Away from the big book, the educated youth became the village favorite by running errands

This meal was better than she expected. She thought she would have to eat sweet potatoes, steamed bread with thick skin, and drink wild vegetable soup when she went to the countryside. Although she was fearless at home and told her parents that she would have to eat here, she was nervous. These foods were not given to them for nothing. They had to work hard to get them. If they worked less, they would have to tighten their belts and eat steamed bread.

The other three people were not very adaptable. Tan Anjing's family was well off because her father was the purchasing director of the supply and marketing cooperative. They ate better than other families. Although they did not eat meat every day, they rarely ate coarse cornmeal cakes. Before Gao Wenyuan went to the countryside, he heard that the Northeast was rich in grain production and thought he would be able to eat good food. Unexpectedly, the food he ate was almost the same as at home.

As for Bai Lingling, she even felt that the meal was not as good as what she cooked at home. She bit the pancake reluctantly, looking like someone owed her something. She didn't even think about what she was eating in the car.

Song Shuangshuang thought of the subsidy, so she asked, "The Youth Office said that the educated youth will receive a subsidy of 10 yuan per month in the first year of their rural life, but it didn't say anything about food. I want to ask what we should do with our food rations. We can't just keep eating what you old educated youth give us."

"When we first went to the countryside, the village would lend us grain. If we saved a little, it would be barely enough to make it to the food distribution after the autumn harvest. If it was not enough, we could use the money to exchange for some of the stored grain from last year. After the autumn harvest and the work points were settled, we had to return the borrowed grain to the village. If we earned few work points, it would not even be enough for the next year's food rations. Our village chief and team leader allowed us to pay it back the following year." Feng Aiguo talked about how they solved the food ration problem at that time.

When Bai Lingling heard that the food rations had to be returned, she complained, "Why do we have to return the food? Isn't the food directly subsidized to us by the village?"

When Bai Lingling asked this, everyone present didn't know how to answer this question.

"The village won't give us any food subsidies. Our village is considered to have surplus food. There was a very poor village where I live where the educated youth went to work. The villagers couldn't even get enough to eat, let alone the food the village would lend them. They had to write letters home and ask them to mail them the food." Cui Ziming recalled that when that man returned home, he was so thin that his family could hardly recognize him. They said they didn't want to go back to the countryside no matter what. In the end, the man's mother gave her job to her son, so he didn't go back.

Bai Lingling still refused to give up. "What if I can't pay it back? The villagers can't let me starve to death, right?"

The people present could see that Bai Lingling was not in her right mind. She still wanted to not return the grain? The grain in these fields was grown bit by bit by the villagers. They valued it more than anything else. During the three years of natural disasters, many people lost their lives. Only in the northeast, where the land was rich, more people survived. Who wants to live a hard life with nothing to eat now? The grain that the village lent out was saved by the village in case of disasters and nothing to eat. There are many ways to make you return the grain.

Song Shuangshuang ignored Bai Lingling's mischief and continued to ask, "What kind of grain can we borrow? I see that our village grows a lot of corn (corn, generally called corn in the Northeast) and wheat."

"Forget about wheat, as it's a fine grain. We get about 15 kilograms of corn and 15 kilograms of potatoes a month. You need to go to the stone mill at the entrance of the village to grind the corn into corn grits or cornmeal, depending on how you want to eat it." He Feiyang only spent one year in the countryside and remembered it clearly. He talked to Song Shuangshuang about it.

"Yes, we all eat together. The female educated youth cook, and the male educated youth chop wood and fetch water. After the autumn harvest, we have to go up the mountain together to pick mushrooms and firewood." Fan Lanfang finished the meal and added, "If you also plan to eat with us, you can grind the grain together and bring it back after it's ground."

Song Shuangshuang felt that she had just arrived and didn't want to be special. Besides, if she cooked for herself, she would have too much work to do every day and couldn't catch up. She expressed her willingness to eat with everyone, and the other three agreed to join.

Three female educated youth came at once, so we didn't need so many people to cook. Feng Aiguo suggested, "Now that there are twice as many female educated youth, we don't need six people to cook together. You can divide into groups. One group cooks and the other waters the vegetables, and it can be considered as taking turns to rest. There is one more male educated youth, so we still have five people going up the mountain, and two people will stay to fetch water and help the female educated youth take care of the vegetable fields. This way everyone will have more opportunities to rest. Do you think it's okay?"

The newcomers only expressed their agreement after seeing that the old educated youth had agreed.

After finishing the meal and clearing the table, Song Shuangshuang and the others packed their luggage. Song Shuangshuang carried her straw mat back to the dormitory, spread it out and then took out a piece of linen from her luggage and spread it on top. She couldn't bear the bedding to come into direct contact with the straw mat, worried that it would be damp and breed bugs in the summer. Fortunately, she had made preparations.

Bai Lingling had packed her things long ago as she didn't take anything with her. She was now sitting on the kang watching the two people packing their luggage. When she saw Song Shuangshuang take out a whole piece of linen and spread it between the straw mat and the mattress, she couldn't help but mutter that it was nonsense.

When Song Shuangshuang finished packing her things, the team leader just came to the Youth League Home and explained their purpose. He asked the new Youth League to go to the village committee office tomorrow to collect their rations and take a day off tomorrow. They should also prepare anything they needed as they would go to the fields to work the day after tomorrow.

