The timeline system has gone awry; they insist that steamed buns are a magic pill.

Going to the county town might not seem like a big deal in later generations, but for rural people today, it's definitely something to brag about for half a year.

Apart from Li Qingmei, Li Xianjing, Xian'an, and Xianle have never been to the county town.

"What's the county town like, Auntie?"

Li Xianjing lay on her side on the bed, looking at Li Qingmei opposite her with anticipation and curiosity.

"Actually, I've only been there once. I just glanced at the department store from afar. It's a county town. There are buildings, several stories high. And the clothes that people in the county town wear have very few patches. Some of them don't even have patches."

"Furthermore, we rarely see bicycles, even though they're everywhere in the county town."

"Seriously, people in the county town live such good lives," Li Xianjing said with envy.

"Yes, people in the county town are living a really good life."

Li Qingmei had always wanted to move to the city, but unfortunately, there were very few opportunities to work in the city. Her family didn't have any connections, so moving to the city was just a pipe dream.

"My third uncle said he'd take us to the Department Store this time. Auntie, what's the difference between a department store and a supply and marketing cooperative?"

"I don't know either. I just glanced at it from afar. The department store is quite big. I heard that all the new clothes are hanging on one wall."

As Li Qingmei spoke, she lowered her head. At the time, she was wearing faded, patched clothes that looked clean and neat compared to other people's clothes. She felt extremely inferior because she didn't have patched clothes and was too embarrassed to go into the department store.

Li Qingmei touched the five yuan under her pillow. This was the money she had saved this year, of which four yuan and fifty cents was recently saved. Unfortunately, it was not enough to buy a piece of clothing, and the most important thing was that she did not have cloth coupons.

"Auntie, I have trouble sleeping."

Li Xianjing whispered that her mind was now filled with thoughts of houses, cars, people, and new clothes in the department store in the county town.

"Me too."

"I wonder if Uncle Three will have trouble sleeping?"

"Third Brother, are you alright?"

Li Qingmei actually envied her third brother's personality at times.

At this moment, Li Qingqiu was feeling annoyed. He had forgotten to sign in at the steamed bun shop. He blamed it all on that girl he met during training today—she was so infuriating and looked down on farmers.

Graduating from a vocational high school makes you great, and you can recite quotations well. But who isn't like that? Oh well, let's just sign in.

[Sign-in successful. Signed in at the local cave dwelling. Received one cave dwelling formation modification blueprint. Points +1]

"Blueprints for modifying the cave dwelling formation?"

Li Qingqiu muttered to himself, taking a closer look. This wasn't a design drawing, but it was actually quite good, fitting the current style quite well, with the addition of some tree stump stools and clothes racks made of branches. "Not bad, I'll try to make it according to the drawings later, it looks rather interesting."

"It has some of the style of later homestays."

The wooden stools and the clothes rack made of tree branches all need to be carefully polished; it will take some time. "If we sign a few more contracts, maybe we can even get the blueprints for the cave renovation."

"sleep."

Tonight, I'll definitely dream about that Ma Xiaoli. So what if she has a good memory? She just doesn't have the mental power spell on her, and she actually thinks she's the original owner of this body? That dim-witted girl! "She even said she's just freeloading and scamming subsidies. Wait until tomorrow's competition and I'll show her what I'm made of."

I was just going to coast along, but now I have to win first place in the quote contest. You little brat, how can you be so infuriating? If you weren't the daughter of Deputy Director Ma of the Revolutionary Committee, I would have sprayed you in the face long ago.

Li Qingqiu was speechless. Oh well, he got up and went to find Yin Yi. "Little sister, Xianjing, are you awake yet? We need to hurry up and pick mushrooms. We have to meet at the commune before eight o'clock."

The commune got a Dongfeng truck this time. Although it was a bit cold, it was still a car.

"Third Brother, please wait a moment, we'll get up right away."

It was just past five o'clock, still dark. With the kerosene lamp lit, Li Qingmei and Li Xianjing looked tired; they hadn't fallen asleep until almost midnight the night before, two or three hours later than usual.

