The post office is diagonally opposite the supply and marketing cooperative. The original owner mailed a package before going to the countryside. Su Qingmeng went to ask, and the staff told her that her package was not there and that a postman would deliver it to the brigade. She thanked them and bought a few stamps, which were all quite ordinary and left no impression on her. As expected, she was not the heroine of a period novel. The heroine would always buy stamps with the red mountains and rivers of the motherland, but she did not have that luck.

When the monkey stamps are released, she will definitely stock up on dozens of sets.

Su Qingmeng walked for more than 20 minutes to the scrap yard, following the directions she had asked. The gatekeeper was a young man in his twenties. "A single spark can start a prairie fire. Comrade, I want to buy some old newspapers." "Oh...oh...old newspapers. They're in the second room on the right after you enter the door," the young man said blushingly.

Su Qingmeng nodded and said "thank you" before going in. The scrap yard was a large yard, and the things in the yard were a bit messy. She walked to the right. The first room was filled with various woods, all of which were quite worn out, and the second room was filled with paper products.

Old newspapers were piled on the left, and Su Qingmeng picked out some intact, recent ones and put them aside. On the right were books. She flipped through them and found seven automatic textbooks on math, physics, and chemistry, as well as several ancient books. She secretly put them into the space, and the rest were of no value.

The wooden products were all sorted out, most of them were scattered, and there didn't seem to be any precious wood. She knocked on them one by one, but there was no secret compartment. Su Qingmeng walked out disappointed.

There were all kinds of waste in the yard, which should have been unsorted. She wandered around the yard with books and newspapers, trying to pick up some bargains. After walking half a circle, she found a piece of wood that looked like huanghuali wood. Su Qingmeng looked around and saw no one else. She put the wood into the space, and two wood carvings were exposed underneath. She picked them up and took a look. The carving was good, and after rubbing off the mud, the exposed wood was red, so she put them all away.

There was nothing else of value left, so Su Qingmeng went to pay. The newspaper and book totaled 20 cents. The young man's face was red all the time, and he didn't dare look at her directly. Su Qingmeng found it a little funny. People nowadays are quite innocent.

It was already past eleven o'clock. Su Qingmeng went back to the state-owned restaurant for lunch. She spent 20 cents and 2 taels of food coupons on a plate of sauerkraut dumplings. They were delicious. The chef's cooking skills were good. Next time she wanted to try the meat dishes.

Su Qingmeng went to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought a box of matches, two enamel basins, a thermos, an iron pot, salt, soy sauce, 10 egg cakes, and half a pound of biscuits, spending a total of 29.95 and 5 industrial tickets.

After shopping, Su Qingmeng found that she had forgotten to bring the sack. She put everything except the iron pot into a plastic basin, then held the pot in one hand and the basin in the other.

Su Qingmeng walked for a while with the things in her arms and didn't feel tired at all. She was very strong now, and with her fighting power, she was not afraid of going anywhere alone.

The grain station was between the supply and marketing cooperative and the bus station. Su Qingmeng bought another ten kilograms of flour. The flour was a little yellow now, but it smelled really good.

It was only two o'clock when Su Qingmeng arrived at the bus stop. She waited for an hour before getting on the bus. This time she was unlucky as the bus was full.

She stood in the middle of the car and started to feel carsick again. The car smelled bad in summer, with stinky feet and sweat. There was also an old lady who brought a chicken. Su Qingmeng had to cover her nose with a handkerchief and breathe through her mouth. She swayed like this for half an hour, feeling worse than death. Finally, she arrived at the team and vomited as soon as she got off the car.

An older woman who got off the bus with her came over and patted her back. “Hey, girl, you’re a new educated youth, right? What’s wrong?”

Su Qingmeng felt much better after vomiting for a while. "It's okay, auntie, I'm just carsick."

"Ah, this is how it is in our countryside. There's everything on that car. You guys from the city aren't used to it, are you?"

Su Qingmeng shook her head. "Auntie, I also get dizzy riding in a car in the city. I just can't get used to the smell of gasoline. I'll just walk next time."