Just as Song Shuangshuang expected, the newly arrived educated youth could rest for a day before going back to work in the fields. Tomorrow she could go to the county supply and marketing cooperative to buy some things, mainly a thermos, which was easy to break and could not be bought at home. She also brought an enamel basin from home, stuffed in the quilt like a bowl.

Song Shuangshuang planned to plan her schedule carefully. Tomorrow she had to collect food, go to the west end of the village to find Guan the carpenter, and go to the county. Seeing that the captain had not left yet, she asked, "Captain, when will we collect food tomorrow? I need something and plan to go to the county supply and marketing cooperative."

"You can go to the village entrance around 5am and ride Old Wu's donkey cart to the county. If you don't have a watch, just listen for the first whistle. You can be back around noon. To get food, go to the village committee office together after work in the afternoon. If you can't come back, you can collect it on my behalf."

After learning how long it would take to go back and forth by donkey cart, Song Shuangshuang decided to have a meal at the state-owned restaurant before returning the next day.

After the captain left, Song Shuangshuang prepared to go back to the dormitory to write a letter and send it back, telling her family the address of Jiangjia Village and asking about her brother. She didn't know if he had woken up yet.

Taking out paper and pen to write a letter on the dining table, Song Shuangshuang had an idea. She remembered that there seemed to be small kang tables in Northeast China, and people would put their tea and melon seeds on the kang table when they visited each other, chatting, and drinking tea. Tomorrow she could ask the carpenter to make one for her. When she hibernates in winter, she can read books and write letters on the kang table. It is warm and convenient.

"Song Zhiqing, I just heard you tell the team leader that you are going to the county tomorrow. Can you help me mail a letter?" Cui Ziming took a letter and wanted Song Shuangshuang to help mail it. He hadn't written a letter to his family for a while, but he was tired during this period and didn't want to ask for leave to go to the city just to mail a letter.

It was just helping to mail a letter, there was nothing wrong with it, so I agreed readily.

Cui Ziming put the letter on the table and said that if Song Shuangshuang didn't have time to come back to collect the food tomorrow because she had to go to the post office, he could help collect it on her behalf. He just needed to tell the team leader and take an hour off.

Song Shuangshuang waved her hand and said, "No, I also want to write a letter and send it home. I'm just going to buy some things and come back in time. Thank you for your kindness."

"Okay, you can come to me if you need any help." Cui Ziming scratched his head embarrassedly, and told Song Shuangshuang about the bad temper of the cart driver, Old Wu, who especially disliked them, the educated youth. "By the way, try to go earlier tomorrow morning. He will leave when the cart is full. Sometimes he will leave even if the cart is not full. He doesn't care about the time, but his mood." This group of educated youth have basically suffered at the hands of Old Wu.

They couldn't possibly complain to the village chief or the team leader, because they were from the same village and would definitely favor each other. Besides, they usually had to rely on Old Wu's donkey cart to go to the county, and if they offended someone, they wouldn't be able to enter the city.

Thinking about how Old Wu left Bai Lingling behind and drove away with the donkey cart when he picked them up to go back to the village in the afternoon, Song Shuangshuang couldn't help laughing out loud. The old man is really a real person!

Song Shuangshuang's laughter left Cui Ziming completely confused. Why did this person laugh like that for no reason? He didn't say anything.

"It's okay, it's okay. I suddenly thought of something else. Don't worry, I will help you mail the letter tomorrow." Song Shuangshuang hurriedly explained that she was not sick, otherwise people would think she had a mental problem.

While it was still light, Song Shuangshuang quickly finished writing the letter. After collecting the letters from both of them, Song Shuangshuang returned to the dormitory to fetch water and wash up.

Because there were many people in the educated youth camp, they used a lot of water, and there was a well in the courtyard for easy access. So even if it was not winter, there was always hot water on the stove in the educated youth camp. After dinner, the girls would clean the pot and fill it with water. Although the fire left over from cooking was not enough to boil water, at least the water was hot when they washed up at night, which was very convenient for the girls.

After washing up and lying on the kang, Song Shuangshuang felt alive again. She had been sitting on a hard seat on the train for more than ten hours, changing donkey carts and packing luggage. She hadn't lain down for 24 hours. She hadn't felt tired just now because she was packing, but now she felt like her arms and legs were not her own.

She groaned in her heart, knowing that she would have to go to the fields to work the day after tomorrow. She didn't know if she could endure it. Before she knew it, Song Shuangshuang fell asleep.

Unlike Song Shuangshuang, Bai Lingling was thinking whether she should go to the county to buy some things tomorrow. She only brought her own things at home, and only had the 3 yuan subsidy for educated youth going to the countryside and the 7 yuan she had secretly saved. Rather than going to the countryside, it was more like being kicked out by her parents.

Bai Lingling thought of Song Shuangshuang's handbag. Her family was willing to make meat dumplings for her, so they must have brought a lot of things for her. She would definitely not take the handbag with her when she went to the county tomorrow, so she would go into the city next time when she had time.

And that Tan Anjing, she looks stupid, and she is so pitiful, if I tell her a few pitiful words, she will definitely believe it...