Father Ou suggested another place that Mother Ou remembered: her hometown.
This brigade is also located around Guangcheng, but it requires a journey by water.
Lin Yu and Ou Manqing each rode a bicycle to the dock and took a boat there.
Ou's mother's surname was Liu, and she was born in a place called Xilan Brigade.
Decades ago, their brigade suffered an invasion by foreign enemies, and the entire village was almost wiped out.
Ou's mother's parents and brothers also died at that time.
Those still alive are all distant relatives of hers, and she has had relatively little contact with them over the years.
In her memory, their brigade had a large orchard, where peaches and plums were planted.
Red-skinned, crisp-fleshed nectarines and large Shuanghua plums.
It sounds so appetizing.
Lin Yu and Ou Manqing disembarked and rode their bikes for a while.
The Xilan Brigade was much more remote than the Oujiacun Brigade because after the attack, the survivors were afraid of being harmed again, so they moved the village into the mountains.
As the population has increased and the village's land area has grown over the years, its location has moved further and further into the mountains.
This mountainous environment gave them a sense of security and also provided a better growing environment for the fruit trees.
Before the two even entered the brigade, they saw a large area of fruit trees, already laden with fruit.
The people here are known for their heightened vigilance; they immediately become wary upon seeing two strangers.
Lin Yu couldn't speak the local dialect, and these people couldn't understand Mandarin, so she had to ask Ou Manqing to go forward and negotiate.
In fact, the accents of the European and American youths are quite different from theirs.
But it's still the same language, so the other person can understand her.
Some people even recognized that she spoke with a Guangzhou city accent.
For city dwellers, their envy and respect outweighed their wariness.
After all, these two girls were dressed smartly and attractively, so they couldn't possibly be bad people.
When Ou Manqing said she wanted to find the team leader, she even took out candy and gave it to them. The children enthusiastically pulled them along.
They said they would take them to find the brigade leader, Uncle.
The two followed them.
The brigade headquarters was a dilapidated building, where several people appeared to be working.
The children weren't afraid of the adults and ran straight in, saying, "Uncle, my two older sisters are looking for you."
Captain Liu was somewhat puzzled when he saw the two young girls: "We didn't say that we were going to send educated youth here."
It could be said that there were no educated youth in their brigade.
Firstly, they are quite xenophobic, and secondly, this place is really remote, so for the sake of easier management, the authorities generally don't send people here to work in the countryside.
Lin Yu quickly explained, "We are not educated youth; we have come to discuss something with you."
Upon learning that the other party was not an educated youth, Captain Liu became even more puzzled.
If you're not a sent-down youth, what are you doing here?
"Come in and have a seat." Captain Liu was also curious about their purpose, so he quickly invited them to sit down.
They even poured them water to drink.
Lin Yu thanked him, drank some water, and then told him her purpose.
When Captain Liu heard that they wanted to buy their peaches, he didn't seem particularly excited.
On the contrary, his expression showed some reluctance.
Lin Yu asked around and learned that the people here are very conservative; the elderly prefer a peaceful and stable life to development.
Their brigade lives near the mountains and forests, in the resource-rich south, so even if they don't sell the fruit they grow, they can eat it themselves.
I'm not worried about going hungry.
Although the food might not be good and every household was quite poor, they saw this kind of life as a sign of stability.
The decision-making team in this brigade was made by a group of elderly people who had come from the old society.
They are content with the life they have now, free from oppression, and able to eat every day.
Unlike the Oujia Village brigade, they were not so eager to improve their lives.
They were more like elderly people, only wanting to live a peaceful life.
Ou Manqing was somewhat disappointed and said to Lin Yu, "Why don't we look for another place?"
Lin Yu shook her head: "I think this place is fine."
She had already set her sights on the peaches and plums here, and even had a destination in mind for these fruits.
How could we possibly give up like this?
Lin Yu and Ou Manqing ran into a wall at the brigade headquarters, but they did not leave immediately.
She bribed the children in the brigade with candy, and they showed her around the brigade.
"Logically speaking, today is a workday, so why aren't you in school?"
These children look to be seven or eight years old; they should be in elementary school.
Even their little one and Tiedan are in elementary school now.
The children nonchalantly replied, "We don't go to school."
Lin Yu asked in surprise, "Why?"
The children couldn't explain it, so Lin Yu had to ask a passing member of the commune to find out.
Because of poverty.
Their brigade couldn't afford to build a school.
It is located in a remote area, so it is not practical to go to school in other places.
Lin Yu sighed. Some children from well-off families still need their parents to use corporal punishment before they will go to school.
But in some places there isn’t even a school, and the children have no school to attend!
They walked through the fields, where the terrain was mountainous and there wasn't much flat farmland.
Clever people built terraced fields.
Looking out, the view is all green from top to bottom, which is refreshing and delightful.
You can still smell the earth as you walk in.
The soil here is moist, and the air temperature is high, allowing for two harvests a year.
It is precisely because of these climatic conditions that the fruits grown here are sweeter and more productive.
Lin Yu thought to herself that she absolutely could not give up.
After wandering around for a while, the two returned to the brigade headquarters.
Captain Liu treated them well and even prepared some peaches for them: "Take them back and eat them."
Lin Yu said thank you, picked up a piece, washed it, and ate it.
Captain Liu was somewhat surprised. He thought Lin Yu was so smart that he would understand that he was giving him the order to leave.
Unexpectedly, she started eating the peach instead.
The two plopped down on the chairs in the brigade headquarters, and Brigade Leader Liu was momentarily speechless.
Ou Manqing casually mentioned his mother to him, but Captain Liu naturally didn't remember her.
But when she mentioned her maternal grandfather's name, all the elderly people at the brigade headquarters remembered it.
"So you're Fifth Brother's granddaughter."
Ou Manqing then learned that his maternal grandfather was the fifth child in this branch of the family, and that all his brothers had passed away. The cadre in the brigade headquarters was a relative several generations removed.
Although they weren't very close, this relationship made the older members of the brigade headquarters look at Ou Manqing and his companion much more kindly.
This place is relatively isolated, so clan values are emphasized and everyone attaches great importance to blood ties and family affection.
They all asked about Ou Manqing's mother.
Ou Manqing naturally answered obediently, adding, "My mother sent us here because she still has memories of those days and says that the peaches from Lan Village are the best."
This name evoked memories for the elderly; before the Xilan Brigade was renamed, everyone called it Lan Village.
Newborns don't even know this name anymore; only these elderly people still remember it.
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