The other girls in the dormitory were all unmarried, so Hu Qingqing asked curiously, "Sister, when did you get married?"
"I was one of the first to go to the countryside. I was young and didn't know how to work. I cried every day but no one answered me! It was so miserable! But luckily, your eldest sister was pretty when she was young, and a few men in the team secretly showed their interest in her. After a long time, I thought, I can't go back anyway, so I might as well find someone to marry! That's how I got married!"
A group of girls asked again: "What impressed you about your brother-in-law? Is his family quite nice?"
Ye Honglin laughed heartily. "You guessed wrong! Your brother-in-law's family is incredibly poor! His parents died young, leaving him and his grandmother to depend on each other. But since he's honest and intelligent, I chose him anyway."
She paused and sighed: "It's a good thing I married him. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to study here now!"
When the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination was announced, many educated youth chose to take the exam in order to return to the city. However, the situation was different for many educated youth who had married local people.
Some men can still get out by coaxing their wives. Married women, however, are basically tied down. Men aren't as sentimental as women, who don't readily believe their lovers' every word. Men are much more rational and shrewd.
"There have been seven or eight female educated youth from our village who have married local people. This time, I'm the only one who passed. Actually, there was another one who also took the college entrance exam and received her acceptance letter. But it was intercepted by her boyfriend's family."
Everyone sighed.
Hu Qingqing also spoke up: "It's the same situation in our brigade. There was a female educated youth who came back to the city to take the college entrance examination. I heard that the team leader..."
She was embarrassed to say the second half of the sentence, but everyone else knew it. The girls had different expressions on their faces.
Ji Hua, a girl from the south, clasped her fingers tightly, until her fingertips turned slightly white.
"It's really not easy for women who go to the countryside!" Jiaojiao said. "Think about it, who isn't spoiled at home? Even if they aren't, when have city girls ever done farm work? Not to mention city girls, even in our brigade, many girls have never done farm work. I and some of my good friends, at most, help out around the house, cooking and washing clothes. I've never actually worked in the fields for a single day!"
"Yes, yes!" Several people were deeply touched. There were eight people in the dormitory, three of whom were educated youth.
"I still remember the first year after I went to the countryside. I almost wanted to die!" recalls Lu Bing, a girl from the north. "It was hot and stuffy, with mosquitoes biting me all the time. I couldn't sleep at night, and during the day the sun was like a furnace in the sky. I sweated a few pounds every day."
"Although the climate where I was sent to work wasn't terrible, farm work was impossible!" Ye Honglin lamented. "My hands were rubbed raw on the first day, and swollen the next day! Why did I get married so young? If I didn't get married and find someone to share the burden, I wouldn't be able to survive!"
Among the three educated youth, two spoke, but Ji Hua remained silent.
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