The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man

Chapter 51: Chapter 49: Adding Work Points

The brigade leader was also very generous, directly adding a month’s worth of work points for Gu Jiaojiao.

Gu Jiaojiao’s eyes lit up.

However, she still offered a polite refusal.

”Brigade Leader, you’re too kind. I just gave a small suggestion. Everyone else did all the work; I didn’t really do much.”

The brigade leader shook his head. ”You may not have done the physical labor, but your contribution is far greater than ours.”

Gu Jiaojiao’s method had increased their work speed severalfold. If it really did rain, it would help them bring in a lot more of the harvest before it was ruined.

Besides, who knew if Gu Jiaojiao would come up with more good ideas in the future?

He was well aware of the principle that to retain talented people, you had to treat them well.

The villagers had no objections. Only Wu Cuizhi and a few others who were on bad terms with Gu Jiaojiao were resentful.

”Leader, this is so unfair! We’re the ones doing all the work. Why should Gu Jiaojiao get extra work points?”

The brigade leader snorted. ”If you’ve got the skill to invent a thresher, I’ll give you two extra months’ worth. If you can’t, then shut your mouth.”

Wu Cuizhi was still indignant, her stomach churning with resentment. But she also knew she couldn’t invent a thresher, so she couldn’t help but mutter, ”So she invented it. We could’ve finished the work without this thing anyway. What’s the big deal?”

Aunt Zhao, who was standing nearby, heard this and retorted, ”Can’t you see how overcast the sky is? If it rains, don’t you have any idea how much grain will be ruined? With this machine, don’t you realize how much we can save?”

Wu Cuizhi remained unconvinced. ”It’s not raining right now. Maybe it’s just an overcast day.”

No one bothered arguing with a contrarian like her. They just tacitly shuffled a little farther away from Wu Cuizhi.

’No point in arguing with an idiot!’

Gu Jiaojiao had been there for less than a month and already had a full month’s worth of work points. With the points promised for the thresher, she would have enough for two full months. The other educated youths could no longer remain calm.

They never expected Gu Jiaojiao to be so capable.

The villagers could accept Gu Jiaojiao’s capability because they knew she was educated and therefore not ordinary.

But they were just like Gu Jiaojiao.

They had all received the same education and had the same knowledge, yet they had never once thought about changing the way of working here.

This gave the educated youths pause. Ever since arriving in the countryside, they had done nothing but complain. Even though they went to work every day, they disliked everything about the place.

Before, they had looked down on Gu Jiaojiao. Yet she was able to invent a thresher and even figure out a way to shell peanuts.

They, on the other hand, couldn’t come up with anything at all.

At that moment, Gu Jiaojiao’s stature grew not only in the eyes of the villagers, but in the hearts of the educated youths as well.

”Gu Jiaojiao, you’re amazing.”

Chen Ruoyu was the first to speak up, and the others quickly followed suit.

For a moment, Gu Jiaojiao...

’She was just worried the grain would get soaked and she’d go hungry!’

Flustered by the praise, Gu Jiaojiao quickly said, ”I really didn’t do anything. It’s all thanks to the power of books and the experience of those who came before us. We should be thanking them.”

’So capable, yet so modest.’

Everyone was suddenly even more impressed.

”Comrade Gu, you’re just being too modest. You may have only offered an idea, but you saved us a lot of time. What’s that saying again... something about a good job... and sharp tools?”

This particular farmer was literate, but not very well-read.

He had heard one of the educated youths say a phrase that seemed to describe what Gu Jiaojiao had done, but he couldn’t quite remember it, so he just used placeholders.

An educated youth nearby heard him and immediately supplied the phrase: ”To do a job well, one must first sharpen one’s tools.”

The villager nodded. ”Right, that’s the one! What does it mean again?”

He’d heard it before but could never remember the words, even though he understood the meaning perfectly.

The educated youth who had spoken up before smiled and explained, ”’To do a job well, one must first sharpen one’s tools’ means that a craftsman who wants to do his work well must first make sure his tools are sharp. It’s a metaphor for how, to get anything done right, having the right preparations is extremely important.”

”Exactly, exactly.” Seeing that someone understood what he meant, the villager immediately agreed and praised the youth, ”You kids from the city are really something else. So well-read.”