"I Donate Food to the Motherland" is the program that Feng Mingxun specially selected for Su Xiangxiu. The five members of the troupe have been rehearsing for several days in a row and are about to perform a report performance before the main performance.
Unlike Su Xiangyu and her group, who were a makeshift troupe, the one led by Su Xiangxiu, who was brave enough to make achievements, was a serious art troupe.
In fact, the two sisters Su Xiangxiu and Su Xiangyu seldom met each other. Moreover, ever since Su Xiangxiu arrived at the farm, several of her gossipy group members had been selling out their relationship in front of the educated youth.
Something like they are not real sisters at all, Su Xiangyu is good at working and has never looked down on her younger sister Su Xiangxiu.
Instead, Su Xiangxiu repeatedly ordered everyone to say less such things, as it was not good for her and Su Xiangyu.
Moreover, she had plenty of gifts in her hands. Today she gave two biscuits to this person, and tomorrow she gave some candies to that person. Many female educated youth liked her from the bottom of their hearts, even more than Su Xiangyu.
Of course, when Su Xiangxiu was rehearsing the program, many male educated youth were watching her by leaning on the windows of the auditorium.
After coming down from the window, everyone had to make some comments.
"'I Donate Food to the Motherland' is so well-written and touching," said Gao Zhanguo, wiping his eyes.
Another young man who came with them was Qi Dali, who was so excited that he said directly: "Su Xiangyu, I am not interested in raising chickens at all. Besides, I suggest you stop rehearsing the drama and just focus on raising chickens. You are no match for your sister in rehearsing the show."
Oh, even Yu Lei, Zhu Xiaojie, Yu Weiwei and others, Su Xiangyu's own soldiers, were eager to see how Su Xiangxiu's art troupe performed.
"You are not allowed to watch anything. Feed the chickens, and then rehearse the program." Su Xiangyu said calmly.
Zhu Xiaojie and Yu Weiwei were really impressed by Su Xiangyu. Her sister's program was obviously going to be an unprecedented success, but she was not at all curious about how other people's programs were arranged.
Of course everyone had to work during the day, but Yu Weiwei and Zhu Xiaojie used their rest time at night to rehearse the program.
As for their enthusiasm, it all comes from their love for performing.
As for Yu Lei, he was the one who could hit wherever Su Xiangyu pointed.
Now the only one left is Ye Xiangdong, the soul of the whole drama. Recently all the eggs were taken away by the farm, and his job of selling eggs has also stopped. When he comes, he finally doesn't have to roll in oil barrels like a rat.
Su Xiangyu didn't think anything of it, but when he entered the chicken coop, Zhu Xiaojie suddenly grabbed Su Xiangyu and said, "How do you know him? He's an engineer from the chemical plant, right? We went fishing in the river in front of the chemical plant last year and saw him."
What Zhu Xiaojie remembered was that he carried a homemade rifle and drove a group of weak college students to hunt in the Gobi Desert. Indeed, he looked very fierce and bad.
Su Xiangyu whispered, "He is Yu Lei's friend. You guys should try to persuade him to play the villain for us."
"Comrade Ye, we have prepared for you the soul character of our play, named Xiao Qiang. Of course, he must be the kind that makes people hate him just by talking about him. For the sake of the educated youth in our farm and for Yu Lei, let's perform a friendly performance." Zhu Xiaojie smiled and told Ye Xiangdong the general outline of the script.
Yu Lei described the villain's appearance with a fierce look: "I have to draw the ugliest nose and comb the ugliest hair. In short, we will make it as ugly as possible."
Ye Xiangdong was the tallest. He looked down at Yu Lei, then at Zhu Xiaojie and Yu Weiwei, with an expressionless face. Finally, his gaze returned to Su Xiangyu.
Obviously, he was waiting for Su Xiangyu to convince him.
"The living environment of the female educated youth in our farm is extremely difficult. I believe Comrade Xiao Ye will not turn a blind eye to it. He must want to do something for these female comrades who are living in difficult environments, right?" Su Xiangyu went straight to the point and gave Ye Xiangdong a compliment.
