When they came out of the commune again, Ye Xiao had a cloth sack in each hand, while Gu Shen followed silently behind him, holding a grain-filled bag just like his.
After they had put some distance between themselves and the commune, Ye Xiao lowered his voice and said smugly, “See? I told you there’d be no problem.”
Gu Shen nodded at this, though the slight pallor of his fingertips gave away how uneasy he’d been earlier.
Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened on this trip.
When the two of them returned to the educated youth residence, they happened to see Lin Zhi sitting in the courtyard, glancing toward the road from time to time.
As soon as she saw them come back, she hurried over to greet them.
Seeing this, Ye Xiao asked with concern, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Lin Zhi shook her head. “You two hadn’t come back for so long, I was a bit worried. How did it go did you get the grain?”
Ye Xiao swung the cloth bags he was carrying in front of her.
“Of course. All three of ours are right here.”
Only then did Lin Zhi visibly relax. She quickly ushered them inside to put the things away. With it already getting late, they needed to hurry and start cooking.
She grabbed that evening’s portion of grain from the sack and took out two sweet potatoes, then headed toward the kitchen. But since it was her first time using this kind of stove, she ran into trouble at the very first step lighting the fire.
Just as she was hesitating, Ye Xiao came in and took the matchbox from her hand. “I’ll do it. You just keep an eye on the pot.”
Their division of labor was clear. Lin Zhi first boiled some hot water in a kettle, then set the coarse rice to steam. She went back to the room to fetch a cup and, using the hot water from earlier, mixed up a cup of malted milk powder.
The scene made another female educated youth nearby feel a twinge of jealousy, and the words slipped out of her mouth.
“Some people are just lucky. Even after coming down to the countryside, they still have the leisure to imitate those capitalist ways!”
With that label slapped on her, how could Lin Zhi not hear the sarcasm in the other woman’s tone? Her gaze filled with challenge as she looked over. “We’re all educated youths who came here in response to the country’s call. Saying something like that is going a bit too far, don’t you think?”
At this moment, Ye Xiao stood up and positioned himself behind Lin Zhi. He didn’t get involved in verbal sparring between women, but he would show his support through his actions.
Seeing this, the female educated youth stamped her foot, snorted, and hugged her bowl as she retreated outside.
Lin Zhi wasn’t angry. She handed the prepared malted milk drink to Ye Xiao. “Take this into the room for Gu Shen. I’ve noticed his complexion hasn’t been good all day he probably caught a chill by the river.”
Before she left home, her parents had urged her to take care of Gu Shen as much as possible while they were here. He had been sensitive since childhood, and it wasn’t that she hadn’t noticed his deliberate avoidance along the way. But now that they were here, in an unfamiliar place, the three of them sticking together was better than anyone being left on their own.
With a sigh, Lin Zhi glanced at the pot, then tossed in the cleaned sweet potatoes.
Inside the room, Ye Xiao tested the temperature of the cup with his hand. It was just right—not too hot. Knowing Gu Shen’s awkward temperament, he didn’t waste words and simply shoved the mug of malted milk right up to Gu Shen’s mouth, smearing it all over his lips.
“All right. This cup’s got your saliva on it now. You drink it yourself.”
Gu Shen looked up at him, then shifted his gaze to the cup. He didn’t need to think to know it had been prepared especially for him.
With three older educated youths still in the room, he said nothing, silently drank it down, and then took the cup to the kitchen.
Lin Zhi seemed prepared. When she saw him come in, she directly stuffed a bowl of rice into his hands, cutting off whatever he was about to say.
With a bowl of coarse rice and the pickled vegetables they’d brought from home, the three of them ate their first meal since arriving here. After that, Lin Zhi divided the two sweet potatoes between them.
Ye Xiao froze for a moment and looked at her. “Lin Zhi, what about you?”
Lin Zhi waved her hand and said with a smile, “I don’t have much of an appetite to begin with. You two are grown men you obviously didn’t eat your fill. Use this to pad your stomachs.”
Seeing that neither of them moved, she deliberately put on a stern face. “All right, hurry up and eat. Burning candles like this is such a waste.”
While they were over there, gnawing on sweet potatoes by candlelight, Yu Nian’an could only sit by her stove, using the leftover glow of the embers to pick at the grains of rice in her bowl.
Sweet potatoes, coarse rice, coarse rice, sweet potatoes after a full week of this cycle, she had to do a great deal of mental preparation just to force this bowl down.
Counting on her fingers, the next market day would be in two days.
When that time came, she was determined to properly stock the house. Having no flavor in her mouth was simply too painful.
Before going to sleep, as usual, she secured the door from the inside with a stool and some bricks. Lying on the kang bed, Yu Nian’an’s thoughts drifted back to Gu Shen without her noticing.
He looked delicate and soft-skinned, clearly not the type suited for hard labor and the one beside him wasn’t much better either.
Aunt Chunxing had said that the newly arrived educated youths would be assigned to various fields, with someone to lead them in the work.
If this new batch was all like that, then they were definitely going to be a burden. She just didn’t know which unlucky souls would end up being assigned to take care of them.
Early the next morning, when Yu Nian’an arrived at the fields and looked at the row of people standing in front of her, her eyelids twitched.
Ye Xiao naturally noticed her as well and waved in her direction. Yu Nian’an covered her eyelids with her hand, said nothing, and went over to her own plot, deftly turning over the vines with practiced movements.
Seeing that she didn’t respond, Ye Xiao didn’t feel awkward either. He simply withdrew his hand and rubbed his nose.
At that moment, the brigade secretary came over. Without any fuss, he checked off the headcount against the list in his hand and then started assigning people.
Each time he called a name, he would point to a plot of land and have that person go find the laborer already working there.
Yu Nian’an was bent over, lifting the sweet potato vines in her hands.
They were growing vigorously. Parts that hadn’t yet been turned over had already put down new roots, and when lifted, they brought up clumps of soil.
Plop. The dirt that came up landed squarely on a pair of rubber shoes. Yu Nian’an instinctively looked up and finally understood why her eyelid had been twitching all morning.
Just last night before going to bed, she’d been wondering which unlucky souls would end up being responsible for guiding the newly arrived educated youths. She hadn’t expected that she herself would become one of them.
Yu Nian’an raised an eyebrow. “You are you with me?”
Gu Shen didn’t say anything, only nodded in response.
Because of what had happened between them in the river yesterday, being alone together now made the atmosphere inexplicably awkward.
Yu Nian’an took a deep breath and told herself that he’d come to help with rural development she couldn’t be picky.
Seeing that the other aunties around them had already started teaching, she quickly adjusted her mindset and pointed at the sweet potato vines on the ground. “We’re responsible for turning over the sweet potato vines in this plot, like this.”
She squatted down and demonstrated once. It wasn’t a technical task at all one time was enough to teach it. Seeing that he’d gotten the hang of it, she went off to another ridge by herself.
Several times in the middle of the work, remembering that he’d fallen into the water just yesterday, she couldn’t help but glance over at his side.
She discovered that he only looked frail once he got to work, he was more or less on par with her.
It wasn’t until the final ridge, when she happened to catch sight of his complexion turning even paler, that she realized he was forcing himself to endure.
The educated youths in the other plots had only finished about half as much by now. This guy surely he wasn’t competing with her out of spite, was he?