Chapter 74: Human-Shaped Poop Sticks
The days in the educated youth compound were much more peaceful without Ning Xiaoxiao around.
Everyone was busy with their own tasks.
Ning Xiyue noticed that in the past few days, Chen Yechu had been leaving early and returning late, seemingly learning carpentry from Master Chen, Aunt Qiuju’s uncle.
It looked like the female lead had already started her skill-learning journey — preparing herself for making money in the future.
Ning Xiyue didn’t feel provoked by that at all. She wasn’t anxious — there would be plenty of chances to make money later, no need to rush.
Even Wu Zhigang had become much quieter, always taking a detour whenever he saw Ning Xiyue.
She couldn’t be bothered with him. After work every day, she either tended to the vegetable patch she had planted in the wasteland next to the compound or worked on processing her wild boar meat.
She learned how to smoke bacon with cypress branches from Aunt Yangliu.
With Aunt Qiuju’s help, she mastered and made spicy jerky.
And from gossip queen Aunt Liu, she learned her secret recipe for marinated meat.
All her wild boar meat was now processed — she just had to wait for it to dry before mailing it out to different places.
Most importantly, over the past four days, she had plucked Little Grey’s wolf fang charm every morning, successfully obtaining four amulets.
She kept one for herself, and the other three were for her parents and her older brother in the army.
After putting the amulet on, Ning Xiyue felt completely at ease. Just touching it made her fearless.
In the evenings after dinner, she would go cool off under the big willow tree, gossiping with the older women from the team — and, by the way, sign in to get a bowl of mango sago.
The remaining sign-ins were spent either visiting Aunt Chunsheng to learn about raising piglets (and signing in for two or three jin of pork) or heading to the reservoir to sign in for fish to dry into fish jerky. She didn’t waste a single opportunity.
Before going to sleep, she would sneak into the simulation room to study useful skills such as Chinese herbal medicine, high school textbooks, and weaving.
In the mornings, she practiced tai chi in the compound to keep fit.
On the fourth day without a troublemaker, life was still wonderfully peaceful.
Just as Ning Xiyue thought her days would continue in this quiet and happy way, Li Xiuxiu came rushing over excitedly while she was sifting rice husks on the dam.
“Xiyue, come on, come on — there’s a show to watch!”
At the mention of a “show,” Ning Xiyue immediately sped up. “Wait, wait, let me finish this first.”
“I’ll help you — hurry!”
With Li Xiuxiu’s help, they finished the remaining work in just a few minutes.
Ning Xiyue greeted Aunt Yangliu and followed Li Xiuxiu, along with the other four members of the gossip squad.
This time, the “incident” was happening at the pigsty.
It wasn’t far from the drying dam where Ning Xiyue had been working, and even from a distance, she could hear shouting and wailing.
“We’ve got the long pole! Comrades Xia and Li Jiandang, grab on and we’ll pull you up!”
Hearing those two familiar names, Ning Xiyue’s eyes lit up.
She glanced around and, sure enough, spotted Chen Yechu with a cold expression and Yu Zhiyu looking equally displeased.
Oh my — was this a three-men-one-woman drama?
Excited for the next part, Ning Xiyue looked toward the manure pit but saw no one.
“Wait, both of them fell into the manure pit? Where are they? Why can’t I see them?”
Li Xiuxiu pulled her down to crouch and pointed at the dark shadows below.
“Down there — see? They fell into the hollow under the pigsty. Who knows how they managed that.”
“Hold on tight — I’m going to pull back!” shouted a young member of the production team.
“Got it!”
Two muffled, hard-to-hear voices replied.
Ning Xiyue thought to herself that they were probably choking on pig poop and urine — that would explain the muffled sound.
“Quick, let’s all stand back, or they’ll splatter us with poop when they come up!”
Someone shouted, and the crowd all took several steps back.
Aunt Liu covered her mouth and looked in disgust at Xia Zhipeng and Li Jiandang as they were pulled out. “Ugh, the stench! These two must be marinated through and through.”
“Hahaha, seriously!” Li Xiuxiu laughed loudly.
Ning Xiyue couldn’t help but laugh — Aunt Liu had just said exactly what she was thinking.
The pit reeked even worse now that the two of them had stirred it up, and with the pair of human-shaped poop sticks emerging from it, the smell was overpowering.
Aunt Qian shook her head. “Neither of them can swim, so once they fell in, they couldn’t even climb out. Useless.”
Hearing that, Xia Zhipeng and Li Jiandang wished they could dig a hole and disappear.
The team leader barked sharply, “What on earth were you two doing here today? Why are you hanging around the pigsty for no reason? If you scare our pigs and they stop eating, even a month of soaking in that pit won’t make up for it. These are task pigs — not something you can joke about!”
Xia Zhipeng glanced around and then at Chen Yechu. Not wanting to anger the leader further, he decided to hide the truth. With a half-smile, half-stiff expression, he said:
“Leader, nothing happened. We just came here to use the toilet and accidentally fell into the manure pit. Right, Comrade Jiandang?”
After the trouble they had caused during the Wu Xiuli incident, Li Jiandang knew better than to speak carelessly. He played along with Xia Zhipeng’s excuse:
“Yes, Leader, we just slipped and fell in. We’re sorry — we scared the piglets.”
The leader saw that the pigs were calm and unharmed. Since the culprits themselves said it was nothing, he didn’t want to deal with them anymore and waved impatiently:
“Alright, alright, go clean yourselves up. Look at you — what a mess. And don’t you dare come here to use the toilet again.”
The crowd, seeing there was no more drama to watch, dispersed.
Ning Xiyue left feeling quite disappointed — was that it? The show ended right at the beginning?
“Xiuxiu, I’m going back to work. That gossip was so boring.”
Li Xiuxiu drooped. “Yeah, me too. Still half an hour until the end of the shift… what a letdown.”
After parting ways, they each returned to their workplaces.
After work, Ning Xiyue went back to the compound with her things. She headed behind the house to check on the drying condition of the clay stove she had built in her small kitchen. Just then, voices came from outside.
To her surprise, the unfinished gossip from earlier had somehow continued — right here in the educated youth compound.
