Zhao Yuanchao was so angry he laughed. “A tractor? Little girl, what are you thinking about all day? Forget about Qingshan Brigade; even our entire Zhaoyang Commune only has two tractors! Don’t even think about a cow cart. The cattle are more important than people. How could they come all this way just to pull people?”
“Cattle are just animals. You’re comparing cattle to people?” Qu Tong looked at Zhao Yuanchao in shock, as if he were saying something completely unreasonable.
“Cattle can plow fields and pull plows. Can you?” Zhao Yuanchao rolled his eyes at her. He couldn’t be bothered to continue arguing with these naive educated youths. Impatiently, he said, “Are we going or not? If you don’t go now, I won’t care about you anymore.”
“Of course we’re going. Big brother, we’ll go with you.”
Su Qing was afraid that Zhao Yuanchao might wash his hands of them, so he quickly stepped forward to smooth things over. Seeing him pulling the flatbed cart, he turned to call out to the other male educated youth: “It’s not right to let big brother pull the luggage of all four of us by himself. Shall we trade off with him later?”
Hu Kang caught Su Qing’s signal and quickly nodded in agreement. “That’s only right. That’s only right.”
Ye Qiu followed closely behind Su Qing, indicating that although she was a girl, she could also help out a little.
Don’t judge Zhao Yuanchao by his blunt words; you have to look at his actions. He had come all this way pulling a flatbed cart to help them with their luggage—compared to other brigades that came empty-handed to pick up people, he was already an extremely kind-hearted person.
Seeing that none of her fellow educated youths spoke up for her, Qu Tong pouted in annoyance. However, keeping in mind her parents’ instructions before her departure, she shut her mouth reluctantly. Once she successfully managed to attach herself to a “big shot” who could help her, she would definitely make them regret this.
Seeing that even the most troublesome one, Qu Tong, had quieted down, Zhao Yuanchao nodded in satisfaction. Although there was one difficult female educated youth, the other three seemed decent.
“I don’t expect you to help me. With your skinny frames, it’ll be good enough if you can walk all the way to Qingshan Brigade on your own!”
When Su Qing and Hu Kang heard this, they felt very unconvinced. Who was he looking down on? Although they couldn’t do farm work, they were, at the very least, fit and strong young men. How could he look down on them!
But reality would soon slap everyone in the face.
One hour of walking was easy; three hours in, they were tired, but they didn’t say a word; four hours, five hours…
Qu Tong finally couldn’t hold on anymore. Raising a hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, she asked, with tears in her eyes, “How much longer until we get to Qingshan Brigade?”
She was a person who cared about saving face; if no one gave her an out, she would endure it no matter how tired she was… However, Qingshan Brigade was really too far, and she felt like her legs were about to break!
“Almost there, almost there,” Zhao Yuanchao replied without raising his head.
Su Qing wiped the sweat from his forehead, silently grumbling to himself. He had said “almost there” several times already, but they still hadn’t seen a shadow of Qingshan Brigade.
But this time, Zhao Yuanchao wasn’t lying. After walking for another ten minutes, he pointed to a village not far ahead and said, “That up ahead is our Qingshan Brigade.”
“Brother Zhao, could you tell us a bit about Qingshan Brigade?” Su Qing stayed close to Zhao Yuanchao, hoping to get some information. “How many educated youths are in the brigade now, and what kind of work do they do?”
As he spoke, he took a cigarette out of his bag and handed it to Zhao Yuanchao.
“You have quite a few questions,” but looking at the cigarette handed to him, Zhao Yuanchao answered patiently: “Don’t worry, our brigade captain is a fair man. As long as you work hard and earn work points, while I can’t promise you’ll be full, you at least won’t go hungry. The stories of educated youths being bullied that happened in other places will absolutely not happen in Qingshan Brigade!”
Before he left, the brigade captain had instructed him to make things clear: he had to let the new educated youths know that their Qingshan Brigade was not one of those places that bullied outsiders. Since the educated youths had arrived, as long as they worked hard, the village cadres would never let them be bullied.
Sure enough, as soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of all four educated youths sparkled. Zhao Yuanchao’s words couldn’t be trusted entirely, but the fact that he dared to say them proved that the brigade captain of Qingshan Brigade was at least an upright person.
“That’s good,” Su Qing immediately followed up, “And how are the work points calculated?”
“A ten-point system. You earn more if you work more. There is an educated youth surnamed Gao in the brigade who consistently earns the highest points. Not only can he feed himself, but he can also save some to send back home.”
Hearing this, Su Qing and Hu Kang were both somewhat moved. Their family situations weren’t exactly wealthy, so of course it would be better if they could provide some support back home.
In contrast, the two female educated youths were completely unmoved. Being diligent at work had nothing to do with her—Ye Qiu even wanted to ask what the minimum number of work points was, just so she could earn a point or two and coast through the days.
And so, the group was brought to the educated youth hostel by Zhao Yuanchao in an unremarkable fashion.
If this had been the first two years after educated youths were sent to the countryside, the villagers might have been in the mood to watch the novelty. But now, after so many batches of educated youths had arrived in the brigade, the villagers were all too familiar with just how useless they were. Each one of them was a big, strong youth, yet they couldn’t even compare to the village boys when it came to doing work!
The educated youth hostel consisted of two dilapidated-looking houses with two private plots of land nearby, growing vibrant, healthy vegetables.
“This is the educated youth hostel. You guys can discuss how you want to live; I’m heading back now.”
With that, Zhao Yuanchao unloaded everyone’s luggage and left, pulling the flatbed cart away.
Hearing the commotion outside, a male educated youth walked out of the house. Seeing the four people standing in the yard, he said in surprise, “So many educated youths came this time?”
The four of them exchanged glances. Su Qing, taking responsibility for the social interaction, stepped forward quickly and shook the male educated youth’s hand. “Big brother, we are all new educated youths. My name is Su Qing. Sorry for the trouble.”
“I’m Hu Kang. Just call me Little Hu.”
“Qu Tong.”
“I am Ye Qiu.”
The male educated youth looked the four newcomers over one by one, his gaze lingering on Qu Tong the longest.
“Hello, my name is Yuan Chao,” he said, leading them toward the house. “There are only two rooms in the educated youth hostel. Men and women live separately. The men live in the room on the left, the women in the room on the right, and that over there is the kitchen.”
As they reached the entrance of the right-hand room, he stopped, not entering. “This is where the female educated youths live, so I won’t go in. You two go inside and take a look. There are three educated youths living there right now. It’s a slightly larger room, so it’s reasonably spacious.”
Ye Qiu entered the room first. Qu Tong stood at the doorway, bracing herself mentally before walking in.
But clearly, her mental preparation was insufficient.
Ye Qiu had long known that conditions in the countryside were poor, but she hadn’t expected them to be this bad.
The room was cramped and narrow, with poor lighting. The limited space was piled high with the luggage of the other female educated youths. Every inch of space was utilized to the limit; just looking at it made one feel the squeeze.
Ye Qiu didn’t particularly care about the environment—after all, it was clear that her future roommates were tidy people; although their belongings were worn and old, they were clean.
But with five people sleeping in one room from now on, living under everyone’s watchful eyes, how was she supposed to cook her own private meals?