binnovel Chapter 23: Educated Youth of the Era (Part 5)
Chapter 23: Educated Youth of the Era (Part 5)
When they arrived at the tractor, Secretary Wang, Ma Aiguo, Liu Dayong, and the others were also taken aback. The people around them were also shocked to look at Liu Yuxi, unable to imagine how such a small person could have such great strength.
Ma Aiguo and Liu Dayong quickly jumped out of the car to help her take the package. Embarrassingly, it was very difficult for the two of them to lift just one, which amazed the onlookers!
As Liu Yuxi loaded the packages onto the tractor, she tried to ease the awkwardness between the two men by saying, "It's just how I am. I guess all the food I eat goes into physical exertion, which is why I don't grow tall or gain weight!"
The others laughed good-naturedly when they heard her say that. One cheerful female educated youth said to her, "You still need to eat more, otherwise you'll look like a child. How old are you?"
"I'm 15." "Oh? You're still a kid. Then why did you go to the countryside?" "I'm the only one in my family who's old enough, and I'm strong enough that I won't go hungry anywhere!" Everyone thought about it and agreed. With that kind of strength, you won't be at a disadvantage anywhere.
Once the topic was raised, everyone naturally started chatting and also learned about the general situation of the Red Flag Commune from Secretary Wang of the commune. Before they knew it, it was three o'clock.
Once Secretary Wang confirmed that everyone had arrived, he had the tractor take everyone back. They arrived at Hongqi Commune in an hour, where they saw the brigade leaders from each production brigade waiting there in oxcarts.
Each brigade leader held the list of educated youth assigned to them and called out to the people. Liu Yuxi and the other six went to the Guo family brigade leader. The brigade leader's surname was Guo. In fact, you could tell from the name of the brigade that the Guo family brigade should be a village formed by a Guo family.
The brigade leader observed the group of six and, sensing that none of them were particularly troublesome, softened his tone: "Put your luggage on the oxcart. You'll have to walk back. Fortunately, our Guo Family Brigade isn't far from the commune; it should only take about an hour."
Upon hearing this, everyone quickly put their luggage on the oxcart. During this process, Captain Guo was also shocked by Liu Yuxi. He didn't expect that this seemingly the thinnest female educated youth would be the strongest. With such great strength, she would definitely be a good help when she got down to earth. This batch of educated youth should not have any hindrances.
Captain Guo felt relieved. After all, this was the third batch of educated youth sent to the countryside. In the previous two batches, there were always a couple of sly young men and women who didn't work properly and just wanted to trick the young men and women in the village into doing manual labor. They were really cunning. As a result, the relationship between the villagers and the educated youth was always lukewarm.
These days, transportation is mostly on foot, so even city dwellers don't need to worry about walking. Besides, Liu Yuxi reminded everyone this morning to change into Feiyue shoes and Liberation shoes; no one's a fool to wear leather shoes knowing they'll be walking. They walked and chatted along the way, and soon arrived at Guojia Brigade.
Captain Guo took everyone to the educated youth settlement. The educated youth settlement in Guojia Brigade was the house of the landlord in the village. It was also the best brick house in the village. When the landlords were confiscated, the house could not be distributed fairly to the villagers, so it was left vacant.
The fact that the educated youth were sent to the countryside saved the need to build new educated youth settlements. The money allocated to the village for building houses for the educated youth was then divided equally among the villagers, and no one in the village had any objections.
Wang Jianguo and Liu Haili, the male and female leaders of the educated youth settlement, were summoned and told: "This is a new batch of educated youth. You can decide whether to arrange for them to stay in the dormitory or in single rooms in the back."
Explain the specifics to them. If they want to stay separately, lead them to the accountant to pay. If they need to buy things, lead them to the village carpenter.
"Once we're done with this, take them to the brigade tomorrow to get an advance on their grain. You older educated youth can lend it to them tonight, and they can pay it back later."
After giving instructions to Captain Guo, they drove the oxcart back. Wang Jianguo and Liu Haili greeted everyone, first putting their luggage in an empty room, and then taking them to see the house they were staying in.
