The captain thought for a while but still couldn't remember: "When she wakes up, we can ask her where she's from. Her condition isn't good. How about we have Xiuying take a look at her?"
He Wan said, "Captain, she's hungry."
“Oh, Zhang Zhiqing, since you rescued her, let her stay at the educated youth center for now. After she wakes up, ask her about her condition. I can go and make a trip there to see what happened.”
Zhang Deping said, "Okay, I'll trouble you, Captain, to make the trip in this heavy snow."
The captain smiled and nodded, saying, "Of course, you are all good kids."
Wang Xiaorong and the others smiled as they saw the brigade leader off from the educated youth compound.
He Wan ladled out a bowl of porridge and gave it to Xie Meihui, then helped the person on the bed up.
"Comrade, comrade? Wake up, comrade, there's food."
He Wan called out twice, and only the word "eat" could make her eyelids twitch.
Seeing this, Xie Meihui put the bowl to her lips so that she could smell the food.
Sure enough, the woman slowly woke up.
Looking at the food in front of him, he seemed to suddenly perk up, sat up abruptly, and began to drink the food in large gulps, not caring about burning himself.
Several men came in and saw that the girl had already finished a bowl of porridge.
After removing the bowl, He Wan could finally see the girl's face clearly; her face was so thin that only her two big eyes remained.
It's a bit scary.
"Comrade, are you feeling better?"
The woman glanced at the people surrounding her and cautiously moved to the corner of the bed.
He Wan said, "Don't be afraid. We are a few educated youth. This place is the educated youth compound in Dali Village. Our comrade Zhang Deping found you by the roadside and carried you back."
Upon hearing that they were former educated youth, the girl knew she had met kind people. Her eyes instantly welled up with tears, and she sat up, knelt on the bed, and kowtowed to them, saying, "Thank you, thank you."
"Hey, no, no, you're weak right now, you can't do anything strenuous, lie down quickly."
"Yes, yes, please stop doing this."
"Comrade, where are you from?"
Suddenly, tears streamed down the girl's misty eyes like beads falling from a broken string.
He Wan thought to herself, "This person is malnourished, but he has a lot of tears."
“I’m from the other side of the mountain, from a village at the foot of the mountain, about ten kilometers away from here.”
"More than ten kilometers? Comrade, what trouble have you encountered? Why are you running that far by yourself?"
Except for Zhang Yao and the other two new educated youths who weren't there, the rest of them were all here, asking questions one after another.
The woman said, “My parents wanted to sell me to a lame man in our village as a wife in exchange for grain. He was more than 20 years older than me and had two sons. I didn’t want to, so my parents locked me up. I ran away secretly.”
After hearing this, the group of people sighed with emotion. In those days, there were quite a few people in the village who married off their daughters in exchange for grain.
These educated youths, though they disapproved of this phenomenon, were powerless to change it.
Everyone tried to persuade her to stay for now, and that they would have to talk to the brigade leader about this matter tomorrow.
After all, it's snowing now, and it's getting late.
Some families eat two meals a day, and they've already started preparing dinner by this time.
Zhang Deping asked again, "Comrade, what's your name?"
"My name is Duan Xiaoxi."
He Wan smiled and said, "Your name is quite nice."
The woman said awkwardly, "This is the name my grandmother gave me."
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