Ye Xiangdong lowered his head for a moment, then smiled, "I'm not that conscious. I can't even sell eggs anymore. I've been in a lot of trouble recently because of selling eggs. I've wiped it all off. I don't want to play a bad guy anymore. If there's an accident during the performance, wouldn't that be troublesome? Don't you know that there was an actor who was almost shot dead because he played Huang Shiren?"
Zhu Xiaojie was stunned. Yu Weiwei was the first to change sides: "I also don't think he's a bad guy. How about we find someone else to play Xiaoqiang?"
No matter whether he looks like it or not, Su Xiangyu is now lacking a villain, and Ye Xiangdong has to play the role, it's that simple.
So, Su Xiangyu gave Yu Lei a wink.
"Brother Ye, you have to help me with this. If you don't, we are not brothers anymore, really." Yu Lei said.
Zhu Xiaojie and Yu Weiwei nodded vigorously.
"Sister Su, please come out for a moment." After standing for a long time, Ye Xiangran said.
Zhu Xiaojie and Yu Weiwei quickly pushed Su Xiangyu and asked her to go out, of course, wanting her to win Ye Xiangdong over.
"You know, our family is in a very difficult situation." Ye Xiangdong bit his lip and kicked his feet, saying, "My father is barely alive now, and he is about to die. My mother is also preparing to remarry."
Sure enough, Su Xiangyu said, an engineer working in a chemical factory could not have ended up like him unless his family was poor.
"I deeply sympathize with you. Do you mean you just want money?" Su Xiangyu said.
Because of her extravagant lifestyle, she didn't save much money in the system. However, in order to ensure the success of the show, Su Xiangyu didn't mind taking out ten or twenty yuan from the system to support Ye Xiangdong's poor life.
But Ye Xiangdong waved his hand: "Forget about the money. My monthly salary is high, 280 yuan, which is enough for medical treatment, but..."
Su Xiangyu wanted to know what he added at the end of the word, so she stared at Ye Xiangdong.
"Alas!" Ye Xiangdong sighed: "My father didn't have any other requests. Before he died, he just wanted to have a daughter-in-law."
"There are so many female educated youth on the farm. Let me introduce one to you. If you dare to say that you have a monthly salary of 280, I guess the girls will rush to get you." Su Xiangyu said cheerfully.
Ye Xiangdong stood there for a long time, then suddenly took out a sweet potato from his pocket and handed it to Su Xiangyu: "Fat yourself up a bit, you look too thin."
"What about Xiaoqiang? You must play the role, right?" Su Xiangyu said.
"Although there is a high possibility that I will be beaten into a pig's head by the angry male educated youth in the audience, I will do it for Sister Su." Ye Xiangdong said, patting his chest.
He went in without hesitation and started to rehearse the program with Zhu Xiaojie, Yu Weiwei and others.
Su Xiangyu did not forget that she still had a system, so she had to ask the system: "System, is what Ye Xiangdong said true? Does he really have an old father who is dying of illness and a mother who is about to remarry?"
[Sorry, the system only accepts commands, and the system does not know these things. ]
"Then what do you know?" Su Xiangyu said.
[He works in a military chemical factory, but he is not a formal employee of the factory. It is recommended that he join the army and become a soldier. You will win a mysterious prize.]
"What mysterious grand prize?" Su Xiangyu said.
[No comment yet, but for all the female educated youth, this is the dream reward.]
But forget it, Su Xiangyu now doesn't love anything except money.
…
Su Xiangxiu was holding a large piece of ice and was about to go back to her dormitory in the cold and windy day.
Although she was wearing gloves, there was still a large piece of ice that could freeze off a person's fingers.
When Hou Yong saw it, he immediately took the ice from Su Xiangxiu's hand and said, "How can a girl from your art troupe do this kind of work? Come on, let me help you move the ice."
Su Xiangxiu smiled and said thank you, then danced in front.
Hou Yong watched Su Xiangxiu's dance steps and thought to himself, isn't it humiliating for Su Xiangyu to rehearse the show? Let me ask you, can she dance as beautifully as Su Xiangxiu, or can those two unsophisticated Zhu Xiaojie and Yu Weiwei beat Su Xiangxiu?
The art troupe's dormitory is separate and there is a stove inside.
Put a washbasin on the stove, melt the ice into water, and then you can cook.