The front yard inside the main gate has five main rooms. The central room is the main hall with a stove. The stove is used to boil water and heat the kang (a heated brick bed). The main hall is where people eat. The two rooms on the left are for female educated youth, and the two rooms on the right are for male educated youth.
The east wing housed the kitchen and the women's washroom, while the west wing housed the toilet and the men's washroom.
The backyard has two rows of separate rooms, each with a partition in the middle. The front half has a simple stove connected to the kang (heated brick bed) in the back half. There is also a small woodshed outside the door. There are ten rooms in each row, and each room has the same layout.
Some houses were occupied, while others were empty. The front row of single rooms was occupied by female educated youth, while the back row of single rooms was occupied by male educated youth.
To the left of the front row of houses were the washrooms and toilets for the female educated youth, and to the right of the back row were the washrooms and toilets for the male educated youth. Behind both rows of houses was the vegetable garden in the backyard of the entire educated youth settlement.
After Liu Yuxi looked at it, he felt that the layout of the whole courtyard was very reasonable. The large communal bed in the front house was free, but the single room in the back required a rent of ten yuan per year to the village. Moreover, you had to be able to buy your own pot, otherwise you would still have to eat communal meals with the educated youth in the front courtyard.
Their families were all relatively well-off, so they all decided to stay in the single rooms at the back. Liu Yuxi and the others chose the three adjacent rooms in the middle that were still empty.
Wang Aiguo and his group also chose their own rooms in the back row, put their luggage in the rooms and looked around to see what they needed to buy. Then they went to the village carpenter's house with Wang Jianguo and Liu Haili.
The village carpenter was named Guo Youmu, and everyone called him Uncle Wood. When they arrived at the gate, Liu Haili called out, "Aunt Wood, Aunt Wood, is anyone home? I've brought the new educated youth to see some things."
"Yes, yes, there's someone home. Come in!" Aunt Mu said as she came out of the house. Once in the yard, she saw the educated youth entering. Looking at the newcomers, Aunt Mu said:
"These must be the new educated youth. They look really energetic. Take a look and see what you need. If you have anything ready-made, you can just take it over. If you don't have anything and need something, just tell me, and your Uncle Wood will make it for you."
The group followed Aunt Mu into her storeroom. Following Wang Jianguo and Liu Haili's advice, each person selected a kang table, two kang cabinets, and a small cupboard. Liu Yuxi had more belongings, so she also selected two large boxes, as well as some daily necessities such as a carrying basket, a wooden bucket for fetching water, and a large wooden tub for bathing.
Knowing in advance that another batch of new educated youths would be arriving, Uncle Mu's family had prepared quite a lot of things, so everyone borrowed Aunt Mu's handcart to push them back to the educated youth settlement.
Back at the hotel, everyone cleaned their rooms and lit the kang (heated brick bed) first, since it was still winter. As for firewood and water, they used the kindling provided by the educated youth and would return them to the older educated youth after they were settled in.
After a quick clean-up, everyone met in the main room of the front yard and introduced themselves, except for Liu Yuxi and the other four.
The remaining people are the first batch of six people who arrived: Wang Jianguo, Liu Haili, Ma Dahua, Qian Youwen, Xia Dahai, and Liu Qianjin, and the second batch of eight people: Ma Jiaojiao, Li Haiyan, Wang Wenjing, Tang Fengyan, Zhang Guoqing, Gu Shangwu, Li Bo, and Zhao Hai. Now there are a total of twenty people at the educated youth settlement.
While everyone was introducing themselves, Liu Yuxi observed the educated youth here. It seemed that there were no particularly radical people, which was good. Life would be relatively peaceful. She was afraid that if she were to travel to this time and space, there would be protagonists from those era novels here, and life would be chaotic.
She also wants to "eat the melon" (gossip), but she doesn't want to be at the center of it. Compared to "eating the melon," she still hopes to live a more peaceful life.