"Thank you, Director Jiang." Yun Qiao couldn't refuse, so he took it and tasted it. It was indeed sweet: "Delicious."

"If it tastes good, eat more."

"No, no, one piece is enough for me."

After finishing a piece of crispy cake, the roar of a tractor was heard outside the yard.

"The tractor is here, let's go."

Yun Qiao said "hmm" and followed Jiang Lingyu out of the team compound.

The person driving the tractor was Platoon Leader Liang from the maintenance platoon. He was wearing a military coat, a dog-skin hat, and a thick scarf and mask wrapped around his face and neck. He looked fully armed, with not a single piece of skin exposed except for his eyes.

Company Commander Yang was standing in the back of the tractor, also wrapped up tightly. Also on board was a communicator, Comrade Lü Xun.

Lu Xun was also wrapped up tightly, looking like he was fully armed. Yun Qiao didn't recognize him at first, but when he spoke, she recognized him from his voice.

Captain Yang first reached out to pull Yun Qiao into the car, and then he and Lu Xun pulled Jiang Ling into the car as well.

After getting in the car, Jiang Ling pulled Yun Qiao and said, "Come, sit here. There's a partition in front, so it's not cold."

Yun Qiao nodded: "Okay."

The truck bed was covered with thick wheat straw. Yun Qiao nestled on the straw and felt like he was nestling in a sofa made of sponge. The soft and thick wheat straw could effectively act as a buffer, so even when the tractor was driving on a bumpy road, Yun Qiao did not feel uncomfortable.

The tractor moved slowly, huffing and puffing along the road for nearly two hours, and finally arrived at the Dongfanghong Commune just before dawn.

Platoon Leader Liang parked the tractor in front of the state-owned restaurant and asked them to get off and have breakfast.

After freezing on the road for nearly two hours, Yun Qiao felt as if all the blood in his body was frozen, and his hands and feet were numb, as if they were not his own.

She didn't even know how she climbed down from the tractor and how she limped into the restaurant.

It was cold outside and the temperature inside was high. As soon as the door of the state-owned restaurant was opened, a puff of hot white smoke came out from the crack of the door.

After entering the restaurant, feeling the warmth in the room and the blood in his frozen limbs starting to flow again, Yun Qiao felt like he was alive again.

Although it was just daybreak, the state-owned restaurant was already full of people eating. Yun Qiao and his friends finally found an empty table to sit down at. They asked the waiter for meat buns, tea eggs, and a bowl of salty soy milk for each person.

"There are too many people in the restaurant today," correspondent Lu Xun complained. "I never see so many people here on weekdays."

Director Jiang said, "I guess these people are just like us, sending people to take the health worker exam."

Captain Yang added, "Also, there's a meeting at the farm headquarters today. All farm cadres above the company level have to attend, and there are quite a few people."

Director Jiang said, "Eat quickly, there will be more people coming later."

Director Jiang was right. After daybreak, more people came to the state-owned restaurant to eat. Most of them were dusty travelers from far away. As soon as they entered the restaurant, they were all covered in ice and frost residue.

There are not enough tables to sit at, so if there are not enough people, you have to share a table with others.

There were only two people at the table next to us, so we shared the table with them.

The two parties sharing the table were acquaintances and started chatting as soon as they met.

Because they were sitting back to back and quite close to each other, Yun Qiao was forced to eavesdrop on the conversation of the people at the next table. He then realized that they were all at the site to take the hygienist qualification exam.

One of them, like Yun Qiao, was taking the exam for the first time, while the other had already taken it twice, having failed both times, and this was his third attempt.

Yun Qiao was somewhat curious about the person who had failed the exam twice, so he quietly glanced behind him and found that the person who spoke was a middle-aged man wearing glasses, who looked to be quite old.

Since they were not of the same age, Yun Qiao lost his curiosity, looked away and continued eating.

After dinner, Yun Qiao got on the company's tractor and headed to the field headquarters.

The farm headquarters is located at the northernmost end of the commune. When the tractor enters the farm headquarters gate, the first thing that catches the eye is a two-story office building.

The office building is in the shape of a 'U', facing south and connected to a north-south wing building on the east and west sides, with white walls and red tiles, which is very impressive.

Company Commander Yang proudly explained to Yun Qiao, "I also contributed to the construction of this office building. Back then, the commune hadn't even established a brick and tile factory yet, so we retired soldiers gathered bricks from the Japanese barracks and scraped them together to get the bricks we needed to build the building."

"How is it? Can't tell at all?"

Yun Qiao nodded. "Indeed, you can't tell it was built with old bricks at all."

"Okay, I'm Captain Yang. This is so old news, why do you keep bringing it up every time a new educated youth arrives? It's annoying for you, but it's annoying for me."

Captain Yang didn't change his mind after being told off by Jiang Ling. He even glared at her, saying, "What's wrong with the old almanac? It was so hard to be the first batch of people to go to the Great Northern Wilderness. We should let these young people know more about the difficulties faced by the veterans. I am willing to bring it up, and I will bring it up again in the future!"

"You're the only one who's fussy." Jiang Ling glanced at him. "Alright, alright, stop rambling. It's almost time for us to get in. Go ahead and do what you need to do, and don't delay Comrade Ye's exam."

Captain Yang waved his hand and said, "Then you can go in. We'll pick you up when we're done. We'll pick you up at the same place."

"Hurry up."