Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Compared with them, Zhang Mengzhi, this lowly...
Compared with them, Zhang Mengzhi, the educated youth who went to the countryside, seemed out of place. After all, while everyone was suffering in the countryside, there was one person who lived a very carefree life. Even the Red Guards who came occasionally were familiar with Zhang Mengzhi and never made things difficult for him.
The educated youth compound was inspected by the Little Red Soldiers every month, but Zhang Mengzhi, who lived with his grandparents, was not subject to searches, so naturally some people disliked him.
"You eat well and dress well, what does that have to do with them? It's because your father and mother love you that they sent the money."
Zhang Jianhua frowned. As the second child with the hottest temper in the family, if the third child hadn't stopped him, his fist would have kissed Liu Zhiqing's face.
"Didn't Second Brother hit the nail on the head? Third Brother has his parents caring about him, and they are a bunch of educated youth who are not valued by their families, so they must be jealous of Third Brother!"
The fourth brother Zhang Jianren sneered. Even though only the third brother went to university, the others only went to junior high school. They are not stupid. He will know the reason after a little thought.
"Fourth brother is right. This alone is enough to make them jealous of third brother."
Little Five Zhang Jianhe crossed his arms and became even more disgusted with the educated youth in the village.
Villages built by clans have always been very united and very xenophobic.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to reject the educated youth assigned from above, so the relationship between the villagers and the educated youth in the educated youth compound was not very good.
Only a few educated youth were not excluded because of their good personalities.
Liu Zhiqing who came here is one of them. Now it seems that the so-called honest people are not really honest. Who knows how dark their hearts are!
"Okay, stop being angry. I'm leaving tomorrow, so you can't plot against me. Besides, they won't be here for a few more days, so don't cause any trouble for the village in the last few days."
Zhang Mengzhi patted his two cousins on the head to calm them down.
"Third brother is also good-tempered. If it were us brothers, we would have hired someone to beat them up long ago."
"Okay, calm down a bit and stop thinking about fighting with others."
Zhang Mengzhi looked at his cousin with a puffy face and comforted him.
Violence alone cannot solve the problem, just like Zhang Mengzhi who knew there was a tiger in the mountain but just avoided it.
A gentleman should not stand under a dangerous wall. Our ancestors have long warned future generations.
"Third brother, you should have a good rest. We will not come back to sleep tonight so as not to disturb you."
The second brother Zhang Jianhua patted his cousin on the shoulder and pulled the other two cousins away.
Stay overnight at someone else's home in the village tonight.
"Okay, thank you, second brother."
Zhang Mengzhi is a light sleeper and he has to go to bed early today. When Zhang Jianhua and the others finish packing and come back to sleep at night, they will definitely wake him up.
But he is the kind of person who can't fall asleep for a long time after being woken up. In order to be energetic for the ride tomorrow, he has to have a good rest at night.
After seeing off his cousins, Zhang Mengzhi went to the kitchen to fetch water to wash his face, rinse his mouth and take a bath. He changed into clean clothes, used a kerosene lamp to catch all the mosquitoes in the mosquito net, and then went to bed peacefully.
At five o'clock the next day, Zhang Mengzhi woke up, hung up the mosquito net, and walked out of the room.
"San'er is awake."
Grandma Zhang and Grandpa Zhang heard the noise and came out of the kitchen.
They woke up earlier than the three grandchildren, and breakfast is almost ready.
"Grandpa and grandma, why are you awake so early?"
Zhang Mengzhi walked quickly towards the kitchen.
"Go wash your face and rinse your mouth, you can have breakfast soon."
Grandma Zhang patted her grandson's arm. Although it was only a little after five o'clock, it was already dawn outside because it was summer.
I believe that it won’t be long before the sky is bright.
"good."
Zhang Mengzhi knew that time was tight in the morning, so he washed his face and rinsed his mouth without any further ado. By the time he had finished cleaning up, breakfast had been served on the table by his grandparents.
"You like cold noodles. Now that the weather is hot, let's have cold noodles in the morning."
Grandma Zhang brought a bowl of cold noodles and placed it in front of her third grandson.
"Thank you, grandma."
Zhang Mengzhi didn't hesitate and picked up the chopsticks to eat.
The earliest bus from their commune to the city leaves at seven o'clock, and he has to catch this one, otherwise he will have to wait for the noon bus.
"Mengzhi, take good care of yourself when you return to the city, understand? Don't let us worry."
Grandpa Zhang looked at his third grandson, who was very different from the other grandchildren of the Zhang family. He had a fair and clean face and seemed to have grown up in the city. He was not like his cousins who looked big and strong.
"Grandpa, I know. You and grandma should take good care of yourselves. When it's your birthday, my dad and mom will definitely come back to celebrate with you."
While eating, Zhang Mengzhi reminded the two elders that they were old and it would be too late to regret if anything happened to them.
"We know, you don't need to tell me, we haven't seen anyone get married and start a family yet!"
Grandpa Zhang used the action of eating cold noodles to hide his red eyes.
Even though they didn't spend much time with their grandson, they actually had a very good relationship.
