Li Yi had no idea what was happening in the county seat. After all, he only knew the general outline of Li Gang’s situation and wasn’t clear on the specifics, so naturally, he hadn’t anticipated that Li Gang would be in danger today.
By the time he and Tang Xue arrived at the back mountain, the children were already waiting by the reservoir dam.
Seeing the two of them approach, the children immediately surrounded them, chattering away as they reported their day’s achievements to Li Yi.
Li Yi was generous with his praise, constantly commending the children for their hard work and diligence.
Each child was overjoyed to receive Li Yi’s praise, and their eyes sparkled with admiration as they looked at him!
Watching Li Yi sincerely praise each child—so gentle and patient—Tang Xue suddenly sensed a special aura about him.
Although she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, she found it truly captivating.
For a moment, Tang Xue found herself gazing at him in a daze!
Li Yi didn’t notice Tang Xue watching him from the sidelines; he was busy directing the children as they packed up the mountain produce.
Since they had returned early today and the sun hadn’t set yet, Li Yi wasn’t in a hurry to head back.
He had the children sort the mushrooms and wild produce right there, then perform a preliminary selection.
Those that were too small or too old were set aside for the children to take home and use in soups and stews.
Only those of the right size would be placed in baskets and delivered to the state-run restaurant the next day.
At seven o’clock in the evening, the sun finally set, and all the wild produce had been processed and loaded onto the truck.
Li Yi then gathered the children together and handed out their pay for the previous day.
“Dongzi, 5 yuan!”
“Xiao Jing, 3 yuan!”
“Shitou, 5 yuan!”
…
“Erya, 1 yuan!”
“Goudan, 1 yuan…”
After distributing everyone’s pay, Li Yi finally set off with Tang Xue, driving the cart toward home.
On the way back, Tang Xue kept glancing at Li Yi, as if she had something to say but was too shy to speak up.
“What’s up? You’re making me feel a little weird!” Li Yi asked with a smile.
Tang Xue thought for a moment and said, “There’s something I want to ask you, but I’m not sure if I should bring it up!”
“Just say it. You’re my wife—what’s there to be shy about?”
“I want to ask you to help Xinyao and the others!” Tang Xue said.
“Zhang Xinyao—what’s wrong with her?”
“It’s not just Xinyao—it’s also Feng Qian, Zhong Na, and Sun Lu. You know we’re the only female educated youth left in the entire commune. The rest have either been transferred back to the city or left after passing their exams, and now we’re just stuck here, killing time!”
Tang Xue continued, “Life at the sent-down youth settlement is incredibly hard, and most of the families who stayed behind aren’t well-off—take Xinyao, for example.”
“Her family’s circumstances were already difficult to begin with. Her father is disabled, and her mother has health issues. Her grandmother doesn’t approve of her mother and doesn’t like her either, so she’s never made any arrangements for her to return to the city. On top of that, she keeps making her mother write letters asking for money!”
Zhang Xinyao had been sent down to the Nianzishan Brigade for over four years now, and Li Yi knew her character well. Aside from being a bit too outspoken, there was truly nothing to fault about this girl.
Especially when it came to dealing with people, she was leagues ahead of scum like Xu Hong; her character was renowned throughout the entire commune.
Most importantly, this girl was truly a gem to his own wife.
It wasn’t just now; after Tang Xue’s suicide in his previous life, Zhang Xinyao was one of the few educated youths who remembered her.
Every year or two, she would visit Tang Xue’s grave to lay flowers and burn some joss paper.
If he could help this girl out a little in this life, Li Yi would be more than happy to!
“How do you want me to help them?” Li Yi asked.
Tang Xue thought for a moment and said, “If possible, I’d like to ask you to take them out to forage for mushrooms and other wild produce to earn some money and improve their lives!”
“I know this puts you in a tough spot—after all, you don’t even take the villagers out! But the sisters at the educated youth commune are suffering so much. You could say that everyone who stayed behind is barely scraping by, living hand-to-mouth.”
“You don’t need to explain—I know!”
Then Li Yi said again, “Taking them to gather wild produce to earn money isn’t out of the question, but I can’t be the one to do it—you’ll have to handle it!”
“Me?”
“Right. Do you know why I didn’t let the adults in the village go mushroom picking?”
“I don’t know!”
“For one thing, the state-run restaurant has limited capacity—they can’t handle too much wild produce. For another, I don’t want this to cause unnecessary complications among the villagers!”
Tang Xue understood that the state-run restaurant had limited capacity; after all, it was just a small county-level restaurant, and a few hundred pounds of mountain produce a day was indeed the absolute limit.
But she didn’t understand what came next.
With that thought, Tang Xue stared at Li Yi with her beautiful, wide eyes, a look of complete bewilderment on her face.
Li Yi immediately explained, “You’ve seen how profitable selling wild mountain produce is. Just by making a single delivery into town, I can earn what others make in several years. Even the kids in the village can make more in a single day than their parents do working the fields for labor points!”
“If I were to take them on to run the mountain produce business full-time, how many people in the village would still be willing to work the fields?”
Tang Xue seemed to get the picture; upon reflection, she could understand Li Yi’s predicament.
After all, a single work point was currently worth only about three cents. Even if someone earned the full 12 points in a day, that would amount to just 30 or 40 cents.
But those little brats in the village—even the youngest ones—could earn a whole yuan a day.
The older ones could even make five yuan a day!
Who wouldn’t be envious of that?
Tang Xue was certain that if Li Yi announced he was willing to lead the villagers in a mountain produce business, everyone in Nianzishan Brigade would likely be willing to put down their hoes and join him.
But then, who would tend the crops in the fields?
One wrong move, and they’d be accused of sabotaging production!
And if he were to take on only a select few, picking and choosing who to include, he’d inevitably end up offending people!
Given that, it would be better not to take anyone at all.
“I’m sorry, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Maybe we should just drop the idea then?” Tang Xue said.
Li Yi smiled and said, “Since you want to help those girls, that’s fine—as long as I don’t get personally involved, everything will be fine!”
“But what if you don’t get involved?”
Li Yi replied immediately, “That’s easy. Have those female educated youth give you the mushrooms they’ve gathered, and I’ll transport them to the city to sell for money. Then you can just give the money to them—problem solved!”
“Is that any different from you taking them along to do it yourself?”
“Of course there is. First of all, I won’t be dealing with them directly, and I won’t be the one giving them the money. I’m just helping my wife sell some mushrooms on the side!” Li Yi said.
Tang Xue’s eyes lit up, and she immediately said happily, “Alright, I’ll go back and talk to them!”
Tang Xue was genuinely happy to be able to help Zhang Xinyao and the others.
They were all female educated youth sent from other parts of the country to work in the countryside. When they first arrived, they were all alone and had no one to rely on.
Over the years, they’d looked out for and helped one another, which was how they’d managed to get through the hardest times.
That’s why, after seeing that Li Yi could actually make money selling mountain produce, Tang Xue had thought about whether she could help them too—and she never expected Li Yi would actually agree!