"This month's rations for the other Educated Youth are stored here. Starting tomorrow, you'll calculate your share based on the remaining days and pay accordingly. If anyone needs extra portions, you must inform the cook in advance. For today, we veteran Educated Youth have already arranged to treat you to this meal."
Xu Jiajia and Lu Xun, being relatively well-off, each voluntarily contributed a canned meat product after hearing Huang Xiaomei's announcement, suggesting they share it with everyone.
Ning Xuan, Zhou Zhipeng, and another quieter male Educated Youth named Li Ping offered to provide grain.
Although the veterans said it was their treat, the newcomers didn't want to take advantage. In these times, everyone struggled financially, and food was barely sufficient for survival, so they felt uncomfortable accepting the generosity without contributing.
After storing the grain, Liu Jun and Huang Xiaomei reminded them they could order furniture from Uncle Shizhu at the brigade. Items like chests, cabinets, and tables could be purchased from him.
Uncle Shizhu was the brigade's carpenter, about fifty years old, with his eldest son as his apprentice. Since private trade wasn't permitted, they had to give a portion of their earnings from furniture-making to the brigade. At year's end, this money was distributed as dividends to brigade members, while the remainder served as their wages.
However, for smaller items like stools, brigade members often bartered privately with goods, and the brigade turned a blind eye. After all, if someone traded two eggs for something, the brigade couldn't reasonably confiscate one egg—who would they even give it to?
Thus, barter transactions were generally ignored by the brigade, but larger items like wardrobes involving money required sharing profits with the brigade.
Moreover, large pieces couldn't be moved discreetly in the village, and envy-driven reports could cause trouble, so Uncle Shizhu's family always followed the rules.
Ning Xuan thought she wouldn't need a large item like a wardrobe but could use a chest placed in the corner of the kang for storage, doubling as a table.
So, Ning Xuan joined the others to visit Uncle Shizhu. Since people from other brigades also came to order furniture, he typically didn't work in the fields if he had orders, and his son assisted after finishing his own labor.
Each of them ordered a wooden chest and a small stool, which would be useful for meals or activities like movie screenings.
The Educated Youth Center had one stool per person, so they needed to order their own.
Xu Jiajia also ordered a small desk and a taller chair to match.
Only two ready-made chests were available, and the male comrades gallantly let the two female comrades have them.
There were just enough small stools for each to take one.
Although Ning Xuan thought a desk would be convenient, she lacked the money, and the Educated Youth dormitory had limited space—too many desks would make it crowded.
Ning Xuan didn't have an enamel basin, so she ordered two wooden basins: one for washing face and bathing, and another for soaking feet.
The male comrades already had enamel basins and didn't order more. Xu Jiajia also had an enamel basin but wanted an extra one for foot soaking, so she ordered a wooden basin as well.
Except for Li Ping, who had brought his own mat, the others hadn't, so Huang Xiaomei led them to another household to "exchange" for grass mats with a Daniang.
After finalizing the furniture and obtaining the grass mats, the Educated Youth returned to the dormitory to prepare their sleeping areas.
Although her spot looked relatively clean, Ning Xuan still carefully wiped it down again before spreading out the grass mat.
After wiping the cabinet, she placed it in the corner by the kang. The old Educated Youth's trunk was positioned against the wall in the middle of the kang, creating a natural divider to prevent anyone from rolling into someone else's space during sleep.
She took her clothes out of the fertilizer bag and placed them in the trunk. Since she didn't have a lock yet, Ning Xuan kept her money and documents on her person.
After all the busy work, Huang Xiaomei started cooking, as it happened to be her turn that day.
The person assigned to cook each day was allowed to finish work half an hour early, but Huang Xiaomei had been called back by the brigade leader to handle some matters officially, with the agreement that their work points wouldn't be deducted. So she and Liu Jun didn't return to work.
Ning Xuan and the others proactively offered to help.
Ning Xuan suddenly felt that the Educated Youth from her same batch were actually quite decent. Even Xu Jiajia, whom she had initially thought was quite pampered, knew to volunteer assistance.
However, whenever she tried to help, Zhou Zhipeng—that simp—would eagerly take over the tasks, so Xu Jiajia ultimately didn't get to do much.
Watching this scene unfold like a TV drama, Ning Xuan found it quite amusing.
Zhou Zhipeng wasn't too excessive though; he understood the current social environment where men and women who weren't officially dating couldn't get too close. His simping for the female lead remained within reasonable bounds, maintaining a certain distance whenever he spoke to her.
The meal was ready just as work ended. Ning Xuan and the others at the Educated Youth Center could hear the gong signaling the end of the workday.
Sure enough, before long, the Educated Youth began returning to the center one after another.
Huang Xiaomei called out, "Come quickly for dinner! These are the new Educated Youth."
Ning Xuan and the others proactively introduced themselves to the old Educated Youth.
Liu Jun said, "With so many people, you probably won't remember everyone right away. Let's eat first—you'll get to know each other gradually."
Huang Xiaomei also mentioned that the new Educated Youth had contributed extra dishes for the meal, which left a favorable impression of them with the old Educated Youth.
Today's meal was actually quite simple: the staple was Erhe Rice, with dishes consisting of vegetables grown in the Educated Youth's private plot—one dish of green beans and a loofah soup.
The green beans were enhanced with the canned meat contributed by Xu Jiajia and the others. Huang Xiaomei had taken the meat from the can, chopped it up, and added it to the green beans to simmer after they were mostly cooked.
Huang Xiaomei remarked that today's meal was actually quite good—usually they only had plain vegetables, with meat appearing very rarely. Only during busy farming seasons when the work was particularly strenuous would they pool their money and ration coupons to buy some meat, eggs, or similar items for supplemental dishes.
Although their grain ration was barely sufficient and the vegetables helped fill their stomachs, the lack of oil in their diet meant they got hungry quickly, especially when doing physical labor.
But there was no helping it—most people lacked oily foods during those times, and even having money didn't guarantee you could buy any. They were already quite satisfied just to have enough to eat.
Ning Xuan again considered herself somewhat fortunate. From what she could see so far, the old Educated Youth didn't include any particularly difficult characters. But they had just met—time would reveal true character. For now, she would settle in peacefully.
After the meal, Ning Xuan went with several other Educated Youth to Uncle Shizhu's place to collect the wooden basins. The basins were already made, but when they went over earlier, the varnish was still drying, so they couldn't take them immediately.
Ning Xuan had now collected everything she needed. She would have to wait until she had ration coupons before she could buy anything else.
After such a long train ride and with the hot weather, everyone needed to bathe.
The male Educated Youth all went to wash by the river. With only six female Educated Youth currently present and the males away, they temporarily took over the men's shower room. With three people on each side, the rotation went quickly.
The Educated Youth Center had only two shower rooms, normally one for each gender. But during summer when the male comrades washed in the river, leaving their shower room unused, the women could temporarily borrow it.
The shower rooms were purely for bathing – the toilets were separate facilities. Though divided into men's and women's toilets, they were pit latrines that required regular cleaning.
When Ning Xuan saw the pit latrine, she felt completely overwhelmed. Especially in summer, with maggots wriggling inside, she nearly vomited.
But she couldn't just hold it in, so she covered her nose throughout, quickly finished her business, and rushed out.
The thought of having to struggle with this pit latrine for the next several years made Ning Xuan feel utterly bleak about the future.