Back to 1978

Chapter 31 Either Eat Sugar or Eat Meat

At the Yaowang Temple Team 3 headquarters, Han Hongzhen recounted in detail all of Xie Hushan's words and deeds today. However, Team 3 captain Ma Laowu seemed to have taken it to heart at all. He was concentrating on repairing farm tools and had already repaired two pickaxes while he was reporting the complaint.

Ma Laowu sat in front of the table with his head down, carving a small piece of wood with a knife. When he felt the size was right, he blew away the sawdust, picked up a loose pickaxe beside him, stuck the piece of wood on the pickaxe head, picked up the hammer and wedge the gasket in with a few hits, then put the pickaxe on the ground and pretended to swing it twice.

Seeing that he didn't listen at all, Han Hongzhen simply shut her mouth, thinking that Xie Hushan should not have lied to her before, and Ma Laowu must have accepted benefits from Xie Hushan, otherwise, why would he not react at all to such a big thing as adding one more person to the sideline group?
The number of laborers in the production team is limited. If one more person is transferred to the sideline group to pull the cart, it means that the production team will have one less laborer to work in the fields, and the extra work will have to be evenly distributed among the remaining members. Besides, does a wonton stall really need four people?
Seeing that Han Hongzhen stopped talking, Ma Laowu put the pickaxe aside and looked at her, asking puzzledly: "Go on, I'm listening."

"I'm done." Han Hongzhen said to Ma Laowu.

Ma Laowu looked outside and didn't see Han Hongzhen's mother-in-law. He asked Han Hongzhen, "Is everything finished? Does your mother-in-law have anything to say?"

"My mother-in-law wanted to say the same thing as I did. Regarding this matter, Xie Hushan said that he would arrange for another person to pull the cart at the wonton stall. He also told my mother-in-law to take a break and that her work points would be calculated as usual. My mother-in-law said that this was taking one's share of the collective interest. We are honest people and dare not take advantage of this. So, please go to you, uncle Wu, to explain it clearly." Han Hongzhen said honestly.

Ma Laowu looked at Han Hongzhen suspiciously:

"Why don't you think about it again? Is that all? Are you sure you didn't miss anything? Did he steal meat or vegetables from his fellow villagers at the market? Or if he cheated or borrowed, that counts. If you think he took advantage of you, that counts. Tell me everything."

"Of course not. He was just chatting with other people setting up stalls. He didn't borrow anything. He's a stranger and it's impossible for anyone to lend him anything." When Han Hongzhen heard that Ma Laowu suspected Xie Hushan of being dishonest and stealing things, she hurried to testify for Xie Hushan.

Although she felt that it was wrong for Xie Hushan to blatantly take advantage of the group, she had to report it truthfully to Ma Laowu, but she couldn't slander him for stealing just because she didn't like him taking advantage of the group.

Ma Laowu was relieved to hear that Xie Hushan had no other behavior. "I know. He is the team leader. If he tells you to take a break, you should take a break. Anyway, his team's account had problems in the end, and the team lost money. At the end of the year, he will use his personal dividends to make up for it. Did he arrange for anyone?"

"He didn't say." Han Hongzhen felt a little unbelievable at Ma Laowu's calm reaction.

A member, the leader of the sideline business group, took the initiative to arrange for other members to join without authorization, and the production team leader was not angry at all?
"Which laborer in our team would go with him just by shouting? Even if it's Hongbing, Ma Saner, and Daxi, they have to tell me clearly first if they want to go." Ma Laowu took a few puffs from his pipe and finally looked at Han Hongzhen:

"That guy is smarter than a monkey. He secretly called members from the production team to help the sideline team. This is a big deal. If a member or him does not get my consent, he will be criticized. He can't do this..."

Noticing that Han Hongzhen looked at him with a strange look in her eyes, Ma Laowu moved his pipe away and said, "Xiao Han, how are you looking at me? Just say whatever you want to say."

"Xie Hushan said that he gave gifts to you, Fifth Uncle, so you transferred him to the sideline group as the team leader. Now he is adding people to the group, which is obviously a mistake. Fifth Uncle, you..."

"Is this what this guy told you? He gave me a gift?" Ma Laowu looked at Han Hongzhen.

Han Hongzhen nodded.

"This brat... he was right. He did give us a gift. He didn't give it to me alone. He gave our team thirty truckloads of manure for free. He didn't spend a penny and got thirty-nine truckloads of pure manure from those old people in the county. In the end, he..." Ma Laowu was very excited when he said the first few words, but he was a little depressed when he said the last two words:

"In the end, he got away with it, that bastard. Everyone in our team thought I was the mastermind behind the scam."

Han Hongzhen was stunned when she heard this. Ma Laowu was silent for a moment, made up his mind, and looked up and said to her:

"I've made the decision. Let him do it first. Just listen to his instructions and do whatever he asks you to do. Let's see what this kid can do in the end! Even without giving him anything, this kid was able to bring back 39 trucks of pure manure for the team. I want to see what he can bring back if I give him a team!"

