The next morning, Wei Mo woke up and opened his eyes to find that Li Xiuxiu was no longer there; she must have gone to collect the fish baskets again.

Recently, Li Xiuxiu has been in charge of the fish baskets, and Wei Mo has hardly gone there anymore, because Li Xiuxiu gets up too early every day, while Wei Mo is rather lazy to get out of bed.

So the task of hauling in the fish baskets was handed over to Li Xiuxiu. Moreover, since Wei's mother and grandfather were not keen on having Wei Mo go up the mountain, the task was left to Li Xiuxiu.

Wei Mo dressed, looked at the sweet potatoes on the stove, picked one up and ate it, waiting for the brigade leader's oxcart to arrive.

Grandma Yu, Aunt Wei, several female educated youths, and the eldest and second eldest sisters had all gotten up early and finished breakfast, and were weaving fish baskets in the yard.

The old man was probably busy collecting the fish caught in the village. After waiting for a long time, Wei Mo finally saw the team leader arrive at the house. The old man, Wei Mo's mother, and a few others took out the big fish that had been caught yesterday, weighed them, and recorded their work points.

"Grandson, come here quickly, we're about to leave!"

"Grandpa, I'm here, wait for me."

The old man beckoned to Wei Mo, who was sitting on the threshold and hurriedly ran over and boarded the oxcart.

Although the oxcart moved very slowly, there were many large potholes along the way, and it wobbled and swayed as it made its way toward the town.

Wei Mo frowned as well. This road was almost exclusively used by people from Daliu Village. It should really be repaired, but it wasn't appropriate for Wei Mo to bring it up.

Wei Mo's eyes darted around as he pondered how to talk to the old man, until the cart wheel rolled into a large puddle again, causing the water in the bucket containing the fish to overflow.

Because the oxcart went over a large pothole, causing an imbalance, two fish also escaped. The team leader quickly pulled the oxcart back.

They picked up the fish, and at that moment, Wei Mo spoke to the old man and the captain.

"Grandpa, Uncle Dazhuang, can't we fix this road? It's too difficult to walk on, otherwise the fish will get away if we're not careful."

"There's not much work to do in the fields right now, so a lot of people are idle. Let them do the work. Anyway, we're just walking around on our own. My butt is practically split in two from all the walking!"

Wei Mo was just making an excuse, but the old man nodded in agreement and said to the captain,

"It's no wonder my eldest grandson said, 'Look at our road, it's in such bad shape. Tomorrow you should bring some people to fill in these potholes. There's not much work to do in the fields right now, so it's a good time to fix the road. That way, it will be much more convenient to go to and from town.'"

The captain nodded upon hearing the old man's words, smiled憨厚ly, and said,

"Okay, okay, okay, old man, I'll listen to you. I'll gather people tomorrow and fix this broken road."

After the three finished speaking, Wei Mo secretly nodded, considering it another good deed done for the village. The oxcart continued forward and slowly arrived in the town.

The brigade leader and Shan Chao first led two oxcarts to the supply and marketing cooperative, where they sold their catch of fish.

Afterwards, the two of them led the oxcart, carrying empty water tanks filled with fish, to the town government, where they would have to wait for a long time for the arrival of the new educated youth.

They were taken back together. At the supply and marketing cooperative, the old man wanted to buy something for Wei Mo, but Wei Mo refused because he really didn't like the things at the cooperative.

The grandfather and grandson then went to the town government together with the brigade leader and Shan Chao'er.

Several oxcarts were already parked in front of the town government building. These belonged to other villages and were also there to pick up the educated youth. After all, this was a task that every village had to complete.

Upon arriving at the town government building, the old man and the brigade leader went inside, while Wei Mo waited obediently in the car.

Dan Chao tied the two oxcarts together and also helped the old man keep an eye on Wei Mo.

Not long after, the brigade leader and the old man came out with smiles on their faces, followed by three young educated youth, two men and one woman.

Later, several other village leaders came out one after another, accompanied by other educated youth, but they all had worried faces.

The reason was because of the old man's connections. Three educated youths were assigned to Daliu Village, two men and one woman. Even the female educated youth was exceptionally robust.

This arrangement was made by the town mayor out of respect for the old man. The brigade leader originally thought that as long as the old man intervened, the allocation of educated youth would be much better.

The brigade leader instructed the three educated youths to put their luggage in the car where Wei Mo was sitting, and then asked them to introduce themselves, saying that he would take them back in a little while.

Of the two male educated youths, one was named Li Taiping and the other Wang Hao. They were both exceptionally strong. Although they said they had gone to the countryside voluntarily, they had worried expressions on their faces and were clearly unwilling to go.

The remaining female educated youth was named Zhou Fen. She looked exceptionally strong and was always smiling. After the brigade leader had the three of them introduce themselves, he let the three educated youths get on the oxcart driven by Shan Chao.

Other brigades, because they all used oxcarts, were only allowed to put their luggage and belongings on the oxcarts, and the people had to walk with them, as a way to intimidate the educated youth.

Compared to Daliu Village, it was much worse. At least in Daliu Village, Li Dazhuang managed to get the educated youth to ride in oxcarts.

Seeing the others walking while they sat, Wang Hao and Li Taiping smiled, no longer looking so gloomy.

Zhou Fen, a very outgoing girl, was chatting with Shan Chao.

Before the oxcart could move, Wei Mo jumped off the brigade leader's oxcart and then climbed onto the oxcart driven by Shan Chao.

He is now interested in three former educated youths and wants to see if they are worth associating with.

Moreover, having someone to chat with makes the journey less boring. Zhou Fen's eyes lit up when she saw a little child getting on the bus, and she said...

"Little one, do you want some candy? Here you go."

After saying that, she took out a candy ball from her pocket, wrapped it in a handkerchief, and handed one to Wei Mo.

After all, it was a kind gesture from someone else, so Wei Mo obediently said...

"Thank you, sister."

Then, Zhou Fen put the candy ball in her mouth, looked at the cute appearance of the doll in front of her, patted Wei Mo's little head, and then asked Wei Mo about things in the village.

"Little one, are there many educated youth in the village? Do they have places to stay? Are they able to get enough to eat?"

Zhou Fen asked a series of questions. Shan Chao frowned but didn't say much, while Wei Mo answered Zhou Fen's questions readily.

"Sister, there were five educated youths in our village, but one of them was taken away by the police. Now there are only four female educated youths living in my house. You educated youths used to have a very big house, but now there is only one person who is not an educated youth living over there."

Upon hearing Wei Mo's answer, the eyes of the three people in the car visibly lit up, after all, they had also inquired about the situation of going to the countryside.

Although it was said to be to support national construction, the reason they chose to go to the countryside was more because they could not live in the cities and there was not enough supply.

Or perhaps for some other reason, they came to the countryside to escape disasters.

Upon hearing Wei Mo's reply, Li Taiping also took out two pieces of milk candy from his bag. It should be noted that milk candy was extremely rare in this era.

It's obvious that Li Taiping's family was very well-off, so why did he choose to go to the countryside?

Perhaps everyone has their own difficulties.