Perhaps it was because living conditions were so harsh that the female educated youths argued endlessly every day.
“Yingying, what do you think about what Comrade Jiang said—about building a house?”
Yu Zhaozhao was determined to move out. As a friend, she felt she should at least let Liu Ying know.
“Huh? Zhaozhao, you want to move out too?”
“Yeah. Even if Jiang moves out, there will still be nine of us left—it’s too crowded. But if I move out, things should improve a lot. If you want to stay at the youth dorm, try to get along well with the older youths, and stay away from Wang Fangfang and Chen Zhaodi. Their character isn’t great. I think Chai Xin is actually pretty nice.”
“No, Zhaozhao! If you move out, then I’ll go with you. I’ll build a small house next to yours. We can go to work and come back together—at least we’ll have each other.”
“That works too.”
Hearing Liu Ying say that, Yu Zhaozhao finally felt relieved. Although she had already decided to be friends with Liu Ying, living together would still be inconvenient in many ways.
First of all, she wouldn’t be able to hide her “space.”
“But will the captain and the others agree?”
“They will. If they don’t, they’ll have to solve our housing problem themselves—and that’s not easy.”
“That’s true.”
Resources were scarce these days. Even though new arrivals were welcomed with a few extra dishes, there was never any meat.
The only difference was that the usual stir-fried shredded potatoes became egg stir-fried shredded potatoes, along with a stewed eggplant dish. The vegetables all came from private plots, so they were quick to prepare.
About half an hour later, Sun Xuekun called everyone over to eat.
“We’ve all come together from different places—it’s a kind of fate. We must get along well in the future. The status of educated youths in the village is awkward. If we don’t support each other and stick together, we’ll only end up being bullied.”
Sun Xuekun had been in the countryside the longest and had seen many cases of villagers bullying educated youths, so he couldn’t help but say a few extra words.
“Especially you female comrades—don’t go out alone. When those idle troublemakers have nothing to do, they like to hang around the youth dorm. You must be careful.”
Qian Yunfang had been in the countryside for five years and had often been harassed in the early years, so she spoke from experience.
“Thank you for the reminder. We’ll be careful.”
The cheerful Jiang Yan spoke up, while Yu Zhaozhao and Liu Ying nodded beside her.
“New arrivals get two days of rest, so you don’t have to work tomorrow or the day after. If you need anything, there’ll be an ox cart at the village entrance at 7:00 a.m. to take you to the commune—just pay ten cents for the fare.
If you don’t go to the commune, remember to collect your grain from the brigade in the morning. If you do go, you can collect it in the afternoon when you return.
Also, the older youths here cook together in groups of three.
The men fetch water and chop firewood, and the women handle the cooking.
So, do you want to cook on your own, or join us?”
“Comrade Sun, since the women’s dorm is too crowded, if the captain agrees, I might move out. So I can’t decide yet whether to join you for meals,” Jiang Yan said.
“Same here. If possible, I’d like to move out too.”
Zhao Nianze had brought enough money with him before coming to the countryside. If possible, he wanted to live a more comfortable life.
“Alright. What about you?”
Sun Xuekun turned to Yu Zhaozhao and the others.
“Comrade Sun, as you know, even if Jiang moves out, the women’s side will still be very crowded. So I’m planning to move out too,” Yu Zhaozhao said.
“Me too! I’m with Zhaozhao,” Liu Ying quickly added, afraid of being left behind.
“That works. It’ll ease the crowding on the women’s side.”
The older youths were quite surprised by this situation.
Even building the cheapest mud-brick house would cost seventy or eighty yuan. Were these new youths really that well-off? Four of them wanted to move out and build houses.
“Comrade Sun, Wang and I will join your group for meals,” Chen Zhaodi said proudly, as if she had finally won something over Yu Zhaozhao. She even shot Yu Zhaozhao a glance.
“Alright. And you?”
Sun Xuekun looked at Li Jun and Zhao Ruicheng.
“I’ll join.”
“Me too.”
They both knew their limits—especially when it came to cooking, they simply couldn’t manage.
“Good. That makes nine of us, and the groups are set. The four of you will form a group and line up after Wu Zheng’s group.”
“Alright.”
“Since everything’s settled, let’s eat.”
“Thanks for your hard work.”
And just like that, their first meal at the youth dorm ended pleasantly amid polite exchanges.
They had just finished eating and hadn’t even started cleaning up when Captain Zhou Youfu arrived with the accountant, Yao Guangming.
“Captain, Accountant Yao.”
Everyone stood up to greet them.
“I’m here to talk to the new youths about building houses. If any of you older youths are interested, you can listen. If not, you can go about your business.”
At first, Zhou Youfu had intended to tell them to go do their own things, but then he reconsidered—what if some of the older youths also wanted to build houses? That would help solve the bed shortage too.
Unfortunately, his plan didn’t work out. The older youths had been living here for so long that they were used to it. None of them were willing to spend that kind of money on building a house.
Seeing them all leave, Zhou Youfu looked a bit awkward.
“I just discussed this with the village leaders. Building houses is feasible. The land will be allocated to you for free—you only need to pay for construction.
However, there’s one condition: since the land belongs to the brigade, if you leave in the future, the house will automatically belong to the brigade. You won’t have the right to sell it. If you can accept that, you can sign up.”
After discussing Jiang Yan’s suggestion, the village leaders all agreed it was workable. The main issue had been how to protect the brigade’s interests, and they had debated it for a long time before reaching this final decision.
“That’s fine, I agree.”
For Jiang Yan, if she could one day return to the city, what was one house? She could even build another one for the brigade if needed.
“I have no objections either. I’ll sign up,” Zhao Nianze said.
“I’ll sign up too,” Yu Zhaozhao said.
“And me! Me too—I want to sign up!” Liu Ying added eagerly.
Zhou Youfu was just as surprised as the older youths had been earlier.
He couldn’t understand—families wealthy enough to afford this, why didn’t they arrange jobs for their children in the city instead of sending them here to suffer?
They were making things hard for themselves—and complicating matters for the village too.
Still, since they were willing to spend money to move out, it was a good thing.
At least now, there would finally be enough space on the kang beds in the youth dorm.