not an unreasonable request. Quite a few women had already gone home to cook and would return to work afterward.

Lin Yuzhu was not that overbearing. She nodded. "Mm, fine."

The last hint of jujube-red was gradually devoured by the darkness. The sky had already dimmed, and Lin Yuzhu had finished moving all the wheat on her half.

Aunt Li still had not returned.

Seeing that the farmers from the other groups had mostly come back to continue working, Lin Yuzhu decided to wait a little longer for Aunt Li.

Another twenty minutes passed, and she more or less understood what was going on.

Lin Yuzhu was speechless.

This Aunt Li really was something.

Lin Yuzhu went straight to the Small Team Leader. "Uncle, I've finished all my work on that plot. Aunt Li went home to cook and hasn't come back yet, though. Her work is still sitting at the edge of the field."

The Small Team Leader glanced at the plot. Only half the wheat remained to be hauled away, and his opinion of Lin Yuzhu improved considerably.

"This Educated Youth Lin can work now. How about you wait a little longer? If all the wheat in the field isn't moved, it still counts as you two failing to complete the task."

Lin Yuzhu was even more speechless. It seemed Aunt Li was determined to stick her with the work. Was she really that easy to take advantage of?

Lin Yuzhu pretended to ponder for a moment before finally asking, "How many work points will be deducted if that wheat stays in the field?"

Lin Yuzhu clearly saw the Small Team Leader's expression stiffen. He probably had not expected her to ask that. Small Team Leader Xiao truly had not expected it; he had assumed Lin Yuzhu would go back and continue working. He had been mistaken. This girl was not one to accept a loss.

With that said, the Small Team Leader could only walk over and carefully check exactly how much wheat remained in the field.

"Aunt Li will take the larger deduction. You'll lose two work points on your side, and she'll lose four."

After checking the situation, the Small Team Leader spoke to Lin Yuzhu, then added after a moment's thought, "If the wheat just stays in the field and gets damp and moldy overnight, the two of you will have to compensate for it!"

Hearing the stern warning in the Small Team Leader's voice, Lin Yuzhu felt reassured instead. Someone who used a few work points to threaten you clearly considered those work points important.

Lin Yuzhu would bet that Aunt Li could not bear to lose those four work points. She was even more afraid something would happen to the wheat.

Never mind whether the wheat would actually spoil after one night in the field. This year's harvest was good; one work point was worth, at most, fifteen cents.

Was she someone who could not bear to part with thirty cents now?

Aunt Li had underestimated her too much. Lin Yuzhu looked at the weather. The crisp autumn air had held off rain for nearly half a month, and the ground was so dry it was practically cracking. She was not too worried. Today, no matter what, she would not let anyone control her.

Lin Yuzhu put on a pained expression and said, "Then Aunt Li and I will lose six work points altogether. That's too much, isn't it? How about I go home and grab something to eat first, then come back and keep working?"

The Small Team Leader nodded. Rules were fixed, but people were flexible. Although everyone was supposed to earn ten work points a day, there were still special accommodations to encourage villagers to work hard.

"If you come back and keep working, Aunt Li's deducted work points will be counted under your name."

Lin Yuzhu nodded, looking thrilled as she hurriedly thanked the Small Team Leader.

The Small Team Leader actually believed Lin Yuzhu's nonsense about coming back to work.

Thinking how difficult life was for these young Educated Youth, sent far from home at such an early age, how could he know that Lin Yuzhu had never planned to return at all?

In Lin Yuzhu's eyes, Aunt Li was no good person either. Since Aunt Li dared to run off, she definitely had a follow-up move prepared.

Although the Small Team Leader had agreed to put Aunt Li's work points under Lin Yuzhu's name, Lin Yuzhu did not think it would be so simple. Some old women had special skills: crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide. Taking someone's work points was like snatching food from a tiger's mouth.

What if Aunt Li was that kind of shrew too? The Small Team Leader might not be able to handle her.

In the end, Lin Yuzhu might do all that work for nothing and still get herself covered in mud.

What she feared most were brainless people who believed whatever others said. If someone claimed she had seduced the Small Team Leader, or that the Small Team Leader was an old ox eating tender grass, and everyone believed it and spread it everywhere, she would be furious enough to vomit blood.

So, since Aunt Li was betting that Lin Yuzhu would obediently continue working for her, then let Aunt Li make that bet.

Simply put, it was a gamble over a few work points. Oh, and the risk of the wheat spoiling in the field.

She had once thought Aunt Li was not that bad, merely a little loose-lipped. Now it seemed she was also the type to bully honest people. You could know a face, but not a heart.

When Lin Yuzhu returned to the backyard of the Educated Youth Dormitory, Wang Xiaomei was sitting by the door washing vegetables. She had worked in the fields for years, so the autumn harvest was nothing to her. She had finished early and returned long ago.

Seeing Lin Yuzhu return, she picked up a plate of washed vegetables and came over.

"What happened? Why are you back so late? Did you finish all your work today?"

