After finishing his meal, He Lixuan slipped five cents and three jin of national grain coupons through the crack in the door into Shiyue's room.

Seeing his actions, Jiang Dong clicked his tongue in distress: "Brother Xuan, you're giving too much! A pound of wheat flour only costs 13 cents, not to mention cornmeal. You could buy a pound of meat for 50 cents!"

"Then buy a pound of meat and cook it," He Lixuan replied.

Jiang Dong was speechless after being silenced by those words.

Before they came, who could have imagined that this shabby place would have such poor conditions!

The team distributed 30 jin of rations to each person, which were all unmilled coarse grains. They also specifically stated that it was a loan to them, and they would have to pay it back with work points in the spring!

This isn't even the most unbearable part.

What Jiang Dong found most unbearable was that the zookeeper's house was incredibly messy!

The kitchen was so dirty you couldn't even go in; the dishes and utensils were covered in a layer of dirt.

The ground was incredibly sticky, with clumps of it that were hard to tell if it was yellow mud or cow and horse dung...

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel nauseous again.

To cook and eat in that kind of environment...

I can't even eat meat!

He couldn't help but howl to the sky: "Ah! There are still two years left, how am I going to get through this?"

He Lixuan turned and left in disgust.

Ye Pu'an's heart stirred upon hearing this.

He quickly caught up with He Lixuan and asked softly, "Lixuan, before we came, Uncle He told you that you could go back in two years?"

He Lixuan replied calmly, "No."

A hint of disappointment flashed in Ye Puan's eyes.

He chuckled self-deprecatingly: "I don't think it's possible either."

He Lixuan didn't speak, his lowered eyelids concealing the worry in his eyes.

He was called home by his father while he was in school.

He thought something had happened at home, but when he got back, his parents had already packed his luggage.

His father only told him that the current environment is not good, the school has already spoken with him, and his job may change.

He Lixuan was told to stay in the countryside for a while until things settled down at home before returning.

He Lixuan knew that his parents had been having a hard time lately.

Both of them had studied abroad.

Even though my father's position as principal hasn't been revoked yet, and my mother is still a professor, neither of them has been teaching for a long time.

I stay home every day writing reports.

But He Lixuan did not expect things to have become so serious that his parents' jobs would be changed!

What can it become?

Are we really going to make them leave Jiannan University?

You should know that my parents had to send special representatives from the government to visit us many times and sincerely invite us before they gave up everything and resolutely returned to China to teach.

From its preparation and construction to its later enrollment and teaching, Jiannan University...

The parents deserve a lot of credit!

Now they're going to make them leave their teaching positions?

He Lixuan felt a great deal of resentment!

But Mom and Dad had obviously anticipated this.

They didn't give He Lixuan a chance to speak, and didn't even let him go back to school to pack his things. The next day, they put him on a train for educated youth to go to the countryside.

It wasn't until he arrived at the station and saw his cousin Yu Chuxia, along with his childhood friends Jiang Dong and Ye Puan, that He Lixuan realized his parents had been working on this for a long time.

I just kept it from him because I was afraid he wouldn't like it.

After boarding the bus, he even learned from Ye Pu'an that it was his father who had arranged for them to leave early and not be able to spend the Spring Festival at home.

He Lixuan felt even more uneasy after learning this, but by then he was powerless to do anything about it.

He Lixuan strode towards the door.

When he reached the courtyard gate, he casually grabbed a bamboo basket that Shiyue was hanging on a hook and carried it on his back.

Seeing him like this, the other two quickly followed suit.

As Jiang Dong walked, he asked, "Aren't we going to look for Chu Xia? She hasn't eaten yet, has she?"

“You know how many snacks Chu Xia brought before she came, she won’t go hungry,” Ye Pu’an said.

He took two steps to catch up with He Lixuan and asked, "Where are we going now?"

"Let's go dig for wild vegetables," He Lixuan said casually.

The two of them immediately fell silent.

Jiang Dong turned back again, unlatched the door, and went to Shiyue's courtyard to retrieve the sickle they had borrowed.

He Lixuan followed his memory of that day and walked up the back mountain.

Because it was so cold, there were hardly any people on the mountain even at midday.

Not only was there no one there, but there wasn't even a bird in sight.

They walked a long way, and all they could hear were the three of them breathing and walking.

Although everyone had studied agriculture in the city and knew the difference between the five grains, they had also dug up wild vegetables.

But finding wild vegetables in the mountains was a first for them.

The main problem is that I don't know where to find it.

They wandered around in the mountains for a long time, only to find some wild onions growing in a field. They picked a few, but saw nothing else.

"You can't eat wild onions as a meal!" Jiang Dong frowned, his nose and eyes wrinkling with worry.

"I wonder where Shiyue went. She must know where to find wild vegetables," Ye Puan muttered.

"Wild vegetables are a staple food. Who doesn't lack food these days? It's normal that they wouldn't tell us even if they knew."

He Lixuan pulled up the last few wild scallions and threw them into the basket, then stood up and clapped his hands: "Let's go for a walk ahead."

The three continued walking forward and soon reached the fork in the road.

Jiang Dong walked at the front, and without hesitation, he went straight ahead along the road.

He Lixuan, however, was drawn to the two newly broken branches on the side road.

"This way." He pointed and then walked over first.

They hadn't gone far along the path when they vaguely saw movement ahead.

Jiang Dong curiously walked past He Lixuan to the front.

He quickly shouted excitedly, "Shiyue, what are you doing here?"

He Lixuan looked ahead, past his head.

Then I saw Shiyue lying on the ground, her head and half her body buried in a pit.

All that was left outside were her legs and her protruding buttocks.

Perhaps she was too hot from working, because Shiyue took off her thick cotton-padded coat and was now wearing an old padded jacket.

The padded jacket was probably a bit too small, clinging tightly to the body.

It showed off her narrow waist and perky buttocks.

He Lixuan glanced over and his ears instantly turned red.

He immediately looked away and gazed into the distance.

Shiyue had no idea that her actions were so suggestive. When she heard Jiang Dong's voice, her heart sank.

What you fear will come true!

She couldn't help but grind her teeth.

But since it's already been discovered, there's no point in hiding it anymore.

She withdrew her hand from the pit and slowly sat up straight.

"I discovered this patch of yams. If you want to dig them up, you can, and we'll split the harvest in half."

Shiyue got up from the ground and looked at the three of them.

Jiang Dong stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

Ye Puan also showed a shocked expression.

Ye Pu'an pointed to the earthen slope: "This doesn't belong to you. This whole mountain belongs to the brigade! Why should you get half of what we've dug up?"

Shiyue opened her mouth, about to refute.

“Okay,” He Lixuan said quickly.