Chapter 16 Chapter 16 White Rabbit Milk Candy
Pingquan Town has only two main streets, which are in the shape of an "L". The supply and marketing cooperative, post office, state-owned restaurant, commune, G Committee, etc. are all on these two streets. There are also some small streets and alleys where the town residents live. There are also a few small factories in the outer circle of the town.
Because Pingquan Town is close to Yanjing City, the main buildings in the town appear to be well-built, with red walls and black tiles, and are clean and tidy.
In such a small place, a group of more than a dozen educated youth will never get lost.
Moreover, as the first group of educated youth to go to the countryside on a large scale, the town residents were now curious and welcoming of them. They would help with directions without asking, and there were runny-nosed children following behind them to watch the fun.
Honestly, they felt a bit like they were watching monkeys in a zoo.
One of the monkeys, Ye Yu, made eye contact with a little kid, and the kid quickly dodged as if his tail was stepped on. Well, the kid was a little shy.
She blinked her eyes and drew a map of Pingquan Town in her mind as she walked. This was a habit ingrained in her when she arrived in a strange place.
The commune was at the intersection of two L-shaped main streets. Before they got close, they saw a bright red banner hanging at the entrance of the commune, which read "Welcome educated youth from all corners of the world to Pingquan Brigade."
Because the train arrived earlier than the car, a group of educated youth, mainly from various cities in the south, had already gathered at the gate of Pingquan Commune. There were about forty of them, plus a dozen people from this city, a total of more than fifty educated youth.
Perhaps because the first batch of educated youth had the right to make their own choices, they chose either extremely difficult places or places that were said to be rich or desirable. The brigade near Yanjing City obviously belonged to the latter.
After the first few batches, the educated youth basically lost the right to make their own choices and could no longer do whatever they wanted.
Pingquan Commune had a total of twelve brigades, with an average of three to five educated youth in each brigade.
According to the deputy director of the commune, after about an hour, the team leader of each commune would come to the town in person or send team cadres to pick up the assigned educated youth.
The first batch of educated youth who went to the countryside had not yet had any irreconcilable conflicts with the local people. The villagers still hoped that the educated youth could truly help build their brigade and improve local life. Most of them welcomed the educated youth.
If an extra person is assigned to the brigade, the brigade leader will think that this means the commune values them and they will be very happy.
While waiting, the commune also provided a free lunch for the educated youth who came from afar. Each person received a large white flour steamed bun and two multi-grain cakes, accompanied by pickles.
This is actually well prepared.
Especially white flour steamed buns, which might not be affordable unless the autumn harvest has just passed. Although rural people grow wheat, they can't bear to eat white flour many times a year.
The family conditions of the educated youth in the city varied greatly. No matter how rich they were, they could not say that they could eat white flour buns every day, even if they had enough money, they might not have enough food coupons.
But there are always pretenders in every era.
They have not yet adapted to the countryside and have a sense of superiority coming from the city. The urban discourse they use to describe their hometown is a bit exaggerated. Some people are already "giving advice" on how to build a good countryside.
Some people even showed off their hometown specialties, which indeed attracted many envious glances.
Among them, the most exaggerated one is an apple-faced girl with two long braids.
She brought a pencil case, but there were no pens in it, but it was filled with White Rabbit candies. It was said that her mother worked in the nationally famous White Rabbit Candy Factory in Shanghai, and she grew up eating White Rabbit Candy.
Suddenly became the center of attention.
The girl was not stupid enough to distribute the White Rabbit candies to everyone present. After all, there were not enough candies for the educated youth and the commune cadres in one pencil case. She soaked a large pot of water with ten candies and gave some to each person.
It has to be said that the White Rabbit milk candies of this era are really rich in milk flavor, and the legend of seven White Rabbit milk candies soaked in a cup of milk is not groundless.
Although the ten White Rabbit candies did not turn into milk due to the large amount of water in the pot, the sweet milky flavor, even though very light, is a rare good thing in this era, and many people cherish it.
Ye Yu licked the sweet water and remembered the name of this unusually generous apple-faced girl - Hua Feifei, who looked like a silly and cute rabbit when she smiled.
