Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 271: A Decent Person

"What about the other one?"

"Xiang Fei, 19 years old, from Beijing."

"Any skills or reasons for coming to the countryside?"

The three of them shook their heads in unison. Yi Chichi instantly understood, this meant Xiang Zhiqing was tight-lipped and didn’t ask directly.

Lang Zhiqing was quite open-minded, revealing his situation on the first night of arrival.

"Lang Zhiqing studied healthcare?"

"Her mother is a doctor at the factory hospital, she grew up in a hospital. Because her sister wasn’t in good health, she had to take care of her when her mother was unavailable. She has a certain understanding of medical knowledge and injections."

Yi Chichi’s first reaction was to look at the medical equipment like syringes and infusion sets.

Noticing her gaze, Wang Nan teased, "Are you worried she might take your job?"

Yi Chichi smiled. If she’s truly capable, giving up her position as a health worker wouldn’t be a huge deal.

But she didn’t intend to tell Wang Nan and the others that. Too many people could complicate things; it’s best not to give people hope before being certain.

So, after replying that she wasn’t worried, she smiled and changed the topic.

Wang Nan and her group had to go to the fields for work. Taking the chance during lunch break, they came to gossip with Yi Chichi. When the loudspeaker sounded, they grabbed the straw hats beside them and put them on their heads, standing up. "Chichi, we’re off to work, we’ll come play with you next time."

"Alright!"

Yi Chichi got up, saw them off, and went to the backyard to fetch water for the medicinal seedlings in the herb garden.

It hadn’t rained for half a month, and the sun had been quite harsh these days. Although it wasn’t yet the hot season, some of the medicinal seedlings in the herb garden couldn’t endure the sun.

Nor could they withstand dryness.

They needed manual watering.

Just as Yi Chichi finished watering a patch, Uncle Yaozi returned, panting heavily with a medicine box on his chest and a bulging sack over his shoulder.

"Chichi, come quickly and sort out the herbs inside."

"Coming!"

Yi Chichi put the ladle back into the bucket and went to the sack, opened it, and poured out the herbs inside.

There were many varieties, and their quality was not bad.

She wondered, "Weren’t you on a house call? Where did you get so many herbs?"

In such a short time, it wasn’t enough for him to go up the mountain to collect herbs, let alone return with this many.

"Bought them from Old Bai."

Yi Chichi paused, then remembered who Old Bai was.

Thinking of the old man getting undercut by Uncle Yaozi on the mountain, and his style of demanding money and vouchers, she laughed, "Did he ask for vouchers this time?"

"Yes." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Uncle Yaozi put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath, "Ten industrial vouchers, one two-ounce sugar voucher, one liquor voucher, plus three yuan and eighty cents."

The price wasn’t high, even cheaper than selling to the procurement station.

It was entirely due to the face value of the vouchers.

Having experience selling herbs to procurement stations, Yi Chichi sighed, "The old man is a decent person."

"He really is decent."

The key is his good rapport with my dad, they’ve been old friends for decades and tend to look out for him.

"Chichi, do you have any industrial vouchers?"

"I have a few left."

"Bring me two tomorrow; your aunt at home saved up only eight industrial vouchers, and it’s not enough."

Yi Chichi nodded and agreed, then asked if he had sugar and liquor vouchers. Uncle Yaozi said he did.

With that, the discussion ended, and the two of them squatted together, sorting through the herbs while chatting idly.

As they talked, Uncle Yaozi seemed to remember something and asked her, "Have you met the new Zhiqing?"

"No, they went to the commune to buy things."

According to Wang Nan and the others, they left early in the morning. Both came with barely anything except a small luggage bag carrying a few changes of clothes, shoes, socks, and toiletries.

They needed to supplement quite a few things.

"Lang Zhiqing has healthcare experience."

"So what if she does, what’s the big deal..."

He instinctively responded but then fell silent. What did that girl mean by saying this?

After pondering for a few seconds, he hesitated, "Are you not wanting to be a health worker anymore?"

"That’s kind of what I’m thinking."

Yi Chichi didn’t hide anything, "You see, I can’t go on house calls. Apart from being proficient in stitching, injections, wound cleaning, and handling herbs, I’m not much good at anything else. If Lang Zhiqing is truly better than me in healthcare, it’d be great for her to be a health worker."

But that’s not what Yi Chichi valued the most. What she valued most was—"She can lessen your burden, so you don’t have to shoulder everything alone."

"You haven’t even met her, and you know this so well."

Uncle Yaozi couldn’t help but tease her. Yi Chichi wasn’t offended and presented logical arguments, analyzing the benefits of Lang Zhiqing becoming the health worker to him.

"If her healthcare knowledge is stronger than mine, she can independently go on house calls. When you want to slack off, she can go instead."

"To avoid the hardship of farm work, she’d want to keep the health worker position and not stir trouble."

"Besides..."

She pointed out the reasons one by one, making Uncle Yaozi very tempted. If things developed as she envisioned, it would indeed be beneficial for him.

But then he reminded, "If you don’t work as a health worker, you’ll have to go to the fields."

"I won’t."

Yi Chichi was adamant about not going to the fields—it was too hard and exhausting, and she really couldn’t endure the toil of fieldwork.

There’s no fun in slacking off, and seeing hardworking people in the village gives her a sense of guilt.

"I’ll stay home and embroider. Anyway, the prices the Friendship Store offers are enough to ensure I have no worries about food and clothing."

This meant she was willing to use money and vouchers to buy grain from the team, not participating in field labor nor sharing the grain distribution.

Thinking of her embroidery income and the money and vouchers Wen Shi sent home monthly, Uncle Yaozi said, "I’ll evaluate Mr. Lang for a while and then decide."

As it turned out, this evaluation lasted until the end of the spring planting.

Then, Lang Hong received a notification from the loudspeaker.

"Lang Zhiqing, if you hear the broadcast, please come to the team clinic."

Lang Hong was squatting in the courtyard scrubbing shoes, and upon hearing the broadcast, she was taken aback. Why were they asking her to go to the team clinic?

She wasn’t even sick.

"Why are you dawdling? Hurry up and go."

Seeing her holding the brush, dazed in front of the tub of shoes, Ge Sujuan couldn’t help but urge her.

"Oh, okay."

She set down the brush, washed her hands, tidied her clothes, and then headed to the team clinic, her face filled with anxiety.

As soon as she entered and before she could even greet anyone, the team leader greeted her with a wide smile, extending his hand, "Mr. Lang, can I ask you something? Would you be willing to become the health worker for Kao Shan Village?"

Lang Hong’s eyes widened suddenly, "Me, a health worker?"

She pointed to herself in disbelief, and the team leader nodded, "Yes, you as the health worker."

Lang Hong’s first reaction to the news wasn’t joy but a look at Yi Chichi, "Mr. Yi, you’re not going to be the health worker anymore?"

"Your healthcare knowledge is more solid than mine."

Yi Chichi smiled, affirming her competence, and praised, "You’re more suitable to be a health worker than I am."

Lang Hong was silent. To be honest, she hadn’t volunteered to come to the countryside, but reality had forced her hand. Before coming, she had mentally prepared herself to take root in the black soil and diligently farm.

Being a health worker...

She hadn’t dared to dream of it.

Because she was an outsider, such a good job as a health worker would naturally be given first to one of their own.

Theoretically, training a barefoot doctor is a bit difficult, but training a health worker who can handle medicine and injections isn’t too hard.

That’s also why, after coming to the countryside, she simply focused on working hard without overthinking things.