“Why are you up so early? If you’re not sleeping, we won’t either!” Tong Xin, being familiar with Ye Cai’e, went straight for the point instead of hesitating like the others.
Yao Yulan wasn’t going to let her off easily. “I didn’t call you, why do you care so much? Are you jealous that I came to find Brother Jiahui?”
As soon as Qi Jiahui stepped out, he heard that and instinctively glanced at Tong Xin, whose face was now slightly flushed. Something stirred in his heart.
At this time, all the veteran youth were off to work, leaving only a bunch of clueless newcomers, noisy like headless flies. Things only calmed down when Zhang Qiushi returned; otherwise, someone was bound to get hurt.
“What do we do about breakfast if you all leave?” Qi Jiahui hadn’t eaten enough the day before and now wished he could go straight to town for a proper meal.
Zhang Qiushi’s voice was steady. “Follow me! Today, we’ll collect rations from the brigade. Since you just arrived, you’ll receive basic rations. If it’s not enough, borrow from the brigade and repay later with earned work points.”
The group set off for the brigade office. Villagers heading to work glanced curiously at the new faces.
The office wasn’t far. Accountant Xu was already waiting for them.
“Each person can collect ten jin of corn and ten jin of wheat flour. This is your basic ration. If it’s not enough, register here and borrow accordingly,” Xu said, tapping the abacus without even looking at them.
The North Wind Brigade was located on fertile black soil. Grain yields were high, and the food was tasty. Villagers received 35 jin of basic rations per month, and half the month remained—roughly sufficient. Xu, being educated, was respected in the village.
“Comrade, can we swap for white flour?” Li Xiangrong, pale and skinny, had always eaten little but preferred white flour. In the city, he could convert his monthly rations to white flour.
Xu sighed internally. These city kids were too fussy. No wonder brigades disliked receiving urban youth. This batch was the largest yet, and he didn’t know what trouble they would bring.
He said, “White flour can only replace ten jin. Decide among yourselves.”
In the end, Yao Yulan, Qi Jiahui, and Li Xiangrong each exchanged ten jin of white flour. The others returned with ten jin of corn and ten jin of wheat flour.
Before leaving, Zhang Qiushi instructed, “You can use the dorm’s large cooking pot. Arrange meals yourselves. We’ll discuss other matters together tonight.” Then he left for work.
Meanwhile, Ye Cai’e had a comfortable sleep. Unfortunately, this body’s internal clock was too regular, and she couldn’t sleep past six. She stubbornly stayed in bed another half hour before getting up to wash, then took a milk-flavored bun from her space to fill her stomach.
Her first task after waking was to grab the day’s one-cent flash sale items. She never knew exactly how the system calculated them; sometimes all items were good, sometimes none were worth buying.
Today, she stared at five items on the screen with a frown: a bottle of Inner Mongolia grassland air, a signed Jay Chou item, a toilet seat, a phone chain, and a single sheet of A4 paper. None were useful to her. After deliberating, she picked the signed Jay Chou item, thinking that keeping it for thirty years would make it valuable.
But the moment she received it, the dream was shattered. It wasn’t a real signature, it was a poor-quality print. What a waste of money. She set it in the corner of her space. Despite rushing on the train, she hadn’t missed a single flash sale. In three days, she bought three national ration tickets, a roast chicken, and a cheap lipstick. Sometimes spending one cent felt like a loss if she didn’t buy, but buying sometimes felt worse.
After eating, she came out to inspect the small courtyard. It was at the foot of the mountain. The nearest house was five meters away, and the two brick-separated houses felt isolated from the rest of the village.
She recognized the mountain behind them. Many had made fortunes there, collecting medicinal herbs like ginseng, wild game, mushrooms, and chestnuts. As a child, the original owner often foraged for mushrooms and hunted wild birds or rabbits.
But over ten years ago, two tigers appeared on the mountain, and some people disappeared. Since then, villagers agreed to avoid the mountain, and homes gradually moved elsewhere, leaving this area sparsely populated.
Qin Chengyi had been too young to do anything after his family passed, and later, as he grew, he never pursued the matter again.
Ye Cai’e was increasingly pleased. Besides the room she would live in, there were two smaller rooms for storage. The front yard was tidy and weed-free, and the back yard, though overgrown, could be cleared for a small vegetable plot. Rural families always grew some vegetables, or rations alone wouldn’t suffice. This meant she could openly harvest vegetables from her space to eat.
She remembered Uncle Niu mentioned collecting rations today. After tidying up, she headed to the brigade office along the remembered route.
“Hey, isn’t this the Ye family’s little girl? When did you come back?” Ye Cai’e smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’m back.”
“Little Cai’e? Didn’t you go to the city? I heard you went to find your birth parents.”
“Yes, to the city.”
“Oh, who is this? How’s life in the city? You must’ve enjoyed it. After you left, your parents and grandparents must’ve worried sick!”
“Yes, it’s me.”
She deliberately waited until everyone was at work before going out, yet still ran into so many people. Were there really that many not working during the day?
The original owner had been cutting pig grass since the age of three, never resting even when sick with a fever.