C10 Chapter 10

“Yeah, like nobody remembers how you got your butt kicked the last few times. And now you’re running your mouth—what, you forget how you lost your scorekeeper job?” Lee Lamei always knew exactly where to stick the knife.

“Grandma Lee, let’s make a bet. You have someone go down there and look—if they can find even one bug, I won’t take today’s points. Every last one goes to you. But if they don’t find any bugs, you put fifty points under my name. You got the guts for that?” Liu Wenmei didn’t want to waste her time arguing with an old woman, but Lee Lamei kept pushing her, so she decided to make it hurt.

A grown man could earn at most ten points in a day. Even if Lee Lamei worked herself to the bone, she only got six or seven. Fifty points was a full week’s pay for her.

“Why should I? Why would I put my points under your name?” Points were Lee Lamei’s lifeline—mention them, and she snapped.

“Aren’t you the one who came looking for trouble? So what—now you’re scared?” Liu Wenmei didn’t give her a way out and kept pressing.

“Who’s scared? Fine, let’s do it. Erzhu’s wife—you’re the most honest one. Everyone trusts you. You go take a look.” Hearing the whispers around her, Lee Lamei couldn’t back down. She managed the fieldwork—of course she knew that with a cotton field this big, it was impossible to catch every last bug. And if she won, not only would she get Liu Wenmei’s ten points, she could also have the Leader give them a proper scolding. So she stopped stalling.

Erzhu’s wife glanced at Liu Wenguang and his sister, hesitating. If Huang Guihua found out about this, their family would be in for a scene, and she didn’t want to get dragged into it.

“Auntie, just go,” Liu Wenmei said, sick of everyone dragging their feet.

After that, Erzhu’s wife quickly walked a couple loops through the cotton field. When she came back up, she told Lee Lamei, “Mrs. Lee, there really aren’t any bugs left in this patch.”

“No way, Mrs. Erzhu—you can’t do this to me just because they’re the leader’s kids. You’re setting me up!” Hearing there really weren’t any bugs in the field, Lee Lamei finally panicked.

“Mrs. Lee, listen to yourself. Why would I set you up? If you don’t believe me, go down there and look for yourself.” Mrs. Erzhu knew exactly what Lee Lamei would say. She didn’t believe it either—no way a field this big didn’t have a single bug—but she’d walked around twice and still hadn’t seen even one.

Lee Lamei spun around and rushed into the cotton, digging through the plants. After searching for ages, she dropped onto the ground, muttering nonstop, “Impossible… how can there not be a single one?”

“Grandma Lee, don’t go snapping the cotton plants by sitting on them. That’s public property. You’re damaging it, and they’ll dock your work points for that!” Liu Wenguang looked at Lee Lamei slumped on the ground, and it felt great.

The moment she heard “dock your work points,” Lee Lamei scrambled out of the field. She tried to grab Liu Wenmei, but Wenmei shifted aside to avoid her. Lee Lamei looked awkward. “Wenmei… can we just let this go? Grandma Lee was wrong, okay? Don’t dock my work points, all right?”

“No. Everyone saw what happened. And my sister worked her tail off today, and you still came looking for trouble. You can forget about just brushing this off.” Afraid Wenmei might soften, Liu Wenguang jumped in immediately.

“You—you’re killing an old woman here!” Lee Lamei knew it wasn’t going to work, so she tried to drop to the ground and make a scene.

“Grandma Lee, if you do that, I’ll dock you for the cotton you just snapped, too.” Liu Wenguang went straight for her weak spot.

Lee Lamei shot to her feet. Normally, breaking a couple seedlings wouldn’t cost anyone points, but harvest was just over a month away. Breaking even one plant at this stage hurt to see—let alone the five she’d just crushed. If they docked her again, she’d be working for nothing for days.

“Fine, fine, fine—I’ll give you fifty points. I’ll go tell the leader right now.” Lee Lamei, terrified that Liu Wenguang would dock her points, took off running.

With Lee Lamei gone and the excitement over, everyone drifted back to their own work.