Chapter 146: Digging One’s Own Grave
Chapter 146: Chapter 146: Digging One’s Own Grave
"She’s the one with the highest seniority in our village, all decisions are made by her." Aunt Zhang explained with a smile.
Turns out Aunt Wang’s father was an old man who had a child late in life, and she herself was a late-born daughter, which messed up the generations.
Because she was born last, by the time she was born, the people of her generation were already in their teens or twenties, the oldest over thirty. You have to know, in the village, any man who lives to be over thirty is old enough to be a grandpa.
By the time she grew up, all her peers had already passed on, and she was the only one left of that generation in the village, so she directly became the village’s "old ancestor."
"No wonder." Fu Xiaoxiao understood now. "Then what do you call her?"
"According to seniority in the village, we all have to call her Old Ancestor." The three Aunt Zhangs looked at each other and laughed.
Aunt Wang pursed her lips and let out a soft snort.
"Seeing them scheming all day long for that spot to go back to the city, I got annoyed and simply set this rule. I don’t even know when that Zhao fellow started acting like he was the one in charge."
"So the educated youths don’t know about this?" Fu Xiaoxiao froze for a moment. Going by this, the educated youths should all know, shouldn’t they?
"How could that group of educated youths be as lovable as you? When they came to the village, each one of them kept disliking this and that, and they managed to offend everyone in the village." Aunt Zhang waved her hand, full of disdain.
Who would be happy seeing themselves being despised!
"At the beginning we were quite warm-hearted in helping them, but they kept making a fuss over everything, this not good, that not acceptable, and they pissed us off. After that, nobody helped them anymore." Second Aunt Zhang rolled her eyes. Back then she even brought them hot water, but they complained her bowl was dirty and even smashed it.
"So that’s how it was. That really is...pretty annoying." Fu Xiaoxiao also felt that such behavior was indeed very off-putting. Most villagers were simple and honest, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have tempers.
Once you know you’re being despised, who would still stick their face up just to be slapped cold.
"Right! I’ve been telling you, they’re no good at work, and even worse at dealing with people." Talking about this, Aunt Zhang got more animated and listed all the stupid things the educated youths had done.
"When they first came, they pulled out the scallions I planted, thinking they were weeds..."
"And, and, when we sent them to gather pigweed, they came back with a pile of random wild grass."
"When we let them work in the fields, they went barefoot into the paddies, got bitten by leeches, and then claimed we did it on purpose to harm them."
"The funniest thing is them showing off their culture, reciting a few poems or something to us. We couldn’t understand a word, and they looked down on us for being uneducated..."
The four of them took turns talking; after listening, Fu Xiaoxiao also felt—they really were quite stupid.
People’s enthusiasm gets worn down little by little by being despised, and resentment also builds up bit by bit.
"So now, if they want to go back to the city, nobody’s stopping them, but if they want that chance to go back, it depends on how much they’ve contributed to the village. That Zhao fellow wanting to call all the shots? Impossible." Aunt Wang said calmly.
"Shouldn’t the educated youths be told about this?" Fu Xiaoxiao looked at them. After all, no matter what they said, it was useless if the educated youths didn’t know.
"Then you go tell them. Anyway, we won’t be the ones to tell them." Second Aunt Zhang patted Fu Xiaoxiao. The villagers wouldn’t take the initiative to talk to the educated youths, but if something like Xu Linlin’s incident happened again, it wouldn’t be good for their village either.
"Alright." Fu Xiaoxiao thought for a moment; Xu Linlin would probably collapse when she heard.
But she was kindly going to tell them also because she didn’t want another case like Xu Linlin. One scheming, ill-intentioned Xu Linlin suffering was enough.
She brought it on herself; if other people got misled, that would be bad.
"Xiao Chen, stay here and play with the grannies for a while. Mommy will come back to pick you up in a bit." Fu Xiaoxiao patted Lu Chen’s head.
"Mommy, I want to go with you..." Lu Chen immediately wanted to put down his bowl and go with Fu Xiaoxiao, but Aunt Wang suddenly took out a few pieces of candy. "You’d better not go. Sit here and eat candy. Do you want some brown sugar cake?"
"...Mommy, I’ll wait for you here. Remember to come back and pick me up later! Don’t forget!" Lu Chen swallowed; he absolutely wasn’t being greedy.
"Okay." Fu Xiaoxiao chuckled, pinched his cheek, then stood up and walked toward the educated youth station.
The villagers were all resting down in the lower end of the village. The educated youths couldn’t fit in with them, so most of them would go back to the station.
When Fu Xiaoxiao arrived at the educated youth station, a few educated youths saw her and were stunned.
Then they dragged Xiao Heng out of the room. Seeing Fu Xiaoxiao, a bright light flashed in Xiao Heng’s eyes.
"Comrade Fu Xiaoxiao, what brings you here?" The corners of Xiao Heng’s mouth lifted slightly as he fixed his gaze on Fu Xiaoxiao’s face.
She looked even prettier.
"Xiao Heng, can you get all the educated youths together? I have a few words I want to say to you all." Fu Xiaoxiao looked at Xiao Heng and spoke seriously.
"Everyone, come over here for a moment." Xiao Heng put away his smile. Seeing Fu Xiaoxiao like this, it was obvious what she had to say was important.
"What’s going on?" The educated youths all gathered around, each of them looking curiously at Fu Xiaoxiao.
"What are you doing here? You’re not welcome at the station." The moment Xu Linlin saw Fu Xiaoxiao, her anger flared up.
Just seeing her made her feel like even gods and ghosts found her annoying.
"I came to tell you some good news. I just heard it from the villagers, and the moment I did, I couldn’t wait to come and tell you." Fu Xiaoxiao ignored Xu Linlin, shot her a glance, and stepped past her to look at the other educated youths.
"Uh...what important news?" Wu Shucheng asked curiously.
"It’s about your quota for returning to the city." As soon as Fu Xiaoxiao finished, all the educated youths were stunned.
"What did you say?" Wu Shucheng’s eyes widened. The quota to return to the city? Their chance to go back?
"Hey! Don’t make a fuss. Let Mr. Fu talk!" The others quickly covered his mouth and pulled him back, signaling for Fu Xiaoxiao to hurry up and speak.
This concerned whether they could go back to the city—who among the educated youths wouldn’t want to go home!
Fu Xiaoxiao glanced at them and spoke solemnly. "Here’s how your return-to-city quota works: because the spot is so limited, all the villagers will vote to choose the one educated youth who has contributed the most to the village. The one who’s voted in will get that quota to return to the city."
"My god, is that how it is? If we’d known earlier, we would’ve worked harder..." Several of the less diligent workers instantly regretted it.
Usually they worked with resentment and half-hearted effort, and now they were full of remorse.
"Impossible! Don’t listen to her nonsense!" Xu Linlin’s face went black in an instant. She pointed at Fu Xiaoxiao and cursed. "She’s deliberately misleading us, trying to make us work more!"
"Xu Zhiqing, sounds like you know something? Then go ahead and tell us, what exactly did I say that was wrong?" Fu Xiaoxiao let out a cold laugh, folding her arms.
"Obviously it’s decided by the village head and the others!" Xu Linlin shouted.
Using volume to cover up the unease in her heart.
"So you knew? But you didn’t tell the other educated youths?" Watching Xu Linlin dig her own grave, Fu Xiaoxiao smiled and countered.
The educated youths instantly shifted their gaze onto Xu Linlin...