When Han Hongzhen reported the problem to Ma Laowu, Xie Hushan was sitting under the grape vines in his yard, flipping through his textbook and writing a set of math questions for Xie Yuxiu with pen and paper.

The sixth grade of elementary school in 1978 was much easier than the sixth grade of elementary school in 2024.

Positive and negative numbers, positive rational numbers, and other knowledge that were learned in the third and fourth grades of elementary school in the previous life, in this era, you have to wait until you enter junior high school to learn. The most difficult math problem in the sixth grade is: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of three-digit numbers.

There is no problem with arranging the courses in this way. After all, rural primary schools are short of teachers. The main teaching force is almost all private teachers who graduated from junior high school. There are even a few private teachers who graduated from primary school themselves. Why did Xie Hushan and Han Hongbing let four female teachers follow them around the county to sell manure? Because they were their female classmates who graduated from junior high school. They were called teachers, but in fact their household registration was still in the production team, and they knew to put the interests of the production team first.

These teachers, who failed to get into high school or technical secondary school upon graduation from junior high school, were immediately called by the production team to work as private teachers in primary schools, where they were paid a meager salary and subsidized work points.

As for those who are admitted to high school or technical secondary school, it is like a carp leaping over the dragon gate. They have completely changed their identities. It is impossible for them to go back to teach in rural primary schools. The worst case scenario is that they can become real teachers in urban schools.

The instructions given by the education department and the commune to these private teachers are to "know three and teach two", which means that even if you only know three words, you have to teach the children at least two.

We do not expect a surge of college students in rural areas where educational resources are scarce, but we must ensure that the next generation of our country is no longer illiterate. They can all be junior high school students, and then these junior high school students can be sent to more rural schools to serve as private teachers and teach more children.

Maybe among a hundred rural children, there will not be a single college student, but if there are 69 primary school graduates, 30 junior high school graduates, and one high school student, that would be a great victory for rural literacy.

In this era, the texts in textbooks are still full of political flavor. Even in math textbooks, the word problems are almost as serious as short essays.

It begins with: The Colombian people responded to the revolution and launched... After a long paragraph of text, there is a question asking the children to count how many bags of grain are left by the poor farmers in Colombia.

Or it could be the evil American capitalist Tommy Hawke, the beneficiary of the monopoly bourgeoisie... a lot of critical text, and in the end the children are asked to calculate how much money Tommy has cheated from the poor.

Not to mention the children, even the teachers don’t know where the United States is or where Colombia is. What is monopoly?

I don't know what's the point of writing so much nonsense in the word problems. They are not as good as the word problems he had when he was a child in his previous life. There are two water pipes in the pool, one for filling water and the other for draining water. Although he would scold the person who made the questions for being too idle, at least it is simple and clear.

"Daxiu, come here!" After Xie Hushan finished asking the question, he shouted to Xie Yuxiu, who was digging out an earthworm in the yard and throwing it at the door of the ant nest to watch the ants moving the earthworm.

"What are you doing, brother~" Xie Yuxiu came over, took a look at the questions on the table, and her face immediately turned bitter: "I rolled so many dry cigarettes for you..."

"Da~" Xie Hushan took out a bag of candied melons from his pocket and threw it on the table.

There are not many high-end candies in the countryside. Sugar-coated melons made with maltose are already a rare snack in the eyes of children. Children buy them occasionally, but they buy them one by one. Ordinary families will only buy so much at a time when they need to entertain guests during the Chinese New Year.

Xie Yuxiu immediately showed a look of surprise and reached out to grab them! With these candies in hand, she felt that she could show off with her classmates from summer to Chinese New Year!

Xie Hushan held down the sugar melon and said to Xie Yuxiu with a smile:

"If you finish all these questions well, I'll give you a pack, and I'll buy you more tomorrow."

Xie Yuxiu didn't even look at the questions and said, "Brother, I don't know how to..."

"If you don't know how to do it, ask me. I'll explain it to you in detail. But I can explain a question three times at most. If you still don't know how to do it after three times, I'll call Dahei over and let him eat his candy while I watch me beat you. I'll beat you until a bamboo pole breaks and I'll give you one more chance."

Xie Yuxiu turned and ran out the door. Xie Hushan sat at the table and continued:

"I've asked your mom to ask for leave for you. You can go to school on the day of the exam. Before I leave every day, I'll give you two sets of Chinese and math questions. Your dad will take you to the veterinary office to do the questions, and I'll come back to check on you."

"I can just not eat it! Let my grandfather buy it for me!"

"Starting from today, there are four more sets of questions waiting for you." Xie Hushan pulled out a bamboo pole from behind him:
"Either you eat candy or it eats meat, it's up to you to choose the path."

(End of this chapter)