Among the newcomers, a pale, six-foot-tall man with large double-eyelids—someone who fit the aesthetic standards of this era to a T—was named Shen Bing.
There was also an utterly average-looking man named Li Jianguo. Among the female educated youths, a woman with long hair tied into two thick braids was named Li Hong. Another woman with fair skin and short, braided pigtails was Ji Juanjuan. A girl wearing a student bob was named Wei Hong, and a particularly dark-skinned young woman was called Li Xiaomei.
Wen Ya already recognized the protagonist and supporting characters among the new arrivals, and the icy-faced man was named Ling Hao.
Over on the men’s side, there was a buzz-cut guy named Wang Meng, a man with remarkably tiny eyes named Jiang Jun, the “refined scoundrel” Feng Jiang, a tall and honest-looking fellow named Wang Bing, and a dark-skinned, burly man named Wang Tianlong.
Among the women, aside from the three main ones, there was an exceptionally cute girl named Wang Xiaomeng and a Liu萍 (Liu Ping) who sported a massive braid dangling all the way down to her hips.
Once everyone finished introducing themselves, He Zhiwei looked over the new arrivals and announced, “I’m going to take you all to see the branch secretary and the brigade leader now. You need to officially transfer your grain rations and pick up your grain allocations.”
As they walked, Ling Hao noticed Wen Ya staring closely at the man named Shen Bing, so he smoothly stepped right into her line of sight, blocking her view.
Wen Ya, who had just been observing the male lead, suddenly found her vision completely cut off. She blinked, looked up at Ling Hao’s broad back, and didn’t bother trying to peek around him. After all, she was merely curious about what a protagonist looked like, not swooning over him. Once Youth Leader He finished speaking, the group fell in line and followed him.
They arrived at the village committee office, where He Zhiwei introduced the local officials inside.
The old man they had met earlier was the old branch secretary, Li Bing. The brigade leader was Li Jianguo, the head of the women’s association was Qin Xiang, and the accountant was Li Baozhu.
After everyone exchanged polite greetings, the old branch secretary didn’t waste any time. He laid out the crucial rules and guidelines they needed to follow. The group listened attentively before stepping up one by one to sign paperwork and collect their grain rations.
With their grain distributed, people began trickling back to unpack their bedding and settle in.
Wen Ya, however, stayed behind. Noticing she wasn’t leaving, Ling Hao didn’t budge either.
When the room cleared out, Wen Ya turned to the old branch secretary.
“Hello, Branch Secretary. I wanted to ask if there are any vacant houses left in our brigade?”
The old man blinked. “Lass, why are you asking about that?”
“Well, it’s like this. I have a lot of peculiar habits, and I’m afraid living in a shared room will cause trouble for everyone else. I was hoping that if a spare house is available, I could move out and live on my own.”
“Living by yourself is far too unsafe.”
Hearing this, Wen Ya’s spirits lifted. The branch secretary only raised safety concerns—he didn’t say there weren’t any houses available, which meant vacant properties definitely existed!
“Please, Branch Secretary, just rent it to me!”
“We don’t rent here. We only sell.”
“Buying is fine too! How much is it?”
“The second courtyard over by the mountain edge. If you want to buy it, it’s sixty yuan.”
“Can I go take a look?”
“Come on, I’ll walk you over.”
The old branch secretary figured that while living alone was risky, that particular house happened to sit right next to his own homestead; he could easily keep an eye on her. The property had sat empty for three years. Locals had eyed it before, but nobody could scrape together the cash. The village had ultimately decided to put it up for sale, with the proceeds funneled back into the brigade so everyone could share a small dividend.
Ling Hao hoisted his sack of grain and followed along, effortlessly reaching over to grab Wen Ya’s heavy grain bag as well.
Wen Ya protested, “You don’t have to—”
He ignored her completely, hoisting her bag onto his shoulder and keeping pace behind them.
When they arrived, they found the courtyard choked with overgrown weeds, but the structure itself was structurally sound. The main drawback was the lack of a well; hauling water would be a bit of a headache.
The yard was a decent size, complete with a storage shed and a firewood lean-to.
As for the outhouse?
Ahem, that would definitely need to be built from scratch; whatever crude fencing had stood there before had long since blown away in the wind.
“This place is lovely, Branch Secretary,” Wen Ya said. “I’m just wondering if we can hire someone to dig a well for me? It doesn’t need to be deep—just enough for my daily water needs. Of course, I won’t make anyone work for free; I’ll pay out a proper wage.”
“Consider it done,” the branch secretary replied. “Is there anything else you want fixed up? We can take care of it all at once. That roof needs patching up too, otherwise it’ll start leaking when it rains.”
“Alright, I’ll leave the arrangements to you, Branch Secretary. Just tell me how much to pay, and you can handle the details. I don’t know the first thing about construction.”
“No problem. I’ll send some men over to start working on it tomorrow.”
“Thank you so much!”
“Think nothing of it.”
“I can pay you the money right now, if you can issue me the property deed and official certificate.”
“Will do.”
At that moment, Ling Hao stepped forward.
“Branch Secretary, the house right next door looks like it’s empty too, doesn’t it?”
“That one?” The old man glanced toward the adjacent courtyard.
“Mmhmm.”
“That one’s empty as well. Sat vacant two years longer than this one.”
“I’ll buy that one then. How much?”
The branch secretary stared at him. “You want to buy a house and live alone too?”
“Yes.”
“You better think this through. That place is larger than this one—it’ll cost eighty yuan.”
“Fine. That’s the one.”
Wen Ya looked at him in disbelief. “I’m buying a house because I have too many quirks. Why on earth are you moving out?”
“It’s more convenient for me to cook good food.”
“…Well, that is a robust and unarguable reason.”
The branch secretary’s mouth twitched. Faced with that icy stare and intimidating aura, he wisely chose not to question him further.
“Alright then. Anything else you need inspected?”
“Let’s go take a look.”
The trio marched over to the neighboring courtyard. Stepping inside, they found it far wilder and more dilapidated than Wen Ya’s prospective yard, and it lacked a well as well.
“Dig a well right here. Build an outhouse over there. The main walls need reinforcement, and the roof thatch needs a complete replacement,” Ling Hao listed off smoothly.
“Got it.”
“I’ll pay for everything right now.”
“Right, let’s head back to the village office, issue your official property certificates, and then I’ll round up the work crew so you two can get construction started tomorrow morning.”
With that, the three of them retraced their steps to the village committee office. The old branch secretary immediately sat down to draw up the property transfer certificates while both buyers forked over their cash. As for the labor wages, each of them tossed in an extra ten-yuan deposit, agreeing on the standard refund the excess or make up the difference arrangement.
Armed with their official deeds, certificates, and grain sacks, the two of them finally returned to the youth point.