In the afternoon, Yang Milan translated journals in the office for more than three hours. When the sun was no longer so scorching, he took his work point book and went to the fields.
His job as a scorekeeper was not only to record the work points of each member truthfully, but also to serve as a supervisor and inspector.
Yang Milan basically had the final say on how well the members performed and how many points they could receive.
Of course, if the members were dissatisfied, they could report it to the team leader or the branch secretary, who would then make the final decision.
Yang Milan first took a walk around the dry land in Dongliang. Potatoes were grown there, and the members' main work at the moment was hoeing and loosening the soil.
Compared to hoeing wheat, millet, corn, and other fields, hoeing potato fields was relatively easy.
The reason was simple: the spacing between seedlings and the width of ridges in potato fields were larger than those of other crops, so there was no need to worry about damaging the seedlings when hoeing.
Because of this, when assigning tasks, the team usually gave such work to young children or female educated youth who weren't very skilled in farm labor.
Dongliang's 400 acres of potato fields had already been hoed for a week, and now less than one-fifth remained. According to the production schedule, the hoeing had to be completed within the next two days, otherwise it would delay the tillage work in the soybean fields later.
Yang Milan first stood on a pile of earth and observed. He didn't find anyone who had finished ahead of schedule, so he walked over one by one to check.
Seeing Yang Milan coming over to check the progress, the members greeted him warmly.
Although many people looked down on Yang Milan for "living off his wife," no one dared say anything to his face. After all, no one wanted to offend a "powerful" scorekeeper.
Yang Milan responded to the greetings one by one with a very gentle attitude.
Although Babaoliang Village was remote and isolated, the people here were really simple and honest. While not all were good, and there were bad apples like Chen Jianying and Chen Gang (father and son), the vast majority were still kind-hearted.
For example, in terms of their attitude toward educated youth from outside, other villages often bullied them. Many ordinary villagers who didn't understand policy thought the educated youth working in the fields were stealing their jobs.
In some places, due to limited conditions, the educated youth even had to stay in villagers' homes, which often caused conflicts.
However, none of this happened in Babaoliang Village. Although members didn't always agree with the educated youth's behavior, they didn't criticize too much, and everyone lived in harmony.
As one of the educated youth, Yang Milan was still very grateful to the villagers.
When he reached the middle of the field, Yang Milan saw a familiar figure—Zhao Xue'e!
Zhao Xue'e was also an educated youth, but younger than Yang Milan. She had only joined Babaoliang Brigade last year, while Yang Milan had already moved out of the youth dormitory by then.
Still, since the educated youth often went to the commune or county together to do business, they frequently met and had become familiar with one another.
Seeing Yang Milan approach, Zhao Xue'e smiled and said, "Brother Milan, are you here to check on the mission?"
"Well, that depends on how well you do. If not, I'll deduct your work points!" Yang Milan joked.
"I've learned how to hoe now! You must give me at least seven work points today!" Zhao Xue'e said, waving her small hoe.
"Hahaha, if you can finish hoeing to the end of the field by dark, I'll give you seven points!" Yang Milan laughed.
"Then it's a deal!"
"It's a deal!"
Just as Yang Milan was about to move on, Zhao Xue'e suddenly said, "Brother Milan, if you have time, why don't you go see Sister Lu?"
"Shen Chenlu? What happened to her?" Yang Milan asked, frowning.
"Sister Lu fainted this morning!" Zhao Xue'e said.
"Why would she faint for no reason? Was it hypoglycemia?" Yang Milan asked seriously.
"Maybe. I couldn't see clearly from far away," Zhao Xue'e replied.
"So where is she now—the dormitory or the clinic?" Yang Milan asked again.
"I saw Sister Liang Yue helping her back to the village. They should have reached the dormitory by now," Zhao Xue'e said.
Yang Milan nodded, then turned and walked toward the village.
Thinking about Shen Chenlu, Yang Milan couldn't help but feel a headache.
He and Shen Chenlu were both from wealthy families. Their families had a good relationship and could be considered old friends.
Shen Chenlu was two years younger than Yang Milan. Since childhood, she had followed him everywhere like a little tail.
Although they had not yet married, if nothing had happened later, marriage between the two families would have been almost natural. Even Yang Milan's parents always treated Shen Chenlu as their own daughter-in-law, and Shen Chenlu herself was happy about it.
But all of this changed six years ago!
Something suddenly happened to the Yang family, and even though Yang Milan was only eighteen, he was sent to Yunshan County, thousands of miles from the capital.
After the incident, the Shen family not only refused to help, but deliberately stayed away, afraid of being implicated.
Even in how Yang's father was treated, Shen's father played an infamous role.
Because of this, Yang Milan left with hatred toward the Shen family, not even saying goodbye to Shen Chenlu.
So the reason Yang Milan was eager to marry Li Mercy was not only because of life pressures, but also partly to heal his emotional wounds.
In other words, Yang Milan accepted Li Mercy mainly because he was in a period of emotional emptiness at the time, and she happened to pick him up.
But what Yang Milan did not expect was that in the second year after hissge marriage to Li Mercy, Shen Chenlu actually came to Babaoliang Brigade as an educated youth.