"Let me tell you, the Production Team Leader is watching closely during the autumn harvest. He already dislikes us Educated Youth. If you hold everyone back this time, when it comes to handing out grain, he'll put you at the very end. Don't go running into the muzzle of his gun. If there's a quota for returning to the city, he definitely won't say anything good about you."

"Thanks."

Listening to her ramble on, Lin Yuzhu felt like her ears were about to grow calluses. This girl brought up quotas for returning to the city whenever she had nothing else to say.

Seeing Lin Yuzhu's indifferent look, Wang Xiaomei did not know whether she was tired or simply unwilling to listen. Remembering what they had said before parting at noon, she hesitated for a moment and quietly asked, "What did you mean by what you told me?"

"Oh?"

Lin Yuzhu stumbled. She truly had not expected Wang Xiaomei to still not understand by now. She was really hopeless.

Lin Yuzhu said blandly, "Eh?"

"What do you mean?"

Wang Xiaomei looked utterly confused. How had it become this serious?

Lin Yuzhu shook her head. If she had been Wang Xiaomei at noon, when Li Xiangwan said that final sentence, instead of going to trouble Zhang Yanqiu, she would have gone straight to the village chief's house to report it.

"Comrade Zhang Yanqiu toyed with and deceived the masses. She faked a suicide attempt and used everyone's sympathy to slander me." Given that little old village chief's personality, he would probably try to smooth things over, but how could her grievance simply be erased?

The stain of driving someone to suicide had to be cleared today, no matter what. If that old village chief asked what she wanted to do—

Good. She wanted Zhang Yanqiu to confront her point by point in front of the villagers at the market. No, Zhao Xianglan had to be brought in as a witness too. Why should she lend grain and wait on people, only to end up branded as arrogant and a bully of the weak?

Those old women in the village did not even need much prompting to invent more than a dozen versions of the story.

And Li Xiangwan could not get away either. She had not exposed it before, so what did exposing it now mean?

If they wanted her to charge into battle for them, they had to be prepared to be dragged into the water too. In any case, nobody was getting away.

That would mean completely tearing things apart with Li Xiangwan. Lin Yuzhu would not back down, but this was Wang Xiaomei's business, not hers.

Lin Yuzhu imagined this little cannon fodder becoming major cannon fodder, then being wiped out without even ashes left behind. She shut her eyes in disgust. Forget it, forget it. With Wang Xiaomei's intelligence, after offending the heroine, she might end up worse off than she was now.

It was better to leave things as they were. There was nothing wrong with knowing nothing.

Besides, Lin Yuzhu suspected that even if she guided Wang Xiaomei through it, arranged every move for her, and laid out the whole plan, Wang Xiaomei might still let Zhang Yanqiu turn the tables on her in front of the entire village.

"Forget it. Don't think about it anymore. Foolish people have foolish luck. Just stay away from Zhang Yanqiu in the future."

Wang Xiaomei felt that something was not right.

"Wouldn't that make me look like I have no backbone? Like I'm afraid of her?"

Wang Xiaomei muttered.

Lin Yuzhu clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Fine, fine. Do whatever you want."

Wang Xiaomei was speechless. "I haven't even finished talking about you. Why did you come back so late? If you don't finish your work, you'll be done for."

Lin Yuzhu gave Wang Xiaomei a rough account of what had happened that afternoon. Unexpectedly, Wang Xiaomei became even angrier than she was.

"Hmph, those old people are all the same. They see that we have no roots in this village, so they bully us as much as they can." The more she spoke, the angrier she became. Seeming to remember something, she nearly smashed the basin in her hands.

"Hmph! Do you ever see them bullying the young people in the village?"

"If they bullied them one moment, the whole family would be beating down their door the next."

Wang Xiaomei puffed up like a frog, her eyes nearly bulging out and her chest heaving. She might be petite, but her chest was truly ample. Lin Yuzhu could not help drooling at the sight.

Lin Yuzhu found that a little baffling. What was Wang Xiaomei so angry about?

"Hm?"

"I'm not even angry yet. Why are you angry?"

Thinking of it, Lin Yuzhu asked.

"What do you know? If Aunt Li treats you like this today, other people will copy her tomorrow."

After saying that, seemingly reminded of the past, Wang Xiaomei added indignantly, "When I first came here, those old people were full of schemes too. They tried to get me to work for them for free."

Hearing that, Lin Yuzhu felt a little sympathetic. She patted Wang Xiaomei on the shoulder. "You can't put it that way. Aunt Li will probably still pick up the wheat in the field today."

After thinking it over, she still could not help asking, "How were you bullied back then?"

To be honest, supporting characters like Wang Xiaomei—impulsive, of average intelligence, and always picking fights with the protagonist—usually only appeared to hop around when the plot required it.

Lin Yuzhu did not remember much of Wang Xiaomei's storyline. Or rather, Wang Xiaomei barely had any role in the plot at all. She was still very curious about how Wang Xiaomei had been tormented in the past.