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Xu Yin got on her bicycle and waved to her family. Then, she rode away to her school.

In addition to receiving the reward for riding her bicycle for 15 kilometres, Xu Yin also received an additional message from the system, saying: [Beginner Cycling Skill unlocked. Reward: One set of cycling equipment.]

When she arrived at the school’s bicycle shelter, she acted as if she was putting a lock on her bicycle. She bent down and accessed the information panel to check out the so-called cycling equipment.

The cycling equipment turned out to be a mountain bike equipped with speed gears. She received the designs of the mountain bike, the manual on how to assemble it, as well as the tools and materials that she’d need to assemble the bike.

On her way to the classroom, Xu Yin began to think.

After she rode her bicycle a few times, she got a mountain bike, complete with a manual and tools. Then, if she ever got the opportunity to drive a car, could she possibly get the design and manufacturing manual of a car?

She dispersed her thoughts and hit herself on the forehead.

She’d thought too much. Cars were so expensive in this era. It was hard enough to touch a car, let alone to drive one.

To her surprise, someone handed her a pillow just as she was drifting off!

She arrived at the classroom, followed by the homeroom teacher, who called their attention and made an announcement.

“This week’s labour class is going to be special. The educational committee leaders will come to observe the class, so the school board has decided to take everyone to a farm and experience work there! However, there is a lot of work to do on the farm, and everyone can’t do the same type of work. Class President, come find me to get the form later. Everyone can sign up as soon as possible and choose the type of work they are good at.”

Tong Guihua grabbed Xu Yin. “Let’s hurry. We’ll get work that is tiring if we don’t hurry.”

“What difference is it going to make, anyway?”

Xu Yin lazily yawned.

Labour class would only last for, at most, half a day.

Moreover, they were only going to a farm. What other work could there be besides weeding, hoeing, picking vegetables, and carrying baskets around?

“The difference is huge! Last year, when the 10th and 11th graders went to a farm for labour class, I signed up late and was assigned to clear the land on the mountain. We had to climb for half a day and were exhausted by the end of it. Then there was the fertilising—the stench was horrible. Some were assigned to catch bugs. Whenever I see a hairy caterpillar, my whole body will break out in a rash, so I don’t want to go to catch bugs. As for the tractor, well, letting the girls drive tractors is just inhumane…”

Huh? Tractors?

Xu Yin’s eyes lit up. Suddenly, she had a realisation.

Right! She couldn’t get her hands on a car right now, but what about a tractor? 

They had these things in the village. She had even seen them before, during busy farming seasons.

If she had the opportunity to learn to drive a tractor during this labour class, wouldn’t she then have an excuse to help the other villagers plough the fields with a tractor after the July harvest season?

Who would refuse a free labourer who didn’t need payment?

If she learned how to drive a tractor during this labour class, and then drove it for a certain number of kilometres, she might just receive a reward from that crazy system. Even though there was a possibility that she might not, wouldn’t it be a shame if there was, and she missed the opportunity?

Therefore, Xu Yin became even more in a hurry than Tong Guihua and rushed towards the class president.

“Class President, there’s a job where I can drive a tractor and plough the field, right? I want to sign up for that!”

The class president: “…”

Tong Guihua, who was just a step behind Xu Yin: “…”

The hell?

Tong Guihua thought that Xu Yin had run so fast to grab an easy job. She didn’t expect her to want to drive a tractor!

“Xu Yin, are you crazy? Can you handle such a big machine? Even the boys that are tall and strong find it difficult to drive a tractor.”

“…”

The class president couldn’t agree more with that.

After all, he was a boy who was also quite tall and strong.

He adjusted his glasses and looked at Xu Yin. “Are you sure?”

“Of course! If that job is on the list, I want to sign up for it.”

“Yes, there is…”

“Then what are you waiting for? Put my name there—forget it, I’ll do it myself!”

Xu Yin grabbed the pen from the class president’s hand. She found a tractor column on the form and then wrote her name in it with gusto.

“Xu Yin, you got it!”

