The sun had already climbed directly overhead, and thin wisps of cooking smoke rose from the chimneys of every household.
Tan Jinhe was walking home when, halfway there, he came across a group of youths about his age, all sticking their backsides up as they caught crickets in the grass by the roadside.
He had intended to walk straight past them, but one of them spotted him and hurriedly scrambled to his feet, shouting as he hopped and ran over: “Fourth Uncle! Look, I caught two today! They’re huge!”
Tan Jinhe frowned, somewhat unwilling to admit that this silly dog-like young man was actually his biological nephew, only three years younger than himself.
Like a treasured possession, silly dog Tan Xuesong cupped his crickets in his hands, grinning with extreme arrogance.
“Damn! That grandson Wang Ergou! Let’s see if I don’t beat him so badly in cricket fighting that he loses helmet and armor this time!”
The nearly heaven-defying and earth-defying Tan Xuesong instantly turned into an obedient child when facing Tan Jinhe.
“Fourth Uncle, after I win all of Wang Ergou’s marbles, I’ll give half of them to you!”
Tan Jinhe was uninterested.
“No need. Keep them and play with them yourself.”
The others who had been with Tan Xuesong also ran over to Tan Jinhe one after another, respectfully calling him “Fourth Uncle, Fourth Uncle.”
The group of young men led by Tan Xuesong were known throughout the production team as troublemakers.
They never attended to proper work and loved playing pranks. From morning till night, they were either chasing chickens and dogs or bullying younger children.
In short, they were especially difficult to discipline and caused endless headaches.
Yet this group listened to Tan Jinhe exceptionally well.
His seniority in the family was only a secondary reason. The main reason was that Tan Jinhe had strong fists and a quick mind. Whenever he led them, they never lost a fight against youths from other production brigades.
Therefore, although Tan Jinhe had no desire to mingle with this group of nephews, he had nonetheless voluntarily become their leader.
After showing off the crickets they had caught, the group surrounded Tan Jinhe and headed toward home.
From a distance, it looked as though stars were surrounding the moon.
Without drawing attention to himself, Tan Jinhe quietly moved a little to the side.
Making conversation for the sake of conversation, Tan Xuesong asked: “Fourth Uncle, did you just come back from picking up the Educated Youths?”
Another youth named Tan Xiaojun excitedly asked: “Well? Well? Were there any female educated youths? Are they pretty??”
Yes, this group also liked looking at pretty girls whenever they had nothing better to do.
Most of the girls in the production team shared the same surname and had long ceased to be interesting to look at. The female educated youths from the city had therefore become the target of their discussions and evaluations.
Only in this way could they somewhat vent their excess hormones.
However, there were only so many female educated youths, and after several years, even they no longer felt fresh or interesting.
Everyone had already begun discussing how they would wander around the Educated Youth Dormitory that afternoon to see if they could secretly catch a glimpse of the newcomers who had arrived in the village.
“They aren’t pretty.”
Tan Jinhe’s stiff reply interrupted everyone’s discussion.
“Ah? Really?”
“Mhm.”
Tan Jinhe nodded without the slightest blush or sign of guilt.
The group was disappointed, and their interest dropped considerably.
When they reached a fork in the road, Tan Jinhe and Tan Xuesong separated from the others.
After walking for a while longer, Tan Jinhe turned to look in the direction of the Educated Youth Dormitory. A fierce expression gradually appeared in his eyes.
Where had such an audacious girl come from?
When Educated Youths first began going to the countryside, they had been assigned to stay in villagers’ homes.
Later, as conflicts emerged, dedicated dormitories were established for them.
However, the earliest dormitories had been abandoned old houses already available within the production teams. Conditions had been extremely poor, and one of those houses had even collapsed during a torrential rainstorm.
Two Educated Youths had been buried beneath the collapsed building.
One had broken a leg, and the other had broken an arm.
At the time, the incident had caused quite a commotion. To settle the matter, those two Educated Youths had been granted quotas to return to the city.
Afterward, to prevent similar incidents from occurring again, the commune had helped those production brigades with large numbers of Educated Youths and poor housing conditions construct new residences.
