Chapter 752 - 748: Li Hongmei is Quite Good

The moment Hu Ziqiang imagined marrying a woman and being pinned to the ground and thrashed by two older brothers-in-law, Li Hongmei suddenly seemed like a pretty good option.

He took another look at her round face and dark skin, and they seemed a little more pleasant to the eye.

Come to think of it, Li Hongmei had actually been quite pretty when she first arrived in the countryside. She only got tanned this dark from all the farm work.

Just last winter, hadn’t Li Hongmei lightened up quite a bit?

With that thought, Hu Ziqiang was swayed.

It wasn’t like he had a choice!

He had just been kicked out by the other Educated Youths, and he didn’t even know how to cook. Thinking it over, Hu Ziqiang agreed.

Inside the room, Yun Hao, who had been about to call out to Hu Ziqiang: ...

Listening to the conversation outside, he thought for a moment and sat back down.

The others munched on their cornbread buns, completely speechless.

’So by kicking the guy out, we actually ended up playing matchmaker for those two.’

Everyone was at a loss for words, but they didn’t have time to dwell on it. They quickly finished their food and left.

During the busy farming season, the midday break was just that short.

Once everyone was gone, Hu Ziqiang went inside and found his portion of food untouched.

He had contributed his grain ration for lunch that day, so there was a meal waiting for him.

Li Hongmei had grain, but she hadn’t had time to cook.

In the end, Hu Ziqiang gave Li Hongmei one of his two cornbread buns and half of his wild vegetable soup. Only then could the two of them finally have their meal.

Meanwhile, Leng Yuan had found the brigade leader.

His reason was simple: he wanted every single person from the families that bullied his wife to be kicked out of the pig-rearing technique course.

The brigade leader was startled.

"Can’t we discuss this a little?"

Leng Yuan didn’t shut the door completely. "Have them leave for now. They can come back once the gossips in their families learn to keep their mouths shut."

Seeing the brigade leader starting to soften, Leng Yuan struck again.

"The other day, Li Dashan came looking for me. He wanted me to... pay a visit..."

The brigade leader jolted. "Don’t you worry. I’ll personally see to it that they’re out."

Satisfied, Leng Yuan departed.

He had pulled strings to get access to these pig-rearing techniques. It made no sense to let people who had bad-mouthed his wife learn skills he had acquired through his own connections.

Of course, Leng Yuan wasn’t being completely unreasonable. The brigade had its regular pig-rearing positions, after all. If someone truly wanted to raise pigs, they could still gather pigweed and chop feed; no one was stopping them.

That afternoon, when work let out, the brigade leader gathered everyone.

He first inspected their progress, and he had to admit, Gu Zhiqing’s method of assigning work points was incredibly valuable. They had easily completed three or four days’ worth of work in a single day.

At this rate, they would finish all these fields in less than a week.

Previously, a job like this would have taken an entire month.

The brigade leader beamed with a smile when he saw the honest, hard-working people. But when his gaze fell upon the gossipmongers—who had barely done a lick of work all day yet constantly complained about being tired—his smile instantly vanished.

They all deserved it.

They had nothing better to do than bad-mouth people, and someone had kept a crystal-clear record of it. Even if he wanted to put in a good word for them, there was no opening for him to do so.

Gazing at the crowd with a weary heart, the brigade leader called out several names.

"These few people, stay behind. Everyone else can leave."

These were all people involved in feeding the pigs, so they assumed the meeting was about that.

Leng Qiushou didn’t leave; he was now part of the pig-rearing group.

Seeing how capable her son was, Aunt Leng swelled with pride. She recalled how she had once begged Leng Yuan for a spot and failed, but her son had earned his place through his own abilities.

Just then, she spotted Gu Jiaojiao getting ready to leave. The thought that her younger daughter-in-law still hadn’t returned—all because of Gu Jiaojiao—made her immediately march over.

"Gu Jiaojiao, you stop right there."