The boys in the back row cheered and gave her thumbs up

Xu Yin raised her eyebrows. “Don’t try to compete with me for it!”

“No, no, we won’t! Hahaha!”

Only two people were needed to drive the tractor for ploughing. Since one spot in their class was already claimed by Xu Yin, the other spot naturally became a highly coveted position.

Xu Yin didn’t care about who grabbed the other spot. She was focused on working hard to get orders for her sister-in-law during the ten-minute break between classes.

“These pants are so beautiful! Why didn’t you wear it last week?”

Tong Guihua regretted placing her order too early. She found the pants Xu Yin was currently wearing more fashionable than the ones she wore before.

However, she had just ordered a new pair of pants. Even though the fabric she used was much cheaper than cotton, she still couldn’t have another pair made so quickly after she ordered the last pair.

Her family didn’t spoil her to the point of letting her be that wasteful.

Just because Tong Guihua couldn’t afford to place an order this time, though, didn’t mean their other classmates couldn’t, either.

Some girls had been hesitant to place an order last week. This week, they saw Xu Yin, once again, wearing a new pair of pants to school. The pants were made of ordinary fabric, but they couldn’t resist the trendy and stylish design of the pants, so one after the other, they placed their orders.

In just one break, Xu Yin received orders for a total of five pairs of pants and two shirts.

In the evening, Xu Yin showed off her new pants to her dormmates.

The next day, girls from other classes were beginning to come to her to place their orders, too.

By the time she left for the labour class on the farm, three pages of the notebook she used to record orders were filled. Her schoolbag nearly couldn’t fit all of the fabrics.

Xu Yin couldn’t help but think back to her time in her second world, set during the time of the Republic of China when she had exchanged her energy points for an expanding backpack. Although the backpack wasn’t useful in the long term, she should still have it.

After she turned the lights out that night, she logged into her inventory and searched through a pile of items before finally finding it after a while.

The expanding backpack looked very similar to the school bags of this era, as it was a single-shoulder, military green-coloured bag. 

What made it different was its inside. It was a pity that she didn’t have enough energy points to get a bigger one at the time. She had only managed to get one with a capacity of one cubic metre, but it was enough for her to store her fabrics now.

It didn’t draw attention and wasn’t heavy to carry on her shoulder. This made it perfect for her since she was a hard-working porter who needed to carry fabrics back home, and then carry the finished clothes back to her school after.

 

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Before they knew it, Friday arrived. The school arranged for teachers to divide the 10th-graders and 11th-graders and lead them to go to the farm to participate in their labour class.

“Xu Yin, are you sure you want to drive a tractor? Why don’t you switch jobs with a male classmate instead?”

All along the way, Tong Guihua fretted more than Xu Yin herself did.

Xu Yin shook her head. She’d finally got her golden opportunity. She’d be a fool if she switched jobs now.

“Is it because you want to learn a new skill?”

Tong Guihua thought that she had guessed the truth.

She was set to graduate next year. Xu Yin’s grades were similar to hers, and it was unlikely that she would be admitted to a university or a vocational college. 

Tong Guihua’s family had already started using their connections to try and help her.

Xu Yin’s family came from the countryside. Tong Guihua hadn’t heard of Xu Yin having any relatives in the city before. It wasn’t difficult to get a job in the factory through the regular recruitment process, but it wasn’t easy to get a good job position without money or connections.

“But we’re here to work, not to learn skills. Will the farm teach you anything? What if you can’t finish the labour task?”

“Don’t worry. None of us know how to drive a tractor, so they’ll have to teach us first. How can we plough the fields otherwise?”

Xu Yin’s guess was right. Since the farm had listed tractor ploughing as one of the tasks, they must be prepared to teach the students how to do it.

The person in charge of the farm had been thinking about solutions for their problems. In the past few years, labour reform had fallen out of favour, and the farm had become short-staffed. As a result, they needed to hire more people. 

However, the application for additional workers wasn’t approved quickly, so they contacted the schools in the area and had students from different schools come to the farm for labour class every week. In return, the farm provided extra vegetables for the school cafeteria. It was a win-win situation!