The Sweetness of the Seventies-Chapter 82: Envy and Jealousy (180+ Monthly Votes)_1

He Tiantian almost dropped the bowl in her hand when she heard that, Zhang Qingshan was talking about eating the "descendants" of the Good Snake King right in front of it, which didn’t seem quite appropriate!

She quickly comforted the Snake King in the barrier in her mind, "Snake King, don’t be mad, Zhang Qingshan is just extremely hungry, he didn’t mean to say he wants to eat your kind..."

"Hmph!" the Snake King hummed disdainfully, "You lowly humans, you only eat these despicable snakes. I am a Spirit Snake, not the same as them!"

"Hehe, that’s good, that’s good." He Tiantian was relieved. As long as they weren’t the snakes protected by the Snake King, then they could be eaten.

After eating lunch, and resting for half an hour in the afternoon, Village Chief Qi began leading people downstream to work. Before leaving, he praised Zhao Dajiao, He Tiantian, and Qi Xiaoyan, and also asked them to clean up and then do some light work on the shore.

Having had a good meal at noon, everyone had the energy to work hard in the afternoon, and by evening, they had completed one hundred and fifty meters, exceeding their target.

When they returned to the village at night, it was already dark. After a day’s hard work, everyone went to their respective homes, to find their own mothers.

Third Grandma Qi had already prepared porridge and fried potatoes. He Tiantian ate a bit, chatted with Third Grandma Qi for a while, and then went to sleep.

After the villagers returned, they talked about having chicken meat while working. While praising He Tiantian and Qi Xiaoyan for their generosity, Lin Xiaoru and Huang Jingli from the educated-youth spot couldn’t help but regret.

"If I had known there would be something good to eat, I would have gone to work too," Lin Xiaoru said unhappily, as she hadn’t had meat for a long time.

Huang Jingli bowed her head and pouted, thinking to herself, ’You want to go, but you can’t work; they wouldn’t let you go anyway!’

Huang Jingli was self-aware; she indeed wasn’t as capable at working as the others, and without the popularity that He Tiantian had, she wouldn’t get assigned to the easier tasks, so she didn’t feel envious.

"Alright, let’s just eat sparingly, and we won’t starve," said Huang Jingli. "Didn’t you see how Wang Lei, Zhang Qingshan, Sister Wu, and Ye Xiaofan could barely lift their legs when they came back? Those tasks were heavy; we can’t do them, so let’s not go and make a fool of ourselves."

Lin Xiaoru also knew what Huang Jingli said was true, but she felt uncomfortable about it. Why could He Tiantian do the lighter work while others couldn’t? It was too unfair; she wanted to report and expose this.

However, she couldn’t let Huang Jingli know about this plan, it was enough that she knew. Without the ox cart to go to the county town, Lin Xiaoru temporarily shelved the idea of sending out a letter.

Early the next morning, Qi Xiaoyan brought several baskets from her house for Zhang Qingshan and Wang Lei to set in the water. freewebnσvel.cѳm

Indeed, when the two heard about the five baskets, their eyes brightened and they hurriedly took a shovel to dig up some earthworms. After killing a few, they placed them into the baskets and went down to the river bottom to set them in suitable locations.

This basket had a ring of barbs at the entrance, so that once eels, loaches, or fish went in, they couldn’t get out.

Qi Xiaoyan also brought a short fishing net, and while she and He Tiantian were washing potatoes, they set it up in the stream. In just a little while, they actually managed to catch one or two pounds of fish. But these were small and not plentiful, hardly enough for making soup.

"Xiao Yan, you’re helping Director Zhao, I’ll look around here, maybe we can catch some more fish?" He Tiantian arranged, hoping to get another four or five pounds, which would probably be enough.

After Qi Xiaoyan went back, she spoke with Director Zhao who agreed to the plan, telling He Tiantian to focus on catching fish and not to worry about helping with the steamed buns and cooking anymore.

There was plenty of firewood, so there was no need to chop more today, just steam the buns and fry the vegetables, which two people could handle.

He Tiantian watched the stream without looking away and after an hour had only caught a little over a pound of fish—adding to what was caught earlier, it was less than three pounds in total.

"Director Zhao, look, there’s only so much in the basket. I’m afraid it’s not enough," He Tiantian said embarrassedly, having managed to catch only that much after a whole morning’s work, which was clearly not enough to eat.

Director Zhao looked and thought for a moment before saying, "Let’s just make a mixed fish soup then, a small spoonful per person to dip the buns in should be enough."

Just then, Wang Lei and Zhang Qingshan arrived, grinning from ear to ear, carrying several heavy baskets and saying, "Director Zhao, Xiao Yan brought over a few baskets and we went down to the river. Just pulled them up to see and turns out we caught quite a bit—see if it’s enough?"

Wang Lei quickly emptied the baskets. Inside, there weren’t just crawfish, but also plenty of small fish, over a dozen eels, two snakes, lots of little loaches—all together they filled a bucket after cleaning out the five baskets.

Seeing so much, Director Zhao was very pleased and said, "The loaches have dirt in their bellies and can’t be cooked today—set them aside until they spit out the sludge in their stomachs, then we can eat them. As for these two snakes, throw them away, we don’t eat that stuff here. Today, we’ll make a small fish soup and dry-fried eels, and stir-fry potatoes."

There was both meat and vegetables, and the portions were very generous.

Upon hearing that Director Zhao was going to throw the snakes away, Zhang Qingshan quickly said, "Director Zhao, if you don’t want them, could you give them to me? Where I’m from, we like eating snake meat."

"Sure, take them," Director Zhao readily agreed, not wanting to let the opportunity for a favor pass by; since they weren’t going to eat them anyway, keeping them would be pointless.

Zhang Qingshan found two bamboo containers and put the snakes into them, planning to have a feast that evening.

"You guys keep on digging for earthworms and put them in the baskets, see if you can catch some more. If there’s plenty of them, we can make more dishes tomorrow," instructed Director Zhao, adding that having meat and fish every day would keep everyone happy and motivated to work.

"Got it, Director Zhao. I was even thinking of getting a few more baskets from the village later tonight. Based on what we just saw, there seem to be plenty of fish and shrimp in the water. I wonder why nobody has fish them out?" Zhang Qingshan asked with a laugh, noting that as a young person with a big appetite, he got hungry quickly even just after eating.

Director Zhao replied, "No need for you guys to go to the trouble. I’ll look into it when I get back tonight. Having meat and fish is something everyone enjoys. These are river-bred, owned by no one; the collective used to not care about these things."

With Director Zhao taking the lead, things were looking even better.

Director Zhao began stir-frying potatoes, while He Tiantian and Qi Xiaoyan carried a bucket to the stream to clean the catch. With only an hour until mealtime, they needed to be quick.

As there weren’t many small fish, He Tiantian asked Qi Xiaoyan to clean them and then take them to Director Zhao to make the small fish soup. He Tiantian continued cleaning the eels by the stream. This chore was child’s play for her, and she worked even faster after Qi Xiaoyan left.

By the time Qi Xiaoyan came back to help, He Tiantian was already on the last eel.

"Sister Tiantian, you’re too quick! Are you sure you’ve cleaned them properly?" Qi Xiaoyan asked curiously, almost disbelieving her own eyes. It could have taken her another half hour to finish the same task.