Early the next day, Su Qinghua prepared herself for her upcoming trip to the countryside. As a rough disguise, she used a shawl to cover half her face. Anyway, it was already autumn, so wearing a few more pieces of cloth was the norm.
Living in the countryside was definitely not easy. Even the lightest work was a struggle, and she didn’t want to work too hard in this life. The way around this was money.
Basically, as a rule of thumb in rural areas, you had to work to get food. If you could afford your own food, you wouldn’t have to work as hard as others and just earn the minimum amount of work points.
She needed money, and she would have to rely on herself.
Some people had a misconception that they’d get money as an allowance when they registered as an educated youth. However, while there was indeed a budget, it would not be handed over directly to the youth or their families.
How could the state really give out one or two hundred yuan in lump sum, just as long as one registered?
One had to know that the average salary of respected workers here was 30 to 50 yuan a month!
There was indeed a few hundred yuan allowance per youth, depending on the place, but that wasn’t handed over to the youth or to the person who registered. They were given to the commune to use for things like tools, housing, medical budget, and so on.
To summarize, she needed to gather her own funds if she wanted to live well.
One way was to sell a job, which was arguably one of the fastest ways to get a large amount of money.
There were many, many people in a city who had the capability to work, and there simply weren’t enough urban jobs going around. Don’t look at recruitments happening here and there every month or so; a person could look for a year and not get one.
These days, having a permanent job in the state was as prestigious as becoming a doctor or something in the later generations.
It was also a way for families to keep their youths from getting sent down, since a youth who was still going to school or had a job would be exempt from the movement. Basically, only ’freeloading’ jobless youths were required to go down.
Except for the first year the program was implemented, when people didn’t know what could happen, the program had become something of an accursed experience to most because of what happened to the youths that had been sent down.
There had been quite a few cases of deaths due to various reasons, and many were forced to marry villagers and got stuck there for the rest of their lives.
Because most villagefolk did not get a fixed salary and could only go through the days with hand-to-mouth resources, people with urban registrations thoroughly looked down on them. Getting married ’in the boonies’ was a great humiliation, not only to the person, but for the entire family.
This was unless the youth was disliked. In which case, the family might laugh at her and mock her for marrying down.
Such was the case with her back then.
In her past life, she also married a villager, but they did move to the City with their—to be accurate, her—ability. Her stepsister even happily seduced her husband, the very man she mocked before she even met him. This was a story for later.
Anyway, from what she remembered, the small jobs could sell for about 500 yuan, and the good ones with good benefits could sell up to 800!
Of course, this was not something sold above board at all. The transactions would be completely under the table.
The first job that came to mind was the one her mother took from her. On paper, the teachers made sure it was hers, so she had the right to dispose of it.
She’d sell that later to minimize the impact on her while she was still in the city.
After asking around, she found one that was hiring. It was from the Cotton weaving mill, and they would be holding an exam the next day.
As for why she just wasn’t planning to take the job and stay comfortably in an urban area, one reason was that she wanted to be as far away from this family as possible.
Another reason... was because she had to go, regardless of what was happening here.
...
Jiangning City Youth Office
The youth office was located in the city’s revolutionary committee compound. It was a plain 2-storey building with dark-red fenestrations and had various revolutionary slogans pasted on its walls.
"Hello, Comrade. I’d like to register as an educated youth."
"Name?" The cadre asked, and Qinghua politely answered him.
"Su Qinghua."
"Age."
"Sixteen."
The cadre paused, lifted his head, and stared at her before looking at her registration form. "Are you sure? Where are your parents?"
"No parents. I’ve been abandoned."
A pause.
The comrade looked like he wanted to ask, but ultimately didn’t.
"...can I see your household registration?" he asked, and she politely handed the document. However, underneath them, there was a wrapped packet of tobacco.
The cadre’s eyebrows rose, and he warily looked around before shifting his gaze back to the girl. He didn’t say anything, waiting for her to say more.
"Please send me to the Baisha Brigade, Hongxin Commune."
The Baisha Brigade was located in the colder Northern half of the country. It was still Southeast of the capital city, Beiyan City, though relatively isolated.
In the past life, she was sent to the lush South. When the family found out where she was, they asked her to send some goods back home, forgetting that they had tried to sell her.
And she, the idiot, continuously sent them goods she foraged from the mountains for years, even after she married.
Her foolish brain’s rationale was that she was finally appreciated and liked by her family, so how could she not send them some goods?
She was needed.
She was even proud of herself.
If she were inside her room, she might’ve slapped herself at this moment.
"Baisha Brigade in Leting County, Hanbei Province," the cadre said as he looked over his list of places.
The cadre looked at her with an inquiring gaze. "The province is indeed accepting this year. You’ve already decided on where to go?"
She nodded. It wasn’t like a person couldn’t decide where they’d be sent. It was whether there were slots or whether there was a group heading there within the next couple of weeks that would determine whether this request would be granted.
She just gave a few ’goodwill’ goods used to soften the process. If the cadre didn’t want to bother looking at the list and the slots available, it would’ve been troublesome for her.
She must go there.
"Why there?"
"I have relatives there, at least," she said. "And I hear that there are far fewer youths in the North compared to the South." The North—especially the northwest—was extremely harsh. While she wasn’t planning on going to the cold desert northwest, the northeast was also a place people generally avoided getting assigned to.
"Since there are few youths heading there, I, a patriotic youth admiring the state, decided to answer the nation’s call and put myself where others avoid."
She was saying this quite righteously. The cadre stared at her with slight admiration before nodding.
Su Qinghua’s eyes sparkled as she watched the cadre write down the location in her heart.
Baisha Brigade. More specifically, Baisha Village.
The place where her grandfather currently was.