Isn't This a Bit Too Much?

Produced by Tomato Listening.

Wasn't this episode a bit too much?

Lin Yuzhu nodded and said nothing.

What was in the package?

Wang Xiaomei looked curious again. "Your family treats you pretty well, don't they?"

"What did they send you?"

Lin Yuzhu drew in a breath. She really was unbearably curious. After a quick thought, Lin Yuzhu cheerfully asked, "Why don't you tell me?" Then she turned and left, as if someone were chasing her from behind.

During the autumn harvest, they could only take a short break at noon, unlike before when they had time for a proper nap.

Lin Yuzhu had planned to take a quick nap on the kang to ease her fatigue, but before she could lie down, someone called for her from the doorway.

Lin Yuzhu was puzzled. It sounded like Wang Yang, and when she stepped outside, it really was him. What was he doing here?

Seeing her confused expression, Wang Yang hurriedly asked, "Do you still have enough grain to eat?"

"A lot of people in the village are borrowing grain from the team right now. The new educated youths are about to go borrow some too. Do you want to come with us?"

Seeing that Li Xiangwan had already come out carrying a cloth sack, Lin Yuzhu nodded as well. "I'll go get my bag." There was no helping it—this was money she couldn't save. Fortunately, if she didn't like the grain she got, she could sell it to the system.

Once the people from the Educated Youth Dormitory who were exchanging grain had gathered, they realized they were all educated youths who had arrived this year.

The older educated youths still had grain and didn't need to borrow any. Wang Yang was only taking them there out of kindness.

Zhang Yanqiu followed amid the crowd with a gloomy expression. Once everyone had left the yard, she limped over to Lin Yuzhu and quietly asked, "Yuzhu, do you still have any money on you?"

"Lend me some. I... I have no money to buy grain."

Lin Yuzhu blinked and gave her a careful once-over. Zhang Yanqiu's sun-darkened face no longer had the delicacy it had when they first met. She was so thin that she was little more than a skeleton, and she looked much more mature now.

Seeing her limp, Lin Yuzhu thought, There probably isn't another supporting female character as unlucky as her.

Zhang Yanqiu saw Lin Yuzhu studying her and assumed she was hesitating over whether to lend her money. She hurriedly said, "Don't worry. Once grain is distributed after the autumn harvest, I'll use grain to pay you back."

People in the village used grain to repay debts when they couldn't repay money. That made things rather awkward.

Seeing the flicker of unease in Zhang Yanqiu's eyes, Lin Yuzhu said, "After building my house, I don't have much money left either. I heard from the villagers that if you have no money, you can borrow grain from the team and have it deducted from this year's work points."

"Don't worry. You'll definitely be able to borrow grain."

Perhaps Lin Yuzhu was truly too cold-hearted. The moment she heard Zhang Yanqiu wanted to use grain to repay money, there was no way she would lend her any. Lin Yuzhu wasn't short of grain. The grain they were borrowing from the team was all coarse grain, which wouldn't fetch much even if sold on the Black Market, while carrying plenty of risk. Selling it to the system wasn't worthwhile either.

If she lent money once, Zhang Yanqiu would inevitably ask a second time. After borrowing too often, it would become expected, and if Lin Yuzhu refused later, she would become the bad person.

Better not open that door in the first place and refuse outright.

Zhang Yanqiu lowered her head, looking deeply disappointed, but her face was filled with hatred.

She had money to buy food and other things, yet no money to lend her in an emergency. How could someone be so selfish?

When she looked up at the people before her again, she remembered every single one of them.

They were all the same. Not one of them was a good person.

Her gaze gradually settled on Li Xiangbei. There was a trace of infatuation in her eyes. Without Li Xiangwan, he definitely wouldn't be so heartless.

Zhang Yanqiu thought that no one could see the hatred on her face when she lowered her head earlier.

But Lin Yuzhu saw it all from the side and sneered inwardly. Hmph, she actually hates me now!

When they arrived at the grain storage yard, they found it bustling. There were quite a few villagers there to calculate grain rations. On second thought, it made sense. It was the autumn harvest, the workload was heavy, and everyone ate more. With over a dozen mouths to feed in a household, one could imagine how much grain each meal took.

There were naturally more households short on grain.

At the moment, not only was the Production Team Leader there, but so were the village chief, accountant, and scorekeeper.

Wang Yang led everyone to the village chief and said with a smile, "These newly arrived educated youths don't have enough grain this year, so I brought them over to collect some."

The village chief nodded with a wrinkled frown.

The Production Team Leader looked unhappy upon hearing this and muttered a few words to Accountant Li.

The yard was rather noisy, and the educated youths didn't pay attention to that side. Only Lin Yuzhu noticed that when the Production Team Leader saw them coming to borrow grain, he said something to the person beside him. It was probably nothing good.

Zhao Aidang stood at the front of the line and had just reached his turn when several villagers came to borrow grain.

Accountant Li glanced at those villagers and called out directly, "You don't need to line up. Come here and register first."

Zhao Aidang's expression stiffened at once. Unhappily, he asked, "Accountant Li, we've been lining up properly. How can you just let them cut in line? Isn't this a bit too much?"

Accountant Li looked up at Zhao Aidang and replied in a strange tone, "The villagers grew this grain. Of course they get it first. Got a problem with that?"

Zhao Aidang was choked speechless.

Wang Yang hurriedly eased the tense atmosphere and said ingratiatingly, "Yes, yes, Accountant Li is right. We'll wait until the villagers are finished."

