Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 370: Expelled from the Team

Uncle Yaozi was choked by her words and said helplessly, "You really have a sharp tongue."

"I’ve always been like this."

Yi Chichi grinned, not wanting to continue on this topic, and turned to ask about the old man’s situation.

"Your Aunt Mu and the others went for surgery, and your Captain Uncle and I notified his family before coming back."

Speaking of this, he glanced at Yi Chichi, "Prepare yourself mentally."

"What mental preparation?"

The cryptic words left her puzzled, her face full of confusion.

Could it be that saving someone has caused trouble?

Seeing her expression, Yaozi knew she’d misunderstood, and said irritably, "What are you thinking? I meant be ready for the old man’s son to come to thank you personally."

That indeed needed preparation.

However, "What about you guys?"

"We’ll also come to thank you."

Uncle Yaozi said meaningfully, "The old man’s son is a man of manners; if he thanks you with money, don’t refuse, just accept it."

Yi Chichi immediately understood; this was to prevent her from clinging due to the kindness.

Taking the money meant things were settled, and in future meetings they’d act like strangers.

Luckily, she had no intention to cling, so this solution was quite good.

"Okay, if they give money, I’ll accept it."

Knowing her nature, Yaozi wasn’t surprised by her answer and was gratified, praising her for being sensible.

"Let’s eat together, just the two of us having a drink."

"No, thanks."

Yi Chichi decisively refused, "I have to go back and accompany my mom and Xiao Jiu. Big Orange and Da Li are there too. Uncle, enjoy slowly, and remember not to drink too much, or I’ll tell Aunt Mu when she gets back."

"You go on, shoo."

This troublesome girl loves tattling, without considering if he could handle a little drink.

As for drinking too much, that’s nonsense.

Mr. Mu’s eyes are as sharp as a ruler, if he dared drink too much and there’s less alcohol when Old Mu returned, he’d be made to kneel on the washboard.

For his knees’ sake, he couldn’t afford to drink too much.

"Uncle, enjoy your meal slowly."

With a wave of her hand, Yi Chichi left empty-handed, leaving the lunchbox behind to pick up the bowls tomorrow.

At home, Wen’s mother and Qin Jiu hadn’t started eating yet. Yi Chichi washed her hands and only then did the three of them, along with the two cats, start a pleasant dinner.

As they ate, Yi Chichi asked, "Mom, do I have to work tomorrow?"

"What did your Uncle Secretary say?"

Yi Chichi recounted Liu Xiangqian’s words, and Wen’s mother looked at her with pity, "Chichi, your plan to stay at home and embroider might fall through."

Yi Chichi was mentally prepared for this; the Flower Woman’s status in Kao Shan Village was a bit special.

She was widowed, with no children, and blind in one eye, but she used to do out-of-body fairy work and knew some mystical stuff.

Now she had stopped due to the poor climate and her age, local people believed her, outsiders didn’t know, so things remained peaceful.

But her words were trusted by the team.

Since she said the grains would be stored within half a month, it meant a significant climate change would happen then.

The timeline was too tight, everyone needed to rush the harvest, so naturally, she couldn’t escape.

"I was thinking of doing something lighter."

"Take a look tomorrow first."

If it’s too heavy, switch to another task; anyway, their family wasn’t solely depending on public points for livelihood.

Yi Chichi agreed, and before going to bed, she was still thinking about what tasks Captain Uncle would assign her.

But she never expected that her team partners would be three little girls: Niu Niu, Xiao Yezi, and Little Trumpet.

Looking at the little girls with an average age of no more than six, Yi Chichi was embarrassed, asking, "Who’s the team leader?"

Niu Niu and the others exchanged glances and unanimously raised their hands, saying "Me."

They were quite ambitious.

But, "Are the three of you commanding just me?"

The three of them exchanged glances again and nodded, "Yes."

Yi Chichi felt she couldn’t agree, the team leader position should be hers.

Just as she was about to speak, Little Trumpet pouted, and her eyes turned red, scaring Yi Chichi into quickly nodding in agreement.

"You guys command me, I’ll do whatever you say, okay?!"

Please don’t cry; the name Little Trumpet isn’t misleading, when she cries, it’s as loud as a trumpet and can make your ears ring.

Having experienced it once, Yi Chichi still felt a shiver at the recollection.

As long as Little Trumpet didn’t cry, she’d do whatever.

"Really, Auntie, will you really listen to us?"

Little Trumpet asked for confirmation again, Yi Chichi nodded and promised she’d listen.

"Alright then, let’s start by making grass ropes."

In Kao Shan Village, they grow a lot of crops, wheat, corn, soybeans, and such.

Because Baoshan County is to the north, the temperature rises later than other places, so spring planting is postponed by about ten or fifteen days, naturally delaying crop maturity too.

After the wheat is harvested, it needs to be bundled for easy transport.

Unlike modern times where there’s plenty of plastic and ropes, back then, ropes were mostly jute or grass ropes, and without having any jute crops, Kao Shan Village had to make grass ropes every autumn for bundling wheat bundles and such.

This year, to hasten the harvest, even the elderly who could move joined in with farm tools, leaving tasks like rope making and grass cutting to the child soldiers.

Kids in that era knew how to work. Though Little Trumpet and the others were young, they were more skilled than Yi Chichi at making grass ropes.

After hardly making a couple, Little Trumpet was already despairing at her speed.

The little one’s face showed an expression of utter resignation, drawing laughs from others.

As the person being scolded, Yi Chichi couldn’t laugh.

"Auntie, you’re just not cut out for work."

"Compared to you all, I’m really much worse."

Yi Chichi lowered her head in guilt; it was her first time making grass ropes, and she couldn’t speed up whether feeding the grass or turning the handle.

Xiao Yezi stared at her for a while, then turned to discuss with Niu Niu, "How about letting Auntie go turn the wheat over instead?"

"Sounds good."

Thus, Yi Chichi got expelled from the grass rope team, taking a rake to turn over wheat. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The harvested wheat needed to be sun-dried after threshing.

Though it was still early, the first batch of wheat had already been threshed and was piled on the drying ground.

The heaps looked quite optimistic, and once everything was in, several rounds of drying would be needed on the field.

Yi Chichi took a rake to loosely spread out the piled wheat and then raked it evenly.

Just when she finished raking, the birds came in flocks, she hurried to shoo them away, but there were always some sneaking in. Helpless, she urgently set up a scarecrow.

Niu Niu and the others were stunned, shaking their heads and sighing at her oddly shaped scarecrow.

Niu Niu even complained, "Auntie really can’t do anything right, except eating is number one."

Yi Chichi, "..."

This kid’s little mouth is becoming more and more glib.

"Niu Niu, can you give Auntie some face, please?"

The little girl grinned, her hands not pausing in feeding grass, "Auntie, you’re afraid of gaining weight, so you’ve already lost face."