After running three hundred meters at full speed, Shen Qiao felt herself struggling to breathe. She leaned against a tree and kept taking deep breaths, eventually managing to focus on the surroundings. She realized that continuing like this wouldn't do—she had to spend a bit more money on food.

She pondered how to make use of the little money she had left as she slowly walked back to the youth commune.

Today, it was Zhang Cuiting’s turn to cook. She was setting the table when she saw Shen Qiao enter and asked, "You’re back. How was the afternoon?"

Shen Qiao nodded and said, "It was fine."

Zhang Cuiting seemed thoughtful. "People say Zheng Zhong is hard to get along with."

Zheng Zhong was strong and always managed to earn nine work points. She had never had the chance to "steal" any points, and the people from the team tended to be a bit exclusionary. Even if there were spots available, they were typically given to the team members first.

Had it not been for Shen Qiao’s known health issues, the others might not have given her the chance. But Shen Qiao wasn’t really interested in it. She had quietly felt bad for taking three of Zheng Zhong’s work points that afternoon. To defend him, she said, “No, he’s really a good person.”

Actually, the two of them hadn’t really spoken, and it was just her personal opinion.

Shen Qiao was considered one of the older members of the youth commune. Among the few people there, she had been the longest, and while she wasn’t fond of labor, she was still considered a person of good character. She had taken care of the newcomers when they first arrived, so Zhang Cuiting was willing to trust her words. "I guess it's just a rumor, then," she said.

It was well known that Zheng Zhong didn't have the best relationships with the others in the team.

Shen Qiao thought about it, then looked around. "Aren’t they back yet?"

The work hours were the same for everyone, and the cook wouldn’t finish early. After all, the issue of work points was at stake, so everyone should be there.

Speaking of this, Zhang Cuiting seemed a little pleased. "They went to pick the piglets."

This was an important task every spring. The quality of the piglets would determine how much pork they’d have by the end of the year. Their first year, they hadn’t known much about raising pigs, and almost ended up starving the animals.

Shen Qiao was also excited, but she said, "That means we’ll have to gather pig feed again."

For families who raised pigs, they could get two work points for feed plots, but food was precious, and no one was willing to use the seeds they grew to feed the pigs. So, they had to go further out to collect grass for the pigs.y