On this farm, only the dormitory of the art troupe has coal. Of course, as soon as you push the door open, you will feel a gust of hot air.
Hou Yong was particularly attracted by the passion, and since the five pretty girls were even dancing as they walked, he wanted to stay a little longer, but the girls ruthlessly pushed him out of the room.
Of course, as soon as Su Xiangxiu entered the door, Wang Qiushi had to tell her the explosive news.
"Have you heard that your stepsister, who has always been very well behaved, is actually planning a program and is going to hold a public performance on our farm? She wants to steal the limelight from us," said Wang Qiushi.
Another person named Zheng Chunyu was putting eggs into the ice cubes in the stove to prepare to boil them. Suddenly he chuckled and said, "Maybe she thinks that performing is as simple as feeding chickens."
"I guess it's just a joke. Everyone must remember to support my sister when the time comes." Su Xiangxiu said, clapping her hands.
She was still immersed in the last standing posture of her program "I Offer Food to the Motherland", wanting to express it more beautifully, easily and happily.
She seemed unaware that Su Xiangyu's sister was trying to steal her limelight.
"You are just too kind. If Su Xiangyu were my sister, I would not be polite to her. You always think about stealing your sister's limelight. No wonder your father is her biological father and always sends you snacks but nothing to her." Zheng Chunyu said as he grabbed a snack from Su Xiangxiu's can and started stuffing it into his mouth.
The rose bean paste cake at Xinghualou in Shencheng has rose petals added to the bean paste. When you bite into it, the crispy crust falls off. It is so delicious that you want to swallow your tongue.
But this thing was common to Su Xiangxiu, because when Su Xiangxiu came, she brought five cans of food. And she brought a whole stack of snack tickets, biscuit tickets, and daily necessities tickets.
"I'm just worried. Now that spring has come and people are asking us to work, what should we do?" Zheng Chunyu said worriedly.
"That's why we have to perform hard and get the approval of the main venue. Then, we can go back to Shanghai." Su Xiangxiu said.
Even though they sing and dance and live a comfortable life all day long, they are still part of the farm and when the spring ploughing season comes, they have to go to the fields to do farm work together.
Therefore, the girls in the art troupe certainly put their best efforts in their performance and strive to give the best performance.
After all, if they perform well, they can return to the city earlier.
Life in the border town is really hard.
The girls from the art troupe danced the song "I Donate Food to the Motherland" with particular enthusiasm today. After all, this is their hope to return to the city.
At the New Year's Day performance, they were hoping that the song "I Offer Food to the Motherland" would win an excellent award at the general factory.
Of course, today's small-scale performance on the farm was also very successful.
At least the male educated youth who watched it all praised it highly, saying that they had never seen a better show.
The next night, Su Xiangyu's small group performed.
Because Zhu Xiaojie and Yu Wei also took part in the performance, the female educated youth were particularly curious about it and wanted to see how ordinary female educated youth like them performed.
Most of the male educated youth responded with a sneer: "What can a few female educated youth do? We don't want to watch it."
Especially Qi Dali, whose father is the deputy director of Xi'an Film Studio and he is also a fanatical follower of Su Xiangxiu, so he did not take Su Xiangyu's performance seriously.
"I'm telling you the truth. Drama is harder to perform than movies. If you don't want to go, forget it. I'm going to make you laugh today."
He lived in good conditions and had cotton shoes to wear. He held a roasted sweet potato and half a can of biscuits as a snack, and walked happily into the auditorium.
There are three stories in total, which together form a story about raising chickens.
Su Xiangyu has already arranged the actors, but before they go on stage, she has to go on stage first to announce the show.
"Comrades, next is the drama 'Female Educated Youth Raising Chickens', which was co-edited by me, Zhu Xiaojie, Yu Weiwei, Yu Lei and other educated youth. The whole story is fictional. It is not the experience of any female educated youth on this farm, and it has nothing to do with reality. It is only for the purpose of promoting our method of raising chickens. Now, the performance begins." Su Xiangyu said.
About half of the people present were basically all female educated youth. Some were giggling, some were chatting, and not many were paying serious attention to the stage.
The auditorium itself had lighting, and Su Xiangyu had worked as a backstage cleaner in a theater troupe during her first life when she was down and out, so she just needed to familiarize herself with everything, from the stage to the lighting, and she took over everything by herself.