After tidying themselves up and washing their faces with cold water to refresh themselves, the two quickly packed their things. Li Xian'an and Li Xianle also finished packing. The group went to the educated youth settlement and drank the rice porridge that Yin Yi had cooked all night yesterday.

"When we get to the commune, I'll treat you to steamed buns."

The first batch of snow mushrooms weighed only about twenty or thirty catties. The group set off in the dark and arrived at the commune at just 7:30. Li Qingqiu bought some steamed buns and went to the commune to have some egg drop soup.

"Hurry up and get in the car."

There were some meadows in the truck bed, so it was okay to sit on; they weren't too cold on our bottoms, especially for Li Xianjing, Li Qingmei, Xian'an, and Xianle, who were riding in a car for the first time. Yin Yi and Guo Zhaonan, on the other hand, were relatively calm.

Both of them were in a car, and although it was their first time riding in a truck, they didn't find it particularly strange. As soon as Li Qingqiu sat down, he and Ma Xiaoli stared at each other with wide eyes.

"A freeloader..."

"Are you kidding me? I'm just kidding."

"Sooner or later you'll know what a fist the size of a clay pot can do..."

After exchanging a few words, a few more people got on the bus, and they turned out to be acquaintances.

"Technician Wang."

Wang Qingqing, what a pity. She only stayed in Lijia'ao for three or four days before returning to the agricultural technology station, which made Li Qingqiu very curious. Was she the lucky one from the lottery? When she saw Li Qingqiu again, she was very friendly.

This made Ma Xiaoli even angrier. Li Qingqiu was not polite to her at all, but he was much friendlier to the woman in front of her. She did not think she was inferior to Wang Qingqing.

"Oh, it's you guys. Going to the county town for fun?"

"I'll go to the county town for a stroll and participate in the quote contest while I'm at it."

"A quote contest?"

Wang Qingqing was somewhat surprised. She knew a little about Li Qingqiu from the members of the Lijia'ao brigade, especially the woman called "Sixth Aunt," who recounted some of Li Qingqiu's embarrassing stories. It was unheard of for someone to have spent three years in first grade and eleven years in elementary school, yet she still participated in a quote competition with such low intelligence.

Whether the commune had gone mad or become stupid, she had no idea that Li Qingqiu had won first place in the commune's quotation contest for all production teams, and even got full marks. Aunt Liu would never tell her about this famous incident.

"Yes, actually I was reluctant to participate, but Director Guo persuaded me several times, so I had no choice."

Li Qingqiu looked helpless, which made Ma Xiaoli roll her eyes. In fact, she strongly suspected that he had cheated in the last quotation test. Yesterday, she asked him a few quotation questions, and he couldn't answer them for a long time.

"Besides, nobody's buying mushroom branches lately, so I've got some free time."

As Li Qingqiu inquired about the mushroom spawn, Wang Qingqing maintained a calm expression, but the smugness in her eyes was obvious to everyone. "The spawn cultivation is progressing very smoothly. The mycelium should grow in the next couple of days, and the rollout will definitely be completed before the New Year. Maybe we'll even be able to eat the freshest snow mushrooms before the New Year."

Li Qingqiu chuckled. "You think the fourth generation of mycelium is like the third generation, maturing and ready for harvest in fifteen days? The fourth generation takes at least forty or fifty days, and the fifth generation is extinct. I think it's better to be cautious. After all, it's a new strain; who knows its characteristics?"

"You're worrying unnecessarily."

A male technician who had remained silent said with a hint of disdain, "What do you, an outsider, know about microbial culture?"

"How dare you speak like that? I was just making a suggestion."

"What's wrong with what I said? You're just a farmer, what would you know about technical matters?"

Li Qingqiu thought to himself, "Fine, you'll all be crying later." Ma Xiaoli glanced at the silent Li Qingqiu. "Li Qingqiu, there are still people you can't argue with."

"You'd better hurry up and look at your quotes, or you won't even be able to get into the second round."

"That's still better than you."

"That's true, I have a short temper. How about we make a bet?"