While waiting for the team leader, they also sent telegrams to their families to report their safety. In that era, there were no telephones, and each word in a telegram cost 1.3 cents, so many people tried to be concise as much as possible.
Especially for educated youth like Ye Yu, whose family already knew which commune brigade she had been to, she followed the trend and sent a "safe" letter back home.
When people from each brigade arrived, it was basically the brigade leader who came in person. If the brigade leader didn't have time, he would send the cadre brigade accountant or the militia company commander to come in his place.
The one who came from Wangjiagou was Captain Wang Zhiming, a burly man with a strong build who looked to be in his thirties. He was definitely young among all the captains.
He was not only strong but also tall, estimated to be over 1.8 meters tall. He wore a long army green cotton coat, the same style that soldiers wear. His back looked straight and his face was stern, making him look quite intimidating.
Perhaps because Wang Zhiming had served in the army, the deputy director of the commune was quite polite to him. However, the other commune captains, who stood out from the crowd, were not necessarily convinced by him. Several of them even exchanged glances with each other while they were chatting.
With her superhuman hearing, Ye Yu even heard someone mutter, "What's so great about that?"
???
I have a bad relationship with others.
Wang Zhiming ignored the other whispers and chatted with the vice president for a few words before calling out, "Ye Yu."
"Here." Ye Yu raised his hand and walked towards the captain carrying the luggage.
Because the Youth League Office had informed them in advance, Wang Zhiming knew that Ye Yu was the daughter of a married woman in the village. He frowned when he saw Ye Yu for the first time.
I just felt that she was too thin, and her skin was whiter than anyone else present, with delicate skin and tender flesh. She looked like she was from the city, and I wondered if she could handle the work in the fields.
It was not until I saw Ye Yu carrying the luggage easily that I understood what it meant to “don’t judge a book by its cover”. She looked so energetic and spirited, worthy of being a girl from Wangjiagou (?)!
"Put your luggage on the donkey cart," Wang Zhiming introduced an old villager standing next to the cart. "This is Comrade Wang Jincai. He takes good care of the team's cows and donkeys. You can call him Uncle Cai."
Ye Yu followed up by calling out, "Uncle Cai."
Wang Zhiming called the next one: "Hua Feifei."
Coincidentally, it was the girl with the apple face.
Hua Feifei's luggage was also full of large and small bags. She was not thin, but she was small in stature and not very strong, so she could not lift so many packages at once. However, because of the connections she had made from the White Rabbit Milk Candy, there were many people around to help her.
"Han Jing, Xu Fei."
The remaining two educated youth were young men, among whom Han Jing was from Yanjing City. Don’t ask Ye Yu why he knew this, because he was the young passerby who was in the same car with Ye Yu.
Han Jing is tall, only slightly shorter than the team leader Wang Zhiming, but probably because he is growing during puberty, he is very thin, as thin as a bamboo pole, and has a few pimples on his face that cannot be hidden. He is in the awkward period of being an ugly duckling.
As for Xu Fei, he is 1.7 meters tall, wears glasses, and looks like a gentle scholar, but his personality does not seem to be the same. He often smiles with a row of neat white teeth.
Both of them are extroverts. They called out in loud voices: "Captain, Uncle Cai." They also greeted Ye Yu and Hua Feifei in a familiar manner.
Hua Feifei is also a very outgoing person, and the three of them fell in love with each other at first sight.
Han Jing and Xu Fei: "Comrade Hua Feifei, thank you for the White Rabbit candy just now."
Hua Feifei: "You're welcome. Han Jing, you're from Yanjing, right? Did you go to see the flag-raising ceremony? I signed up for a commune near Yanjing specifically for this purpose."
Xu Fei: "Me too, me too, and the Great Wall..."
Han Jing asked: "Comrade Ye Yu, how did you develop such strength?"
Hua Feifei: "Yes, yes, you look so relaxed carrying your luggage, but your luggage is not light either."
Ye Yu: "It's natural."
Hua Feifei, Han Jing, and Xu Fei: "Awesome!"