The row of five dormitory rooms currently standing in Shengli Brigade had been built during that period.
The walls were made of yellow mud, the roof was thatched, and even the floor was uneven packed earth.
Crude as they were, they were at least sturdy enough to keep out wind and rain.
The five rooms had originally been fully occupied, but with four new arrivals, the accommodations had to be reassigned.
Several of the original Educated Youths had already returned to the city over the years for various reasons. Seven remained, five men and two women. Adding Song Ziyao’s group brought the total to six men and five women.
With five rooms and two occupants per room, there would be one female comrade left over.
However, there was a small storage room at the very end of the row. If it were cleaned up, it could house one person, making the arrangement work perfectly.
This meant one person would get a room to herself.
The two original female comrades did not want to go through the trouble of moving around and decided to stay where they were, leaving the single room to the three newcomers.
All three newcomers wanted the private room, but before Song Ziyao or Wen Xue could speak, Liao Hongmei stepped forward first.
“A storage room? I’ll take the loss and stay there.”
Wen Xue sneered.
“How embarrassing. I’d better be the one to suffer the loss.”
The two of them immediately began arguing back and forth.
Song Ziyao glanced at the expressions of the others and, for the moment, did not participate in the competition.
The Production Brigade Leader impatiently interrupted them.
“What are you arguing about?! When the time comes and you’re actually told to live there, don’t start complaining! Go take a look first, then draw lots to decide who gets the storage room.”
The way he said it made it obvious that the conditions in the storage room were not very good.
Sure enough, the storage room was a long, narrow space. It was only wide enough to place a bed lengthwise, and anyone wanting to get onto the bed would have to climb up from the foot of it.
The room was even smaller than those occupied by two people.
Most importantly, it had no window.
Even during the day, the door had to be left open or a lamp lit in order to see clearly.
The lighting was poor, there was no ventilation, and the narrow, cramped space would undoubtedly become depressing if someone lived there for too long.
Both Liao Hongmei and Wen Xue immediately revealed reluctant expressions.
The Production Brigade Leader said: “We’ll draw lots to decide which of you stays in this small room.”
Liao Hongmei pointed at the two original female educated youths.
“They should participate too. Why do they get to stay in the better rooms?”
One of the female educated youths, who wore a Jiang Jie hairstyle and looked around thirty years old, smiled.
“How about this? Let’s forget drawing lots. I’ll move into the small room.”
This female educated youth was named Liu Qingping. She had already spent nearly ten years in the countryside and was regarded as an elder sister figure. She was responsible for the daily affairs of the female comrades.
The other female educated youth, who appeared somewhat cold and reserved, said: “I’ve gotten used to living with Sister Ping. I don’t want a different roommate.”
Liu Qingping called out disapprovingly: “Xiao Meng…”
The Production Brigade Leader rubbed his head in frustration.
“Let’s just draw lots. That’s the fairest way. All five of you will participate!”
At that moment, Song Ziyao, who had hardly spoken the entire time, finally opened her mouth.
“Production Brigade Leader, I’ll take the small room.”
She made no attempt to hide her reasoning and spoke directly.
“The room’s conditions are poor, but I like living alone. It’s quiet.”
Liao Hongmei smiled and immediately added: “That’s right, that’s right. Ziyao and I were classmates. She really does like peace and quiet, I know.”
With that, there was no longer any need to draw lots.
After giving a few more instructions, the Production Brigade Leader hurried off home to eat lunch.
Wang Yiguang also greeted the newly arrived Educated Youths.
“Leave your luggage for now and sort it out this afternoon. Let’s eat first.”
The Educated Youths prepared their meals separately. The previous seven residents had already divided themselves into two cooking groups.
However, the four newcomers had only just arrived and obviously could not start cooking immediately, so Wang Yiguang, as team leader, simply arranged for everyone to eat together that day.
The meal had already been prepared and was being kept warm in the pot.
The senior Educated Youths all appeared unusually excited, their eyes shining.
Only after everyone sat down at the table did the newcomers discover the reason for their excitement.
There was meat on the menu today.