Time Travel: Volume 1! Starting from a Small Mountain Village

"What!"

"The machinery factory invited Long Zhiqing to work there, but she refused."

……

Upon hearing this news, everyone was even more excited than when they first learned of the aid. In their eyes, being able to get into a large state-owned factory would be an incredible stroke of good fortune.

Once they got a job at the machine factory, they could have a government job and a secure livelihood. They really couldn't understand why Long Zhiqing would refuse.

Is this the difference? Every single one of them wanted to get their children into state-owned factories. Yet, despite such a good opportunity, Long Zhiqing refused Director Xu's invitation.

"This is Long Zhiqing's awareness. She said she wanted to stay in the countryside and contribute to the construction and development of the village." Lin Guodong brought up Long Lifan's words when she refused Director Xu, just to let Secretary Miao hear how all that Long Zhiqing had done for them could be considered nonsense in his mouth.

If Long Lifan heard Lin Guodong praising her like that in front of several cadres, especially mentioning her own words when she rejected Director Xu, she would definitely find it laughable. It was just an excuse; she simply didn't want to be a corporate slave.

Secretary Miao's face was flushed red. Recalling what he had just said to Lin Guodong, he wished he could disappear into a crack in the ground.

He really didn't expect that the girl to be so enlightened, willingly giving up the invitation from the machinery factory. He himself would never have been able to do that.

Seeing everyone talking about Long Zhiqing's awareness, and especially seeing Secretary Miao's embarrassed expression, Lin Guodong felt much better.

“I think Long Zhiqing is a very capable person, and we should make good use of such a person!” Then he revealed his purpose, “So, I propose that Long Zhiqing serve as the women’s director of our village.”

"What? Captain, you're not joking, are you?!"

"Exactly, how can the brigade leader and women's director be educated youth? Isn't that inappropriate?"

“Long Zhiqing is too young. If she were to serve as the women’s director, the villagers would probably not be convinced.”

"..."

Lin Guodong's words immediately stirred up a storm. Everyone present, except for Party Secretary Miao, expressed their opinions, and even the two squad leaders surnamed Lin protested. But their ultimate goal was the same: they did not approve of Long Zhiqing taking on this position.

The Dongwan Brigade is mainly composed of the Lin and Zhou families, so they believe that the position of Women's Director should be filled by one of these two families.

In fact, the position of women's director of their Dongwan brigade has been vacant for a long time, but neither the Zhou nor the Lin family is willing to give in, so the matter has remained unresolved.

Although the women's director had little real power, and could even be considered a sinecure, the brigade would provide a monthly work point subsidy. Although it wasn't much, who would easily give up a chance to earn work points for free?

Secretary Miao sat quietly to the side. In any case, this position was not going to be given to the Miao family, so he did not participate.

However, he was somewhat shocked that Lin Guodong would be willing to give up such a position. But he worried that others might not agree.

Didn't you see that everyone else's eyes were already red with anger? Even the two captains who always followed Lin Guodong's lead disagreed with his proposal.

“I know what you’re thinking!” Lin Guodong said, seemingly having made up his mind. “The reason why the position of Women’s Director has been vacant for so long is because you all want your relatives to take it. I don’t deny that; I’ve had that selfish thought myself.”

"We've been arguing for so long and there's still no conclusion. Why not just let this position go? Although Long Zhiqing is young, she's calm and collected. Wasn't she the one who handled Chen Ying's family's matter last time?"

“I think she handled it very well. Moreover, Long Zhiqing is a very conscious and capable person. Perhaps she can provide more valuable advice for the development of our Dongwan Brigade.”

"Secretary Miao, what do you think?" Since the others disagreed, Lin Guodong turned his attention to Miao Dashan. As long as he got Miao Dashan's support, the matter of Long Zhiqing would be settled.

"I think you're right, Captain, but the comrades' concerns are not without merit," Miao Dashan said, adopting a neutral stance to avoid offending either side.

"Old fox"

Lin Guodong inwardly grumbled, but he needed a clear answer from Secretary Miao. So he asked, "Does Secretary Miao have any good suggestions?"

Well, the ball has been thrown back to him again. Everyone else turned to look at him, and he knew he couldn't remain silent. So he slowly said, "As I just said, the captain's words make a lot of sense, but it's understandable that the comrades are worried."

"After all, it's really a pipe dream to let a young educated youth take on the position of women's director. I think it would be better to let Long, the educated youth, temporarily act as director for three months."

"If Long Zhiqing can handle the village affairs properly during these three months, then we will officially let her take up this position. But if she can't, then it means that Long Zhiqing really doesn't have the ability, and we will no longer consider this matter."

"I think it's a good idea!" Lin Guodong immediately expressed his opinion, having no worries about Long Zhiqing's abilities. Long Zhiqing was someone who could even make Chen Desheng suffer, so this was good, and it also served as an explanation to the other cadres.

“However, we still need to talk to Long Zhiqing about this.” Lin Guodong suddenly remembered being rejected last time. “Let’s see what she thinks.”

Secretary Miao glanced at it, realizing that the brigade leader was just being wishful. He had thought that this was compensation that Long, the educated youth, had asked for, but it turned out that the other party didn't even know about it.

"How about this, a few of us go find Long, the educated youth, this afternoon and we'll talk about it together." Lin Guodong was afraid of going alone and feeling awkward, so he thought of bringing Secretary Miao and Secretary Zhou along as well.

Around 2 PM, Long Lifan called Jiang Nian'an and Hu Lili to go out, because she hadn't finished her tasks that morning, so she planned to leave a little early.

As the three men carried sickles and baskets up the mountain, Lin Guodong and several other village officials came looking for them.

"Captain, what's going on here...?"

Long Lifan quickly glanced at the three men and noticed that they all had different expressions and were staring at her. A sense of unease crept into her heart. Her expression changed slightly, her brows furrowing. Therefore, she cautiously asked a question.

“Long Zhiqing, we’ve come to see you because we have something to discuss. Why don’t we go inside and talk?” Lin Guodong pointed to the house behind him.

"Row!"

Long Lifan opened the door and invited the three of them into the house. Jiang Nian'an and Hu Lili followed them into the courtyard.

This was the first time the group had entered Long Zhiqing's courtyard. They saw that the walls around the courtyard had been reinforced with about 20 centimeters of adobe bricks.

The plants planted there were flowers and herbs that Long Lifan would bring down from the mountain whenever she had free time. As soon as the group entered the house, a strong fragrance of flowers wafted over.

Actually, she originally planned to fill the entire courtyard with flowers and plants, but after thinking about it, she decided against it. These days, ideological education is a serious priority; she didn't want to get into trouble by being labeled as someone who indulges in pleasure just for planting some flowers.

So she only planted some around the inner courtyard wall, and planned to plant some vegetables and the like in other places.

Long Lifan went into the inner room and poured a bowl of water for each of the village cadres, adding a little sugar to it. Lin Guodong and the others took a sip and found it sweet, showing satisfied smiles.

"Captain, what brings you all here to see me? Let me make this clear first, I'm just a young educated youth, my abilities are limited, I can't handle anything big!" Long Lifan decided to give the village cadres a heads-up first.

Lin Guodong said it was a small matter? But if it were a small matter, would it have made three cadres come to him together?

Lin Guodong coughed a few times, then said rather seriously, "Long Zhiqing, we want you to be the women's director of our village."