Chapter 136: Entering the Stage Respectively

Village Chief Zhao and Brigade Leader Liang were smoking their tobacco pouches on the side, the smoke veiling their faces and completely hiding their expressions from others.

The other minor leaders in the village were locked in a fierce argument with Sun Yong and his group, with neither side willing to yield an inch.

Sun Yong and the others claimed that not only did they possess sufficient seniority and high cultural standards, but becoming factory workers would also bring prestige to Upper River Village.

The villagers sneered at this statement, retorting that Upper River Village had high school graduates as well.

Furthermore, the educated youths had made consecutive mistakes this year. Among them, Zhang San's offense had been quite severe, not only bringing repeated reprimands from superiors upon the village and stripping away many of the welfare benefits from above, but also causing the long-awaited recommendation quota for the workers-peasants-soldiers university to vanish into thin air.

These few remarks instantly rendered the arguments of Sun Yong and the veteran educated youths utterly feeble. Consequently, they changed their strategy, declaring that henceforth they could hand over two-thirds of their monthly salary to the village branch, requiring only basic work points in exchange for grain.

Upon hearing this, Brigade Leader Liang flew into a rage, slamming his hand heavily down onto the table in front of him.

Bang.

"Sun Yong, what are you people trying to do? Are your intentions so vicious that you want to drag everyone in this room down with you?"

Sun Yong...

Jiang Xiaoli...

By noon, these veteran educated youths still had not achieved their goal.

However, they showed not the slightest intention of backing down; even if it meant dragging it out stubbornly, they were determined to achieve their objective.

Taking advantage of the lunch break, the veteran educated youths returned to the educated youths' courtyard, organizing everyone once again to go and pressure the village branch.

Yet, after running through several courtyards, they could not find a single soul. The other educated youths were either deliberately avoiding them or had gone up the mountain to work hard in preparation for the winter.

Those who went up the mountain were likely genuinely preparing for the long winter; even if they could not forage for mountain goods, they had to gather a bit more firewood, or else people would genuinely freeze to death when the time came.

As for those who intentionally kept away, they must have figured things out, because in this world there are no true fools; people merely differ in the time it takes for them to react to matters.

Yesterday afternoon plus an entire night had passed, which was more than enough time for some people to calm their minds and figure out the situation.

For now, their seniority was insufficient for them to become factory workers, and following the veteran educated youths would inevitably offend the villagers and village cadres.

Even if this matter ultimately succeeded and the veteran educated youths patted their butts and left after achieving their aims, the rest would still have to live under the watchful eyes of the villagers and village cadres for several years. Whether life would be easy or not was just one of the problems.

What if, two years later, when their seniority became sufficient, the village happened to have another recruitment quota available?

Would the people offended today hold a grudge because they had repeatedly acted as vanguard pawns, and thus trip them up behind their backs?

Since Sun Yong and the other veteran educated youths had not given specific notice this morning, neither those who had figured it out nor those who had never considered the matter from this angle were likely to stay home specifically to deal with such affairs.

The attitude of the people at the village branch was crystal clear. Seizing upon the incidents of this year, they explicitly stated that out of the four quotas, the educated youths could only receive one. As for who that would be, it could be decided by a vote among all the educated youths.

The commune side demanded that the name list must be submitted by tomorrow afternoon, as they still needed to conduct a deeper review of the personnel files.

Tomorrow after lunch would be their final deadline, leaving the veteran educated youths with hardly any time to go out and manage the corresponding interpersonal relationships.

If they failed to unite everyone before tonight, the Veteran Educated Youth Alliance would be completely dissolved.

When it was a choice of two out of four, they had all believed they had a chance, but once it turned into a choice of one out of four, none of them felt confident anymore.

There was no helping it; the difference between choosing one out of four and two out of four was simply too vast. This situation planted various hidden, selfish schemes in the hearts of all four veteran educated youths.

Sun Yong and Jiang Xiaoli exchanged glances, the look in each other's eyes somewhat peculiar, though none of them showed anything on the surface at the moment.

The four veteran educated youths agreed on what to do once everyone returned, and then dispersed.

