Daily life of female supporting actresses in the 1970s

An old man sighed, "This kid is really patient. His hands are so rotten, yet he still gets second-class work points."

"Yeah, I remember when Qiao Zhiqing and Gu Zhiqing were building their house, she actively helped with the work. She didn't look like the type to take advantage of others."

"I said Lin Xiaomei wasn't a good person. She might have spread rumors deliberately to get Jiang Yanqiu kicked out of the educated youth camp."

"She forced someone to commit suicide, and she even stole their money. Now she's turning around and accusing them of deliberately framing her."

……

Everyone started talking, and Village Chief Zhao's face became extremely ugly.

Because before Jiang Yanqiu jumped into the river to commit suicide, his wife Wang Lanhua criticized Jiang Yanqiu based on rumors she heard from others, so she is also responsible if things are investigated.

However, he knew in his heart that Jiang Yanqiu stopped him here so that he could deal with this matter in public, otherwise Jiang Yanqiu would have difficulty surviving in the village in the future.

At this time, the educated youth returned one after another.

When Zhao Lanlan and Lin Xiaomei saw the crowd at the entrance of the educated youth center, they suddenly had a bad feeling and their eyelids couldn't help but twitch.

As they got closer, they heard Jiang Yanqiu say, "My suicide really had nothing to do with Lin Zhiqing. I was just too depressed. But I really didn't do those things. It's just that Sister Lan saw that my injuries were too serious, so she said she would help me wash the dishes first, and then help her with other things after my hands healed. I didn't agree at first. Everyone was tired from work, so how could I have the nerve to let others work?

But after every meal, there were a lot of peppers to wash, and my hands felt a burning pain from the pepper water. So, I agreed to Sister Lan's suggestion and took out a box of Friendship brand vanishing cream as a thank you. I would make other things for Sister Lan after my hands healed.

I never asked Lin Zhiqing to do anything for me, and I don't know why she said that I was a landlord and a rich man who oppressed her.

Landlords and wealthy people are evil people who exploit the working people and should be shot. Doesn't she want me to die by saying this?

If you don’t believe what I said, you can go and ask Sister Lan, or you can call Lin Zhiqing to confront her face to face to see if I have ever asked Lin Zhiqing to help wash dishes or do other things, or if Lin Zhiqing has taken the initiative to do other things for me.

Wang Zhiqing and Liu Zhiqing can also testify that we always ate together, and Sister Lan always washed the dishes for me after every meal."

Zhao Lanlan felt guilty when she heard about the vanishing cream. She immediately pretended to be calm and explained, "Village head, it was indeed me who offered to wash the bowl for Jiang Zhiqing. I went through the same thing myself back then. Now when I see Jiang Zhiqing, I think of myself back then. We all went through the same thing when we first arrived. I know how difficult it was for the new educated youth when they first arrived. I also want to help her just like I would help myself.

I didn't expect anything in return, I simply wanted to help. But Jiang Zhiqing wasn't willing to let me help for free. She said she would do the work for me after she finished cleaning up, and she even brought me a box of Friendship brand vanishing cream as a thank you.

I don't know why there are rumors that Jiang Zhiqing orders us around like a wealthy landlord. That's simply not true!"

Village Chief Zhao looked at Lin Xiaomei with a gloomy expression and asked sternly, "Lin Zhiqing, what do you think about this?"

Lin Xiaomei denied it without a second thought and answered innocently, "I don't know. I just heard it from others."

Jiang Yanqiu knew there was no evidence that Lin Xiaomei said that, so she didn't waste any more time and continued, "No matter who raised the question, as long as the matter can be explained clearly, it's fine. Also, regarding the issue of food, I don't want to investigate why my monthly ration of 30 kilograms was eaten up in less than 20 days. After all, Wang Haiyang arrived a day later than me, and he had the same rations as me, and he didn't buy any extra rations, but he still had some left over while I didn't.

I don't care about all these. After all, I have been eating vegetables grown by other old educated youth, so it is reasonable for me to pay more for food.

I remember the day I had a heat stroke, and Lin Zhiqing said they had run out of food rations. I was planning to buy some, but Sister Lan said she would lend me hers first and that I could return to the village after I recovered. I figured it was all the same, so I agreed.

I never thought of eating Sister Lan's food for free, but people said that I was eating everyone's food for free. Food is so precious now. What's the difference between eating other people's food for free and being a bandit? Only bandits get something for nothing!

Sometimes I am called a landlord and a rich man, and sometimes I am accused of being a bandit who seizes other people’s property. I am a sinner who deserves to be punished.

How can I continue to live? I will die sooner or later anyway, so I might as well end my life early so that my family and the village will not be implicated."

Jiang Yanqiu tearfully expressed her grievances, and everyone expressed their dissatisfaction with Lin Xiaomei.

Everyone started to speak up for Jiang Yanqiu, saying, "How could Lin Xiaomei do this? Landlords, wealthy people, and bandits are all guilty of crimes that deserve the death penalty, but she just puts such a big accusation on them. How can they live like this?"

"That's right. When she knelt and begged for mercy today, she confidently said that Jiang Zhiqing forced her to take someone's wallet to scare them. I'm afraid she really wanted to steal the money."

"That's right. A 15 or 16-year-old was humiliated in public by her. It would be strange if she didn't commit suicide. She even turned around and accused others of framing her."

……

Facing the accusations from everyone, Lin Xiaomei refuted with a firm face: "I didn't say those words, and I don't know who spread them."

However, her defense was not accepted by everyone.

At this time, someone raised another question: "Zhiqing Jiang and Zhiqing Wang came to our brigade together and borrowed the same amount of rations. Why did Zhiqing Wang still have rations, but Zhiqing Jiang didn't? Could it be that a female Zhiqing could eat more than a male Zhiqing?"

This question made everyone present fall into deep thought.

A closer look at Jiang Yanqiu reveals that she is thin and bony, and doesn't look like someone who can eat. So, what's the problem?

At this time, someone pointed out: "Besides, the grain that the village lent to the educated youth was only 30 kilograms. Even if they used the grain to pay for vegetables, they wouldn't use more than 2 kilograms a day."

Lin Xiaomei and Zhao Lanlan stood aside, looking very embarrassed.

Both of them liked Wang Haiyang, so they deliberately didn't take extra food from him when cooking, worried that he wouldn't have enough to eat.

Jiang Yanqiu, the newly arrived educated youth, was immersed in sorrow all day and didn't pay any attention to the problem of food availability.

Although their rations were packed separately and kept in the kitchen, the cook was the one who took as much as he could.

Every time Lin Xiaomei took Jiang Yanqiu's food, she would take some extra to subsidize Wang Haiyang, but neither of them knew the other was taking and couldn't control themselves and took too much.