The man glanced at Su Nian’an, his expression still completely impassive.
He nodded at Su Nian’an before brushing past her.
Tsk, so what if he’s handsome? With a personality like an iceberg, he probably won’t ever be able to find a wife in his lifetime.
Men like that weren’t popular in this era. Women would only find them cold and lacking in romantic charm.
Su Nian’an continued grumbling to herself as she entered the restroom. When she came out, she instinctively looked around, but she didn’t see that man anywhere.
When she returned to her seat, Su Nian’an noticed that the male educated youth who had been sitting opposite her had already switched seats with the middle-aged man sitting beside him.
At this moment, he was still chatting animatedly with the female educated youth sitting next to him.
For some reason, Su Nian’an felt that this baby-faced male educated youth wasn’t a good person. He seemed like an expert at flirting with girls.
He was probably very good at disguising himself. At first, even she had been fooled and thought he was very innocent, giving off the image of a pure and scholarly male college student.
Fortunately, it wasn’t very far from the capital to Hebei Province by train. It only took about three hours to get there.
When the train arrived at the station, a huge crowd immediately got off.
There were actually quite a lot of people getting off at this station.
Su Nian’an wasn’t going to the countryside as an educated youth, so naturally, no one came to pick her up. After getting off the train, she went straight to look for a shuttle bus so she could get to the town first.
The Gu family had been sent down to a village called Honghe Village. To reach Honghe Village, she first had to take a shuttle bus to Qingqiao Town.
In order to catch the bus, Su Nian’an didn’t even have time to eat. She went straight to the bus station, bought a ticket, and got on.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly. Nothing happened along the way.
However, by the time she arrived in town, it was already past three in the afternoon.
Su Nian’an, who had barely eaten anything all day, felt as though she was starving to death. Unfortunately, it wasn’t market day in town, and after walking around for quite a while, she finally found a state-run dumpling shop that was still open.
Private businesses weren’t allowed at this time, so it was actually difficult to even find somewhere to eat outside.
While eating her dumplings, Su Nian’an began asking the shop assistant how she could get to Honghe Village.
The shop assistant was a rather straightforward middle-aged man. Seeing that Su Nian’an was a young woman traveling alone, he even asked her a couple of concerned questions about her situation.
When he heard Su Nian’an say that she had come to find her husband, the man thought for a moment before saying, “If you want to get to Honghe Village today, go ask Old Man Niu. He uses his ox cart to transport goods for the Hongxing Production Brigade and often goes to Honghe Village. If you’re not in a hurry and want to go tomorrow, you can wait for the tractor to Honghe Village tomorrow morning. But it’s already this late, so there won’t be any more tractors going to Honghe Village today.”
As soon as Su Nian’an heard this, she quickly finished her dumplings and immediately ran in the direction the man had pointed out.
She didn’t want to spend another night waiting in this town. What if she arrived too late and couldn’t keep her space bracelet safe?
Old Man Niu’s house was fairly easy to find. Su Nian’an spotted the cowshed at a glance.
No wonder he transported goods. His family actually had three oxen. They were practically a wealthy household!
Just as she reached the entrance, she saw an old man coming out. Su Nian’an guessed that he must be the Old Man Niu the shop assistant had mentioned.
“Excuse me, are you Uncle Niu?” Su Nian’an asked with a smile.
Old Man Niu was quite friendly. He smiled and replied, “Young lady, what can I do for you?”
“I wanted to ask if you’re still going to Honghe Village today. I’d like to ride with you.”
Su Nian’an hadn’t expected that going to the countryside would mean riding in an ox cart.
When she was a child in the countryside, she had often seen oxen and horses pulling goods, but she had never seen an ox cart with a wooden platform that could also carry passengers.
“This time, you’ve really caught me at the right moment. I happen to have some things to deliver to the Hongxing Production Brigade. You can come with me.”
Su Nian’an’s heart leaped with joy when she heard this.
Great! Her luck was pretty good. She had finally managed to catch a ride.
Old Man Niu didn’t waste any time. He simply had Su Nian’an sit in the back of the ox cart while he drove the ox himself.
The rural roads in this era were truly terrible. Su Nian’an was bounced around the entire way in the back.
The wooden cart was hard, and even though there was plenty of straw laid down as padding, Su Nian’an still felt like her butt was getting bruised from all the jolting.
Old Man Niu wasn’t a talkative person. After asking Su Nian’an a few questions, he left her alone.
