Yun Ningyan carried the grain back to the educated youth settlement. The older educated youth were already cooking, and she delivered her share of the grain to them.

When Liu Zhijun saw her return, he stared at her longingly, forcing a smile and not daring to look at her. She walked straight past him without giving him a single glance. This kind of person just needs to be taught a lesson!

Seeing that she ignored him, Liu Zhijun breathed a sigh of relief. Now he was truly afraid of this troublemaker. She was skilled and capable, and he dared not provoke her again.

When Yun Ningyan returned to her room, she saw that her luggage was still the same as before. She had put all the valuables into her spatial storage, and the rest of her luggage consisted of some inexpensive items.

She took out a quilt, made the bed next to Lin Mengmeng, and sat on the bed to rest.

Everyone else had received their grain, and the older educated youth called out from outside that it was time to eat. Everyone sat together, looking at each other.

Liu Zhijun glanced at Yun Ningyan before speaking, "Let's all introduce ourselves and get to know each other."

He spoke first: "My name is Liu Zhijun, I'm from Beijing, and I'm 21 years old."

The tall man next to him, wearing a drab gray shirt, introduced himself: "My name is Hu Haiquan, and I'm also from Beijing. Liu Zhijun and I are childhood friends. I'm 19 years old this year."

............

Through the introduction, Yun Ningyan learned that some of these former educated youth had been here for four or five years, while others had been here for one or two years, and the shortest stay was three months.

The former educated youth are: Liu Zhijun, Hu Haiquan, Li Shengli, Yu Lili, Zhang Hongmei, and Yang Laidi.

New educated youth: Sun Pengfei, Zhang Qiang, Zhao Weiguo, Song Pandi, Lin Mengmeng and herself.

The older male educated youth looked a little better, but the female educated youth, especially Zhang Hongmei and Yang Laidi, all had dark and rough skin, obvious fine lines around their eyes, and even their hands were black.

Yun Ningyan sighed inwardly; it seemed that the days ahead would be very difficult.

She remembered that the college entrance examination was reinstated in 1977 in her previous life, and although this was a parallel universe, it was probably similar.

The new educated youth were already hungry. As soon as the introduction was finished, they wolfed down their food. Yun Ningyan was holding a cornbread made of two kinds of flour. She really couldn't swallow it. It was too dry, too coarse, and it hurt her throat.

She barely managed to finish her meal with a mouthful of cornbread and a mouthful of corn porridge.

She was the first to return to her room. While everyone else was eating, she went into her spatial dimension, ate a fried chicken leg, quickly washed up, and then hurried out. Fortunately, they were all still eating outside.

She lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) with her eyes closed, resting.

When Huo Junshan returned home, his mother, Li Xiangyun, yelled at him, "Where have you been? What time is it? Did you go up the mountain again? Didn't you catch any prey?"

Huo Junshan went straight to the kitchen, took out the food that Li Xiangyun had left for him from the pot, and ate it in big mouthfuls.

When Li Xiangyun saw that no one was paying attention to her, she was so angry that she wanted to beat him up. With such a taciturn personality, when would he ever be able to find a daughter-in-law?

After finishing his meal and washing the dishes, Huo Junshan picked up an axe and headed outside. Li Xiangyun was startled by this sight; was her third son going to kill someone?

That could land you in jail.

"Old Huo, the third brother is going to chop someone up. Eldest brother, second brother, fourth brother, fifth brother."

Upon hearing the noise, Huo Changgen came out of the house, and Huo Jianguo, Huo Jiandang, Huo Jianjun, and Huo Jianshe surrounded Huo Junshan in a flash.

Huo Jianshe spoke up to stop him, saying, "Third Brother, you'll be arrested for stabbing someone."

"Third son, let's figure out a solution together. Put the axe down first," Huo Changgen also advised, his heart trembling as he watched his third son holding the axe.

Huo Junshan said helplessly, "I'm just going to chop wood."

The others were completely bewildered: Chopping wood! Not chopping people?

Huo Jianshe bluntly stated, "If it's not about killing people, what's the point of cutting wood?"

I initially thought it was some fool who angered Third Brother, but now I'm in for a good show.

That's it?

Huo Junshan found two relatively thick trees at the foot of the mountain, chopped them down with a few thuds, carried the logs home, and everyone watched him bustling around with blank expressions.

Huo Jianguo roughly figured out what his third brother was going to do. He stepped forward, picked up a saw, and was about to help, but Huo Junshan stopped him, saying, "Go and rest, I'll do it myself."

"Oh, okay."

Huo Jianguo was honest and simple; his third brother didn't need any help, so he really went back to sleep.

The Huo family members all returned to their rooms, leaving only Huo Junshan working in the courtyard under the moonlight.

Li Xiangyun got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and found that Lao San was still working on those pieces of wood, stacked together and polished very smooth. She exclaimed in surprise, "Are you crazy! You have to work tomorrow. Do you want to kill yourself?"

She scolded him, but her heart ached for her son. She quickly went to the kitchen to cook a bowl of noodles with an egg in it, and said irritably, "Eat quickly, then go to sleep. We can make more tomorrow."

Huo Junshan didn't know what was wrong with him. After returning from the educated youth settlement, he had inexhaustible energy. He wanted to vent it and wanted to work.

She picked up the noodles and started eating; dinner was long gone. "Thank you, Mom. I'll go to sleep after I finish eating."

"Just put the bowl down there after you finish eating," Li Xiangyun said, yawning as she went back to her room to rest.

She went back to her room and something felt off. Her third son was acting very strangely today. She was desperate to know what was wrong. Her husband was sleeping soundly. She called out, "Old man?"

Seeing that the man was still unconscious, he reached out and pinched his arm. Huo Changgen was both in pain and frightened, and suddenly sat up.

Now I'm wide awake! "Why aren't you sleeping? What's wrong with you?"

"Old man, the third son is still in the yard working on those pieces of wood. He hasn't gone to sleep. Has the third son gone mad?"

Huo Changgen waved his hand and said, "Think about it, who needs furniture these days?"

Li Xiangyun thought to herself, there hadn't been any happy events in the village recently. She suddenly slapped her forehead. A group of educated youth had just arrived today. Could it be that her son made furniture for one of the educated youth?

Huo Changgen's few words kept her awake all night.

As dawn broke, the educated youth at the settlement got up to prepare for work. Thinking about the work, Yun Ningyan put on a long-sleeved shirt and trousers and went to work with Lin Mengmeng.

Along the way, many people were heading to the fields. They needed to be assigned to different areas before they could start working.

She spotted Huo Junshan in the crowd at a glance; he stood out like a crane among chickens among the men.

The main reason was that he was too tall, estimated to be 188cm, and his strong and upright posture, coupled with years of hard work that had made his muscles more developed and firm, made him look out of place even though he was wearing coarse cloth clothes that were full of patches.

Huo Junshan felt someone staring at him, so he turned his head and looked directly into Yun Ningyan's eyes. Yun Ningyan was stunned for a moment, then smiled at him.

Huo Junshan felt his face burning. He hadn't dared to look closely last night, but today, upon seeing the girl with her rosy lips, white teeth, fair and delicate skin, bright and lively eyes, and a sweet smile that curved her eyebrows, he was overjoyed.

A sense of inferiority suddenly arose in his heart. How dare he even dream of such a wonderful girl? She should marry someone who could bring her happiness, not a peasant like him who would spend his whole life in the countryside.