Yu Weiwei and Zhu Xiaojie acted out their true selves, one carrying a basket and the other a hoe, their hair was ragged and their bodies were covered in dirt. When Zhu Xiaojie came on stage, she said, "It's so cold. I've been digging alkali drainage ditches all day. It would be nice if I could have a hot steamed bun when I get back to the dormitory."
"How can that be possible? I only have five kilograms of noodles left and I have to hold on for 12 days. What about you?" Yu Weiwei said.
What is this? This is the most realistic life for all educated youth.
Therefore, almost at the same moment, all the educated youth in the audience looked at the stage quietly.
Of course, the story then takes a sharp turn for the worse.
Xiaohua, played by Yu Weiwei, was left alone while digging a drainage ditch because she walked too slowly. At this time, a hateful male educated youth named Xiaoqiang appeared. He seemed to be ready to help her, but he pushed her down in the snow.
This abominable Xiao Qiang still has the hair of traitors in the movies, with pockmarks all over his face and a red rosacea. He is as ugly as can be.
"Who the hell is this guy? Is he trying to kill himself? We don't have male educated youth like him in our farm." Qi Dali said loudly.
Almost instantly, all the women turned their heads to look at him.
Qi Dali didn't dare to speak. He was a good comrade, but he could not represent all the male educated youth.
On the stage, a tense scene is being played out. Not only does this hateful Xiao Qiang take advantage of Xiao Hua, he also goes to her privately time and again to insult her.
The anger levels of the female educated youth in the audience were about to explode.
But at this moment, Yu Lei came on stage and said, "People say that in the winter in the border town, you can wear a gauze curtain and eat watermelon. I am a man from the Northeast and I am most afraid of the cold. So I came here. Yes, I can wear a gauze curtain at noon, but can anyone tell me why it is so cold in the morning and evening?"
His appearance immediately made everyone laugh.
And then, comes the second story.
In order to avoid the bad male educated youth, Xiaohua hid in the chicken coop and raised chickens with the chicken keeper Yu Lei.
Of course, the following story made everyone laugh out loud, but also made them so angry that they wanted to stamp their feet.
Because Xiaohua and Yu Lei raised chickens together, Xiaoqiang took a bunch of poison/drugs and prepared to feed them to the chickens.
The first time he brought old lime and mixed it into the chicken feed, and Yu Lei and Xiao Hua were completely unaware of this.
The female educated youth in the audience were furious: "Xiaohua, are you blind? Didn't you see that he mixed lime into the chicken feed?"
But then they burst into laughter again because the chickens laid a lot of eggs the next day.
So, the sinister Xiao Qiang found a pile of white powder, pointed at the phosphorus powder with a skull painted on it, and started adding it to the chicken feed. The female educated youth stamped their feet and sighed.
But by the next day, the chicken laid even more eggs than before.
…
There were only two scenes in total, but they sparked heated discussions among all the educated youth.
"So, lime and phosphorus powder are actually good for chickens when eaten?" This is what I learned.
"I wasn't asked to meet that cockroach. If I had met him, I would have beaten him to death." This is a person who is immersed in the plot and cannot extricate himself.
Of course, heated discussions are topics that can publicize the drama staged by Su Xiangyu, and of course, the chicken-raising techniques are also made public at the same time.
"Hey, Qi Dali, how are those children of educated youth in there doing?" Several male educated youth asked with a smile when they saw Qi Dali coming out.
How do you say Qi Dali?
"Great! Very great. What's that called? It comes from life, but it's higher than life. Their performance is not called performance, it's called art."
Well, the picky Qi Dali actually liked it.
"How is that possible? This is definitely not comparable to Su Xiangxiu and her team's song 'I Donate Food to the Motherland.'" Gao Zhanguo became unhappy when he heard this, and his neck almost turned red.
Qi Dali didn't know how to express himself: "Yes, there is no comparison at all. The performance of the art troupe is like flowers in a greenhouse, while Su Xiangyu's program is like the snow lotus on the Tianshan Mountain, reflecting social reality and standing the test of time."
If other educated youth hadn't stopped him, Gao Zhanguo would have beaten Qi Dali up using this analogy.