Su Nian’an wasn’t worried that he might have bad intentions. Before going to Old Man Niu’s house, she had already asked the nearby residents about him. Everyone had nothing but good things to say about him.
The ox cart jolted along the road. What would have been less than an hour by tractor took nearly two hours by ox cart before they finally arrived at Honghe Village.
Old Man Niu looked at Su Nian’an and asked, “Sis, where are you getting off? My cart is going straight to the brigade’s educated youth office.”
“I’ll go with you to the educated youth office, because I don’t know where my husband and the others have been assigned to live yet,” Su Nian’an replied.
“All right.”
By the time they arrived at the educated youth office, the sun had already completely set.
“Luckily, we made it before dark,” Old Man Niu muttered.
Just then, someone from the educated youth office came outside.
“Oh, Uncle Niu! We’ve finally been waiting for you. We need this batch of supplies before we can assign tomorrow’s work.”
The person who came out was a relatively young man. When he saw Old Man Niu, he seemed to visibly relax.
“We had to deliver the goods in a hurry this time. Luckily, I finally made it. But I have to hurry back. I’ll have to travel the road at night tonight,” Old Man Niu said with a smile.
“Why don’t you just stay here at the educated youth office tonight? It’s almost dark already,” the young man suggested.
“No, no. I’m going back by myself. I can make the trip faster on the way back. It’s no big deal. But why are you the only one here at the educated youth office?”
“Another batch of educated youths arrived today. The others went to arrange places for them to stay.”
“There have been quite a lot of educated youths coming down recently. If this continues, won’t there be enough rooms at the educated youth compound?”
“Exactly…”
The two men chatted away.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Su Nian’an didn’t interrupt them. She simply stood there quietly and waited for them to finish talking.
After a while, Uncle Niu finally remembered Su Nian’an. He turned to the educated youth office worker and said, “I’ve got a young lady here who says she’s come to find her husband. You’ll probably need to help her find him.”
Only then did the two men turn their attention to Su Nian’an.
“Comrade, which family are you looking for? What’s their surname? Let me see if I know them,” the educated youth office worker asked.
“I’m looking for the Gu family. They should have only arrived here recently. Do you know them?” Su Nian’an hurriedly asked.
“The Gu family? Not that Gu family, are they?” Old Man Niu couldn’t help muttering.
On the way here, he had casually asked Su Nian’an about her situation, but he hadn’t asked which family she was looking for.
Even the educated youth office worker’s expression changed slightly when he heard the surname Gu.
“There’s only one Gu family registered here, so I suppose it must be them,” the young man from the educated youth office said.
Old Man Niu nodded and said to Su Nian’an, “All right, sis. I need to hurry home, so I’ll be going first. Ask Comrade Wang to take you to find them.”
Su Nian’an quickly nodded. “All right. Thank you, Uncle.”
Since this kind old man had given her a ride all the way from town to Honghe Village, Su Nian’an had wanted to give him some money as soon as they arrived, but he refused to accept it.
Su Nian’an had a very good impression of Uncle Niu. He really was just as the neighbors had described a straightforward and kind-hearted person.
However, Su Nian’an didn’t like taking advantage of others, so she still gave Uncle Niu some biscuits and candies she had bought.
This time, Uncle Niu didn’t refuse. He said he could eat them on the way home to fill his stomach.
After Uncle Niu left, only Su Nian’an and Comrade Wang remained.
“Let’s go. I’ll lock up the office and take you to find the Gu family,” Comrade Wang said after glancing at Su Nian’an.
“Okay. Thank you, Comrade Wang,” Su Nian’an hurriedly replied.
After Comrade Wang locked the door of the educated youth office, he immediately took Su Nian’an to find the Gu family.
If they waited any longer, it would be completely dark.
“Comrade, what should I call you?” Comrade Wang casually asked Su Nian’an as they walked.
“My name is Su Nian’an. You can just call me Xiao Su.”
“Oh, Xiao Su. The educated youth compound isn’t far from here. See that row of houses over there? That’s the educated youth compound.” Comrade Wang pointed toward a row of adobe houses across the way and smiled.
The educated youth compound?
The entire Gu family had been sent down. Were they being treated as educated youths?
Su Nian’an had thought that the Gu family had been sent down for labor reform.
The treatment given to educated youths and people who had been sent down was very different. Yet when Su Nian’an had mentioned the Gu family just now, both Comrade Wang and Uncle Niu had looked somewhat surprised, but neither of them had shown any particularly unusual reaction.
That meant the Gu family’s situation was probably similar to that of the other educated youths. They hadn’t received any “special treatment,” had they?