"Tell me your bet, what are you betting on?"

"If I win the quote test, you'll have to call me 'good brother' then."

"Pah, you wish! How could I possibly lose to you? What if you did lose?"

"I'll call you hello sister."

"Pah, Li Qingqiu, you're shameless. You're five years older than me."

"Then tell me, what should we bet on? How about we bet some tickets? How about we bet on cloth tickets? Not much, just ten feet."

Li Qingqiu knew that Ma Xiaoli's father was the deputy director and received many benefits. In particular, her mother was the leader of the county cultural station, and she probably had more votes than her father. This was practically a vote bank, even richer than Han Caiju.

They swiped some cloth coupons. Little sister and Xianjing, the two girls, were wearing clothes patched up so many times that they looked really bad. Just now, the two girls looked at Ma Xiaoli and Wang Qingqing with envy. Relatively speaking, Yin Yi's clothes were okay, and Zhao Nan's clothes, although some of them were patched, were still acceptable.

Compared to Li Qingmei, Li Xianjing, Xian'an, and Xianle, who were all pure country bumpkins with patched and tattered clothes, Li Qingqiu, on the other hand, had a new jacket, trousers, and cotton shoes. Coupled with her carefree personality, she was more cheerful and more like a city person than city people.

"It's not that you're scared. Oh well, if you're scared, then forget it."

"I'm not afraid of you. It's just a bet, ten feet of cloth coupons." Ma Xiaoli really didn't take it seriously. She had already bought three new outfits this year and was planning to buy another one for the New Year.

"It's a deal. If we lose, you can't go back on your word."

Li Qingqiu thought to himself, "I've taken the bait. This fish is a pretty little fish with a temper. I need to get to know this rich and beautiful little fish. The more I know, the more tickets will come to me."

"The car is starting, sit tight."

"I understand, Master."

The truck ride was still a bit bumpy, and it was especially cold in the wind. Li Qingqiu was in a great mood after getting ten feet of cloth coupons, humming a little tune. Ma Xiaoli glanced at the quotes and saw Li Qingqiu's smug face, so she snorted.

When you get to the county revolutionary committee examination hall, you'll still be smug. But I won't be polite then. If you don't have ten feet of cloth coupons, I'll charge you at least one yuan. A farmer will probably feel the pinch for a while if he doesn't have one yuan. Consider this a lesson for your glib tongue.

The truck chugged along for more than half an hour until it arrived at the County Revolutionary Committee. The group got out of the truck, and Li Qingqiu and Guo Zhaonan told each other that they would meet at the state-run restaurant at noon before rushing into the County Revolutionary Committee compound.

"There are quite a lot of people."

"There are about sixty or seventy people from each commune, plus about sixty or seventy people from various units in the county and large factories, making a total of more than one hundred and fifty people." Ma Dongliang, who is also Ma Xiaoli's father, is the deputy director of Lishan Commune and he led the team this time.

"First, register and sign in."

The group first went to register and get slips. The competition would begin after the quotation reporting meeting. The first session was from 9:30 to 10:30, and the second session was from 11:00 to 12:00. After the first exam, they would receive meal vouchers.

According to Ma Dongliang, at least two-thirds will be eliminated in the first round. Wow, that's quite a force to be reckoned with.

"Li Qingqiu, if I were you, I would have gone back earlier."

"You underestimated me."

Li Qingqiu said with a smile, "Get your cloth coupons ready, little girl."

"Who are you calling 'little girl'?"

"Whoever agrees, agrees. Don't try to renege on your promise later if you lose."

"you……."

Li Qingqiu waved his hand and went to get the slip.

The briefing session ended quickly, and the exam rooms were assigned. There were two exam rooms in total: one in the auditorium and one in a large conference room. Li Qingqiu was lucky and took the exam directly in the auditorium without having to move.

"what?"

Han Caiju glanced at it, somewhat uncertain. "That person looks like Li Qingqiu?"

"Caiju, come and help."

"They're here."

Han Caiju glanced at it, thinking she might have misread it, and quickly ran to the main conference room to help.