Zhang Mengzhi has been filial since childhood. He would come back to visit the two old folks every year. Even if his parents didn't have time to send them back, Zhang Mengzhi would take his sister back to the countryside to visit the elderly.
In order to save money, they advised Zhang Mengzhi not to come back so often, but Zhang Mengzhi did not listen and still came back every winter and summer vacation, but sometimes he brought his sister with him and sometimes he came back alone.
Logically, the adults would have been worried about a little kid like him riding in a car alone. However, because he was too precocious and always did things steadily, his parents and elders felt at ease to let him go back to the countryside to visit his grandparents by himself.
Moreover, the drivers and conductors on the bus were all acquaintances of their commune. As long as they sent their children on the bus and told the driver and conductor, there would be no chance of losing their children.
This is not the society of later generations where people only take advantage of their acquaintances, but a world where things can be done more easily with people you know.
After going there and back so many times, Zhang Mengzhi can be considered an old acquaintance on this road back to the city.
"Mengzhi, go back to the city today!"
As soon as the ticket seller saw him, she greeted him.
"Yes, Aunt Li, you are the one following the car again today!"
Zhang Mengzhi placed his luggage on the engine compartment at the front of the car and then sat in the passenger seat.
"Yes, I'm the one following the bus today. You came early today, and there's no one else on the bus yet, so hurry up and take your seat."
Seeing him sitting in the front seat, the conductor burst out laughing.
"Hey, thank you Aunt Li, that's right, this is the best view on the whole bus."
Zhang Mengzhi smiled proudly. He used to take the noon bus. There were always quite a few people on the bus at that time, and he basically stood on the way back to the city.
"Okay, I won't talk to you anymore. Someone's coming. Here's your ticket."
The conductor took the fare from Zhang Mengzhi and tore off a ticket for him.
"good."
Zhang Mengzhi took the ticket and put it in his pocket, then sat obediently in his seat.
He got up a little early in the morning and was still a little sleepy, so he leaned back in his chair and took a nap.
Almost everyone in the commune knew him. Those who wanted to chat with him as soon as he got on the bus lowered their voices when they saw him sleeping.
"Isn't this kid the third child from Zhangjia Village? I haven't seen him riding in a car for a long time."
The passengers in the car started talking to each other in whispers.
"It's him. He was working in Zhangjia Village this year, so I didn't see him riding in a car."
Someone with inside information will tell you directly.
"I see."
No one thought it was anything surprising that Zhang Mengzhi returned to his hometown to work in the countryside.
After all, he is not the only one who has done this, and no one would be bored enough to report it. After all, he still has to live in this city, and if he offends everyone, he will have no good life in the future.
After all, this is a society where human relationships are important. Offending one person is equivalent to offending a large group of people.
At 7:10, the car started. Zhang Mengzhi felt it vaguely, but he did not open his eyes.
He doesn't get carsick, but he wants to sleep when he's on the bus. As long as there's a seat available, he'll sleep all the way to his stop.
It’s strange to say, but his sleep quality in the car was actually pretty good and he didn’t feel it was noisy at all. There were obviously a lot of noises and bad smells in the car, but he just wanted to sleep.
Since everyone in the car was familiar to him, Zhang Mengzhi slept peacefully and didn't have to worry about his things being stolen.
Today was no exception. In the morning, he went to the commune alone with his luggage on his back. Grandpa Zhang wanted to send him there, but Zhang Mengzhi refused.
It took him more than ten years to walk the road from Zhangjia Village to the commune. The things were not heavy and he could carry them by himself.
Although he is tall and thin, he has the strength of a normal adult, so he doesn't feel tired after walking for an hour on a mountain road carrying a bunch of things on his back.
Buses usually stop as they go, and today was no exception. A journey that should have taken two hours took a full four hours, and it was almost twelve o'clock when we arrived at the bus station in the city.
"Mengzhi, wake up, we've arrived at the station."
The conductor waited until everyone got off the bus before calling out to Zhang Mengzhi.
"Aunt Li."
Zhang Mengzhi was awakened and rubbed his face to make himself fully awake.
"Hurry home, or you won't have lunch at noon."
The conductor played a joke on him.
"Okay, thank you Aunt Li and Uncle Lu, I'll get off right away."
Zhang Mengzhi picked up his luggage, waved to the driver and conductor, and got off the bus.
He didn't tell his parents that he was coming back today, so no one picked him up at the station.
Zhang Mengzhi was no longer a child and still needed an adult to pick him up at the station, so he carried his luggage and walked out of the station to his home.
The city was still relatively small at the time, unlike in later times when it was expanded to the point where it was impossible to explore the entire place by walking, so Zhang Mengzhi only walked for half an hour and reached his home.
Yes, I have to walk from the station to my home. There is no bus around the city yet, so if you want to go anywhere in the city, you have to either walk or ride a bicycle.
The so-called city buses probably only appeared after the 1980s and 1990s.
It is now 1977 or 1980, and their city is still relatively backward.
"Mom and Dad, Xiaoyu, I'm back."
Zhang Mengzhi gently pushed open the gate of their courtyard and shouted into the house.
As long as someone is at home during the day, the gate of the courtyard will not be locked or bolted, so as to facilitate the communication between neighbors.
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