Ye Yu: “…”
It was a bit noisy, but it was quite enjoyable. In that short period of time, the three of them got to know many other educated youth, especially Hua Feifei. They did not forget to say goodbye to them and made an appointment to visit each other's brigades.
The captain found it quite interesting to listen to their conversation. Maybe it was because this group of young people brought a different kind of vitality to Pingquan Town. It was just like when he first joined the army as a rookie. Later, he realized what the hardship and fatigue of the military camp were.
He urged, "Alright, alright, if you don't leave now, the sun will have set by the time you get back to the village."
Several people hurriedly climbed onto the donkey cart.
After the donkey cart carried them for a short distance on flat ground, when they started to climb a slope, the team leader got off the donkey cart and changed from riding to walking.
Others:
???
Uncle Cai just said: "It's too heavy. I'm afraid the donkey can't bear it."
In fact, one or two people could sit on it, but the team leader thought that these educated youth were just like the new recruits who had just entered the camp and needed exercise. Local villagers going to the market could walk thirty or forty miles back and forth without taking a breath. Even a ten-year-old child could do it, so they must be able to do it.
Besides, a donkey cart cannot carry so many people on a mountain road, and donkeys are very precious these days.
So except for Uncle Cai who was driving the donkey cart, everyone else started walking. When they encountered a steep downhill slope, they needed to hold down the luggage, and when they encountered a steep uphill slope, they needed help pushing the cart.
The same goes for the captain.
They also found that the captain had a problem with one of his legs. When he walked, one leg was higher than the other. This might be the reason why he retired. But even though he had a limp, his speed of going up and down hills was not slow at all.
Hua Feifei and the others didn't know what to say, so they could only keep walking forward.
The mountain roads of this era are different from the mountain roads built by the infrastructure maniacs of the future. There are many sections of roads that are simply what Xun Ge'er said, "When more people walk on it, it becomes a road." In short, they are quite difficult to walk on, and some tips are required when walking.
Han Jing, Xu Fei and Hua Feifei grew up in the city. Except for Xu Fei who had seen many mountains in his hometown, it was the first time for the other two to see such a mountain road, let alone walk on it. They had no skills at all.
It rained last night and there are many mud pits on the mountain.
Their shoes were soon covered in mud, and the autumn dew soaked into them, making them feel cold.
All three of them had fallen to varying degrees, with Hua Feifei falling the most. Because of this, her beautiful leather shoes and the white shirt under her cotton coat were all dirty.
Hua Feifei and He Cheng had suffered all these hardships. Her stomach, legs, waist, buttocks, and whole body ached, and her eyes were filled with tears. But except for Han Jing and Xu Fei, the two brothers in distress, who could encourage her with a word or two (asking them to help was more like making things more difficult), everyone else's hearts seemed to be made of cold iron.
Uncle Cai, aside from the fact that driving requires concentration, he is always serious about his work;
The team leader usually kept his eyes fixed on them, and only told them to be careful on the road if he was afraid they would actually fall off a cliff. He also refused Hua Feifei's repeated requests for a rest, and kept to his own pace throughout the entire journey.
As for Ye Yu, not only is her strength extremely inconsistent with her appearance, but her physical strength is also the same. She can walk on the rugged mountain road more easily than the team leader. She flew over such a big mud pit in a flash and landed lightly on the stone opposite.
That's really flying!
If it weren't for the fact that feudal superstition is absolutely unpopular nowadays, Hua Feifei would have wanted to ask if she was a mountain fairy, after all, she looks like one.
Except for the soles of her shoes, Ye Yu looked exactly the same as before she set out. Her body was clean and those who didn't know her would think she was on a picnic, which really discouraged her teammates.
Ye Yu was unaware of the resentment and complaints of her teammates, and even if she knew, she wouldn't care. To put it in a Versailles way, she was not only walking on the mountain road, but also drawing a map in her mind.
With a slight twitch of his ears, his superhuman hearing picked up the sounds of game... no, wild animals coming from the distant mountains and forests.
Ye Yu suddenly asked: "Captain, are there wolves in the mountains?"
What?
Wolf!
Tears welled up in Hua Feifei's red rabbit eyes again, and Han Jing and Li Fei's legs went weak and they almost fell down.
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