An Moxue and Chu Dongmei entered the house, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that An Moxue might suddenly decide to have a sparring match.

Let's compare, we're both noobs!

If we don't compare, where will we put our face?

An Moxue was quite satisfied with the impact she had made so soon after arriving. She hoped that after she left, these people would have some reservations when they wanted to do something, which would perhaps reduce a lot of trouble for Chu Dongmei.

The two returned to the kang (a heated brick bed). Chu Dongmei wiped her sweat with a towel and said to An Moxue, "Moxue, I didn't expect you to have made such great progress in just a few months! Oh! By the way! Have you eaten since you got off the bus? Look at me, I was so happy to see you that I forgot about whether you had eaten or not."

After saying that, he laughed out loud and then dragged his shoes to get off the ground.

An Moxue smiled helplessly: "Alright, sit down and rest for a while! I had breakfast in town before coming here." As she spoke, she took Chu Dongmei's hand.

“Then let’s have a good talk. Let me tell you, even though my trip to the countryside was shorter than yours, I earned 120 jin of grain. How about that? Pretty impressive, right?” He finished speaking and looked at An Moxue with great enthusiasm.

"Wow, that's amazing! Uncle Chu must be so proud, and Aunt Chu must be heartbroken."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. We were all dragged down by you back then! Tell me, how are you going to compensate me?" After saying that, she looked fierce and pretended to pounce on An Moxue.

An Moxue pretended to be scared, took the backpack, and started taking things out of it.

"Here, this is pork jerky. I made it myself. Keep it and eat it slowly."

She handed Chu Dongmei a package of pork jerky wrapped in brown paper, and then took out two glass jars from it and handed them to Chu Dongmei: "This is blueberry jam, which I made myself from blueberries I picked from the mountain. You can keep it to make a drink or dip your steamed buns in. This one is chili rabbit sauce, keep it for yourself to eat slowly, it will last you for a while."

After taking those two bottles, he took out two pounds of wild boar meat and handed it to her, saying, "This is for dinner tonight, as we agreed to treat everyone. Oh, by the way, how many meals are you having?"

"Two meals. You're so generous!" Chu Dongmei felt a warmth in her heart as she looked at the various items An Moxue had taken out.

"You don't know me well enough. We're not short of these things."

He leaned closer to Chu Dongmei and whispered, "How is the village chief?"

"A bit greedy for small gains, but overall it's alright."

Do you smoke?

"smoke."

After Chu Dongmei finished speaking, An Moxue took out a pack of cigarettes from her backpack and quickly stuffed it into her pocket.

"How's your sweat gone? Pack your things, let's go for a walk together."

"Okay, go ahead and get dressed!" With that, she put the things An Moxue had brought for her, along with An Moxue's backpack, into a cabinet.

The two of them, each wearing a military overcoat and chunky leather shoes, looked incredibly stylish when they went out!

After the two left the educated youth settlement and checked that no one was around to hear their conversation, An Moxue asked, "What exactly happened a few days ago? Has it been resolved? Is there anything else that hasn't been properly handled?"

"It was just a few shameless people fighting over a girl. They drugged me during the dinner party, and someone also drugged me, but I dodged it. He thought I was drugged! He tried to take advantage of me, but I broke his leg instead."

"And then what happened?"

"They paid for the medical expenses."

That's it?

Chu Dongmei seemed to want her to mind her own business, saying, "Oh dear, there's still a little trouble, but I can handle it. I'm so happy you came to see me."

"That accountant Huang's nephew and his difficult mother?"

How did you know?

"Uncle Niu, who was driving a cart on the way to the village, told me. How much compensation did you give them? Why didn't you report it to the police at the time? How did his mother harass you?"

"You're something else! You found out everything as soon as you arrived. You even got twenty yuan in compensation."

"Given your personality, you shouldn't have suffered such a loss! What exactly happened?"

"Would you believe me if I said I suspected there were spies among the educated youth, but I was afraid of alerting them?"

"What happened?"

"Actually, things were too chaotic that night, and I'm not entirely sure what exactly happened. But I noticed someone acting strangely, so I followed him to the cowshed, where an old scientist who had been sent down to the countryside and two high-ranking officials were staying. I suspected he was going to do something to the scientist, but he was scared away by the noise I made. However, I have no evidence. Because the old scientist was alone outside the cowshed at the time, if something happened to him, no one would know who did it. I suspect that the chaos among the educated youth that night was orchestrated by him, to create confusion and absolve himself of responsibility. But since that day, he has been very well-behaved, and there's just no evidence."

"I see. You were afraid that if you handled things too efficiently, it would arouse his suspicion and make it harder for him to expose any flaws."

"Yes, that's my concern."

"Spies are very cunning and ruthless, you need to be extra careful. Did you report it to the police?"

"I reported it, and I even called my dad."

"That's fine then. I'll take care of the Huang family mother and son for you. I can only stay here for a few days, so I'm afraid there won't be any progress on the spy matter."

"Let's go find the village chief. Let's go to his house first."

"This village is more conveniently located than the one I lived in, but the houses here seem more dilapidated."

What's it like where you are?

“The mountains, the kind that are surrounded by mountains. It takes more than an hour to ride a bicycle from my village to the town, and about four hours to ride a bicycle to the county. It takes more than two hours by horse-drawn carriage.”

"That's because it's not as convenient as here. Mo Xue, I feel you've changed a lot."

"There's no way around it, I've been through too much these past few months, I have to grow up. How's the situation here?"

"It's not optimistic. You've seen it yourself. There are slogans everywhere, and Red Guards everywhere."

"Avoid them if you have to; they're a bunch of pests. Getting involved with them will cause a lot of trouble."

"I keep my belongings safe so they don't fall into the wrong hands. You can know a person's face but not their heart."

"Yeah, you too. Don't push yourself too hard; your health is important."

The two chatted idly all the way to the village chief's house.

Chu Dongmei stood outside the courtyard and called out softly, "Village Chief, are you home?"

A moment later, an aunt came out and said, "Oh, it's Chu, the educated youth. Your uncle is here. Come in!"

"Okay, thank you for your help, Auntie." With that, she led An Moxue into the village chief's house.

Inside the house, the old village chief, holding a pipe, saw Chu Dongmei leading someone in and asked, "Chu, what's the matter?"

"Uncle Village Chief, this is my childhood friend. He came to the countryside in Feilong Province specifically to see me and wanted to let you know."

An Moxue then took out a letter of introduction and a pack of Yunye cigarettes and handed them to the old village chief.

The old village chief accepted An Moxue's letter of introduction but refused the cigarettes, saying, "This won't do, take it back quickly."

An Moxue said, "Uncle Village Chief, we are both girls, how could we smoke? Besides, we bought these cigarettes for you before we came, to thank you for taking care of Dongmei."

Then she put the cigarette on the kang (a heated brick bed), and saw that the village chief's expression relaxed a lot. The village chief's aunt also got up to pour water.