Accountant Li snorted coldly.

The newly arrived villagers smugly squeezed Zhao Aidang and the others aside.

None of the educated youths looked very pleased.

Lin Yuzhu shook her head. They would probably have to go straight back to work after borrowing the grain. What bad luck.

While the educated youths were borrowing grain, another two or three households trickled in to borrow some as well.

When it was Zhang Yanqiu's turn, Accountant Li might have been tired. Her attitude was extremely unfriendly. "There's also sorghum and buckwheat. What are you borrowing?"

"How much do you want?"

Zhang Yanqiu answered timidly, "Um... is there no more cornmeal?"

There wasn't. There had clearly still been several sacks of cornmeal when the villagers borrowed grain earlier. The accountant was deliberately refusing to lend it to her.

Zhang Yanqiu felt upset. Tears welled in her eyes as she said in a faintly tearful voice, "Accountant Li, I don't have any money. Can I use work points to borrow the grain first?"

Seeing that the young woman was about to cry, Accountant Li began to worry and stopped making things difficult for her. "Fine. Little Zhao, check how many work points Educated Youth Zhang has this year."

Hearing this, the scorekeeper flipped through the notebook specially used to record work points. He found Zhang Yanqiu's page and handed it to Accountant Li.

Accountant Li took it, looked it over, and slowly said with a frown, "Educated Youth Zhang, you don't have many work points."

Zhang Yanqiu's expression stiffened, and she said awkwardly, "I haven't been here that long."

Accountant Li shook her head. She remembered this batch of educated youths had been here for two or three months already. Zhang Yanqiu had only a little over three hundred work points. If she wanted to eat her fill next year, she could only exchange them for coarse grain. Forget about getting money.

After doing the math, Accountant Li came to a decision. "You can only borrow twenty jin of coarse grain for now. Do you want sorghum or buckwheat?"

Lin Yuzhu stood directly behind Zhang Yanqiu and happened to glimpse the work-point ledger Accountant Li had placed on the table.

Zhang Yanqiu seemed to have even fewer work points than she did.

Lin Yuzhu felt that the people in this village were truly unobservant. They had actually said she earned the fewest among the educated youths.

Now they could see who earned less.

Once Zhang Yanqiu had registered, she took her cloth sack to the scorekeeper to weigh out the grain.

Lin Yuzhu stepped forward and said directly to Accountant Li, "I'll exchange for ten jin of sorghum." She was merely putting on a show and had no intention of exchanging too much.

"Work points or money?"

"Work points." She had just said she had no money.

Accountant Li lowered her head and registered it.

Lin Yuzhu stared boredly at the grain storage shed and happened to see the scorekeeper casually grope Zhang Yanqiu's little hand when handing her the bag of grain.

Lin Yuzhu's gaze darkened despite her composed expression. That scorekeeper was awfully bold!

When Lin Yuzhu entered the grain shed and handed her bag to the scorekeeper, she stared at him directly with a serious expression.

As he weighed and bagged the grain, the scorekeeper's heart trembled. Seeing Lin Yuzhu's stern face and hostile expression, he kept wondering to himself.

He had heard that this young educated youth looked delicate but was ruthless, not someone to mess with.

At first glance, though, the claim that she looked delicate didn't seem true at all. Why did it feel like she hadn't come to borrow grain?

She looked more like she had come to fight.

He honestly handed the grain bag to Lin Yuzhu and didn't dare make a single unnecessary move.

His obedience left Lin Yuzhu slightly disappointed. She was a fresh, pretty young woman, after all. How could he not feel lustful just because she put on a stern face?

Could she really be inferior to Zhang Yanqiu?

None of the educated youths who had collected grain left. Wang Yang was afraid the village leaders would continue making things difficult for them, so everyone stayed to bolster their numbers. Though it probably wouldn't help much, Lin Yuzhu stayed as well to wait for the remaining educated youths.

Zhang Yanqiu's expression was especially strange at the moment, constantly shifting. Lin Yuzhu thought it would be better to stay farther away, so she stood beside Zhou Nan and watched.

Zhou Nan took out a newspaper and began reading it, so Lin Yuzhu glanced over it as well.

Newspapers these days were basically all current affairs. The page Lin Yuzhu looked at did not even have a joke on it. Boring—far too boring!

When it was Li Xiangwan's turn, she also used work points to exchange for grain. As she went inside to collect it, she gave the scorekeeper a polite smile.

The scorekeeper looked her up and down. Thinking of the rumors in the village, he sneered inwardly, So she really is the sort who seduces people everywhere she goes.

Seeing her smile, the scorekeeper handed Li Xiangwan the grain and likewise took the chance to grope her tender little hand. This hand is so soft. I wonder if that place is soft too.

He stared at Li Xiangwan lecherously, looking utterly vulgar.

The sudden action frightened Li Xiangwan badly. She immediately pulled her hand away, and the grain spilled all over the ground.

Li Xiangbei, who stood behind her in line, sprang forward in one stride. He punched the scorekeeper in the face, then kicked him to the ground and straddled him, beating him viciously.

Lin Yuzhu nearly applauded from the side. She looked at Li Xiangbei with admiration. Damn, what a man!

Without needing to think about it, she knew the scorekeeper had taken advantage of Li Xiangwan again. If she had a boyfriend like that, she wouldn't want some supporting male character either!

Zhou Nan stood nearby, staring at the scene in stunned confusion. She clearly had no idea what was going on.