The old lady was shocked.

"You, you actually dared to buy this oily stuff?"

Old man, tell me what's wrong. We still have children. Look how wonderful our grandchildren are. As a family, we can overcome any difficulty together. You mustn't do anything foolish.

Liu Guangming rushed in, covered in sawdust and holding a plane, followed by his daughter-in-law Sun Xiang.

"Who would do something foolish? Who would do something foolish?"

Startled, the two children, still holding half a vegetable bun and not daring to take a bite, both looked at their grandfather.

Liu Sanye was both amused and exasperated.

"Are you going to let me speak? Who's going to do something stupid? I was just saying that I didn't buy this. I was taking the new educated youth to the commune today, and someone gave it to me. I thought it was a flatbread and accepted it."

The old lady breathed a sigh of relief, patted her chest, and sat back down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).

You scared me to death!

The two people at the door only then noticed that the child was holding food. Liu Guangming frowned.

"Dad, please let the child eat it, okay?"

Grandpa Liu turned around and met the gazes of his grandchildren. Holding delicious food in his hands, they were also trying hard to resist the urge to eat, but remained motionless.

"Tiger, Little Flower, eat up, it's alright."

The two children were quite young, Tiger was 7 years old and Xiaohua was only 5. They were born at an inopportune time and had hardly ever had a full meal. They could only eat two vegetable buns during the Chinese New Year. As soon as they heard that permission was granted, they buried their faces in their buns with a "woof".

"Since they gave it to us, it means they don't need these two. And these things aren't something we can wait for. Since they've come to our village, we should visit often, and there will be a time when we return them."

"Didn't they just order some cabinets and stuff? Go and make sure they take good care of them, and make sure the brooms are tied up tightly."

"Oh, Father, I'm going right now."

Liu Guangming's wife also went out.

"I'll go check on the kang mat and smooth out the rough edges so she doesn't prick her hands."

After a quick inspection, it must be said that they were really thorough. They also had a good talk with the village chief at dinner. Not only was Liu Weimin pleased, but Wang Guihua also sat up straighter. This was a testament to the good leadership of her husband.

Liu Xiu watched the young educated youth with admiration. A few words from her had made her parents happy. Her mother, who was known for her tough attitude throughout the village, was actually smiling like a flower. Little Blackie stared at his grandmother in shock. Liu Jianshe and Liu Dalian watched their father and the young educated youth, praising each other about the villagers' work, from repairing houses to building houses, from weeding to shoveling snow, from slaughtering pigs to hunting in the mountains, from traps to Liu Zhuzi. Then Liu Weimin sighed.

"Poor Zhu Zi, he's stuck with a mother like this. Now we don't even know if she's alive or dead. How will his second sister-in-law take care of him in the future? Sigh!"

"Who gets all the good things? Who's going to take care of her in her old age?"

"Nonsense, who would have a son and then go to their nephew to take care of them in their old age?"

"If that's the case, who has their own child and abuses them all day long, yet spends all their savings to support their nephew?"

To be honest, I really admire Uncle Zhu; he's managed to endure so much for so many years.

If it were me,”

"What would you do if you were in my shoes?"

I just chuckled and said nothing more.

"Uncle, can we move into that house tomorrow?"

"Go ahead and move. Take a couple of days off and get everything sorted out. When you go up the mountain, you can only stay on the outer edge, not inwards, understand? It would be best to find someone to accompany you. You've just arrived and aren't familiar with the area yet, so don't wander around."

The next morning, she simply carried all her belongings, big and small bags, into her new home. After Liu Guangming delivered the ordered items and put them away, her life as an educated youth officially began.

At the brigade headquarters, almost all of the thirty or so people who had been doing simple work these past few days were there, looking at the grain sacks at the village chief's feet.

"As you all know, Xiao Jian, a sent-down youth, bought the small house where he used to keep watch at the village entrance."

Originally, I was thinking that the total cost, including selling the house and having you repair it, would be 50 yuan.

They noticed we were short of food and offered to pay with their own grain. I thought about how food was scarce outside too, and we couldn't buy any without ration coupons. The black market price was 2 yuan per jin, which we couldn't afford, so I agreed.

"She brought 245 jin of grain with her when she came to the countryside, and my third uncle and I brought it back together."

Then yesterday, her third uncle took her to the post office and picked up the grain that had been mailed from home, 240 jin (120 catties).

The young educated youth said that she was alone and ate little, so she kept 50 jin (25 catties) for herself and gave the rest to us.

You guys do the math.

The group of about 30 people immediately became lively.

"I don't understand. 400 jin for 50 yuan, but on the black market 400 jin would cost more than 80 yuan. Wow, this is even cheaper than on the black market."

Most of them immediately teared up, and the impatient ones simply asked directly.

“Village chief, we’ll remember this. If any of the young educated youth need help in the future, we’ll lend a hand. We definitely can’t just stand by and watch.”

"Yes, village chief, just tell me, how should we divide it?"

Liu Weimin pondered that with over 300 people in the village, 400 jin of grain could only provide temporary relief.

"We're all on the same side, so I won't say anything useless."

Here's what I was thinking: I brought you all over here first because you've worked these past two days, and your wages definitely need to be calculated separately. I won't beat around the bush; the wage is two jin per person. Anyone have any objections?

Every household is running out of food. Two jin of grain could be a lifesaver. In good years, it was enough for a meal, and we might not even have that much.

"No, no,"

"Agreed. If our fellow villagers have work to do, we should lend a hand."

“Okay, you are all men from Liujiatun. The young educated youth praised you to me, saying that you are not only good at work, but also meticulous and kind-hearted. You not only tidied everything up for her, but also prepared so much firewood, saving her a lot of trouble. She kept telling me that we must not let you work hard for nothing.”

"Then go and call people, one from each family will do, bring bags of grain."

"Okay, I'll go right away."

The tall man took off running.

"Grain distribution! Grain distribution! One person from each family, please come!"

Although the amount distributed to each person wasn't much—just over a pound per person, and even a family like Uncle Liu's brought back more than seven pounds—it was all coarse grains. But by adding plenty of water and cooking it into a thin porridge, it could last for quite a few days.

That evening, every household in the village was filled with joy, smoke was billowing from their chimneys, and the villagers walking around all had smiling faces.

There's no work to be done in the dry fields, so people go up the mountain every day. If they happen to find some wild vegetables or something, that would be a huge stroke of luck.

Without wild vegetables, we'll just gather firewood. It's cold in winter, and it takes a lot of firewood to burn.

When Jian Dan came out carrying her basket, there were already quite a few people on the mountain. After yesterday's distribution of grain, the villagers were very welcoming to this young educated youth. Jian Dan smiled and chatted with them about everyday matters. Then, she found a moment and slipped into another path.