Chapter 355 Educated Youth Sent Down to the Countryside in the 1960s (17)

The next afternoon, the brigade leader brought the new educated youth back from the commune.

After the educated youth were brought back, Jiang Yue and the others went to help out, helping to move their luggage and taking the newcomers to collect their food. The older educated youth had become much more mature and composed over the years, and they were very enthusiastic in helping out, mainly because those few difficult people had left.

In the evening, everyone held a welcome party for the new educated youth. After discussing it, Jiang Yue and the others brought half a rabbit. After dinner, the older educated youth introduced the situation here to the new educated youth, and the new educated youth also introduced themselves. The five educated youth, two men and three women, were all from the same place, which was quite a coincidence. They would have company when they went home.

After the meal, Jiang Yue and the other three said goodbye and went home to rest for a while. They discussed the new educated youth, and when it was almost time, they went up the mountain. Little did they know that the new educated youth were also discussing the four of them.

"Captain Qiao, aren't those four educated youth? Why aren't they staying here? Where did they go back to?"

“They are educated youth, but they don’t live in this educated youth settlement. They live not far from us.”

"Wasn't this the only educated youth settlement?"

"Well, when they first arrived, the team had just finished building three houses. The original plan was to arrange for people to live over there when there wasn't enough room here, but they didn't get along with some people... well... so they moved over there."

Old Joe paused for a moment when explaining the reason, after all, it wasn't something worth talking about. What happened back then had nothing to do with him. If he had known earlier, he would never have agreed to play the intimidation game. Look, the leader just walked away and went back to town, making him quite embarrassed. If it were someone else, they would think he was the one who ordered it.

"Oh, I see. They seem quite easy to talk to."

"If you have nothing else to do, you can keep in touch more often. We are all former educated youth, so we should help each other and work together as one."

Jiang Yue and the others had no idea what was being said. The four of them were walking back in high spirits. They had harvested two rabbits today, given away half of one in the afternoon, and made up for it by the evening.

The next morning, the three of them went to the commune with an oxcart. This time, they were there to do something important. After arriving at the commune, they carried several rabbits to exchange six panes of glass. The windows in their house were still the kind with small wooden lattice windows covered with paper, which didn't keep the heat in good or let in light. They planned to replace them with new glass.

The three of them carefully carried it to the oxcart, which was already covered with straw and a curtain. This was specially brought to prevent the glass from being damaged on the road. When they arrived home, Grandpa Xu had already modified the current window. Since the current glass was a fixed size, he would knock on the window himself to make it the size he needed when he returned.

However, it's best to leave the work to professionals. Grandpa Xu has the experience, so we just handed it over to him. It was lunchtime when the glass was being installed, and when we asked Grandpa Xu for help, he refused to accept any money. So we treated him to a meal. We had two pounds of spare ribs left, so we cooked them all and made a deluxe version of Northeastern stew with dried vegetables.

I found the dried potatoes, dried green beans, mushrooms, and glass noodles. After taking out the ribs, I thought about it and cut some pork belly. After preparing everything, I heated oil in a wok. This dish needs a lot of oil; it won't taste good if there's not enough. I put in the pork belly and fried it for a while, then added the ribs, added seasonings, and then added the mushrooms and continued to stir-fry. After the mushrooms were fragrant, I added the dried potatoes and dried green beans, then added salt and water and started to simmer.

While Jiang Yue was cooking, Grandpa Xu had already installed the window in one of the rooms. Jiang Yue and Yao Ling looked at it and nodded in satisfaction. They opened the two small windows at the top of the window to test them; they were very smooth. They didn't need them in the dead of winter; they could wait until summer. After closing the window, Jiang Yue prepared to seal it with plastic film.

Before sealing the windows, a piece of wood was nailed to the middle and around the windows. Without the wood, the plastic sheeting would frost up when it touched the windows. The wood was to lift the plastic sheeting up so it wouldn't touch the windows. After sealing the windows, Jiang Yue cleaned up the surrounding area, and Yao Ling also cleaned up the sawdust on the kang (a heated brick bed).

With ten minutes left before the food was ready, Jiang Yue added the vermicelli. By then, Wang Liang and Zhang Wei had finished cooking, sealed the windows, and the meal was ready. Grandpa Xu had packed up his things and was about to leave, but he refused to eat when invited to. In Grandpa Xu's words, "I haven't even warmed up for this job, how can I accept your food?"

Finally, Zhang Wei and Wang Liang pulled the man inside. When the aroma wafted out after Jiang Yue opened the pot, Grandpa Xu finally stopped talking. Jiang Yue first brought out the steamed buns. There were a lot of dishes today, so they served five bowls to each person, with two or three bowls left over. Wang Liang took out his treasured liquor, and then they started eating.

The food was so delicious that everyone ate it without making a sound. Yao Ling and the other two had been completely won over by Jiang Yue's cooking, which was so good that they only remembered to call out to Grandpa Xu halfway through the meal. This was a bit impolite, but Grandpa Xu was also captivated by the aroma and only realized it halfway through the meal. After having a few drinks, Grandpa Xu loosened up and started praising Jiang Yue and the other three, saying that it would be great if all the educated youth were like them.

Grandpa Xu spoke from the heart, because some things had happened in other communes. After hearing what Grandpa Xu said, Jiang Yue was stunned. Good heavens, isn't there a group of main characters here? There's something about deliberately falling into the water and being rescued to marry someone, and a dozen boys surrounding a girl. There's also a female educated youth who runs to the cowshed every day, but she was reported to the commune, which caused their brigade leader to get into trouble.

Jiang Yue and her friends were having a great time gossiping. Zhang Wei and Wang Liang were quite mischievous, constantly pouring drinks for Grandpa Xu. After getting drunk, Grandpa Xu revealed a lot of gossip about the village, including the dark history of the village head and the accountant. After they finished gossiping, they took Grandpa Xu home. Jiang Yue glanced at the food in the pot and unknowingly finished eating it all.

Zhang Wei and Wang Liang had both drunk quite a bit, so there was no hope of them washing the dishes. In the end, Yao Ling and Jiang Yue did it. The next morning, both boys had headaches from drinking. After the glass windows were installed, the room was noticeably warmer, so the money was well spent.

Replacing a few panes of glass didn't bring much change to their lives. Days went by as usual, and before they knew it, three years had passed. Six years had passed since Jiang Yue went to the countryside in 1968, and Jiang Yue was 22 years old in 1974.

Six years later, the house that the brigade had repaired had become a dangerous building again, and the four of them gathered together to discuss rebuilding the house.

"Then three main rooms and three west-facing rooms?"

"Yes, that's enough for us."

After reaching a consensus, they began purchasing building materials. On the day the house was built, they asked many people to help. Actually, according to Grandpa Xu and the brigade leader, they should have just gone to live in the educated youth settlement, which was also built a few years ago and was very sturdy, so they would have saved themselves from wasting money.