CHAPTER 121: 121 JEALOUSY

They’re all just watching the show, saying whatever nasty things come to mind. But since the two kids don’t come out, and there aren’t many people around anyway, it’s mostly just a few gossiping women talking.

Tan Shaoting drove the cart back and thought of Ma Dongmei’s words. They really were just overly fed with idleness. But since such talk had spread, it meant a lot of people were discussing it.

When he got home, the yard was quiet; that little girl must be asleep.

He had lived a long time, and although he hadn’t experienced romantic relationships, he wasn’t completely naïve.

In this place, many people were just getting through life together because living alone was indeed too difficult.

Although some unpleasant words were going around, it was just talk, so he didn’t take it to heart.

He went back to his room and lay down to sleep. It was too hot outside. Right now, he might as well sleep like that girl.

Su Yuanyuan woke up when Tan Shaoting returned, listened to the noise outside, and knew he had gone to rest too.

She knew the next two or three years would be like this. Next year, the two of them might not even be able to farm.

It was really worrisome; the worst-case scenario had indeed happened, and it was truly depressing.

Back then, whenever her grandmother had time, she would talk about these years.

So she was actually terrified in her heart about these years, calculating everything she had, yet feeling she couldn’t do anything. It was truly distressing.

So when she got up in the afternoon, Tan Shaoting saw the wilting little girl.

"What’s wrong?"

"How long will this drought last?"

"At least several years, right?"

"Then what are we supposed to eat? How can we survive?" Su Yuanyuan was frightened.

"We’ll get through it."

"Can we get through it? There’s no food. Oh, by the way, how are your winter melons doing?"

Tan Shaoting didn’t expect the girl to change topics so quickly.

"Not bad, I’ve counted. There are over two hundred. I water them every day, and they look okay."

Su Yuanyuan still frowned. "Tan Shaoting, you said we can harvest crops. If we go abroad to harvest, how do we do it openly when we come back?"

"Go abroad?"

Tan Shaoting had just read a few foreign books and really didn’t know much about foreign countries.

"Yeah, come here, I’ll show you a map. Take a look?"

The two went inside. Su Yuanyuan took out a map. She pointed it out to Tan Shaoting, "Here it is, it’s even larger than our country. Look, this is where we are. It’s not that far away."

"The fact that it’s near us means the climate should be similar."

Su Yuanyuan paused for a moment, that was true. But she was still stubborn, she didn’t know much about foreign history but hadn’t heard that foreign countries were also experiencing this drought.

"The temperature there is similar to ours, I mean, if we can’t farm next year, we should go over and take a look?"

"Next year?"

"Yeah, this year, we both can’t leave. Maybe you can do the harvest yourself, and I can go take a look?"

Tan Shaoting shook his head, "No, if we’re going, we go together."

"Over there, once we finish the harvest here, it’ll start snowing. By then, we won’t catch anything over there."

"We can buy it, right?"

"Of course, but think about it, if we go to buy it, how do we bring it back?"

"So you’re planning to steal it?" Tan Shaoting raised an eyebrow.

Su Yuanyuan rolled her eyes at Tan Shaoting, "Why say something so unpleasant? Let’s just check it out first, who said anything about stealing?"

She knew that place was very large, and the population wasn’t that much. They were mechanized, so they just planted. If it snowed, they wouldn’t harvest anymore; it was mostly wheat there, right?

She had read novels before, and seen that every year during the autumn harvest over there, they couldn’t finish reaping everything, so they could just take what wasn’t harvested.

Even though it was taking without asking, it sounded better than stealing.

Tan Shaoting nodded, "My mistake. But if you want to go out, I must go with you, but keep in mind that it’s probably unrealistic to leave at that time, the farm won’t allow it.

Even if it’s close, it might take ten days or half a month to get there? How do you plan to go? By train?"

Su Yuanyuan coughed lightly, could they secretly go?

"Sneak over? Is that possible?"

"Sneak over? How would you go?"

"By train?"

Tan Shaoting thought for a moment, it’s still possible. "Okay, we’ll try it when the time comes."

They studied the map a bit more. They still didn’t know how things really were abroad. It was all just empty talk and fantasy for now.

Next, they busied themselves with fieldwork every day. Somehow, it got out that there were fish in the pit. During the day, many older kids came. In the past, family members would warn them that the water was deep, afraid they’d drown. Now there wasn’t much water, so the adults were less concerned.

After all, catching some fish could improve the family’s meals.

Now it was well-known that Su Yuanyuan’s crops were doing well.

Some people felt unbalanced, thinking their fields didn’t have water like others’, leading to poor harvests, which meant they couldn’t complete their tasks. They needed an excuse.

So, Ma Changshun’s group of ten families went to find their group leader.

What could Ma Changshun do? He was the smallest group leader.

"I’ll pass on your concerns to Director Feng."

"Group Leader Ma, when are you going to see the director? Why don’t we go with you?

We’re not jealous that their crops are doing well; we’re just reporting our situation. Isn’t this the case for everyone at the farm? Only that new girl’s getting a harvest.

So, what about us? Our families still need to eat, and all our seeds are invested. This is a year of wasted work.

This drought wasn’t because we didn’t work hard or were lazy; it’s not something we can control."

Ma Changshun had no solutions, and it wasn’t just one group that had approached. But what could Director Feng do? He had no authority to decide anything. Everything was subject to the upper management’s decisions.

"Alright, let’s all go together now."

The ten of them got on Ma Changshun’s donkey-drawn cart, heading to find Director Feng of the Second Farm.

Along the way, looking at the withered corn, no one knew what to say.

This time, the farm recruited official workers—all experienced farmers looking at the situation—and they felt very distressed.

"We really can’t even harvest the seeds back; I’ve used 300 jin just on seeds for these one hundred acres."

The others remained silent after hearing this.

Ma Changshun drove on, "Everyone’s in the same boat."

"Only that girl’s field can yield a harvest; if I had that water pit, I’d manage it better than her."