As soon as Song Zhi and Nie Jinmei returned to the educated youth dormitory, they saw the team leader Long Deshou leading a group of male educated youth to hammer and bang.

I saw them waving shovels and hoes constantly, and many people were transporting stones and mud here, as if they were reinforcing the surrounding earth walls.

"Captain." Song Zhi walked over and asked curiously, "What's going on?"

It's almost dark, why would we repair the yard now?

"The secretary just came over and told us that military satellites have detected a large amount of cold air heading our way. We're expecting a heavy snowstorm in the next couple of days. Our house isn't very sturdy, and several rooms collapsed under the weight of heavy snow last year. We need to repair it quickly."

Long Deshou nodded seriously.

Hearing this, Song Zhi turned his head to look at the two shabby houses in front and behind, which were difficult to describe, and his heart sank suddenly.

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be crushed to death in my sleep…

"You should hurry back and clean up, and come out to help with the work."

Long Deshou glanced at the crowd of people at the door of the female educated youth dormitory and said with a serious expression.

After saying that, she picked up a shovel and started working.

Song Zhi took two steps outside and saw that most of the villagers in the village were reinforcing their houses, and even the army had sent people to help.

She looked up at the dark sky above her head and felt more and more uneasy.

I’m afraid this big blizzard is really coming!

The cold wind blew into her clothes, making Song Zhi shiver several times. Her hands and feet shook uncontrollably. She quickly grabbed her clothes and turned to walk towards the dormitory.

Seeing Song Zhi's uneasy look, Nie Jinmei took Song Zhi's arm and comforted him.

"Don't worry, it's not as scary as the captain said. Last year, it just crushed a few unoccupied storage rooms."

Nie Jinmei came here last year and has been here for a year. She is much more experienced than Song Zhi.

Seeing her relaxed state, Song Zhi's complexion improved a little. He just hoped that it was really like what Nie Jinmei said.

The female educated youth went back to put on thick clothes and hurried out to join the reinforcement work.

A group of educated youth were working enthusiastically.

Song Zhi also wore a thick cotton jacket and a headscarf, and helped the female educated youth carry stones and soil.

As I started working, my body suddenly became warm. Except for the cold and hard wind that hurt my face, I didn't feel cold.

"It's also good to have heavy snow. After it snows, the ground will freeze over. Then we won't have to go out to work and can just stay in the dormitory to spend the winter."

Seeing that Song Zhi's face was still tense, Nie Jinmei said again.

"Although Dongyang Commune wasn't a very wealthy commune, after paying the annual public grain tax, they would distribute the remaining grain to us educated youth. If we didn't go home for the New Year, it was actually not bad to spend the winter here."

"Can I go home for the New Year?" Song Zhi asked in surprise.

She thought that once she went to the countryside, she would not be able to go back for several years, but she did not expect that the policy was quite open-minded and allowed these educated youth to go home for the New Year.

Song Zhi was thinking about whether she should go back home to celebrate the New Year when she had a holiday.

She really wanted to go back.

She really wanted to go back and spend a happy New Year with Song Anshan.

Song Zhi looked down at her belly. In winter, she wore more clothes, so others probably wouldn't be able to see that her belly was a little bigger.

"You can go back, but I suggest you stay here for the winter." Nie Jinmei saw that Song Zhi seemed to want to go home, and although she didn't have the heart to pour cold water on her, she still said something.

"Why? Doesn't the commune give us annual leave?" Song Zhi frowned and asked in confusion.

"The commune does give us annual leave, but it's incredibly hard to get a train ticket home. Thousands of people are trying to get one, but it's impossible to get one."

When talking about this, Nie Jinmei's face fell.

"Last year, I wanted to go home too. I started trying to get tickets right after the holiday, but I couldn't get one until New Year's Eve!"

Upon hearing this, Song Zhi's face fell. Her beautiful fantasy was shattered, making her look a little ugly.

"It's okay. It's nice to stay here for the New Year. There are a lot of people staying here, so it will be quite lively then."

Nie Jinmei, who had experienced everything last year, could understand Song Zhi's feelings at the moment very well.

Song Zhi was not comforted by her words. He lowered his head in disappointment and spoke sullenly.

"I'll go inside and drink some hot water to warm myself up."

"OK."

Nie Jinmei nodded.

After returning to the room, Song Zhi drank some water. After feeling warm, he poured some hot water from the thermos into the basin, preparing to soak his numb feet before going out.

After soaking for a while, Song Zhi felt her feet gradually regaining consciousness.

When she went out to pour water for foot soaking, she saw a sudden commotion in the yard.

A group of people gathered around Long Deshou and talked about something.

Song Zhi was afraid of missing something important, so he quickly put down the foot bath basin, leaned against the door frame, and listened with his ear close to his chest.

"Captain, Su Youqing and Jiang Xueqin haven't come back yet. Should we go look for them?"

These two names sounded familiar to Song Zhi.

Song Zhi didn't have a deep impression of Su Youqing. He only remembered that he was a relatively taciturn male educated youth.

But I was very impressed by Jiang Xueqin, because she was very pretty and had a pair of charming fox eyes, especially when she smiled, her eyes were as seductive as if she was a thousand-year-old fox that had become a spirit.

They are both old educated youth who went to the countryside a few years ago. They seem to have a very good relationship and always eat and work together.

She listened for a moment, but wasn't very interested in the matter. She poured the foot washing water and went into the house.

She filled a military kettle with hot water and took it out.

"Drink some hot water to warm yourself up." She handed the kettle to Nie Jinmei, who was panting while moving stones.

Nie Jinmei put down the stone, clapped her hands and drank some hot water from her hands.

Everyone else was working hard, so the two of them took a short break and then stopped slacking off and started helping out together.

When it was completely dark, Long Deshou called everyone over and asked them to go eat first.

Song Zhi and Nie Jinmei were both very tired, so they didn't cook for themselves. Instead, they took two buns and ate porridge with everyone in the cafeteria.

While eating, Long Deshou came over in a hurry, looked around the cafeteria, and then asked.

"Su Youqing, is Jiang Xueqin here?"

After a long while, no one said anything.

Long Deshou's eyes swept over the heads of the people one by one, and his brows furrowed even more tightly. "Has anyone seen them?"

Everyone shook their heads. Long Deshou's face quickly darkened and he called out all the male and female educated youth team leaders.

"Zhuang Zhiqing, Rong Zhiqing, come out with me."

As soon as they left, the cafeteria was in an uproar and the old educated youth looked at each other for a long time.

"Could they have eloped again?"