"Then why don't you take Old Zhang's ox cart? An ox cart doesn't smell like gasoline and is cheaper than a bus, but it's a bit slower."

The old lady was very enthusiastic and helped Su Qingmeng get the iron pot and food.

The two chatted as they walked towards the village. Su Qingmeng learned that her name was Aunt Dahua, her husband was a militia captain, and she came to the city to visit her daughter Lin Honghong who had just given birth.

Her daughter worked at a ceramic factory in the county town and married a driver from the same factory. Su Qingmeng complimented her, "Aunt, my sister Honghong is amazing and has married well. You can just wait and enjoy the happiness."

Aunt Dahua was so happy that she couldn't stop smiling. "My daughter is really filial. The clothes I'm wearing were made by her." Aunt Dahua was wearing a blue floral top.

Su Qingmeng said, "Aunt Dahua, you look very young in this dress, like you're in your thirties. When you stand with Sister Honghong, people would think you're sisters."

Aunt Dahua was very happy and said, "You are such a sweet girl. Come to me if you have any problems in the future."

The two of them chatted as they arrived at the information point. Aunt Dahua helped Su Qingmeng deliver the things to the door. She then pointed to her own home, which was the second one west of the educated youth point, quite close.

Su Qingmeng said goodbye to Aunt Dahua and agreed to visit her when she had time.

When she returned to the information point, Tian Ke and Gao Xiaohuan, the new female educated youth who arrived yesterday, were cleaning the cabinets in the yard. They greeted her when they saw her come in.

"Su Qingmeng, did you go to the commune?" Tian Ke came over to help Su Qingmeng with her things. "We didn't have a car when we got up, so we planned to go to the supply and marketing cooperative tomorrow."

Su Qingmeng replied, "I got up at around six o'clock and took the bus directly to the county town. Where did you buy the cabinet?" She lowered her voice at the end. Now buying and selling is not allowed, only exchanges are allowed.

Tian Ke also whispered back, "Go west from the information point and go to the fourth house. The old educated youth said that their furniture is quite reasonable and the craftsmanship is good. Oh, and Comrade Hu Aidan said that we should have dinner together tonight so we can get to know each other."

Su Qingmeng nodded. Hu Aidang was the person in charge of the information point. She had met him last night. He had a square face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, which was the appearance that was admired in this era.

After putting the things in the house, Su Qingmeng took out two hard candies from her bag and handed them to Tian Ke. Tian Ke declined twice and accepted them. "Comrade Su, you go ahead and do your work. Call me if you need any help." Then she went out.

Su Qingmeng simply packed up the things she bought. The house was too messy, so she decided to go buy furniture first.

The carpenter's house was a brick and tile house. Su Qingmeng called out in the yard, "Is anyone there?" A middle-aged man, probably in his forties, came out. "Uncle, I'm Su Qingmeng, a new educated youth. I want to change some furniture."

The uncle nodded and said "come in" and turned to go into the house. This carpenter is quite aloof, Su Qingmeng thought to herself.

The room was quite spacious, and it held a lot of furniture. Su Qingmeng picked out a kang table, two wooden boxes (to store clothes and quilts on the kang), a bench, a table, a large wooden basin, a broom, a three-tiered cabinet, a washbasin stand, a straw hat, a kang mat, and a bucket.

Su Qingmeng wanted a clothes hanger, so she argued with the carpenter for a long time, but the uncle finally agreed and said he could make it, but it would take three days. Su Qingmeng had no objection and asked the uncle to settle the bill.

The uncle was silent for a while, probably doing mental calculations, "A total of 15.5 yuan, and I'll give you another yuan after the hanger is made." Su Qingmeng gave him the money and discussed with him whether he could send it to the informed point. The uncle nodded and said, "I'll let my son send it to you after work."

Su Qingmeng took the broom, kang mat and bucket away first, and went back to clean the house. She didn't need the rest in a hurry, so she waited for them to be delivered to her door.