As the sky gradually darkened, both villagers and educated youths were making their way back.

Influenced by yesterday's rising wind and falling temperatures, today's primary harvest for everyone was bundles of firewood.

Han Li intended to head back as well, but first, he wanted to inspect the results of his day's labor.

The cured meat to be sent to his family and friends had already been hung out to air-dry and would be ready to harvest in about a week at most.

The essential brick bed (kang) and stove for living had been constructed, giving Han Li a basic guarantee of survival here from now on.

However, the emptiness of the cave caused too much echo, so Han Li used wood to enclose the area around the brick bed into a small cabin.

Not only would this reduce the echo, but it would also keep the temperature inside this small cabin much higher.

Han Li had also aged the cave with smoke and fire to give it a somewhat weathered appearance.

Furthermore, he thoroughly concealed the cave entrance with shrubs and stones; even if someone walked right up to it, they might not spot it without careful searching.

After inspecting his achievements for the day, Han Li mentally patted himself on the back countless times before standing up and heading down the mountain.

Along the way, Han Li gathered a large bundle of firewood, and by the time he reached the village entrance, an extra fish had appeared in his back basket.

This fish weighed only a dozen or so catties, but stewing it in a big pot would be more than enough to satisfy everyone's cravings.

When Han Li returned home, dusk was already falling, but why were He Mi, Hao Hongmin, and the others gathered here once again?

Yun Yingying: "Han Li, you're back."

Yang Xiuying: "Han Li, you're finally back. Everyone has been waiting for you."

"Waiting for me? Could it be that you knew I caught another fish today?"

The others said nothing upon hearing this, but Yang Xiuying piped up excitedly: "What do you mean you went and caught a fish again today? Didn't we agree yesterday that we'd go catch fish together?"

Waiting for Yun Yingying to take his back basket, Han Li smiled and said, "Next time for sure. It was just by chance that I caught a fish today. Is there something you all needed me for?"

"It's all because of the recruitment quota fuss. The village said the educated youths made too many mistakes this year, so out of the four quotas, only one can be given to the educated youths. Sun Yong, Jiang Xiaoli, and the other veteran educated youths want everyone to go to the village branch together to fight for it. They've already been looking for us several times."

Yun Jingjing: "They probably won't pull it off this time, because I saw quite a few people turning Sun Yong and the others down."

Before Han Li even finished washing his face, Sun Yong and Jiang Xiaoli arrived.

Perhaps pressed for time, this time they skipped the small talk and went straight to the point.

Han Li: "The two team leaders, you know me. As long as the majority agrees, I will definitely not object."

The two of them were left somewhat speechless, but since they still had important matters to attend to, they departed quite briskly.

As the group saw them out to the street gate, Jiang Xiaoli gave Han Li a deeply earnest look.

After Sun Yong and Jiang Xiaoli left, He Mi and the others followed suit and went home.

Since Yun Jingjing had already prepared dinner, the fish could only be temporarily salted down, though a few others were invited to share the meal.

Dinner consisted of coarse-grain corn grit porridge, steamed buns made from a mix of two flours, paired with the crisp and refreshing scalded pickled vegetables that Qi Zhaodi had helped pickle.

Just as the three of them were eating, Sun Yong arrived first. After some polite pleasantries, he tried to build a personal connection.

He hoped that during the educated youths' courtyard vote tomorrow, Han Li and the Yun sisters would cast their ballots for him. Han Li brushed it off with a casual, laughing attitude.

After Sun Yong left, Han Li once again escorted him out to the front gate.

Just as he sat down to finish his meal and the Yun sisters were washing the dishes, Jiang Xiaoli arrived as well. Her purpose was identical to Sun Yong's.

However, she was much more articulate than Sun Yong, though even so, Han Li still did not give her a definitive answer.

Han Li had to send guests out to the front gate once more, yet...

PS: Some big shots have been complaining recently about the low volume of updates. Maosui is already preparing for this issue, and once the children start school, the updates will erupt!

Thanks to Yang Ge 123 for the tip of 100 points.

Thanks to Nanfang Shanshen for the tip of 100 points.

(End of this chapter)