The next morning, An Moxue went to the brigade headquarters to pay for the house, took a day off, and began her day of repairing the house.

An Moxue brought a thermos of hot water with added sugar, and also left an enamel mug for the workers to drink water when they were thirsty.

Uncle Ma was busy organizing materials, going in and out, and several people were working. An Moxue didn't know how to help, so she looked around on her own, making plans in her mind. After she finished looking, she started weeding the yard.

The house was completely repaired by the end of the morning, except for the roof tiles. They worked very efficiently. In the afternoon, I went with Uncle Ma to the next village to buy more roof tiles.

When I got there, I realized that you can't just buy tiles whenever you want. If you have a good relationship with someone who needs them urgently, you can just go and get them to take home. If you don't have a good relationship with someone, you have to wait in line for several days.

When An Moxue and Uncle Ma returned after buying the tiles, the cellar had been cleaned up and soil was being laid on top. A section of the collapsed courtyard wall had also been cleared out and rebuilt.

Everyone worked together to unload the tiles from the cart, then mixed mud to install the tiles. The tiles were not finished until it got dark. An Moxue locked the door and left with a thermos.

After An Moxue returned to the educated youth settlement and finished eating, Zhang Xiu asked her what she had done that day she had taken off, and why she was back so late.

She told everyone that she was buying and renovating a house, and that's when they found out she was moving out and had even bought a new house.

Hu Dong asked in surprise, "Can we move out? Aren't we all supposed to live in the educated youth compound?"

An Moxue asked him, "Where did you hear that from? Where is it stipulated?"

Hu Dong said, "Otherwise, how come I've never heard of any educated youth moving? They only move after they get married."

An Moxue was speechless: "It's possible that there are no empty houses in the village, that people are too timid to live alone, that moving is too expensive, or that there are other reasons."

The next morning, An Moxue carried a stack of newspapers and a pot of sugar water to her new home, heated the kang (a heated brick bed) before going to work.

When she returned to her new home after work at noon, the toilet and bathroom were already repaired, and most of the courtyard wall was also completed. Everyone said that the project would be finished soon.

She rushed to Uncle Ma's house and got a basin of paste, asking them to help cover the house with newspapers. The men readily agreed.

When An Moxue returned to her new home after work in the evening, there were two large vats, two small jars, and a bucket in the kitchen. A new mat was laid on the kang (a heated brick bed) inside the house, and newspapers were pasted on the walls.

Several people were laying glass shards on the outer courtyard wall, and it was almost finished. They had even loosened the soil in the front and back gardens, made ridges, and cleared away all the debris. The house and the yard were all neat and tidy.

Seeing all this, An Moxue felt a warm glow in her heart. The others, seeing how well-behaved, sensible, and diligent the little girl was, couldn't help but remind her to prepare plenty of firewood for the winter and to make sure to lock the doors tightly when living alone.

After the work was finished, An Moxue paid them their wages and told them to come to the housewarming party when they moved in, and that they absolutely had to come.

An Moxue's house was built in a hurry. The sand, yellow mud, straw, and mud bricks were all bought. In particular, the mud bricks were collected from several different places, and no money was paid for them yet.

An Moxue is currently calculating with Uncle Ma how much each family will receive, so that Uncle Ma can deliver the goods to them.

An Moxue then brought up the matter of hosting a housewarming party, and the date was set for the next day when Old Ma went to the county. On that day, An Moxue would go to the county to buy some moving supplies and some ingredients for the party. She would return in the afternoon to move the house and have dinner in the evening.

This time, An Moxue collected boxes, a kang table, a dish rack, and stools from the county's scrap yard, and bought bowls, plates, chopsticks, and basins. She also bought two jin of pork, one pig lung, one jin of local specialty sorghum liquor, two cans of hawthorn, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. She also took out a cutting board, a cleaver, and an iron pot from her spatial storage and mixed them in.

After the mule cart returned to the village, it first went to the educated youth compound to load An Moxue's things, and then went back to An Moxue's house. After unloading the cart and roughly organizing the things, An Moxue started cooking.

First, she set up the pot and cooked a pot of rice porridge. When Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma arrived, An Moxue had already started washing and cutting the meat and washing all the bowls and chopsticks. Uncle Ma had a basket of steamed buns made from three kinds of flour, which An Moxue had asked Aunt Ma to steam, and Aunt Ma had a basket of vegetables.

The food was ready, and the work was over. The staff arrived one after another. Except for Wang Zhaodi and An Moxue, all the educated youth were invited. The six people who worked included the village chief, accountant, scorekeeper, Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma. Everyone brought something with them.

Once everyone was in place, tables were set up outside, one for the educated youth and another for the others. On the tables were stir-fried lung slices with chili peppers, stewed green beans with meat, stir-fried celery with meat, eggplant with minced meat, hot and sour shredded potatoes, and a plate of canned hawthorn.

The villagers who came praised An Moxue for her honesty and kindness, saying she was a trustworthy friend.

Standing in front of the table, An Moxue said with emotion, "Thank you all for coming to my housewarming party today. Thank you to the village leaders for their support, thank you to the uncles who helped build the house, and thank you to my Uncle Ma for giving me a home again. Anle Village is my second hometown. Everyone, please eat well and try to finish everything so there's no leftovers."

After speaking, he sat down and ate while quietly talking to Aunt Ma next to him. Every now and then, he would pour some wine for the people drinking, bring them a steamed bun, and serve them a bowl of porridge.

The meal was a pleasant one for both the host and guests, and An Moxue also built closer relationships with the villagers.

After everyone dispersed, An Moxue walked around the courtyard by the moonlight, then stood in the back garden, gazing at the back mountain, and remained motionless for a long time.

That night was the most restful night's sleep An Moxue had had since going to the countryside. There was absolutely no privacy in the educated youth compound, which made her very uncomfortable. If she returned home a little late, people would ask her all sorts of questions. If she was vague or hesitant in her answers, she didn't know how much trouble she would cause.

An Moxue moved to a new house and had to leave for work a little earlier. She walked from the northernmost part of the village to the southernmost part every day, and gradually became familiar with the villagers, from exchanging greetings to traveling together.

She felt this was good enough, simple and warm, and she could eat whatever she wanted. Even her disagreements with Wang Zhaodi and Ma Li at work were just a spice in her life.

She would get up early to practice kung fu, work during the day, and at noon, she would recall the original owner's memories little by little, repeatedly pondering what her parents had taught her. She would put everything she could into practice into action until it became her own skill, no longer just a piece of paper memory. In the afternoon, after work, she would go into the mountains to identify and collect medicinal herbs and chop firewood. She would memorize the mountain terrain and gradually venture deeper into the mountains.

I went home before dark, selectively planted the medicinal herbs I had dug up during the day in the orchard in my space, studied the herbs in the book, memorized prescriptions, made medicine, and learned other things, such as digging traps and learning Russian and Mongolian, though they were too difficult to learn and my progress wasn't very good. My day was packed with activities.

The potatoes were ripe, and the old educated youth were very happy. They said that the autumn harvest was coming soon, and there would be no more land clearing this year. They could finally relax for a few days and do some lighter work. The roots of the big willow tree were really too difficult to dig up.

At first, they dug potatoes, then sweet potatoes. Once they started, they realized it was much easier than clearing land, but it was still farm work, and they couldn't escape the essence of physical labor. However, the educated youth were still very content.